Red Hot Chili Peppers - Off the Map (2001) Review

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(More customer reviews)I wasn't sure what to expect from a RHCP's live performance with John Frusciante back in the lineup. By far my favorite guitar player they've had, I didn't know if he could still play after his drug abuse problems in the years away from the band. Their "Californication" did little to alleviate those fears, his playing and soloing being so sparse and sort of un-practiced sounding. Don't get me wrong. "Californication" is a great album but it's much different from the chops galore "Blood Sugar Sex Magic". (And I don't mean that as a slam-BSSM is a masterwork in no small part due to Frusciante's intricate, interweaving lines throughout).
"Off the Map" put all my doubts to bed. Frusciante plays his [behind] off. Just check out "If You Have to Ask". Shredding, but he's so much more than than just a shredder. Something magical happens when his Strat, through a Wah, hits a Marshall. It's the tone for sure and then his note selection and use of space that really sets him apart from "shredders". I had read recently in a guitar magazine interview that he's trying to change his style, henceforth the new, sparse approach he's used on the last two albums. It's pretty funny to watch actually. When they play the new songs his playing shifts dramatically to the new style he's developing.
And don't let me forget Chad Smith and Flea. They are powerhouses here. Flea's gone from slapmaster (oh, he can still slap!) to improvisor and it suits him well. Chad is like a rock holding John and Flea's improvisations together.
This is a fun and inspiring dvd. The only reason I don't give it a 5 star review is because it does falter here and there. But that's what you get when your live show isn't prerecorded canned [stuff] and you take musical risks. That where the fun happens with these guys.

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Off the Map is the first concert home video since 1991 from one of rock's greatest live experiences, the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Off the Map is also the band's first concert DVD--the only way to witness the funk-funk-rockmetal-rap musical orgy of one of today's most popular bands. Songs: Around The World, Give It Away, Usually Just a T-Shirt #3, Scar Tissue, Suck My Kiss, If You Have to Ask, Subterranean Homesick Blues, Otherside, Blackeyed Blonde, Pea, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Easily, What Is Soul?, Fire, Californication, Right On Time, Under The Bridge, Me And My Friends.

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Slings & Arrows - Season 1 (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)...entertaining. I'm not going to rattle on about how wonderful this series is -- so unlike anything on dreck-laden US television. Instead, I'll just say that I agree with all the praise piled on "Slings & Arrows" by others and note it is a special source of fun for anyone with backstage experience. And I'll add the lyrics of "Call the Understudy," the song sung by Cyril and Frank over the closing titles to each episode --
Call the understudy
I can't go on tonight
I'm drinking with my buddy
I'm getting good and tight
Before they raise the curtain I'll be higher than a kite
So call the understudy
I can't go on tonight

Tell the cast and crew to break a leg (break a leg!)
Roll me out another bloody keg (bloody keg!)
I need to ease the pain that life can bring
And liquor is what will hit the spot
The play is not the thing

So call the understudy
I think it's only right
My diction will be muddy
I'll never find my light
Before the intermission I'll be pissin' on a sprite
So call the understudy
I can't go on (he can't go on!)
I won't go on (he shan't go on!)
I can't go on tonight (damn right!)
If you want to laugh -- and, finally, to be moved once again by "Hamlet" -- scoop this up and settle down for a treat.

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Showered with awards and critical acclaim, this darkly comic Canadian series follows the fortunes of a dysfunctional Shakespearean theatre troupe, exposing the high drama, scorching battles, and artistic miracles that happen behind the scenes. Paul Gross (Due South) stars as washed-up actor Geoffrey Tennant, who returns to the New Burbage Theatre-the site of his acting triumph and his career-ending meltdown-to assume the artistic directorship after the sudden death of his mentor, Oliver Welles. Believing that theatre is meant to provoke not anesthetize, Geoffrey takes on the suits who want to turn the festival into a theme park, a director who runs amuck with Hamlet, and his own demons, including Oliver-who returns to haunt him. Also starring Rachel McAdams (Wedding Crashers, The Notebook), Stephen Ouimette (Mentors), and Mark McKinney (Kids in the Hall).

