Showbiz History: Black Panther, Sweet Charity, and Paul & Joanne Marry

10 random things that happened on this day, January 29th, in showbiz history

1937 The Good Earth has its world premiere in Los Angeles though it won't really be playing for the general public until the summer. It later receives five Oscar nominations including Best Picture. Luise Rainer in "yellow face" (sigh) becomes the first actor, male or female, to win consecutive Oscars. 

1951 Elizabeth Taylor divorces her first husband, hotel heir Conrad Hilton Jr, after 8 months of marriage. She would marry 7 more times in her much gawked-at life but the first was her shortest marriage...

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50th Anniversary: Bob Fosse's "Sweet Charity"

by Eric Blume

Fifty years ago today, audiences saw their first Bob Fosse film:  Sweet Charity, the Cy Coleman/Dorothy Fields musical for which he won the Tony for Best Choreography three years earlier.  It’s fascinating to look back at this movie five decades later to see all the seeds that Fosse later brought to fruition in his subsequent films...

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John McMartin (1929-2016)

Good lord but 2016 has been rough on the showbiz community. It's as if the Grim Reaper is trying to meet some new end days quota starting with entertainers.

John McMartin has passed away at 86 from cancer. While the name might not wring a bell to everyone surely the face will. In his 60 year career he worked across all three actor's mediums regularly: stage, tv, and film...

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Bunheads: They Dreamed A Dream

SusanP here, with thoughts on the season (series?) finale of Bunheads. A lot is at stake in the episode, but as in real life, not much is fully resolved. I’ll be disappointed if this turns out to be the last episode. Not because it was a bad, but it was anticlimactic for a finale. I’m anxious to spend more time in this world with these characters. I’d hate for this to be the last hour I get.

This Week on Bunheads…
A couple of weeks ago, TFE commenter Denny noted  that Bunheads is in many ways a show about what happens when an extremely talented person doesn’t catch a break and make it big. Denny wrote:

I like to think of Michelle as an alternate universe version of Sutton Foster - one in which she's almost exactly the same (except for focusing on dancing more than singing) but somehow always manages to be in the wrong place at the wrong time to make it the way Sutton has. And this feels very true to me. Growing up in the theater world, I cannot tell you how many supremely talented people I know who have just never made it, and not through lack of trying. This thread of "what does a talented person do when they just don't make the big time?" is one of my favorite parts of the show.

Potential can only get a performer (or a person) so far in life. The show tackles this idea head-on in “Next!” [more after the jump]

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