Things That Make Me Smile

Bunheads: Best Casting Choice Ever

Tomorrow night we will meet Michelle's (played by Sutton Foster) brother on Bunheads. It will be great fun to find out what Michelle's brother is like. Fortunately, the producers have cast the perfect actor to play her brother: Hunter Foster, Sutton's actual brother.

Like Sutton, Hunter is a Broadway musical performer. He has performed in Urinetown (horrible name for a great musical), Children of Eden, The Producers, and Little Shop of Horrors.

I am excited to see what they have in store for the siblings. I hope they perform together. That would be awesome! And I hope he's on the show for more than one episode.

Why I Love Bunheads

'Nuff said.

TV Review: Bunheads

Sutton Foster has won me over.

However, she isn't the only thing in Bunheads that has won me over. I'm hooked on the show itself.

When the show starts we meet Michelle (Sutton Foster), a dancer in Las Vegas who wants a better life. A life where she's 25 again, and dancing in the chorus of Chicago, and not in the chorus of a Vegas show. Hubbell is a not so secret admirer, which almost borders on stalking. He brings Michelle flowers and gifts, and in a moment of desperate drunkenness after not getting the Chicago audition, Michelle agrees to marry Hubbell. And he takes her to Paradise. Paradise, California. Michelle finds out that Hubbell lives with his mother (or his mother lives with him, to be exact), and she runs a dance school. Michelle does not fit in in Paradise, but she's made her choice and she wants to make the best of it.

I wanted to see this show because of Sutton Foster. I know she's had a great career so far on Broadway. I wanted to see how she would do on television. Yes, she was great, but I'll keep watching because it's a great show. I thoroughly enjoyed this premiere episode. First, Sutton is priceless. She is a great comedian and can deliver her lines with perfect timing. Her facial expressions are wonderful, without being over the top. The show is extremely witty. It is not full of stereotypes, but has characters who are well written and actors who fill their parts well. The script is great. As an example, the following is the exchange between Hubbell and Michelle when asks her to marry him:

Michelle: No, you don't understand. I suck at relationships. I'm like Godzilla. Men run from me. They flee. Not just Japanese men. All nationalities flee.
Hubbell: I won't flee.
Michelle: Buy some comfortable shoes.
Hubbell: I promise you I won't flee. I'll be the one scientist who understands you. The one who knows that you're not burning the city down because you're evil. You're burning the city down to protect the giant lizard eggs you just laid in a cave no one knows is there but me.

This first episode ends with a shock, and suddenly we know what direction the show is not going in. Which leads to the question of where the show will go. I am excited to find out. I think it will be a hit, for Sutton Foster and for ABC Family.

Observations:

I believe the pianist in the ballet class is the piano guy from Glee. He really gets around.

Quotes (just a few, but this show is full of great lines):

Michelle: I have to be perfect tomorrow, perfect and glowing and 25 by 10 o'clock.

Hubbell: I let my mother decorate the place.
Michelle: How very Graceland of you.

Michelle: You live with your mother like a serial killer?

Sam: It's a manufactured pretty. It's a kit. A pretty kit.

Michelle: All right ladies, welcome to the auditions for the sequel to Cats, working title - Dogs.

Sasha: You have to slow it down.
Michelle: Do I? I have a job.

Bunheads: A Triple Threat Comes to ABC Family

Sutton Foster is the next Broaway star to make the jump to television. She stars in the new ABC Family series Bunheads, which premieres June 11.

Bunheads is the tale of a Las Vegas showgirl, who impulsively marries a man, moves to his sleepy coastal town, and takes an uneasy role at her new mother-in-law's dance school.



Sutton has starred on Broadway in Thoroughly Modern Millie, Young Frankenstein, Shrek (which also starred the wonderful Brian d'Arcy James in the title role), and most recently the acclaimed revival of Anything Goes.

I have only seen Sutton in short scenes from her Broadway performances, but the one word I can say about her (other than talented) is likable. I'm excited to see another series about the performing arts, and I am looking forward to the pilot of Bunheads.