Copious Notes

Speaking of Broadway-casting reality shows and Kentucky, University of Kentucky graduate Derek Keeling is going to make his Broadway debut in Grease as Danny Zuko after all.

Keeling and Ashley Spencer will go on as Danny and Sandy Tuesday night, succeeding Max Crumm and Laura Osnes, who won the roles on the NBC reality competition series, Grease: You’re the One That I Want, in the winter of 2007. Osnes and Crumm debuted in the Broadway revival of Grease last summer. Spencer was the runner up to Osnes. Keeling finished third behind Crumm and Texan Austin Miller. The winners were decided solely by audience votes.

Since the show, Keeling has been involved in a number of projects, including a musical version of A Tale of Two Cities that debuted in Sarasota last fall and opens on Broadway at the Al Hirschfeld Theatre Aug. 19. Aaron Lazar will play Charles Darnay, the role Keeling had in Sarasota.

Keeling’s hometown paper, The Charleston Daily Mail in West Virginia, reports a healthy contingent of family and friends are heading to New York for Keeling’s debut. His biography on the Grease website mentions his UK degree. Keeling and Spencer will be sharing the stage with American Idol winner Taylor Hicks, who is playing Teen Angel.

Above: Spencer and Keeling as Sandy and Danny. Photo courtesy of Barlow-Hartman Public Relations.

Laura Bell Bundy takes a bow on the opening night of Legally Blonde — The Musical, April 29, 2007. Before she bows out, we'll see her a few times on the MTV reality/competition show that will name her replacement. Copyrighted Herald-Leader photo by Aaron Lee Fineman. Below: A moment from Legally Blonde The Musicial: The Search for Elle Woods. Copyrighted photo courtesy of MTV.

The argument against a reality show to find Laura Bell Bundy's replacement as the lead in the Broadway production of Legally Blonde — The Musical is Laura Bell Bundy.

This isn't argument Bundy is making. She has said nothing against Legally Blonde The Musical — The Search for Elle Woods, the MTV show that premiers tonight with 10 aspiring starlets competing to inherit Elle's hot pink wardrobe. In fact, she's promoting the show, will appear in several episodes and help train the winner for her big debut.

But you cannot deny that this show is a purely commercial move designed to keep Blonde in the spotlight after its Tony Award-nominated star exits. Yes, there is always that chance that The Search will turn up some diamond in the rough, a previously unknown talent with the skills, magnetism and stamina to fill Bundy's pink high heels.

But that's doubtful, because Bundy didn't walk into the show straight out of Lexington Catholic High School, and that's not how most of Broadway's leading lights got to center stage. Bundy first turned heads when she was 10, taking an Obie Award nominated star turn in Ruthless! The Musical. She had roles in movies such as Jumanji and guest turns on Home Improvement that you can still see on Nickelodeon. If she'd been born 10 years later, in an entertainment landscape like today's that offers more opportunities to child stars, she could have been a Miley Cyrus or Ashley Tisdale. But she actually went to high school here, then went back to New York and walked onto a plum role in a hit daytime drama, followed by a Broadway debut in a Tony Award-winning musical. When we talked to her directors and colleagues on Blonde, almost all referred to the years of work she put in leading up to this show as being of paramount importance to her landing and succeeding in the part.

She paid her dues, but even more importantly, she gained valuable experience that prepared her for a colossally demanding role that is plausibly billed as being as big as Gypsy's Mama Rose. Granted, Blonde does not have Gypsy's literary cachet. But as Elle, Bundy is dancing, singing, acting a range from humor to heartache and basically executing every play in the triple threat book with only a few minutes off stage.

It is a role you work up to, not one you walk into off the street.

Broadway already tried this once, when the revival of Grease held a reality show audition for the leading roles of Danny and Sandy. Likable Max Crumm and Laura Osnes won via viewer votes over a few folks who had more seasoning, and the opening night reviews were not kind. Normally, these roles have gone to veterans who worked their ways up through the ranks or were filled with a little stunt casting. Actually, Grease is resorting to that now, with American Idol champ Taylor Hicks joining the cast for the summer.

Broadway is a business — big business. And with so many lights on Times Square producers need to do something to make theirs shine brighter. Maybe being the show with the girl from MTV will help Blonde, now well into its second year. But it's not a move that shows a tremendous amount of respect for Bundy, her supporting players or hundreds of other actors who have put in their time on auditions, rejections and bit parts to get roles like this. And in many ways, it will put the eventual winner of the contest in precarious position she'll need Elle-like determination to overcome.

Starting tonight, we'll find out if anyone fits that bill.

