Song of the Day: Freedom

So at the request of a certain someone I am updating my blog.  I feel like every time I get on here I apologize for not posting, but lets face it there are like three people who actually read this.  Regardless of that fact, it's been a crazy semester and that's the only excuse I have for not updating.  Who knows maybe this next semester I'll be more dedicated.  I have become obsessed with the music from The Unauthorized Biography of Samantha Brown and this is a song that I personally connect to at the moment.  It reminds me very much of my senior year of high school and now since I'm officially graduating college in May I can't help but be a bit nostalgic.  There are times when I really do wish I could just get in the car and go and not care about where I ended up.  In many ways this also reminds me of my brother who lived his life exactly the way he wanted to and wasn't afraid to just let go and let the road of life take him wherever it wanted to go.  I envy him a lot for that and at times wish I could be a lot more like him.  This song also makes me think of that certain someone who requested I update today.  Sometimes I wish we could just get in a car and get away from it all.  This is for you and for my brother.

Note of Interest: If you wanna check out the rest of Kerrigan and Lowdermilk's music you should visit their website at http://www.kerrigan-lowdermilk.com 

Song of the Day: With Cat-like Tread

Well I just got cast as one of the pirates in Pirates of Penzance, so for today's update I figured I would post my favorite song from the show and the one we started learning last night - With Cat-Like Tread.  Penzance is a ridiculous show, but I love the music whole-heartedly.  It's at times brain numbingly complex and at other times idiotically simple.  It's a great Gilbert and Sullivan.  Our production runs at Columbia College Feb 18 through March 1st 2009.  Hope some of you might be able to make it out.  It's going to be a great show.  Enjoy!

Note of Interest: this will more than likely be my last show at Columbia seeing as how I am graduating in May.  It means a lot to me that my last show here will be a Main stage Musical because my very first show at this school was the Main stage Musical Ragtime.  It's been a great four years and I couldn't possibly think of a better way to cap it off.

Song of the Day: Come What May

I haven't posted one of these in a while so I figured I would post one tonight.  I just recently re-watched Moulin Rouge the other night and was reminded of what a brilliant and groundbreaking movie musical it was.  It's a shame that very few of the musicals Hollywood has released post Moulin Rouge have lived up to the promise that Baz Luhrman's musical provided.  It's a hyper stylized piece, but it also has plenty of melodrama and heart to spare.  I'm sure I will be writing up a large article on the film sometime soon, but in the meantime I'm posting the big love ballad (and the only original song) from the movie.  Enjoy

Note of Interest:  more of a question really... how in the hell did Ewan McGregor managed to get shafted by the Academy for his role here?  He is the heart and soul of the whole damn film.  Then again I could also ask how in the hell the Academy thought A Beautiful Mind was a better film than this or Lord of the Rings the Fellowship of the Ring, or Gosford Park, or In the Bedroom for that matter.  GAH!

The Films I Love: Saving Private Ryan

In the 1990's director Steven Spielberg arguably made the two most important films of his career.  The first, of course, being 1993's groundbreaking and monumental Holocaust Biopic Schindler's List and the second being 1998's harrowing war film, Saving Private Ryan.  The opening twenty five minutes alone are now a part of film history.  Most agree that the opening battle depicting the landing of Omaha Beach and the invasion of Normandy is the greatest modern combat scene ever put on the screen.  It has been given this prestigious title because it is unflinching in its depiction of gruesome violence, nauseating disorientation and the sheer horror of battle.  This scene would be enough to ensure Saving Private Ryan's enduring legacy as a great war film.  But what makes the film earn it stripes after the opening is it's pure and true human quality.  In the end Saving Private Ryan is just as much about the camaraderie between soldiers and the bond between all humans who fight for their country as it is about the horror of war.  Because of this Saving Private Ryan is probably the most positive, patriotic, and humble anti war film ever made.  It realizes that war can at times be a necessary evil, but does not shy away from the atrocities that can and have been committed.  It is a film that salutes the veterans that have served this country and depicts them in a sincere light.

I should state outright that Steven Spielberg is my favorite filmmaker.  His name has become synonymous with people of my generation who love film.  It is almost a cliche for someone my age to say that he is their favorite filmmaker.  But I cannot deny my beliefs.  There is a reason why Spielberg has such an enduring legacy in the history of post 70's filmmaking - he has captured the hearts an imaginations of disenfranchised film goers the world over.  He abandoned the bleak and sometimes hopeless filmmaking style of the sixties and seventies and instead made optimistic films that made you look to the stars and beyond.  If one were to look at his filmography no one can disagree that he has made many indisputable modern classics that have changed the way that we look at movies - Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Jurassic Park, and Schindler's List.  His work post Private Ryan has been much more experimental and bleak with Minority Report and Munich (the former being one of the best science fiction films in twenty years and the latter being the most challenging film Spielberg has ever made).  In a way Saving Private Ryan really seems to be a transition film for Spielberg.  He made the film for his father, who served in WWII.  It's a very adult film, much the same way Schindler's List was.  In Ryan you can see Spielberg struggling with the things that have made him the director that he is and trying to move on into something more bleak and honest.  Spielberg is examining the mind of a soldier and why we fight and die for our country.  In a way it's a more difficult film than Schindler's List because in that film it was very clear who the villains really were... not so much in Ryan where one German in particular is brought to the forefront and explored.  At the end of the film we realize that all these men were fighting for their country, which can at times be a very dangerous moral decision - case in point Nazism and to some extent the war we Americans are fighting now in the Middle East.  

