Copious Notes

Holly Henson: the show must go on

Click the play button to watch an audio slide show from Cookin' with Gus. If you hit the four-arrow button at the far right of the control bar, it will play in full screen mode.

DANVILLE — When Holly Henson was diagnosed with breast cancer in April, her first thought was, “Let’s go to New York and get the actors.”

OK. It isn’t a standard reaction to being diagnosed with a potentially fatal illness.

But theater has been in Henson’s blood a lot longer than cancer, and when it’s April, it’s time to head to New York and hire actors for the upcoming season at the Pioneer Playhouse. Henson’s father, Eben Henson, built the Danville Theatre in 1950 and directed it until his death in 2004. All 48 years of Holly’s life, summer and summer stock were synonymous, even before she became artistic director a few years before her father passed away.

So cancer or not, she left her home in Minneapolis, picked up her mother, Charlotte, in Danville, and headed to New York to audition a company.

Cancer, however, cannot be ignored. She got the ball rolling, but Holly has spent most of this summer away from the theater where she grew up, pursuing alternative cancer therapies in Minnesota and Oklahoma City.

“Somebody asked the question, ‘Is the Playhouse going to go on?’ and I don’t even see that as being a question,’” said Holly’s brother, Robby Henson, a Los Angeles-based film director. “If it’s summer, the Playhouse is here. We don’t think about it too hard, we just do.”
It just meant that Robby expanded his role from directing the first play of the season, which he has done for years, to staying at the theater to oversee the shows.

And Holly and Robby’s other sister, Heather, helped in the front office and with marketing despite a busy career. Heather is a children’s book author and has three titles coming out this year, including That Book Woman, about a rural Kentucky librarian, due in October.

“When one of us goes down, we come together as a family,” Holly said. “And there’s a larger family of the community and the actors and helping hands.”

1,000

I hadn't really thought about this milestone until I looked at the post counter on my TypePad home page and realized I was into the high 900s. Well, this post takes me over the top, into four digits. It's numero  1,000, which, considering I wondered how long this blog would last when it started Aug. 13, 2006, feels pretty darned good.

If you're doing the math, it's pretty easy: That comes out to more than 500 posts a year since I started writing Copious Notes. It's been an interesting process. There are things I started and then stopped, because maybe they weren't as great an idea as they seemed when I started. I've taken le blog to New York several times as well as excursions to Owensboro and Nashville, and spots all around Kentucky including the Derby and Ichthus. I've rediscovered a love of photography, made e-friends, and learned little computer tricks I thought were the sole domain of nerd herds.

I've had fun, and I hope you have too. That's really the most important thing to me, that this forum be a lively and informative place to get information and have conversation about arts, entertainment, and culture here in the Bluegrass and around the world. 

The 1,000th post is a milestone, but not a finish line. So rather than toot my horn, back to the beat.

Thanks for reading, and if I had one wish for the future, it would be great to hear from you more. Please feel free to comment, e-mail or even call, because the best thing this blog can do is generate conversation.

All the best,
Rich

Photo, above, taken by Aaron Lee Fineman, December 2006 in Times Square, New York City.

Norton Center 2008-09 lineup features Tony Bennett, NY Phil

Joshua Bell will perform Jan. 26 at the Norton Center. Photo by Chris Lee.

The Norton Center for the Arts at Centre College in Danville is coming off its most successful season ever and appears poised to top itself in 2008-09.

Season subscribers will soon receive a brochure with a lineup topped by legendary standards singer Tony Bennett; pop music legend Little Richard; the New York Philharmonic Orchestra with Lorin Maazel at the podium; the Kentucky premiere of The Drowsy Chaperone, the 2006 Tony Award winning hit; and arguably the hottest violinist in the world, Joshua Bell.

Here’s the complete lineup, in chronological order. All performances are at 8 p.m., unless otherwise noted:

Sept. 20: Little Richard.
Sept. 30: Olga Kern, pianist.
Oct. 3-5: Smoke on the Mountain, Bluegrass gospel musical, 8 p.m. Oct. 3, 4; 3 p.m. Oct. 4, 5.
Oct. 12: Spanish Brass, 3 p.m.
Oct. 14: Altar Boyz, off-Broadway musical.
Oct. 21: Cirque d’Or, Chinese acrobats.
Oct. 24: The Beach Boys, 8:30 p.m.
Nov. 12: Soweto Gospel Choir.
Nov. 18: Al Green.
Dec. 4: The King’s Singers.
Dec. 11: Movin’ Out, Broadway musical.
Jan. 12: 100 Years of Broadway, musical revue with Broadway veterans.
Jan. 13: Giselle by the State Ballet of Russia.
Jan. 16: Tony Bennett.
Jan. 26: Joshua Bell, violin.
Feb. 10: Drumline Live, African-American band show.
Feb. 17: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Broadway musical.
Feb. 19: Red Priest, irreverent early music group.
Feb. 26: Kodo, Japanese percussion ensemble.
Feb. 28: Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso, oratorio presented with visiting and local musicans.
March 1: Tempesta di Mare, early music ensemble.
March 5: New York Philharmonic with Lorin Maazel, conductor.
March 11: St. Petersburg Male Choir.
March 12: Moscow Cats Theatre, acrobatic cat show.
March 15: Orion String Quartet, 3 p.m.
April 11: The Drowsy Chaperone, Broadway musical.
April 15: Annie, Broadway musical.
April 23: Garrison Keillor.
April 27: Ain’t Misbehavin’, Broadway musical.
May 30-31: Chamber Music Festival of the Bluegrass, presented at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill.

The performances are sold in a variety of season ticket packages costing $966 to $177, depending on performances. Single tickets already are available for some shows. Single tickets for others will go on sale later, depending on availability. Call 1-877-448-7469 or visit the Norton Center's website for information and tickets.

Surprise! 'Project Runway' wants versatility

No, I am not going to become a Project Runway blogger. But I am a fan of the show, and this week I heard a Runway cliche one too many times. It was Daniel Feld, a self-proclaimed Mr. Haute Couture, who stared down his nose at last night's challenge and said, "This has nothing to do with what I'm used to."

Every time one of the designers pops a variation on this line, I want to whack them with a bolt of fabric and scream, "Have you ever watched the show?! It's been on four seasons, now. There are like a dozen competitors and 10 challenges. Of course not all of them will be right up your alley."

That's part of the game. That's what makes a reality/competition show like Project Runway fun. Look, I know nothing about fashion. I've been wearing the same combo of a short-sleeved button down shirt and khaki trousers to the office the last two months. But Project Runway lets us in on the creativity of fashion and how designers apply their visions  to different situations.

That's what last night's winner, Korto Momolu, did. She took her urban chic sense and applied it to the challenge of creating an outfit for United States women athletes in the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games -- are we surprised a Peacock network created an Olympic-themed challenge for this week? What Momolu delivered was a sporty outfit in soft leather with the funky touch of flowing bell bottoms.

Feld was rightly mocked by Michael Kors for looking like he'd created something for the "Republic of Cocktail Land." The only thing that saved him was competitor Jennifer Diederich understood the challenge even less, offering up a mousy outfit that didn't even incorporate red, white and blue.

But Feld was the one who uttered the old saw, they're not doing what I like to do. Waaaaah. Well, if you watch the show, you know part of the challenge is being relevant enough in those competitions that aren't pitched right in your wheelhouse that you can make it to a week where you'll shine. If you don't get that, and you're still inclined to look into the confessional camera and say, "This isn't what I do," maybe you don't belong there after all.

Photo above: Daniel Feld not getting it on Wednesday's episode of Project Runway. Copyrighted photo by Barbara Nitke | NBC-Universal.

Summer classic: Swiss Family Robinson

By this time next week, the majority of Central Kentucky kids will be back in school. Hence, we give the Kentucky Theatre a good-timing award for scheduling Swiss Family Robinson as this week's Summer Classic. It shows at 1:30 and 7:15 today.

One of Disney's live-action greats, it's the big screen version Johann David Wyss' novel and it made tree houses hip for all ages.

In the film, the Swiss family of the title shipwrecks on a desert island in a storm and finds itself having to contend with tigers, anacondas and pirates, to name a few things.

The desert island theme certainly has been revisited many times since, most recently on Nim's Island, in which Abigail Breslin was the youngster communing with nature.

A 2009 remake of Swiss Family is listed on the Internet Movie Database with Terminator 3 director Jonathan Mostow designated to direct, though there's no further information. The story has actually been revisited several times, including a 1970s TV series starring Adam-12 and Route 66's Martin Milner, and featuring guest shots by Frank Langella and a pre-teen Helen Hunt. But none of those versions has replaced the original.

Smitty and Stevie on tour

In the grand scheme of contemporary Christian artists you could stick on a marquee together, it's kinda hard to top Michael W. Smith and Steven Curtis Chapman. The chart-topping, award-garnering duo are teaming up this fall for the United Tour, which will hit the road for a month-long run starting Oct. 9 in Columbus, Ohio. The closest the tour will come to Lexington will be the next night, Oct. 10, when it  stops at Cincinnati's Aronoff Center. Most of the stops on the 21-city tour appear to be theaters like the Aronoff which aren't intimate, but will bring the audience closer to the artists than arenas, which Smith and Chapman usually play. The only Kentucky date on the itinerary is Chapman's hometown of Paducah, Oct. 21.

Tickets are already available at Chapman and Smith's fan sites. The tour will benefit Compassion International and Chapman's adoption ministry Shaohannah's Hope.

rctalk: Seabird's "'Til We See the Shore"

Seabird frontman Aaron Morgan wails at the 'Til We See the Shore album release party on the Belle of Cincinnati, June 27. Photo by Jon Willis | Seabird's MySpace page.

Traveling with Seabird, we see a lot. The Northern Kentucky band's debut album is a journey from pain to victory with strong images such as the beginning of a long-delayed romance, a victim claiming victory and a dying soul claiming its salvation.

And there is nary a moment that you don't know where you are on this journey, primarily because of frontman  Aaron Morgan's theatrical voice and his equally evocative keyboards. They start off jaunty in the lead-off track, Black and Blue, but can be haunting and turn those rhythms into rings on songs such as Patience. Seabird is hardly a one man band though. There are touches, such as a banjo intro that turns into a guitar riff on Stranger, from the rest of the quartet: guitar player Ryan Morgan, bassist Chris Kubik, and drummer Aaron Hunt.

What's most striking about this exceptionally accomplished debut are the images, both precise and abstract. Cottonmouth (Jargon) is the best of the bunch, with lyrics slowly rising in what sounds like a pump organ accompaniment:

The days, you said you were smarter, knew you were harder
They're over
And the days you told us to grow up, told us to shut up
They're over
But I promise, the words that you said, stuck in our heads
They'll haunt you

You listen, mesmerized, wondering if this is drawn from some specific event or something general, such as people persecuted based on their faith. Then you remember songwriting is an abstract art, and you listen more to this package of 12 captivating songs. And then you listen again and again, intrigued, hoping for more soon. It's a debut that already puts Seabird in league with some of Christian rock's most accomplished and literate acts, such as Jars of Clay and Switchfoot.

All of this is also a reason I've already marked the band's Oct. 8 concert at the University of Kentucky on my calendar. Seabird seems like it will be something to see.

State Fair: The Kentucky State Fair usually offers a Christian pop act, and this year is no exception. In fact, there are two: P.O.D. plays Aug. 14 and Newsboys Aug. 18. Both shows are free, at 8 p.m. in Papa John's Cardinal Stadium.

Highbridge Fest star wins an Emmy: Brock Smith graduated from Asbury College in May, and he already has a head-turning item to put on his resume: Emmy Award winner.

