song and dance man

English translation: theatrical performer who combines singing and dancing

21:30 Mar 28, 2003

English language (monolingual) [Non-PRO]
Art/Literary

English term or phrase: song and dance man

Jeff Bridges about Kevin Spacey:
We just hit it right off and we just jumped in and did a lot of rehearsing together. Shared ideas. It was wonderful.

Michael Parkinson:
‘Cause he’s like you, too. He’s a song and dance man really.

lim0nka KudoZ activity Questions: 1591 (5 open) (1 without valid answers) (13 closed without grading) Answers: 3319 United Kingdom
Local time: 18:20

Selected answer:theatrical performer who combines singing and dancing

Explanation:
They got along with each other (hit it off) so well because they were both
song and dance men

NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. song and dances or songs and dances
1. A theatrical performance that combines singing and dancing. 2. Slang a. An excessively elaborate effort to explain or justify. b. An elaborate story or explanation intended to deceive or mislead.

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Note added at 2003-03-28 21:37:45 (GMT)
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Note: it\'s possible that the second meaning is what is intended here (we\'d have to see more context): the second meaning of song and dance man is someone who likes to tell fantastic, unbelievable stories.

Selected response from:

Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 11:20

Grading comment

Thank you, Kim! As Ruth said, it's possible that both meanings are included in that remark. Now, I will have to find something equally ambiguous in Polish. ;)

Thank you all for your help! :)
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED

4 +3

trained singer and dancer

jerrie

4 +3

all-around [versatile] actor/performer/artist

Terry Burgess

5 +2

Entertainer who sings and dances...

Marion Burns

4 +2

theatrical performer who combines singing and dancing

Kim Metzger

Answers

2 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

trained singer and dancer

Explanation:
Don't know the history of Spacey or Bridges, but this reads as if they both started out, or had formal training in singing and dancing.

Maybe appeared in musicals?

The only other meaning of 'song and dance' is to make a song and dance of something...to make a big fuss, make a mountain out of a molehill, and I don't think it means that...!

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Note added at 2003-03-28 21:51:35 (GMT)
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\"Let’s just look at more points at this multi-faceted career of yours…song and dance. I mean you are a frustrated song and dance man…that comes through very clearly [chuckles] in the research.\"

This is a snippet from Parkinson Spacey interview. Parkey talking.

Then Kevin Spacey goes on to talk a whole lot about how his first love was music, he grew up in a house full of music, and school he just loved to appear in musicals, and continued to leap at the chance all through school.
Once he started at acting school, the musicals dried up, but he still leaps at any excuse to get up and sing and dance.
At the end of this interview he does a few tap steps, and dances with Parkey.

So, like I said, presumably Jeff Bridges has the same deep love for music and dance, too.

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Note added at 2003-03-28 21:52:33 (GMT)
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http://www.drivingmrspacey.com/Parkinson.htm

jerrie
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:20
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 773

5 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

theatrical performer who combines singing and dancing

Kim Metzger
Mexico
Local time: 11:20
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 2249

Grading comment

Thank you, Kim! As Ruth said, it's possible that both meanings are included in that remark. Now, I will have to find something equally ambiguous in Polish. ;)

Thank you all for your help! :)

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

all-around [versatile] actor/performer/artist

Explanation:
This is the sense I get from it. Delighted to hear Michael Parkinson is still around---brings back many pleasant memories.

