Pop Cultured America

10 Things I Know For Sure About The Les Miserables Movie

Thu, 20 Dec 2012 11:00:22 -0800

In the coming week, there will be a million different reviews and opinions of the Les Miserables film, but I feel pretty strongly that mine are more like facts. These are the top 10 things I know for sure about the Les Miserables movie.

10. Helena Bonham Carter must spend so much time being weird off screen that when she shows up at work, she is just too exhausted to do it on screen…when it’s supposed to happen. Thanks for being boring….again.

9. Tom Hooper clearly had four different concepts for this film. He just forgot to pick one & put them all in this film. The one where they sometimes talk straight to the camera. The one where in one scene they use a fish eye camera. The one where the street where the barricade looks like a cartoon, but nothing else does. And, lastly, the one where Frances Ruffelle has a cameo as a whore. (Hint: That’s my favorite one)

8. I feel like right here I should tell you that I really did like this movie. A lot. I cried at least 6 times.

7. Sacha Baron Cohen does not need to be in any more movies that I have to see. Thank you for asking.

6. The live singing works. It really, really works & I don’t particularly need to see another movie musical that doesn’t utilize this revolutionary technique again. It struck me, while watching, that the Les Miserables film will probably revolutionize how movie musicals are made forever, just like the live show did for stage musicals. Do You Hear The People Sing? Yes, yes I do and they seem to be feeling things too. It’s a miserable miracle!

5. The movie stars are better than the stage stars that are in this film. (Hugh Jackman excluded, he is not a movie or stage star, he is probably a real star, like from the sky)

4. Russell Crowe has a decent singing voice, but he obviously spent about as much time on his diction as he did making interesting acting choices in this film. Translation: None.

3. Everyone who thinks Eddie Redmayne A) is not perfect as Marius & B) shouldn’t be nominated for an Oscar is, in fact, an idiot. He should be nominated for one major award for every perfect freckle on his body.

2. I don’t like Anne Hathaway. I don’t know why, but I don’t. I do, however, almost love her rendition of I DREAMED A DREAM. It is wonderful & I have chosen to be the bigger person & applaud her for it (but not literally, it’s weird when people clap in movie musicals).

1. Hugh Jackman’s performance will change the way movie musicals are made. Forever. We owe him a lot more than an Oscar, but we definitely owe him an Oscar. I mean, VALJEAN’S SOLILOQUOY alone should win the Oscar for best short film….although it may technically be an animated short. Ask Tom.

Congratulations, I told you these things.

@RyanOConnor

Bent & Snapped

Fri, 10 Aug 2012 16:39:00 -0700

Last week, my 8-year-old niece was visiting my Mom in Birmingham, Alabama. My Mom called me and told me she was going to take her to see LEGALLY BLONDE at Red Mountain Theatre where my friend, Bailey Hanks, was reprising her role as Elle Woods in the high-spirited musical about a young whippersnapper of a girl whose ambition and good intentions often far exceed her basic capabilities.

I met Bailey back in 2008 when she was competing for, and ultimately won, the top prize on LEGALLY BLONDE; THE SEARCH FOR THE NEXT ELLE WOODS on MTV. I was the host, at the time, of a niche popular YouTube series called THE RYAN O’CONNOR SHOW, and I devoted every Tuesday to recapping the reality series with my roommate and best girl friend, Nina Millin. We absolutely fell in love with Bailey, and our recaps got enough attention that she ended up finding them and we became fast friends.

So, last week, it was natural that I text Bailey and told her that my Mom and niece were going to be at the Sunday matinee and would she mind meeting them after and taking a picture with my niece. She was genuinely thrilled to hear from me, agreed to the photo and met my niece and made her day. My Mom and niece also said Bailey was fantastic in the show, and my Mom noted that she has gotten even better since she was on the reality series.

Now, less than a week later, there is a Broadway firestorm that only Morgan James could be relieved about, because this weeks Broadway twitter villain is Bailey Hanks. Bailey Facebooked a photo of her meal and subsequent support of Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, the now well documented anti-gay marriage rally inspired by the restaurant’s CEO Dan Cathy’s choice to publicly oppose gay marriage through his life’s work….. chicken sandwich’s.