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Slings & Arrows - Season 3 (2006) Review

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(More customer reviews)Warning: Spoilers!
Season Three was the final act in one of the remarkable small format series in the history of television. The Canadian series is unlike anything that could ever have been produced in the United States. American TV is focused on long-running series that can be taken into syndication. This doesn't mean that some great television doesn't result, but it does mean that smaller series such as SLINGS AND ARROWS, with its three six-episode seasons, has no place. This is a tragedy on a number of levels, not least because some series are simply better served by shorter formats.
Season Three of the series was far and away the most controversial of the three. Many fans of the first two seasons found the collapse of all the successes of the first two seasons to be off putting. They liked the way that HAMLET in Season One was an unexpected success while the daring MACBETH of Season Two became not only a festival success but made its way to Broadway. The final season was, however, a far more subdued and somber affair. Like the first two seasons, it focused on a central play in the Shakespearean corpus: KING LEAR. And like the first two seasons there is a difficulty with the lead actor. In this case, however, the actor is dying.
I personally think the final season is a tremendous artistic success. And much of the reason for that is the amazing performance by William Hutt as Charles Kingman, the dying Lear. Hutt has, very much like Ellen in the series, spent very little time in television and film. He is in fact one of the most distinguished Shakespearean actors of his day. Some great stage actors' transition to the silver screen as they age, finding the less grueling film schedule's physical demands easier to meet. But Hutt continued onstage well into his eighties. This season of the show would not have worked with a lesser actor. There are moments in the season when Hutt's Kingman is performing LEAR that you simply stop breathing his performance is so extraordinary. You become acutely aware that you are seeing someone do something that the vast majority of actors, even the majority of very good actors, simply cannot do. Though in his mid-eighties one is struck by the sheer power in his voice. Getting Hutt to play this role pretty much guaranteed the success of the season.
Another delight in Season Three was seeing Sarah Polley appear in a production with her father. She plays the play's Cordelia, while her father was in all three seasons as Frank, the hard-of-hearing half of the elderly male couple. I've always respected Polley for her political activism and her rejection of Hollywood stardom (among other moves, she turned down the role in ALMOST FAMOUS that later made a star of Kate Hudson). So it was a rare treat to see her in this.
As mentioned, many fans of the show didn't care for this season. Many wanted in outline a repetition of the first two seasons, where success is snatched out of the jaws of failure. Things this season simply do not go very well. This is not to say that the series ends unhappily, but it does end by rejecting conformity to a formula. I've little patience for television viewers who have no tolerance for risk or change. The best television is never safe television. The best shows I've seen on television, whether THE SOPRANOS or BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER or SIX FEET UNDER or BATTLESTAR GALACTICA or THE WIRE are essentially risk-taking shows. In each of these shows not all the fans were willing to follow where the writers were taking them. These fans wanted the shows to stay safe. But the best shows always a bit of the sense of a tightrope walker working without a net. SLINGS AND ARROWS did precisely this in Season Three. And I just say: good for them!
And what can you say about Paul Gross. Before this series I mainly knew him for his role as a Mountie who had been reassigned to Chicago in the series DUE SOUTH. His Geoffrey Tennant is one of the finest characters I've seen on television in several seasons. Though the series has ended, it is, I believe, technically qualified for Emmy nominations this next round. If there were justice Gross would receive an nomination for Best Actor. He won't. The Emmys ignore shows on all but the Big Four and HBO, which means that shows like this one and BATTLESTAR GALACTICA will be ignored, and inexplicably even the HBO drama THE WIRE. (The three shows I've seen television critics consistently praise more than any others are THE WIRE, BATTLESTAR, and FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS, but I don't expect all three--except for the special effects, which BATTLESTAR will sweep--to get any nominations, those the three shows should dominate the Best Drama, acting, and writing categories.) And having only six episodes hurts further. But Gross's Tennant is eccentric, brilliant, human, funny, and magnificently flawed. Yet Gross manages to endow him with greatness as well.
The series ended after only eighteen episodes. Not even quite a full season of a broadcast network series in the United States. But there was no filler, so it felt like it had more content than most regular series. And it ended like any good show is supposed to: it left us wanting more. With eighteen episodes it has no hope for syndication. But as long as the DVDs stay in print I believe that this show will have a continually expanding audience as one person watches it and then tells his friends about it. And it will be a steady rental on Netflix even if Blockbuster fails to stock it on its shelves (yeah, I know Blockbuster has a rental service as well, but after all the gouging they did with all those late fees, why should I ever give Blockbuster another penny?)
This is a truly great series. I am a life long movie buff who firmly believes that in the past decades television has surpassed the movies as the thinking person's visual medium of choice. And this is one of the series that I would point at to prove my point.

