Tarzan at HCT

HCT's 2013 production of Tarzan, with Derek Smith in the title role, was the first time I saw the popular Disney musical. I absolutely loved it so I was really excited to see their latest production, especially on the new stage, yesterday afternoon. I was also thrilled to learn that Smith was reprising his role as Tarzan! This musical tells the well-known story by Edgar Rice Burroughs about a human boy who is adopted by a group of apes after his parents are killed in the African jungle. Kerchak (Preston Taylor), the leader of a tribe of gorillas, is not happy when his wife Kala (Beatriz Melo) adopts the boy Tarzan (Toby Worland) because he thinks he doesn't belong. Tarzan struggles to keep up with the rest of the tribe until he is befriended by Terk (Caleb Hafen) who shows him how to be a gorilla.  When Tarzan teaches Terk how to make a spear for picking fruit, Kerchak is frightened that Tarzan will hurt the other gorillas and exiles him. Tarzan is distraught and wonders where he really belongs so Kala decides to stay with him. Years go by and Tarzan (Smith) is welcomed back into the tribe after he kills a leopard that has been terrorizing them for years. However, when Professor Porter (Mark Pulham) and his daughter Jane (Sophia Guerrero) bring an expedition to the jungle, Kerchak worries that Tarzan's interactions with the humans, especially Jane, will bring harm to the tribe. When Clayton (Josh Durfey), a member of the expedition, threatens the gorillas Tarzan must decide whether he belongs with Jane and the humans or with his adopted family. This show is a dazzling spectacle and I loved everything about it! Smith is an incredibly charismatic and athletic Tarzan (at one point he is swinging on a vine that he is holding on to with just one arm) but he can also really sing! My favorite song in the show is "Strangers Like Me" and Smith's rendition of it in the 2013 production is what made me a fan of this musical. I basically sat through the whole first half anticipating this number and it definitely did not disappoint. It gave me goosebumps! Smith also just about blows the roof off the theater with his version of "Everything That I Am." Guerrero is charmingly dorky as Jane, especially when she first meets Tarzan and is trying to hide the fact that she finds him attractive. I really enjoyed her performance of the songs "Waiting For This Moment" and "For The First Time" because she is so full of wonder (for the flora and fauna and then for Tarzan, respectively). I think my favorite performance in the show is Hafen as Terk. He is so full of goofy enthusiasm that he brought a smile to my face (under my mask) every time he was on stage. I loved his rendition of "Who Better Than Me" because he has such great facial expressions. He also got the audience cheering out loud during "Trashin' The Camp." Other standouts in the cast include Melo as Kala, because her version of "You'll Be In My Heart" is very affecting, and Worland as the young Tarzan, because he is adorable and gives such a heartfelt performance of "I Need to Know." The aerialists in this show are amazing and I almost missed the adult Tarzan's dramatic entrance in "Son of Man" because I was paying so much attention to the flying gorillas! I did miss a key moment between Tarzan and Jane because I was fascinated by the aerialists in the flowers during "Waiting For This Moment." I loved the costumes, the set pieces that come down from the ceiling and up from the pit, and the dramatic fluorescent lighting. This is such a great production and I am so grateful that HCT added some afternoon performances so that I could see it! There are a few tickets available for shows later in the run (go here) and I highly recommend getting one!

