The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Monday, December 12, 2016 — 5A

YOU'RE 
DOING GREAT 
AND WE 
know you 
can do it. 

Classifieds

Call: #734-418-4115
Email: dailydisplay@gmail.com

ACROSS
1 On the __:
broken
6 Dressed (in)
10 Quail or turkey,
e.g.
14 Prefix with
economics
15 Impulse
16 “Yeah, sure”
17 Do over 60 in
Hawaii, say
18 Upsurge
19 Null and __
20 Locomotive
operators
23 Lao Tzu’s “way”
24 Republican org.
25 Singer for the
cops?
34 Flower painted
by van Gogh
35 Burns with hot
liquid
36 Mai __
37 One who shuns
company
39 Many a
Monopoly prop.
40 Kick out
42 “Brokeback
Mountain”
director Lee
43 Snoozing
46 Rank between
viscount and
marquis
47 Gridiron
adjudicator
50 Motor City labor
gp.
51 Preacher’s msg.
52 What 20-, 25-
and 47-Across all
are, in one way
or another
60 Billiards triangle
61 “Garfield” pooch
62 Paradises
64 Lotion additive
65 __ monster: lizard
66 “Rabbit food”
course
67 Remain
undecided
68 Staircase part
69 Sporty sunroofs

DOWN
1 Radio choices
2 Completely
engrossed

3 Bakery employee
4 Dissertation
5 It has a dozen
signs
6 Ice tray unit
7 Scientologist
Hubbard
8 Intensely eager
9 Divine-human
hybrid
10 Quitting hr. for
many
11 Double-reed
instrument
12 Flow-altering dam
13 Former Ford
models
21 Thumbs-down
votes
22 Like Eric or Leif
25 Rice dish
26 Home of the
University of
Maine
27 Jargon
28 Poker wager-
matching
response
29 Bellybutton
30 Baseball card
rival of Topps
31 On __:
rampaging

32 Mother-of-pearl
33 Owner’s
document
38 Morocco’s capital
41 Made heckling
remarks to
44 Snooze loudly
45 Mexicali money
48 Like warthogs
and walruses
49 Smallest number
52 Rolled-up
sandwich

53 In good health
54 Venerated 
image
55 Proofreader’s
change
56 Irascibility
57 Jump
58 Move, in Realtor-
speak
59 Go off the deep
end
63 Vietnam War
protest gp.

By Michael Dewey
©2016 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
12/12/16

12/12/16

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

RELEASE DATE– Monday, December 12, 2016

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis

xwordeditor@aol.com

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FOR RENT

NBC

‘Hairspray’ could have benefitted from a little less conversation.

After the creative and ratings 

success 
of 
“Grease 
Live,” 

NBC found themselves under 
substantial pressure for their 
next musical: “Hairspray.” Under 
the direction of Thomas Kail 
(“Hamilton”), 
“Grease” raised the 
bar for what a live 
TV musical could 
do. NBC reacted 
by 
increasing 

the 
scale 
of 

“Hairspray.” They 
moved production 
from a soundstage 
in New York to the Universal 
backlot in Los Angeles. They 
had numbers both outdoors and 
indoors and expanded the larger 
production numbers. However, 
“Hairspray” 
couldn’t 
quite 

find energy in the expansive 
production. There were certainly 
successful production numbers 
and very strong performances, 
but technical issues and slower 
scenes killed any momentum 
other elements of the telecast 
were building.

In 
an 
effort 
to 
expand 

their production based on the 
standards set by “Grease,” the 
producers decided to set many 
of their big musical numbers 
outside, 
leading 
to 
mixed 

results. Having “Good Morning 
Baltimore” take place as it’s 
getting dark, with artificial light 
attempting to make it feel like 
morning, feels strange and out of 
place. Still, the outdoor set, made 
to look like a Baltimore street, 
helped numbers like “Welcome 
to the ’60s” feel like they were 
taking place outdoors in the city 
(the dark setting didn’t hurt that 

number).