Smith’s short film Visceral, which cleaned up at Asbury’s Highbridge Film Festival in April, snagged a student Emmy in the 44th Annual Ohio Valley Regional Emmy Awards. The action film is about a government’s failed attempts to create a clone soldier, and at Highbridge, it was lauded for its special effects and sound.

Smith, a Lexington resident, will be part of Asbury’s crew filming the Olympic Games in Beijing, this month.

Play piano, with Loren

I'd been meaning to post this for a while: Our classical music critic, Loren Tice, has posted a series of videos on YouTube demonstrating his piano-charting method that lets pure novices in on how to tickle the ivories. The first lesson is Oh When the Saints. It looks sort of like guitar tabs or chord charts that give a lot of us shortcuts to playing the six string. If you're interested in trying one of Loren's charts, you can download a pdf off of the YouTube page.

So, give it a look, and let me know when you book Carnegie Hall. To look for more of his videos, search for PianoCharter at YouTube.

Tasha Harris: A cautionary tale

Tasha Harris, shown here performing at Renfro Valley before her life was consumed by drug and alcohol addiction. Lee County drug court is giving her a chance to sing again. Photo provided by Renfro Valley.

Click here for Brad Luttrell's video of Tasha Harris talking about her situation and singing You Don't Know Me.

Amy Wilson has a story in the paper and LexGo today about Beattyville singer Tasha Harris. As a teenager, Harris seemed to have the world in front of her: Everyone loved to hear her sing, she had a regular gig at Renfro Valley, and the support of influential people who opened doors for her.

For me, this was the most telling part of the story:

“I thought it would come together for me," Harris said. "I thought it would just come and fall into my lap. I never sat down and did a plan.”

But Gabbard (TV executive Ralph Gabbard, who was Harris' primary booster) died unexpectedly in 1996, when he was 50. She was only 21.

She tells you she almost got that record deal. A lot of non-specifics follow. She was in Nashville in a record company office once, was just sure this was going to be her life. Her picture on those walls, her music in those elevators. Name of the building is a little vague. Did have her name mentioned in a Billboard magazine column. “We think we've spotted a star in Tasha Harris,” it read. Two more times she was mentioned, she says, in that same column. Then not again.

Soon, the story continues, she was filling the void of a career that was foundering with drugs and alcohol. That put her in drug court, where judges try to work with convicted offenders to clean up and get their lives on track without going to prison. In a stroke of judicial creativity, Circuit Judge Tom Jones has opened the door for Harris to sing a couple of numbers at Renfro Valley tonight, not so much to restart her career, but to give her a glimpse of what could be if she stays on the straight and narrow.

I've never met Harris, but I've heard her story before. Not her's, specifically, but the part about a performer being amazingly talented, having a lot of people interested, and doors that are just about to open. It's only a matter of time before you'll be hearing them on your radio or seeing them on the screen -- movie or TV.

If you're an arts and entertainment writer, you hear that a lot. You even write about about a number of these folks who truly seem promising, taking their first steps into what they hope will be lives of fame and fortune. That's where Harris' story becomes very familiar, and becomes a cautionary tale.

SummerFest 2008 among the best in the Arboretum

Tapping Sullivan Canaday White (center, with the script and yardstick) to direct Lord of the Flies was one of the choices that made SummerFest 2008 a success. Copyrighted LexGo photo by Pablo Alcala.

SummerFest is the new event that feels like its been around for years.

That’s because it is the immediate successor to the Lexington Shakespeare Festival, and since there was not a radical change of form, the event is inevitably compared to previous Shakespeare festivals, just like you’d compare the entrees at a restaurant that is simply under new management.

Did the new chefs spice things up, deliver something more pleasing to the palate? Or are we left wishing the old guard was still in place?

This summer is one of the most overall satisfying servings offered up in the Arboretum over the past decade.

There weren’t any highs as dizzying as 2004’s Jesus Christ Superstar, but there also wasn’t anything as low as 1998’s Two Gentlemen of Verona. It was a very even affair, marked by its directors.

Directors will often tell you that 90 percent of the job is directing, and maybe 90 percent of artistic directing is selecting directors, and playing to their strengths.

That may be the biggest reason this year’s SummerFest was so satisfying.

'Honk!' if you love groovy family theater

Lexington Children's Theatre scenic designer Kiersten Moore (front left), technical director Russell Mendez, technical director Adam Spencer and costume designer Lindsay Schmeling on the set of Honk!, which plays July 31 through Aug. 3. Photo by David Perry | LexGo.com.

This story is slated to run in Friday's Weekender section, but since Honk! opens Thursday night, we're sharing it a little early:

Sitting in the midst of their latest creation, the technical ­directors for Lexington Children’s Theatre talk about the fun, playful shapes and colors of their mod set for the musical Honk!

That doesn’t mean the show’s director, Jeremy Kisling, didn’t get a few puzzled looks when he told the staff about his hip, 1960s vision for the show, which is based on the story of the ugly duckling.

“It took a little convincing on my part,” Kisling says. “They were like, ‘’60s? Ducks?’”

Kisling took the offbeat ­approach to the show because he “didn’t want it to look like ­Charlotte’s Web. It’s often done with these earth tones and overalls and chicken feet.”

This production of the family musical will look more like ­something out of Austin Powers.

“Jeremy brought the ’60s flower patterns and the flowers in the pond,” says scenic designer ­Kiersten Moore. “He talked about the patterns and colors being happy.”

It might have been a different approach, but technical director Russell Mendez says it’s helpful when a show director comes in with a definite vision.

“It gives everyone a jumping-off point,” Mendez says.

And jump, they did.

Summer classic: 'Funny Face'

The Gap's Skinny Black Pant commercial featuring footage of Audrey Hepburn from Funny Face synced to AC/DC's Back in Black.

You've seen the commercial . . .

In the fall of 2006, The Gap launched an ad campaign for its Skinny Black Pant featuring footage of Audrey Hepburn from the 1957 movie musical Funny Face dancing to the AC/DC classic Back in Black. The movie musical actually draws from the 1927 George and Ira Gershwin Broadway show of the same name, though the plot is very different and only four songs from the stage edition are in the movie, including the title number and 'S Wonderful.

The story is about a fashion photographer, played by Fred Astaire, who is looking for a great new look and finds it in Greenwich Village book store clerk Jo, played by Hepburn. A snob, Jo initially resists attempts to lure her into modeling until she learns the job will include a trip to Paris. Astaire and Hepburn cross the pond and fall in love.

Photo nuts will like to know that Astaire's character is based on legendary photographer Richard Avedon,  who actually contributed photography to and set some scenes for the film. The footage in the Gap ad was drawn from the scene featuring Hepburn's "Bohemian Dance" in a Paris nightclub.

Creating the ad, The Gap, according to London's Guardian newspaper, worked with Hepburn's son, Sean Ferrer; renamed the garment the Audrey Hepburn Pant, and pledged to make a contribution to the Audrey Hepburn Children's Fund.

The ad turned a lot of heads. Some people thought it was a cool way of bringing a classic actress back into the public consciousness. Others thought it was tasteless and tarnished Hepburn's legacy. The New York Times wrote that the ads turned off women because they, "couldn't imagine their own hindquarters fitting," into the pants.

Someone else who wasn't a fan was a Funny Face director Stanley Donen, who earlier this year sued The Gap, Paramount Pictures, and its parent company Viacom for $5 million because they used the footage without his permission.

The ad aside, the movie endures as a timeless classic, and you can see it yourself in the Kentucky Theatre's Summer Classics Series at 1:30 and 7:15 p.m. July 30. Tickets are $3.

Andy Warhol's Pete Rose portrait

There aren't a whole lot of events that bring art connoisseurs and baseball fans together -- not that the pursuits are mutually exclusive. But the Cincinnati Art Museum has one. Wednesday night, the museum in gorgeous Eden Park will unveil a poster print of Andy Warhol's portrait of Cincinnati Reds legend Pete Rose.

It's not often that icons from such disparate fields come together, but it was actually the Cincinnati Art Museum that made it happen. The museum commissioned the pop art legend, who died in 1987, to create a portrait of the all-time Major League hit champion in 1985. The original portrait hangs in the museum, and out of everything in the museum, it is the piece people most frequently request in poster form. But this is the first time rights have been granted to reproduce the piece as a poster.

The poster will be unveiled at a cocktail reception, which is open to the public, at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Museum. Cincinnati gallery owner and art collector Carl Solway will speak about how the poster came to be.

A limited number of framed, numbered prints, signed by Rose, will be available for $500. Regular posters will be $50. Proceeds from the sales will go to the museum and the Reds Community Fund.

rctalk: Relient K's 'The Bird and the Bee Sides'

Doesn't this look like a promo photo for a band that would release an album called The Bird and the Bee Sides? Or was it a case of auto-focus follies? Photo courtesy of Gotee Records.

Relient K | The Bird and the Bee Sides

It seems like Relient K would be a fun band to hang out with in the studio. The group has one of the most noteworthy senses of humor in rock, and it's continually evolving into one of the most sharp and creative bands out there. Wouldn't it be fun to be there to hear the jokes and witness a stroke of genius.

That's the feel you get from, The Bird and the Bee Sides, ReK's new between-album EP that's not really an EP. 

It's closest to a B-sides and rarities collection a la my all-time fave of that genre, R.E.M.'s Dead Letter Office. But Bee Sides is quite a bit more substantial than most of those collections, with numerous tracks that demonstrate growth from Relient K's last studio effort, 2007's Five Score and Seven Years Ago.

We see most of that growth in the first 13 tracks, known as The Nashville Tennis EP. A lot of that perspective is relational, with songs of devotion such as Curl Up and Die and You'll Always Be My Best Friend, evangelism with I Just Want You to Know and Hope for Every Fallen Man, and justice in The Last, The Lost, The Least. The latter song is written and sung by bassist John Warne as part of this album's experiment of having each band member write and sing a tune. Through its last several recordings, Relient K has given us this feeling that the guys we used to picture firing spitballs from the back row of the class are getting serious about life.

But not too serious.

There's a lot of fun on this disc, including a few minute-long numbers like a couple of takes on the fellow-band shout-out Five Iron Frenzy is Either Dead or Dying. Quite a few songs on the second half are pulled from previous Relient K EPs, and then there are offerings like beautiful acoustic versions of Up and Up and Who I Am Hates Who I've Been.

Far from being a collection of toss-offs for fans, The Bird and the Bee Sides could create new followers for Relient K.

Jay in 3D: Third Day's outstanding new album, Revelation, hits stores virtual and terrestrial Tuesday, and the band will be on national TV that night performing on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, at 11:35 p.m. on NBC.

Liner note: I wrote the Revelation review a few weeks ago with a pre-release copy and was curious to see how Brad Avery's credit would be handled, since he worked on Revelation before leaving the band. On the last page of the CD booklet, which I received last week, Brad is listed as, "additional guitars." By the way, Tim Parker's cover art is a representation of Salvation Mountain, a public art project by Leonard Knight in Calipatria, Calif.

Labor Day Christian pop weekend: A few weeks ago, we told you Quest Community Church has moved its Questapalooza Festival to the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, with headliner Kirk Franklin, plus Kutless and needtobreathe. Well don't look now, but Lexington Christian Academy has booked Jars of Clay for its Back to School Bash Aug. 29 and 30, which will include a football game and carnival, culminating with Jars at 8:30 p.m. Aug. 30. Tickets for the show are $25 each. Click here for the LCA website and information (click Jars of Clay concert under the "news" heading).

Katy Perry: If you listen to Top 40 radio, you can't miss Katy Perry's I Kissed a Girl. It doesn't sound like anything you'd hear on Christian radio, considering most of the evangelical community is pretty down on homosexuality. But Katy Perry was once on Christian radio as aspiring teen star Katy Hudson (her 2001 self-titled debut's album cover, right) -- not that Kate Hudson. Christianity Today has a pretty thorough -- and pointed -- commentary on Perry and her current career. I'm going to qualify here that just because I refer you to something doesn't mean I endorse every word, but this is interesting reading.

