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Johnny's SummaryReview by Johnny Monsarrat
Unfortunately, the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year is already sold out, but maybe you'll get lucky -- and it's not too soon to sign up for their email announcement for next year! I recently attended the Woman of the Year event with Claire Danes.
The event began with a 15-minute parade and then a delay and then a roast of 40 minutes. The roast wonderfully skirted the line of sexual innuendo and with perhaps one exception the playful insults weren't too hot. After all, Claire Danes won a 2012 Golden Globe and stars in a top-tier TV show, Homeland. It's hard to touch her.
Since she had dropped out of Yale, a Harvard competitor school, they had Claire go through the motions of "completing" her coursework. One course had her doing a funny dance, another had her waving a security wand over actors' naughty bits. It was all done with men in drag and roaring support from the crowd. Claire took it all in good fun and several times went beyond what was necessary to add in a stunt. For example, during her funky dance, she spontaneously dove in-between the legs of her robot partner.
The Hasty Pudding also performed a preview of their upcoming theatre season, featuring There Will be Flood, running Feb 4 to Mar 4, 2012. A space cowgirl travels back in time to meet dinosaurs and prehistoric celebrities, including a commentary on creationism. It's all done with huge energy and musical numbers that will have you rooting for the home team as well as following the story. It looks very much like the shows at the Hasty Pudding are more than performances. They are celebrations!
Full Description2012 Woman & Man of the Year:
Claire Danes and Jason Segel
The Hasty Pudding Theatricals of Harvard University is thrilled to announce Claire Danes and Jason Segel as the recipients of its 2012 Woman and Man of the Year awards. The Pudding is proud to honor such accomplished actors whose work has made an indelible mark on the world of entertainment, in both drama and comedy.
The Woman of the Year festivities will begin at 3:15 p.m. on Jan. 26th, when Danes will lead a parade through the streets of Cambridge. At 5 p.m., Danes will be presented with her Pudding Pot at the newly-named Farkas Hall, the Hasty Pudding’s historic home in the heart of Harvard Square since 1889. A press conference will follow the presentation. Afterward, Hasty Pudding cast members will perform several musical numbers from the group’s 164th production “There Will Be Flood.”
The Man of the Year festivities will take place on Friday, February 3rd 2012. Jason Segel will be roasted and presented with his Pudding Pot at 8 p.m. in the newly named Farkas Hall. Afterward, the Pudding will present the opening night performance of its 164th production, “There Will Be Flood.”
For tickets to our Man and Woman of the Year events, please call the Hasty Pudding Box Office at 617.495.5205. The office is open 12-5 p.m., Monday – Saturday.
Jason Segel is a renowned actor, writer, and producer whose films have helped define the changing landscape of American comedy. In 2008, Segel wrote and starred in the smash hit Forgetting Sarah Marshall, which grossed over $100 million worldwide and spawned a blockbuster sequel, Get Him to the Greek, which Segel wrote and co-produced. The success of Marshall emboldened Segel to embrace his lifelong passion for puppets and pitch his concept for the 2011 film The Muppets, which he also co-wrote and starred in. The film has grossed over $100 million worldwide since it opened on Thanksgiving and it received sensational reviews and ended up on numerous critics’ Top Ten Best Film lists for 2011.
Segel got his start on television in the 1999 Emmy-nominated TV show Freaks and Geeks, produced by Judd Apatow. Segel and Apatow later worked together on the 2007 comedy Knocked Up, which grossed over $140 million domestically and won the People’s Choice Award for “Favorite Movie – Comedy.” Segel returned to television in 2005 with the hugely popular show How I Met Your Mother, now in its seventh season on CBS.
Segel has also starred in I Love You, Man opposite Paul Rudd, Bad Teacher with Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake, and lent his voice to the animated feature Despicable Me with Steve Carell and Marshall front man Russell Brand.
Segel will next be seen in the Duplass Brothers comedy Jeff, Who Lives at Home with Ed Helms and Susan Sarandon which opens in March and he will follow that up with the romantic comedy The Five- Year Engagement with Emily Blunt, which Segel wrote with frequent collaborator Nicholas Stoller that Universal Pictures will release on April 27th.
Claire Danes has established herself as one of Hollywood’s leading actresses throughout a critically acclaimed career that has spanned film, television, and theater. Danes currently stars on the Showtime series “Homeland,” for which she recently received the 2012 Golden Globe Award, her third Globe win.
This is the second year in a row that Danes has won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress, last year for her starring role in HBO’s critically acclaimed “Temple Grandin” biopic. The performance also earned her an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild award.
Danes first caught critics’ and audiences’ attention in Ed Zwick and Marshall Hershkovitz’s series, “My So Called Life”, which earned her an Emmy Nomination as well as a Golden Globe. Subsequently, Danes launched a brilliant film career, starring in Anand Tucker’s “Shopgirl,” Richard Eyre’s “Stage Beauty,” Burr Steer’s “Igby Goes Down,” and Baz Luhrman’s “William Shakespeare’s Romeo &...