Maybe the University of Kentucky’s own Derek Keeling was better off not getting into the Broadway revival of Grease. The show, for which the leads were cast through the NBC reality show Grease: You’re the One that I Want,
opened last night, and the New York theater scribes were not kind. It wasn’t necessarily that they were overly harsh to Max Crumm and Laura Osnes, who won the roles of Danny and Sandy, but that they thought the overall enterprise was safe and dull. (Copyrighted AP photo of Osnes and Crumm, above, by Joan Marcus.)

The New York Times Ben Brantley said the show about a high school felt like a show put on by a high school, "and I don’t mean a high school of the performing arts."

Newsday’s Linda Winer damned Crumm and Osnes with faint praise and said the rest of the show appears to have been cast to make the reality show winners look good.

The New York Daily News’ Joe Dziemianowicz says Crumm and Osnes are "Fine," then adds that fine doesn’t cut it as a Broadway lead.

Robert Feldberg of North Jesey’s Record says the show, "seems uninterested in being much more than the end product of a TV promotion."

The New York Post’s Clive Barnes was most the most
pointed critic I read in laying blame for Grease’s failure at Crumm and
Osnes’ feet, or more to the point, the people who voted for them.

And this is sort of what you had to expect. Reality TV was not going to be welcome with open arms by Broadway critics or a lot of the Broadway community unless someone really stormed through and knocked their socks off. But there were consistent threads running through these reviews, like the actors seeming to be overdirected by Kathleen Marshall and Crumm not being a convincing leader of the pack. That was why Crumm came close to not even making the final field for the live competition, because the judges, producer David Ian in particular, doubted boyishly sweet Crumm could morph into tough ladykiller Danny. The general population that votes on reality show competitions may not completely understand that just because you’re the best talent on stage — which Crumm arguably was — doesn’t mean you’re right for every part.

Of course, audiences will have the final say on this revival, and if it does indeed sell out for 18 straight years — which is how long producers claim it would take to get everyone who voted in the competition into the Brooks Atkinson Theatre — this may not be the last time reality TV bites Broadway.

Speaking of reality TV contestants, which we were in our last post about Jason Epperson, there’s news about Derek Keeling, the University of
Kentucky theatre graduate who was one of the major competitors on Grease: You’re the One That I Want earlier this year.

On the blog on his myspace page, Derek reports that he has been cast as Charles Darnay in the new musical version of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. The music, lyrics and book were written by Jill Santoriello, an Ohio University journalism school graduate and self-taught musician who, according to her biography on the show’s website, has been crafting music based on Tale since high school. The show will open at Asolo Repertory Theatre in Sarasota, Fla., in October, with hopes to transfer to Broadway in 2008. Playbill described the show as a serious-minded pop epic in the tradition of Les Misérables.

Keeling was the second to last person eliminated on You’re the One that I Want in which contestants were competing for the roles of Danny and Sandy in the Broadway revival of Grease. Max Crumm and Laura Osnes were the winners and star in the show which opens Sunday on Broadway. In an interview with the Herald-Leader in April, Keeling said being on the show had opened a lot of doors for him. Looks like he stepped through one.

With a 10-year-old daughter, I am used to the giggles of little girls. She can create a little of her own, and with a friend over, those chuckles fill the house. So, it didn’t really phase me that there was a growing giggle concert
behind me in the Barnes & Noble Starbucks on Fifth Avenue, until the mom leaned in an asked my interviewee if her girls could have his autograph.

Yes, the days of anonymity are over for University of Kentucky graduate Derek Keeling, who was the one many viewer’s wanted to play Danny Zuko on NBC’s recent Grease reality show. It’s not that Derek gets mobbed, but he gets approached a lot. A few fans even delayed our meeting for a few moments.

The show in question was Grease: You’re the One That I Want, in which viewers voted to decide which contenders would land the roles of Danny and Sandy in the upcoming Grease revival. Derek, of course, did not get the role of Danny. That went to Max Crumm, thanks to a legion of Slacker Backers. Derek was quite candid about the show and his odyssey from presumptive winner to last Danny cut before the finals. We’ll share more of that conversation in a feature story in a few weeks here.

But no doubt, being on a national TV show, was very, very good for the Wildcat’s career. Companies that are booking him offer to put his name above the show’s title. He was courted by a number of agents. And he’s getting opportunities that used to go to "name" actors.

Derek is also another illustration of the tightly woven web of Kentucky and Kentucky connected talent in New York. To reach him, we put a call in to Joan Rue at the  University of Kentucky Theater Department, who put us in touch with Louisvillian and UK graduate Chase Jennings, who is an agent up here, who knew Derek and put us in touch with him. And then, when we were chatting with Derek, he knew or worked virtually every Kentuckian on Broadway we mentioned.