KET show explores Kentucky-China connections

China. In the next week, many people right here in Central Kentucky will be packing their bags to head to  Beijing for the Olympics, be they athletes like Tyson Gay; broadcasters like Tom Hammond and Kenny Rice, or that Asbury College of Communications crew that always films the games; journalists like our own Mark Maloney; and others.

But there are many more people who have been to China, maybe travel there regularly and have developed first-hand impressions of the People's Republic.

Buck Ryan, a University of Kentucky Journalism professor and director of UK's Scripps Howard First Amendment Center, gathered some of those folks together for a conversation that airs at 10:30 tonight on KET: Citizen Kentucky/Citizen China: Hope for a New Century. It's a show that sort of makes you wish you'd been in the Niles Gallery at UK's Fine Arts Library where this was filmed to get a stronger sense of what the flow of the conversation was like and just to hear more. To say you want to hear more is saying something for a show that was essentially a room full of people talking.

But they touched on interesting ideas and observations about the relationships between China and the Bluegrass, from attorney Robert E. Rich's observation that the economic and cultural differences between the coastal Chinese cities and the interior is akin to Louisville and Eastern Kentucky to graduate student Chaoxun Zhao observing that part of the reason Kentucky is so well know in China is The Colonel -- KFC.

The participants in the conversation range from business people who primarily work in China, to people who have visited the country as tourists, to Chinese citizens or natives who now reside in the Bluegrass State. And there are diversities of opinion on some subjects, such as religious freedom in China, whether more American students should be learning Chinese and to what extent there is conflict between China and the United States.

Maggi Davidson, an adjunct professor at Bluegrass Community and Technical College, observes, "If you know people, you're not nearly so apt to wage war on people." So, she said, it is important people who can make these communications possible do so. And that is the thesis of the program, that next century of U.S.-China relations will probably take place between the nations' citizens as much, if not more, than the governments. Some of the current opportunities are in adoptions and China's quickly expanding business community.

Another opportunity, of course, is getting started, and this KET-UK production gives us something to think about as we watch the Olympics.

Laura Bell Bundy looks back at 'Blonde' forward to her next projects

Laura Bell Bundy in a photo shot for her CD, Longing for a Place Already Gone. Photo by Larissa Underwood.

Actress Laura Bell Bundy was sitting with five women and all of them wanted her job, playing Elle Woods in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde: The Musical.

For most of the chat, which was shown on MTV’s reality series Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods, Bundy was the sage Broadway veteran. But then she got reflective about what the experience of playing the perky SoCal sorority girl almost every day for 11/2 years has meant to her.

“I became more true to myself,” the Lexington native said. “I get emotional thinking about it. ... It’s been the best experience of my life because I grew as a human being, because of my character, because of my connection to her and my openness.

“And the fact that I got to express emotion and not hold things in was good therapy for me, and I grew as I was finding her.”

At the time of that conversation, which took place in March but wasn’t televised until earlier this month, Bundy was still several months away from leaving the show. But it was already clear that walking away from her breakout role — one that earned her a Tony Award nomination and made her a marquee name on Broadway — was not going to be easy.

But she needed to do it.

“I’m leaving at the right time,” Bundy said in an interview the week before her final performance, last Sunday. “I’m leaving when the show is still fun for me. I’m still learning, I’m still growing, I’m still making new choices.

“But I’ve been in this show a long time — longer than your health would have you be in a show like this. My body is tired, my voice is tired. I need to go on some serious R&R.”

On July 20, Bundy took her final bow, had a really good cry and then went to a post-show party with current and former cast members to share memories and farewells. Then it was off to an all-night diner with family for a bacon cheeseburger that gave her indigestion, she said. But no worries. She didn’t have to be concerned with going on the next day, or even later in the week.

Bundy is getting to work on other aspects of her career she wants to explore.

But first, only eight days after her last bow as Elle, she is coming back home to Lexington and bringing Legally Blonde co-star Paul Canaan, who was one of the judges on the MTV show. Together they’ll present their Take It From the Top musical theater workshop on Monday and Tuesday at Bundy’s alma mater, Lexington Catholic High School.

'Legally Blonde's' Paul Canaan on the reality show and the workshops

Paul Canaan was a cast member in the ensemble of Legally Blonde -- The Musical and served as a judge on Legally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods. He and Blonde star Laura Bell Bundy bring their Take It From the Top worshop to Lexington July 28 and 29. Photo by Jason Gillman.

Participants in the Take It From the Top workshops July 28 and 29 might be longing to have instructor Paul Canaan watch them and declare, “That’s a hiiit!”

In the eight weeks Canaan was a judge on the MTV reality series Legally Blonde the Musical: The Search for Elle Woods, he developed the affirmation into a personal trademark.
Like Legally Blonde’s star, Lexington native Laura Bell Bundy, Canaan has wrapped up his gig in the ensemble of the hit Broadway musical. Working on the show, Bundy and Canaan formed a strong friendship that has turned into a professional partnership with Take It From the Top, classes they have already presented in New York and will present around the country.

“My passion is teaching,” Canaan says, enjoying a day off at Legally Blonde director Jerry Mitchell’s beach house on New York’s Fire Island. “With arts education being cut in the schools, it was important to us to look at new ways to reach kids.”

Bundy says Canaan “is such a fantastic teacher, and he’s great with kids. He can see potential in a kid and pull that out. He helps people feel comfortable.”

That was also one of his roles on the reality series, which tapped South Carolinian Bailey Hanks to succeed Bundy as Elle Woods.

“Ultimately Jerry Mitchell had the say,” Canaan says of the show’s finale, which was taped in March though it aired on MTV on Monday, two nights before Hanks debuted in the role. “We said, ‘We’re not going to find another Laura Bell Bundy, so let’s find an Elle,’ and Bailey is Elle, completely. With her spirit and spunk, she’s innately an Elle Woods.”

Review: SummerFest's 'Hair'

Adam Fister, as Claude, leads a performance of Manchester, England, in SummerFest's production of Hair. Below: Cameron Perry was one of two Transylvania University students who excels in this show. Photos by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Check out photographer Brad Luttrell's audio slide show about Hair director Mike Thomas.

Mike Thomas knows it is not enough to just put on the hits. It would be an easy thing to do with his last two assignments in the Arboretum: the Lexington Shakespeare festival's 2004 production of Jesus Christ Superstar and this year's SummerFest production of Hair.

Both have practically become reverse jukebox musicals, kicking so many songs onto the Top 40 that a performance is something of a hit parade. But within and between those songs are stories, and like that 2004 Superstar, Thomas' Hair is fabulous because the production doesn't forget that.

Telling a story is a tougher job with this show, which has a book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni and music Galt MacDermot. Hair's plot of Claude, a young man who struggles with where he fits in 1968 America, isn't strong and frequently disappears in songs about sex, drugs, race and war. It has to be tempting here, 40 years after the show's Broadway debut, to just make this, ”let's look at the hippies.“

There is a lot to look at in the SummerFest production with David Steinmetz's simple graffiti-inspired set and Susan Wigglesworth's thrift-store chic costumes. They give the actors a natural environment to play in.

And play they do, with Peggy Stamps' exuberant choreography and support from the Johnson Brothers Band, whose accompaniment sounds authentic while avoiding some of the dated sounds of the Broadway cast recording and movie soundtrack.

Thomas and his fellow directors have a unified vision to respect this era, not make fun of it or get too nostalgic. So we get a show that truly contemplates its subject, its insights and excesses, successes and failures, which is actually what Hair does.

Summer Classic: 'Casablanca'

Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman in one of their few truly happy moments in Casablanca.

This year's Summer Classics series at the Kentucky Theatre has been about as classic as it can be, with all-time hits such as Citizen Kane and Gone with the Wind on the big screen. But Wednesday is arguably the biggest classic of them all: Casablanca, the Humphrey Bogart, Ingrid Bergman World War II doomed romance.

Why do we love this movie so much?

Is it the great lines: "Here's looking at you, kid?"

Is it As Time Goes By, the song Ilsa wanted to hear and Rick had to force himself to listen to?

Is it that perfect ending, "I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world."

Last week, we asked Copious Notes readers why Casablanca endures. Here are some responses:

Kathy Walsh-Piper, director of the University of Kentucky Art Museum said, "Casablanca is almost a brand. It’s about the scent of flowers on an EVENING BREEZE. The story is a true romance in an exotic place, in a time when exotic places were truly “foreign,” when they gave you cigarettes on the plane."

Deborah Core, an Eastern Kentucky University English professor writes, "I love Casablanca because, like most great romances, it ties the love story to a war. Rick makes the connection explicit at the end when he says that the problems of two little people don’t matter much in comparison to the problems of the world. But the movie has persuaded us of how much the two little people do matter. In the end, though, history wins, and we’re left with two more great movie conventions: the rise of men to heroic stature (Rick and Louie) and the implicit beginning of a buddy film (again, Rick and Louie).

"The music is magnificent, and Ingrid Bergman makes me want to buy a hat!"

Charles Edward Pogue, a Georgetown resident and screenwriter of films such as D.O.A., wrote:
"I think it works largely because it is a lot of seasoned pros at the top of their game...Bogart, Bergman, Claude Rains, director Mike Curtiz, producer Hal Wallis, and writers the Epstein brothers and Howard Koch. A happy symbosis of great writing, directing, acting, and producing.

BlondeTV: Bailey's a hit!

 Bailey simply sold it.

I don't know if that's what put her over the top in the final episode of Legally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods. They didn't show the judge's deliberation, so we really didn't hear what Legally Blonde director Jerry Mitchell was thinking. But even this Autumn Hurlbert fan has to admit that in the portions of the audition they showed us, Autumn sang beautifully, but Bailey Hanks (Photo, right, by Justin Borucki for MTV) turned into Elle Woods -- her version of Elle.

Maybe the key was in the one question they showed Mitchell ask Autumn: How do you feel about being a sorority girl?

It's a question that seemed to indicate he was having trouble buying Autumn in the role. Meanwhile, as Bailey performed, the judges were saying things like, "I believe it," and she seemed to channel her excitement through her performances, particularly Omigod You Guys.

So, Wednesday night, the Anderson, S.C. girl -- keeping Elle Woods in the South, y'all -- will take the stage of the Palace Theatre in New York City to succeed Laura Bell Bundy as Elle Woods. Another key comment Mitchell made was, "Neither of you are really there yet."

Has Bailey gotten there in the months since she actually won this contest? That's question critics will probably start attempting to answer later this week.

One thing that was nice was a reality show finale with a lot to do. So often, we are subjected to finales with tons of filler before we hear the handful of words everyone tuned in for. But since the judges had the last word, and it was all on tape, we got the last competition and then the announcement.

A bravo to MTV for a much better show and series than expected.

UPDATE: Playbill reports that all of the final four have been cast in Legally Blonde. Autumn is Bailey's understudy and will be in the ensemble; Lauren Zakrin is going to understudy the Elle on the first national tour, starring Becky Gulsvig, and Rhiannon Hansen is going to play Margot, Elle's best friend, on tour. I love that casting on Rhiannon. That role should work for her. Gotta say, I could also see Autumn as a Vivienne, Elle's chief nemesis, if she wanted to do that swing thing.

Check back later this week for our exit interview with Laura Bell Bundy, who will be in town early next week for her Take it From the Top workshop at Lexington Catholic along with her Blonde co-star and Search for Elle Woods judge Paul Canaan 

For more on Bailey, USA today has a  good story about her.

