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Friday Flash Giveaway: Hands on a Hardbody

Alright, team. We’ve got some tickets to give a way. And Just like the folks at Jack Long Nissan, we’re hosting a competition. Unlike those guys, though, we’re not going to make you compete in some crazy test of your mental and physical endurance. In fact, entering to win is easy.

Here’s what you’ve got to do:

1. Clear your calendar. These tickets are only good between now and next Wednesday, so you gotta be ready to hit that theater!

2. Tweet @thecraptacular and @HardbodyMusical and tell us what you think is in #HunterFostersFannyPack. (The one his character wears on stage, of course!)

3. Double check your tweet. Make sure it includes the hashtagh #HunterFostersFannyPack and mentions both @thecraptacular and @HardbodyMusical.

4. Cross your fingers. You’ve got 1 hour to win!

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Okay. It’s really his character, big hick Benny Perkins’ fanny pack. But still. We couldn’t take our eyes off it from the minute it hit the Hardbody stage.

1. Condoms
2. Gu
3. Chew
4. Blow-up doll
5. A copy of The Art of War
6. Tupac on casette
7. Lavender hand lotion
8. Rhyming Dictionary
9. Miniature bottles of Cuervo
10. Pitch pipe
11. Suede cleaner
12. Diabetic socks
13. 50 Pesos
14. Zinc sunscreen
15. Dr. Scholl’s Massaging Gel Insoles
16. Opera glasses
17. The latest issue of Guns & Ammo
18. A 10-Gallon Hat
19. A pair of scissors once used by Dwight Yoakam
20. NRA member card
21. Big League Chew
22. Starbucks gift card with .14 on it
23. Nail file
24. Empty sample tube of Calvin Klein Obsession
25. Nicotine gum
26. Listerine breath strips
27. Four losing scratch tickets
28. Razr flip phone in purple
29. Toothpics
30. Several partially used, travel size Speed Sticks
31. No Doze
32. Business card for a brothel in Reno
33. Forty-five pennies, including one from 1983
34. Eight Canadian pennies
35. Full change of underwear
36. Phone charger that does not go with his phone
37. A Squeegee
38. 4 stray Jelly Bellies, Margarita flavor
39. Massage oil
40. Wallet-sized photo of George H.W. Bush
41. Plastic handcuffs
42. Air horn
43. 15 square feet of blue tarp with bungee cords

 

Photo: Jenny Anderson

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We’ll admit it. We’re bored to death with Broadway. Winter is always dull, but this year the fall was just as bad. It feels like forever since we loved ourselves a new show. Probably because no one seems to have the cojones or quality work to open a show before March unless it’s a limited run play.

In the meantime, we’ve been indulging our obscene crush on the new and improved Skylar Astin by mainlining his scenes from Pitch Perfect and wishing he’d come back to Broadway. In fact, we’ve decided there are at least five roles with which Skylar Astin could spice Broadway up this season, and we’re going to summarize them below:

 

Tevye (Fiddler on the Roof)
Okay. So this would clearly be the Muppet Babies Take Broadway version of Fiddler on the Roof, but don’t tell us you wouldn’t DIE to see Skylar play the most uncomfortably hot Tevye you–and the Great White Way–have ever seen. Take a minute to picture his spastic Tevye shimmy in “If I Were a Rich Man” and tell us you’re not already smiling.

Jamie (The Last Five Years)
We know. This one is already happening off-Broadway as we speak. But imagine for a minute if Skylar were playing Jamie. Seems kind of perfect, no? He looks right. He sings real good. And we kind of already wonder if Skylar isn’t a secret jerk on the inside, just like Jamie. Plus, in this two-hander, we’d get tons of Skylar stage time to swoon over.

Billy Flynn (Chicago)
Sure. We think this might actually be disastrous, but you know what? That wouldn’t stop it from being AWESOME. Plus, Chicago stunt-casts all the time. Skylar is no Billy Ray Cyrus, sure. But he has starred in two big Hollywood Flicks in the last 6 months, and he’s at least 10 times more talented than Backstreet Boy Kevin “Eyebrows” Richardson. We dig it. And we’d love to see him dance.

