TG and I finally got some time away from the Great Project (some work we’re doing on the house) and sat and watched a movie Friday night.

We watched the DVD of the musical Producers, with Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, and Uma Thurman.

We’d seen the play, with a different cast, and wanted to see what Lane and Broderick could do with it. Oh, and I wanted to see Uma – as noted, she’s the one actress I have … ahem … a mild obsession over.

The film was serviceable, and Lane is a fricking genius. He took the Zero Mostel role and made it his own. Sadly, Broderick didn’t…he never found an interesting center for Leo Bloom apart from some mildly Gene Wilder-ish bits.

And Uma. Sigh. She’s really a terrific actress, projects intelligence as well as grownup babe-aliciousness – but damn, she flat can’t sing, or dance (Broderick can, by the way).Angie Schworer, the actress we saw in the Los Angeles production, was actually far better…

Am I depressed to have been shown a flaw in Uma’s perfection? No, I am not.

Great Japanese artisans strive to show imperfections in their work, to show wabi-sabi. Now I’m not saying that Uma is aging badly; it’s not about that at all (although I do tend to look at younger actresses who are considered very attractive and wonder about their babysitting skills). It’s about embracing imperfections as a demonstration of what is real; about humility.

And the fact that Uma can’t sing and can’t dance makes her imperfect, and thus all the closer to perfection.

TG is already there, of course…