Derek Keeling in 'Grease' after all

Speaking of Broadway-casting reality shows and Kentucky, University of Kentucky graduate Derek Keeling is going to make his Broadway debut in Grease as Danny Zuko after all. 

Keeling and Ashley Spencer will go on as Danny and Sandy Tuesday night, succeeding Max Crumm and Laura Osnes, who won the roles on the NBC reality competition series, Grease: You're the One That I Want, in the winter of 2007. Osnes and Crumm debuted in the Broadway revival of Grease last summer. Spencer was the runner up to Osnes. Keeling finished third behind Crumm and Texan Austin Miller. The winners were decided solely by audience votes.

Since the show, Keeling has been involved in a number of projects, including a musical version of A Tale of Two Cities that debuted in Sarasota last fall and opens on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre Aug. 19. Aaron Lazar will play Charles Darnay, the role Keeling had in Sarasota.

Keeling's hometown paper, The Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia, reports a healthy contingent of family and friends are heading to New York for Keeling's debut. His biography on the Grease website mentions his UK degree. Keeling and Spencer will be sharing the stage with American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, who is playing Teen Angel.

Above: Spencer and Keeling as Sandy and Danny. Photo courtesy of Barlow-Hartman Public Relations.

Handicapping the 'Legally Blonde' finale

Laura Bell Bundy took her final bow as Elle Woods in Legally Blonde -- The Musical on Broadway last night. Tonight at 10 -- really closer to 11 -- her successor will be named on MTV and Wednesday night, the winner will make her Broadway debut.

It's not quite that breathless. The winner was actually selected before Legally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods even started. In an interview with Laura last week, we said we were going to refrain from asking her who it was, because we wanted to be surprised, and she made some quip about being sued for $5 million if she told anyone, anyway.

But how much of a surprise will it be? Well, here in Laura's home town, we have a habit of handicapping these sorts of things like horse races. So, here's one reporter's take on the final three:

Bailey Hanks, 15-1

For her: She really looks the part and has shown some spark through the auditions, particularly in dancing, where it seems she would excel in numbers like What You Want and Bend and Snap. She also had exceptional good bad luck -- that's not a misprint -- last week when she was given the wrong hat for What You Want audition but made it work for her. That showed some real stage smarts at handling things when they go wrong, and with eight shows a week, things do go wrong. Just ask Laura.

Against her: She is young, 20, and very green. I believe she said that this was her first time in New York. Her excellence has mostly been in execution too, and the judges have voiced reservations about her ability to connect with some of the emotional depth of her character -- yes, you naysayers, there is emotional depth to Elle. While they like her, the judges and Mitchell may conclude Florence, S.C. to Elle Woods on Broadway is too much of a vertical leap.

Rhiannon Hansen, 50-1

For her: She has the most unique character of anyone in the competition, and may connect with the humor of Elle Woods the best.

Against her: Character is probably what has pulled her through. But there is no part of the triple threat she excels at. In last week's audition, she left serious questions about her stamina to handle a role that requires tremendous stamina. She's also demonstrated some real emotional fragility, which can be devastating in a world like Broadway. When we left the show last week, the judges still had one person to eliminate before the finals in front of director Jerry Mitchell, and it is hard to imagine the scenario in which Rhiannon gets through.

Autumn Hurlbert, 5-1

For her: She has the best voice and acting chops of the remaining competitors, and in areas where she's weak, she has shown an ability to learn. At 27, she's also the oldest of the remaining competitors and, though she's given us a few head-clasping moments, has the most maturity. That maturity also puts her in the best place to handle what will probably be a tough position, being the Broadway lead selected on a reality show.

Against her: Five-to-one are not mortal-lock odds, and there are some questions about Autumn. Is she right for the part? It's easy to see her on Broadway, but not necessarily as Elle Woods. While she's got the singing and acting, Autumn's dancing has been her weak point, and it's a big part of the role. So, if Mitchell is willing to gamble, he may pass on this safe pick.

We'll be watching tonight.

'Hair': No nude scene, but . . .

Click the play button to see photographer Brad Luttrell's audio slide show about SummerFest's Hair. Click here to see a larger version, and here to read about director Mike Thomas' return to the Arboretum.

The announcement that Hair would be one of the SummerFest shows this year provoked a question: Will people be getting naked on The Arboretum stage?

In many productions, the first act of Hair ends with the men burning their draft cards and the cast stripping down as they sing Where Do I Go? Many fans of the show think the nude scene is crucial for Hair, an iconic rock musical that grew out of the 1960s counterculture.

But director Mike Thomas says that nowhere in the script is the nudity mandated. Festival directors took that into consideration when they decided that there will be no nude scene in The Arboretum when Hair runs July 23 to 27.

The optional nude scene, however, is hardly the only R-rated element in Hair, and those other parts are non-negotiable. Thomas says Hair’s creators and rights administrators “want the script to be done as it’s supposed to be done.” So audiences who come out to The Arboretum will hear a colorful array of profanity, sexually suggestive material, including the song Sodomy, blunt discussion of race issues and an extensive portrayal of drug use.

“Caution,” Thomas says. “Is it sexually suggestive? Yes. Does it have adult language and content? Yes. I wouldn’t bring children. Beware.”

So why is SummerFest, which has theater-education programs for elementary and high schoolers and has tried to position itself as a family event, presenting a show that even the director says is not suitable for all ages?

“For our purposes, artistically, that is what it was and what it still is,” Trish Clark, executive director of the Kentucky Classical Theatre Conservatory, says of the decision to present Hair. “Why hide that fact from our children? It’s not like the children don’t know. They’re hearing, seeing and witnessing all of that.”

'Lord of the Flies' slide show

Lately here at le blog and on LexGo, we've been working to give you a look at local productions beyond the printed word. The latest of these efforts is an audio slide show photographer Emily Spence and I put together about the "band of theatrical brothers," that have put up several superior productions in Lexington over the past couple of years, including this weekend's production of Lord of the Flies.

Click here for a larger version of the Flies slide show.

We've also still got a look at Lexington Stage Company's Smoke on the Mountain up, and watch out over the weekend for photographer Brad Luttrell's sights and sounds from rehearsals for SummerFest's Hair.

Review: Third Day's 'Revelation'

Third Day is (L-R) drummer David Carr, singer and guitarist Mac Powell, guitarist Mark Lee and bassist Tai Anderson. Photo by Kristin Barlowe. Below: Revelation cover art by Tim Parker.

Third Day | Revelation

The latest album from Third Day opens with the relevant track, This is Who I Am.

In one respect, it's a good ol' barn-burning Southern rocker. But it's not a great album opener just because it's a catchy tune that pulls you in with the first phrase. It also states an essential truth about this album, which comes out July 29, the band's ninth offering of new studio material. At 15 years in the business, Third Day is past any attempt to follow formulas or say the right things to please people -- not that they've done much of that in the past.

As much as any of their studio albums, Revelation really is a portrait of who Third Day is, as we have gotten to know the Georgia-based band over the years. First and foremost, they're devout evangelical Christians as songs such as the initial single Call My Name demonstrate. There's also a strong introspective side to that devotion we hear in the title track, which is not an apocalyptic vision, but a plea for answers in a confusing world. It's a very mature statement that we don't have all the answers, and sometimes we "haven't got a clue."

Then we go back to the opening track and others like it such as the distortion drenched Otherside, showing the most enjoyable aspect of Third Day: Southern rockers, at heart.

That the album is a complete picture of Third Day, is not surprising.  Recent studio recording such as Come Together in 2001 and Wherever You Are in 2005 were showing us these well-rounded representations. But here, we also see growth, largely driven by producer Howard Benson, who's known for his work with Daughtry and P.O.D., to name a few. He helps 3D rough up its edges while seamlessly rounding out its sound. He also brings in some great guests, particularly Flyleaf's Lacey Mosley who practically takes over Run to You with a climactic wail at the end of the song.

Revelation marks a few signposts in Third Day's career, including its final effort with guitarist Brad Avery, who left the group after the disc was completed, and the first album after the band's thorough Chronology discs of last year that seemed to close a chapter in the 3D's career. Chapter is the key word there, because the book is still very much a work in progress. Revelation is a quintessential Third Day album that shows these men still growing in their faith and their art.

Summer classic: 'Spartacus'

Kirk Douglas stars as the rebellious Roman slave, Spartacus, in Stanley Kubrick's 1960 classic.

It's always fun when a classic and contemporary pop culture collide. Such is the case with the 1960 Stanley Kubrick classic, Spartacus, which the Kentucky Theater shows at 1:30 and 7:15 p.m.  Wednesday as part of its Summer Classics series.

In one of the iconic scenes, when Roman soldier Crassus, played by Laurence Olivier, promises the survivors in a defeated rebel army they will be spared if they identify Spartacus, played by Kirk Douglas, each soldier rises one by one by one and says, "I'm Spartacus."

The scene has been recently cited as one of the inspirations for supporters of presumptive Democratic Party Presidential nominee Barack Obama who have taken Obama's middle name of Hussein as their own to protest people who have used the name to demonize the candidate.

Spartacus screenwriter Dalton Trumbo has also been back in popular consciousness lately with the documentary Trumbo. The film recalls how Trumbo was one of Hollywood's premier screenwriters before he was blacklisted in the mid-20th Century communist witch hunts. Trumbo, who was a member of the Communist Party, was arrested for contempt of Congress for refusing cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee when he and nine other writers and directors were called to testify about communist influence in Hollywood. He served an 11-month sentence at the federal penitentiary in Ashland in 1950.

In 1960, Trumbo became the writer who broke the blacklist by receiving screen credit for penning the scripts to Exodus and Spartacus. The "I'm Spartacus" scene was regarded as a comment on people who named names during the communist witch hunts.

That is one of several memorable scenes in the classic, including Spartacus' first brush with trouble while trying to rescue a fellow slave and a great gladiator scene.

Last call: Please weigh in on our question about next weekend's classic: Why do you love Casablanca?

BlondeTV 7: Where's Frankenstein?

On last night's Legally Blonde the Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods, the final four competitors got a little cheerleading training. In this photo from August 2006, Laura Bell Bundy took a tumble into the world of cheerleading with Robert Eskridge at Town & Village School of Dance in Paris, Ky., in preparation for originating the role of Elle Woods on Broadway. Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by Matt Goins.

At the end of last night's audition on Legally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for a more reasonable title, judge and writer Heather Hach said, "I completely want to do a Frankenstein and combine the comedy of Rhiannon, Bailey’s professionalism and star quality, the freshness of Lauren and Autumn’s voice."

Well, that sort of takes us back to our original misgiving about this reality TV as Broadway audition thing: They've ended up with a field where no one is a complete picture of Elle Woods, so there's going to be some settling to do to fill this role.

Yes, this blog is a bit of Autumn rooting section, but she is not the dancer Bailey is, doesn't have the charisma of Rhiannon and lacks Lauren's youthfulness.

Ultimately, the judges decided Lauren was a bit too youthful and sent her on home before the show ended. The other shoe will drop next week when another finalist is sent packing at the beginning of the episode before the last audition. The final show down will be in the Palace Theatre in front of director Jerry Mitchell, who has the last call.

It's hard to imagine Rhiannon will make it, because she wound up very winded in the audition with What You Want last night, and her vocals were a horror show. That would create a Bailey-Autumn finale and they're not two really friendly competitors. Bailey was relishing Autumn's tribulations with tap dancing last night, and Autumn doesn't believe any of the final four have earned their shot at Broadway the way she has.

I'm going to stick with my Autumn prediction, maybe not quite as confidently as last week. A key to me was when Bernie Telsey talked to Autumn about her dancing and said, "when it’s in your body, you're Elle, 100 percent." Autumn's been straight up about not being a great auditioner. But it is much easier to believe that she can get that character in her body in the few weeks between the end of the competition and her first performance, which is actually next Wednesday, than it is to believe Bailey could develop the depth or Rhiannon could develop the vocal chops and  to play Elle. All that said, I can't help thinking Autumn may be a better Elphaba or Millie.

