Cakebug Tranch

I'm 50/50 about whether I'll be able to join this week, but I'll do my best. Great idea, looking forward to it!

Tom has IRL friends?

I lose the very few cool points I have ever accumulated around here by saying that I've never heard of this. Game on!

Angry eating, duh

We have to... wait?

Yeah, thanks EvR for bringing this to us - I've had every damn song in this show rattling around in my head all week, but that's a good thing: it's evicted High School Musical (for now).

Totally late on noticing this, but holy crap, my forum whining about the EHL welcome message worked! Thanks for listening, Paul! Also: there seems to be enough material now that the entire EHL this week could be populated by forum people. Hopefully we all asked good questions!

Guys... I think he's gone. Hit it!

Hey Dan, quick question: I just noticed that the greeting message on the Explanation Hope Line welcomes you to the 'Corrections and Omissions Hotline' where you can leave corrections and omissions about the most recent movie. Isn't this a bit of cross-contamination and the reason why so many good forum posts get scooped by people who call the EHL? No big deal of course, but I thought the EHL was an entity separate from the C+Os.

Really interesting pick. Vocally, absolutely, and the story would change in good ways with her in there. I remember her not having much stage presence when she played God in 'Dogma' though. I'm not sure she'd nail the character's (admittedly very broad) nuance.

Well, on a purely subjective level, absolutely it's a fair criticism. A white man in redface is no less offensive than a white man in blackface. If this is something that offended those students, then it should be taken seriously. Mortimer's costume is nearly never referenced and he doesn't (I don't think) carry out stereotypical gestures that might be offensive. Maybe in Wyoming the actor was doing something more specific that was offensive? In any case, it's an example of a relic of its time, written in 1959, this wasn't something that was seen as offensive as it is today. You could very easily cut the Indian costume from Mortimer and he'd work in just the same way. If Mortimer had been in blackface in the 50's, we wouldn't tolerate it today, so the redface is skirting a very fine line. It's not integral to the play (even if it was it wouldn't save it) so I'd suggest this isn't a difficult decision to make. Much in the way Jones and Schmidt rewrote the very good 'It Depends on What You Pay' because of the dozens of uses of the word 'rape', I'd suggest this would be something worth passing into mothballs.

I'm in!

I always thought he was too much of a wimp. El Gallo in my mind is supposed to be Spanish, but I guess the idea of him being English and playing this rogue makes some sense. Jonathon Morris, who plays him in the movie, played El Gallo in the England run of the show, which I guess is why he was cast. But I think they could have done better. Antonio Banderas!

I don't think that's controversial - I'd be on board. I'd be less worried about Johnny as El Gallo than I would be about Helena Bonham-Carter as Luisa...

That's your Canadian roots showing! Toronto represent! No regular of our longest thread ever will be surprised when I say

Also: I just called in. Having serious message leavers' remorse that I didn't nail it. Or my pronunciation of my awesome new word I just invented: Timecoppelatio. It's okay, it's a grossout message, so I bet Paul will love it!

I don't actually have an Australian accent, but Cameron had his heart set on me having one, so I got an accents tape out of the library and learned phonetically. Couldn't bear to let the little tyke down.

Absolutely NOT just you! It's a lovely song. My wife and I both got a little sappy over 'They Were You'. We first sang that song together as 21 year olds and now we're getting ready to turn 40.

I just watched the Hallmark Hall of Fame version of the play on YouTube. It's shorter (an hour) so is missing a lot, but it's much closer to the original structure. I enjoyed it.