Bailey supports this stance based on her own religious beliefs. Anyone who knows Bailey, or follows her on Twitter or Facebook knows that Bailey is a devout Southern Christian girl. Even on the reality show I wondered how her conservative views would meld with the liberal Broadway community, but she seemed to do well and make friends and eventually left New York for Nashville.

Bailey and I have never discussed politics. We’ve never even discussed gay marriage or her stance on it. I married my husband last year and Bailey and I are not so close that she was invited, but had she been, I think she would have either attended, politely declined and possibly sent a gift, or maybe she would have opened up to me about her beliefs, but I do not think she would be opposed to me and the man I love expressing our devotion to each other. What I think Bailey does have is a passionate spirit. She is passionate about her family, her career, her fiancé and her religion. She does not believe in gay marriage. She believes it is against God’s will and as much as I wish I could shake it out of her, tell her to see the ridiculousness of that, realize it just doesn’t work like that. It’s not my place. I can’t tell her what to think, do, feel or believe.

Here’s where we hit one tiny little snag. We are not our beliefs. We are our actions. When we act from love, devotion and right thinking, we are always going to serve our message better by taking right action and keeping our side of the street clean the best way we know how. What doesn’t work is hate. Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day and it’s subsequent similar events, are hate based actions. There is no such thing as an action taken out of love resulting in the hate of another human. When Sarah & Todd Palin bought food and tweeted photos of it at Chick-fil-A last week, they were not acting from love, they were acting from hate and opposition. This type of hateful action only inspires targeted, violent hate groups to rally and act out violently. That cannot be God’will, no matter what your religion. Supporting Chick-fil-A is not supporting a company that believes IN something, it is a company that actively believes AGAINST something. Dr Wayne Dyer says, “ Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you.” I don’t think Bailey Hanks is truly AGAINST gay people, but I think the people she is looking to for guidance and inspiration aren’t showing her what to be FOR.

I understand the impulse to scold and attack Bailey for her actions, regardless of her intentions. I understand how angry we feel and how shocking it is that in 2012 we have to face down this kind of discrimination. Nothing about Bailey’s photo is right or ok, and I certainly hope that no one who saw it felt either hated by it, or inspired to act on hate because of it, but people like Bailey are not the enemy. Actions like Bailey’s Facebook photo are just symptoms of a disease of hate mongering from a population of people who have such fear-based ethics they can’t function any other way. If every day you are told to fear eternal damnation, you are going to scramble to do whatever you are told is right, even if the product of that scramble is hateful actions disguised as defending what’s right.

When Bailey text me last week about meeting my Mom and niece, she ended her text with “I Miss You. Xoxo” And I believe her. I miss her too.

http://youtu.be/3C4qsXHO-N

Photo

Mon, 21 May 2012 11:19:11 -0700

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:04:05 -0800

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

treeshugme: I want this at my wedding!

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 02:36:19 -0700

treeshugme:

I want this at my wedding!

So…that happened.

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 00:28:11 -0700

So…that happened.

bellbottomsgirl: 60s Mods - My Mum was a mod. Photos to...

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:25:58 -0700

bellbottomsgirl:

60s Mods - My Mum was a mod. Photos to follow!

Photo

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 02:23:50 -0700

skinnylittlebitchhh: RIP Elizabeth Taylor…Like a pure white...

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 16:41:51 -0700

skinnylittlebitchhh:

RIP Elizabeth Taylor…Like a pure white diamond you’ll shine on and on and on.”
-Kylie Minogue

Kickstarter - Ryan O'Connor Eats New York City

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 14:23:06 -0800

Kickstarter - Ryan O'Connor Eats New York City:

Give Money Get Things (and feel good about yourself)

Elimination Station

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 13:47:44 -0800

About half way through my one-man show, “Ryan O’Connor Eats His Feelings”, I have always sung a song by Katie Thompson called “America’s Queen”. The song was especially written for me to hopefully gain Oprah Winfrey’s attention and convince her to have me on the 25^th and final season of The Oprah Winfrey Show. I first sang that song one year ago, February 5^th, at The Celebration Theatre.

