|| ENTERTAINMENT TODAY DECEMBER 14-20, 2006 CONTENTS ENTERTAINMENT TODAY PUBLISHER ERIK DAVIS 4 THEATER MATT BURR JOSEPH FEINSTEIN Christmastime for Bonzo: Travis Michael Holder gets RITA ANN FREEMAN scrooged with the task of recounting to us the bevy of ASSOCIATE MICHAEL GUILLÉN holiday goodies this year...and what he discovers is not so much the true meaning of the holiday, but rather 37 PUBLISHER ORMLY GUMFUDGIN cents underneath one of the theater seats. CECILIA TSAI JONATHAN HICKMAN TIM HODGSON EDITOR-IN-CHIEF TRAVIS HOLDER MATHEW KLICKSTEIN LINDSAY KUHN 6 BOOK MARIANNE MORO Killing for comedy: “It ain’t easy bein’ me,” said LAYOUT EDITOR LISA PARIS funnyman Rodney Dangerfield, and now there’s a new DAVID TAGARDA MIKE RESTAINO book, I Killed: True Stories of the Road from America’s Top Comics with accounts from over 200 of our SEAN REYNOLDS country’s favorite humorists to tell us why most ART DIRECTOR CARMEN ROHDE comedians indeed hate themselves and everyone else; STEVEN RADEMACHER AARON SHELEY PLUS: Gossip Guy Erik Davis ousts Gwyneth Paltrow. VALENTINA SILVA PHOTO EDITOR PETER SOBCZYNSKI JOANNA MUÑOZ BILLIE STONE JOSEPH TRINH 7 TELEVISION Consider it a divorce: Frank Barron finds that the OFFICE ASSISTANT WIN-SIE TOW 11 annual “Hollywood Bag Ladies” Lupus LA Charity JANE GOV KIM VOYNAR Luncheon is a bit like watching football: you have RUSTY WHITE competitive players running about and vying for the goal TECHNICAL JONATHAN ZEITLIN of the best purse...and Melissa Joan Hart. SUPERVISOR KATSUYUKI UENO CARTOONISTS PHIL CHO STAFF WRITERS DREW-MICHAEL 8 VIDEO GAMES This ain’t no Duck Hunt: With so many different JESSE ALBA systems, so many different games now out on the BRAD AUERBACH COMMUNICTIONS market, it’s difficult to tell which ones are worth the JON BARILONE CONSULTANT money and effort...but Matt Cabral is here once again FRANK BARRON THE WEBSTER GROUP to save X-Mas with his take on the year’s best. MATT CABRAL RACHEL CAMPBELL CIRCULATION JOHN CRUMLISH SUPERVISOR WARREN CURRY WILLIAM LARSEN 9 MUSIC Oh, those Hollywood Russians: Marina V is one Russian with the voice of an angel, and Joseph Trinh 7 11 makes sure there’s nothing un-American about this act. EXECUTIVE OFFICE 2325 WEST VICTORY BLVD, SUITE 5 10 MOVIES Stop in the name of what?!: Well, it’s been over two BURBANK, CA decades since the hit sensation Dreamgirls opened on 91506-1226 12 the big stage, and now it’s out on the silver screen at OFFICE last with Peter Sobczynski’s coveted blessing; Are (818) 566-4030 there any other kind?: Steven Soderbergh returns with his new offering starring (surprise) George Clooney, Fax (818) 566-4295 The Good German, and it does make Peter Sobczynski feel good (heck, even Cindy Crawford showed up at the Premiere); We willy winkle: Will Smith has been relatively out of the picture for almost two years now, and Stan Furley gets to the bottom of the mystery; WITH Mike Restaino’s DVD Reviews and Art Film of the Week with Aaron Sheley. Please direct all 16 MOVIE TIMES LETTERS TO THE EDITOR to: & EVENT LISTINGS Mathew Klickstein, [email protected] 1 FLYING THROUGH THIS SKIES THIS HOLIDAY SEASON You’ve got your holiday bonus, can’t go back to Chicago this year, Hollywood is on stand-still for two weeks...Ah ha! You need a vacation, and Brad Auerbach is here to tell you where to go this year. Just make sure to send your friends at Entertainment Today a postcard. www.Entertainment - FROLICSOME FUN Today.net Popgriddle Crossword Puzzle, The Voice of Astrology with Rita Ann Freeman, Sudoku, and Comics. Property of Entertainment Today. Reproduction without writtenconsent is prohibited. All rights reserved. The views of the reviewers and writers of this publication are their own, and do not necessarily reflect those of the management of Entertainment Today. ©2006 || DECEMBER 14-20, 2006 ENTERTAINMENT TODAY THEATER LA THEATRE BY TRAVIS MICHAEL HOLDER IN A HOLLY DAZE… The holiday season is abuzz with Yuletide greetings that will make you enjoy the time of year in laughter. LA’s favorite Christmastime cult classic Bob’s with a hysterical historical celebration of mid-century Holiday Office Party has transferred at the Zephyr this American holiday culture. Experience how we deco- year to add a little salt to your seasonal fare, so join rated, dressed, dined, drank, and smoked during the Neuterberg, Iowa insurance agent Bob Finhead and his holidays in decades past; celebrate New Year’s Day with whacked-out clients for a night of drinking, high-risk the most bizarre floats ever; attend a Christmas bondage hilarity, drinking, holiday hijinks, and a tad more drinking. party; learn