Mary Poppins

The Fourth Opens Near Union Square

"Were those used in the London Olympics?" whispered our dining companion as we sat down at the bar at The Fourth. He was referring to the sculpture work hanging from the ceiling, which is oddly reminiscent of the hospital beds into which children were tucked in the opening ceremonies as dozens of Ma ... More >>

Bill de Blasio Met The Drag Queens Last Night

Last night at the Cutting Room, Cynthia Nixon and Alan Cumming hosted a rousing event for mayoral wannabe Bill de Blasio, whose liberal stance and "We want our city back!" slogan have become pretty irresistible in the face of our Mary Poppins state. In fact, I appeared in a skit with Unitard's Nora ... More >>

Matilda Opens On Broadway: My Thoughts

Matilda has arrived, based on the 1988 Roald Dahl book, and it's British vaudeville on a grand scale. Take the creepier parts lurking in Annie and Mary Poppins and give them the main stage, and you've got this show's aesthetic, populated with herky jerky people bopping around an elaborate, absurdis ... More >>

Beth Ditto Is Coming To XL! Here's Our Chat

Powerhouse singer and lovable bohemian Beth Ditto is coming to xl this Saturday, where she'll blaze across the stage and belt out her best-known songs, including "I Wrote The Book," "Move in the Right Direction," and "Get a Job." In a phoner yesterday, Beth filled me in on what her performance wil ... More >>

Weep for David Duchovny's Penis: On the Terribleness of Californication, Season 6

Wicked's Record Breaking Week: What's Behind It?

The long running Broadway smash Wicked posted a weekly gross of almost three million dollars for the week between Christmas and New Year's, edging out the previous record by Spider-Man: Turn off the Dark. Having seen the show, you might well wonder: "Why is the musical with the green lady still rac ... More >>

The Top 10 Films of 2012

The end of cinema? Hardly.

"Aimee Semple McPherson Was Nothing But A Whore!"

Since Kathie Lee Gifford has co-written that Scandalous musical about Aimee Semple McPherson, maybe someone should tell her to add the above little tidbit. It was uttered with conviction by none other than the immortal Bette Davis. The two-time Oscar winner is quoted in Elizabeth Fuller's book Me ... More >>

Lorna Luft And Others Sing Streisand Hits!

And it's to benefit Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. This will be my last Barbra item for at least two days, but it's important that you know tickets are still available for the benefit concert featuring various stars doing Barbra's greatest hits on Friday October 12. Lorna Luft is doing "The Ma ... More >>

Forbidden Broadway Takes a Stab at It

A favorite showbiz revue returns with knives drawn

My Favorite Child Stars Of All Time

Before you chime in with "But you forgot...": No, I didn't. These are my personal favorites. Feel free to tell me yours.

The Least Convincing Couple in Screen History

According to Peter Bart's book Infamous Players, it was Rock Hudson and Julie Andrews in the 1970 romantic spy drama Darling Lili. Writes Bart, who at the time was a junior executive faced with the job of looking at the rushes: "Their supposedly steamy love scene had as much fizzle as day-old beer ... More >>

Carrie The Musical Is Back: My Review

Every living being claims to have seen Carrie, the legendary 1988 Broadway flop musical based on the Stephen King novel about the small-town girl who gets revenge on the bullies via bloodying up the prom. It was the original "It Gets Better" video. Well, I really saw it and I have the Playbill to ... More >>

Paris Hilton Is Positively Brimming With Positivity!

Maybe it's because she's got some projects percolating. Perhaps it's because the hot air has burst out of Kim Kardashian's balloons. But whatever the case, read Paris Hilton's tweets these days and you'll be invigorated, uplifted, and quite possibly feel your teeth ache. The sociable socialite is ... More >>

The Weirdest Pedophile Songs Of All Time

​Way back in the '60s, there emerged a bizarre musical genre--guys singing about their attraction to underage girls and how wrong it was! In 1967, Neil Diamond belted the suggestive "Girl, You'll Be A Woman Soon." ("Please come take my hand/Girl, you'll be a woman soon/Soon, you'll need a man ... More >>

Whoopi Goldberg Breaks Broadway Record

When it was announced that Ghost the musical would come to Broadway, hot on the heels of the current Sister Act, I realized, "That's two musicals based on Whoopi Goldberg movies!"