And you know, the Southern pride side of us may like to see the role already played by Louisianan Reese Witherspoon and Kentuckian Laura Bell Bundy go to South Carolinian Bailey. We'll see, next week.

Why do you love 'Casablanca'?

Dooley Wilson and Humphrey Bogart in one of Casablanca's classic scenes. 

A few weeks ago, we got into a big, fun chat about movies of the 1980s. In the midst of that conversation, screenwriter and University of Southern California film professor Jack Epps Jr. made the great observation that most movies are a product of the era they were made in, even the ones we see as timeless. As an example. he cited Casablanca which is a great one.

The World War II unrequited love story is practically a dictionary definition of classic.

The Kentucky Theatre has shown it numerous times since I moved here 10 years ago, and it always draws huge crowds. It's constantly referenced in pop culture -- juts saw a Simpsons allusion the other night -- and would probably be on many, many Top 10 lists of classics, including mine.

But with another showing of Casablanca coming up on July 23, as part of the Kentucky's Summer Classics Series, I'm asking you: What is it you love about Casablanca?

Is it Bogie and Bergman. Is it the great lines? The story? That song? The fact they don't make 'em like that anymore? Post a comment here or send me an e-mail, and I'll try to put together a little something before the movie shows next week.

Elizabeth Orndorff's mysterious career boost

Elizabeth Orndorff doesn’t own a cell phone.

That alone made her feel unqualified to tackle a high-tech mystery plot, which is all the rage these days on shows like CSI and Numb3rs.

But she wanted to enter a script into the first ­International Mystery Writers’ Festival last year at Owensboro’s RiverPark Center. Who’d want to pass up a shot at a $10,000 prize?

So, she went decidedly low tech, and stayed close to home.

“I wanted to set it in Kentucky, because the theater and the festival were in Kentucky,” Orndorff said. “So, I checked into places and stories around here.”

The mystery that intrigued her was a widely held rumor that Charles Dickens once visited Mammoth Cave. But there was no record of it. If the great author did visit, he never wrote about it.

Why?

She had the framework for a mystery.

“Charles Dickens had this soap-opera life,” Orndorff said. “He hated America, and he hated slavery.”

The Danville writer’s attempt to answer the question of what might have happened to Dickens in the cave became Death by Darkness, a mystery set in Mammoth Cave’s famous Star Chamber, where, if you turn off your lights, the glow of gypsum deposits dot the ceiling.

It was a hit, winning the top prize at the ­festival, where the competition ­included mystery legends such as Ed McBain and ­William Link.

“I kinda backed into it, which is why I think people liked it,” Orndorff says. “It was more about how these personalities rubbed up against each other in that cave. But there is a dead body. It’s a mystery, so you have to have a dead body.”

A summer later, Central Kentucky audiences are getting to see the play at the ­Pioneer Playhouse, where Death by ­Darkness runs through Saturday. In addition to bringing Orndorff’s award-winning script to Danville, the Playhouse brought in John Nyrere Frazier, who won the award for best actor at the ­Mystery Festival for playing ­Darkness’s lead character, ­Stephen Bishop, a slave who has ­developed a deep connection with the cave.

The new production takes Orndorff back to the ­summer of 2007 and her trip to Owensboro to see the world premiere of her show.

“That was fun,” she recalls. “We got to Owensboro, and there were baskets of flowers in our hotel room, wishing us well.”

Before she got to the festival, ­Orndorff was getting hints that things might go well from the daughter of a friend who was working on the festival. She kept calling saying she’d seen other plays there, “but they aren’t as good as Death by Darkness,” Orndorff said.

Obviously, the festival judges agreed.

Since then, Orndorff has been at work getting the show out there, entering it in contests and sending it to other theaters.

“Having that kind of validation is motivating,” Orndorff says. “You think, ‘I’ve done this once, I can do it again.’”

She’s had other validation, such as her one-act play The Bathroom Cleaner, being performed at the Wonderland One-Act Play Festival in New York City and productions of several of her scripts at Danville’s West T. Hill Community ­Theatre, ­including The Spring ­Cleaning, slated for next April.

She acknowledges she wants to get back to writing, to use the momentum from Death by Darkness to create another attention-grabbing script. And she just might draw some inspiration from the current production.

“It’s wonderful to have it so close to home,” she says. “I’ll be out there several times.”

Copyrighted photo of Elizabeth Orndorff, above, by Mary Robin Spoonamore.

'Smoke on the Mountain' slide show

Studio Players and the Lexington Stage Company are bringing a heaping helping of Bluegrass gospel music to the stage of the Carriage House Theatre with Smoke on the Mountain, July 10-27. It's set at rural Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church in 1930s North Carolina. Rev. Mervin Oglethorpe has invited the Sanders Family Singers to help introduce his congregation to some contemporary worship styles. That creates some friction, but the main point of the musical is hearing gospel classics such as I'll Fly Away and Nothing But the Blood of Jesus.

Click the play button above to watch the slide show.

Click here for a larger version of the slide show.

Click here to read our preview of Smoke on the Mountain.

And click here to read our review.

Theater review: 'Death by Darkness'

Farmer Squire Calloway (Mike McRee) and preacher Horace Mallory (Robert G. Hess) discover the mysterious Ophelia Entry (Maggie Robbins) in Pioneer Playhouse's production of Elizabeth Orndorff's Death by Darkness. Below: John Nyrere Frazier. Photos courtesy of Pioneer Playhouse.

DANVILLE -- Last summer, Danville’s Elizabeth Orndorff found herself toe-to-toe with whodunit giants such as Ed McBain and Columbo creator William Link.

And she killed ‘em -- literarily.

Orndorff walked away from the first annual International Mystery Writer’s Festival in Owensboro not only with the prize for best new playwright, but also best new play for her Death by Darkness.

So what was the mysterious rock of Kryptonite in Orndorff’s slingshot to help her knock off the Goliaths?

Was it a shocker worthy of Shyamalan?

Was it a web woven like Christie?

Back home in Danville, the Pioneer Playhouse stepped up as the first Central Kentucky theater to let us see the play and unravel the mystery. The answer is none of the above.

There are mysteries in Death by Darkness, which runs through July 20, and even a genuine, “Whoa! Didn’t see that coming.” And Orndorff, writing her first mystery, deftly executed that puzzle-like structure most mysteries have, where everything falls together in the end.

But Death doesn’t succeed in keeping us guessing as much as it makes us think about ourselves and the forces that mold us like water molds a cave.

Kentucky’s own Mammoth Cave, it’s “Star Chamber” or gypsum crystals, specifically, is the setting for a  journey in 1842.

Slave Stephen Bishop first greets us, telling us about the cave in increasingly spiritual and foreboding tones:

“You don’t know yourself until you’ve been in the dark for a period of time.”

“No use in asking God, because this here is my cave, and I’m the only one who knows the way out.”

Next time we see Stephen, he’s leading a group of tourists into the cave, including a writer and his wife from England, a Harvard geology student and a local preacher and farmer. Or, that’s who they say they are. Over the next two hours, identities are revealed, lines are crossed, arguments ensue, a few other characters show up, and someone ends up dead.

Whodunit isn’t much of a mystery here. Whydunit is the bigger question among several that are raised, including ones about relationships and justice. In many ways, it’s more of a character study than a mystery.

Pioneer Playhouse gives the show a good ride, particularly by bringing in John Nyrere Frazier to reprise his Mystery Fest award-winning turn as Stephen. There are also numerous strong performances from the playhouse’s repertory ensemble. Director Lawrence Lesher gives the show a quick pace, never letting the action seem as stagnant as half-a-dozen people in a room in a cave could be.

Yes, tighter webs could have been woven, bigger surprises could have burst from the Mystery Fest stage last summer. But Pioneer Playhouse reveals that it’s unlikely any of the other plays in Owensboro were as satisfying as Death by Darkness.

Summer classic: Lost Horizon

Frank Capra talks about the first screenings of Lost Horizon on Dick Cavett's show.

I was working in a video store when it came out on tape: a movie that should have been a classic, but never quite achieved that potential.

It was Frank Capra's Lost Horizon, based on the James Hilton novel about the the mysterious land of Shangri-la.

The Internet Movie Database has one of its original taglines as: "Millions to make it! . . . Two years in production! . . . The best seller that set a new style in romance floods the screen with splendor and drama surpassing Frank Capra's greatest past achievements, Mr Deeds and It Happened One Night.

It's not hard to believe some ad copy writer penned that in the world of breathless hyperbole that was 1930s film promotion.

"The Masterpiece Of America's Foremost Film Genius Blazes To The Screen!"

It was Capra who ended up setting the first two reels ablaze after a horrendous first screening of the movie that, despite seven Oscar nominations including best picture, has had a turbulent life. That video version that floated into our shop in the late 1980s included numerous scenes where the soundtrack played while stills stood on the screen and there were other signs that a completed copy could not be cobbled together.

But it was still a fascinating movie to look at, a mesmerizing portrait of people entering an icy, mythical land where the residents don't age and all is peaceful. It's a film that sticks in you memory as much for its art deco imagery as much as its story.

We get the rare treat of seeing it Wednesday on the big screen as part of the Kentucky Theatre's Summer Classics series, and we can decide for ourselves whether it's indeed a lost classic. Showtimes are 1:30 and 7:15 p.m. Admission is $3.

BlondeTV 6: 'Just let me be legally blonde.'

It was an up and down night for Natalie on Legally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods. She won the first competition, a photo shoot in which the idea of standing on a bunch of law books apparently put her over the top. But ultimately she was sent packing because the judges just couldn't see her as Elle Woods.

This episode, in which the contestants got their hair styled blonde to put them all on equal footing in the looks department, was the big redemption for Autumn. After a horrible week in which she bombed in the dance audition, got sick on stage -- reportedly from eating bad yogurt, not nerves -- and wound up in the casting office for the second straight week, she needed a big night to reclaim her front-runner status. And she made a big move with a vocal audition that, from what we were shown, was miles ahead of the competition in maturity, confidence and interpretation.

Autumn was buoyed by a coaching session with Seth Rudetsky, in which he talked to her about having a tough time in auditions and advised: “Say, ‘I’m doing an amazing-few-minutes show.’ It’s not about getting to the next level. It’s about, ‘I’m getting a few minutes to perform on stage.’”

She also seemed to get a lot out of the final five's audience with the current Elle Woods, Lexington's Laura Bell Bundy. Autumn asked Laura what she took from the role, creating a very authentic moment from the Tony nominee who choked up answering:

"Spirit is the word – inspired. I became more true to myself . . . I get emotional thinking about it . . . it’s been the best experience of my life, because I grew as a human being, because of my character, because of my connection to her and my openness. And the fact that I got to express emotion and not hold things in was good therapy for me and I grew as I was finding her.”

It was neat to see Laura still retains a lot of the same emotions she had about this part and this show nearly two years ago, when she was just grasping the reality that she would originate the role of Elle Woods on Broadway. Though she's now been playing the part for well over a year, last night gave you the impression it must be tough for her to walk away.

Autumn seemed to appreciate that, which felt somewhat appropriate, because she definitely walked away from last night's show as an heir apparent.

Now, we shouldn't get ahead of ourselves. Afterall, two weeks ago, Emma seemed to right her ship, and then she was sent packing last week. But this week was different. Autumn's only rival was 18-year-old Lauren, and while the judges liked her, they seemed to feel she probably needed a few more years of work.

