Breakfast at Tiffany's on the stage (yet again)

So far we have the original novella by Truman Capote (1958), the film with Audrey Hepburn (1961), a musical (1966), and a West End production (2009). Opening next month on Broadway is yet another incarnation of Breakfast at Tiffany's, this time starring Emilia Clarke of Game of Thrones fame.

As the show hasn't opened yet, information is still trickling in, but so far there is an official website, an app game you can play (Fend off rats and super rats! Dance with Fred! Buy clothes!), and a Facebook page to like, and a Twitter feed you may follow for updates and sneak peeks at costume design sketches. The show previews begin March 4th at the Cort Theatre but the official opening night is March 20th. As of now, the calendar shows the play running through the end of August, but as with any play, if you want to see it, book sooner rather than later.

I'll actually be running out to New York next weekend to catch the show, so I'll take pictures of the venue and write up a review for those of you who can't make it. Keep in mind that this is based off of the novella, which is quite a bit different than the film, so if you're not familiar with Capote's Holly Golightly...well, you might want to read up on her.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: The Play (again)

I blame this on being out of the country and away from computers when the story was confirmed, but have you all heard about the stage production of Breakfast at Tiffany's now on in London? It previewed at the end of September and is now running at the Theatre Royal Haymarket until the end of January 2010. Interesting...

Does anyone have any inclination to see it? It stars Anna Friel of the terminally cute television show Pushing Daisies as Holly Golightly, and while Anna is on record as saying she wouldn't attempt to mimic Audrey's iconic portrayal of the callgirl with a heart of gold, the adverts certainly give another impression. Don't blame the girl, though, as the few onstage shots I've managed to find show Anna as a curly blonde more reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe (Capote's original choice for Holly) than Audrey Hepburn. I'm afraid that I can't really show you any of the pictures I've found because I try to keep this as family friendly as possible, and, well . . . Anna appears completely nude onstage. Yes, starkers.

The play is based off of Truman Capote's original novella and not the sweetened screenplay that George Axelrod adapted to film, and is set in 1943 as opposed to the then-current time of 1961 for the film. There is also a language warning on both the theatre's website and the production's official website, more in keeping with Capote's sometimes blue writing. If you are interested in catching the show tickets are still available and can be found on the theatre's website (link above), and seem to range from around £17 to £50. If you do go see, please share your thoughts with those of us who can't make it! We'd love to hear from you.

While doing some research on this I found that this actually wasn't the first time Breakfast had been put onstage. There had been rumors in the late 90s and early 2000s that someone somewhere was going to do an adaptation and Natalie Portman had been asked to take on Holly, but thanks to Google and an unauthorized biography you can now read more about one of the most notorious Broadway flops in history, Breakfast at Tiffany's the Musical. Can you imagine Mary Tyler Moore as a singing and dancing Holly? Or Richard Chamberlain as the sensitive, bookish Paul Varjak? A cast recording was made shortly before the play closed and is still available on CD, surprisingly enough. Don't waste your time on Amazon where third party sellers will try to gouge you at $50 or more. Barnes & Noble's website has the album selling at $26.39 with listening samples! I won't influence your minds, so if you're curious, go listen to the samples for yourself . . . and leave comments, of course. I love hearing your thoughts on anything, especially the more bizarre findings. :)

MTV highly suggests a remake of Breakfast at Tiffany's

MTV.com has brought up some interesting articles on Audrey Hepburn lately, but this one irritates much more than it amuses. In "'Deliverance' To 'Breakfast at Tiffany's': Movies We'd Like to See Remade," the author suggests a few classic movies that, in his opinion, could actually benefit from a remake. Some would do well with the better quality special effects that we have available now, and others would be just plain fun to see with today's stars (to him). The reasoning behind his idea to remake Breakfast at Tiffany's takes the cake, though:

Oh, we can hear some of you crying foul. Yes, Audrey Hepburn's Holly Golightly in the 1961 Blake Edwards original is one of the most iconic performances in film history. Yes, the movie is beloved and acclaimed and blah, blah, blah. It's also, honestly, not that great, and it bears very little resemblance to Truman Capote's 1958 book, a far more complex and melancholy tale for which Hollywood just wasn't ready. Sure, movies and books are different media and shouldn't be compared with each other, but in this case we'll make an exception. Why not take a stab at a more faithful adaptation with a less gazelle-like Holly (how about Elisha Cuthbert or Lauren Ambrose?), a less-straight Fred (played by Topher Grace? Owen Wilson?), no happy ending and, most of all, no Mr. Yunioshi. Hey, Sofia Coppola: Whattya think? Good follow-up to "Marie Antoinette"?

[Links to the actors mentioned in the article added by me.] For those of you who have read Capote's original novella, don't you think there's a reason why the film wasn't a faithful adaptation? I think it was lightened for the same reasons film adaptations of Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame will never be true to their classic novel counterparts, and that is because they are too dark for the average movie audience. Perhaps today's audience is more sophisticated than the audiences of the 50s and early 60s, if only because we can handle a lot more sex and violence. But deep down, everyone still wants to see a happy ending. Films are screened and remade because test audiences still demand a happily ever after, even in our cynical age. Besides, practically everyone knows by now that Breakfast at Tiffany's isn't very true to the book, and I've met very few people, if any, that actually prefer the book over the film. Most of all, no actress could ever recreate Holly Golightly after Audrey Hepburn has donned her little black dress, and it has actually been detrimental to the few actresses who have dared to remold Audrey's classic characters (see Julia Ormond and Jennifer Love Hewitt). My opinions aside, please read the article for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

In other, better news, it's fashion week in India! More importantly, designer Shantanu Goenka has designed his fall 2007 collection on My Fair Lady, both the Audrey film and George Bernard Shaw's original Pygmalion play that My Fair Lady is based on. The soundtrack to the film played throughout the showing of the collection, and the models themselves went through a flowergirl-to-lady transformation. You can read more about Shantanu's show here.

Lastly, the shy translator who was good enough to transcribe the French interview clip from Sunday has come forward! So if you haven't seen the translation yet, click the link directly above to see the clip, click on the comments link to read the transcript, and leave a little thank you for Manuel Martinez for being so good as to copy out the entire conversation and then translate it for us. That's no mean feat! Merci beaucoup pour votre aide!

"Bloodline" author dies, Audrey Hepburn inspired Edie Sedgwick

Author Sidney Sheldon, who wrote many pulp-style novels and has the dubious distinction of penning the worst Audrey Hepburn film ever, died Tuesday at the age of 89 from pneumonia complications. Sheldon had been active writing screenplays for over 30 years, and Bloodline was his fourth novel out of his final 22 published books. Thankfully, it's a lesser-known and harder to access film, and the cover art of the video tape alone should put you off of it. Is Ben Gazzara made of wax?


Making big news lately is the fictionalized biopic on Warhol muse Edie Sedgwick, Factory Girl. Reviews of the film often call Edie a "real-life Holly Golightly," and according to Ign.com, it's because Edie herself confesses to seeing a movie poster for Breakfast at Tiffany's and desperately wanting to be as glamorous as Audrey Hepburn looked as Holly Golightly. Edie never got around to reading Truman Capote's novella or watching the movie, but she nonetheless knew she wanted to be a real life Holly. An icon influencing an icon.

And to make up for news being so slow, here's Audrey singing "Moon River." She was the first one to sing it, she saved it from being scrapped in the movie, and it was always Henry Mancini's favourite version of the song -- he should know, he wrote the song!