We Need a Little Tony Vincent / Right This Very Minute

After taking a trip down Sufjan Stevens' lane and getting his XMAS ALBUM! Gah! and watching Duke beat Georgetown in the last few minutes last night and avoiding revising my paper and then officially beginning to revise my paper, I decided I deserve a treat. And, well, this is it: a post entirely devoted to Tony Vincent's live performances. TV's notable on-stage credits include Roger understudy and swing for the B'way production of Rent, the role of Judas in the 2000 B'way revival of JCSuperstar and originating the role of Gallileo Figaro on the West End in London, then in Las Vegas, for the Queen musical vehicle We Will Rock You.

But before that, when TV was 16 and I was about 12, he released an over-played single "One Deed" on Christian pop radio. I was pretty much in love with that voice from then on. It was only until my junior year of high school when I was sitting in the balcony at the Ford Theater on 42nd street looking through the JCS program that I put two and two together and discovered that the dark-haired, 18-year-old Albequerque native had turned into a bleached blond prince of musical theater. I was very happy.

So what was he doing in those 6 years? He was moving to New York, trying to write his own music, and perform, while I was frittering away my high school career on amatuer everything that he was doing. (Everyone has to start somewhere.) He put his music-writing on hold for another 6 years once he got Rent. And now, he's finally living in New York after having performance gigs in Hong Kong, London, Las Vegas, NYC, etc. etc. to release that 3rd album with a couple of guys who formed a band they're calling "mercer". And, I must admit that when he got the role in the new Queen musical during my Freshman year of college, I almost couldn't believe that two of my music loves could actually be wed to each other in such a wonderful way. I got to see WWRY in London my junior year of college. (Sadly, TV was already off the West End and MiG Ayesha--of CBS' Rock Star: INXS--was performing instead.) I bought the Original Cast recording and quietly listened to it (with glee!) for the rest of my time abroad.

Watching a lot of his performances one after another, you'll notice that he really milks his "voice break" and makes it work for him. (You know, that place where we switch between head and chest voice.) He sings with tension: you can tell that from the way he holds his body in performances (though some of that is actor stuff, too). But who doesn't sing with vocal tension nowadays? Ok, so maybe Hugh Jackman, bc he's just so much in his nasal passage. TV was originally the understudy for Judas until the original actor developed vocal cord polyps. TV has managed to avoid too much strain on his voice. He loses pitch sometimes, but--again--who doesn't? And really, that's why we love live theater, am I right?

As I previously mentioned, I got the chance to see TV when he revived the role of Judas in the new adaptation and orchestration of JCS. He nailed it. I mean, I used to think you had to be Carl Anderson's clone to play a good Judas, but he proved me very wrong. He actually acted it. He didn't just sing the rock riffs; he performed them. (Can we see my obsession with live performance steadily growing?) He was the everyman Judas. He did it with improv, talking back to Jesus (Glen Carter) while he was singing, giving a new intensity to the role. (So much better than the Judas from the 2000 film of the revival. There, TV is Simon Zealotes and he still gives a great intense/crazy performance but is only allowed to shine in his one song.) I fell in freaking musical theater love after seeing JCS 2000. (I've only fallen for Adam Pascal with the same intensity.)

This first video is a short clip from the end of "Heaven on Their Minds". TV loves to clinch that last vocal moment with a fist. Also, he uses his hands and arms while performing. If you find this distracting, just close your eyes and listen to the bootiful moosic.

Now, we have a clip from Judas's "official" betrayal of Jesus. Melodramatic: yes, but the vocals are priceless. (Side Note: Glen Carter plays Jesus so strangely. I love him one moment and hate him the next.) Is it just me, or is Tony's outfit and hair a bit Spike?

These next ones are different versions of him singing "Superstar" which for me was one of the best moments in the revival. They have Jesus carrying his cross, Judas and news reporters running around and taunting him. At one point Judas hops on the cross, which drove me into symbolic heaven (also he's wearing red while getting on the cross which I love). I also love the recontextualizing of the song as a press conference. It makes more sense when Judas is asking him the questions that everyone in the world wants to ask. Can you tell that I was a huge fan of the revival?
This first one is the one to skip, if you want to skip one, but I felt obligated to put it in here bc it's the full performance of the song.

This second performance is what they did for the Tony Awards in 2000. If you want to skip Glen Carter's crazy-high rendition of "Gethsemane" skip to TV about a third of the way along the time bar. I had this on tape for awhile until I accidentally taped over it. (sob.) If some of you aren't impressed with TV's acting chops yet, I think that he plays off of Glen Carter admirably.

From here, he moves to We Will Rock You in London, which opened up a lot of great opportunities for him, like performing numerous times with Brian May and Roger Taylor and once for the Queen's Jubilee. This clip is just great. "Who Wants to Live Forever" is one of the most heartbreaking songs in the world to me. He's in character in this clip with Hannah Jane Fox: yes, he really is supposed to be playing that stupid and have that annoying speaking voice.

