Hedwig: Every “Inch” a Modern Major Musical

 At this point, there have been at least three incarnations of Hedwig and the Angry Inch: the original off-Broadway production starring Hedwig creator John Cameron Mitchell, the film version (again starring Mr. Mitchell), and now, an honest-to-God, big-budget Broadway production starring TV star, movie star, and ubiquitous host of the Tony Awards, Neil Patrick Harris. What’s remarkable about this show is that it has endured over the past 20 years and its trajectory mirrors that of not only the scrappy protagonist, but of the entire gay rights movement itself. Who could have imagined, 20 years ago, that gays would not only have the right to marry but would become so mainstream that they’re a running joke on both the Tony Awards and the Oscars? Equally astonishing is the fact that a show about a transsexual is now on Broadway, playing alongside not just one but two shows about transvestites (Kinky Boots, Casa Valentina), as well as the usual assortment of gay-themed shows (Mothers and Sons).  Part of the credit may go to the gay rights movement, but the other part belongs to the rock-solid credentials of this show.

In a sea of jukebox musicals (Beautiful, Jersey Girls, Midnight Blue) and original musicals that close overnight (Bridges of Madison County), this is that rarest of creatures: an original Broadway musical with staying power. When was the last time you walked out of an original musical and the songs were truly hummable? I don’t want to take anything away from Mr. Mitchell’s clever book, with its Borscht belt humor (and I mean that as the highest compliment), but I don’t think enough credit has been given to Stephen Trask’s phenomenal, Bowie-inspired score. It now has to rank among the great works of American musical theater, alongside Rodgers and Hammerstein and Stephen Sondheim.

Hedwig, in its stage version, is essentially a one-man/woman show, so it’s critical to find an actor with both the musical chops and the comic timing to pull it off. Needless to say, they’ve found that person in Neil Patrick Harris. Harris has proven his musical theater abilities in the recent concert staging of Company, as well as his recent Tony-hosting duties. He’s so effortlessly self-assured in this performance, it’s breathtaking! The one-hour-and-40-minute, intermissionless show breezes by with the immediacy of a rock concert.

There’s only one minor criticism I can think of: Some of the seats on the side of the orchestra (I had one such seat) have a partially obstructed view of the stage. Other than that, it’s hard to find fault with this production. It now takes its place in the musical theater canon as the very model of a modern major musical.

Why Louie is the Best Drama on TV

 Some people may have been surprised when Louis CK was nominated for multiple Emmy Awards for his television series, Louie, last year. After all, he’s “just a comedian.” What does he know about acting, writing and directing (not to mention editing)?

I wasn’t. My only quibble was that he was nominated in the wrong category. He should have been nominated in the drama category.

Each episode of Louie unfolds like a miniature Woody Allen movie, from its beautifully-photographed New York locations to its jazz score. And it appears that Mr. CK has learned a lot from The Master and may even be his rightful heir, even though he works primarily in television.

Louis CK has been rightly praised for his willingness to take chances, whether it’s because he allows his scenes to go on “too long,” because he frequently places his characters in extremely uncomfortable situations, or because the episodes of his show sometimes seem to end abruptly, without tying up all the loose ends.

For me, one of the most amazing things about his show is the plotting. It’s like watching that improvisational exercise “Yes, but…,” only in this case it should be called “What if?” What if Louie bombed at a benefit in the Hamptons but wound up going home with a beautiful model who was in the audience? What if one of Louie’s neighbors got stuck in an elevator and asked him to get her medication from her apartment but, when he did, he found her niece sleeping on the couch? You truly never know where the plot is going to go when you watch Louie, and that’s what makes it great.

Another thing I love about this show is the way it routinely breaks into the absurd, such as when Louie is awakened by noisy garbage men in one episode and they literally break into his apartment, jumping up and down on his bed while continuing to bang their garbage cans. Or the Time Warner Cable-like message he listens to, which drones on about how awful their service is.