Cupola Samarkanda II Speeds the Plov

Take a toki without fear of arrest under the F tracks

Cat Run: A Hyper-Processed Pulp Caper

'Night of 1000 Gowns' Was Blindingly Bodacious

​As part of the coronation procession for the Imperial Court of NY's Night of 1000 Gowns--along with Christian Freedom (above), who styled me in the red and the black--I got to see all the queens up close. Anne T. Venom. Bobbie Pinzs. Wanda Lust. Vin D. Cation. Rocky Mountains. And ... More >>

New Edition: Pedro Espada's Guide to Non-Profit Profiteering

​The indictment of state senator Pedro Espada Jr. and his son yesterday on federal embezzlement and conspiracy charges makes a pretty good guide for how to pick a nonprofit pocket: -For starters there's creative Amex card use: Espada's own lousy credit rating made him ineligible for the Don't- ... More >>

Julie Andrews Plays Against Type in New Animated Film

​Oscar winning goodie-good Julie Andrews didn't want to play Steve Carrell's mother in the animated film Despicable Me. Not at first, anyway. See, Carrell voices the villainous Gru, and Jules was offered the vocal role of his overpowering shrew of a horrible mother. It's as far from Mary Pop ... More >>

Why This Decade Sucked, Reason #9: Artists Joined The Farm League

​ We will, in the closing days of this wretched decade, list the Top Ten reasons why it sucked. Reason #10 is here. This is #9.   Name your favorite artists of the past decade. Tough one, huh? The Voice plays the best-of-decade game in the current issue, and we salute the fine crit ... More >>

Clip Job: The Second Annual Village Voice Film Poll (Bonus: The First Poll, Too!)

Julie Christie in 'Darling'​Clip Job: an excerpt every day from the Voice archives. February 10, 1966, Vol. XI, No. 17 Films By Andrew Sarris The Second Annual Village Voice Readers' 10-best poll, held this year in conjunction with my Films in Focus program on WBAI, received entries from a ... More >>

The Worst Accents in Screen History

​ No, Meryl Streep's name is nowhere near this list. But if you click on this survey, you'll find no fewer than two Brad Pitt performances (one of his accents is described as sounding merely like a sore throat), a legendarily bad Cockney accent by Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins (" 'Allo, Guvn ... More >>

Booze on Broadway: What Next?

The '80s jukebox musical Rock of Ages has been trying to scare up extra bucks and applause by having crouching workers run down the aisles selling alcoholic beverages to the crowd throughout the show (though when I saw it, no one was biting. They must have already been tanked from the matinee.) If ... More >>

New York Celebs Do Cell-Phone Audio Tours of Central Park

Usually we're all, "blar, we've been living here 100 years and we don't need an audio tour," even in museums where we don't know shit about shit, but here's something we might actually do: cell-phone audio commentary on city landmarks, performed by local celebrities. For example, "Yoko Ono introduce ... More >>

Disney Staff Songwriters Documented in The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story

It Must Suck To Be a Water Sports Top

I just met a guy at the Townhouse who said he's a water sports bottom, and while I pretended to take his number, the whole encounter got me thinking about something rather provocative: How is it possible to be a water sports top? How you can unleash a spray of urine on someone if that's what makes y ... More >>

Inside Michael Lucas

The most loved and hated man in porn, gay icon Michael Lucas has really big lips and he loves to flap them around. Click here for this week's column and you'll get a long and dirty q&a with Lucas, who uncorks his thoughts about the mob, Viagra, penis enlargement, hustling, flatulence, and why his bu ... More >>

The Greatest Gay Icons of All Time

Gay icon"These deeply personal, campy, and insightful essays illuminate the eternal bond between gay men and their fabulous diva icons," says the blurb on the back of a new book called My Diva. And you know it's true because that blurb was written by yours fucking truly! The book has 65 gay men bea ... More >>

Is Tilda Swinton Still Getting Typed?

Alan Strevens Tilda Swinton is the brilliant Oscar winner who always seems to get cast as an icy, bitchy, evil wrongdoer. I've long hoped movieland would give the woman a break and let her play Mary Poppins for a change--or at least the lion or the wardrobe--but here's the official description of h ... More >>

GOLDEN BOY

Film Society explores the curious David Fincher

Welcome to Baz Luhrmann's Australia

Somewhere over the dateline, the not-quite-marvelous land of Oz

Kunal Kohli's Thoda Pyaar, Thoda Magic

Four plucky Walia children and a dancing velociraptor in this Bollywood release

Britney's Umbrella Victim Speaks Out for the First Time

A New Crisis for Britney's Sister?

Watching a career sore. And hearing amid the praise for Day-Lewis: 'Huston. We have a problem.'

America Cannes

Art imitates life as U.S. directors command this year's fest, with only China rivaling for celluloid domination

Re-Bourne

A virtuoso storyteller snips a movie classic into a wordless dance

NY Mirror

NY Mirror

NY Mirror

'Nanny McPhee'

A Big Chitty Mess

Outcast Ballots

Evil, mayhem strike early in the voting for 2004

Off Directing (Part I)

Cost-Cutting Tip for Theaters: Delete the Art That's Lost Its Meaning

Film

Cinema Alfresco

NY Mirror

Wanna Love It, But I'm Getting Blown Away

Making the Scenes

New Dramatists Turns 50

Broadways and Means