Harold Hill (The Music Man)
Something about this just works. There’s an undeniable charm to adult Skylar–the kind of thing Harold Hill needs in spades. And he could totally pull off the sweet romance with madam librarian, Marian. And with that big voice of his he’d definitely do justice to Meredith Wilson’s score. Plus, we’ve had a crush on good old Hal since the (much older) love-of-our-nine-year-old-lives played him at the local high school and Skylar’s big old smile would keep that crush shining on.

The Emcee (Cabaret)
Hahaha. JK! We’re pretty sure this is one of the worst casting ideas we’ve ever had. Although. We didn’t specify the idea had to be good. Just that it had to spice things up. And through sheer hilarity, this would do the trick.  Also. There is some craptaculariousness to the thought of seeing Skylar with rouge on his nipples. We’d instantly, instantly, buy a ticket. We’re guessing a lot of you would, too.

 

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Giveaway: Get Some Kinky Boots (Tickets) of Your Own

Stark Sands, Billy Porter and some Kinky Boots

A musical about shoes with the word “Kinky” in the title is so perfectly suited to our interests, it’s entirely possible Cyndi Lauper and Havey Fierstein were writing Kinky Boots just for us. HAHA JK. Like those two needed an excuse to write this musical!

ANYWAY.  It goes without saying that we here at The Craptacular are excited about Kinky Boots. Especially since we’ve missed ourselves some Stark Sands, and we are basically in love with Billy Porter. (Really, Billy, call us, we’ll do anything.) You know what else we’re excited about? The pair of tickets we have to give away to our readers.

That’s right, team. We have a pair of tickets, just for you. Well. I mean. For one of you.

How can you win these tickets, you ask? Why, it’s simple.

1. Click here to Like our Facebook page.

2. Leave a comment here on our FB wall telling us about why you’re excited for Kinky Boots to hit Broadway.

3. C’est tout. We’ll draw a winner at random next Tuesday.

Get to entering kids. We can’t wait to hear why you’re excited.

In the meantime, we’ll be over here fantasizing about smooching Stark Sands in a pair of tall, sparkly red boots. Which is not weird at all. It’s… kinky!

 

Image: Matthew Murphy

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Four Things About Les Miserables on the Oscars

 

Last night, on an Oscars telecast that you could have easily confused for the Tony Awards if there’d been just a tiny bit more Patti LuPone, Les Miz was front and center. Theater people went nuts. Even non-theater people noticed what was up. Obsessed with Les Miz as we are, we thought it was worth a quick round up…

Aaron Tveit For the Win
Okay. So he wasn’t up for an award. But that didn’t stop Tveit from looking handsomer than anyone in the cast of Les Miz–OMG THE RED POCKET SQUARE! FOR THE BLOOD OF ANGRY MEN!–and sounding better than anyone on that damn stage. His hair was perfect. His tux was perfect. His perfect golden pipes of beautiful singing were perfect. And we will spend the rest of our lives fantasizing about him fighting with a stylist, stubbornly insisting he absolutely had to represent Enjolras, and the themes of Les Miserables, in his attire, and thus the pocket square was a must.
We don’t care if that’s not real. Just let us have this one, okay?!

Ramin Karimloo Wuz Here
For one hot second, Ramin Karimloo’s beautiful face graced our screens. There was no real reason for him to be there–he is not in any active cast of the show–unless, you know, Sir Cameron is trying to make him a thing. Ain’t nobody mad about that, though. Let the Ramin as Chris in the Miss Saigon movie speculation game begin…

Theater Tweeters Hate Anne Hathaway
Man. Our Twitter feed exploded more than ever during these Oscars, so it was kind of tough to keep up. One message we absolutely couldn’t miss, though? Theater lovers are not impressed with Anne Hathaway. In fact, they kind of want her to STFU and go away. With awards season coming to a close, there may be a reprieve, but Broadway producers have got to be banging down her door with offers by this point, so I doubt she’ll be gone for long.

Claude-Michel Schonberg gets screwed
Not only does he not win that Oscar for “Suddenly.” But Richard Gere can’t even pronounce his name properly, and worst of all, Anne Hathaway forgets that like… the guy who wrote the damn songs was an important part of the creative team for Les Miz. Homeboy just couldn’t catch a break.