Curiously, Louis CK is the kind of comedian who doesn’t necessarily make me laugh all the time, but I enjoy listening to him because he’s interesting. Oftentimes, I find his stand-up segments to be the weakest part of the show. (I’m sure I’ve just destroyed my comedy career by saying that!) There are more laughs per minute in the more cleverly written Silicon Valley than there are on Louie. But that’s not why I watch it.

I watch it because Louie delves as deeply into the human condition as any episode of Breaking Bad. Like this week’s episode, where an overweight woman talks for an uncomfortably long time about how hard it is for fat women to meet men, while at the same time underscoring how easy it is for a similarly overweight man like Louie to meet women. Or the episode where he breaks up with a girlfriend at a diner: another uncomfortably long conversation. One of the other great things about Louis CK is the way he’s able to put himself in the place of other characters, particularly women.

So the next time the Emmy Awards roll around, I expect Louie to be recognize for what it is: the best drama on TV.

TV Scorecard

Since almost every network has now decided to schedule all its best programs on Sunday night, I’ve had to become ruthless in my choice of what shows I decide to watch. If I don’t like it after two episodes, you’re out! After all, I’d gotten to the point where I was recording so many shows on my DVR, it had steam coming out of it! Plus, I recently signed up for a free month on Netflix. I’m so backed up on my TV viewing, I need a bottle of Kaopectate!

So let’s get to work, shall we?

Weeks of anticipation have been building (for some people) for the premiere of Game of Thrones. I myself had never watched it previously, so I was curious to see what all the fuss was about. I was quickly reminded of why there are entire genres of entertainment I don’t watch.

In short, Game of Thrones has every fantasy cliché imaginable: dragons coexisting with humans, made-up languages and, of course, an English cast. (Americans will buy anything if you say it with an English accent.) Somehow, Peter Dinklage manages to steal every scene he’s in. It’s as if there’s a little twinkle in his eye that says he knows how ridiculous this show is (or maybe it’s just my imagination, having seen his comedic performance in the movie The Baxter). Nevertheless, after two episodes, I still didn’t know what the hell was going on (I guess you have to have watched it from the beginning) and even the promise of male frontal nudity (cf. South Park) was not enough to keep my attention. Game Dethroned.

Similarly, I had heard a lot about Veep and I’ve always loved Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Seinfeld (and even in her recent movie, Enough Said), so I had high hopes for this one, too, even though the commercials made it sound like the characters were just saying things for shock value. (Those characters would never say those things in real life, at least not in public.) Unfortunately, when I watch Veep, I feel like I’m attending a long status meeting at work. The characters are constantly talking at each other but not really relating to each other and, consequently, I don’t feel anything. Furthermore, none of the characters is remotely likeable, and I really don’t want to see Julia Louis-Dreyfus playing a jerk.

At first I thought I didn’t like Veep because Washington and politics are essentially boring. But so is Silicon Valley, so why does Silicon Valley work while Veep doesn’t? The answer is because Silicon Valley is funny. I don’t think I laughed once during either episode of Veep.

Sure, all the characters are socially inept to the point that they seem autistic, but that’s probably how they are in real life, too. They also all speak in that annoying “upspeak” common to millennials but, again, that’s probably true to life as well.

Another early casualty of Sunday night was Mr. Selfridge (no Downton Abbey, that!). I just don’t like Jeremy Piven. Maybe it’s that whole Speed the Plow/sushi scandal. He’s like a black hole in the middle of Mr. Selfridge. Or maybe it’s because I just don’t want to see an American actor in an English show. Unless it’s Peter Dinklage.

