In the wonderful new movie, ''Love, Simon,'' there's a delightfully less-than-polished high school production of ''Cabaret.''
The Huffington Post reports that ''Cabaret'' wasn't the film's first choice. In keeping with Becky Albertalli's original novel, they were going to re-create ''Oliver!,'' but they couldn't get the rights. So they actually considered doing a musical version of ''Say Anything,'' in a nod to a classic teenage rom-com, but director Greg Berlanti decided that was ''too meta.'' So Berlanti got inspiration from his college production of ''Cabaret.'' Because ''Cabaret'' deals with sexual identity, it wound up being a perfect parallel for ''Love, Simon,'' which is about a gay teen (Nick Robinson) and his coming-out and coming-of-age story. But it came with one proviso: Berlanti couldn't use any of the iconography from the 1972 Liza Minnelli movie.
One of ''Love, Simon's'' scene-stealers is Martha Rothwell, who plays the exasperated drama teacher heading the production.
She quips: “When we get done, it’s gonna look like a real German sex club. Don’t ask me how I know.”
By the way, if anyone here lives in Omaha, you can see ''Love, Simon'' for free tomorrow (March 31) at 7 p.m. at the AMC Classic Westroads 14.
Andrew Rannells has bought out that screening in his hometown, to pay it forward and encourage more folks to catch the movie.
He joins a number of celebrity fans of ''Love, Simon'' who've done the same: Matt Bomer, Kristen Bell, Neil Patrick Harris ... |