This isn't the best video quality of "Hammer To Fall". I'm not sure whether to blame the person holding the camera or the show's editors. But just wait for it: "Ohh-yeah-eah-eah-eah"!

And. . . "We Will Rock You"

And finally, a little sample from "Bohemian Rhapsody" which is performed as an encore in WWRY. This clip kills me, bc you can just feel the energy from the show slowly dwindling.

Thus, therefore, in conclusion, I will close by saying "Damn, that boy can sing!"

And, the extras are TV singing a) "The Money Kept Rolling In" from Evita (where he works that vocal break almost ad nauseum) and b) "Sun and Moon" from Miss Saigon (which actually might be a little too low for his voice, both singers have no chemistry, there are English subtitles for some reason, and there's wonderfully awkward standing around waiting for the instrumental break to end).
A)

B)


AND. . . There's a little more than a week until I am done being Teachy Mc-Teach-a-lot.

Christopher Nolan is M. Night's Doppelganger

Laura_cd and I went to see the filmic narrative brilliance that is The Prestige last night at 10:30 PM. I didn't go to bed until 3 in the AM--because I was either 1)busy thinking through the story fragmentation, 2)obsessively analyzing Hugh Jackman's acting prowess or 3)being annoyed I had to go in to teach a Draft Workshop in less than 5 hours. I'd like to think I stayed up because of the first two reasons. (Also, I was making a new Bones background for my computer, but that's straying off topic.)

ANYWAY!

Laura was very right last night when she said that Christopher Nolan (the director/screenwriter who also brought us Memento and Batman Begins) is a narrative genius. I remember talking with a writing mentor back in undergrad about the flawless structure of Memento: it follows a traditional narrative structure (initiating incident, rise, climax, denouement) but is told backwards. Give me a break. Who pulls that off nearly flawlessly? Laura and I are convinced that he must have been working in several different storytelling mediums previous to his breaking that independent hit in 2000. (He also had 2 previous movies that I haven't seen, so I can't speak for them myself.)

ANYWAY!

Watching The Prestige was like watching an instructional workshop. Form mirrored content, and content mirrored form almost seamlessly. I won't say anything to "ruin" it for everyone out there who hasn't contributed to its box office sales, but the film opens with an intro to the structure of a magician's illusion: the pledge, the turn and the prestige (Title alert!):

Every great magic trick consists of three acts. The first act is called "The Pledge"; The magician shows you something ordinary, but of course it probably isn't. The second act is called "The Turn"; The magician makes his ordinary some thing do something extraordinary. Now if you're looking for the secret you won't find it, that's why there's a third act called, "The Prestige"; this is the part with the twists and turns, where lives hang in the balance, and you see something shocking you've never seen before.

And that's what the movie is: a narrative illusion that is both illusive and an allusion to the trick's 3-part structure. (Damn you, turn of phrase!) Oh, and I just want to point out the relationship between reference to "the prestige" and the sleight-of-hand term "prestidigitation".
ANYWAY!

There was no mystery that was too much of a mystery. There was no turn that was a complete surprise. All of the development in The Prestige was there to tie the fragmented pieces of the narrative together. Because as any good storyteller knows, great suspense doesn't come from withholding information from your audience and dumping a tricky reveal on them at the end of things. It comes from laying the "secret" bare and letting the audience draw their own conclusions. (I just mini-lectured my writing workshop on this fact today, actually.) Therefore, the narrative tension comes from the difference between what the audience "has eyes to see" and what the story's characters may or may not know. (I can't believe I just used "therefore" in a blog post.)

AND SO!

The complete opposite of Chris Nolan's great narrative experimentation and fragmentation for the purpose of tension is M. Night Shyamalan's butchering of the "twist" tradition in storytelling. (Damn you, O. Henry!) Sure, M. Night hit it big with The Sixth Sense. Unbreakable was much more character-driven and ultimately (IMO) more re-watchable. (Re-watching The Sixth Sense for me is like some strange and brutal torture.) But then there was Signs (which was great in its own right ,but so obvious at times as to poke its watchers in their size-of-flying-saucers eyes). And (drum roll please) the roughly-drafted flick that is The Village. At this point in his career, I believe M. Night did a fabulous job of getting caught up in the cult of himself--to the point where he was trying to imitate the form that viewers threw money away for in The Sixth Sense: "I have important social things to say! Aren't these village elders creepy and completely unrealistic? I love it when my characters are so pretentious as to be morons, just like me! Oh, and did you catch me in the cabinet reflection with my perfect I-know-something-you-don't-know line delivery?" In other words, M. Night was caught up in imitating himself. (This is a topic that actually comes up quite deliberately in The Prestige (as can be seen in this poster image). All "best-selling" and/or popular artists and storytellers are prone to the circular problem of trying to live up to the image of yourself that has been created for the public audience. And, as Angier notes in The Prestige, the audience is the reason that you create the spectacle.)

