The other day, my co-worker Ari and I had a very important conversation. It went a little something like this:
Ari: “Remember Lauren Bacall in those funny beef commercials in the ’80s?”
Blake: “What?! Lauren Bacall was never in a beef commercial.”
Ari: “Oh yes she was! It’s the one where she’s laying on a couch and purring to a waiter about a burger.”
Blake: “You’re nuts!”
Ari: “I’ll bet you $5.”
Like any modern-day argument, a simple Google search was all that was needed to declare a winner. And, one minute later, I was five bucks poorer.
This got me thinking about celebrity commercials. Almost every celebrity today has been featured in an advertisement of some sort. It seems like everyone from Liza Minnelli to Brad Pitt to Catherine Deneuve to Bob Dole has, at one point or another, tried to sell consumers candy bars or beer or perfume or even that “little blue pill.”
For today’s WEBway Wednesday, we look at some of Broadway’s best featured in commercials.
Before he won a Tony Award, Nathan Lane was desperately seeking some NyQuil so he could rest.
Nancy Walker was in over a dozen Broadway shows in her day, and was nominated for two Tony Awards. She was also the “Quicker Picker Upper” lady in these old Bounty paper towel commercials from the ’70s.
What Wheaties are to athletes, Wheat Thins are to Broadway actors. Tony nominee Sandy Duncan was the face of the popular snack for years. Tony winner Norbert Leo Butz was later seen (but not heard) in a commercial for the chip. (more…)
GO→ What does jazz taste like? “A Taste of Jazz” at the shops at Columbus Circle seeks to find the answer, inviting chefs from stellar metro restaurants such as A Voce, Porter House and Bar Masa to prepare dishes inspired by great jazz cities like New Orleans, San Fran and NYC. Jazz at Lincoln Center’s resident sax-man Walter Blanding will lead the band. (6:30pm, $85, Time Warner Center at 59th and Columbus Circle, 2nd floor)
GO (KIDS)→ Just in time for the start of baseball season, the Dallas Children’s Theater takes a trip up north with the kid-friendly show Most Valuable Player, the story of Jackie Robinson. A perfect show for baseball crazy parents hoping to instill the love of the game in their kids. (1:30pm, TRIBECA Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St., btwn. Greenwich St. and West Side Hwy., $25, for ages 9 and up. Call 212.220.1460 for tickets)
OPENING (BROADWAY)→ Oh, to be a fly on the wall inside Sun Studios in Memphis, TN, on Dec. 4, 1956. It was that day rock ‘n’ roll impresario Sam Phillips assembled four young musicians, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash, for an impromptu jam session. Of course, we now know these four would go on to become legends. Million Dollar Quartet recreates that musical Big Bang event using hit songs from the awesome foursome including “Great Balls of Fire,” “Blue Suede Shoes” and “Sixteen Tons,” as well as songs culled from that million dollar recording session. (Nederlander Theatre, 208 W. 41st St., btwn. 7th & 8th Aves. 
GO→ Alan Cumming, Sandra Bernhard, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Judy Gold, Daphne Rubin–Vega and others join funny as all get-out comedienne Lea DeLaria for a night of Burt Bacharach songs, just in time for the Bacharach/Hal David musical Promises, Promises to return to the Great White Way. (8pm, Highland Ballroom, 431 W. 16th St., btwn. 9th and 10th Aves., $25, dinner menu available, 
