OMG!

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On Skiffy right now -- one of my favourite cheesy movies of all time -- The Ice Pirates!!

sad to think of how many of the cast are dead already, though....

Oklahoma!

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My friend Debbie was near desperate to get me to tape this -- I had to trace cables and fiddle for almost a half-hour before I found the problem, and just barely in time, too. Now, it took me watching the beginning to remember more of the information about this show. This was Trevor Nunn's Oklahoma!. I remember he wanted to break with the near-sacred choreography and stage direction of the Agnes DeMille, to bring a new look to the production.

This is the same one in which Andrea Thomas (from Second City TV) played 'Aunt Eller' -- they did 'The Farmer and the Cowman Should Be Friends' on the Today Show or Regis and [Fill in the blank] or somesuch.

Shot over on the South Bank, this might be staged in the same theatre in which I saw Timothy Dalton in a back-to-back production of Henry IV. The audience are seated almost to touching distance of the front of the stage, which rakes pretty low. They're using the turntable for some of their scene-change effects (no surprise); and Laurey gets to wear overalls instead of a fluffy little dress! This was taped, at least in part, in front of a live audience, but it's very clearly re-worked to allow the cameras in, to work angles. The sound is better than 'wild' sound, too.

Basically, this is just a way to say if Hugh Jackman had the chops for Trevor Nunn to hire him on for a musical, especially of this size, then it is to say 'duhhhh' about his song-and-dance abilities (if you're being particularly unclever -- I've had insufficient caffeine yet). This was, of course, before he became flavour-of-the-month (-year).

Turns out the production is available on DVD, which includes a 'making of'.

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Also got to see Bend It Like Beckham several weeks ago, prodded by all the enthusiasm in my Friends' LJs. I might not have been all 'OMG it's the BEST EVAIR!!!' about it, but I'm glad I picked it up. The older sister reminded me a lot of the setup in Dirty Dancing, and all the misunderstandings just make you want to shake people.

Favourite line has to be: 'Get your lesbian feet out of my shoes!'

What I don't understand, though, is that if this was such a good, devout Sikh family... why are the girls dressed like Hindu women? Where are their turbans and other symbols of the faith? Both daughters look like they've had their hair cut, which is against the practices as I understand them, too.

In addition, the Sikh religion, since it was founded, has held complete equality of the sexes as one of its principles. There's stories proudly told of Sikh women leading armies and defending themselves single-handed against enemy soldiers -- there's even a Sikh martial art. So how different is football from, say, spear drills?

If anybody's read anything, I'd appreciate your commenting....