Friday, April 30, 2021
Thierry Fischer Conducts Bach, Wynton Marsalis, Carter & Wagner
Sunday, April 25, 2021
Mortal Kombat
Saturday, April 24, 2021
Madeline Adkins Plays The Lark Ascending
Wednesday, April 21, 2021
Daddy Long Legs at HCT
Note: I also highly recommend Les Miserables which is currently playing on the Young Living Stage. Many performances are sold out but some matinees have recently been added later in the run (go here for tickets).
Tuesday, April 20, 2021
The Music Man at CPT
Last night it was so much fun to see a full production of The Music Man at Centerpoint Legacy Theatre (the first for CPT since the pandemic). I really love all of the old classic musicals, especially The Music Man, because they remind me so much of my Grandma Anderson. Every single familiar song made me want to sing along, especially "Ya Got Trouble," "Seventy-Six Trombones," "The Wells Fargo Wagon," and "Gary, Indiana," but I somehow controlled myself! This show tells the well-known story of a traveling salesman who comes to swindle the residents of River City into buying band instruments and uniforms but falls in love with a librarian instead and this production is very well done! I really enjoyed the entire cast! Russell Maxfield is incredibly charismatic and charming as Harold Hill and Mailee Halpin has a beautiful voice as the uptight yet vulnerable Marion, particularly in the songs "Goodnight My Someone," "My White Knight," and "'Till There Was You." Chad Wilkinson is the embodiment of befuddled pomposity as Mayor Shinn ("Not one poop out of you, madame.") and Angela Brown is hilarious with her version of a Grecian Urn as Eulalie MacKecknie Shinn (as a sometime character actress, Eulalie is my dream role). Tyler Bender as Zaneeta, Mayor Shinn's oldest girl, and Brevin Gardner as Tommy Djilas, a boy with reform school written all over him, are amazing dancers who lead a terrific ensemble in the big production numbers (more on them later). Micah Thornton is adorable as Winthrop, especially when he lisps, while Bridget Maxwell is an absolute hoot as Amaryllis and I laughed out loud during her cross-hand piano piece (I love this young actress because she stole the show as Gloria in HCT's production of Wait Until Dark and again as Lavender in HCT's production of Matilda). The feuding school board members, Nathan Asay, Eric Corrington, Paul Dixon, and Jeffrey Duncan, harmonize beautifully in "Goodnight Ladies," "Sincere," and "Lida Rose" and they are definitely a highlight of the show. The sets are also very well done and I especially liked the two-level library, the interior and exterior of the Paroo house, the fountain in the park, and the footbridge. The energetic choreography is a lot of fun and it is executed very well by the talented cast, particularly in "Seventy-Six Trombones," "Marion the Librarian," and "Shipoopi." I had a smile on my face throughout the entire show because it is just so delightful and I highly recommend it for a bit of nostalgic fun (go here for tickets).
Friday, April 16, 2021
French Exit
Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Voyagers
Sunday, April 11, 2021
The Hunting Wives
My Book of the Month selection for April was The Hunting Wives by May Cobb (the other options were What Comes After by Joanne Tompkins, Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala, Libertie by Kaitlyn Greenidge, and People We Meet on Vacation by Emily Henry) and this murder mystery involving bored housewives behaving badly is wildly entertaining! Sophie O'Neill has left behind a dysfunctional childhood and a high profile job as a magazine editor in Chicago to live a quiet life in the small town of Mapleton, Texas with her husband Graham and young son Jack. She fills her days with running the trails near her home, gardening, and writing a lifestyle blog but she quickly finds herself bored with the slower pace. She connects with an old high school friend who introduces her to a popular group of wealthy society women. She obsessively stalks them on social media and longs to join them in their exploits so she is thrilled when she is invited to one of their weekly skeet shooting parties. They call themselves the Hunting Wives and Sophie soon learns that these evenings also involve copious amounts of alcohol and excursions to nightclubs to hunt for a different sort of prey. Sophie eventually becomes enamored with Margot, the leader of the group, and engages in some questionable behavior which threatens her relationship with Graham. When a young woman is found murdered where the group practices their skeet shooting, Sophie begins to suspect that the group is involved somehow. This is a quick and easy read full of scandal and gossip that I enjoyed much more than I thought I would. The first person narration follows Sophie as she makes one bad decision after another, some of which will make you want to scream with frustration when you are not howling with laughter. Almost all of the characters are incredibly unsympathetic but they were compelling enough to keep me reading at every opportunity because I had to know what happens to them and I found the twist at the end to be very original and satisfying (I figured it out right before it was revealed). This is not usually the kind of book that I would pick if left to my own devices (it is quite salacious and over the top) but it is a lot of fun. I recommend it to anyone looking for a bit of escapism.
Friday, April 9, 2021
Domingo Hindoyan Conducts Roberto Sierra, Bartok & Mozart 41
Wednesday, April 7, 2021
Les Miserables at HCT
I don't think I will ever get tired of hearing the dramatic opening notes of the musical Les Miserables. They moved me to tears the first time I heard them performed live at the Palace Theatre in London on a study abroad trip in 1990 and they did once again as I heard them performed at Hale Theatre last night! I love the moving story of Jean Valjean's redemption, which is based on Victor Hugo's masterpiece, and I love the beautiful music by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schonberg so I have seen Les Miserables at least 30 times (a conservative estimate) and I have to say that HCT's current version is a great production. The cast features Casey Elliott, Bradley Quinn Lever, and Brad Robins, whose meeting while performing in HCT's 2014 production of Les Miserables prompted them to form the popular trio Gentri, and I was really excited to see them reprise their roles as Jean Valjean, Enjolras, and Marius, respectively. Their performances were definitely a highlight of the show for me, particularly Elliott's version of "Bring Him Home," Lever's version of "Red and Black," and Robins's version of "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables." I also really enjoyed Cecily Ellis Bills as Fantine, Clotile Bonner Farkas as Madame Thenardier, and Rebecca Burroughs-Kremin as Eponine (I judge every production by how Eponine sings "On My Own" and her version gave me goosebumps). However, my very favorite performance of the night was Adam Dietlein as Inspector Javert. He is absolutely brilliant in the role because he holds himself, in both his mannerisms and his facial expressions, so rigidly and this characterization is perfect for the unyielding Javert. His rendition of "Stars" is incredibly powerful and it elicited the most applause and cheering last night after "Bring Him Home" (they had to stop the show because the applause went on for so long after this number). The costumes and sets are similar to those in the original Broadway production but also feature just enough flourishes to keep the show fresh (I loved all of Cosette's dresses and Madame Thenardier's gown for "Beggars at the Feast"). I do wish that the barricade could have been on the turntable because the reveal of Enjolras hanging upside down while holding the red flag as it slowly rotates in the original production is one of the most dramatic moments of the show (I miss this moment in the new staging on Broadway as well) but I like that HCT's barricade allows the entire audience to see "A Little Fall of Rain" and "Drink With Me." I think "Javert's Suicide" is staged particularly well because it really seems as if he is jumping from a bridge to his death and I also quite enjoyed the staging of "Master of the House" because even the young Eponine (Olivia Dietlein) steals from the guests. I love this show so much (it will always be a sentimental favorite) and seeing it at HCT last night made me very happy. I highly recommend getting a ticket but be aware that several secondary ticketing sites have been inflating prices significantly (go directly here for the best prices). It runs on the Young Living Stage through June 19.
Note: I think I might need to see it again for the MWF cast because it features Kyle Olsen as Jean Valjean and he blew me away as Sydney Carton in A Tale of Two Cities.