What Saving Private Ryan deals with so well is the price and weight of a human life.  What does it mean to kill a man?  What are the implications?  And how much is the life of one man worth?  These are questions that the film explores, but it doesn't necessarily find an answer because there probably isn't one, especially not in war.  But the deaths in Private Ryan hit hard because we are forced to witness them in brutal detail and the deaths of the central characters hit even harder because we hear parts of their stories and can identify with them.  The main characters of the film are just normal men caught in an extraordinary situation and a monumental moment in history.  The film takes stock war movie characters and turns them on their head.  Take for instance the Vin Diesel character, who looks like the tough brute, but in actuality turns out to be the ignorant soldier with a soft heart.  It's a great switch on a stock character.  But the most surprising of the leads is Tom Hanks who plays the man in charge, but he is no John Wayne war hero.  Instead Hanks is a normal man who was a school teacher back home and is now taking charge of a group of men and he knows that many of them will not make it home to see their families ever again.

Tom Hanks's performance is really what holds Saving Private Ryan together and makes it human.  He is the glue behind all the decisions, right or wrong, made by the characters in the film.  He holds men's lives in his hands and the decisions that he makes ends up killing many of them.  But he rationalizes that the sacrifice of one mans life means that he saves hundreds more.  The problem with his rationalization is that in the case of his mission during the course of the story, he has to save one man.  How many men is one man worth?  Hanks is quiet yet commanding of the screen and his scene where he breaks down after the death of his medic is powerful because he has to hide his true emotions by cowering in a ditch as he cries his eyes out.  Even more powerful still is the monologue he delivers describing who he really is as the moral of his men starts to wane dramatically.  It's probably Tom Hanks's most subtle performance and as a result one of his very best.  I would argue that he was robbed of the Oscar for this film, but at the time he was lucky to even be nominated considering his more showy competition that year (including Roberto Begnini who won for Life is Beautiful and Edward Norton for American History X who many at the time felt was robbed). There are many other great performances in Saving Private Ryan both large and small including a very young Matt Damon in the title role.  His monologue (which was entirely improvised) towards the end of the film describing his last night with his brothers is probably the most emotional part of the entire film.  It's rewarding for the viewer to see that Ryan isn't an asshole and that these men did not necessarily die in vain.  

Saving Private Ryan is one of many films that Steven Spielberg will be remembered for long after he has passed (which I hope will not be anytime soon, the man has many years left yet).  But more importantly it will be remembered as one of the greatest war films ever made.  It is a testament to the veterans of our country who fought, bled, and died for not only our liberty, but for the worlds.  As veterans day approaches, I would recommend anyone who has not seen this film or not picked it up in a while to do so. You wont regret it.

Saving Private Ryan (1998)

Dir. Steven Spielberg

170 Minutes

Academy Award Nominations: Best Actor (Tom Hanks), Best Art Direction, Best Make-Up, Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, Best Picture

Academy Award Wins: Best Cinematography, Best Director (Spielberg), Best Sound Effects Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Film Editing

Note of Interest: In a strange and awful move by the Academy they decided to award Shakespeare in Love the best picture Oscar over Saving Private Ryan.  While the former has been quickly forgotten, the latter lives on.  Smart movie Academy...

Goodbye, Goodbye, Goodbye Spelling Bee

Thursday November 6th at 330 in the afternoon the cast of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee gave their arguably best and sadly final performance.  It was a great run of a great show and I was proud to be a part of that experience.  Our run garnered us lots of acclaim from teachers and students alike, plus at one performance a standing ovation (something pretty unheard of at this school).  I'm going to miss being with the cast and crew on a regular basis, but I can hope that we will all stay in contact with one another and get together whenever possible.  The process may have started off rough, but our end product was something to be admired.  I was privileged to work with some of the most talented and determined students in our department on Spelling Bee and I know that in the future I will get to work with you all again.  Your commitment to the piece and energy when on stage was at times awe-inspiring.  It isn't very often that you get to work on a show as good as ours was.  So basically I wanted to say thank you to everyone in the cast and crew.  Your raw talent pushed me to work harder and to be a better actor and for that I will always be grateful.  With each show you learn something new.  I learned a lot on Spelling Bee about myself and others around me.  I hope that you all did too.  So here's to the cast and crew of Spelling Bee.  I miss you guys already.  

P.S. - We kicked these guy's asses.

Song of the Day: Confrontation

Well I'm still sick, so this is the perfect opportunity to post a video of the day.  This is confrontation from Jekyll and Hyde, probably one of the worst musicals in the past twenty years that for one reason or another developed a huge following.  To be fair I did see the original production of this show before it ever went to Broadway and the staging was pretty remarkable and some of the score quite good.  Unfortunately by the time in arrived on the Great White Way it had been neutered and had lost much of its edge.  This was always a troublesome song in the show, but in the original production it was done with a video projection which made it less grueling on the actor.  Either way it's still a silly number and David Hasselhoff doesn't make it any better.  This is probably one of the most horrendous performances in the history of musical theater.  So in celebration of Halloween tomorrow here is confrontation from Jekyll and Hyde.  Enjoy.

ROCK THE VOTE!!!!!!!

The Election is in exactly one week.  So the point of this post is quite simple... VOTE!  Get out and make your voice heard.  It does not matter if you believe your state is going to go one way or another.  Just do it.  Fight for what you believe in.  And whatever you do don't follow these guy's advice....

Song of the Day: River

Well I'm officially sick, which sucks considering all I have to get done this week.  But on the plus side this means I could add a song of the day since I stayed home so I could be healthy for rehearsal tonight.  Today's song - River by Joni Mitchell sung by the oh so talented Michael Arden.  Not exactly a musical theater song, but it's good to mix it up every once in a while.  Plus I think its appropriate for the time of the year that we are all at.  Enjoy.

Note of Interest:  I usually hate tenor voices, but there is something about this guy that I just love.

The Films I love: JFK

Oliver Stone is probably one of the most controversial directors to ever live and JFK is his most controversial film.  It is a study of the John F. Kennedy assassination and the film paints a compelling argument that there was indeed a conspiracy behind the president's murder. One can only imagine the shit storm that came down on the film back in 1991 with several newspapers slamming the film months before release and claiming that it was a complete fabrication with no basis on facts.  And while JFK certainly does a lot of guess work and paranoid speculation it also presents a case with some undeniably sound arguments.  Oliver Stone is a smart man and the amount of research and time spent on this film is nothing short of astounding.  In the end what makes JFK so thought provoking and rewarding is it's message to continue searching for the truth in all facets of life.  It is probably one of the most patriotic films ever made even while it is condemning the American government for acts of treason.