Luck!
terry

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Note added at 2003-03-28 22:01:50 (GMT)
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I\'ve done some research and I believe this refers to the 2001 film \"K-PAX\"--in which both actors co-starred. I can see nothing even remotely concerning \"singing and dancing\" [though I haven\'t seen it] ...so I reiterate my answer. Here is one review on the film:

K-Pax is a bizarre mix of pandering crowd-pleaser and subtly intelligent supernatural mystery, and its two faces are constantly engaged in a brutal brawl for screentime. Fortunately, both sides have their virtues, and the movie is interesting even when it isn\'t quite working. And I guess that any movie with Kevin Spacey and Jeff Bridges above the title will be at least somewhat worthwhile despite the script\'s not cooperating, and this one also has an intriguing premise to keep our attention. It\'s not great, and I don\'t think anyone has any illusions that it is; the fact that it\'s entertaining, thank God, is not in question.
Anyone who hears the title K-Pax will immediately suspect that the film in question is in the science fiction genre, but few will think of a movie as, um, down-to-earth as this one. The name refers to the alleged home planet of Prot (Spacey) -- a decidedly alienish name, you\'ll agree -- a man who is referred to a psychiatrist after claiming to be an extra-terrestrial who traveled to Earth on a beam of light. The doctor, played by Bridges, is eager to make the obvious declaration that \"Prot\" is a delusional if it wasn\'t for the pesky matter of intelligence: the patient is fully aware of everything around him, and he is also able to do little things like explain the theory of relativity and chart the exact orbital trajectory of his planet.

Clearly not satisfied with this corker of a storyline -- one that could fill a whole tv series, never mind a movie -- director Iain Softley inserts a One Flew Over the Cuckoo\'s Nest-type subplot in which Prot helps his fellow mental institutionees find help and redemption in quirkily unconventional ways. In act 3, things take a turn for the bizarre (and dark) in ways I won\'t spoil, but I\'ll say that the tone conveyed by the film\'s commercials is completely different from the tone of its last 40 minutes.

I don\'t know if anyone other than Kevin Spacey could have played this role; his rampant, somewhat snobby sarcasm and arid sense of humor fit the character like a beam of light. I\'m almost certain that the script was written with him in mind. You have to watch him bite the end of an unpeeled banana to see what I mean. Bridges is his usual solid self, distinguished without stealing any scenes or starting any fireworks. I believe that he will never win an Oscar -- not that he doesn\'t deserve one -- because he is the most humble actor in Hollywood (I don\'t know whether this applies off screen or not, but I think it might).

Everyone will talk about the ending. I\'m not sure how to describe it to you. It\'s ambiguous, and I tend to like that, but the ambiguity in this case is unsatisfying. It\'s not that I wanted to know more or know less, but that I wanted something different. I expect to feel a surge of wonder at the end of movies like this, but when the credits rolled, I was left in an emotional void.

In the end, K-Pax is pure fluff, popcorn entertainment for those who don\'t get off on high-tech shootouts and silly \"love stories.\" Somehow, that places it above the other specimens in its category. It shouldn\'t. It is good fluff, though, with a lot of things done right and only a few done wrong. B
--Eugene Novikov

©2001 Eugene Novikov

Luck!
t

NN

Terry Burgess
Mexico
Local time: 11:20
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 119

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)

agree

Andrea Wright

10 mins

-> Thanks a lot Andrea:-)

agree

Erica Duncan: exactly, this is not to be taken literally

29 mins

-> Thanks Erica....sometimes it's best to take things as less literally as possible--particularly in our sad world of today:-)

agree

Georgios Paraskevopoulos

52 mins

-> Thank you Georgios:-)

neutral

cmwilliams (X): I'm sure they are all-round performers but when Parkinson refers to a song and dance man I believe he really does mean singing and dancing, as demonstrated in Jerrie's answer.

1 hr

-> 'tis entirely up to each individual "cm" to give his/her "interpretation"--whci is all we can give:-) Well, I've given mine [sincerely], you've given yours, no less sincerely, I'm sure, --and so it goes..a free world..unless GWB gets his way entirely:-)

12 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

Entertainer who sings and dances...

Explanation:
as opposed to a "serious" dramatic actor.

(a la Fred Astaire)

(Not that these guys are NOT serious actors. That's just the connotation of this phrase...that this is what's first and foremost in their hearts).

Marion Burns
United States
Local time: 13:20
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in pair: 18

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