Happy Anniversary, Will & Grace

It's the 15th Anniversary of the now-classic tv sitcom, Will & Grace, groundbreaking in many ways. What a divine cast! I miss this series. It brought me so much joy and I think it is underestimated for the way it made "Middle America" understand that gay people are just people like everyone else.

Debra Messing went on to be a smash on "Smash" (never forget). Megan Mullally's  Karen is a classic sitcom scene-stealer, Sean Hayes has a new tv series this season ("Like Father, Like Daughter") and Eric McCormack remains one of my Top 5 Most Fabulous Men and was great on Broadway in The Best Man.
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I loved going down to Florida and watching reruns with my mom on late-night tv. She especially loved Jack (Sean Hayes). And I think the show assured her of how secure and safe my life was in NYC with my own circle of friends.

Late in Will & Grace's run, the club remix (below) came out. I still adore it. Please check out this video:

Jennifer Hudson: Smash Diva

Ok, Smash fans, get ready!  The musical soap opera returns to a television set near you on February 5. Jennifer Hudson, as character Veronica "Ronnie" Moore, is now on board in a multi-episode arc. Here, she belts her power ballad from the show out of the park! Song could get radio play, certainly, and hopefully there will be mixes for the dancefloor.

Defiant Debra: "I’d be devastated if my son grows up to be a hetero!"

Debra & her first Will

While we wait for the big changes that the actress who loves her gay best friends to death, at least on the tube, will go through on next season's Smash, Will and Grace's Debra Messing keeps messing with our minds by living a life that imitates her art. Not only did she ditch her real-life husband in favor of the actor whose character her character was having an affair with on last season's Smash (Will Chase; "Once again, Debra Messing has linked up with a guy named Will," crowed iVillage), she recently proved that her love of gay men -- in real life -- seemingly has no bounds.

“I’d be devastated if my son grows up to be a hetero! As a parent," Debra said at a recent Trevor Project (GLBT youth suicide prevention and anti-bullying organization) event, "you just envision a certain life for your child. I mean, if he’s straight, think of all the fabulous things he’s going to miss out on!”

I wonder if Travolta or Cruise are cruising for a fag hag?

Smash Season 2 Update

Latest news, according to Digital Spy, is that Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson will make several guest appearances on Smash next season opposite Katharine McPhee and Megan Hilty. Hudson will portray Tony-winning Broadway star, Veronica Moore.

Hottie Andy Mientus (who was in the off-Broadway production of Carrie, the musical (see my post, http://djbuddybeaverhausen.blogspot.com/2012/02/carrie-on.html )) will be added to the cast for some spice.

Unfortunately, five characters will get the axe: Dev (Raza Jaffrey; sigh!), Deborah Messing's husband (Brian d'Arcy James) and son, and the scheming Ellis Boyd (whom I will miss, but let's see what intrigue develops otherwise in Season 2.  I mean, Ellis was fired by Anjelica Houston and Dev did sleep with poison Ivy!) And Michael Swift -- with whom Messing started messing around with in real-life, leaving her real-life hubby -- will no longer be on the show. Oh, the sweet and sour porking of it all!

Besides ditching her domestic-tsuris storyline, by the by, Missy Messing will get a more glam wardrobe, it is promised. Go all Dynasty on us, bitch, we love you! So, let's hope Season 2 brings us more sex appeal and let the gloves come off already! I'm ready! Who gets the first big slap?

Life Imitates Art on "Smash"

Breaking news, thanks to my friend Kevin Scott Hall. (His new cabaret show, "Golden" is coming to NYC July 18 and includes my song, "No More Mr Nice Guy.) Anyhow, so he tells me, "Deborah Messing just filed for divorce from her husband a couple of weeks ago. They met at NYU in 1990 and married in 2000, so together a long time. She's now dating Will Chase. Guess who he is. . . he plays the actor who plays Joe DiMaggio in SMASH. Life imitating art!!"

How's that for gossip, promoting next season? Smashing news!

Smash's Big Bollywood Number

Here's the full "A Thousand & One Nights" production number from last season's Smash. Previously, there was no idea that the Dev character might burst out into song and dance, but he does so magnificently in this elaborate fantasy sequence. The whole production seems to be on quite a grand scale for a tv series, lavish and expertly produced and choreographed. Pulling this together in a week had to be a challenge, but it comes across as a labor of love.

How do the actors work those neck muscles like that? Katharine McPhee, whose neck seems to flex even in her second reaction shot, says she is not really a dancer, but you could fool me by the way she boogies down in this.

Cast members and story lines are all symbolically represented within this song. I love Anjelica Houston's campy coyness, and how Ellis fleetingly appears to usurp a jewel, true to nature. I also adore Deborah Messing as she dances this mess around (in line with her tv family) and looking like she's having a great time at it. Even Uma Thurman and Meryl Streep's daughter, Grace Gummer, sportingly appear.

While Rolling Stone's Katy Kroll called this a "very jumping-the-shark moment," it was generally very well received by viewers and fans, and one of the season's highlights. More importantly, I love it!

"Smash" Goes Disco with Katherine McPhee

McPhee in the fantastic "Smash" Bollywood production number with sexy co-star Raza Jaffrey

With the final episode of NBC-tv's Smash set to air Monday, and the show's soundtrack cd released yesterday, the dj-promo remixes of Katherine McPhee's "Touch Me" have arrived at last. One of my favorite remixers has done a splendid job that I share with you below (radio edit of the full club remix; basically said mix with an image but not an all-out music video, via YouTube).

