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|  Thursday, December 20, 2007 |
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Aries Spears
Dec. 26-31
Morty's Comedy Joint
A few week's back, comedian Frank Caliendo was in town and it struck me how few of the cast members of "Mad TV" have transcended that show. A shame, since Stephanie Weir, Nicole Sullivan, Debra Wilson and others have offered consistently fun work on the ongoing Fox series.
Also in that category is Aries Spears, a "Mad TV" staple for nearly 200 episodes from 1997-2005 who played everyone from Colin Powell to Chaka Khan. Why, then, doesn't this funnyman's resume since then rise much higher than voicework on "The Proud Family" and a couple of "CSI: Miami" episodes?
Then again, why judge a comic by his TV and movie credits? Instead, Spears has criss-crossed the country many times, doing his thing in clubs large and small. This week, Morty's Comedy Joint landed a coup by booking him for a week, including New Year's Eve.
For more details, click here.
To see Spears as Magic Johnson in a "Mad TV" spoof of "Jeopardy," click here.
"Nutcracker"
Dec. 21-22
Scottish Rite Cathedral
For this production, the parlor of Indy's own Morris-Butler House is the setting and it's been recreated on stage at the Scottish Rite Cathedral. This rendition of the holiday classic features students from the Indianapolis School of Ballet as well as ballroom dancers from Riolo Dance.
For more details, visit www.indyballet.org or call 955-7525.
"Sweeney Todd"
Opening Dec. 21
Various theaters
It can be argued--OK, I'll argue it--that we are in a semi-golden age of movie musicals. The genre, given up for dead in the 1980s and '90s, has returned with "Chicago," "Hairspray," "Dreamgirls" and others currying critical and box office success. Plus, such art-house eccentricities as "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" have shown that musicals can actually be cool and edgy. | | | |
| Now comes the R-rated bloodbath known as "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" and it's anybody's guess if audiences will warm up to the tale of a throat-slashing barber and his human-meat-pie making pal.
Musicals, stereotypically, have a positive world view. Even such grim shows as "Rent" have something positive to say about the human spirit. But in "Todd," the human spirit is an ugly, ugly thing. The London setting is, in Todd's words, "a great black pit" and, in short, "we all deserve to die." Nothing in the show or movie refutes that sentiment.
Purists should know that this is not a recreation of the stage show. For that, I'll point you to the library, where you'll find a very well made DVD of the PBS broadcast, taken right from the stage. Instead, this is a movie that artfully, disturbingly and entertainingly translates the show to a new medium. In the process, songs have been cut and trimmed, characters tweaked, vocal demands lowered and the blood reddened.
The result is unlike any musical--or movie--you've ever seen. If you have the stomach for it, you'll have a grand time.
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| Continuing:
Still-running events from previous IBJ Daily A&E e-mails. 
 This Week's Contest
Want to put four tickets to the return of "Menopause: The Musical" into someone's stocking? Just click HERE to enter.
A&E Blog
Upcoming in Lou Harry's A&E blog: Holiday movies, downtown music and New Year's activity. To join the discussion, click HERE.
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Aries Spears. Simply Mad (TV) about the comic.
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