But not many of them get a reaction from little girls that Derek gets.

I am not much of a TV watcher, and frankly, a lot of the TV I do end up tuning in is PBS. American Masters rarely fails to be fascinating — took in the Annie Leibovitz show twice, a few months ago. Frontline is broadcast journalism as it should be, and American Experience may be one of the best history teachers out there. Austin City Limits is a Saturday night staple, and more often than not, Great Performances is worth a look. I could go on — love History Detectives, I’m developing a taste for Antiques Roadshow and here in the Bluegrass State, KET develops a lot of terrific programming.

We’re tossing bouquets here, because the next thing I am going to say is Eric Williams’ recent blog item on the Huffington Post did strike a chord with me. All I had to read was the title, If It’s Orbison, It Must Be Pledge Month, to
know exactly what he was talking about. We just finished that time of year where PBS stations toss out most of their normal programming in favor of shows we do not see the rest of the year to persuade us to open our wallets. Now, even here, I have to say I liked quite a bit of what KET showed during the early March drive: the Alison Krauss and Union Station concert filmed at Louisville’s Palace Theatre was sublime, the Great Performances’ James Taylor tribute was better than I thought it would be and the Antiques Roadshow "greatest hits" was a lot of fun (favorite item: Someone had a pre-production screenplay of Gone with the Wind that was so early in the process it listed George Cukor as the director). I even like the Roy Orbison Black & White Night perennial. But there were numerous shows that were so beneath PBS. For instance, they’ve started trotting out these Jurassic rock and pop shows like The British Beat. Being a British Invasion fan, I was interested, until I started watching, and saw that it was basically reunited or semi-reunited 60s rock bands trotting out their old tunes. We got that a year or two back with a disco show. This is quality programming? I would dis Celtic Woman, but my wife would probably dis-agree. And the video clips of Elvis mixed with his band in a recent performance was just kind of bizarre. What was worse was  every one of these seemed to play over and over again, like they were on a DVD changer. In fact, a lot of these shows were repeats from previous pledge drives.

Williams makes the good point that this is not how NPR operates (though he does indulge in a snotty attack on Car Talk). When you’re in public radio’s  pledge drive, you hear a lot of interruptions, but those are in the midst of your regularly scheduled programming. I don’t go into Terry Gross withdrawal  during pledge week. In fact, if you love a certain program, you are encouraged to call in and pledge during that show to show your support for it. Hmmm. Should I call in during Solo Shots or Wait Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me?

But if I want to show my love for Austin City Limits, no chance. It was pre-empted all pledge drive. No Frontline. No American Masters. PBS has probably figured out the most effective ways to raise money, but sometimes, during pledge weeks, it just doesn’t feel like you’re watching PBS. At least, not the one that I usually tune in.

Two more Grease notes: Thinking about Grease: You’re the One That I Want, and what I did not like about it, got me to thinking about the reality show I do thoroughly enjoy: Project Runway. That’s the one that has aspiring fashion designers competing for the favor of a panel of judges. One of the big things I like about it is that it really feels like it is about fashion. Grease almost never felt to me like it was about Broadway. Maybe expert critiques of scene work and a deeper look into the journey of aspiring actors would be
Nielsen ratings poison for a network show. But, if Broadway producers want to do this sort of thing again, maybe they could modify their expectations, take the show to Bravo and — I know this may be heracy in this interactive world — dispense with the viewer voting. I’m much more interested in seeing how Broadway producers weigh casting decisions than finding out who has the biggest fan base.

This will probably be the last word on Grease, and of course, our whole impetus for following the show was University of Kentucky graduate Derek Keeling. I kept meaning to post a photo from our archives of Derek in the UK Theatre’s 2002 production of Howard Crabtree’s When Pigs Fly, so here it is. (The copyrighted photo is by  David Perry.) It’s a bit different from the Danny Zuko look, eh?

It can be sort of interesting to watch the finale of a reality-competition show where the winners’ names are already in the envelope to see how the producers manage to kill an hour or two, when everyone’s just waiting to hear less than a dozen words. Filling that hour on the Grease: You’re the One that I Want finale served to remind us exactly how far Max Crumm and Laura Osnes came to win the roles of Danny and Sandy in the Broadway revival of Grease.

Max was almost left out of the running, producer David Ian, in particular,
believing that as talented as he was, he could not pull off the leader of the pack role that Danny Zuko is. And while Laura was a bit more plausible as Sandy, her early performances were not knock outs, and the show’s judges openly questioned how the sweet Minnesotan would fare among the tough New York stage vets in the supporting cast of Grease.