If I had to name the three best films of the 1990's it would probably go in this order - Schindler's List (1993), Unforgiven (1992), and JFK (1991).  JFK surprisingly made a strong showing at the Academy Awards that year, but lost in most of its categories including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay which it so plainly deserved.  The recreation of the assassination alone is one of the most exhilarating pieces of directing ever placed on the screen and it cost Stone several million dollars to get it up there.  But JFK was too controversial and it was up against an unlikely juggernaut that year - The Silence of the Lambs, which would take all three of JFK's top awards for which it was nominated.  Lambs is in my top 10 films of the 1990's, but it simply cannot compare to the artistry that is on display within JFK.  The film did win two Oscars, which it justly deserved including Best Cinematography and Best Editing.  Any film student studying the art of editing should be required to view JFK as it has some of the most complex editing ever committed to film as it switches between real stock footage, recreations, scripted dialogue, and speculative footage all within the same scene.  It was probably the one award that no one could argue with no matter how controversial the film may have been.

The acting in JFK was largely ignored, though Tommy Lee Jones did score an unlikely nomination for playing a homosexual business man who had ties to the CIA, Cubans and Mob underworld- Clay Shaw.  I'm not a huge Jones fan but he really sells this character and it's one of his more daring performances without being overstated and stereotypical.  There are tons of cameo performances in the film from the likes of Donald Sutherland, Jack Lemmon, Walter Matheau, Joe Pesci, and John Candy.  But the real heart stirring performance of the film that was largely overlooked come awards time was Kevin Costner playing New Orleans DA Jim Garrsion who made it his life's work to find out the truth about the Kennedy Assassination.  Costner gives one of his most honest and vulnerable screen performances in JFK.  The Costner edge is largely missing from the part and instead he gives himself completely over to the quest.  Costner's final speech in the courtroom is emotional because of the honesty of this man's convictions.  Garrison was a patriot who dared to stand up to his country and his government and ask the questions that too many were unwilling to ask.  If more had stood by his cause perhaps there would be more answers about the slaying of the president and more of the files on the assassination would be on public record.  

JFK makes a lot of claims, some of which it cannot fully back-up.  It's biggest accusation is that Lyndon B. Johnson was somehow involved in the assassination.  It's a huge claim and scary one, but the film makes an intriguing case that the government was highly responsible for the President's death.  The truth of the matter is we still don't know.  The likely hood that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy alone is very slim as evidence in both the film and history suggests.  What JFK argues is that Oswald really was just the patsy and never fired one bullet, though he may have been involved in another way - as the fall guy.  But even after all the conspiracy theories are thrown out the film has another agenda up it's sleeves - it wants to inspire Americans to stand up for themselves and their rights.  It wants America's citizens to question their government and take more responsibility for themselves.  What JFK argues that hits closest to the bone is that Kennedy's assassination may have been more of the public's fault than anyone elses because of our complacency.  If nothing else JFK serves as a warning of what can happen to our great nation when we no longer stand up for ourselves.  

John F. Kennedy and his brother Bobby Kennedy were both murdered in cold blood because they sought to change this country and to invigorate the American people.  They were extremely progressive leaders who fought for what they believed including civil rights and an end to needless bloodshed.  Kennedy prevented us from going into a nuclear war and maintained "friendly" boundaries with the Soviets.  For this he was branded a traitor and a communist by many in America.  But to others he was a hero and ultimately he died for it.  What Kennedy stood for is oddly representative of what is currently happening in our political climate this election season.  And as we head into the final week of this election we should be reminding ourselves to do exactly what the film JFK asks us to do - 

"Tennyson wrote, Authority forgets a dying king... and this was never more true than for John F. Kennedy, whose murder was probably one the most terrible moments in the history of our country. You, the people, the jury system sitting in judgment on Clay Shaw, represent the hope of humanity against government power. In discharging your duty, in bringing the first conviction in this house of cards against Clay Shaw. Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.... Do not forget your dying king. Show this world that this is still a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Nothing as long as you live will ever be more important.... It's up to you"

In other words - stand up for yourself, be a true citizen, make your voice heard and vote for the change you believe the country needs whatever that may be.  Remember your dying king.  Remember what John Kennedy fought for.  That's what the film JFK is really about.  It may be controversial, but it's also one of the most patriotic and one of the greatest American films of all time.  Oliver Stone should be very proud of his achievement.

JFK (1991)

Dir. Oliver Stone

Academy Awards Nominations: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound, Best Original Score

Academy Award Wins: Best Cinematography, Best Editing

Note of Interest:  Oliver Stone's Nixon serves as an unofficial sequel to JFK and it is equally fascinating in parts and even suggests that Nixon may have been inadvertantly involved in the assassination.  It also features a great performance by Anthony Hopkins as Richard Nixon.

Absence and Song of the Day: I LOVE YOU

Well I'm pretty sure that anyone who was reading this blog has long since stopped considering I haven't updated in well over a month.  I apologize for the absence.  I got started with school and my schedule went to absolute shit.  I got cast in a production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at my school and ever since have had very little time to myself.  I have a week left of rehearsal and then a short run of the show through November 6th.  Hopefully after that I will have a lot more time on my hands and will be able to update this blog regularly and continue with my various projects for the blog.  So check back in every once in a while, you may be surprised at what you find!  

And now to celebrate the fact that my show will be opening quite soon, here is what I consider to be the best song in the entire show.  Enjoy!