One consequence of all the quality programming available Sunday night is that I’ve had to re-examine what I watch on other nights as well. I’m embarrassed to say that I used to watch a lot of shows on Bravo but, lately, it’s been banished from my viewing schedule. One guilty pleasure that might hang on, however, is Million Dollar Listing New York. Like every New Yorker, I’m obsessed with real estate, so this show, while ostensibly a reality show, functions on several levels. Of course what really makes this show (or any reality TV show) work is the casting. Why hasn’t SNL done a parody of this show? Luis, with his towering pompadour that makes him look like an ice cream cone, his obsequious smile and his inappropriate sexual humor; Fredrik, with his cartoon-like exclamation of “Zing!” every time he makes a sale and his Scandinavian aloofness; Ryan, with his smug self-assurance made tolerable only by his occasional self-deprecation. I can easily see Taran Killam playing all of those roles with relish.

Another show (on TV Land) that’s currently on life support (no pun) is Hot in Cleveland. I like a good three-camera sitcom as much as the next guy (OK, maybe more than the next guy) and it can be good when it’s well written but, more often than not, it’s a waste of talent.

Let’s hope that Mad Men (on AMC) picks up the slack.

Desensitized Nation

As I sat down last night to watch the premiere episode of Game of Thrones (a series characterized by casual sex and violence. Hey, I had to see what all the fuss was about), I paused to wonder, Why has TV become the dominant art form of our time, as opposed to say, movies or theater? Is it because we can watch TV in the privacy of our own homes (or on our laptops or cell phones) as opposed to having to go to a theater and having to deal with, you know, people?

Then I realized: We’ve constructed an entire society designed to deal with people at arms’ length.

Think about it: email, cell phones, the Internet, blogging, online dating, online pornography: all designed to keep people at arms’ length, all designed to turn people into things that can be “managed.”

But it goes further than that.

Look at what’s happening in the world today as we happily gorge ourselves on “must see TV,” as we brag about consuming entire series in an evening: Global warming, genocide, gun violence spinning out of control, the Supreme Court usurping our rights as individuals. All this is taking place right under our noses and what do we talk about? What’s on the evening news and in our newspapers and magazines? Kim Kardashian and Honey Boo Boo.

This desensitization has filtered down into our daily lives and we accept it as normal.

I think about my current job search, for example. I recently had an interview where the interviewer promised to call me back “either way” (meaning whether or not I got hired), and I remember being shocked to hear him say that, because nowadays businesses usually don’t bother to call you back at all. (Needless to say, he never called.)

I had another company ask me for a phone interview and never call me back to set up a date and time. Who does that? (Answer: More people than you’d expect.)

And I don’t even want to talk about the hundreds of resumes I’ve sent out or the dozens of requests for job leads or information I’ve made that never get any response whatsoever.

Now I know it might seem silly to compare people being unprofessional to genocide, but the point is, we’ve come to accept both situations as normal.

People crossing the street against traffic yakking away on their cell phones and then looking at the drivers honking their horns at them as if they’re crazy: normal. Dozens of buff, muscular guys working out in a gym together, staring at themselves in the mirror but barely interacting with each other: normal. A subway car full of people, each seemingly mesmerized by his own cell phone/iPad/laptop: normal.

It seems to me that we’ve become experts at “managing” people on screens (TV, computer, cell phone) but a complete failure at dealing with them in real life.

Our Economy and Our Government Are Broken

As the fight to extend unemployment insurance drags into a fourth month (and my search to find a job drags into its tenth), two conclusions are inescapable: our economy and our government are broken.

Our economy is broken because business owners (ironically referred to as “job creators” by Republicans) have colluded with Republicans to lower the cost of labor by a) shipping jobs overseas b) busting unions, and c) blocking any legislation that might improve workers’ welfare (higher minimum wage, extended unemployment insurance, food stamps, etc.)

President Obama has been a complete failure on this issue. Granted, Republicans have blocked him every step of the way, but that’s when the President should step in and use his power to get things done. Three months since unemployment insurance ended, there’s still no extension. Lock Congress in a room until they extend it! Anyone who’s been without benefits this long and has exhausted their savings is already being evicted! This is a joke!

