Music 101
Tony Stamp is hosting Music 101 this week. He joined Jesse to discuss what's happening on the music scene over the weekend, what's coming up on her show tomorrow and because Friday is new music day - he'll pick us a track to play.
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RNZ News
3 hours ago
- RNZ News
‘That was rude': why the new Broadway musical Death Becomes Her was ripe for TikTok memes
By Gregory Camp of Photo: AFP A few snippets of musicalised dialogue from the cast album of the new Broadway musical Death Becomes Her - with music and lyrics by Julia Mattison and Noel Carey, and a book by Marco Pennette - have recently become trending sonic memes on TikTok. In all sorts of situations, users are lip synching to audio clips of Broadway star Jennifer Simard, in the character of Helen Sharp (played by Goldie Hawn in the 1992 cult film on which the musical is based), saying things like "That was rude. That was pretty f**kin' rude" and "She stole my life. She made me cuckoo. She's why I spent four years locked in that health spa." Musical theatre fans love a good meme (scholar Trevor Boffone has written a whole book about the phenomenon) and Death Becomes Her is primed to create a lot of them: a show featuring two divas (played by Simard and Megan Hilty as Madeleine Ashton, Meryl Streep's role in the movie) based on a cult film about divas begs to be shaped and reshaped by fan culture. Helen and Madeleine are longtime rivals who both take a magic potion that makes them immortal. This leads them to find increasingly extravagant ways to try and do away with each other, with the help of Helen's put-upon husband Ernest (Christopher Sieber), a plastic surgeon who reluctantly falls into the role of restoring their bodies after each "accident". Some of Hilty's clips have also been TikTok-ified (notably Tell Me, Earnest) but Simard is winning the numbers game. Her "That was rude" clip alone has 321,000 videos and counting. There seem to be two main reasons for the attraction of these clips. First is Simard's delivery of the words. Simard is a longstanding Broadway star and an expert at musical comedy timing. Second is the rhythmic quality of the dialogue. Not fully sung, these bits are spoken in mostly strict rhythm over orchestral accompaniment. That they have become such earworms demonstrates it is not only melody that burrows into the brain, but also rhythmic contour. There is a long history of this style of speak-singing in musical theatre, notably popularised in the late 1950s by Robert Preston in The Music Man and Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady. Neither of those actors was a strong singer, but both had excellent timing and were able to deliver spoken lines above music with a strong sense of musicality. Simard is an excellent singer with a very wide range, but the comic role of Helen - ever the underdog to her rival famous actress Madeleine - lends itself to this style of heightened speech. Most effective rhythmically, and the most popular excerpt, is the "That was rude" meme, where Simard begins slowly without accompaniment; the bass comes in on "rude" and sets a groove for the rest of the short excerpt. This one has been used in every possible situation, from responses to nasty notes left on people's cars to complaints about incorrect drink orders. Some of the TikTokers refer to Simard in on-screen text, but this one seems to have become popular outside any specific reference to the show, in a truly viral moment. The lengthiest of the trending excerpts is the one that begins with "We talked about killing her before", which sets off a monologue about Helen's plan to do away with Madeline once and for all. This is a tour de force for Simard's comic timing, as it begins in free rhythm and then gradually takes on a more consistent beat. TikTokers are tending to use this one primarily as a demonstration of their lip-syncing skills, as opposed to the other shorter clips that are applied in different ironic situations. This trend also shows the continuing importance of the cast album in musical theatre culture. The majority of TikTokers probably have not seen the show, currently only playing on Broadway with high ticket prices. Yet the cast album (easily available on all the main streaming sites) gives access. The fact these clips come from a cast album also more easily allows fans to create their own visuals around it. Unless they actually saw the show they only have production photographs and short publicity clips (and the occasional shaky bootleg or slime tutorial) to go on in terms of what it looks like. Audio from a source like the soundtrack of the Wicked movie has not led to so many lip-sync videos because the visual track is so readily accessible; as a film, Wicked's visuals define its audio while a cast album can more easily work the other way round. I saw Death Becomes Her on Broadway in January and enjoyed it. It's a fun show full of special effects and comic bits. The score is serviceable (it's not Sondheim), but it is catchy - very important for its use in these TikTok trends - and well performed by Simard and the rest of the cast. This whole phenomenon demonstrates that the current cultural sphere of "Broadway" extends well beyond the street itself. This has been the case at least since the rise of the cast album in the 1950s (My Fair Lady's was the best-selling LP of 1956), but now the reach is intensified by social media spaces like TikTok; you don't have to have actually seen Death Becomes Her to experience it.