Song of the Day: 13

Holy Jesus... is this the new face of Broadway?  If it is I am sufficiently terrified.  Has Jason Robert Brown completely lost his fucking mind?  Now I'm sure that these kids are all talented in their own right... but a musical featuring only 13 years olds that is about juvenile subjects with a score this bad is not going to make any money.  I'm expecting this to get slammed by the critics.  I'll be the first to say if I'm wrong later, but I don't think I will be.  Hey at least they are giving away really cheap tickets for teenagers.  I wish they would do this for more Broadway shows.  But somehow I don't think this is the kind of show that is gonna inspire kids to want to see South Pacific, Gypsy, or even In The Heights for that matter.  See for yourself what I'm talking about -

Find more videos like this on 13 The Musical Fansite

Note of Interest:  I have never been a huge Jason Robert Brown fan, but I do think his score for the musical Parade is one of the best to hit Broadway in the past 20 years and you all should definitely check that one out.

Trailer: Milk

I'm a little late with posting this trailer seeing as how it has been out for a few days now, but better late than never.  I have been looking forward to Milk ever since it was announced, but I was skeptical of what the results would be.  After all, Gus Van Sant's track record as of late hasn't been too great and there was already an impeccable Academy Award winning documentary on the life of Harvey Milk titled - The Times of Harvey Milk.   But after seeing the trailer my worries have been put at ease... to put it simply, Milk looks amazing.  Sean Penn is in top form here and is the perfect choice to portray this great man who stood up for Gay Rights like no other leader in the history of this country.  The rest of the cast looks like they are game too and Sant's direction looks crisp and clear.  I hope that this biopic stays as accurate as humanly possibly and also attempts to paint a compelling portrait of Dan White that is more than just two dimensional hatred.  The trailer itself is extremely well put together and more than compelling.  As of right now I think this indicates that Sean Penn may very well be our front runner for Best Actor at the Oscars this year, but if Milk is loved it could receive a ton of nominations.  Could this be the Academy's opportunity to get rid of the bad taste in everyone's mouth after the dismissal of the groundbreaking Brokeback Mountain and it's Best Picture Snub?  Only time will tell, but one thing is certain -  this is now the film I am looking forward to most this year.  Enjoy.

"If a bullet should enter my brain, let that bullet destroy every closet door."

To find out more about Harvey Milk and what exactly he fought for click here.  Also, do yourself a favor and watch the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk.  You wont regret it.

Song of the Day: One Singular Sensation

Well do to the fact that I've been selected to play the choreographer in A Chorus Line in my workshop class I decided to post the song I'm supposed to be dancing to before my big dramatic scene.  Anyone who knows me will find it pretty hysterical that I am playing Zach... Needless to say I am going to have to work my ass off the next few weeks to get this shit right.  All of my classes are going to push me rather hard this year, but Workshop is going to be another beast entirely. Enjoy.

Song of the Day: Tonight

Tonight from West Side Story is probably on of the most perfect and gorgeous musical theater love duets ever written.  A lot of that has to do with Leonard Bernstein's beautiful melodies and Stephen Sondheim's impeccable lyrics.  My school did the show last year and it was interesting to see this song in particular played in a different context than usual, perhaps even more believably than in most standard productions.  Here we have Michael Ball and Lesley Garrett singing and they are anything but young love sick teenagers from opposite sides of the pond.  No, instead here we have two extremely well trained singers who have a tendency to overact... especially Ball.  Garrett is more of an opera singer and that comes through quite clear here, but it is still strangely appropriate as Bernstein does write in a largely operatic style.  I have a recording of Garrett singing I Have a Love from West Side Story that is probably the most intense version of the song that I have ever heard.  I'm a big fan of West Side Story and I cant wait to see that Arthur Laurents directed revival which is coming to Broadway next season.  I'll have to see if I can fly to New York to catch that.  Enjoy.

Note of Interest:  I've already put my name down for a couple auditions and been asked to do a staged reading of a musical.  It will hopefully be a productive semester.  There is only one musical this semester that is being produced and its a student directed one.  So I will of course go out for that one full force, but we shall see what happens.  Maybe I might actually have time for a job... I'm going to have to make time no matter how busy I am.  Living in this city is expensive!!!!!

Song of the Day: Chicago

First of all I want to apologize for my absence from the blog.  I just got back into Chicago a few days ago and I've been trying to get things all settled here.  But now classes start tomorrow, so I'm not sure if I'll still be able to post daily, but I will make it a point to do at least 3 times a week like I originally promised.  Today, in celebration of me returning to this wonderful town, I'm posting a little Sinatra.  Hope you all enjoy.

Note of Interest:  The next article in The Films I Love series should be posted in the next couple of days.  Expect the next to be a unique choice as well.  

Song of the Day: Passion Finale

Passion is a musical that took me a long time to like.  Initially when I saw it, I couldn't believe it was a Sondheim musical.  It was so unlikeable with characters that seemed so one-dimensional and incredibly selfish.  The music was a bit repetitive, though at times staggeringly beautiful.  Passion has grown on me a great deal and now it is one of my favorite Sondheim musicals. It's repetitiveness, selfishness, and unlike ability serve a purpose and the show itself says a lot about Sondheim as a person and an artist and his views on life and love. To me, Passion is like Sondheim's response to an Andrew Loyd Webber musical.  The ending to Passion is incredible and probably one of the most moving moments in musical theater history.  I recently got to see the Chicago Shakespeare production of Passion a few months ago and it was an incredible experience.  It was done as a very intimate and small black box production, which is just the way it should be done.  The only part of it I didn't like was Georgio.  I have never liked any Georgio that I have ever seen because I feel they all play it too safe.  No one is willing to take risks with the character.  No one is willing to make him truly vile and unlikeable.  In a sense no one is willing to make him human, instead he just becomes a vessel for the story.  It's a role I'm dying to get my hands on so I can turn it on it's head.  Hopefully one day I'll get to.  Enjoy.

