Hit me with your best songs
Feb 26, 2006 17:21:58 GMT -5
Post by icubud on Feb 26, 2006 17:21:58 GMT -5
Hit me with your best songs
Laura Bell Bundy stars in show that gets its music from the '80s
By Rich Copley
HERALD-LEADER CULTURE WRITER
Laura Bell Bundy remembers her sister April Michelle was in high school in the 1980s with frosted hair and ice pink lipstick.
Bundy herself was traversing the years from birth to mid-elementary school, watching MTV, having a crush on Jon Bon Jovi and listening to all that Reagan-era music. (A few years later, it was played as oldies when Bundy was at Lexington Catholic High School.)
Now, the actress is getting her own immersion in the 1980s in the new musical Rock of Ages as Sherrie Christian -- as in Steve Perry's Oh Sherrie and Night Ranger's Sister Christian.
Bundy likens the Los Angeles stage show to Mama Mia, the Broadway smash built on hits by ABBA, except this the show's music is variety of artists from the days of big hair and big raaawwwk anthems.
The story is that Sherrie moves from Kansas to Los Angeles, where she hopes to become -- what else? -- an actress. She goes to work at a rock club on the Sunset Strip and gets used and abused by a pop-rock star.
So much for the Bon Jovi crush.
It's all set to hits including Journey's Any Way You Want It and Whitesnake's Here I Go Again. Bundy herself gets to sing Joan Jett's I Hate Myself for Loving You, Journey's Don't Stop Believin', Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorn, and her big number, Quarterflash's Harden My Heart.
"The thing about '80s music is it was so theatrical," says Bundy, whose previous credits the film Jumanji (1995), a two-year stint on The Guiding Light and originating the role of Amber Von Tussle in the Tony-winning Broadway version of Hairspray. "It was all about entertaining people, and all of the songs have stories. It's like musical theater."
Of the show, she says, "The dancing is absolutely fantastic, and the costumes are hilarious. They're hot, too. They're sexy, but they're also so '80s that you just can't help but laugh. Like, the first pair of jeans I wear literally comes above my belly button. They're so high and so tight and ankle tight at the bottom, so much so that I almost can't pull them off."
The show has drawn a variety of reactions.
"Seeking nothing more than to be a very guilty pleasure, this celebration of '80s tastelessness wears down defenses with an ability to keep topping its absurdities," Variety critic Steven Oxman wrote.
However, Backstage.com's Jeff Favre wrote, "It takes a perfect storm to create possibly the worst theatrical production in the last several years, but Rock of Ages has done it."
Audiences have been enthusiastic enough about the Los Angeles production to extend its run nearly a month, to March 18. Then, Bundy says, the hope is to move it to Las Vegas.
Whether she'll go with it depends on how some of her other projects turn out. Next month, Bundy will be filming the role of Sweetheart in the big-screen version of Dreamgirls, and she also is booked for guest shots on The WB's Modern Men, scheduled to premiere at 9:30 p.m. March 17, and on CBS's Cold Case.
Bundy also has some irons in the fire she declines to discuss. Suffice to say, she might not need to get too used to those tight '80s jeans.
www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/entertainment/13959058.htm
Laura Bell Bundy stars in show that gets its music from the '80s
By Rich Copley
HERALD-LEADER CULTURE WRITER
Laura Bell Bundy remembers her sister April Michelle was in high school in the 1980s with frosted hair and ice pink lipstick.
Bundy herself was traversing the years from birth to mid-elementary school, watching MTV, having a crush on Jon Bon Jovi and listening to all that Reagan-era music. (A few years later, it was played as oldies when Bundy was at Lexington Catholic High School.)
Now, the actress is getting her own immersion in the 1980s in the new musical Rock of Ages as Sherrie Christian -- as in Steve Perry's Oh Sherrie and Night Ranger's Sister Christian.
Bundy likens the Los Angeles stage show to Mama Mia, the Broadway smash built on hits by ABBA, except this the show's music is variety of artists from the days of big hair and big raaawwwk anthems.
The story is that Sherrie moves from Kansas to Los Angeles, where she hopes to become -- what else? -- an actress. She goes to work at a rock club on the Sunset Strip and gets used and abused by a pop-rock star.
So much for the Bon Jovi crush.
It's all set to hits including Journey's Any Way You Want It and Whitesnake's Here I Go Again. Bundy herself gets to sing Joan Jett's I Hate Myself for Loving You, Journey's Don't Stop Believin', Poison's Every Rose Has Its Thorn, and her big number, Quarterflash's Harden My Heart.
"The thing about '80s music is it was so theatrical," says Bundy, whose previous credits the film Jumanji (1995), a two-year stint on The Guiding Light and originating the role of Amber Von Tussle in the Tony-winning Broadway version of Hairspray. "It was all about entertaining people, and all of the songs have stories. It's like musical theater."
Of the show, she says, "The dancing is absolutely fantastic, and the costumes are hilarious. They're hot, too. They're sexy, but they're also so '80s that you just can't help but laugh. Like, the first pair of jeans I wear literally comes above my belly button. They're so high and so tight and ankle tight at the bottom, so much so that I almost can't pull them off."
The show has drawn a variety of reactions.
"Seeking nothing more than to be a very guilty pleasure, this celebration of '80s tastelessness wears down defenses with an ability to keep topping its absurdities," Variety critic Steven Oxman wrote.
However, Backstage.com's Jeff Favre wrote, "It takes a perfect storm to create possibly the worst theatrical production in the last several years, but Rock of Ages has done it."
Audiences have been enthusiastic enough about the Los Angeles production to extend its run nearly a month, to March 18. Then, Bundy says, the hope is to move it to Las Vegas.
Whether she'll go with it depends on how some of her other projects turn out. Next month, Bundy will be filming the role of Sweetheart in the big-screen version of Dreamgirls, and she also is booked for guest shots on The WB's Modern Men, scheduled to premiere at 9:30 p.m. March 17, and on CBS's Cold Case.
Bundy also has some irons in the fire she declines to discuss. Suffice to say, she might not need to get too used to those tight '80s jeans.
www.kentucky.com/mld/kentucky/entertainment/13959058.htm