One year later, I am writing a blog about my 4^th place finish on the reality TV competition “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star”.

WHAT. A. YEAR.

May 14^th, 2010

Oprah Winfrey announces she will be producing a “search for the next talk show host”

June 1^st, 2010

I depart for the national tour of “Ryan O’Connor Eats His Feelings”

June 17^th, 2010 –

I shoot and submit my “audition video” for Your OWN Show in my hometown of Scottsdale, Arizona

July 1^st, 2010

While on tour in Nashville, Oprah’s childhood home, the producers of Your OWN Show call me to ask me some follow up questions and tell me they will get back to me if I’m still in the running.

July 6^th, 2010

In Chicago, less than 2 hours after visiting HARPO Studios for the first time ever, I get the call that I am one of the top 40 finalists for Your OWN Show and I have to fly back to LA immediately following my show at Davenport’s.

July 12^th – July 16^th, 2010

I attend a grueling “finals” week where I have 3 separate meeting with Mark Burnett and the executives of the show plus the executives of the OWN Network. Eventually, we are narrowed down to the final 20 and told we will receive a call “in a month or so” if we are chosen.

July 19^th, 2010 –

Close my national tour at Joe’s Pub in NYC and sing an encore of “A Quiet Thing” to an audience who doesn’t know that I am actually singing about something HUGE!

August 13^th, 2010 –

Scott Salyers, casting director for YOS calls and tells me I have been selected as one of the 10 contestants for “Your OWN Show: Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star” . I scream, I cry, I call my mother, I call my boyfriend…..I start shopping and packing.

September 13^th, 2010, - We begin shooting “Your OWN Show” and, finally, after 25 years of anticipation, I meet Oprah Winfrey.

MEETING OPRAH WINFREY

There aren’t adequate words to describe the experience. They say never meet your heroes and I say, bullshit. If your hero is Oprah Winfrey, meet her… she’s fantastic. If you get a chance to WORK with her… even better. She is everything you need and more.

YOUR OWN SHOW

Well, what can I say that hasn’t been shown? Plenty of things, haha, but I won’t. Upon leaving any reality competition, by law, one must undergo a psychiatric evaluation and exit interview. The therapist who works for Mark Burnett is phenomenal and she gave me really good advice. “Don’t try to explain this experience to anyone, they won’t get it. They can’t. It’s unreal” I didn’t know at the time how valuable those words would come to be.

THE OPRAH WINFREY SHOW

That was the biggie for me. Doing the show, the reality competition, was wonderful and exciting and challenging, but The Oprah Winfrey Show was symbolic and empowering and THE REAL DEAL. It proved, ultimately, to me, that I can accomplish ANYTHING I set out to do. No dream is too big or impossible. So, now that I know that, what shall I dream up next?

MY FELLOW CONTESTANTS

Only 10 of us will ever have this experience. Only 10 of us can say we were in People magazine with a headline that read “Oprah’s Chosen Ones”. Only 10 of us shared that moment when Oprah surprised us the first time. Because of that, we are all fellows. I have respect and admiration for every one of my fellow contestants and am proud of everything they did to get to the show and everything they will do after. TEREY. My hometown sister. I treasure you and will be in your life always. You are love and spirit and goodness and joy all wrapped up in one, ever shrinking package of deliciousness. KRISTINA. I’ll say it again, to watch you in a kitchen is to watch someone dance. You are a loving, nurturing, deeply feeling and truly gifted powerhouse of a mother and wife and friend and competitor. You made this show so fun. I will always remember the ladies room. AUNT FLORA. I love it when you call me papa bear. It makes my heart sing. Your talent and love and that dash of sass makes a perfect recipe. ALICIA. You are a force and a spirit that can’t be explained but experienced. As Carson said early on, we may not like each other, but we make a helluva team! All the best to you. May your hard work and determination get you everything you desire. ELIZABETH. LA lady. Keep on keeping on and I will see you around town, I’m sure. TONY. I said it all before and it wasn’t well received, haha, but everyone knows that. I wish you peace. ERIC. I missed you so much when you left. You were such heart on Team Focus and I truly wish you had the opportunity to show America what you showed us, your PASSION for, not just food, life. I know you are gonna get that chance. See you at Rochester. LEIGH. Oh, if only we could have had more screen time together! The laughter that would have ensued! I love you; I love your family and that precious baby girl who needed you more than we did. Wow how life makes the big decisions for you. America will get you soon enough and they will realize you were, in fact, the one to beat. And last, but certainly not least, my boy ZACH. I think the thing I get most defensive about on the message boards, or in comments, are the things said about me in relation to you, Zach. Because, I truly believe that the time I spent working with you was truly the most incredible thing about this whole experience. Working with you felt, and feels, like working with an extension of myself. Who would have thought that two people of such VASTLY different life experiences could have a common voice? Move over Lucy and Ethel, here comes Zach and Ryan!