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Here’s something to jumpstart your week: Cute photos of Claybourne Elder — late of Bonnie and Clyde and Kansas City Rep’s Pippin — at a reading of a new play.

The play, which is by Rocco Natale, is called Room at the End of the Hall, and the reading was held last week at Manhattan Theater Club. Clay played Malky, the (possibly?) mentally unstable half of a set of twin brothers. The other brother, played by Sean Hudock, is a serious-minded accountant, and the play is about their search for an important relic from their troubled past.

We may be seeing this show onstage in NYC real soon, but until then, we’ll let the photos speak for themselves…

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Love sucks, right? Particularly when you’re not in it. And especially on the one day a year when every inch of the earth seems to be covered in red and pink hearts and the streets of every town all suddenly turn into Paris, where some new couple is making out on every corner. We thought it was high time to celebrate the great loners of musical theater. Just to remind you that even if you’re alone today, you’re never really alone. Not if you have a cast recording or two to listen to.

 

Enjolras (Les Miserables)
Enjolras
Tragically misunderstood by all the women–and most of the men–around him, Enjolras was both deeply beautiful and deeply loved. But he didn’t want to be loved like that. Because unlike just about any other boy you’ve ever met outside of a seminary, Enjolras was planning to die a virgin. If that doesn’t guarantee aloneness on the most romance-centric holiday of the year, well then, we just don’t know what does. Besides, nobody wants to talk about politics that badly.
Place you’re likely to find him: Sitting in Cafe Musain, angrily scribbling “No one cares about your lonely soul” over and over and over while staring at a map of the streets of Paris.

 

Mark Cohen (RENT)
Mark Cohen
Sorry to say, but the high holy days aren’t the only days Mr. Cohen can’t hold an erection. Between his intense commitment-phobia, his obsessive desire to document a world he kind of sucks at living in, and the scars from his breakup with Maureen, V-Day just isn’t Mark’s thing. So unless someone’s asked him to film their street-corner retelling of The Vagina Monologues through interpretive dance, Mark isn’t much likely to be out and about.
Where you’re likely to find him: In the cutting room, staring at the floor full of memories.

 

Archibald Craven (The Secret Garden)
Archibald Craven
P.O.O.R. Uncle Archie. He found love in a hopeless place, but it was torn away from him far too soon. Then, after years of seeing his dead wife’s ghost and waltzing around ballrooms with her in his mind (better than nothing, right?) he found actual happiness by loving his kid, and even her ghost peaced out. For reasons ranging from his weird physical deformity to his house’s total isolation, Archie isn’t exactly raking in the suitors these days.
Where you’re likely to find him: Lying like a starfish on the floor in the middle of the ballroom, thinking about oatcakes and cream and sweet plums in a jar, hoping his true love’s ghost will appear once more.

 

The Entire Cast of Into the Woods
The Entire Cast of Into the Woods
Look. This is a Sondheim musical. Everyone is unhappy and at least vaguely fucked up about love. About human relationships in general, actually. In the case of the cast of Into the Woods, by the end of things, everyone has lost the person they loved — or thought they loved — most and The Baker is already in the process of fucking up the next generation. It’s looking grim. But hey. At least they’re not trapped in the sex dungeon, right?
Where you’re likely to find them: Sitting at the edge of the woods, thinking about their isolation and emotionally cutting by listening to “Being Alive.”

 

Claude Hooper Bukowski (Hair)
Claude Hooper Bukowski
When you’ve proposed to your one true love, and instead of answering, she sings some song about starshine–that’s not even a word!–you start to feel a little bitter about romance. All the drugs Timothy Leary can buy aren’t enough to ease the pain of that kind of burn. Joining the military kind of seems like an honorable and reasonable way of escaping your misery at that point and frankly, Valentine’s day is no longer at the top of your mind.
Where you’re likely to find him: Standing outside the Military Induction center at 39 Whitehall Street, wishing Sheila had just said yes.

 

Mortiz Stiefel (Spring Awakening)
Moritz Stiefel
Moritz is such a conundrum. He’s single, but not because the girls aren’t interested. After all, he’s a sensitive dreamboat with rockstar hair. But somehow, he can’t just capitalize on romantic opportunity, no matter how hard he tries. We think some sessions with Dr. Drew and Zoloft would help ease the pain… and get him out of the house more often.
Where you’re likely to find him: Reading at home and ignoring phone calls.