It’s no surprise that long-term unemployment is higher than ever, especially when 90% of what they tell you to do to get a job doesn’t work anymore.

Want ads are useless. If you wait until a company places an ad on Mediabistro, LinkedIn or Craigslist, it’s already too late. That ad is going to get 100 (if not 1,000) resumes. It’s better to have an “informational interview” with someone and try to create a good impression so that if a job opportunity does come up, they'll call you. But that takes time, and time is something that people who have been unemployed for a long time (like me) don’t have.

Agencies and recruiters are useless. You’re just a piece of paper to an agency. As long as they fill the position, they don’t care whether it’s with you or someone else. Hell, they don’t care if they fill it at all, as long as they fill enough positions to pay the rent that month.

No one is going to care as much about getting you a job as you.

Add to this the fact that most companies would rather hire some 25-year-old and pay them nothing than someone more expensive but with more experience. So what if quality suffers? It’s all about maximizing short-term profits!

This entire country is run on internships! When I was growing up, the only interns were medical students who worked in hospitals…and they got paid.

You’d think our government would take decisive action when faced with a national emergency like this, but our government is broken. So here are some things we can do to fix it:

1. Campaign Finance Reform: Republicans have already spent a record amount on this election and this is just a mid-term. Unless we get money out of politics, nothing will ever change. This should be our top priority!
2. Redraw Congressional districts to end gerrymandering. As one of Bill Maher’s guests said recently, people used to choose politicians. Now politicians choose who they want to vote for them. How else do you explain Republicans’ ability to repeatedly block an extension unemployment benefits even when a majority of Americans are in favor of it? Or tougher gun control laws? Or political appointments? With gerrymandering, there are no politician repercussions to worry about.
3. Abolish the Senate. Why should Rhode Island have as much power as California?
4. End the filibuster and allow a simple majority vote in Congress to pass bills. There’s a reason why this is the least effective Congress in history.
5. Abolish the Electoral College and establish a popular vote for elections. Ever since the Supreme Court handed the presidency to George Bush in 2000, we’ve been a victim of this outdated system. The Founding Fathers invented the Electoral College because they didn’t think Americans were smart enough to choose the President. They happened to be right, but then let’s not kid ourselves that we live in a democracy!
6. Make Election Day a holiday or move it to the weekend. More people vote for American Idol in this country than vote for President. That’s a disgrace! Better yet, allow people to vote online or by cell phone!

We as a country deserve better than this. But unless we demand change, we’re going to get exactly what we deserve.

Madonna: Still "the Shit"

I finally caught up with Madonna’s MDNA concert on Epix last night. I didn’t buy Madonna’s last album or see this tour live, so it was a chance to catch up on what she’s been up to lately.

After a somewhat long, vaguely medieval looking intro, the show got off to a dark, foreboding start, with Madonna’s dancers wearing what appeared to be gas masks. A lot of her songs in this section featured auto-tune, a technology which hopefully has died a well-deserved death by now.

Then Madonna switched into drum majorette gear (among other costumes) and, for the rest of the show, it was the good-time Madonna we all know and love.

A lot of the show seemed to be devoted to reinforcing the Madonna “brand” against Johnny-come-latelies like Lady Gaga. In one clever mash-up, Madonna did a medley of “Express Yourself” and “Born This Way,” proving, if you still had any doubt, that Lady Gaga’s song, if not an outright rip-off, at least sounds a lot like Madonna’s.

But there were other times when I thought she came dangerously close to Michael Jackson’s habit of self-aggrandizement. There were a lot of references to Madonna’s name in the songs (“L-U-V Madonna” in “Gimme All Your Love”) and the very title of her album and tour, MDNA, seems to be an anagram for her name. Another time (again, during “Gimme All Your Love”) she chanted “I’m the shit” (which, apparently, is a compliment these days), and in a video segment, Vicki Minaj proclaimed “There’s only one queen, and that’s Madonna.”

