My dream collaboration, which will never, EVER happen: Lady Gaga and the Seatbelts. I think she would knock new songs in their rock/funk/jazz fusion out of the ballpark, and ever since the "Born This Way" album I've wanted her to cover "Gotta Knock a Little Harder."

My old sociology professor once said, "The future is a fat black bulldyke lesbian with a disability. When THAT no longer raises any eyebrows, we're home."

The weirdest, most insidious bit with the member berries is that even their voices and "member, you member" catchphrase is a callback to Mexican comedian George Lopez… Then subverting the ethnicity of the comedian by having the berries spout racism.

I'd like to plug the movie musical "Reefer Madness!" for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. The cast is a fantastic collection of TV stars and cult figures (even John "CryptKeeper" Kassir in a pivotal role as a college dropout who hasn't even taken off his old frat sweater in decades), the songs are great, and the…

Dream logic and nonlinear, expressionist storytelling were big parts of the early "Classic" Tim Burton films, which made them cool but not always good. Around Edward Scissorhands, he started to focus more on conventional plotting and less on world building, and his movies started to make more sense but lack the…

It soft of feels like a grown-up "Heathers."

In the James Wan version, young Bruce walks away from "Zorro" on TV to discover his parents in a bizarre double-suicide contraption. He is warped in the process.

I'm not gonna waste a True Showbiz Tales on this, because it's not really a tale yet, but one of the projects I have in development is a musical based on "The Prisoner of Zenda," with a score by the orchestrator of the upcoming "It" remake.

True Showbiz Tales #21: A few years ago I was hired to write a musical parody of Disney's "Little Mermaid," and Disney musicals in general. The scene where the Sea Witch (reimagined as UrLiza, an octopoidal Broadway diva whose evil magic got her kicked out of showbiz) casts the spell to steal the mermaid's voice…

Action scenes are set to "Interlude for Ten Strings."

Create your own Mad Max Universe names!
Anax Imperator
Doo-Dah Burns
Madman Bearfucker
Jon Snow
Killdeath Herpaderp

Mad Max: Fury Road as rescored by The Ditty Bops.

"For I am the pirate king,
Hurrah for the pirate king,
I'm strong to the finish 'cos I eats me spinach
I'm Popeye the Pirate King."

It's gonna be the second. Tim Minchin is the Jason Robert Brown of the 2010s- a darling of performers and writers, but utterly "who?" to the mainstream.

Andy Karl is the Bill Hader of musical theatre: forever the best and the funniest thing he's in as a supporting role, but with a tendency to pick not the greatest star vehicles. I'm hoping "Groundhog Day" is what finally puts him over the top.
Side note: there was a touring musical revue called "Disney's On the…

I know camera purists are going to sneer, but I really like the fact that the single most ubiquitous piece of tech today contains a camera which is ever nearing DSLR standards bit by bit. "Don't throw out your pro gear yet, but we're getting there," they basically said at the Apple event last week- think of the…

People tend to think of "Rocky Horror" as an empowering queer-paradise film, and ignore the fact that the film and Frank-n-Furter all have some deeply disturbing, problematic issues. It's a subversive film, but underneath that subversion is a weirdly pro-rape, anti-queer message that could only be a product of its…

The bizarre afterlife of the Beatlemania show is that Beatles tribute groups wanting to use Beatlemania have to have either an original cast member or an original crew member involved. You get "Beatlemania Now," "The Cast of Beatlemania," etc as these professional Beatles tribute groups, and you're guaranteed a good…

It's telling that the answer to "is marijuana a gateway drug" can be an honest "no," "yes," or "who the fuck cares?"

Lost campers totally unaware of what's going on- a shadowy, unseen presence- mysterious totems/icons showing up compulsively- time being screwy: yup, this is an Eleventh Doctor two-parter.