The CultureMap Interview

Houston reality TV hunk sexes up Hairspray

Austin Miller in one of his shirtless promo shots for the Grease reality TVseries.
From TUTS' production of "Hairspray," Austin Miller as Link Larkin.
Photo by Bruce Bennett
Austin Miller as Link and Katrina Rose Dideriksen as Tracy in TUTS' productionof "Hairspray."
Photo by Bruce Bennett

Hometown sensation Austin Miller is back on the Theatre Under The Stars (TUTS) stage playing the role of teen dreamboat Link Larkin in the Broadway smash hit Hairspray, which opens Thursday and runs through Oct. 17 at the Hobby Center.

Based on the iconic John Waters cult movie, Hairspray is a non-stop dansical filled with show-stopping musical numbers and a relevant story taking us into the heart of the civil rights movement. The piece also addresses the timeless subject of life as an outcast.

Miller — a boyishly handsome actor — is most known for coming in second in the reality TV show, Grease: You're the One That I Want. He came in first in Houston's heart. He's not only from here, but is also a TUTS alum. Miller just wrapped up Sophisticated Ladies with Maurice Hines and has several projects in the works.

Last seen in Houston tapping up a storm in the TUTS production of 42nd Street on the Miller Outdoor Theatre stage, Miller works non-stop, rarely taking a breath between shows. CultureMap slowed him down just long enough for him to bring us into the Hairspray beehive.

CM: First off, welcome home. Glad to see you back in Houston, in another made-for-you role. The first time I saw Hairspray, I swear I lost weight just watching it. No one ever stops dancing in this show. The last number is even titled, "You Can't Stop the Beat." How ever do you keep your strength up?

AM: It's fast. Even though I have done this show 1,110 times, I have not done it in a few years. Once I started rehearsal I wondered why I was hurting so badly. Yesterday, I realized it's because I actually was putting weight on my feet.

I figured out that I have to keep running, jumping and leaping the whole time and I will be fine. After rehearsal, I come home and have a couple of cocktails, a slab of meat, then I pour gravy all over everything. Once we figured out that I burn about 4,500 calories a day doing this show. To keep my strength up I have to eat like a horse. I know, it's terrible, what a problem to have.

CM: What kind of spin to you put on your Link? He's a curious character. Will he or won't he do the right thing?

AM: I was the second Link ever hired, so I had the luxury of working with the show's producer Jack O'Brian, who cut the role. He's a genius, and helped me define the character. I would describe my Link as vulnerable. Really, he doesn't have a lot going on in his life.

He has one shot to break away from his crappy life. That's why he falls in love with the chubby girl.

CM: I appreciate that there's isn't a dead second in the show. The kinetic energy drives Hairspray's engine with such finesse. Why do you think this show has such staying power?

AM: It's so relevant. Set in 1962, it's a period piece, yet we are still dealing with the issues in the show. It's not some antiquated idea to be discriminated against. Racial and body type discrimination are still very pertinent issues in our lives. It was amazing when Charlotte Crossely as Motor Mouth Mabel walked out on stage to sing "I Know Where I've Been" on the night our president was elected.

I can't imagine what it felt like to be an African-American person of her generation going out on that stage on that historic night to deliver that anthem.

CM: You are a professional heartthrob, often playing the dreamy dude who gets the girl. How long are you going to be able to get away with playing a 17-year old?

AM: I know, it's seems I have been 17 for a few decades. Actually, this is my last time at bat as Link. So my last turn is here at home. And, I have my favorite Tracy with me, Katrina Rose Dideriksen. She's simply terrific in the role. We opened in Vegas together and are so close. It such a gift to me to put Link to rest in front of my friends and family right here at Theatre under the Stars, where I got my start.

CM: What do you do when you are not acting, singing, dancing and eating like a horse?

Well, since I have been back in Houston, manual labor. I just put in my mom's fall garden. Living in New York I never have the opportunity to get my hands in dirt. I love it. I grew up in Alvin, so it's a "you can't take the country out of the boy" kind of thing.

We have been going to fabulous restaurants while we have been here too. It's been a festival of eating, a non-stop buffet. We even drove to Alvin to go to Joe's Barbecue. Truthfully, I'm a pretty structured person, a little type A. Maybe it's the Catholicism, but I'm a very ritualistic person.

Most of the time it's an eat, rehearse, sleep, life. I like to come home and make myself a Gibson. I used to hang out with Bob Saget and he introduced me to the Gibson, which is basically gin with an onion in it. It's my drink of choice. It's rough, a man's drink. Then I watch The Simpson's, Family Guy or King of the Hill until I fall asleep.

TUTS takes you behind the beehive of Hairspray:

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Movie Review

Meta-comedy remake Anaconda coils itself into an unfunny mess

Photo by Matt Grace

Jack Black and Paul Rudd in Anaconda.

In Hollywood’s never-ending quest to take advantage of existing intellectual property, seemingly no older movie is off limits, even if the original was not well-regarded. That’s certainly the case with 1997’s Anaconda, which is best known for being a lesser entry on the filmography of Ice Cube and Jennifer Lopez, as well as some horrendous accent work by Jon Voight.

The idea behind the new meta-sequel Anaconda is arguably a good one. Four friends — Doug (Jack Black), Griff (Paul Rudd), Claire (Thandiwe Newton), and Kenny (Steve Zahn) — who made homemade movies when they were teenagers decide to remake Anaconda on a shoestring budget. Egged on by Griff, an actor who can’t catch a break, the four of them pull together enough money to fly down to Brazil, hire a boat, and film a script written by Doug.

Naturally, almost nothing goes as planned in the Amazon, including losing their trained snake and running headlong into a criminal enterprise. Soon enough, everything else takes second place to the presence of a giant anaconda that is stalking them and anyone else who crosses its path.

Written and directed by Tom Gormican, with help from co-writer Kevin Etten, the film is designed to be an outrageous comedy peppered with laugh-out-loud moments that cover up the fact that there’s really no story. That would be all well and good … if anything the film had to offer was truly funny. Only a few scenes elicit any honest laughter, and so instead the audience is fed half-baked jokes, a story with no focus, and actors who ham it up to get any kind of reaction.

The biggest problem is that the meta-ness of the film goes too far. None of the core four characters possess any interesting traits, and their blandness is transferred over to the actors playing them. And so even as they face some harrowing situations or ones that could be funny, it’s difficult to care about anything they do since the filmmakers never make the basic effort of making the audience care about them.

It’s weird to say in a movie called Anaconda, but it becomes much too focused on the snake in the second half of the film. If the goal is to be a straight-up comedy, then everything up to and including the snake attacks should be serving that objective. But most of the time the attacks are either random or moments when the characters are already scared, and so any humor that could be mined all but disappears.

Black and Rudd are comedy all-stars who can typically be counted on to elevate even subpar material. That’s not the case here, as each only scores on a few occasions, with Black’s physicality being the funniest thing in the movie. Newton is not a good fit with this type of movie, and she isn’t done any favors by some seriously bad wigs. Zahn used to be the go-to guy for funny sidekicks, but he brings little to the table in this role.

Any attempt at rebooting/remaking an old piece of IP should make a concerted effort to differentiate itself from the original, and in that way, the new Anaconda succeeds. Unfortunately, that’s its only success, as the filmmakers can never find the right balance to turn it into the bawdy comedy they seemed to want.

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Anaconda is now playing in theaters.

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