Dumbed Down at Plan-B Theatre

During my last few years teaching at Hunter High School I was lucky enough to have Darryl Stamp in the classroom across the hall from mine. He was an exceptional teacher and a wonderful colleague (he talked me down from the roof on more than one occasion). We retired at about the same time and, while I channeled my energies into a rigorous schedule of reading and napping, Darryl used his experiences at Hunter and other schools to write the play Dumbed Down which is currently having its world premiere with the Plan-B Theatre Company. I had the opportunity to see this play last night with my friend Angela, another former colleague in the English department at Hunter, and we both could definitely relate to the material (we were often the only ones in the audience laughing out loud). Kevin Simon (Danor Gerald) is an English teacher in a tough urban high school who is about to retire. Even though he must deal with endless interruptions from the office and counseling center and students who fall asleep, are on their phones, and request the hall pass multiple times, his lessons are engaging and he is able to get the students thinking about the material because he makes it relevant to them, especially Malcolm Thomas (Jacob Barnes) and Craig Wilson (Alex Smith). Isaiah Rogers (Chad Brown), one of Mr. Simon's former students, doesn't see the point of school because he has been labeled as learning disabled (despite an encyclopedic knowledge of movies) and is always in trouble (as a Black male he often makes his current English teacher feel unsafe and is therefore punished for minor infractions which usually involves picking up trash after school). Mr. Simon eventually retires but finds it difficult to stay away so he takes a job teaching in the prison system where he encounters both Isaiah and Craig who are happy for the opportunity to learn from him again. This is the most realistic portrayal of the teaching profession that I have seen on stage or film and I was particularly struck by a scene where Mr. Simon is praised for being engaging but is also reminded to work harder to prepare the students for an upcoming standardized test during his evaluation by the administrator (Jacob Barnes). This perfectly represents how education as an institution fails so many students by refusing to see them as individuals. I also loved a powerful monologue in which Mr. Simon compares teaching to Tylenol because it is time-released. This is an incredible reminder of the impact that one good teacher can have on the future lives of their students if given the proper support. I loved Gerald's performance because he absolutely nails all of the highs (it is thrilling when a student makes a connection) and lows (it is absolutely exhausting to find ways to facilitate those connections) of teaching. I also loved Brown's performance because he reminded me of so many of my students. Finally, I found it ironic that the minimal set works for both a school and a prison because I often referred to Hunter High as a prison because it is so sterile! This is authentic and thought-provoking, especially if you are an educator or former educator, and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here). It runs at the Studio Theatre at the Rose on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through March 1.

Note:  The line that got the biggest laugh from both me and Angela was when Mr. Simon referred to teaching high school as teen daycare because that was a signature line from Mr. Stamp!

Crime 101

Yesterday my nephew and I were able to catch a matinee of Crime 101 and we both really liked it.  Mike Davis (Chris Hemsworth) is a jewel thief who uses inside information to plan heists along Highway 101 that involve stealing from couriers without the use of violence.  Det. Lou Lubesnick (Mark Ruffalo) suspects that all of these robberies are the work of one man but no one, including his exasperated partner Det. Tillman (Corey Hawkins), agrees with him.  When Mike refuses to do a job, his fence Money (Nick Nolte) gives it to an incredibly unstable and violent biker named Ormon (Barry Keoghan) and, when the job goes wrong, Mike is angry about the casualties.  He decides to do one final job on his own after beginning a romantic relationship with Maya (Monica Barbaro) and enlists the help of Sharon Combs (Halle Berry), a disgruntled insurance broker, to get information about one of her wealthy clients (Tate Donovan).  Money doesn't want to miss out on Mike's job so he has Ormon follow him to steal back what he steals.  Complications ensue when all of these characters become involved with the execution of the heist.  This is an incredibly stylish neo-noir crime thriller but it is also much more character-driven than I was expecting.  I especially enjoyed the arcs for Mike, Lou, and Sharon because all three of them are easy to root for despite their questionable behavior (the resolution is perfect).  I loved the requisite car chases with the equally requisite synth score as well as the dynamic camera angles and use of reflections (I've seen a lot of comparisons to Michael Mann's Heat but, in my opinion, this is not a negative).  Finally, the entire cast is great (Hemsworth is very well suited to his role and Keoghan adds another little freak to his collection) but Berry steals the show with her tough, yet vulnerable, performance as a woman who is fed up with broken promises.  This is highly entertaining and I definitely recommend it.

