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Here she is, boys! Here she is, world! Here’s Patti LuPone in one of the most brilliant portrayals Broadway has ever seen — Mamma Rose in the musical “Gypsy.”
While there are many other recordings of this musical available (up to now the most enjoyable has been the 1973 London production starring Angela Lansbury), this 2008 revival is the one to treasure forever.
With a voice that will shatter your eardrums and your ribcage (in that order) Tony Award-winner LuPone triumphs as the pushy stage mother you love to hate.
Flanked by fellow Tony Award-winners Boyd Gaines and Laura Benanti, the new release is the most complete recording of the score to date, and if you buy it at Barnes & Noble, you get an exclusive extra disc with scene change music and dialogue.
It’ll also be the most expensive cast recording you ever buy because you’ll want to rush out to book a plane ticket to New York to see LuPone and company wow you in person at the St. James Theatre on Broadway. Call me when you get back — we’ll talk.
- Ryan Stotts, La Crosse Tribune
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Human error can be humorous. For Bethany Keeley, she likes to make light of the common misuse of quotation marks.
From a restaurant sign that reads “Awesome real ‘cornbread,’ ” to an office’s congratulations to its “May” associate of the month, Keeley’s site, “The ‘Blog’ of ‘Unnecessary’ Quotation Marks” (Quotation-marks.blogspot.com,) is littered with photos submitted by people with a keen eye for quotation-mark infractions. Turns out it happens a lot, from storefronts to birthday cakes to traffic signs.
There’s also a blog roll on the site for those amused by other grammatical errors, including apostrophes and the lowercase letter “l.”
- Sally Dadisman, McClatchy Newspapers
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As college students return to campus and life away from home — some for the first time — department stores lure shoppers with “must-have” decorating items to inject style into bland dorm rooms.
Coordinated bed linens and a throw rug can tie a room together, but what about the basics for that roughly 150 square feet of living space for two? We asked dorm residential advisers to name five essentials (excluding small microwave oven and mini-fridge) and got these answers:
No. 1: Alarm clock.
No. 2: Shower caddy and shower shoes (flip flops).
No. 3: Mattress topper for extra comfort.
No. 4: Personal computer and flash drive.
No. 5: First-aid kit (bandages, aspirin, cold medicine.)