Bailey and Rhiannon came up a few steps behind her. Last night, they were auditioning with the title song at the moment Elle feels like she's lost everything she thought she'd achieved. Autumn grasped the complexities of that in a difficult and emotional song. If they can get the dances in Autumn's legs, at this point, it's hard to not see her as the next Elle Woods on Broadway.

Above: Laura Bell Bundy in the first promotional photo for Legally Blonde -- The Musical. Photo courtesy of Barlow Hartman.

As always, check out Seth's breakdown of last night's show.

Franklin & Kutless headline Questapalooza

Kirk Franklin will headline the third annual Questapalooza at Quest Community Church.

Urban gospel star Kirk Franklin will headline Questapalooza 2008, which is moving to Labor Day weekend.

Questapalooza, which is in its third year, is an outreach event presented by Quest Community Church that is also becoming one of Central Kentucky's highest profile Christian pop music events outside of the Ichthus Festival. This year's Questapalooza, Aug. 31, will actually give attendees a chance to see an act they missed at this year's Ichthus. Kutless, whose June 13 Ichthus performance was scuttled by thunderstorms, will also be playing on a bill that will be filled out by needtobreathe.

But topping the bill will be Franklin, an artist Quest associate pastor Justin McCarty says the church was so eager to get, they moved the Questapalooza date to book him before he heads off on a European tour. The first two Questapaloozas were the second full weekend in September.

"We got to meet him at a meeting of churches in the Willow Creek Association," McCarty says of Franklin, "and we were really impressed with him."

The 3,000-member Quest congregation has also been hearing and singing music by Franklin, one of the most successful artists at crossing over from the gospel to Christian pop music markets in the past decade.

In its first two editions, Questapalooza has been a successful tool for recruiting new members to the church off of Reynolds Road.

"Last year, we had 6,000 people show up," McCarty says. "That means there were a lot of people here who had never been on the Quest campus before."

He said there were no formal attendance goals for this year's event, but hopes are that the combination of Franklin's broad popularity and being on a holiday weekend will help the event top itself once again.

"We're sort of hoping to make this a destination event for the Holiday weekend," McCarty said. "People can come out and enjoy the rides and food and fellowship and music and there's no school the next day."

McCarty said tickets should go on sale in late July or early August. Watch the festival website and Copious Notes for more information.

rctalk: Kutless' 'To Know that You're Alive'

Portland, Ore.-based Kutless are bassist Dave Luetkenhoelter, drummer Jeffrey Gilbert, singer Jon Micah Sumrall, guitarist Nick DePartee, and guitarist James Mead. Photo courtesy of BEC Recordings. 

No one will ever accuse Kutless of being an innovative band. There's probably nothing on the band's new album, To Know That You're Alive, or any of their  other releases that wasn't already done 20-or-more years ago. You hear echoes of Bon Jovi or Whiteheart, if you're older, or, say, Skillet if you're younger. It's emotionally-charged arena, anthem rock. Everybody sing along.

So it would be easy to slag Kutless for not doing anything new. But what they do is pretty inspired, employs a classic rock structure to speak to modern audiences, and hey, this is Christian rock -- don't we need anthems?

Things get started right away on To Know with The Feeling, a "We come into your town, we help you party down," raver with a little spirituality thrown in. The title track is power rock tune that makes being a Christian sound like a James Bond movie or a horror flick the way it portrays confronting the darkness of the world. Call it histrionic or dramatic, it's a theme that runs through several songs, including The Rescue and most effectively in Promise You, a chronicle of overcoming abuse. Kutless also effectively writes  for worship audiences, where its Strong Tower album was directed, with tunes like Complete and You.

No, none of it is terribly original for Christian or mainstream rock. But the guys in the band have grown as focused songwriters, able to carry even the most dismissive listener through three verses, chorus and bridge; guitarists James Mead and Nick DePartee have developed their voices; and bassist Dave Luetkenhoelter and drummer Jeffrey Gilbert are a full-throttle rhythm section.

The new album makes you kind of sorry we missed Kutless when its Ichthus Festival set was rained out last month. And that may be the biggest sign the Oregonians are doing things right. They may not be making rock history, but they're making solid rock.

Stay tuned: Apparently another shot at seeing Kutless locally is coming soon. Check back a little later to find out where.

Antony & Cleo: Sexy, absurd tragedy

Longtime collaborators Walter Tunis, Adam Luckey and Joe Ferrell share a light moment during rehearsal at the University of Kentucky's Guignol Theatre for SummerFest's Antony and Cleopatra, which opens Wednesday in the Arboretum. Copyrighted LexGo photo by Rich Copley.

If the words “Shakespeare history play” don’t make you think funny and sexy, SummerFest has a production that aims to change your mind.

Director Joe Ferrell sees a Bonnie and Clyde type of humor and steamy sexiness in that whacky Mediterranean couple, Antony and Cleopatra.

But Ferrell says the cast he has is a key to bringing that out in his production for SummerFest, which opens Wednesday at the Arboretum on Alumni Drive.

“All of these folks have done major roles for years, and there are so many ages and types represented here,” Ferrell says, acknowledging the all-star cast seated around the lounge area outside the Guignol Theatre in the University of Kentucky Fine Arts Building.

That ensemble includes Sidney Shaw, who played Julius Caesar and King Lear for the Lexington Shakespeare Festival; Paul Carelli, who played Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing for LSF; Eric Johnson, whose leads have included one of the Three Musketeers and Henry Drummond in Inherit the Wind; Walter Tunis, whose many turns include Macbeth and Adam Luckey, who plays leading roles like postmen deliver mail.

“There’s a great deal of comfort here, and that gives you an ability to try different things and serve Joe’s vision of the play,” Shaw says. 

Tunis says that having a cast of high-caliber players, “illuminates some of the smaller roles,” and thereby illuminates the play. Ferrell cites Shaw’s role as Alexas as an example. In Shaw’s performance, he becomes a character who sees through a lot of Cleopatra’s facades.

“It’s an Alexas that I have not seen before,” Ferrell says.

One of the keys to bringing new colors to the characters is for the actors to make sure they are acting and not reciting.

“The language is so beautiful, you just want to stand there and proclaim it,” Shaw says. “But it has to be done with action and intent.”

Intent is a particular key with Antony, a character who essentially gives away a nation for one woman.
Antony and Cleopatra can be a long play, running as long as four hours in some productions. For SummeFest, where two-to-two-and-a-half hours is the target time, Ferrell has had to cut quite a bit.
“We decided that the focus of the audience is on the title characters,” Ferrell says. “So we stuck to telling that story.”

Therefore, Johnson and Ellie Clark, who play the title pair, have been encouraged to make their relationship very physical, driving home the point to the audience that they can’t keep their hands off each other, which sets the play’s events in motion.

That’s kind of obvious when you think about it. What may not be so apparent if you haven’t studied the script is a juxtaposition of absurdity and tragedy. Ferrell likens that to a scene in Bonnie and Clyde where a getaway driver struggles to park a car while the title couple engages in what becomes a bloody bank robbery.

In Antony and Cleopatra, he sees the same humor in the couple’s death scenes, where Antony’s ineptitude has him bleeding to death for quite a while and where a servant brings Cleopatra asps to do her in saying, “Enjoy the worm.”

Tunis observes, “There hasn’t been a night of rehearsal we haven’t cracked up.”

Terry Withers, who plays Maecenas, says, “The play doesn’t easily fit any category.”

But for them, this production is easily filed under rewarding and enjoyable, which is why they’re all more than happy to come fill even minor roles.

“We all know each other,” says Kim Dixon, who plays Iras. “We love acting together, and we love acting for Joe.”

Backsoon

Copious Notes is going to take a few days off to celebrate the Fourth of July, and I hope you do the same. See you, Sunday.

Hawk Nelson in Winchester July 5

Jason Dunn performs with Hawk Nelson at the Ichthus Festival last month. Copyrighted photo by Rich Copley | LexGo.

Click the play button to hear excerpts of our interview with Jason Dunn:

Hawk Nelson is my Friend might sound like a goofball title for an album, unless you’re on myspace, Facebook or one of the other social networking Internet sites out there.

If you are, you’ve probably snickered at a message saying someone you’ve known for life, “. . . is your friend.” Heck, it may even say, “Hawk Nelson is your friend,” which is fine with the band’s frontman, Jason Dunn.

“Today with myspace and Facebook, everyone is looking for friends and to see how many friends you can obtain,” the singer said backstage at last month’s Ichthus Festival. “The whole friendship theme is something we’ve always believed in, since day one. It’s never been about putting us on a pedestal above our audience. It’s all about being on the same level.”

Dunn said that level is under God, and looking to God for hope.

“Kids are looking for friends,” Dunn said. “Jesus was a friend to sinners . . . he was the greatest friend of all.”

Using the social networking phrase as an album title is also a good reminder to the band, Dunn says, not to view themselves as superior to their audience, even though, “We have a cool job. Some kids regard that a stardom, or whatever. But we have sweet jobs, and we feel very blessed to be able to do this.”

Hawk Nelson, which swings back through Central Kentucky to play George Rogers Clark High School in Winchester Saturday night, has been doing that job for three albums now and finds itself settling into a career as recording and touring artists.

“It feels like a career now,” Dunn says. “This is what I do for a living, and it feels weird to say that, because this is what I dreamed of doing since I was a kid.”

Growing up in Canada, Dunn says he didn’t necessarily tune his ear to Christian rock.

“We grew up listening to bands like Blink 182 and Good Charlotte,” Dunn says. “Christianity wasn’t a genre of music in Canada. That’s just what we believed in, we believed in God, and we played clubs, and that’s just how we did it.

“But here in the U.S., Christianity is like its own genre of music, and I’m still getting used to that. We all believe in Jesus, and that reflects in our lyrics, but our music sounds more like what we grew up listening to.”

BlondeTV 5: That's TRIPLE threat

Vocal coach Seth Rudetsky breaks down this week's episode.

Last week on Leagally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods, we saw Emma, the competitor who came to the competition with Reese Witherspoon looks and Broadway in her veins, finally rally and live up to her promise.

This week, we saw her go home.

It was a somewhat stunning turn of fortune because, despite battling bronchitis, she seemed to turn in a good dance audition with the lightning fast "shake your junk" sequence from Positive.

But three other competitors turned in great auditions, and this week really emphasized the point that all three elements of the triple threat are essential to make it on Broadway. That's why we had two of the most talented actors and singers, Emma and Autumn, standing in the casting office: They were not that great on their toes -- or in four-inch stiletto heels, as the case was.

Natalie, Bailey and Lauren were the standouts with Rhiannon doing just well enough to avoid a private audience with the judges.

In the course of the show, Emma allowed that she had not taken a dance class in five years, and that is probably the key to why she didn't make the final five. For all her self-awareness, for her maturity and for her savvy, it's kind of strange that she did not prepare better prior to the competition for the dance auditions that were sure to come.

So yes, in her bitter closing comments, Emma is right: Bailey, 20; Lauren, 19; and Rhiannon, 19, are "children," under-aged for the role. But they and 24-year-old Natalie kicked her butt on the dance floor. And yes, she was sick. But we're at a juncture in this competition where one bad day alone will not kill you if the judges think you have a shot. So sending home Emma, who looked like a front runner out of the gate, was a statement that she was not working for them. And while it is understandable that she's frustrated, she bears a great deal of responsibility for her early departure because she neglected one of the three pillars of the triple threat.

Program notes: That "vote for the worst" challenge was a provocative little device that went nowhere. If you didn't see it, the competitors were told late night, in the midst of prepping for their demanding audition, to pick the worst actor, singer, dancer, etc. Autumn took charge, turning it into a best list, but we never heard about it again. Reality TV.