Note of Interest: This was the last original musical of Stephen Sondheim's to ever play on Broadway.  Now we sure do get a lot of revivals.  But this is also the last Tony Sondheim ever received for best score, though he did get a lifetime achievement award at the Tony's this past year... and they sure did a piss poor job with it too.

A little off topic, but then again it is my blog...

Tonight I switched on the Democratic National Convention coverage on CNN, curious to see what all would take place.  The first few hours were a little dull with not much to write home about, but then Teddy Kennedy gave an emotional and passionate speech where he swore that he would be on the senate floor in January to continue his fight despite being diagnosed recently with brain cancer.  He also had strong words about why he believed that the democrats needed to elect Barack Obama as president.  But the speech that really got to me was that of Obama's wife, Michelle.  To be blunt, the speech was moving and inspiring and made me cry because it struck home.  It was the perfect way to end the evening and it represents why I believe in this campaign and why I will be voting for Barack Obama in November.  I promise not to get political often on this blog, but this was something I felt I needed to share.  It's the kind of speech that is inspiring because of it's honesty and integrity.  Obama and his family are just like us in so many ways and they are patriotic Americans who have had to struggle during their lives to get to where they are.  They are Americans and though I am probably the most cynical American I know, this is a moment where I was proud to be an American and be a democrat.  Different people have different beliefs and this is a monumentally important election for both parties.  I want everyone I know to vote in this election.  Fundamentally it does not matter to me who you vote for as long as you make your voice heard and stand up for what you believe in.  I may not agree with you, but I can respect you.  I believe in Barack Obama and his vision for where he wants to take this country.  And I look forward to the day when I may be able to call him my President.  Here is Michelle Obama's extraordinary speech - 

"As you might imagine, for Barack, running for President is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my brother Craig.

I can't tell you how much it means to have Craig and my mom here tonight. Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I've felt his presence in every grace-filled moment of my life.

At six-foot-six, I've often felt like Craig was looking down on me too…literally. But the truth is, both when we were kids and today, he wasn't looking down on me. He was watching over me.

And he's been there for me every step of the way since that clear February day 19 months ago, when – with little more than our faith in each other and a hunger for change – we joined my husband, Barack Obama, on the improbable journey that's brought us to this moment.

But each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey.

I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend.

I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president.

I come here as a Mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world – they're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future – and all our children's future – is my stake in this election.

And I come here as a daughter – raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue-collar city worker and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother's love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.

My Dad was our rock. Although he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in his early thirties, he was our provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it took him longer to get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing – even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my Mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier and worked a little harder.

He and my mom poured everything they had into me and Craig. It was the greatest gift a child can receive: never doubting for a single minute that you're loved, and cherished, and have a place in this world. And thanks to their faith and hard work, we both were able to go on to college. So I know firsthand from their lives – and mine – that the American Dream endures.

And you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he'd grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. Like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities they never had themselves. And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them.

And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children – and all children in this nation – to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them.

And as our friendship grew, and I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to the work he'd done when he first moved to Chicago after college. Instead of heading to Wall Street, Barack had gone to work in neighborhoods devastated when steel plants shut down, and jobs dried up. And he'd been invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to rebuild their community.

The people gathered together that day were ordinary folks doing the best they could to build a good life. They were parents living paycheck to paycheck; grandparents trying to get by on a fixed income; men frustrated that they couldn't support their families after their jobs disappeared. Those folks weren't asking for a handout or a shortcut. They were ready to work – they wanted to contribute. They believed – like you and I believe – that America should be a place where you can make it if you try.

Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about "The world as it is" and "The world as it should be." And he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is – even when it doesn't reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves – to find the strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be. And isn't that the great American story?

It's the story of men and women gathered in churches and union halls, in town squares and high school gyms – people who stood up and marched and risked everything they had – refusing to settle, determined to mold our future into the shape of our ideals.

It is because of their will and determination that this week, we celebrate two anniversaries: the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, and the 45th anniversary of that hot summer day when Dr. King lifted our sights and our hearts with his dream for our nation.

I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history – knowing that my piece of the American Dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that drives the men and women I've met all across this country:

People who work the day shift, kiss their kids goodnight, and head out for the night shift – without disappointment, without regret – that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything they're working for.

The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and women who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to defend it.

The young people across America serving our communities – teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day.

People like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters – and sons – can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher.

People like Joe Biden, who's never forgotten where he came from, and never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and need someone on their side again.

All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do – that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be.

That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack's journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope.

That is why I love this country.

And in my own life, in my own small way, I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us – no matter what our age or background or walk of life – each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation.

It's a belief Barack shares – a belief at the heart of his life's work.

It's what he did all those years ago, on the streets of Chicago, setting up job training to get people back to work and afterschool programs to keep kids safe – working block by block to help people lift up their families.

It's what he did in the Illinois Senate, moving people from welfare to jobs, passing tax cuts for hard working families, and making sure women get equal pay for equal work.

It's what he's done in the United States Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve this country are welcomed home not just with medals and parades, but with good jobs and benefits and health care – including mental health care.

That's why he's running – to end the war in Iraq responsibly, to build an economy that lifts every family, to make health care available for every American, and to make sure every child in this nation gets a world class education all the way from preschool to college. That's what Barack Obama will do as President of the United States of America.

He'll achieve these goals the same way he always has – by bringing us together and reminding us how much we share and how alike we really are. You see, Barack doesn't care where you're from, or what your background is, or what party – if any – you belong to. That's not how he sees the world. He knows that thread that connects us – our belief in America's promise, our commitment to our children's future – is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree.

It was strong enough to bring hope to those neighborhoods in Chicago.

It was strong enough to bring hope to the mother he met worried about her child in Iraq; hope to the man who's unemployed, but can't afford gas to find a job; hope to the student working nights to pay for her sister's health care, sleeping just a few hours a day.

And it was strong enough to bring hope to people who came out on a cold Iowa night and became the first voices in this chorus for change that's been echoed by millions of Americans from every corner of this nation.