Come on, Madonna! You’ve been making music for 30 years! Are you really that threatened by Lady Gaga?

I also found myself taken aback by all the cursing and casual violence in the show. When did “Fuck Yeah!” become Madonna’s slogan? And another song featured Madonna toting a handgun and some rather lurid video of blood being splattered all over the place.

I mean, it’s not like Madonna’s still the 25-year-old precocious upstart who burst upon the world stage in 1983. She’s one of the most successful women in the world and, up until her divorce from Guy Ritchie, was more likely to be found wearing Burberry suits and riding horses on her English country estate!

There was also some controversy about another video segment in which Madonna appeared as Adolph Hitler. I’m not sure what this was supposed to mean, but I suppose casually tossing around images of Adolph Hitler trivializes the real damage that Hitler did. But we’re so overloaded with such images on a daily basis, this should not shock anyone.

For me, one of great things about Madonna’s shows is the way they’re choreographed from beginning to end. I don’t think Madonna receives enough credit for her talent as a dancer. (She did study with Alvin Ailey, after all.)

Although she appeared to be lip-syching during one of her later numbers, for the most part, she seemed to be singing live. And that’s quite an accomplishment for a 54-year-old singer (at the time of this concert) and one reason Madonna is still “the shit.”

Girls: Season 3

 This has been a season of growing pains on Girls. Season 3 ended last night with a bit of a whimper as all four characters went off in different directions: Hannah to the Iowa Writers Workshop, Shoshanna trying to get back together with Ray, Marnie trying to start a new relationship with her coupled actor/musician friend, and Jessa helping an aging artist kill herself. (The artist changes her mind at the last minute, probably because Lena Dunham didn’t want to have to deal with Jessa being charged with murder in the fourth season.)

Now that the novelty of Lena Dunham being a 27-year-old writer/actress/wunderkind has worn off, the time has come for these characters to break out of their 20-something solipsism and figure out the kind of adult women they want to be. One encouraging development this season found the girls leaving the hothouse atmosphere of their native Brooklyn and venturing to the Hamptons for a little female bonding session. This episode had great potential, because it showed all four women airing their previously unknown grievances about the other women in the group. I founded myself saying “Yes!” as they brought up such things as Hannah’s narcissism and Marnie’s perfectionism, but by the next episode, these grievances were forgotten. It was as if their drunken escapade never happened.

One of the great things about this season has been the remarkable casting choices (which were recently noted in a New York Times article), which included not only New York micro-celebrities like the J. Crew executive who was so believable as Hannah’s magazine boss that I thought she was a real actress, but great real actresses like June Squibb from Nebraska as Hannah’s grandmother and Louise Lasser as the aging artist who wants to kill herself. Another highlight of this season has been the reappearance of Andrew Rannells as Hannah’s gay best friend from college. As much as I want to hate Mr. Rannells for being so blessed with looks and talent, I have to admit that he steals every scene he’s in with his comic timing and absolute believability.

The problem I’ve had with this season (which also extends to Looking, Girls’ gay counterpart) has been the characters’ self-centeredness. Maybe that’s been intentional on Lena Dunham’s part, but it’s hard to root for characters that are so emotionally tone-deaf. In the last episode, for example, Hannah decides to tell her boyfriend, Adam, about her acceptance into the Iowa Writer’s Workshop right before he’s about to make his Broadway debut. Hello?

Another minor source of irritation has been the way Hannah seemingly drifts in and out of jobs with no apparent consequence to her living situation. I mean, I know that one of the singular achievements of this series has been its exposure of the dark underbelly of trustafarians, but it impinges on the show’s credibility.

While I still give Lena Dunham lots of credit for breaking barriers, whether it’s by exposing her less than model-perfect naked body in almost every episode or writing parts for and casting older actresses, I’d appreciate it if the characters were a little more outward-looking and less navel-gazing. But that’s a minor quibble on a show that is still one of the best-written and most thought-provoking comedies on television.