Critics bemoan today’s trend of making new musicals out of hit movies, because too often the end result is a product that creates buzz and makes money, but isn’t compelling or even very interesting_- at least not intellectually. Often not artistically, either.
Diner, unfortunately, proves to be the latest case in point. A lot of time, effort and money went into a stage adaptation of Barry Levinson’s critically acclaimed 1982 film. Accomplished Tony-winning director and choreographer Kathleen Marshall was enlisted to flesh out the stories and freshen up the material for a live environment. Marshall and Levinson, who adapted his script, charged the equally accomplished Grammy-winning pop star Sheryl Crow to write original music and lyrics capturing the 1950s, when an edgier pop sound was just starting to find flavor out of a stew of R&B, blues and country.
In the end it’s only the music that lives up to the challenge. Through Crow’s score, we meet several of the women factoring into the lives of the young men, who were the film’s sole focus. Chances are you’ll even end up caring more about the women as written here. The men seem thoroughly stuck in a sexist time warp, unwilling, maybe even unable, to understand women and relationships — and expressing no broader sense of life’s meaning and purpose. By the time the first act ends in jail, after the surreal destruction of a nativity scene, these one-dimensional male characters are almost as much of a joke as the depicted three wise men — and every bit as unfunny.
If only more of the action took place within the stage’s handsomely realized art deco diner (designed by Derek McLane with assist from James Kronzer). If only there were more character development, and conversations about characters instead of just sex, love and football. And if only Signature’s great star Nova Y. Payton wasn’t wasted as an ensemble player who, as a stripper, shows off more of her skin than her vocal range.
“Gotta lotta woman,” Payton sings in one of the show’s last numbers. But sometimes a lotta anything, or a lotta everything, still isn’t enough.
Diner () runs to Jan. 25 at Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington. Tickets are $40 to $95. Call 703-820-9771 or visit signature-theatre.org.
Stages are alight this Spring with a deluge of exciting productions -- some starry, as in the case of The Shakespeare Theatre's Uncle Vanya featuring Hugh Bonneville, equally beloved in Downton Abbey and the joyous Paddington films.
The beauty of theater -- and in all these inventive, upcoming works -- is that it serves up various points of view with drama, wit, and intellect often concealed under the guise of boisterous entertainment. At its best, theater quenches our thirst for a deeper connection to our fellow human beings. At its worst, it's Cats. Still, theater sometimes gives you a musical moment that makes your spirits soar.
When it comes to film awards like the Oscars or Golden Globes, there are winners and losers, but there are no snubs. No person or performance should expect or feel entitled to garner a prize, or even a nomination. Nothing's a sure thing.
We're reminded every year by those shady anonymous Oscar voters who stir the pot by leaking their ballots to trade magazines that the choices of awards-giving bodies are highly subjective, and not always based purely on merit.
In this year's Oscar race, two anonymous Academy members who shared their ballots with Variety revealed they didn't vote for Conclave's Ralph Fiennes for Best Actor, under the mistaken belief he already won an Oscar for Schindler's List (he didn't). Consequently, both voted instead for The Brutalist's Adrien Brody (who did win an Oscar for The Pianist).
Put on your ruby slippers to strut down the red carpet as we ask what queerness means for Academy Awards voters past and present.
By Paul Klein
March 1, 2025
On March 2, Hollywood's elite will gather at the Dolby Theater in Los Angeles for the glitziest night of the year -- The 97th Academy Awards. When the Oscar-cast goes live on ABC Sunday evening -- and, for the first time ever, simultaneously streams on Hulu -- seven LGBTQ individuals will sit in hushed anticipation at the possibility of winning Hollywood's highest honors.
For a body often criticized for its lack of diversity and inclusivity, and with the arts under a prolonged political attack from far-right politicians, Sunday night offers a number of potentially groundbreaking moments for queer representation in front of and behind the screen.
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