If we can walk away feeling good about something on this show, it would be that the winners — at least in terms of what we were shown — were not people who clawed their ways to the top. They were good, talented people who worked their butts off to make their dreams come true. Max, in particular, grew so much in this show that though I do not like Grease, I would pay to see what another three or four months under Kathleen Marshall’s direction would do for him. (Mitch Haaseth’s copyrighted photo
, right, of Max back at the beginning of the show really doesn’t look like Max now. Haaseth also show the photo of Laura, left.) The guy is a triple threat chameleon, and it would not be surprising to see him back in the national spotlight again. (One quibble with David Ian: He called Max a Ben Stiller, and I think of him as more of a John Cusack, but maybe that’s because I’m a big Cusack fan.)

Now, with the You’re the One that I Want ratings, which were not spectacular, you have to wonder if a Broadway show will get this kind of spotlight again. If it does, you have to hope that maybe it will be with a bit more dignity than this show. It took one of Broadway’s best-loved book musicals and turned the audition for the top roles into a Top 40 karaoke jukebox. It showed us very little about the show, the triple threat that it takes to be on one of America’s biggest stages, and much of the time, it didn’t seem very much like Broadway or theater. Probably none of this will improve the ratings for another Broadway casting show, but do something a lot closer to Broadway and a lot farther from American Idol.

Jim Jacobs really did sum up what the whole exercise was about when he said that Max and Laura made him want to dial up Ticketmaster. What we’ve been watching is a three-month commercial for Grease, and the producers hope it pays off.

It wasn’t a good afternoon for Wildcats. Less than an hour after the University of Kentucky basketball team was eliminated from the NCAA Basketball Tournament, UK graduate Derek Keeling was eliminated from the finals of Grease: You’re the One That I Want.

In the video bit right before the eliminations, Derek said he was confident he would be in the top two, and there was a sinking, "famous last words," sensation about that comment.

Throughout the competition, Derek and Max Crumm were the only two men who never ended up among the bottom two vote getters, and therefore, they had never been in danger of being eliminated. But once the judges left the decision completely up to the voters, Derek, at one point seen as the man to beat, ended up being the odd man out. Who knows how it happened. Maybe his weaknesses that were showing caught up to him. Maybe a suddenly realigned voting pool just didn’t go for him. Maybe Austin Miller’s brush with the bottom last week motivated his fan base. With a modest audience, you have to think the voting in this competition would be susceptible to sudden shifts in voting. Such is the hazard of having your fate left up to the whims of a reality show audience. There had to be a little irony for Derek singing, "I sit and wonder why, oh why?" at the end of the show.

But you know, in most auditions, if you came in third, you’d walk off the stage having been seen by just a few people, with no idea when you’d have another shot. But Derek, as well as the other competitors, have had weeks
of performing before millions of viewers. You have to think that for someone as talented as Derek, being on the Grease reality show will open a few doors for him. Having a Tony Award-winning director tell you, "We will work together, many times, in many shows," which Kathleen Marshall said as Derek left, had to be a nice consolation prize.

So, now it’s down to two unconventional choices: pretty Austin and "slacker" Max — Derek was considered the one who most, "looked like Danny." This
blog has been part of the chorus saying Max is clearly the most talented of two. When Chicago director Rob Marshall was talking about singing the songs in character, Max was the one who didn’t have to be told.
It’s really no surprise that the judges unanimously picked Max and Laura Osnes (copyrighted photos, left and right, by Chris Haston for NBC)as their Danny and Sandy at the end of the show. I had my head down working on this post when Laura and Ashley Spencer were singing their first competition number, and my head popped up when Laura started singing. Her voice is an attention grabber, and like Max, she has the acting chops.

So, at least on TV, there seemed to be a consensus that they were the ones the judges wanted. Next week, we see what America thinks (or, at least the smidgen of America that is still watching this show), and as we’ve seen, that can be a little unpredictable.

UPDATE: An interesting little poll on NBC’s Grease website asks what combination of Sandy and Danny viewers like most. As of 10:15 Monday night, the Max and Laura combo had 49 percent, or nearly as many votes as the other three combinations combined. Laura is the big winner, because her with either guy amounted to 72 percent of the vote. Of course, we don’t know who those voters are, and if they actually voted Sunday night.