GAR!

I didn't make it to Lady In the Water, but I think there is something to be said about not giving some people complete creative control. I mean, there is a time and place--not to mention need--for creative collaboration for some people. (Chris Nolan works closely with his brother Jonathan.) I suppose that aruagably what separates Nolan from M. Night is that in the end, M. Night is writing about himself. That is what he's concerned with: his own form, his own story, his own success. Whereas, when Nolan is allowed to enter into the role of auteur (Batman Begins can be considered an exception here), his work ends up being about the art, the story, the character. It is about creating that illusion of a narrative that is fragmented yet in some strange way unified in the end of things, but in order to get there Nolan has to make his way through his own pledge, turn and prestige.

(Author's Note: I am primarily crediting Chris Nolan for the film's narrative order, but his brother Jonathan was co-writer on the screenplay for The Prestige. Also, the film was adapted from the novel by Christopher Priest, which I haven't read. I'm not sure if the narrative in the novel is fragmented in the same way the film's is.)

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The Movie Meme.

Laura_cd also tagged me for the movie meme at the beginning of the week. I figured I would oblige while I was critiquing the latest film we saw together:

1. Popcorn or candy?
Popcorn.

2. Name a movie you've been meaning to see forever.
I'm going to be completely honest here: Elektra, American History X, and My Own Private Idaho

3. You are given the power to recall one Oscar: Who loses theirs and to whom?
This is a great question for movie buffs to answer. I want Will Smith to get it for Ali in 2001. Screw you, Denzel, Training Day, and your 2 Oscars! Let another black man win! (And this answer wouldn't be complete without mentioning my complete spiral into despair that Brokeback (2005) didn't take home the big one.)

4. Steal one costume from a movie for your wardrobe. Which will it be?
Honestly? One of those cool robes/windbreakers that Harry uses for the first (Dragon) task in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

5. Your favorite film franchise is...
Back to the Future. Hands down.

6. Invite five movie people over for dinner. Who are they? Why'd you invite them? What do you feed them?
I will feed them from magical plates that materialize everyone's favorite meals in front of them without me having to cook. (I don't have time for that stuff now.)

(1) Christopher Nolan ~ See above post for reasons why, but here's a hint: genius at wielding narrative.

(2) Richard Linklater ~ Has directed Dazed and Confused, Waking Life, BeforeSunrise/Sunset, School of Rock and A Scanner Darkly to name a few. He might be secretly in love with Ethan Hawke. Linklater is considered the man who started the independent film movement with his '91 filmSlacker (which might as well be called: "Screw you, Traditional Film Narrative, it's time you come on over to Austin, TX") I am in constant turmoil with Linklater. Sometimes he hits for me. Sometimes he completely misses, but it's always interesting to watch.

(3) Jill Sprecher ~ Has directed and co-written 13 Conversations About One Thing. I am fascinated by the feminine semiotics of this film.

(4) Agnes Varda ~ The female director of the French New Wave and arguably the best female director in the history of filmmaking.

(5) Gus Van Sant ~ But this presupposes that I've been able to watch My Own Private Idaho. Elephant was my directing inspiration for the one short film I've made, but why oh why Mr. Van Sant did you push the form (and your audience) too far and make Gerry?

7. What is the appropriate punishment for people who answer cell phones in the movie theater?
They have to watch those lame "fake movie trailer" turn-off-your-cell-phones promos on a continuous loop for all eternity.

8. Choose a female bodyguard: Ripley from Aliens. Mystique from X-Men. Sarah Connor from Terminator 2. The Bride from Kill Bill. Mace from Strange Days.
I don't think there's any contest. If you are interested in someone who will protect you most successfully, you're going to pick The Bride. But if she wasn't on the list, it would have to be Mystique before she got the "cure" in X-3 (aka the X-men film I refuse to believe exists), though I don't trust her as far as I can throw her. Ok, so I haven't seen Aliens or Terminator. I know! I'm lacking in my Americana!

9. What's the scariest thing you've ever seen in a movie?
Um, anyone who has spoken with me within the last year knows that the answer to this one is anything Lynch-ian.

10. Your favorite genre (excluding comedy and drama) is?
Um, does Independent count as a genre? What about Animation? Ok fine, I'll go with Teen movies.

11. You are given the power to greenlight movies at a major studio for one year. How do you wield this power?
By funding first-time writer/directors whom I deem worthy.

12. Bonnie or Clyde?
N/A, because I have not seen this film.

13. Who are you tagging to answer this survey?
sbp and Vacula