Millions of Americans who know that Barack understands their dreams; that Barack will fight for people like them; and that Barack will finally bring the change we need.

And in the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love.

And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they'll have families of their own. And one day, they – and your sons and daughters – will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country – where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House – we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be.

So tonight, in honor of my father's memory and my daughters' future – out of gratitude to those whose triumphs we mark this week, and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment – let us devote ourselves to finishing their work; let us work together to fulfill their hopes; and let us stand together to elect Barack Obama President of the United States of America.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America."

If you want to see her speech for yourself (and you should) go to cnn.com. 

Obama/Biden 08

Song of the Day: Everybody's Got the Right

Sorry for getting this up so late today, but I was at work all day and ever since I've gotten home i haven't been able to turn off the Democratic National Convention broadcast on CNN.  So I thought that today I'd post something kinda relevant - a song from the political musical Assassins.  It's the closing number of the show and I believe it speaks directly to what is happening right now in our country once again.  It's a great show and one of Sondheim's finest works.   Enjoy and if you're interested turn on the DNC broadcast.  It's good stuff so far.

Song of the Day: Wicked Little Town

Today's song of the day is Wicked Little Town from the film version of Hedwig and the Angry Inch.  I love this movie and this musical and John Cameron Mitchell gives the performance of a lifetime in it.  How this guy was passed over for awards consideration is still beyond me.  This song in particular always gets to me every time I hear it and I found it appropriate as I will be leaving San Antonio and returning to Chicago on Thursday.  Enjoy.

The Films I Love: Eyes Wide Shut

In 1999 the world lost one of the greatest filmmakers who had ever lived.  His name was Stanley Kubrick.  His dream was to change to face of filmmaking and to change the way we all look at movies.  And for all intents and purposes he succeeded.  This was the man who brought us Paths of Glory, Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, 2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, and finally Eyes Wide Shut.  I have a love/hate relationship with Kubrick.  I find his films fascinating and his techniques bizarre and often times brilliant, but his sense of narrative is maddening and many of his films (even those equated as masterpieces) stumble through their long winded third acts.  Kubrick was never content to tell a story the way most filmmakers did.  At times in his films he abandoned conventional narrative altogether to deliver a surreal and otherworldly experience, case in point - 2001.  Many of his films are simply a series of events or set pieces that Kubrick forces the viewer to make sense of.  Sometimes these events seem to have little to do with what has come before in the "story" and the only thing tying them together are the protagonist.  He uses symbolism, long takes, drawn out dialogue, pauses, classical music, and most notably - silence - to make his points.  In a Kubrick film almost nothing is as it seems.  He doesn't know how to be straightforward, which is both his greatest strength and weakness.  

Eyes Wide Shut is a brilliant display of all of Kubrick's gifts as a filmmaker and also his shortcomings.  It is a fitting final piece of the puzzle in his filmography and perhaps even answers many questions about the filmmaker himself.  Eyes Wide Shut is Kubrick at his utmost peak as a filmmaker.  Nothing he could have ever done would have topped it.  For me it is the greatest film he has ever made.  Many people would scoff at that.  I wouldn't blame them either because Eyes Wide Shut is a hard film to like or really even care about, but it is fascinating and it paints an interesting picture of the human psyche when it comes to sex, love and relationships.  What makes Eyes Wide Shut so spectacular is it's humanity.  Kubrick has been accused of being a cold and calculated filmmaker with little or no interest in real human emotion. He has been called a man of ideas instead of feeling.  I would argue that he has always been in search of how to best convey humanity through his ideas as a filmmaker.  And here his ideas are fully realized into a picture of disturbing power because of how human it really is.  Eyes Wide Shut represents the sexual passion and urges inside of all of us.  It represents the ultimate human perversity.  It is a scathing statement on how we as people operate on a sexual level.  It's the kind of film that only Kubrick could have made.

From the marketing to the finished product, Kubrick had people fascinated by Eyes Wide Shut. It is his only film to open at Number 1 in the box office.  Part of this had to do with the fact that people wanted to see what the fuss was about.  The film had been shooting for years and spent an entire year in editing.  Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman (who were husband and wife at the time) signed a contract that was open ended and stated that they could not leave the project until Kubrick decided to release them, however long that may be.  The trailer for the film was devilishly provocative and yet told you absolutely nothing about the films plot, but everything about what the film was about.   Kubrick had two of the hottest and sexiest stars at his disposal and many thought that Eyes Wide Shut would be a sexually perverse and steamy story about married psychiatrists who sleep with their patients.  This, of course, proved to be false (to be fair that would have been interesting subject matter in Kubricks hands as well).  The speculation was wild and it didn't help that reports were coming out of a supposed orgy scene that had to be digitally altered due to it's graphic nature.  Then people actually saw the movie.  There were many who passed it off and said it was a film about nothing and that it went nowhere.  And there were those who still flocked to the theater because it was Kubrick's last film and the man had died a few short months earlier.  There were those who loved the film and thought that it represented the best of Kubrick.  And even those that despised it wasted a lot of precious ink do denounce the film for either its boringness or obscene content.

The last thing Eyes Wide Shut is, is boring.  From it's opening scene to it's final moments Kubrick drags you along and makes you wonder just what the hell is going on.  He structures the film as a thriller with supposed murder and intrigue along the way.  But in reality he uses this as a device to explore the human psyche.  He is much more interested in the films sexual undercurrents.  But his thriller style does prove to have a point - sexual desire and obsession can be dangerous and deadly.  It represents a thematic destruction of human relationships.  Our bodies are governed by biological needs and Eyes Wide Shut spends most of it's screen time exploring this idea.  What is so interesting though, is that there is very little sex in the film.  There is plenty of implied sex, but the only real sex scene is the orgy itself, which is shown at a distance.  We the audience are the observers in this strange world that Kubrick has painted just as Tom Cruise's character is.  We are seeing through his eyes.  The fact that there is so little sex is what makes the picture truly disturbing.  It doesn't need it.  Cruise gets so close to sex over and over again that each time it becomes more dangerous and sinister.  There is nothing sexy about Eyes Wide Shut.  If anything the film is a denouncement of America's (and perhaps the worlds) fascination with sex.  In the world we have today sex itself has become a dangerous weapon that cannot be wielded lightly.  Eyes Wide Shut is an exploration of what happens to those who do. 