Up in Concert

I am a big fan of the movie Up so I was really excited to see it on the big screen last night while the Utah Symphony performed the Academy Award-winning score by Michael Giacchino live.  I loved this concert because the music made me laugh and cry during all of my favorite scenes!  Carl Fredricksen (voiced by Ed Asner) is a curmudgeonly widower who is filled with regret that he didn't fulfill the promise he made to his wife Ellie to take her on an adventure to Paradise Falls in South America before she died.  When he is on the verge of being evicted, he decides to keep his promise and attaches thousands of helium balloons to his house in order to fly it to South America.  However, he discovers midair that a Wilderness Explorer named Russell (voiced by Jordan Nagai) is on his porch attempting to earn his final merit badge for helping the elderly.  A storm blows them off course so Carl reluctantly enlists Russell's help to tow the house across a mesa to get it to Paradise Falls.  Along the way they encounter a large flightless bird that Russell names Kevin, a dog named Dug with a collar that allows it to talk, and the adventurer Charles Muntz (voiced by Christopher Plummer) who is not the hero Carl remembers from childhood.  Chaos ensues until Carl eventually learns that friendship is the true adventure.  I think the music really adds to the emotional impact of the story.  The theme "Married Life" during the opening montage showing Carl and Ellie's life together is absolutely brilliant because it uses changes in tempo and intensity with a solo trumpet, then a solo violin and harp, then the brass, and then just the piano to convey the mood without any dialogue (it always makes me cry) and then this same theme is repeated throughout the rest of the movie with different variations to show that everything is motivated by Carl's memories of Ellie.  The variation used in "Stuff We Did" as Carl looks through Ellie's scrapbook and realizes that their life together was the adventure is especially poignant because the piano is so haunting.  I also love the more joyful and triumphant iteration used in "Carl Goes Up" when the piano is joined by the strings, woodwinds, and brass because it shows Carl's thrill at finally fulfilling his promise and the adventurous one in "Escape From Muntz Mountain" because the addition of percussion to the strings, piano, and brass emphasizes the excitement of the chase.  Because it is so immersive to have the orchestra playing live while watching the movie, I noticed every time I heard the theme repeated and I was really struck by how well each variation fit the action on the screen.  It is one of the best scores for not only a Disney-Pixar movie but for any movie and I highly recommend getting a ticket to one of the two remaining performances this weekend (go here).

