NYSM2

Yesterday I took my nephew Sean, who is an aspiring magician, to see Now You See Me 2.  I absolutely loved the first movie and I think this one is just as good!  The Four Horsemen, Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson), Jack Wilder (Dave Franco), and newcomer Lula May (Lizzy Caplan), resurface one year later when Walter Mabry (Daniel Radcliffe), a tech prodigy, threatens to expose them if they don't pull off one more thrilling heist for him. As you would expect there are many plot twists and many of the unanswered questions left from the first installment involving Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo), Thaddeus Bradley (Morgan Freeman), Arthur Tressler (Michael Caine) and the mysterious Eye are explained.  There are also many elaborate scenes involving magic and I especially enjoyed the sleight of hand as the Four Horsemen attempt to steal a computer chip from a high level security tech firm. Even with all of the plot twists and magic (for some of which you really need to suspend your disbelief), I really loved the hilarious interactions between the characters, especially in the scenes where Merritt and his evil twin brother Chase (also played by Woody Harrelson) try to hypnotize each other.  It is a lot of fun and I really enjoyed it.  If you are a fan of the first movie, I recommend this installment.

Note: I like Jesse Eisenberg is some roles better than others.  This is a great role for him (although I prefer his longer hair in the first movie).

Newsies

Before Hamilton, the show on the top of my must-see list was Newsies!  I had the opportunity to see it in Los Angeles last year over spring break and it was even better than I imagined!  When I got home from that trip, Broadway in Utah announced the 2015-2016 season and I learned that I would be able to see this incredible show again!  I liked it even better the second time!  Based on the Disney movie of the same name, Newsies tells the story of how Jack Kelly (Joey Barreiro), along with his fellow "newsies" and a determined young reporter (Morgan Keene), stood up to Joseph Pulitzer (Steve Blanchard) by going on strike when he raised the cost of the papers.  It is a high-energy show with absolutely dazzling choreography consisting of athletic leaps, jumps, and spins.  I loved it when all of the newsies (all amazing performers) danced in unison in the big production numbers "The World Will Know," "Seize the Day," "King of New York," and "Once and for All." I especially loved the song "The World Will Know" because it is so powerful and the cast sang it with such emotion.  I also really loved the set for this show.  There were three large towers which could be moved into different configurations representing apartment buildings and printing presses and they were covered with scrims which had newspapers and other backgrounds projected on them.  I loved it when the newsies danced on all three levels of the towers.  There were a lot of young people in the audience who responded with thunderous applause and cheering to every single number.  At intermission a large group sitting near me squealed with delight about how awesome it was.  It made me smile because I love seeing young people so passionate about the theatre.  Even though I was really tired after my long ordeal getting home from New York (more about that later), I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of the amazing show and I highly recommend that you see it if you have the chance.  This run ends on Sunday but it is making a return to SLC in August.  Go here for tickets and information.

Summer Reading: Wolf Hall

I absolutely love historical fiction (the thicker the better!) so I was definitely looking forward to settling into Hilary Mantel's novel about the reign of King Henry VIII during the turbulent Reformation period. I have enjoyed other novels about this historical period (The Other Boleyn Girl by Philippa Gregory is my favorite) and I thought telling the story from the perspective of Thomas Cromwell, who rose from relative obscurity to become Henry VIII's most trusted advisor, was an interesting device. Alas, I have to admit that I struggled with Wolf Hall almost to the point of giving up several times. Honestly, did the judges for the Man Booker Prize read the same book that I did?  I actually have a theory that none of the judges understood what was going on and didn't want to admit it to each other so they declared it a masterpiece. I certainly did not view it as such! First, there is a bewildering number of characters and none of them have a distinct voice so it is extremely difficult to distinguish who is who.  This is further compounded by the fact that many characters have the same name (Mary Boleyn, Mary Shelton, Princess Mary) and by Mantel's frustrating use of the pronoun "he."  There were many times when I had to go back and reread passages just to figure out who was speaking. To me this is unnecessary obfuscation that could have been avoided by having Cromwell be a first-person narrator. Second, I had a difficult time following the chronology of the book because there are many flashbacks to Cromwell's boyhood with almost no transition. Again, I had to reread many passages.  Finally, nothing happens in this book!  It is all dialogue, dialogue, and more dialogue (which is not always a bad thing...if you know who is speaking). For a historical period full of sex, violence, and political intrigue I found Mantel's version to be absolutely boring. There is no drama, emotion, or suspense.  There is not even a climax at the end of the book because it just simply ends.  I think I continued to read because I was waiting for something, anything, to happen to tie together all of the disparate elements of this novel (I was thinking it would be the execution of Anne Boleyn or even Cromwell's own execution since he is not a first-person narrator) but it simply ends with Cromwell deciding to visit the Seymours at Wolf Hall. This novel was disappointing, to say the least, and I recommend that you read almost any other novel about the Tudors rather than this one.