ELIMINATION

I was so nervous about my elimination episode. I was so worried that there was going to be some sort of surprise editing or forced justification of my departure but, in fact, the producers of Your OWN Show, being classy individuals, told the truth. Team Focus worked hard, leaned on Alicia’s strengths and did the best we could with what we were given. I was hard on Zach because I was honest. Zach agreed and I said nothing different about him than he said himself. I have enough respect for Zach, as he does for me, to point out when he could have done better. If telling the truth is throwing someone under the bus, I wanna be a bus driver, because I LOVE HONESTY! In the end, I took responsibility for my role as Executive Producer and Alicia took her responsibility for her role as host. I interviewed Suze Orman to the best of my ability and the judges, ultimately, made their decision based on those facts.

VIEWERS, FAMILY, FRIENDS & FANS

This is all you. You are the gas for this little engine that could. On some level, when I approached my interview with Suze, I KNEW I was on my way out. That’s why I sang the “Hello, everyone, hello” because I wanted you all their with me. You believed in me before I knew how to believe in myself. I can never repay that except to honor it by pushing even harder and further toward my dreams.

“America’s Queen’ has a new spin to it now, and I couldn’t love it or her more.

As I said in my exit from the show, my dream of being a talk show host doesn’t end here. It didn’t start here, so it can’t end here. It’s a marathon, not a sprint and, to quote Jay Z…. On to the next one.

Xoxoxo

Ryan

www.TheRyanOConnorShow.com

Sara Jean Ford saves the Broadway!

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 13:36:21 -0800

Sara Jean Ford saves the Broadway!

Video

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:20:17 -0700

Video

Sun, 15 Aug 2010 01:19:52 -0700

The Hollywood Bowl Pays Their RENT

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 02:56:00 -0700

I sat in section K1 of the Hollywood Bowl tonight, for the final performance of the Neil Patrick Harris helmed, all star cast of Jonathan Larson’s 1996 monster musical, RENT, and at the end, was swarmed with thoughts I planned to bombard my Twitter followers with. But, upon some reflection, I realized that these thoughts were mostly just my own projections of what I, Ryan, wanted and needed it all to be about.

RENT is, and I truly believe Jonathan Larson himself would agree, an unpolished almost final draft of a great musical. The book, namely the second act, is incredibly flawed, and there is no need to open the decade long debate over the questionable ending and unexplainable, “over the moon”, survival of a character that clearly would not have survived another draft, if Larson had lived to write it. But none of these opinions matter today, as this musical has managed to break through the almost unbreakable barrier between obscure American musical theatre to the mainstream pop culture of today’s America. Tonight, I witnessed a SOLD OUT crowd at the final of 3 SOLD OUT performances of a MUSICAL at the Hollywood Bowl. That’s over 50,000 people who went to see a MUSICAL in 2010 in one weekend! Those of us who follow and care about musical theatre know that is a f*#%ing MIRACLE!