Ten Brave Seconds at PTC

Last night I went to see the world premiere of the new musical Ten Brave Seconds at PTC. It is always thrilling to be among the first to see a brand new show (I was also able to see the world premieres of Cagney and Shucked at PTC) but I didn't love it as much as I expected to given all of the rave reviews it has been receiving. The narrative depicts one day in the life of a suburban teen named Mike (Carson Stewart) as he comes out to his father Carl (Will Blum), his sister Becky (Heidi Farber), his best friend Gabby (Jessica Money), and his new friend Tim (Luke Kolbe Mannikus). He turns to his sympathetic history teacher Mr. G (John Cariani) to help him deal with his grief over the recent death of his mother Sally (Amber Iman) and to navigate the complicated responses from his friends and family to his sudden announcement. I think this show is garnering so much praise because it has an important message about daring to live authentically and I really love that the emphasis is not necessarily on being brave enough to tell people who you are but rather being brave enough to have the difficult conversations moving forward. In fact, the moment when Mike tells his father that he is gay is almost anticlimactic and that is an incredibly interesting, but effective, choice because it subverts the traditional coming out trope. The reactions from Mike's family and friends feel very honest and authentic, especially Carl's because parents do not always have all of the answers and Gabby's because it is heartbreaking when a relationship is revealed to be one-sided. I liked the recurring motif of counting from one to ten (this really resonated with me because I suffer from anxiety and use this as a coping mechanism) and the use of an astronaut as a metaphor for isolation (although I wish that this had been emphasized more). I also liked how the main set, which features the outline of a house made from intersecting metal beams, and the costumes, particularly a large purple hoodie worn and then eventually discarded by Mike, highlight the fact that you cannot hide who you really are. The performances are excellent all around but the standout for me was Money because she has an energy that is very compelling. However, the songs are not very memorable because, in my opinion, they are merely long monologues set to music without a hook to keep the audience's attention. I struggled to remember any of the songs once I left the theater. The choreography and staging are also surprisingly bland because most of the big musical numbers involve the ensemble walking back and forth across the stage and end with the main characters downstage in a line under spotlights (I get that this is meant to represent the disconnect than many feel in high school but it is not very interesting to watch, especially when it happens multiple times). One of the biggest turning points in the show happens with Carl, Mike, and Becky sitting at a table listening to a song played through a phone but, despite a beautiful performance from Iman, it did not make much of an impression because it is so static. I do think this is worth seeing for the powerful message (go here for tickets) but I found it a bit underwhelming. It runs at PTC through February 14.

Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

It was an all Russian program at last night's Utah Symphony concert and I loved every minute!  When I was very young I lived on a farm in southern Ontario next door to an elderly couple who had emigrated from Russia to Canada.  I loved them dearly.  My parents always told me not to bother them but I think they enjoyed it when I followed them around their farm.  They taught me several phrases in Russian and served me tea from an exquisite samovar that had pride of place in their living room and pryanik (a type of Russian cookie).  I think this early influence is why I have always been fascinated by Russia (I've been there twice), especially Russian history, literature, and music.  I usually try to get a ticket to any Utah Symphony concert featuring a Russian composer and, luckily, there are several this season (the woman who took my order over the phone joked that she was sensing a theme with my selections).  The orchestra began with the Polonaise from The Golden Slippers by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.  This little known opera features the traditional Polish dance at a Christmas celebration for the tsaritsa in Act III and the music is very festive and energetic.  I loved all of the lush melodies played by the strings and the triumphant fanfares played by the brass as I imagined a grand and stately group promenading through an opulent St. Petersburg ballroom in my mind.  Next, the orchestra was joined by Sir Stephen Hough, who is a very popular soloist with Utah Symphony audiences, for Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini by Sergei Rachmaninoff.  This is one of my favorite pieces and I love all of the Variations because they are sometimes fiery and passionate, sometimes grand and stirring, and sometimes wild and tempestuous.  If I had to pick a favorite it would be the 18th because it is incredibly beautiful and almost unbearably romantic (it is featured in many movies, including Somewhere in Time).  Hough played it with so much emotion (I loved watching his fingers fly up and down the keyboard) and I was practically swooning by the time the swelling strings joined the melody.  The near-capacity crowd leapt to their feet in thunderous applause after the performance and Hough gave a lovely encore featuring his own virtuosic arrangement of "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins.  After the intermission, the concert concluded with Symphony No. 5 by Dmitri Shostakovitch.  The first movement is bold with militaristic marches played by the brass and the second is very stirring (I loved the opening theme played by the cellos and basses).  However, my favorite was the third movement because it is very affecting, particularly a theme played by the harp and flute.  At the premiere, this movement provided a way for the public to express their grief over Stalin's purges and it brought tears to my eyes, as well.  The final movement becomes celebratory once again and I loved the epic conclusion by the timpani!  This was an incredible evening of music and, if this program appeals to you, get tickets (go here) for tonight's concert sooner rather than later because, as I mentioned, there were very few empty seats in Abravanel Hall last night (for good reason).