 

John Wilkes Booth (Assassins)
John Wilkes Booth
He’s intelligent! He’s well dressed! He’s kind-of famous! And he kills people. And your most wide-eyed, optimistic American dreams. This literal life-ruiner likely didn’t have much time for romance as he was plotting the downfall of an American president. And that’s probably for the best.
Where you’re likely to find him: In the barn, watching the flames rise…

 

Girl (Once)
Girl
She’s lovely and loving and bohemian and wears clogs and has a cute kid and the vague insinuation of a sad past and she plays the piano in a haunting and deeply meaningful way and she writes sad, wise songs. Clearly, she’s every man’s dream. Except that she’s already been some other man’s dream and she’s so hung up on him that she can’t even figure out a way to make it work with Steve Kazee in a Henley. Now that’s a real tragedy.
Where you’re likely to find her: At home with her mom and kid, fussing with a vacuum cleaner.
Jud Fry (Oklahoma)
Jud Fry
Poor Jud. Who, for the record, is not dead but occasionally wishes he was. Less dashing than his manly counterparts, kind of a loner, and obsessed with dirty pictures, Jud is a less than ideal Valentine’s Day date. Except maybe he was just before his time. Nowadays, he’d just ditch the prairie for Brooklyn, start a band, get some tattoos, grow a beard, and realize that Laurie was kind of boring and not his type anyway.
Where you’re likely to find him: Brooding in his shack with a stack of Playboys…

 

Elphaba (Wicked)
Elphaba
She might be literally green, but when it comes to poise and experience, she’s anything but. Elphaba doesn’t consider herself unlucky in love. She hooked Fiyero without much fuss, after all. But when it comes to enduring passion, Elphaba kind of can’t be bothered. She’s too busy being a political scapegoat, running the show, and making trouble for dim little girls. If you asked her about Valentine’s day, she’d likely respond with, “Sorry, pink is just not my color.”
Where you’re likely to find her: Plotting in the castle, surrounded by  monkeys. Just the way she likes it.

 

Zach (A Chorus Line)
Zach
Before the world had Derek Wills, it had Zach – the brilliant, moody, pain-in-the-ass beyond the fourth wall in A Chorus Line. But really, the story of these two characters is the same. Obsessed with their art, a little disdainful of your status as a mere human, and forever hiding behind that bright light, they occasionally make pretty good musicals, but they don’t make great boyfriends.
Where you’re likely to find him: Blocking…
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Santino Fontana (Price Topher) and Laura Osnes (Cinderella)

 

Oscar Hammerstein, you’ve let me down.

Halfway through Act II at Cinderella, things are going swimmingly. Prince Topher and Cinderella have been reunited after the first ball.  In a matter of hours, Ella has transformed Topher’s life, given him a sense of direction and purpose he sorely lacked, and planted a few soul rocking smooches on him.

And just when we think that like… Topher has his shit together and he recognizes that this girl makes his whole life 10,000% better, and he’s just going to get it over with and propose, he busts out the least romantic question we can even think of: “Do I love you because you’re beautiful, or are you beautiful because I love you?”

Translation: “Am I a shallow douche, or are you maybe just not attractive in the real world?”

Oh, sa-woon.

Look. We get that you wrote this in the 50s, Oscar. And we get that a lot of people accept this romantic trope that our beloved becomes even more beautiful in our eyes by nature of the fact that we love them. But let’s be real. We don’t want to hear a bro hemming and hawing. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

All any girl—or guy, for that matter—ever wants to hear is “You’re beautiful and I love you.” Six words. Period. No questions. The details are just a boner-killer of epic proportions. Especially in the fairy tale-iest fairy tale there ever was, Cinderella. In the real world, boys are stupid. In fairy tales, they’re charming. Why let them appear otherwise, Oscar, why?

Anyway now that we’ve vented our Cinderella beef, we’re left wondering, are we alone on this?

What do you guys think about “Do I Love You Because You’re Beautiful?”

