Friday, September 30, 2022
Smile
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Pearl
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Bright Star at CPT
I love the musical Bright Star so I am always happy for any opportunity to see it. Last night I saw a production at CPT and it is absolutely stellar! The story takes place in North Carolina during the 1920s and just after World War II and features incredible bluegrass music by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell. Alice Murphy (Anya Wilson) is a young and rebellious teenager in the small town of Zebulon where she regularly exasperates her mother (Jan Williams Smith) and father (Brent Sloan). She begins a romance with Jimmy Ray Dobbs (Jared Haddock) but his father, the Mayor (John Philpott), conspires to separate them. Twenty-two years later, just after the war, Billy Cane (Alex Young) returns to his hometown of Hayes Creek to visit his father (Chad Wilkinson) and his childhood friend Margo (Abigail Ford). However, he soon decides to try writing for a magazine in Ashville where he meets Alice, now an uptight editor who mentors him. The narrative alternates between both timelines as Alice learns to deal with love, loss, forgiveness, and redemption. Even though I have seen it multiple times (PTC, HCT, and HCTO) and know the big twist, I still find the story to be incredibly powerful and heartwarming. I love all of the songs, especially "If You Knew My Story," "Asheville," "I Can't Wait," "Sun's Gonna Shine,"and "I Had a Vision." Wilson (I saw her in the same role at HCTO) has a beautiful voice that is very well suited to the bluegrass genre and I had tears in my eyes during her emotional rendition of "Please Don't Take Him." I was also very impressed by her physical transformation, which happens right before our eyes, from the uptight editor to the rebellious teenager during "Way Back in the Day." Her wardrobe and hair change but it is her expression and physicality that really distinguishes the younger from the older character. The rest of the cast is really strong, one of the strongest I've seen at CPT, but the standouts for me are Haddock, especially the emotionally charged confrontation with his father in "Heartbreaker," and Ford, because she shows a lot of vulnerability in "Asheville." The set features the bare outline of a rustic cabin (I especially loved the rafters with lanterns hanging from them) with many items, such as barrels, crates, wooden doors, fence posts, chairs, and signs, used in multiple configurations to become a book shop, an office, the Mayor's house, a train, and other locations. The members of the ensemble move these items on and off stage seamlessly and it is extremely clever! The choreography really emphasizes the time and place, especially the square dancing during the town social and the swing dancing in "Another Round," as do the costumes. Finally, I really enjoyed the staging of the pivotal train sequence in the reprise of "A Man's Gotta Do" because it is very dramatic (make sure to look up at the top of the proscenium). My only disappointment is that there wasn't a live bluegrass band on stage because it adds so much to the overall feel of the show. Nevertheless, I was very impressed with this production and it is definitely one of my favorites at CPT! It runs through October 22 (go here for tickets).
Monday, September 26, 2022
Don't Worry Darling
Sunday, September 25, 2022
The Goonies in Concert
Saturday, September 24, 2022
Jackson Browne at Sandy Amphitheater
Thursday, September 22, 2022
SIX in Las Vegas
Wednesday, September 21, 2022
Scapin at PTC
I am a huge fan of Moliere (Tartuffe and The Imaginary Invalid are two of my very favorite plays) but I had never seen Scapin before so I was really looking forward to the contemporary retelling of this classic play now being performed at PTC. I had the chance to see it last night and it is an absolute riot! The setting is Naples in the 1960s and, while their mothers have been away, Octave (Alex Walton) has secretly married Hyacintha (Andrea Morales) and Leandre (Adrian Baidoo) has fallen in love with Zerbinette (Lucy Lavely) despite the fact that both women are unsuitable and their mothers have already made far grander marriage plans for them. When Arganta (Celeste Ciulla) and Geronta (Sofia Jean Gomez) return to Naples, their sons are desperate. They beg Leandre's servant Scapin (Kate Middleton) to intervene with their mothers on their behalf and hilarity ensues when she uses lies and tricks to keep the young couples together! The happy ending is assured when the identities of Hyacintha and Zerbinette are revealed and Scapin is forgiven by Arganta and Geronta. One of my favorite elements of this new adaptation is the use of Zerbinette's band, The Gypsies, as a sort of Greek chorus to explain and comment upon the action with pop songs (my favorites were "Trouble" by Taylor Swift, "(You Gotta) Fight For Your Right (To Party)" by The Beastie Boys, "Material Girl" by Madonna, and "Oops!...I Did It Again" by Britney Spears). Another favorite element is the comedic physicality of the performances! At one point Scapin enlists the help of Octave's servant Sylvestre (Xavier Reyes), usually mild-mannered, to threaten Arganta and when he brandishes his sword and accidentally stabs his own foot the crowd erupted in laughter and applause. I also laughed out loud when Scapin has Geronta hide while she pretends to fight imaginary bandits. In addition to Middleton, Ciulla, Gomez, and Reyes, I also enjoyed Baidoo's over the top performance, especially when he is interrogating Scapin. Since this adaptation is set in the 1960s, the costumes are absolutely fantastic with lots of bold colors and patterns. I particularly loved an embroidered frock coat worn by Leandre! The set of a colorful courtyard in Naples, featuring a trattoria on one side (with a portrait of Sophia Loren inside), a cafe on the other, and a working fountain in the center, is truly a sight to behold with lots of fun details. I loved the cafe lights strung across the stage, the parked Vespa, the vegetable stands (the contents of which become amusing props), the potted plants, and the gelato cart (which makes an appearance in the second act). I loved this show (I don't think I stopped laughing all night) and I highly recommend it for a bit of fun! It runs at PTC until October 1 (go here for tickets).
