Word: pizazz
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...anyone can bring pizazz to this decrepit genre, it's Baz Luhrmann--the mad Aussie who, in his 1996 Romeo + Juliet made Shakespeare play like a psychedelic rap video. The idea here was to take a plot that crosses 42nd Street with Camille and, he says, "steal bits of culture from the 20th century and use it to make a code, a software, to access emotion and character...
Smart guys; they've seen the show. The Producers is, first of all, one of the best translations of a beloved movie to the stage ever. Most of Brooks' famous lines and bits are here, including the memorable Springtime for Hitler production number, staged by Stroman with goose-stepping pizazz. The new songs--Brooks wrote the music and the lyrics--are a sprightly retro pastiche, ranging from mock Fiddler on the Roof, to mock Astaire and Rogers, to mock Bavarian beer hall. There's a chorus line of old ladies with walkers, a flock of pigeons doing the Nazi salute...
Demme, who has seen GoodFellas a few times, pours pizazz all over the project to keep the 30-year saga moving. In Johnny Depp he has a star who can commandeer the camera, however flimsy George's motives are. Depp gets some smart support from Paul Reubens as the world's friendliest, queeniest middleman, and Bobcat Goldthwaite as a chemist floored by the quality of the product ("I can't feel my face!"). But painting the bigger picture is tough work. Blow works for a scene or two, then stalls. That's the nature of a story that is episodic...
...they say at Disney, the park is the ride. It's a pleasure to browse in this imaginary Anytown; each quiet corner is art-directed with meticulous pizazz. Tread carefully on the elevated rope "netwalk"--a sort of Swiss Family Wallenda--in the Redwood Creek Challenge Trail. Stop to hear gorgeous spellbinder Nicole Barre spin an Indian fable, How the Rabbit Stole the Sun, in the Ahwahnee Camp Circle. Catch the charming film snippets of Rosie O'Donnell and Colin Mochrie in the Boudin Bakery pavilion. Wander through Paradise Pier, where you will find Wolfgang Puck's to-diet...
...sports car, wrapped around a 260-h.p. engine and to be priced at a mere $30,000 when it hits showrooms next year, is an expression of what Nakamura thinks the brand ought to be: affordable, with a little more risk and a lot more pizazz. Says Nakamura: "We simply didn't have a clear direction before...