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Credit: Broadway.com

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Weekend Agenda: The Midseason Return

It’s January, guys. It’s freezing. There are no major holidays in sight. You can only confidently recommend one Broadway show to your friends and family without embarrassing yourself and calling your taste into question. But never fear! Spring is on the way, along with Stark Sands, Santino Fontana, Billy Porter, those Matilda girls, and a revival of Jekyll & Hyde that has a for-real theater and a for-real opening date. There is light at the end of the tunnel, as Richard Stilgoe once wrote. And all the stuff that happened this week in theater is proof…

  • In news that probably should have sent us over the cliff of passion and joy but didn’t because it’s so not-surprising, Meryl Streep will play the witch in Rob Marshall’s film version of Into the Woods. Best part? The beans were spilled — har — in a local Connecticut newspaper, which was doing an interview with the film’s arranger, David Krane. And now he’s on Perez. Ain’t life grand? Now we just hope that Patrick Wilson stays attached to this project…
  • He was already the knight in shining armor of your dreams, but now he takes down the bad guys in real life, too. After the SAG Awards on Sunday, Taye Diggs caught a burglar trying to rob his garage, chased him down the street and held him until the police arrived. The guy has been charged and Taye Diggs is a national badass. Insane.
  • You think Rent and Spring Awakening fangirls are a little unhinged? Ladies, you have seen nothing — nothing — until you bear witness to the feminine throngs that adore Barry Manilow like it’s a well-paying, perk-filled job. This week, one of them was unceremoniously shouted down by critic Peter Filichia, who was trying to like… do his job and write a review of Manilow’s Broadway show. Only he couldn’t, because one of Manilow’s fans was standing and he couldn’t see. He asked her to cut it out. She wouldn’t. He called security. She burst into tears. Clive Davis was there and gave her a quiet, out-of-the-way place to have her fangirl moment without disrupting anyone. The day was saved, but we can’t help but wish more stuff like this happened on Broadway. It’s a hell of a lot more interesting than bored audiences politely clapping for shows they don’t really like.
  • In a story that lent itself to exactly one excellent headline, and everyone used it (Aaron Sorkin’s Disappearing Act! Muahaha!), writer Aaron Sorkin has departed as the librettist of Hugh Jackman’s Houdini musical. The producers are saying he had “scheduling conflicts,” but we’re not super shocked by his departure. This project has been a major revolving door, with Kurt Andersen, Danny Elfman, David Yazbek and Glenn Slater attached — and unattached — to it at different times. We hope this show gets itself written, because we want to see it. But at this point, that could require a serious magic trick.
  • A must-read this week: Buzzfeed’s incredible takedown of the first season of Smash, which features people close to the show firing away at former showrunner Theresa Rebeck like she’s in season. The story sheds a lot of juicy light on the show’s inner workings, and makes a fair point: By the end of the season, the show sucked so hard that it had become a parody of itself.
  • In other news of things that refuse to die quietly… Rebecca‘s producers are suing one of the show’s former press agents for sending anonymous emails to legit investors warning them that some of the musical’s financial backing was fradulent. Never mind that that he was actually… um… right. They’re suing him anyway. Most intriguing, though, is the complaint itself, which alleges that the press agent was “induced by unknown persons to ‘torpedo’ the production.” Whoever those “unknown persons” might be — producers of other, competing shows? people with taste? — we can’t wait for that lawsuit…
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You know what you really want to be doing on February 4? You clearly want to be seeing composer David Yazbek at the 92nd Street Y Tribeca with his special guest, Patti LuPone. Because that’s going to be amazing and because where Patti goes, you go.

If the first show was any indication, there will be show tunes, weird pop songs, David wearing a hat, rock, and between-song banter that’s funnier than most jokes in real Broadway musicals this season.

Here’s what you do to win.

1. Follow us on Twitter @thecraptacular.
2. Tweet or re-tweet the following:

Of course I want to see David Yazbek and Patti LuPone at @92YTribeca courtesy of @thecraptacular. Duh. Follow and RT to win two tickets.

3. We’ll choose a winner at random from all the entries. You can only enter once, and you must be following us to win.

Good luck! And if you don’t win, you should check out the show anyway because obviously. And everyone should follow @DavidYazbek on twitter, because that’s Broadway required reading. We’ll choose a winner tomorrow.

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