Fiddler on the Roof

Even though I recently saw the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof on one of my streaming platforms (I can't remember which one), I couldn't miss out on an opportunity to see it on the big screen last night because I love it so much!  Tevye (Topol) is a poor Jewish milkman living in the small village of Anatevka in Imperial Russia with his wife Golde (Norma Crane) and five daughters.  He clings to his traditions to help him deal with the hardships of life but his daughters Tzeitel (Rosalind Harris), Hodel (Michele Marsh), and Chava (Neva Small) challenge those traditions by choosing to marry Motel (Leonard Frey), Perchik (Paul Michael Glaser), and Fyedka (Raymond Lovelock), respectively, without a matchmaker.  Watching this movie makes me so happy and I eagerly anticipate all of my favorite songs, especially "Tradition," "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," "If I Were a Rich Man," "Sabbath Prayer," "Sunrise, Sunset," "Far From the Home I Love," and "Anatevka."  I tried really hard, unsuccessfully, not to sing along!  The choreography is fantastic and I really love the Russian dance in "To Life," the bottle dance during the wedding, and the ballet sequence in "Chavaleh" but my very favorite production number is "Tevye's Dream" because I once played Fruma-Sarah and it is always fun to see her!  I'm pretty sure that I sang every word with Ruth Madoc!  I always really enjoy Topol's portrayal of Tevye because he imbues the role with quite a bit of humor, especially with his conversations with God and his interactions with Golde (the scene where he wants to see Motel's sewing machine kills me every time), but he also shows vulnerability when he rejects Chava.  I also really like Frey because he is so adorably dorky as Motel, particularly in the song "Miracle of Miracles."  I have seen this movie dozens of times but last night I was struck by the fact that all of Tevye's clothes are threadbare, even the coat he wears at the wedding.  I have never noticed that before (probably because I've never seen it on such a big screen).  I also noticed that the shot composition in "Tradition" is mirrored in "Anatevka" which I think is really effective.  I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing this movie (or the stage musical, for that matter) and I highly recommend seeing it as part of the TCM Big Screen Classics series (go here for information and tickets).

Note:  I have really enjoyed the TCM Big Screen Classics series this year (I went to as many of them as I could).  The selections for next year have been announced and are as follows:  The Maltese Falcon, Boyz n the Hood, The Ten Commandments, La Bamba, Fried Green Tomatoes, The Birdcage, The African Queen, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Citizen Kane, The Silence of the Lambs, West Side Story, and On Golden Pond.  I think I am most looking forward to The Maltese Falcon and The Ten Commandments.  Are you looking forward to any of these movies?

A Christmas Carol at CPT

Last night I attended another performance of A Christmas Carol and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  CenterPoint Theatre is presenting the musical version of the classic Christmas story with a cast of fifteen actors performing all of the roles, beautiful period costumes, a minimal set, and clever projections. The redemption of the miser Ebenezer Scrooge (Nick Cash) begins when he is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley (Lee Wright) who tells him that he will also be visited by the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Kristina Boler), Present (Alexander "Xander" Richey), and Future (Julia Loveland-Bradford). These ghosts show Scrooge the true meaning of Christmas with the help of his clerk Bob Cratchit (John Lee Roring), Cratchit's son Tiny Tim (McGuire Bingham), his former employer Mr. Fezziwig (Craig Hovorka), and his nephew Fred (Derek Marsden).  I really enjoyed all of the songs in this show but my favorites are "You Mean More to Be" by Cratchit and Tiny Tim, "Link By Link" by Marley's Ghost, "The Lights of Long Ago" by the Ghost of Christmas Past (Boler has a beautiful voice), and "A Place Called Home" by Scrooge. The choreography for the songs "Mr. Fezziwig's Annual Christmas Ball," "Christmas Together," "Dancing on Your Grave," and "God Bless Us Everyone" is very innovative because these numbers involve the entire cast but the actors are still able to maintain some distance from each other. In addition to the beautiful Victorian costumes (my favorites were those worn by all of the ghosts, especially the Ghost of Christmas Future), all of the actors wear clear protective shields but after a few minutes I didn't even notice them any more. The set consists of a series of black platforms at various levels (much like those used for this show) with projections to represent Scrooge's rooms, the Cratchit house, Fred's house, Fezziwig's warehouse, and the streets of London.  Even though the set is very minimal I thought it was effective.  All of the actors give heartfelt performances but I particularly enjoyed Cash as Scrooge because his transformation is authentic and Bingham as Tiny Tim because he is so adorable. If you are looking for a dose of Christmas cheer this show will definitely give you some and I recommend it for the whole family. It runs on the Barlow Main Stage on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays through December 19. Tickets are $18 on the main floor and $15 for the balcony (go here).

Note:  I have been so impressed with all of the measures that CPT has taken to keep all of their actors and their patrons safe while still providing entertainment for the community.

