I guess I'm just lucky to fall into the
minority of people who actually enjoy song and dance, because there
was a lot of it for me to enjoy on Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. Things got off to an unusual but
memorable start with Seth MacFarlane's tongue-in-cheek but
controversial “Boobs” song (which speaks more to Hollywood sexism
than Seth MacFarlane sexism in my opinion), followed by the odd but
inspired pairings of Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron, or Daniel
Radcliffe and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to join MacFarlane for some
vintage swing and soft shoe. Seriously, when will we ever see that
specific collection of actors performing together like that? He concludes with a brief, repurposed rendition of "Be Our Guest", always an old favourite:
What a boob!
Tatum and Charlize doing Fred and Ginger. Love the way they look tonight.
I have high hopes of seeing JGL tap into his inner song-and-dance man more often.
Seth's not a bad shoe shuffler himself.
Bond songstresses past and present were on hand: Adele took home the Oscar for “Skyfall”, but Dame Shirley Bassey stole the show early by absolutely killing her rendition of “Goldfinger”.
The mix drowned Adele out early on, but they fixed it.
Dame Shirley, on the other hand, had no problem being heard.
Until, of course, Jennifer Hudson
brought down the roof herself with the power ballad “And I Am
Telling You” from Dreamgirls. Even the cast of Les Mis
managed to bring the crowd to its feet for the third time that night,
despite having to immediately follow J-Hud.
It was standing room only after J-Hud stopped the show.
Tough act for Les Mis to follow, but even they managed an enthusiastic ovation.
Securing Barbara Streisand to sing “The Way We Were” in memoriam to Marvin Hamslich was a coup that paid off in one of the evening's most moving moments.
Confession time: I may have cried... just a little... (sniff)
They wrapped up with Broadway VIP
Kristen Chenoweth and MacFarlane doing a brisk comedy number in
honour of the losers, which people still complain about despite its
fluffy and basically harmless tone.
Here's to the losers.
I liked most of this. Some potential
was wasted by not opening the floor to a greater variety of musicals
to pay tribute, but I can't complain, especially since it looks like
I'll never get such a music-heavy Oscar telecast ever again.