So, the question is, why were they there and does it even matter? This production got a lot of flack, from it’s inception, for being too “star-studded” and was accused of putting name talent in place of where legitimate theatrical talent should have appeared. After all, the director himself, Harris, has managed to become the biggest theatre celebrity alive today, and he hasn’t appeared on Broadway since the Roundabout Theatre’s revival of Sondheim’s Assassins in 2004, and yet it is still the fans of his CBS series, How I Met Your Mother, that undoubtedly sold more tickets this weekend and, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter. If we are truly trying to save American musical theatre from an untimely end, shouldn’t we be thrilled that this man has leant his name, and brought some fancy friends to us instead of to a more mainstream cause like, say, PETA?

I’m not, by any means, saying that celebrity casting in the theatre has not become an epidemic, but tonight I saw something truly astounding at the Hollywood Bowl. Two of those celebrity names, in a cast chock full of theatre veterans, gave those Broadway babies a run for their money, and that was a sight to see! Sure, there were some theatrical heavyweights on that stage, Aaron Tveitt, the Broadway boy-du-jour, gave a wonderfully sung, if slightly miscast, portrayal of Roger. Skylar Astin, of Spring Awakening fame, gave a solid go at the role of Mark and Tracie Thoms gave, once again, her dynamic portrayal of Joane us theatre folk have come to expect from her. Yet the production truly belonged to three performers, and two of them were part of the “all-star” cast that Harris had gotten soooo much flack for in the beginning. Wayne Brady, as Tom Collins, delivered such a subtle, nuanced performance, that by the time he reached his “I’ll Cover You (Reprise)” in the second act, tears were streaming down my face that I didn’t even know were there, I was so transfixed. Telly Leung, as Angel, stepped up to center stage (Leung was the Angel understudy in the final Broadway company of the show) and gave Hollywood a glimpse at theatre magic they hadn’t seen in a long time. However, this production, this weekend and, quite possibly this show, now belong to the theatrical woman of the hour, the Pussycat Doll herself, Nicole Scherzinger as Maureen. From the second she took the stage, in a brilliant directorial choice of having the Dancing With the Stars champion actually tango during the number, “Tango: Maureen”, through her stellar, one-of-a –kind version of “Over the Moon” to her powerhouse “Take Me Or Leave Me”, this “stunt cast” talent rocked the Hollywood Bowl in to a frenzy of shock-and-awe that was a true theatrical “star is born” moment, challenging anyone to dare say she didn’t deserve the role. I would imagine every Broadway producer in New York will be waking Monday morning with the sole mission of getting her rep’s on the phone to book her on the Great White Way asap. And let’s all pray, for the theatre’s sake, that we haven’t been so hard on her that she passes it up, because she is a talent we want on our side.

There were, of course, one or two “names” in the cast that failed to live up to the weight of their roles. I have decided not to mention them specifically, although you are all smart enough to figure it out who they are, because at the end of the day, these are humans who tried their best and, with over 50,000 people watching, did something really terrifying this weekend, so for that, I applaud them. I would also like to add, on a slight tangent, that this show is far too personal and intimate to truly resonate in a space as large as the Hollywood Bowl, and next year, I hope they stick to something a bit more “Bowl friendly”.

So, now, my final thought. Yes, the casting of all artistic endeavors should be talent driven, I don’t argue that point. But I do wonder if sometimes us theatre fans don’t just do ourselves, and others, a disservice by dismissing talent as “just a celebrity”. Because, as I see it, what we may see as “that girl from the Pussycat Dolls” just might be what saves the musical from fading away into obscurity.

Time Out: NY - GRATEFUL

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:22:54 -0700

Time Out: NY - GRATEFUL

“A mark, a yen a buck or a pound, try my phone but I...

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:05:55 -0700

“A mark, a yen a buck or a pound, try my phone but I won’t be around”

VOTE FOR...

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 18:30:54 -0700

VOTE FOR RYAN!

http://myown.oprah.com/audition/index.html?request=video_details&response_id=17204&promo_id=1

VOTE for @Oprah to give me MY OWN SHOW!

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 19:56:27 -0700

VOTE for @Oprah to give me MY OWN SHOW!

ZOMBIE

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 19:57:25 -0700

ZOMBIE