Like all of the live musicals 

that came before it, the book 
scenes dragged, preventing the 
show from gaining any real 
momentum. A lot of the big 
musical numbers were good with 
so much energy. Still, it seemed 
like after every musical number, 
there was a block of dialogue that 

moved 
slowly. 

However, 
the 

show 
ended 
on 

a 
positive 
note 

with “You Can’t 
Stop 
the 
Beat.” 

That number is 
probably a big part 
of why the show is 
as successful as it 

is. It’s full of singing and dancing 
and gives each character their 
moment in the spotlight. It never 
seems to stop.

Like 
other 
NBC 
musicals 

of the past, “Hairspray Live” 
had a very strong cast, with 
some performances verging on 
extraordinary. Jennifer Hudson 
(“Dreamgirls”) 
took 
on 
the 

supporting role of Motormouth 
Maybelle and owned every second 
she was on screen with two of 
the best songs in the show, “Big, 
Blonde and Beautiful” and “I 
Know Where I’ve Been.” Her 
voice is so pure and so strong 
that she stole the show, much 
like Audra McDonald did in 
“The Sound of Music.” Kristin 
Chenoweth (“Pushing Daisies”) 
knows how to play a diva, and she 
earned some of the biggest laughs 
of the show as Velma Von Tussle. 
Harvey Fierstein (who won a Tony 
for originating Edna Turnblad on 
Broadway) is clearly having fun 
returning to his role, and that 
helped bring Edna to life.

However, 
there 
were 
also 

performances that were passable 

at best. Ariana Grande (“Scream 
Queens”) took on the role of Penny 
Pingleton and didn’t do much 
with it. Sure, she has a good voice, 
but there was so much comic 
potential she left on the table. I 
also have mixed feelings about 
newcomer Maddie Baillio. On the 
one hand, she didn’t do anything 
wrong — her voice was fine and 
she acted decently. But she didn’t 
do anything to stand out as a lead 
actress.

There’s still one element of the 

“Hairspray” broadcast that’s very 
difficult to reconcile: the horrific 
technical 
issues. 
Throughout 

the broadcast, seemingly small 
mistakes kept piling up. During 
“Mama I’m a Big Girl Now,” the 
lights briefly blacked out on Tracy 
in her bedroom. A minute later, the 
set pulled up and revealed another 
part of the scene. Later, there 
were cuts to incorrect cameras 
(including in the powerful number 
“I Know Where I’ve Been”). Look, 
I understand broadcasts like this 
take substantial effort and are 
extremely hard to pull off, but 
wrong lighting and camera cues 
are just lazy. With increased scale 
comes increased difficulty, which 
leaves no room for screwups like 
that.

Though “Hairspray” is far 

from the best musical I’ve seen, 
it still holds a special place in my 
heart. It was the first show I saw 
on Broadway a decade ago, and 
the movie is one of my favorite 
movie-musicals. Still, this live 
production was not nearly as good 
as it could’ve been. They tried to 
replicate the success of “Grease,” 
but ended up with a show that 
had some awful technical issues, 
slow book scenes that nearly 
overpowered the strong cast 
and, overall, really good musical 
numbers.

‘Hairspray’ is no ‘Grease’

ALEX INTNER
Daily Arts Writer

NBC’s TV musical moves from NY to LA with mixed results

B-

“Hairspray Live!”

Live Muiscal Event

NBC

“(Screenwriter 
Gary 

Wolfson) and I would talk 
about movie ideas,” said “The 
Pickle 
Recipe” 
producer 

Sheldon Cohn in a recent 
interview. “One night, out 
of nowhere, Gary said, ‘My 
grandma used to make these 
unbelievable pickles. My sister 
said she’d kill for the recipe.’ 
But his grandma never told it 
to anybody, and she died. So 
the pickles are gone because 
the recipe’s gone. And I said, 
‘that’s kind of a funny idea for 
a movie.’”