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"Pitch-perfect drama and comedy" -- San Francisco Chronicle "Sweet, smart and seriously addictive" -- Philadelphia Inquirer "The most fully satisfying slice of entertainment in ages" -- Newsday As seen on the Sundance Channel In its third season, this universally acclaimed series continues to mine dramatic and comic gold from the trials and tribulations of a dysfunctional Canadian theatre troupe, both on- and offstage. Struggling with the unfamiliar burdens of success, the New Burbage theatre festival mounts two ambitious productions: King Lear, Shakespeare’s epic tragedy, and East Hastings, a debut musical about a heroin-addicted hooker with a heart of gold. Emotionally fragile artistic director Geoffrey Tennant (Paul Gross) coaxes legendary actor Charles Kingman out of semi-retirement to play Lear. But with plenty of personal baggage, Kingman doesn’t so much play the part as live it. Meanwhile, the festival’s resident bean-counter (Mark McKinney) joins forces with the musical’s flamboyant director (Don McKellar) to create the unlikeliest hit in theatre history. Special guest stars include award-winning actor William Hutt of Canada’s Stratford Festival and indie-film sensation Sarah Polley (My Life Without Me, The Sweet Hereafter). DVD SPECIAL FEATURES INCLUDE interviews with Paul Gross and Susan Coyne; extended scenes of King Lear; bloopers; deleted and extra scenes; trailer; production notes; photo gallery, song lyrics, and cast filmographies. Contains strong coarse language

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Slings & Arrows - Season 2 (2005) Review

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(More customer reviews)If anyone had told me a year ago that my favorite program on television would be a Canadian import about a Shakespearean theater troupe, I would have had my doubts. But Season 1 of "Slings and Arrows" beguiled me. So droll and sophisticated, but with moments of sheer slapstick, I was absolutely enchanted. The writing was so smart, so funny, the performances spot on--including Paul Gross and Rachel McAdams (two of the more familiar actors for American audiences). It ended in six episodes and I wistfully said good-bye to a near brilliant show. I had no idea there was more to come.
So I was delighted when I heard Season 2 was on it's way. But I was also doubtful. Could they really mine the same material and come up with another winner? To my mind, they did that and even more. I enjoyed it every bit as much.
This season there was less back story, so it dealt more specifically about the inner workings of actually staging a couple of shows. The misadventures of producing the cursed "MacBeth" is definitely the highpoint. It might have been the funniest thing on TV last season, seriously. Add subplots about theater ingenues in "Romeo and Juliet" (McAdams says farewell in episode 1, so there's a new ingenue), a romance found/lost/found, and plenty of wit--and you have a delight. One subplot about an experimental advertising campaign to lure new traffic to the theater festival is perfection. As someone who has been a season subscriber in the LA theater scene for over ten years, this was particularly hysterical to me--how much truth there was.
But, trust me, you don't have to be a theater goer or a Shakespeare enthusiast to enjoy this program. But you do have to enjoy smart, sophisticated entertainment with top notch performances. I have shown this series to a couple of friends who would NEVER have sampled it on their own. They were surprised how identifiable it was and how funny!!!
Watch this--and if you haven't seen Season 1, what's stopping you? KGHarris, 9/06.

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"Absolutely addictive" -The New York Times "One of television’s best" -San Francisco Chronicle "Struts and frets . . . delightfully" -Time In its second season, the smash hit Canadian comedy about a struggling Shakespearean theatre troupe explores the conflicts of middle age and rebranding: Am I who I want to be-or not to be? Now ensconced as artistic director of the New Burbage theatre festival, Geoffrey (Paul Gross) must stage the cursed play Macbeth to fulfill the vision of his deceased predecessor Oliver (Stephen Ouimette). The actor cast in the lead (Geraint Wyn Davies) engages in a titanic clash of egos with Geoffrey, while Oliver weighs in confrontationally from the grave. The festival faces a financial crisis that forces its CEO (Mark McKinney) to engage in some risky business, while leading lady Ellen (Martha Burns) endures a life-altering tax audit. Adding to the mayhem is the return of the madcap guest director Darren Nichols (Don McKellar), who stages a post post-modern Romeo and Juliet after the original director breaks her neck. Could it be the curse of Macbeth? As seen on the Sundance Channel.

