Big White Elephants

Sing, my angel of podcast! For the final episode of Cellulloyd Webber month, Grace and Scott are joined by musical theater composer Sequoia Sellinger to talk about Joel Schumacher's film adaptation of arguably the most famous Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, The Phantom of The Opera! We get into the casting, the dutch angles, the candles coming out of the water, and more--including our ranking of all...

The best Jellicle Choice you can make is listening to this episode about Cats (2019)! To continue our Cellulloyd Webber month, Grace and Scott are joined by co-host of Cinema Shame and bad movie aficionado Allan Mott to talk about Tom Hooper's much maligned adaptation of Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats. Why do they have human noses? Why is Rebel Wilson here? What even is a Jellicle Cat? We attempt...

On Episode 66 Grace and Scott are joined by returning guest Kev for week three of Cellulloyd Webber Month: The Films of the Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber. This week we're going to the auditorium to see the 1999 straight-to-TV adaptation of Webber and Tim Rice's first professional musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (1999)! Directed by David Mallet and Steven Pimlott (restaging...

Cellulloyd Webber month keeps rollin' rollin' rollin' on out with our discussion of Evita (1996). Grace and Scott try to understand 20th century Argentinian history and politics, discuss Madonna's (mis)casting, and attempt to understand why Andrew Lloyd Webber Musicals are so hard to put on film. Evita, directed by Alan Parker and based on Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's concept album and stage...

Big White Elephants Presents 'Cellulloyd Webber: The Films of the Musicals of Andrew Lloyd Webber'. We're kicking things off with Norman Jewison's 1973 adaptation of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's first full-fledged musical Jesus Christ Superstar! Grace and Scott are joined by Grace's  Sounds Of Silvestri co-host Clarence to talk about the desert filming locations, stylistic freeze frames, and...

Oi, guvnah! We gots a new episode for ya, we has. I tell ya it's a good one too, I reckon! We talk about Professor 'enry 'iggins and all the mean things 'e does to poor li'l Eliza Doolittle. Poor girl! 'e says she don't know 'ow to speak English! I 'eard 'er myself, though, I has. More pleasin' to me than what 'e 'as to say! Ok, can we stop with this bit? It's an episode on My Fair Lady (1964). Au...

For episode 62, Grace and Scott are headed to the barricade! It's time to talk about Tom Hooper's Les Misérables (2012). Why is Russell Crowe singing? Why is Hugh Jackman singing like that. Why is the camera so close to everyone's face? These are the kinds of questions we attempt to answer. Directed by Tom Hooper and based on the stage musical of the same name by Boublil, Schönberg, and Kretzmer,...

For episode 61, Grace and Scott are joined by Morgan Roberts to talk about Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont's Josie and the Pussycats (2001).  We talk early 2000's MTV and pop culture, the baffling--and sexist--reaction to the movie on its release, satirical product placement, and more! Written and Directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont based on the Archie Comics characters, Josie and the Puss...

To honor the life and career of the great Dolly Parton, we're heading down south to visit the Best Little Whorehouse In Texas! We talk about dancing college football players, decriminalizing sex work, the Oscar-nominated performance from Charles Durning, and--of course--the effervescence of Dolly Parton. Directed by Colin Higgins of 9 To Five fame, The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas is based off...

Well, it's the final week of Camp BWE month and we're closing things out with Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman's Theater Camp (2023) We talk about mockumentary style, how special summer camp can be, and the Amos and Rebecca-Diane musical 'Joan, Still'! Directed by Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman, the script and songs were written by Ben Platt, Noah Galvin along with the directors and extra music by...

It's the third week of Camp BWE and morale is starting to dip. We're covering new brand new lega-sequel Camp Rock 3 (2026). This time around Connect 3 is looking for a new opening act for their Reconnect Tour and they're going back to Camp Rock to find a teenager! They recycle a lot of songs, get locked on a bus in a bizarre social experiment, and learn to be a band! This one's directed by Veronic...

Alright, Rockers, it's another week at Camp BWE. This time we're heading back to Camp Rock to see what Mitchie and the gang get up to at camp the summer after the first movie. Rival camps, marching with synchronized hand movements, cheese--but only on pizza! This thing's got it all and we can't back down. Directed by Paul Hoen from a screenplay by Karin Gist, Regina Hicks, and Dan Berendsen, with...

Welcome to Camp BWE! A month-long podcast event where we exclusively cover movie musicals set at summer camps. And by that, we mean all three Camp Rock movies and one other. To kick it off, we're joined by writer Brittany Spanos (Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Rolling Stone, more!). We talk about our history with the Demi Lovato and the Jonas Brothers, why the Brothers' current financial situation seems ver...