So began the journey of 

“The Pickle Recipe,” a feature-
length film about a desperate 
grandson 
stealing 
his 

grandmother’s prized pickle 
recipe to pay for his daughter’s 
bat mitzah. It opens in Ann 
Arbor Friday at the Michigan 
Theater.

Cohn is an alum of the 

University of Michigan film 
department 
and 
graduated 

from what was then called 
the Speech, Radio, TV and 
Film department in 1977. After 
working in advertising for most 
of his adult life, Cohn began to 
work on “The Pickle Recipe” 
with seven other University 
alums. 
Cohn 
emphasized 

that he mostly enjoyed the 
storytelling 
components 
of 

filmmaking, 
particularly 

writing and editing.

“One of the most fun parts 

was 
the 
writing 
process,” 

Cohn said. “Sitting with Gary, 
whether it was my house, 
his house, in my treehouse 
smoking cigars. Just throwing 
ideas back and forth — what if, 
what if, what if.”

The pre-production of the 

film as a whole was gratifying 
for Cohn — after finding Lynn 
Cohen, the woman who plays 
the grandmother, Rose, on 
YouTube, he reached out to 
her to see if she would want 
the part. She confirmed her 
interest a day after she was 
sent the script. 

The entire film was shot in 

Detroit and the surrounding 
suburbs. Cohn said one of the 
most important things for 
him was creating a positive 
representation of Detroit.

“We 
saw 
the 
film 
as 

a 
depiction 
of 
working 

Detroit. And just the shots 
of 
neighborhoods 
and 
the 

skyline were important to 
get,” Cohn said. “People from 
out of state say, ‘I didn’t know 
Detroit looked like that!’ The 
media has depicted Detroit 
as burnt-out buildings and 
vacant lots. They think Detroit 
is horrible looking. We have 
quotes from people saying 
(director) Michael Manaserri 
shoots Detroit with the same 
affection that Woody Allen 
shoots Manhattan. You can see 
that, in the way we photograph 
the city.”

“The Pickle Recipe” has 

been screened all over the 
country and audiences have 
been very receptive to it. 
According to Cohn, though, 
the critical reception has been 
less than ideal. “Not everybody 
likes the film,” Cohn said. “If 
you go on Rotten Tomatoes, 
the critics, they’re not nice to 
us … We didn’t sit there and 
want to make ‘Citizen Kane.’ 
We wanted to make a fun, 
enjoyable movie that was both 
funny and emotional.”

Despite the negative critical 

reaction, Cohn affirmed his 
excitement to release the film 
in Ann Arbor, with his fellow 
University of Michigan alums 
that worked on “The Pickle 
Recipe.” He underscored the 
importance of his education at 
the University and the way it 
gave him hands-on experience 
filming that would help him 
throughout his career.

“I got hands-on experience 

with 
equipment, 
worked 

with really good people and 
professors 
and 
appreciated 

what I did,” Cohn said. “My 
career after U of M is working 
at real projects. Learning how 
to tell a story. Something I 
kept in mind from Michigan 
was, ‘is there anything I can 
do to make it better?’ You 
just have to keep working on 
it until it’s as good as it can 
be. I like working with the 
people from Michigan, and I 
love the idea that it’s going to 
play in Ann Arbor. That’s very 
sentimental.”

REBECCA LERNER

Daily Film Editor

Cohn on ‘Pickle’ and filming Detroit

University grad and filmmaker brings ‘Pickle Recipe’ to Ann Arbor

FILM INTERVIEW

PARAMOUNT PICTURES

Is Jason Bateman the most typecast man of all time? We think so.

In 
a 
conference 
call 

promoting his recent comedy 
“Office 
Christmas 
Party,” 

actor and comedian T.J. Miller 
(“Deadpool”) 
talked 
about 

everything imaginable, from 
his improvised comedic style 
to stories of a wild Texan 
house party. Needless to say, 
the entire conversation was a 
riot. Miller stars in the movie 
as Clay Vanstone, the wilder 
and relaxed brother of Jennifer 
Aniston’s 
character, 
Carol. 