Eyes Wide Shut - The best video clips are right here

Enough cannot be said about the acting, direction, and cinematography.  It is all painstakingly perfect.  Kubrick's perfectionism is right there on the screen for all of us to see.  Kidman and Cruise chemistry ignites the screen.  They are a believable couple and Kubrick was smart by casting people who were actually married in real life.  If the film had anything to do with their marriage deteriorating I do not know, but I can certainly imagine it didn't help.  Eyes Wide Shut explores subjects that most of us don't want to deal with in relationships especially infidelity and desire.  It is a series of vignettes strung together with a loose plot line and underlying meaning.  With Eyes Wide Shut Kubrick took his own formula for filmmaking and perfected it.  At the end of the movie I finally understood what Kubrick was trying to do all those years and why he made so few movies.  His films consumed him and because of that Eyes Wide Shut was a fitting end to his legacy.  It represents everything Kubrick has ever wanted to say about us and the way we live (in my opinion, I will not pretend to know this great man's inner most thoughts and feelings).  He did change the way movies were made and how we see them.  There will never be another Stanley Kubrick and there will never be another Eyes Wide Shut.

Eyes Wide Shut (1999)

Dir. Stanley Kubrick

159 min.

Zero Academy Award Nominations... what a shame.

Song of the Day: The Movie in My Mind

Apologies for not posting a song of the day yesterday.  I was at work from 10 in the morning till about 11 at night so there wasn't any time for updating the blog.  But the one thing I did accomplish yesterday was talking to my friend who just got back from Japan who now has a callback for the role of Gigi in Miss Saigon!  The show is being put on at the Drury Lane theater in Chicago in December.  To celebrate her callback I am posting the character's song from the show - The Movie in My Mind.  Miss Saigon is one of those productions I would love to have seen the original staging for.  I saw a touring version of the show and a lot of the splendor had been cut out of it.  I've heard the helicopter landing alone was worth a visit to Broadway back in the early 90's.  I got to see a projected one... great.  I'm not all about spectacle theater, but at times it can be very effective - Phantom of the Opera (a show i despise, but the Vegas production's staging is astounding) and Les Miserables being two great examples of this.  I believe back in it's day Miss Saigon was another.  Enjoy.

Review: Vicky Cristina Barcelona

Woody Allen's latest is a fiery and sexy film about love and lust with a stellar cast more than suited for Allen's classic neurotic, smart, sophisticated, intelligent and distinctively adult dialogue.  Barcelona provides a seductive backdrop for this tale mixed with bohemian free love and more uptight New York sensibilities.  It's a film that dives deep into the spirit of love and sex and what it means to follow your hearts desires.  Love isn't sensible in any way and Allen's script illustrates this perfectly by portraying two completely different leading ladies who both fall for the same man.  This man happens to be Juan Antonio, a passionate painter who propositions Vicky and Cristina (childhood friends) to a weekend of food, wine, sights and sex in a neighboring Spanish island.  From there the two women's life styles clash with one another and their surroundings as they begin to fall in love with this wild and sexy bohemian spirit. 

What makes this set-up so interesting is that the casting is so pitch perfect.  Vicky, portrayed by Rebecca Hall, plays the uptight neurotic New York woman.  She's intelligent and stuffy and at times you have a feeling that she is playing the Woody Allen role in the film.  It's refreshing seeing this role go to a woman instead of a man and it shows that Allen's neuroses are pretty universal and are not defined by sex or gender.  Hall gives the role some nuances that are missing from most "Allen" roles, especially in the second half of the film when her heart is pulled by both what she knows is right and what she knows could lead to disaster. Cristina is played by Allen's latest muse, Scarlett Johansson.  In Allen's past films I felt he never really knew how to use Johansson appropriately.  In Match Point (a film I loved) she was used as the sex pot, but with her manish voice and slightly typical looks it was a strange choice.  In the end you bought into it because there is something remarkably different about Johanson when compared to most other women working in film today.  In Scoop she was supposed to be plucky and comic, but the film suffered due to her unconvincing performance.  But here as the would be free spirit with conflicting emotions, she works quite well.  Cristina doesn't know what she wants out of life and simply goes wherever the wind takes her and then later quickly discovers she may have made a mistake. She is the perfect catalyst to explore the films central conflict, which is between Juan Antonio and his ex-wife...

Javier Bardem is PERFECTLY cast as the painter Juan Antonio with the broken heart and misguided notions about love.  In fact, I have never seen Bardem be so charismatic and lighthearted as he is here.  It's just such a relaxed and, here comes that word again, SEXY performance.  Sitting in the theater I couldn't help but fall in love with Juan Antonio myself.  But it is his ex-wife played to perfection by Penelope Cruz who pulls the rug out from under everyone.  Cruz is on fire as the passionate, yet crazed ex-wife who is still very much in love with her ex-husband.  I have always thought Cruz was an actress with potential who has just never quite gotten there, but here she really makes it work.  From her first scene to her last you can see the layers of vulnerability going on with this character and the intense passion that lies beneath her weathered exterior.  It's a great performance and it comes in at just the right point in the film when things start to slow down a bit to throw some much needed spice into the mix.

The film is expertly photographed Javier Aguirresarobe who makes the city of Barcelona a character within the film inhabiting almost every single frame.  Allen always manages to work with some of the best foreign cinematographers and Barcelona is no exception.  Combine this with Allen's best and most insightful script since Hannah and Her Sisters and his own sure-fired direction - what you have is one of the best films of the year.  