Madame Tussauds

The actors who have portrayed 007 at Madame Tussaud's (Daniel Craig was at the front entrance).

Another really "touristy" thing I did while in New York is visit Madame Tussauds.  I just couldn't resist (and it was part of the New York pass).  I've been to the London one several times as well as the one in Las Vegas.  I had a lot of fun wandering around the exhibits in the morning before seeing a matinee.  Here are some of my favorites.

Anderson Cooper (I may or may not have a small crush on him).

Kelly Ripa and Michael Strahan during happier times.

Pope Francis (I wonder how they got him to model for this?)

JFK and Jackie Kennedy

Mahatma Gandhi

Pope John Paul II

Mikhail Gorbachev

Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones

Director Steven Spielberg

Judy Garland as Dorothy

John Wayne

Charlie Chaplin

Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula

Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's monster 

The King of Pop (I stood in a long line to get this picture for Marilyn because she loves him).

Bob Marley and ???

Jimi Hendrix

Whitney Houston

Taylor Swift

Rihanna

Muhammad Ali

The Lion King on Broadway

The first time I saw the musical The Lion King, I was on a theatre trip to London so I thought it only fitting to see it again while on a theatre trip to New York!  That first time I was completely overcome by the animals marching down the aisles, especially the elephants, during the opening song "Circle of Life."  I was sitting next to an adorable little old lady who leaned into me and said, "I saw a tear in your eye!"  This time I was sitting near a group of young girls who were seeing it for the first time and and their reaction to the animals made me fall in love with this show all over again!  It is absolutely amazing how the actors transform themselves into the animals with puppets and prosthetics.  After a while you don't even see the actors any more!  The musical tells the well-known story of how the lion cub Simba learns how to be a king with music by Elton John and Tim Rice as well as traditional African music.  I had forgotten how much I loved the traditional music.  I had goosebumps when Mufasa (L. Steven Taylor) performed "They Live in You" and Nala (Chantel Riley) blew the roof off the Minskoff Theatre during "Shadowlands" (my favorite song in the show).  I really enjoyed Rafiki (played by the understudy, Thulisile Thusi) and her rendition of "He Lives in You" was another highlight.  As ever, I was so impressed with how the stampede in the gorge is staged.  It actually seems as if the antelope are running across the stage!  Of course, the scenes with Timon (Fred Berman) and Pumbaa (Ben Jeffrey) were a lot of fun, especially "Hakuna Matata."  My only complaint with this production is that I couldn't hear Scar (Gareth Saxe), Shenzi (Bonita Hamilton), Banzi (James Brown-Orleans) or Ed (Jaysin McCollum) very well so my mind wandered a bit during "Chow Down" and "Be Prepared."  Live theatre, and this show in particular, sometimes has the power to give you a child's sense of wonder for a few hours and I heard both children and adults squealing with delight during many musical numbers, especially the aforementioned animals in "Circle of Life" and the flying birds in "One By One."  I highly recommend seeing this show if you have the opportunity.  It was a lovely evening!

Note:  If you have the chance to see this show on Broadway, I highly suggest going next door to Junior's for cheesecake afterwards.  Some people in my group said that Roxy's had the best cheesecake in New York and one argued strongly in favor of the Carnegie Deli but Junior's definitely has my vote!