For episode 55, Grace and Scott can't help themselves but go long on their thoughts about the new Christopher Nolan film, The Odyssey—even though it's not a musical! Then we shift over to another film dealing with mythology that's honestly only slightly more of a musical, 1948's One Touch Of Venus, starring Ava Gardner, Rober Walker, Tom Conway, and Eve Arden. If you kissed a statue of a God and i...

Everyone's talkin' about The Odyssey, so for episode 54, Grace and Scott give the people what they want: a discussion of the Coen Brothers' 2001 musical adaptation of Homer's epic, O Brother, Where Art Thou? No IMAX cameras were used in the production of this film, but it has some things Christopher Nolan never will: bluegrass music, George Clooney in a fake beard, a one-eyed John Goodman, and a s...

It's the one-year anniversary of the Big White Elephants Podcast! And to celebrate, Grace and Scott are joined by returning guest Ryan Pak and first timer (and Grace's brother) Sean for our biggest episode yet. The group discusses the monumental and potentially polarizing 2016 original movie musical written and directed by Damien Chazelle, La La Land. Ten years on, how does it hold up? Does the lu...

It's our 52nd episode and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration Of Independence, so Grace and Scott are heading down to Philadelphia for a special Big Red White And Blue Elephants episode talking about Peter H. Hunt's film adaptation of 1776 (1972). The delegates of the 2nd Continental Congress are overheated, undersexed, and at each other's throats. Can Boston's John Adams and V...

On episode 51, Grace and Scott dive into the world of Girltrash!, a 2007 lesbian crime web series created by Angela Robinson (D.E.B.S., The L Word, Herbie Fully Loaded, etc.) that was never fully finished, and the prequel feature-length movie musical, Girltrash: All Night Long, directed by Robinson's partner and cinematographer Alex Kondracke which was shot in 2010 but released in 2014. The charac...

For our 50th episode, we're covering the theatre kid classic Rent (2005). Grace and Scott go deep on Jonathan Larson's adaptation of Puccini's opera La Boheme, talking about the (aging?) cast, the cuts from the stage show, and how you measure a year in the life (love). Directed by Chris Columbus and written by Stephen Chbosy, Rent stars Idina Menzel, Anthony Rapp, Adam Pascal, Tracie Thoms, Rosari...

With Scott back from vacation, he and Grace go on their own trip to Belgium for Chantel Akerman's shopping mall musical, Golden Eighties (1986). Is it a brilliantly quirky examination of consumerism and romance through a feminist lens? Is it a poor attempt at recreating the lushness of an MGM Technicolor Musical? Do songs need to be good? Golden Eighties was directed by Chantal Akerman and written...

While Scott is out on vacation, Grace's co-host from the Sounds Of Silvestri podcast Clarence fills in to talk about Jonathan Demme's final film, Ricki And The Flash (2015). We get into bald eagle back tattoos, Lady Gaga bar rock covers, and Boomer politics while trying to figure out if Meryl Streep can convincingly play a conservative struggling rock star and how a Midwesterner would really respo...

For episode 47, Grace and Scott discuss the 1953 film adaptation of Cole Porter's musical Kiss Me Kate, starring Kathryn Grayson, Howard Keel, Ann Miller, and Tommy Rall with an early appearance from Bob Fosse. Is Shakespeare's The Taming Of The Shrew too misogynistic? Is Ann Miller's dancing too darn hot? Should musicals be in 3-D? We attempt to answer all these questions and more! Connect with u...

We've made it to the final week of Big Bad Elephants month, and it's a big one: Jonah: A VeggieTales Movie. For each week of Big Bad Elephants Month, we let the Omni-Wheel randomly select which film to cover from a list of movies suggested to us by our audience that they think will be Big White Elephants, aka bad movie musicals. This week, Grace and Scott wade into Christian children's programming...

Big Bad Elephants Month continues with Rob Marshall's Into The Woods (2014). For each week of Big Bad Elephants Month, we let the Omni-Wheel randomly select which film to cover from a list of movies suggested to us by our audience that they think will be Big White Elephants, aka bad movie musicals. This week, Grace and Scott journey Into The Woods to discuss Disney's adaptation of the classic Step...

Big Bad Elephants Month continues with Top Secret! (1984). For each week of Big Bad Elephants Month, we let the Omni-Wheel randomly select which film to cover from a list of movies suggested to us by our audience that they think will be Big White Elephants, aka bad movie musicals. This week, we tackle SoRef's suggestion of the Zucker, Abrahms, Zucker comedy Top Secret! Val Kilmer's first movie rol...