The Midnight Sky

Last night I had the chance to see The Midnight Sky, a movie that I have been anticipating for weeks, and I found it to be incredibly thought-provoking and surprisingly poignant.  In 2049 an unnamed cataclysmic event is in the process of destroying the Earth.  An observatory in the Arctic is evacuated as people try to return home to their loved ones.  Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney), an astrophysicist who has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, elects to stay behind because, as we learn from several flashbacks to a failed relationship, he has no one in his life.  As he monitors the satellites, he discovers that the Aether, a deep-space craft that has been on a two-year mission to explore one of Jupiter's habitable moons, is on its way back to Earth.  He also discovers that a mysterious child named Iris (Caoillinn Springall) has inadvertently been left behind at the observatory.  He tries to contact the Aether to warn them of Earth's impending doom but the antenna at the observatory is not strong enough to reach them.  He makes the decision to go further north to a weather station with a stronger antenna and embarks on an increasingly perilous journey with Iris.  Meanwhile, the crew of the Aether, Sully (Felicity Jones), Tom (David Oyelowo), Maya (Tiffany Boone), Sanchez (Demian Bichir), and Mitchell (Kyle Chandler), must make dangerous repairs to restore communication with Lofthouse.  When they learn the truth about the Earth's fate, the crew must make difficult decisions about their futures.  This movie is a meditative portrait of a man who has spent his life avoiding personal responsibilities only to become solely responsible for a young girl and the crew of a spacecraft.  His character arc is very compelling and the twist at the end is incredibly powerful.  While there are some spectacular action sequences, such as a space walk in the middle of flying debris and a terrifying blizzard, the pace is very slow and deliberate so it might not appeal to fans of more traditional sci-fi thrillers.  Clooney gives a riveting performance, one of his best, and the supporting cast is uniformly excellent.  The visuals are spectacular and the score by Alexandre Desplat, one of my favorite film composers, is absolutely brilliant.  Even though the narrative is sometimes a bit derivative (there are lots of comparisons to Gravity, The Martian, Ad Astra, and The Revenant), I was still thinking about the themes of isolation, survival, and hope long after I left the theater.  I definitely recommend seeing this on the biggest screen possible but it will stream on Netflix beginning December 23.

Wild Mountain Thyme

When I saw the trailer for Wild Mountain Thyme I thought it sounded really familiar.  It turns out that it is an adaptation of the play Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley.  I absolutely loved this play when it was performed at PTC a few years ago so I decided to see the movie last night (even though it was the second romantic drama this week).  Tony Reilly (Christopher Walken) and Aoife Muldoon (Dearbhla Molloy), who live on adjoining farms in Ireland, are both getting old and are contemplating their mortality.  Tony, especially, is concerned about leaving his farm to his son Anthony (Jamie Dornan) because he shows no sign of getting married and won't have any children to leave it to when he dies.  Tony briefly considers selling it to his nephew Adam (Jon Hamm), who visits from America, but Tony eventually realizes that he just wants it for an investment.  Tony then decides that the best solution would be for Anthony to marry Aoife's daughter Rosemary (Emily Blunt) because she has been in love with him since childhood.  However, Rosemary is too caught up in her romantic notions of love to approach him and Anthony is seemingly oblivious to her feelings.  Will they ever get together or will Adam's interest in Rosemary ruin Anthony's chances?  I did not enjoy this as much as I hoped I would.  Much has been made about the laughable Irish accents but that didn't bother me as much as the portrayal of the two main characters did.  In the play, Rosemary and Anthony are funny and eccentric people who are clearly meant to be together but just haven't realized it yet.  In the movie, they are angry in their interactions with each other (without the witty back and forth banter that I loved so much in the play) and they come across as totally unlikable.  I can't decide if this is because of how the characters are written (the playwright also wrote the script) in the movie or if it is just how Dornan and Blunt chose to portray them.  When they finally do get together, it is so sudden that it doesn't seem at all believable (it doesn't help that Dornan and Blunt have zero chemistry).  One minute they are screaming at each other and the next they are kissing in the rain.  Anthony's reason for keeping his distance from Rosemary, which is sweet and charming in the play, is just bizarre in the movie because the characterization isn't there to support it. The addition of Adam, a character who is only alluded to in the play, as a love interest who comes between Anthony and Rosemary lessens the impact of their romance because it takes the interference of someone else for Anthony to finally realize that he loves Rosemary.  Unfortunately, something that I really loved on the stage falls horribly flat on the screen so I would recommend giving Wild Mountain Thyme a miss.