After two weeks where Derek Keeling seemed to lose his Danny Zuko mojo, the University of Kentucky graduate got back on track tonight with a charming and confident performance of Elvis Presley’s Devil in Disguise. And, despite
another crack last week, Derek (copyrighted photo, right, by Chris Haston for NBC) still avoided the dreaded sing off. That cannot be said of Austin Miller, who has long looked like his chief rival for the role of Grease’s leading man, when the show opens this summer on Broadway.

It was an up and down night for Austin, who’s machismo has recently been questioned in the quest to play Danny. He started the evening falling into the bottom two and the sing off, and being told that he was the low vote getter last week. But he won the sing off, becoming the last performer saved by the judges, and several of the judges said they would choose him as their Danny, based on the evening’s performances.

That was actually kind of curious, because Max Crumm was the one everyone gushed over, again. He has definitely gone from longshot to legitimate contender. Right after guest judge Rob Marshall (the Oscar-winning director of Chicago) finished telling Derek and Allie Schulz to become Danny and Sandy now and embody the parts, Max and Laura Osnes came out and did just that.

In the women’s division, Ashley Spencer gave a nice, convicted performance, and would seem to be Laura’s biggest rival for the role of Sandy.

As Billy Bush and Denise Van Outen kept reminding us, all the power now lies with the viewers. That would seem to put Derek and Max, and Laura and Ashley at advantages to make the finals. Both Austin and Allie have visited the bottom now, and — someone correct me if I’m wrong on Allie — both have been low vote getters. That would not seem to bode well for them in a contest completely decided by voters.

It tells us nothing about the top, as we have not been told who’s been getting the most votes.

But it does seem that Derek has come through some rough patches with enough love from voters to keep him out of trouble. Now, will it be enough to put him over the top, and on Broadway. There are two weeks left to find out. (Here’s my bet, he’ll stay in contention for Danny longer than the Cats will be in contention for the NCAA title.)

P.S.: Raven Snook claims she is not the best Grease blogger, but I heartily disagree. Check her out.

The competition has flipped upside down on the men’s side of  Grease: You’re the One That I Want. University of Kentucky graduate Derek Keeling and Texan Austin Miller continued to slide on tonight’s Danny-centric installment.
Meanwhile, Max Crumm, an immensely talented guy, but more a Leo Bloom (the nebbish accountant from The Producers) than a Danny Zuko, reigned supreme with a smokin’ rendition of the Black Crowes’ Hard to Handle. (Copyrighted photo of Max by Dean Hendler for NBC, right.)

Derek, just a few weeks ago seen as the guy to beat in this competition, has a few cracks in his armor. Literally, for the second time in the competition, his voice cracked. It was nowhere near as bad as two weeks ago, where his voice screeched and staggered all over his duet with Kate Rockwell, the Cincinnatian who was actually sent packing last week. And, really, that week’s crack amplified this week’s. Judge Jim Jacobs tried to play it off as maybe a Buddy Holly-esque hiccup, but David Ian apparently thought it was huge, saying, "It was a crack." Still, Derek’s performance of Bryan Adams’ Heaven was good and romantic overall. In my book, it was good for second best in the show. I say that granting it was a weak performance week, where everyone but Max stepped back when they needed to step up.

Austin’s rendition of Fun, Fun, Fun was borderline painful, as he just appeared to be trying way too hard to show the judges he can be, uh, fun. There was also this annoying nasal/over-annunciation problem with the word "now," which appears half a billion times in that song. Chad, saved last week from the chopping block by the judges, was OK singing Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now. But his voice sounded awfully thin, especially if you consider that song was originally sung by one of the greatest voices in rock history. It may be good enough to keep him out of the basement, but I would tend to wager he and Austin will face each other next week. (watch it be Derek and Max).

Max apparently has a girlfriend. Allie Schulz. At least, that’s a storyline the producers are trying to sell us, and they will be together another week, as Allie was saved and Kathleen Monteleone was sent home. David Ian said there was disagreement among the judges, namely, he would have sent Allie home. And it was a tight sing-off. But apparently, third  time in the bottom and you loose your charm. She did leave with a lovely performance of Look at Me, I’m Sandra Dee.

There was an especially good clip in the second half of the show, illustrating the hectic lives of the competitors and how it mirrors Broadway life. There were some complaints about complaints that Kathleen looked winded and out of sorts at the end of last week’s episode. "She had a lot to do." "People shouldn’t be so hard on her." But that is life in theater, on Broadway: dizzying dance numbers, register-topping songs, 10-second costume changes, and if your boyfriend broke up with you at intermission, we’d better not see it on stage. So, it is fair for judges and viewers to assess how well the competitors hold it together, even while their fate is being decided on national television.

Now, it’s time to check in with Jamie for an Amazing Race update.