Miley Cyrus Silences Critics With Excellent 'Saturday Night Live' Hosting Gig

Mar 7th 2011 04:45PMEmail ThisFans of 'Saturday Night Live' got a special treat this weekend when Miley Cyrus hit the stage at 30 Rock to deliver one of the best episodes in recent memory. You read that right, folks!

The reviews (and numbers) are in, and Cyrus is a hit. Not only did the teen starlet prove she has a sense of humor about herself, mocking her now-infamous salvia-bong debacle, she also strapped on a wig to play a certain teen heartthrob in what EW is calling the "best impersonation of the night."
Cyrus opened the show confidently, comparing herself to the characters in the film 'Black Swan,' saying she's "mostly a white swan kind of girl, but I've had a few black swan moments." She then ran down her various scandals in a hilarious, tongue-in-cheek song that lampooned many of the more risqué moments in recent popular culture while putting her own far-less-boorish misbehaviors in perspective.



Sounding better than ever, Cyrus sang:

There's a photo of me being kissed by a dude
And Annie Leibovitz tried to get me nude
For those of you who think that's very crude
I'm sorry that I'm not perfect

I never stole a necklace or got a DUI
Never cheated on my wife like that golfer guy
So what if you can see a little boob from the side
I'm sorry that I'm not perfect

And sure, I danced on a pole and people called it sinning
But at least I didn't date a porn star and tell everyone I'm winning.

(Kristen Wiig: You didn't make a dirty tape and pass it along)

(Bobby Moynihan: You didn't text a photo of your dong)

Don't both of these things seem worse than a bong?

At "bong," Cyrus briefly stopped the song, put her hand to her ear and then began waving to the audience, who burst out into wild applause. The song and applause break seemed to indicate that Cyrus, rightly, isn't interested in groveling for forgiveness for behaving like a teenager -- one who did nothing illegal. Good for her!

The singer then went on to stop by 'The Miley Cyrus Show,' a recurring 'SNL' sketch, but she didn't play who you'd think. 'SNL' featured player Vanessa Bayer has been doing a great job of parodying Cyrus all season, leaving the 'Party in the U.S.A.' songbird to take on a different singer: Justin Bieber. According to EW, "Cyrus had Bieber's trying-too-hard hip-hop mannerisms down cold."

She also had some fun with her former employers at Disney and 'Hannah Montana,' in a sketch called "Disney Channel Acting School," where she and 'SNL' regular Kenan Thompson -- playing Raven-Symone -- gave aspiring young actors and actresses lessons in what it takes to be a Disney star, including "loudness," "disrespecting authority," the "pause then dis" technique and "reacting to stinky feet."



Cyrus' turn on 'SNL' brought the NBC late-night staple its second highest ratings of the season, trailing only a Jan. 8 broadcast that benefited from a NFL playoff game lead-in. According to preliminary numbers, the broadcast led the night among adults ages 18-49, the demographic most coveted by advertisers, besting all prime-time programming from ABC, Fox and CBS, and giving the broadcast an 8 percent boost over the same night last year.

Bravo, Miley! You nailed it.

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Boyle's Frankenstein wows critics

24 February 2011 Last updated at 10:54 GMT Cumberbatch (bottom left and top right) alternates roles with Lee Miller (top left and bottom right) in Boyle's production. Photos by Catherine Ashmore Danny Boyle's stage version of Frankenstein has opened at the National Theatre in London with back-to-back press nights.

On Tuesday, Sherlock actor Benedict Cumberbatch played the title role, with Jonny Lee Miller - from Boyle's 1996 film Trainspotting - portraying the Monster he creates.

The roles were alternated the following night, as they will be throughout the play's sold-out run.

But what did critics make of Nick Dear's ambitious adaptation of Mary Shelley's classic Gothic horror novel?

This is no Hollywood/Hammer-style version of the old tale with a grunting giant sporting a bolt through his neck.

This creature, liberated by knowledge, is a sensitive intellectual who recites Milton and only wants true love.

Danny Boyle has returned from films to direct and the result is, for the most part, a mesmerising evening.

Yet, despite the action and power of Lee Miller and Cumberbatch's individual performances, the script often dragged as badly as the Creature's foot.

Read the full review here.

What you get in Danny Boyle's production and Nick Dear's adaptation of Mary Shelley's mythic fable is neither shlock nor satire.

Instead it's a humane, intelligent retelling of the original story in which much of the focus is on the plight of the obsessive scientist's sad creation.

The actors complement each other perfectly rather than provide a contest and Boyle's production is a bravura triumph.

Once or twice the language lapses into bathos. But, on the whole, this a stunning evening.

Read the full review here.

In Danny Boyle's eagerly awaited production of Frankenstein the show's stars are alternating the roles of the scientist and the deformed Creature.

Both versions are well worth seeing. Miller, however, strikes me as the more disturbing and poignant monster, while Cumberbatch undoubtedly has the edge as the scientist.

The Frankenstein story has become so familiar that it might seem an impossible task to make the old story seem fresh.

Yet somehow Boyle does just that, constantly creating shocks, spectacular coups de theatre and scenes that tug at the heart.

Read the full review here.

Danny Boyle's extraordinarily haunting production is predicated on the notion of alternating the two leading actors in the roles of Frankenstein and his galvanised handiwork.

The role-reversal makes deep thematic sense because it highlights the irony whereby the son becomes the father, the slave the master.

Broadly speaking, Cumberbatch emphasises the intellectual edge of both roles; Lee Miller takes us further into the feeling.

Cumberbatch is brilliant at conveying the blackly ridiculous aspects of the hubristic Scientist [and] is more horrifying as Frankenstein's handiwork.

Read the full review here.

It is a hell of a production. This taut, thrilling play runs to its awful conclusion without an interval, indeed with hardly a moment for breath.

Yet it remains, as Mary Shelley intended, basically a work of philosophy, pathos and moral seriousness.

Mark Tildesley's stunning design and Bruno Poet's remarkable lighting effects use the Olivier's vastness with controlled imaginative strength.

I nearly fell out of my seat at the shock bridal-chamber scene. Twice.

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