RNZ News
3 days ago
- RNZ News
Basketball: For the first time in 25 years, the Indiana Pacers are off to the NBA finals
Myles Turner #33 of the Indiana Pacers celebrates with the trophy after the 125-108 win against the New York Knicks. Photo: AFP / GREGORY SHAMUS Pascal Siakam recorded 31 points and three blocked shots and the Indiana Pacers are headed to the NBA finals for the first time since 2000 after notching a 125-108 victory over the visiting New York Knicks in game six of the Eastern Conference finals in Indianapolis. Siakam was voted the Eastern Conference finals MVP. Tyrese Haliburton added 21 points, 13 assists and three steals for fourth-seeded Indiana. Obi Toppin added 18 points off the bench and Andrew Nembhard had 14 points and six steals for the Pacers. Indiana will face the Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA finals. Game one is Thursday (local time) in Oklahoma City. OG Anunoby scored 24 points and Karl-Anthony Towns added 22 points and 14 rebounds for third-seeded New York. Jalen Brunson had 19 points and seven assists and Mikal Bridges had 15 points for the Knicks. Indiana had a 25-10 edge on fastbreak points to finish the series with a dominating 106-48 advantage in that category. The Pacers shot 54.1 percent from the field, including a solid 17 of 33 from 3-point range (51.5 percent). Myles Turner and reserve Thomas Bryant had 11 points apiece and Aaron Nesmith added 10 for the Pacers. New York made 47.7 percent of its shots and was 9 of 32 (28.1 percent) from behind the arc. Landry Shamet had 12 points on four treys off the bench. New York trailed by 15 entering the final quarter but a basket by Towns and two in a row by Anunoby pulled the Knicks within 92-83 with 10:15 remaining. Haliburton then took over as he scored 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting in the final stanza. The Pacers pushed the lead back to 14 on a basket by Nembhard with 8:26 left. Later, a basket by Haliburton and a 3-pointer by Nembhard made it 113-94 with 4:22 left. Siakam later made two free throws to make it 120-99 with 1:52 left as New York waved the white flag. Indiana led by four at the break but started the third quarter with 3-pointers by Siakam and Nesmith and a three-point play by Siakam to take a 67-54 lead. The Knicks were within 69-61 after Brunson's basket with 8:53 left in the period before Bryant (two) and Nembhard (one) combined for three treys in 86 seconds as the Pacers grabbed a 78-63 advantage with 6:44 remaining in the quarter. Haliburton later ended the third with a dunk as the Pacers had a 34-23 edge over the 12 minutes to expand their lead to 92-77. Siakam scored 16 first-half points to help the Pacers hold a 58-54 lead at the break. Anunoby scored 14 in the half for New York. - Field Level Media
RNZ News
4 days ago
- RNZ News
Loretta Swit, 'Hot Lips' Houlihan on M*A*S*H, dies at 87
By Patricia Reaney , Reuters Loretta Swit in 2018. Photo: ANGELA WEISS / AFP Loretta Swit, the Emmy Award-winning actress who played no-nonsense US Army combat nurse Major Margaret "Hot Lips" Houlihan in the hit TV series M*A*S*H for more than a decade, died on Friday at the age of 87. Swit, a mainstay of one of the most successful and acclaimed series in US television history, died at her home in New York City from what was suspected to be natural causes, her publicist, Harlan Boll, said. Swit earned two best supporting actress Emmys and 10 nominations for her role as Hot Lips, the lusty, tough but vulnerable, patriotic Army career nurse in the series that ran from 1972-1983. As the only regular female character in the groundbreaking show set in the fictional 4077th Mobile Army Surgical Hospital during the Korean War of the 1950s, Hot Lips endured the insults, pranks and practical jokes of the fun-loving male surgeons. The show's cast also included Alan Alda, Wayne Rogers, McLean Stevenson, Larry Linville, Mike Farrell, Harry Morgan, Gary Burghoff, David Ogden Stiers and Jamie Farr. Swit defined her role by playing a strong, determined, independent woman, who had input into the development and storyline of her character, including her split from her married lover Major Frank Burns, hilariously played by Linville, and her own wedding and divorce. She appeared in nearly all of the more than 250 episodes and the series finale, which was the most watched episode of any TV series in history when the show ended in 1983. The TV series was based on the real-life experiences of an Army surgeon, who penned the 1968 book MASH: A Novel About Three Army Doctors , and on director Robert Altman's 1970 black comedy film of the same name. "While we were shooting, even from the very beginning, we were aware of how very special it was," Swit said about the series in a 2017 interview with Fox News. "The symbiosis, the camaraderie, the love and respect we had for each other." Loretta Swit was born on 4 November, 1937, in Passaic, New Jersey. After finishing school, and against her strict parents' objections, she began training as an actress at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York. She worked as a stenographer while auditioning for roles. "The first thought I ever had in my head was being an actress. I can't remember ever not wanting to perform," she told the Star magazine in a 2010 interview. The tall, blonde stage and TV star was a strict vegetarian and animal lover. She started her career in theater and appeared in guest roles in TV dramas such as Gunsmoke , Mannix , Bonanza and the original Hawaii Five-O , before landing her signature role. Swit also originated the character of Detective Christine Cagney in the pilot for Cagney & Lacey but could not take on the role in the TV series because of her contract with M*A*S*H . The actress made her Broadway debut in Same Time , Next Year in 1975. She performed in the musical Mame on tour and starred in the one-woman play Shirley Valentine more than 1000 times over three decades. "Acting is not hiding to me, it's revealing. We give you license to feel," she said in an interview with the Star magazine in 2010. "That's the most important thing in the world, because when you stop feeling, that's when you're dead." After M*A*S*H Swit appeared in TV movies, on game shows and on the stage and in films but she never found the same level of fame. She also devoted herself to animal rights and was a former spokesperson for the Humane Society of the United States. She married actor Dennis Holahan, who played a Swedish diplomat in an episode of M*A*S*H , in 1983. The couple divorced in 1995 and had no children. Although M*A*S*H ended decades ago, Swit found new generations of fans through syndication of the series. "The show has never been off the air! A lot of people don't realise that," Swit told the Huffington Post in 2018. "I've seen it in Thailand, in Egypt ... It's a phenomenon." - Reuters