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Broadway's Lost Treasures (2003) Review

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(More customer reviews)We should be thankful for what we get on this DVD, so by all means, get it. By doing so, hopefully you'll encourage similar Broadway DVDs to be released in the future. (By the way, also consider getting "The Best of Broadway Musicals: Original Cast Performances from the Ed Sullivan Show," which captures some great 1950s-1960s performances.)
However, I have to agree with those who say this set is lopsided, even considering that the producers didn't have the rights to release other footage from the Tonys.
The saddest thing about some of the footage is that, while it claims to capture "sung" performances, in fact a few of the numbers are lip-synched. These include two of the numbers that I was most looking forward to seeing: Angela Lansbury in Sweeney Todd and Robert Preston in The Music Man. While it's great to see these performers in action, the lip-synching makes it an artificial experience.
But enough caveats. These aside, there's still plenty to enjoy.
The great John Raitt sings a definitive "Hey There" from The Pajama Game a couple of decades after its original run. He sounds just as exciting as ever. The song is shortened, but again, let's be thankful for what we have. And there's also a scene from 42nd Street with pre-"Law and Order" Jerry Orbach singing his heart out.
Some of the most enjoyable segments are in the DVD's "bonus extras" section. For example, in what seems the oldest segment on the DVD, the utterly charming Barbara Harris performs a number from The Apple Tree, a 1960s musical that is now essentially forgotten by all but fervent show fans. And to watch those ever-young old troopers Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller singing and dancing in Sugar Babies is a joy.
So, tap your way to Amazon's checkout and get this DVD in your hands ASAP!

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Joel Grey, Carol Channing, John Raitt, Patti LuPone, Yul Brynner, Zero Mostel--these greats are among the original-cast performers featured in this unique filmed compendium of Broadway showstoppers. Seen only once in their original Tony Award® telecasts (1967–1986), these 22 knock-out performances come with new introductions by some of the featured performers, including Angela Lansbury, Jerry Orbach, and Chita Rivera. BONUS: Both DVD and VHS formats feature five extra performances not seen on PBS!
Program includes: BROADWAY DIVAS Vivian Blaine, "Adelaide's Lament," Guys and Dolls Patti LuPone, "A New Argentina," Evita Angela Lansbury, "Worst Pies in London," Sweeney Todd Carol Channing, "Before the Parade Passes By," Hello, Dolly! Julie Andrews, "Send in the Clowns," A Little Night Music
LEADING MEN Zero Mostel, "If I Were a Rich Man," Fiddler on the Roof Yul Brynner, "Shall We Dance," The King and I John Raitt, "Hey There," The Pajama Game Robert Preston, "Trouble," The Music Man Paul Lynde, "Kids," Bye Bye Birdie
DANCIN' Joel Grey, "Willkommen," Cabaret Tommy Tune, Twiggy, "Chasin' the Clouds Away," My One and Only Gwen Verdon, Chita Rivera, "All That Jazz," "Nowadays," Chicago Jerry Orbach, "Lullaby of Broadway," 42nd Street
RECORD BREAKERS Andrea McArdle, cast, "Tomorrow," Annie Cast, "You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile," Annie Betty Buckley and cast, "Jellicle Songs," "Memory," Cats
BONUS PERFORMANCES! Both DVD and VHS formats include five additional performances not seen on the PBS pledge-special broadcasts. Ann Miller, Mickey Rooney, "McHugh Medley," Sugar Babies Patti LuPone, "Buenos Aires," Evita Barbara Harris, "Movie Star Gorgeous," The Apple Tree Bonnie Franklin, "Applause," Applause Dorothy Loudon and cast, "Easy Street," "Tomorrow" (reprise), Annie

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