Miller shared some of his own 
crazy holiday party stories that 
rival the chaos in the “Office 
Christmas 
Party” 
trailer, 

describing 
one 
particularly 

wild Christmas.

“If you were at (this) party, 

you were kissing or you were 
missing out,” Miller said. “And 
that was insane. I kissed 15 
people, okay? Some of them 
women, some of them animals.”

These 
types 
of 
zany 

stories 
and 
ridiculous 

commentaries are what make 
Miller so entertaining. His 
ability 
to 
combine 
absurd, 

surrealist humor with gags is 
unpredictable and stylistically 
unique. For him, acting is about 
improvising on the spot rather 
than deep character studies 
and Daniel Day-Lewis-esque 
methods.

“I think by now actually 

in Hollywood, if you hire me, 
you know that I’m going to be 
improvising,” Miller said. “So, 
that’s either a good thing, or it’s 
kept me from getting certain 
jobs.”

On 
the 
set 
of 
“Office 

Christmas Party,” improvising 
was even encouraged.

“A lot of these lines are my 

own, you know?” Miller said. 
“But it was a great script by 
great writers, and we also have 
this guy, Robert Terbowski. He 
was constantly producing post-
it notes with alternate lines.”

Miller placed great faith in 

the writers and even admits 
to 
not 
reading 
the 
script 

beforehand. “I didn’t even read 
the script before I signed up for 
the project, because I’m not a 
very good actor,” he said. “So I 
don’t usually read the scripts.”

Miller is best known for his 

roles as Weasel in the successful 
superhero movie “Deadpool” 
and Erlich Bachman in HBO’s 
“Silicon Valley.” Although both 
characters are fan favorites, 
they aren’t the most virtuous of 
people. Clay Vanstone, however, 
does not quite resemble these 
abrasive and arrogant roles that 
feature a heavy arsenal of crude 
jokes and clever insults. “This 
was a good opportunity for me 
to say to America, ‘I don’t just 
play an abrasive blow-hard 
asshole who sort of insults 
anybody and everyone very, 
very sharply,’” he said.

When asked what ingredient 

Miller 
is 
in 
the 
“Office 

Christmas 
Party” 
ensemble, 

Miller 
said, 
“I’m 
paprika. 

Paprika. OK. P-A-P-R-I-K-A. 
And paprika’s sort of the spice 
that is its own kind of flavor, 
but helps to enhance and 
heighten the other flavors. I 
was the ingredient that both 
added something to the overall 
film, but also helped sort of 
enhance and elevate the flavors 
of comedy around us.”

The 
holidays, 
for 
many, 

involve anxiety-inducing family 
get-togethers and long plane 
rides with negative emotional 
return on investment. Miller 
wants 
audiences 
to 
escape 

what could be a painful couple 
of days and do what everyone 
deserves to do after a stressful 
2016: party hard.

“Right 
now, 
we 
need 

something to go laugh at that is 
positive and inclusive, and even 
a little bit more than that — it’s, 
uh, just a party. It’s about a huge 
party. It’s about everybody 
coming together to party, and 
that’s the message.”

“Office 
Christmas 
Party,” 

for Miller, is a blissful escape 
from the stressors of daily life 
and holiday parties. “Have 
too much eggnog, go and see 
a funny movie or stay home 
and watch something funny,” 
Miller said. “It’s not time to 
argue or fight with family this 
Christmas season. It’s time to 
go see a movie, you know? Just 
take your mind off of it.”

WILL STEWART

Daily Arts Writer

T.J. Miller discusses lightening 
the mood with ‘Christmas Party’

In a conference call, the actor discussed his role in the film

TV REVIEW
FILM INTERVIEW

