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John Williams Scores on CD
by Scott Holleran
May 25, 2006
Burbank, California—Finally, the selected works of Hollywood master John Williams, conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra, are featured in the newest release of the 20th Century Masters Millennium Collection. The composer for Close Encounters of the Third Kind and other blockbusters deserves the star treatment.
His career began with music and composition studies at UCLA, and he worked with composers Alfred Newman (Airport), Bernard Hermann (Psycho) and Franz Waxman (Sunset Boulevard). A year after he scored Steven Spielberg's The Sugarland Express in 1974, Mr. Williams created his famous theme from Jaws, one of eleven pieces on the Masters compact disc.
Sure, his soaring themes from Superman, Star Wars and E.T. spring to mind—the album features two pieces from each—but his lesser known work is also here: march themes from Midway and Mr. Spielberg's 1941. It is truly amazing how easily his music activates total recall of a specific scene, whether Christopher Reeve's Superman is flying with Margot Kidder's Lois Lane high above New York City or a gigantic alien spaceship is hovering over Wyoming. The liner notes have it right: John Williams brought symphonic melody and harmony back to motion pictures. The Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops is big, summer movie music enjoyment.
College Drama's Class of 2006
A promising group of actors recently braved an audience of Hollywood types with an impressive showcase of new talent at director Garry Marshall's Falcon Theatre in Burbank.
The graduating class of 2006 at Carnegie-Mellon University's School of Drama is a worldly mixture of confident actors whose performance selections ranged from the grocery store rant in Something New to scenes from Neil Simon and John Hughes. Poised, good-looking and eager to work hard, each actor earned a serious round of applause.
Everyone was fantastic. Among those with stage presence are a blonde firecracker named Ashton Heyl, sultry Patina Miller, who recently did a screen test for Bill Condon's Dreamgirls, tall, dark and handsome Raffi Barsoumian, who'll be playing Don Juan at this summer's Stanford Theater Festival, and a fellow named Ryan Bechard, who played Tennessee Williams well enough to catch Disney's attention. Ryan's a stunt man, too.
Afterwards, the grads mixed with agents and future bosses, talked about their hopes and goals—most are headed for New York City to get their chops on stage first—and their favorite movies. Garry Marshall, whose son Scott just finished directing Keeping Up with the Steins, kindly put in an encouraging appearance after the show.
 Tonight, the show's at El Capitan to see Dumbo with a premiere panel discussion—more later on a new Big Top DVD edition. Disney's classic about the blue-eyed elephant with giant ears plays at the historic Hollywood Boulevard movie palace through June 7. Those who haven't attended one of these classic Disney El Cap events are in for a real treat. Catch it while you can.
RELATED LINKS
• Best of John Williams and the Boston Pops on Amazon.com
• CMU Showcase Web Site
• Falcon Theatre Web Site
• El Capitan Web Site | 
