Girls, They Really Raked Julie Over The Coals!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night's "Law And Order Criminal Intent" was such fun it was almost a spoof, not only of the series but of the Broadway theater in general, because its episode ripped from the headlines the shenanigans surrounding the creation of the show "Spider Man--Turn Off The Dark."

Entitled "Icarus," the episode centred on a beleaguered Broadway production, trying to make money. The show dealt with the myth of the title--the youth with wings who was warned not to fly too near the sun (the wings were of wax), did, and plunged to his death. In the segment last night, life imitates art, when the lead player in this flop plunges to his death, and then it becomes a theater whodunnit!!!!!

Darlings, you could just tell Cynthia Nixon was having the time of her life as Julie Taymor stand in, Amanda Reese. High strung, shrill, an alcoholic, whose drunken scene at the Memorial service was the best, this truly did rake Julie over the coals!!!!! They even had the nerve to mention her by name, when Gore (the ever Falstaffian Vincent D'Onofrio) says to her at one point, "You don't want to become another Julie Taymor!" I am telling you, this show had guts!!!!! After this was viewed, if Julie watched it, or those she knows did, I am sure she left town!!!!

As if this were not enough, the whole thing was capped off by a cameo by Patti Smith--yes, darlings, THE Patti Smith--as--are you ready??--a classics professor at Columbia, whom Gore knows and consults with on the case!!!! Honey, speaking of mythology, Patti looked like one of the Gorgon sisters, and not the most attractive one in the bunch, either!!!! See what drugs do, kiddies???????

Honestly, I was hoping Cynthia/Julie turned out to be the killer; that would really sock it to her!!!!!! But instead it turned out to be a team conspiracy to get the investors back their money on the part of the producer and what they called "the dramaturg," which did not fool me for a second, because honey, I took a course in dramturgy, and I know what one really does. They are employed by theater companies to do everything from read scripts to help choose shows for the theater or season. This guy was more like a production assistant--only he had ambitions to be a producer. Can you believe it???? He should have been content, like the rest of us, wanting to be Barbra!!!!! Someone should have shown him the Mel Brooks movie on which that musical was based, which would have cured him of any such inclination.

So the producer and "dramaturg" get dragged off screaming, and I end up on the floor, laughing my head off. They couldn't have done a better parody of the show, and the theater, than if they had planned to!!!!! This one will be talked about for weeks to come, and I am urging all my girls out there to see it!!!!!!

And I would lay odds, darlings, that the fictional "Icarus" is better than the real life "Spider Man--Turn Off The Dark!!!!!!!"