Electric Shadow

Giant Size #25: Terry Moore in "Real Original Things"

I've made regular mention of having a "list of ten" pie-in-the-sky guests that I wrote out when I started Giant Size. I'm thrilled to check this particular name off that list. A fellow Texan (and raised in Dallas to boot), Terry Moore disrupted comics in the early 90's with a book that was about people who had no capes nor superpowers, and whom he plotted into what he calls a "mis-cast love triangle" in the interview. Moore's writing has been a major touchstone for me when it comes to writing balanced characters, and not just women, whom he's so well-known for writing so well. 

In the latest Giant Size, we talk about everything from his love of comedy duo Nichols & May to how he considers himself an out-of-work guitarist who makes comics. You also find out what he would think of a Broadway-style stage musical version of Strangers in Paradise. Pre-order the Omnibus edition of SiP and get a limited edition print while you still can.

 

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Andrew Lloyd-Webber's Richard Linklater's "School of Rock: The Musical"

"The Lord", as he's called on BBC singing competition shows I might have watched, says he's picked up the rights to translate School of Rock to the stage in one of the biggest no-brainers in licensed-from-a-movie musical history.

Are they going "jukebox" and keeping the actual covered songs plus the original music in the movie? If so, I don't know that they need many original tunes at all. I wonder whether they'll premiere it Stateside first or in the West End.

Oh shit, this means they're going to remake School of Rock, a movie less than 10 years old, sometime before or around its 15th birthday. Great.

Daily Grab 101: Wandering and Pondering

I thought I'd banked enough of these in advance to cover my being entirely out of commission following sinus surgery last week (more on that soon in some form).

Now that I've finally seen it, I'm an all-in Les Misérables movie fan. As a young performer, "Do You Hear the People Sing?" was the first showtune I learned and performed in front of an audience. I know this material very, very well, and I'm in love with all the changes, alterations, and sacrifices of material made in this absolutely towering adaptation. Were a lesser producer than Cameron Mackintosh behind it, I'm convinced this would not have happened or come out so exacting and so well.

Tom Hooper has his detractors it seems, many seeming to come from the camp who would prefer he make a movie in their preferred visual style. These people should go make their own movies and not disguise their job envy in the clothes of film criticism. Saying this movie is not "cinematic" is a thin, impotent critique akin to saying "this would have been more impactful (a word I hate) if they did it the way I had imagined".

The tone, look, and general approach taken here are why the movie works so well and isn't some glossy pageant play music video. The musical has needed a harsh scrubbing and reinvention for some time, and I hope this means movies of shows like Ragtime and Parade are possible in the future. Ragtime, in particular, could be three and a half hours long and would also win every Oscar in existence.