Note: I had the chance to visit Pere Lachaise Cemetery on a trip to Paris. Most people ask for directions to Jim Morrison's grave but I asked for directions to Moliere's.
Tuesday, September 20, 2022
The Addams Family at the SCERA Center for the Performing Arts
Monday, September 19, 2022
The Woman King
Sunday, September 18, 2022
See How They Run
Saturday, September 17, 2022
Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto
Friday, September 16, 2022
Little Shop of Horrors at West Valley Arts
Thursday, September 15, 2022
Love on the Brain
My September Book of the Month selection was Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood (the other options were The Attic Child by Lola Jaye, Other Birds by Sarah Addison Allen, Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn, and The Fortunes of Jaded Women by Carolyn Huynh). I am not a huge fan of the romance genre but I read The Love Hypothesis by Hazelwood for reasons and I absolutely loved it so, when I saw that her latest was a selection this month, I was really excited! Bee Konigswasser is offered the chance to be a co-leader for BLINK, a neuroengineering project at NASA, and it seems to be a dream come true until she discovers who her co-leader will be. The tall, dark, and handsome Levi Ward made it very clear that he doesn't like Bee when they were graduate students at Pitt and now she is going to have to work with him at NASA. When her equipment goes missing and she doesn't receive important emails from the team, she immediately blames her nemesis. However, when she overhears him defending her to their supervisor she wonders how he really feels about her and, even more importantly, she wonders how she really feels about him. Much like with The Love Hypothesis I loved the women in STEM aspect, particularly Bee's appreciation for Marie Curie, and it was very eye opening to learn that women in STEM are treated so disrespectfully by their male counterparts. I also enjoyed having the chapter titles named after parts of the brain and their corresponding emotions (I wasn't very knowledgeable about the science of the brain but it didn't detract from my enjoyment). I think the subplot involving Bee and Levi's friendly correspondence through their popular anonymous social media accounts while they have an antagonistic working relationship is a lot of fun and, even though the enemies-to-lovers trope is usually not my favorite, it really works. Finally, I loved the character of Levi because, like with Adam Carlsen, he is obviously modeled on the dark and brooding character played by my favorite actor and I enjoyed picturing him in my mind whenever Levi is described (sigh). My only complaint is that I didn't like the character of Bee as much as Olive Smith because she is a bit immature and her inane internal monologues are sometimes at odds with her portrayal as a brilliant neuroscientist. I didn't quite love it as much as The Love Hypothesis but I had a great time reading it and would definitely recommend it (especially to members of a certain fandom).
Wednesday, September 14, 2022
Lucky Stiff at HCT
Last night I saw the hilarious musical farce Lucky Stiff at Hale Theatre and I had so much fun! Harry Witherspoon (Preston Taylor) is a mild mannered shoe salesman living in a dreary rented room when he unexpectedly receives a telegram informing him that an unknown uncle named Anthony Hendon (Zac Zumbrunnen) has died and bequeathed him six million dollars. However, to receive his inheritance he must take the corpse of his uncle on a final vacation to Monte Carlo and complete a number of activities detailed on a cassette tape around his neck. If he fails to complete any of these tasks, the six million dollars will go to Anthony's favorite charity, the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn. Once he gets to Monte Carlo with the embalmed body in a wheelchair, Harry meets Anthony's legally blind mistress Rita La Porta (Claire Kenny) who believes that he embezzled the money from her husband and wants to get it back, Rita's optometrist brother Vinnie Di Ruzzio (Kelly DeHaan) who has been blamed for the theft and has a contract out on his life, a representative from the Universal Dog Home of Brooklyn named Annabel Glick (Bre Welch) who wants to stop Harry from completing the list so that the dogs will receive the money, and Luigi Gaudi (David Marsden) a mysterious and flashy Italian who seems to be following him. Chaos ensues! What makes this show so funny is not only the situation, which becomes more and more absurd as it goes on, but also the brilliant cast! In addition to the main cast, Bryan Dayley (one of my favorite comedic actors at HCT), Cameron Garner, Ali Bennett, and Beatriz Melo portray a variety of different characters, and every performance is completely over the top with perfect comedic timing. Their physicality and facial expressions had me laughing out loud through the whole show! I especially enjoyed the scene where Harry and Annabel lose the body and run in and out of the various hallways of the hotel looking for it (lots of slamming doors)! All of the musical numbers are a lot of fun but my favorite is "Speaking French" by the nightclub singer Dominique (Beatriz Melo) as she attempts to seduce Harry. The show is set in the 1970s which means that the costumes are absolutely fabulous with bright colors, bold patterns, and lots of polyester! The stage, which reminded me of a game show with all of the flashing lights and multiple levels, includes a rotating panel that turns to reveal various locations with projections and elaborate set pieces. This is the perfect show to see for a fun night out and it runs on the Sorenson Legacy Jewel Box Stage through November 19 (go here for tickets).
Note: Don't forget the new adaptation of The Unsinkable Molly Brown on the Young Living Main Stage through October 18 (go here for tickets).