A fun note of Broadway reality was that the Legally Blonde set is full of stairs and tracks for set pieces that, "eat stiletto heels," according associate choreographer Denis Jones. We also learned that Laura Bell Bundy dances in higher heels than the four-inch "Pepto-Bismol" numbers the competitors wore last night.

rctalk: Jon Foreman's 'Spring' and 'Summer'

Switchfoot frontman Jon Foreman has just completed a series of four seasonal EPs.

Jon Foreman | Spring and Summer EPs

The Fourth of July week seems to be an appropriate time to to praise a great American songwriter. With his Spring and Summer EPs, Jon Foreman has cemented himself as just that. We should add that the Swithfoot frontman is a brave songwriter, as some of the lyrics on these recordings will land him in Dutch with some of the Christian music community that has made him a star, and an exquisite craftsman.

Like on the first two EPs, Fall and Winter, Foreman is freed from any constraints or obligations the band format holds, and he uses that space to perfectly augment songs with what they need. I do not know if Foreman recorded these six-song sets sequentially, but the last two -- which have just been released on one CD,  same as the first pair -- show growth over the intitial efforts.

The closest thing to Switchfoot is Summer's Resurrect Me, which sounds like Switchfoot gone to seed, in a good way -- a great little cacophony of clangy steely guitars over a steady4-4 beat. Seriously, it could slip into a Switchfoot set with no problem.

But there are numerous songs that couldn't, their string and wind accompaniments perfectly accenting the songs, but also making them distinctively Foreman's.

Foreman is also a much more blunt songwriter on his own. The rap on Switchfoot's songs have often been that they are brilliant, but so couched in metaphor and cleverness that the listener could easily miss the point -- and this is a point of concern to some who question Switchfoot's commitment to Christianity.

There is no missing the point here. Some faith-community listeners may wish Foreman was murkier when they hear Instead of a Show, a tune as incendiary as anything Derek Webb has written. In the song, Foreman lambastes the church for putting on shows while ignoring the hurting world around it.

Away with your noisy worship
Away with your noisy hymns
I stop up my ears when you're singing 'em
I hate all your show
Instead, let there be a flood of justice

Some will be angry with  Foreman for saying it. Some will say it needed to be said. Either way, Foreman grows as a challenging songwriter. But lest anyone use Show to question Foreman's faith, these EPs have some of his most spiritual writing to date, such as Spring's Your Love is Strong and Summer's House of God, Forever, an interpretation of Psalm 23 that ranks with 24 as one of the loveliest things Foreman has written.

As far as we know, things are good in the Switchfoot camp. They released a track for the Prince Caspian soundtrack last month, and have a tour in the offing with Third Day and Jars of Clay. But this solo voice Foreman has started using is quite compelling. Let's hear more.

Concert alert: Hawk Nelson is in Winchester at 6 p.m. July 5. We'll have more on Hawk later this week, but click here to buy tickets.

Elaborating on '80s movies

Several of the contributors to our celebrity lists of '80s classics commented on their choices. While the Gutenberg edition of the paper has its space limitations, we're in the blogosphere, baby, where word counts are not an object. So, here are the lists from some of our pickers with a little elaboration. Yes, it goes a while, but let's get you started on '80s movies and see if you're overcome with brevity. After Chuck, we have Anne Deck, Brad Riddell and a list from Top Gun scribe Jack Epps, Jr., whose comments are featured in our '80s movies story.

Charles Edward Pogue, screenwriter
The Georgetown resident’s screenplays include 1980s hits Psycho III, D.O.A. and The Fly.

1. Those Lips, Those Eyes -- The story of my life...I'm the starry-eyed kid (Thomas Hulce) and the jaded,cynical pro (Frank  Langella). A story about the seduction of theatre.  I watch this movie whenever I get depressed about the drama game to remind myself why I got in it.

 

2. Barbarosa -- Best western of the 80's. Willie Nelson & Gary Busey. Western legend transcends to western myth.

 

3. Excalibur -- King Arthur's story will always a dying fall. John Boorman's depiction is the best yet.

 

4. Flesh+Blood -- Paul Verhoeven's quirky epic about the Middle Ages slamming into the Renaissance.

 

5. Body Heat -- Kasdan's brings back Film Noir and gives us Kathleen Turner.

 

6. My Favorite Year -- Peter O'Toole ... another great performance; another missed Oscar. (Rich comments: Hard to compete with Gandhi.)

 

7. Bull Durham -- For my money, not a better baseball movie.

 

8. Blood Simple - just edges out Raising Arizona; but the Coen Bros. had to be on the list.

 

9. Crimes of Passion -- Enfant terrible Ken Russell at his mind-boggling loopiest with Tony Perkins and Kathleen Turner along for the outlandish ride.

 

10. The Fly -- A purely selfish choice, I know, but it would probably be on there anyway ... even if I hadn't co-written the screenplay with David Cronenberg.

 

A few near-misses: The Dead, The Dresser, Matewan, Blue Velvet and Airplane.

Movies of the 1980s

Christopher Lloyd, Michael J. Fox and the DeLorean in Back to the Future, which apparently has become a classic. Below: Tom Cruise in Top Gun, which reflected a positive attitude toward the military in the 1980s.

Tomorrow: Some Kentuckians with film and/or 80s connections weigh in on their 80s favorites.

It’s fun to have a chance to see a favorite film from our teens at The Kentucky ­Theatre this week, but it’s also a little jarring for us thirty- and forty-somethings to see our high school years now labeled as “classic.”
But those are the terms under which The Kentucky is showing Back to the Future on Wednesday as part of its Summer Classics series.

Is it really possible that this 23-year-old Michael J. Fox gem has attained a status similar to that of Gone With the Wind and Casablanca?

Shouldn’t we reach early retirement age, at least, ­before our youth is packed away in this kind of nostalgic box?

Nah.

“Twenty years is plenty of time to look at something and determine whether it has stood the test of time, still holds up and has ­resonance today,” says Jack Epps Jr., chair of the ­Writing for Screen and Television program at the University of Southern California and writer of 1980s hits ­including Top Gun (1986) and The Secret of My Success (1987).

Montana Miller, assistant professor of popular culture at Bowling Green State ­University in Ohio, says that VH1’s I Love the ’80s and ’90s nostalgia series have morphed into I Love the New ­Millennium.

“They’re reminiscing about the decade before it’s even over,” says Miller, whose specialty is youth culture. “As one colleague commented, ‘There’s no nostalgia like new nostalgia.’ There are now no rules on what can be ­considered classic.”

So, maybe The Kentucky Theatre’s next move should be to book the 2004 “classic” Spider-Man 2.

But we’re talking ’80s, and as much as it pains my Class of ’86 heart to say it, Epps and Miller are right. Enough time has passed to step back and look at the movies of the 1980s, what they said and what stood up.

Shakespeare at Equus Run slide show

For the second consecutive year, Actors Guild of Lexington is presenting Shakespeare at Equus Run Vineyards. We went out June 21, the first night of summer, to soak up some of the flavor of the event. Click play to watch our slide show. There are two performances left this weekend.

For a larger version of this slide show, visit hlphoto.com.

EW's New classics: Up for debate (of course)

John Travolta in Pulp Fiction. Is it really the No. 1 classic movie of the lat 25 years?

Last weekend, the editors of Entertainment Weekly dropped their annual summer double issue and gave  us a good two weeks of debating material.

Is Pulp Fiction really the best film of the last 25 years?

Does Amy Winehouse's year-old debut already deserve Top 10 classic status?

Public Enemy doesn't make the Top 50?

Yes, it's another set of lists. We say that with no derision, because hey, we're going to give you some lists on Sunday. Lists are fun, because they are always a matter of opinion, which means most everyone who reads one will have some modicum of disagreement with it.

EW's new lists are pretty ambitious: The New Classics is 1,000 of the best movies, TV shows, albums, books and other stuff over the past 25 years. My favorite list was actually the final one: Tech, where they named the, "top 25 innovations that changed entertainment."

Even there though, I'd argue against ranking the iPod at No. 4, below the DVD player, Napster and TiVo. Yes, the DVD is a cool advance in home video, but it still was just another method of delivering the videos in some tangible form. The iPod introduced the concept of owning a whole album without leaving your home, or even just picking and choosing the songs you want; singles, but you choose what's a single. It's the most radical change in the distribution of recorded music since the beginning of recorded music. How do you top that?

See, arguing it is almost inescapable.

Pulp Fiction, for me, was a good place to start. I've always considered it a bit overrated, over romanticized. Good movie, snappy dialog and engaging story structure, but not quite all that.

But if you want to argue towering influence, then its No. 1 seems a bit more legit. How many Pulp wannabes have we seen since 1994? Interestingly, Forrest Gump, the movie that beat Pulp Fiction for the Oscar for best picture, isn't even on EW's Top 100. (It's worth noting that EW has always been in love with Pulp.)

There are some nice picks on the movie list, such as Blue Velvet at No. 4, acknowledging the off-kilter brilliance of David Lynch, and giving Merchant Ivory's A Room with a View a nod at No. 24. The Helena Bonham Carter starmaker ushered in the chick-flick-as-literary-costume-drama era we're still in today.

 The music list had several nice visionary choices, such as Madonna's self-titled 1983 album at No. 5, OutKast's Stankonia at No. 12, and R.E.M.'s Life's Rich Pageant at No. 32. All were great albums, and all set the stage for the artists' subsequent chart toppers -- Like a Virgin, Speakerboxx/The Love Below and Document, respectively. But then, somehow, Nirvana's Nevermind is left off in favor of MTV Unplugged. ?!

See, debating is sooooo easy. And fun.

I will also give EW props for trying to limit the number of entries from any one artist to one or two. I seem to remember years ago when Rolling Stone dropped a list of the best rock albums ever, and half the Top 10 was by The Beatles. But then, that list also gave this young rock fan a lot of listening to go do.

And this list from Entertainment Weekly seems to come at a perfect time, right before the laziest days of summer. I'd write more, but I've got some watching and listening to do.

P.S.: A very cool thing about the Top 50 stage list is that four of the shows -- Angels in America (No. 1), Elaine Stritch at Liberty (17), Bring in 'Da Noise, Bring in 'Da Funk (24) and Topdog/Underdog (49) were all directed by Frankfort's own George C. Wolf. People, we don't revere this guy enough.

Summer classic: 'The Wizard of Oz'

Idina Menzel as Elphaba and Kristen Chenoweth as Glinda perform Defying Gravity, the green witch's anthem from Wicked, at the 2004 Tony Awards.

For 64 years, we knew how to take The Wizard of Oz's Wicked Witch of the West: She was the green-skinned meanie who wanted to kill sweet Dorothy, and her little dog, too. She commanded the  Flying Monkeys and an iconic cackle. And she looked remarkably like mean old Elmira Gulch, who tried to take little Toto away from Dorothy, before the Kansas girl rode her tornado to Oz.

We hated the Wicked Witch of the West, and a remarkable performance by Margaret Hamilton only enhanced our loathing (ding).

What was that -- "loa-thing, pure and un-adulterated loa-thing."

It's that contempt anthem from Wicked, the hit Broadway musical that turned the whole Wizard of Oz story on its head.

Was the green witch actually wicked? Or was she merely suppressed by a conformist regime led by the Wizard himself? Were she and Glinda actually good friends whose bond was strained by the "good" witch's inability to break away from the establishment? Were they in fact in cahoots to stage the Wizard's banishment from Oz so Glinda could take over and Elphaba could escape with her true love, Fiyero, aka The Scarecrow?

Kinda casts a whole new light on the whole "Wicked" witch deal, eh?

Well, whether you adhere to the original story in L. Frank Baum's novel or the new take, based on Gregory Maguire's 1996 novel, there's no denying the 1939 film of The Wizard of Oz is a bona fide classic and well-worth seeing on a big screen. The transformation from black-and-white Kansas to color Oz is particularly stunning shown floor to ceiling, as it will be at 1:30 and 7:15 p.m. Wednesday at the Kentucky Theatre. The Wizard is this week's entry in the Kentucky's Summer Classics series. Admission is $3.

