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Can Joseph Gordon-Levitt Bring Showmanship Back to Hollywood?

by Monika Bartyzel Nov 24th 2009 // 9:48AM

Filed under: Trailers and Clips

If you didn't catch it over the weekend, Joseph Gordon-Levitt hosted Saturday Night Live, and kicked things off with a huge recreation of Donald O'Connor's slapstick performance of "Make 'Em Laugh" in Singin' in the Rain. He didn't just sing the song, thank everyone, and let it go to commercial. He performed many of the moves from the film himself, and if you're at all familiar with the scene, you know it's not just simple jive. For a live performance that has no benefit of retakes, it's darned impressive.

Of course, it's yet another example of the actor's impressive talents; that man's got mad skills. It's not too often these days that we get an actor who can be funny, serious, and an impressive live showman all in one package. Heck, the most we can usually get is a funny singer who dances, a mediocre hottie who dances, a funny man who can deliver some drama, or something similar. All of the above? Not these days.

Yet here Gordon-Levitt is, with one of my favorite SNL introductions ever. Movieline described Joseph as having "showman skills so hyperkinetic and gooey that Marc Summers might've Febrezed his screen." But what I want to know is: Could he help revive the idea of multi-talented show-people in Hollywood? Even if you don't like song and dance numbers (which, I admit, I usually don't), it can't hurt for Hollywood to start pressing the importance of a wide skill set. These days most actors are a one-note wonder, and here is JGL tackling every genre with ease while making this girl mourn a cinematic style she's never missed.

Does JGL make you miss the days of that flamboyant business we call show? Check out the original performance and the SNL stint after the jump and weigh in below.




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Tags: Cinematical, Donald OConnor, DonaldOconnor, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, JosephGordon-levitt, Make Em Laugh, MakeEmLaugh, saturday night live, SaturdayNightLive, singin in the rain, SinginInTheRain

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