Much has been said about how in recent films Allen has lost his way as a filmmaker.  My response to this is that Allen never lost his way... in fact I believe we have lost ours.  Allen has always been a classic filmmaker inspired by foreign directors such as Godard and Bergman and his filmmaking style has reflected that.  He has always written adult scripts with high-brow dialogue and an old fashioned sense of narrative.  And we as an audience were always willing to accept this all the way through his 1980's work.  But once we got to the 90's audience patience for Allen's sense of comedy and the way he wanted to tell a story began to wane.  Now in the 2000's we have almost no patience for it at all.  We are so used to high concept, little substance Hollywood types of films that we cannot even begin to comprehend a film that relies so much on people simply talking.  And there is a lot of dialogue in most of Allen's films.  Allen matured as a filmmaker throughout the 70's and 80's, but once he hit the 90's he found his style and voice and he hasn't deterred from it's since and we have grown tired of it.  But Allen's filmmaking is so pure and simple it reminds one of how movies used to be made and what movies used to be about - story and character.  We as moviegoers have largely forgotten about these two things instead focusing on flashy camera moves, big special effects, sex and violence to carry us through.  I'm not defending all of Allen's films, but if you look at his filmography of late I would say his work in the 2000's is on par with what he did in the 90's.  Think about it, in the 90's he gave us Bullets Over Broadway and Husbands and Wives.  Two of his best films.  He also gave us Manhattan Murder Mystery and Mighty Aphrodite, which is on par with Small Time Crooks and Hollywood Ending form this decade. Critics tend to be unfairly cruel to Allen when he makes a movie these days.  But he makes one film a year and sometimes even two.  Not all of them are going to be masterpieces... but look at the masterpieces he has given us - Annie Hall, Manhattan, Broadway Danny Rose, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Bullets Over Broadway, and Husbands and Wives.  Now look at the GREAT movies he has given us - Sleeper, Interiors, Zelig, Radio Days, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Deconstructing Harry, Sweet and Lowdown, Match Point and now Vicky Cristina Barcelona.  Any director would kill to have that many good films in his/her filmography.  So in short, lay off Woody Allen people. The man deserves respect as an artist.  And go see Vicky Cristina Barcelona.  One of the best films of the year.

Song of the Day: Some Enchanted Evening

Back in March when I was in New York the revival of South Pacific was in previews and I was dying to catch it.  Unfortunately it was already sold out way past opening night.  I had a feeling this thing would be an enormous hit with critics and audiences especially since it hadn't been seen on Broadway in decades.  I have never been a huge fan of South Pacific, but it's score is probably one of the most iconic ever put on a Broadway stage.  Here we have the gorgeous Kelli O'Hara and renowned opera singer Paulo Szot singing the most famous song form the show - Some Enchanted Evening.  Enjoy

Note of Interest: There were rumors circling that a revival of My Fair Lady would be hitting Broadway sometime in the near future with Kelli O'Hara in the lead. Now that is a production I would LOVE to see.

MAKE IT STOP!!!!

The studio is now going to be releasing Mamma Mia sing alongs to theaters.  This insanity has to stop.  Mamma Mia is perhaps the poorest excuse for a movie musical since the release of The Producers remake.  But it's worse than that.  Almost all of the acting is cringe worthy (including the great Meryl Streep, the choreography is childlike (I'm no dancer and I could have done that shit in my sleep), the script is horribly cliche, ABBA's songs barely fit into any kind of plot within the film and often times are there just to have another song, Pierce Brosnan sounds like he's dying when he sings, the ending is beyond ludicrous, and for the first time ever during a musical I just wanted everyone to shut the hell up before my ears started to bleed. This is a bad bad movie and the last thing we need is a sing along version.  You know why this is selling tickets?  Because old folks love ABBA and Meryl Streep.  The two together are golden to them.  You know what? I dont give a shit.  This is a big step backwards for movie musicals.  If you all miss ABBA so much release a concert of them.  Get a reunion going, film it and release it.  But please spare us musical lovers from complete shit like this.  I'm begging you studio heads. PLEASE!

Song of the Day: War is a Science

I just got done doing a production of Pippin back in April, with a sort of repeat concert excerpt in May.  It was a great experience and probably the most fun I have ever had doing a musical.  I played King Charles and after watching this video from a recorded production of Bob Fosse's Pippin I am extremely grateful that I didn't watch it in advance.  I clearly had a very different take on the character than what was originally designed and I'm glad my director allowed me to go there.  Pippin isn't a great musical by any means, but it's a fun one and a ball for character actors like me to sink their teeth into.  Enjoy.

Note of Interest: I'm playing with the idea of posting some clips of my work up here on this site, which would probably include this role.  We'll see how it goes.

Song of the Day: I Am Changing

When Dreamgirls came out a couple years a go I was pretty impressed with the film.  I thought it had an exceptional cast (minus Jaime Foxx), solid direction, inspired choreography, and beautiful orchestrations of the now infamous songs.  But the best thing about it was probably the fact that it wasn't scared of being a real movie musical, silliness and all.  I never really jumped on the Jennifer Hudson bandwagon.  I thought she was extremely affective in all of her singing scenes, but her straight acting scenes fell a little flat.  It didn't matter though and it still doesn't.  Effie is primarily a scene stealing role through song.  It's a showcase for a great singer and Jennifer Hudson is a great singer.  I had said long before the film ever came out that whoever played that role would end up winning the Oscar.  And I was right.  But for all the noise made about Effie's signature number And I Am Tellin' You, I personally thought that I Am Changing was the real star making number for miss Hudson.  She performs it impeccably and it is my favorite moment in the movie.  Enjoy.

Note of Interest: Personally for me the real star of Dreamgirls was Eddie Murphy in the role that should have won him the Best Supporting Actor Oscar that instead went to Allen Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine.  If you want to see the original Effie, Jennifer Holiday, singing I Am Changing click here.  This woman is such a parody of herself now.  It's kinda sad.