Remixer Jody den Broeder has previously done noteworthy work on tracks by Lady Gaga and Rihanna, amongst many others. His work is controlled, sophisticated, yet exciting and certain to rouse everybody to the dance floor. Listen up! And decide for yourselves.

Divas, Djs, Buddy & Billboard

By and large, the Billboard dance chart and I frequently part company when it comes to top tunes, though there are some things on my turntables that also make it on that chart.

Hey, I'm a populist! Give the people what they want, I concur. But, also, I believe a dj's set should expose people to new music, to help shape tastes and mix things up. Contemporary chart music, underexposed club productions and disco classics can all live in harmony. I think it excites a crowd to hear the unexpected, the fresh, the new and exciting when they're out to dance. Nobody hits the dance floor if he or she is uninspired (unless pleasing a date; Buddy B knows all too well) or gagging on a Billboard hit for the umpteenth time. Throw in a little retro, embellish with some camp, include plenty of uplift in the melody and the messages, give good diva drama, et voila!

So let's begin with a peek at Billboard's top club hits. Billboard says it's "compiled from reports from a national sample of club DJs." But does anyone know who these dj's are exactly?  I'm just going to address the songs from the chart that I, as a dj, like and play. It will prove painlessly brief:

Despite Madonna's record drop in album sales of MDNA, her club-friendly "Girl Gone Wild" is sitting pretty in first place as "Give Me All Your Luvin'" drops, still comfortably entrenched in the 10th spot. That song already ascended to #1 two weeks ago and has made a meteoric rise and fall in just eight weeks.

Melanie Amaro's cover of "Respect" is at 3; Katy Perry's "Part of Me" is one of this week's Greatest Gainers at #6, followed by "Love on Top" by Beyonce, having already topped the chart.

The always welcome Debby Holiday's new one, "Never Give Up," floats like a butterfly to #16; Yoko Ono gets down to #18 with "She Gets Down on Her Knees." And, beyond that, I'm afraid, is where Billboard and I part company.

My divas, oh my divas! I do love my divas. They are almost everything to me in terms of putting across the emotional elements of a song that help make it be exciting. So against diva-wannabe drama in real life, I say save drama for the stage, movie, tv or the disco, where it belongs.

Unlikely, at this point, to make it onto Billboard's top 25 club songs, is Gladys Knight's return to dance floors with her cover of "I Who Have Nothing." This classic tune was composed by Carlo Donida with English lyrics written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, and originally recorded by Ben E. King in 1963. Sylvester previously did a disco version of it, and now it's Gladys whose distinctive voice helps make this newly exciting to club-goers. Best remix is by Tony Moran/Warren Rigg. And, truly, Nicki Minaj's pathetic "Starships" beat this on the US dance/club chart? Pshaw!

It was Tony Moran, also, who produced a number that is an instant club classic, in my estimation, though it didn't chart the way I thought it would. "Magic," a true diva thrill-ride sung by none other than Jennifer Holliday, was indeed club magic. Released at the beginning of the year, it was certainly a hit in the gay clubs. So who, exactly, are these Nielsen-family djs? That's what I'd like to know!

Of the latest crop of promos, I am enjoying the 2012 club mix of Rich B's "Revolution" featuring Marcella Puppini (of Puppini Sisters fame, and already discussed in a recent post). "Tonight" is the new dance offering from St Etienne, the original extended mix preferred. I love Sarah Cracknell's voice; it's somewhere between Kylie and Deborah Harry, floating beautifully above her band's dreamy instrumentals.

Again, it's the original extended mix to go with when it comes to the trancey "Sunshine in My Life" by FunkySober with true diva vocals by one Sharlene Hector. Beautifully dancetastic despite simplistic lyrics. (Not always a drawback when you just need to work it out on the disco floor.)

From the tv series, Smash, it's Katherine McPhee who's lifted to disco-diva status at last, just like she was lifted on the show during that number by chorus boys. The original tv episode's version was clearly meant as a club tune. Right now, I'm digging the original extended club mix. Let's hope for brilliant remixes and that this will be a Smash.

Every Carol Hahn song's worthy of a celebration. Her newest release is no exception. "If This Is Love" is a great, contemporary hi-NRG number. Talk about uplift in message and melody, this is brilliant! I like the Julian Marsh mix best, fyi.

"Dance Again," Jennifer Lopez' newest, is a guilty pleasure and sure to pleasure the Billboard crowd. Adam Lambert offers "Better Than I Know Myself," of which I'm loving the Mike Rizzo club mix best. And beloved club divas Toni Braxton and Suzanne Palmer are back, people! And that is good news indeed!

Mark Picchiotti is always brilliant and his re-working  of "I Heart You" by Ms Braxton is no exception. May he guide her to the top where she belongs, at least for the club crowd. Suzanne's soulful "Keep on Keepin' On" is a dance delight with a few good remixes on hand to enhance. Right now, I like Gustavo Scorpio's work the most.

May I add that dancing is not only fun, it unites? Peace and happiness to all! Haters are losers. Clubs are where the happy people go. Thanks to all my viewers around the world. Love to all! Shout outs to Brazil, Colombia, Argentina, Singapore, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates and everyone else! It's one world. Love each other, love the music, dance, peace and out. It's all about the music.