{"id":85806,"date":"2017-01-18T21:30:31","date_gmt":"2017-01-19T02:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=85806"},"modified":"2017-01-18T21:30:32","modified_gmt":"2017-01-19T02:30:32","slug":"jennifer-lopez-nbcs-bye-bye-birdie-evokes-stage-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/01\/18\/jennifer-lopez-nbcs-bye-bye-birdie-evokes-stage-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Jennifer Lopez: NBC’s ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ evokes stage roots"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jennifer<\/a>
Jennifer Lopez: NBC’s ‘Bye Bye Birdie’ evokes stage roots (Photo: Brands Gym\/Flickr<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

PASADENA, Calif.\u2014Jennifer Lopez says NBC’s version of \u201cBye Bye Birdie\u201d will bring the musical back to its stage roots.<\/p>\n

The story was somewhat \u201cwatered down\u201d in the 1963 movie in which Janet Leigh played the role originated by Chita Rivera on Broadway in 1960, Lopez told a TV critics’ meeting Wednesday.<\/p>\n

In the play, Rivera’s Rose encounters resistance from her boyfriend’s mother because she doesn’t want her son marrying someone with Puerto Rican roots, Lopez said.<\/p>\n

That dynamic will be part of the live TV musical airing later this year, Lopez said. So will her character’s assertiveness about trying to steer her partner toward marriage, the actress said.<\/p>\n

Lopez, who’s called \u201cBye Bye Birdie\u201d a childhood favourite, said it’s a \u201cgreat part for me to do. So here we go.\u201d<\/p>\n

She’s a busy woman, both on and off camera. Lopez stars in and is a producer for NBC’s police drama \u201cShades of Blue” and is a producer-judge on the network’s upcoming competition series, \u201cWorld of Dance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBye Bye Birdie Live!\u201d is the latest in what has become an annual live-musical holiday tradition for NBC, with last December’s \u201cHairspray Live!\u201d the most recent production.<\/p>\n

\u201cBirdie\u201d is an homage to circa-1950s rock ‘n’ roll mania and centres on the character Conrad Birdie, who is reminiscent of a young Elvis Presley. He was played on stage by Dick Gautier, who died last week at age 85.<\/p>\n

ABC aired a 1995 TV-movie version starring Jason Alexander and Vanessa Williams.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

PASADENA, Calif.\u2014Jennifer Lopez says NBC’s version of \u201cBye Bye Birdie\u201d will bring the musical back to its stage roots. The …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":85809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[13897,13898],"class_list":["post-85806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-bye-bye-birdie","tag-jennifer-lopez","mauthors-lynn-elber","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}