BlondeTV 4: Serious

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Emma's rendition of Serious with Richard Blake, who plays Warner in Legally Blonde -- The Musical.

When Legally Blonde The Musical -- The Search for Elle Woods (aka, the most insanely long reality show title ever) began, Emma and Cassie S. were the two competitors that seemed to have the deepest convictions that they belonged in the race to succeed Laura Bell Bundy.

Emma claimed a Broadway bloodline of parents who met in the original Grease and went on to Broadway careers. Cassie's sense of entitlement came from . . . um . . .

Well, tonight, we found out why one was right and one was, well, delusional.

Emma was not having a good week. An advancing case of bronchitis gave her a horrid cough and was draining her energy. By the time she got to the vocal rehearsal, she couldn't get through a song without hacking. But, when Seth Rudestsky advised her to see a doctor, she'd already made the appointment. She got seen -- presumably got a prescription of some sorts, and was able to have the comeback audition of the week. Rhiannon was the judges' darling, but Emma, whose campaign had been foundering, was on with her timing and even her singing, all of which impressed the judges, who were aware of her condition.

Cassie S., on the other hand, had another clunky audition, but when she was put in the bottom three, again, she told the confessional camera, "This is ridiculous. I busted my ass the entire night. Come on, give me credit. I've never even seen the material before. Doesn't that say something for me."

Cassie, no one had seen the material, and at least four of your competitors gave auditions the judges loved. Frankly, I think they dragged Autumn into the casting office to scare her, sort of like they did with Emma last week. Maybe Autumn will respond similarly.

Anyway, in the casting office, when the judges suggested Cassie could be a swing or understudy, she protested she wanted to be the star. Well, she's not going to be on Legally Blonde, because the judges sent Cassie and her little 19-going-on-12 attitude packing.

Tonight actually had a twin killing -- the math of a July 21 finale told you this had to happen, sometime -- with Celina also being eliminated.

"Maybe Elle Woods isn't my part," she said, before entering the casting office.

Ah, self awareness. How refreshing.

Appreciation: George Carlin

George Carlin performs in 2007 at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen, Colo. Copyrighted Associated Press photo by E. Pablo Kosmicki.

George Carlin's legacy will be as a counter-culture figure who pushed boundaries along with folks like Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, ushering in an era of topical humor that now finds a home in living rooms across the country with works like The Daily Show.

His essence though, was in tamer skits such as the comparison of football and baseball (the following from Baseball Almanac):

In football the object is for the quarterback, also known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his receivers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line.

In baseball the object is to go home!

Or, my personal favorites was A Place for My Stuff, where he observed that your stuff is stuff and other people's stuff is crap (sometimes, he used a different word).

That was Carlin's gift. He was an observer. Jerry Seinfeld was as much a inheritor of of his mantle as Jon Stewart or Bill Maher. Observation is one of the most basic elements of comedy. Carlin observed his life. He observed the world. He observed a lot of crap. And he spun all of that observation into routines that were side-splittingly funny, and he didn't worry a whole lot about who he offended along the way.

Carlin crossed the line on purpose.

Maybe most to his credit, he never stopped doing that. Yes, he mellowed with age. His Thomas the Tank Engine character was his loveliest creation. I remember watching it with one of my children and thinking, as many parents probably did, "I'm watching the guy who did the seven words you can't say on television on a kids show."

But he never took his eye off our world, and boiled it down into routines that would crack you up, make you think, maybe even offend you.

Carlin not only made us laugh, he made us observers, and he changed his art form. That's a legacy few people who pick up a microphone to tell jokes can claim.

Read: The New York Times thorough obituary of George Carlin.

rcTalk: Superchick's 'Rock What You Got,' Chapman update

Superchick are (L-R) Max Hsu, Brandon Estelle, Tricia Brock,  Dave Ghazarian, Melissa Brock and Matt Dally. Photo courtesy of inpop records.

Superchick | Rock What You Got

Superchick breaks the silence -- as they often do -- of a quiet couple of months for new releases in the Christian rock market with their fourth studio album, Rock What You Got.

If you've read my reviews before, you know I kind of revere album four as a signpost in the career of a band, where it should be settling into a professional act and revealing a mature voice after having made an initial splash and then having to crank out follow-ups in the midst of hardscrabble touring. It's usually the album that indicates where the act is going to go.

Rock What You Got has some mixed messages.

On the one hand, Superchick, fronted by Hoosier sisters Tricia and Melissa Brock, has definitely refined its sound. In a genre where a lot of sound-alike bands leave you scratching your head and saying, 'Who's that?' when you listen to the radio, the Brocks' vocals over the scrappy distortion of guitarists Dave Ghazarian and Melissa and buoyant, loopy rhythms of their backers is hard to mistake. But under producer, songwriter and keyboardist Max Hsu, that sound has not stagnated. Remaining distinctive, he has slipped in an orchestrated undercurrent that can be as simple as Breathe or grand as Stand in the Rain. And the band as a whole is tight and intriguing. Bassist Matt Dally had a great moment in Pure on the last album, Beauty from Pain, and everyone has moments such as that here.

But in content, Rock sometimes sounds stagnant. The title track, for instance, while catchy, still feels like a retread of Beauty from Pain's Anthem, or several other empowerment sing-alongs in the 'chick catalog. Not that we don't like the anthems, such as Hey Hey, which wins with its tempo and grit. There are several pain ballads that also sound repetitive, particularly Hold and Breathe in the middle of the album. Superchick mines a lot of despair and defiance for its material, but sometimes seems to have tunnel vision.

This is a band that definitely has identified a group it wants to speak to: teens, particularly girls feeling like outcasts and struggling with peer pressure. That's a worthy mission, but heading into album five, hopefully the group will explore a broader range of topics to address. Superchick has a lot going for it. It would be a shame to see the band founder because it's saying the same things over and over again.

Back on the road: Steven Curtis Chapman is set to resume touring next month, with 15 dates scheduled into September, including a string of August baseball game dates with the Atlanta Braves, Colorado Rockies and Houston Astros. Chapman and his family suffered a tragedy last month when their 5-year-old adopted daughter Maria was killed in an accident at their home outside Nashville. Chapman has canceled all of his international dates.

New Tomlin: You may already be hearing Jesus Messiah, Chris Tomlin's new single, on radio, considering its being touted as the most-added multi-format song in Christian radio history. We now have a release date and title for the whole album: Hello Love drops on Sept. 2, and will include several tracks we heard on the latest Passion album, God of This City, including God of This City and Sing, Sing, Sing.

Live Casting Crowns: If you loved Casting Crowns' recent performances at Rupp Arena or Ichthus, you can take the experience home with The Altar and the Door Live CD and DVD, Aug. 19.

Edmund Desiato

Edmund Desiato in a photo circa 1960. Below: Desiato and Adam Luckey in this year's production of Arcadia at Actors Guild of Lexington. Herald-Leader photo by Charles Bertram. Bottom: Desiato and an unidentified actor in Luv at the Nashville Barn Dinner Theatre in the late 1960s. More photos are on the continuation of this post.

It is one thing to read about Edmund Desiato, but a whole other thing to hear him talk about his career and upcoming production of Barrymore. Click the player below to hear an 8-minute excerpt from our interview with him:

Edmund Desiato will be the first person to tell you he’s no John Barrymore.

“I’m not an idiot,” Desiato says in a ­gravelly voice deepened by cigarettes and with a lingering New York accent. “There was only one John Barrymore.

“I’m doing what Christopher Plummer did,” Desiato says, referring to the actor who originally played the acting legend in William Luce’s play Barrymore. “Plummer played himself, with the characteristics of John Barrymore. That’s the way I am going to play it.”

Desiato is performing in Balagula ­Theatre’s production of Barrymore for three nights this week at Natasha’s Bistro. It’s a play that the well-traveled actor says he ­always has wanted to do. And while Desiato’s career does not have the national, historic status of Barrymore’s, it is one of the more colorful and diverse ones on the Lexington stage.

It started when Desiato, now 71, entered college in New York, and attempts to study classical guitar and violin didn’t work out.

“I was going to Fredonia State Teachers College in New York State,” Desiato says. “I got involved in a theater group because my faculty adviser was Jo Oatfield, who once upon a time had been an actor on the West End of London and in New York in the ’20s and ’30s. And she knew Fran Fuller, who was the director of the American Academy in New York.

“So she called me into her office one day and said, ‘Mr. Desiato, you did very well in the play’ — I played Priam in Tiger at the Gates, and she thought that was quite a feat for a young man — ‘and you’re doing rather well in English and in history. However, there are other subjects that you have to master when you are in college, and you’re not mastering them. So, I’ve called your father, and I’ve called Ms. Fuller, and you’re going to audition at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.”

With that decree, Desiato auditioned, and he was accepted.

“My father drives me in for the first day of classes for the new season, drops me off at the corner of 52nd and Broadway, reaches into his pocket, gives me a $100 bill and says, ‘You want to be an actor? Act.’”

And he did.

Tim Russert

Tim Russert doing what he did best, interviewing the most powerful figures in American politics. Photo of Russert and President George W. Bush by White House photographer Eric Draper | AP. Below: Russert by Kathy Willens | AP.

I read that Tim Russert died while I was in the midst of covering a severe thunderstorm passing over the Ichthus Festival last Friday, so there was only a minute to take in the shock and the loss before getting back to work.

Over the last week, there's been plenty of time to absorb my own feelings and those of many others. The consensus, which I wholeheartedly agree with, is that we have lost a smart, objective and incisive voice in political journalism. He was instructive and challenging in an era where both pundits and viewers seem more and more inclined to scurry to their ideological corners.

 As a self-proclaimed political junkie, I'll miss Russert, and it's a particularly cruel twist of fate to us and him that we lose him in the midst of the most historic Presidential election in most of our lifetimes.

But Russert's passing has also served as a wake-up call to me, and I would guess maybe others.

It's a call I made to my doctor.

Russert suffered from heart disease. No, this isn't the story of a middle-aged, overweight workaholic that didn't take care of himself. By most accounts, including NBC News medical editor Nancy Snyderman on the Today show, he was aware of what ailed him and he was treated for it, exercised and watched what he ate.

But either something was missed, or something was going to happen no matter what.

"This is a very sad statement that underscores the humbleness and the humility of medicine," Snyderman said on Today, "that as much as we want to do right by every patient, there are some things that slip by us, and perhaps this is the reminder to all of us that there's a higher order."

The saddest thing in Russert's passing is not the loss to politics or journalism. It's the loss to a family that by all accounts had a great husband, father and son. Russert had a life of professional accomplishment and family harmony so many of us aspire to, and we want those lives to be complete.

My father died of a heart attack when I was 12, and since then I have missed him more than anyone knows. I missed him at graduations, seeing me get my first job, my wedding, the births of my children, and I have simply missed his presence, love and counsel, though God has blessed me with a great father in-law and brother in-law.

This is not a family history I want to repeat, and reviewing the life of Russert, I know there are things he wanted to see and experience with his family. You think about the future when a little pain swells in your chest or you have a few minutes where a deep breath is out of your reach.

Maybe sometimes we are over reliant on celebrity tragedies as reminders to take care of ourselves when we know, for instance, millions of people die from heart disease every year, and we know what's going on inside ourselves.

But better that than no wake up call. So I am going to talk to my doctor about a few things maybe I have been ignoring too long. There will probably be others that will do the same, taking cues from Russert's passing. ABC News reports doctors are already seeing a Russert effect.

It's the little something we can gain from this tragic loss.