how to make a toilet paper Christmas tree; On the night before Christmas, Bob’s clients stop by and visit Santa’s Village, Lake Arrowhead’s truly bizarre his office for their yearly holiday bash. Bob dreams of year-round holiday theme park. a bigger life and wants to escape the narrow-minded thinking that has befallen his friends and clients, includ- Who’s that nipping at your nose? It’s the amazingly ing twin farmer sisters and the town’s most notorious clever Troubadour Theater Company and they want to pothead and floozy, as he also wonders if he’ll be able “Rock with You” this holiday season as they unleash to end his affair with the mayor’s wife. Will it even their brand new “Thriller” of a spoof JACKson FROST, matter once the party starts, the bickering and fighting melting the icy tale of that wintry living icemaker with begins, and the kegs start to flow? music of the Jacksons. Any Jackson is fair game—from Michael to Janet to the whole dysfunctional fam- With an advertising campaign touting, “If you lived ily—and don’t be surprised if you hear a little Jackson there, you’d be drunk by now,” Third Stage presents the Browne thrown in. All you “Pretty Young Things” will premiere of William Wright’s Texmas. You think your “Shake Your Body” because “That’s the Way Love family’s crazy? Meet Dot, a 70-year-old grandmother Goes” with the Troubies in the house. with a passion for a simpleminded maintenance man of 35, and her gathering kids. Dorsey, Dot’s son, is a gay Then there’s a couple of semi-traditional offerings, actor living in El Lay who hasn’t been back to Texas in still far less gooey than most, that are still worthy of our five years; Pam, the youngest daughter, has two hobbies attention as well this year. Stuart Ross’ Plaid Tidings at she adores (drinking and indiscriminant sex); Tammy La Mirada Civic offers the best of his Forever Plaid tied- is a soon to be grandmother herself, thanks to her up in a nifty package with a big bow on top. Filled with 15-year-old stepdaughter; and Robin, the menopausal “Plaid-erized” holiday standards, our boys are back on oldest sibling, can’t stop crying. Fueled by a box of earth again, this time to do their Christmas special. At wine and vodka, this dysfunctional brood from Dubya’s first they’re not sure why they’ve returned, but a phone home state is about to wrestle with a frozen turkey as call from the heavenly-hosting Rosemary Clooney lets well as plenty of pent-up family emotional baggage on them know that they’re needed to put a little harmony a not-so Silent Night of a Christmas Eve. into this discordant world of ours. Sprinkled among the seasonal tunes are a riotous three-minute (and eleven Dam! It’s back yet again: In their first ever seconds) version of The Ed Sullivan Show featuring the collaboration, Theatre of NOTE and Sacred Fools join Rockettes, the Chipmunks, and the Vienna Boys Choir, forces to bring Bill Robens’ award-winning A Mulholland and a Plaid Caribbean Christmas that puts the “Day-O” Christmas Carol to the stage again. This musical comedy in Excelsis. Admittedly corny though it may be, this is adaptation of A Christmas Carol, with LA water baron one holiday treat that is truly heaven sent. William Mulholland as Scrooge, fuses Dickens with a tongue-in-cheek critique of political corruption in our The Gay Men’s Chorus of Los Angeles has gone fair city. Once again, a recreation of the St. Francis completely Hollywood at the Alex with this year’s Dam (180 ft. high and 600 ft. long) will be destroyed version of their annual seasonal concert. Some of our every night live onstage, releasing 11.4 billion gallons favorite holiday songs have come from Hollywood, of water onto the unsuspecting audience in the only and here they are in Hollywood Holidays, sprinkled stage version of the whole tragic story. Horror, pathos, with a little snow (false) and a lot of GMCLA style, and catchy tunes are all brought to you by the same as the Chorus sings you into the season as only they creative team responsible for this annual smash hit know how, featuring songs of the season originated since 2002. in movies. There’s also a new choral arrangement written by the legendary Richard Carpenter for this Come celebrate all the holidays as you never have concert and a visit from GMCLA’s decidedly campy before with Charles Phoenix’s Retro Holiday Slide Hollywood Elves. P Show, a live comedy performance playing this year www.Entertainment at the Egyptian Theatre and the Norris Center for the Travis Michael Holder has been writing for ET since Performing Arts, created solely by utilizing vintage 1990.