Tuck Everlasting at HCT

When I went to New York a couple of years ago I had the chance to see Tuck Everlasting, the musical based on the beloved novel by Natalie Babbitt, and I really enjoyed it (I didn't review it here because the production closed a few days after I saw it). It was a big show with multiple sets and elaborate choreography so I was very eager to see what Hale Theatre would do with it. I saw it last night and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It is a delightful and heart-warming show that the whole family will definitely enjoy. Winnie Foster (Mia Bagley) feels trapped in a house of mourning for her father and longs for adventure. One day she sneaks into the woods and meets Jesse Tuck (Kooper Campbell) near a stream. He stops her from taking a drink from the stream and inadvertently reveals a secret: the water has made his family immortal. Jesse is happy to have made a friend but Mae (Bailee Brinkerhoff Morris), Angus (David K. Martin), and Miles (Marshall R. Madsen) Tuck worry that their secret will be revealed.  Little do they know that the Man in the Yellow Suit (David W. Stensrud) has overheard Jesse and has evil plans for the water. Eventually Jesse asks Winnie to drink the water when she turns seventeen but his family warns that being immortal is not as enchanting as it appears. I loved this production! It is as good, if not better, as the one I saw on Broadway! Both Bagley and Campbell are so endearing in the lead roles and the rest of the cast is very strong. The choreography is wonderful and I am always amazed at what the choreographers are able to do on such a small stage. The final dance sequence is just lovely and brought a tear to my eye. The sets are incredible! The stage is framed by a giant lattice (the live orchestra sits at the top of the lattice) and all of the sets feature lattice-work, including the tree that the characters climb. It is incredibly clever. The costumes all feature beautiful floral patterns to go along with the lattice theme and this is very effective at portraying an enchanted world out of time. My favorite song in the show is "The Wheel" because Angus tells Winnie that she doesn't have to live forever she just has to live. I love that message so much! I highly recommend this beautiful show (go here for tickets) which runs through June 23 in the Jewel Box Theatre at the Mountain American Performing Arts Centre.

Note: A friend that I made on the New York trip is one of the dancers in this show and she was amazing!

Isle of Dogs

I absolutely love Wes Anderson.  I love all of his movies and that is not something I can say about many directors.  As you can imagine, I have been eagerly anticipating the release of his latest movie Isle of Dogs for a very long time so when my friend invited me to go with her to an advance screening last night (it opens next weekend in SLC) I jumped at the chance.  It is hard for me to be objective because of my aforementioned love for everything Wes Anderson but it is so good!  Twenty years in the future the dogs on the Japanese archipelago have been infected with a flu-like virus.  Mayor Kobayashi (Konichi Nomura) banishes all of them from Megasaki City to Trash Island, beginning with his nephew's dog Spots (Liev Schreiber).  Atari Kobayashi (Koyu Rankin) goes to Trash Island to search for Spots and is helped by a pack of dogs named Chief (Bryan Cranston), Rex (Edward Norton), King (Bob Balaban), Boss (Bill Murray), and Duke (Jeff Goldblum).  It turns out that Mayor Kobayashi has a nefarious reason for wanting to rid Megasaki City of all its dogs so, when Professor Watanabe (Akira Ito) discovers a cure for the virus, he is imprisoned and killed.  A foreign exchange student named Tracy Walker (Greta Gerwig), working for her high school newspaper, uncovers the conspiracy and sways popular opinion in favor of the dogs.  The stop-motion animation is brilliant and the attention to detail is remarkable, especially the fur on the dogs.  This movie also includes the usual Wes Anderson aesthetic (center framing, overhead shots, tracking shots, text on the screen, highly composed shots, monochromatic color palette).  The story is incredibly clever and laugh-out-loud funny but I also found it to be unexpectedly poignant.  I loved the journey that Chief takes from being a stray dog who likes to bite to learning to love the boy Atari.  The five main dogs have very distinct personalities, my favorite is the gossip loving Duke, and there are so many fun supporting characters, especially the Professor's Assistant Yoko (Yoko Ono), the Interpreter (Frances McDormand), Mayor Kobayashi's henchman Major Domo (Akira Takayama), and the show dog Nutmeg (Scarlett Johansson).  I enjoyed watching this movie so much and I'm sure that I will see it multiple times to catch all of the references.  In my opinion, Wes Anderson is a genius and, if you like his previous movies, I suspect that you will love Isle of Dogs.  Definitely go see it!

Hamilton in Denver

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean make me spend so much money on tickets to see a musical about his life?  By making his life story the best thing that I have ever seen on stage!  By now I have spent almost $1,000 on tickets to Hamilton (New York, Los Angeles, Denver, and an upcoming performance in SLC) but I absolutely love it!  I know that people think I am crazy but whenever I do these crazy things I never regret it!  When I found out that the Broadway touring company production would be in Denver over my spring break and that there were tickets available, I jumped at the chance to have a fourth row seat and it was absolutely incredible to be so close!  Every production that I have seen has been so different and I really like what the actors do to make the roles their own.  In this production I really liked Nicholas Christopher in the role of Aaron Burr because he infused a lot of humor into the character, Isaiah Johnson in the role of George Washington because he had a beautiful voice, especially in "Right Hand Man" and "One Last Time," and Peter Matthew Smith as King George because his facial expressions were an absolute hoot (I sat so close I could actually see them) and I almost died of laughter when he filed his fingernails with his scepter.   However, the two who absolutely stole the show were Chris De'Sean Lee and Mathenee Treco who played Marquis de Lafayette/ Thomas Jefferson and Hercules Mulligan/ James Madison, respectively.  In both of their roles, the two of them played off each other hilariously, especially in the Cabinet Battles.  I loved Jefferson's mic drop and I loved Madison's waving handkerchief.  Once again the song "It's Quiet Uptown" brought spontaneous tears to my eyes.  I loved it when Eliza (Julia K. Harriman) gave Hamilton (Austin Scott) her hand and then he kissed it.  This scene has been very different in each production I've seen but each one has been so emotional.  I really loved having the chance to see Hamilton again and I'm looking forward to seeing it, yet again, in SLC in two weeks (I think it is the same company as this one).  If you can get a ticket, I highly recommend this brilliant musical!

Go Avs Go!

I was already going to spend part of my spring break in Denver so I spontaneously decided to drive out a day early to see the Colorado Avalanche play the Chicago Blackhawks.  I knew it would be a great game because the Avalanche are definitely in the mix for a Stanley Cup playoff position but I had no idea that it would be one of the best games ever!  I enjoy doing many things by myself but I had never been to a hockey game by myself before.  I used to go to games with my friend Tony and now I usually go with my Dad or my cousins and I wondered how fun it would be with no one to talk to.  I had nothing to fear!  I sat next to two of the rowdiest Avalanche fans in the world and they talked to me the whole night!  In fact, the obnoxious Blackhawks fan sitting behind us thought we were together which was somewhat problematic when they almost got into a fight!  It was so much fun!  With every goal, and there were five of them, we would celebrate by high-fiving and, as the game wore on, hugging each other!  The Avalanche scored a goal on all three power plays, one in each period, and then added two more for good measure in the third period to get the shut-out!  The Pepsi Center was out of control!  I am so glad I decided to go to this game!

Note:  I really missed my Dad!  Not only has he has been my hockey buddy my whole life but he springs for better seats!!

Ready Player One

Last night I had the opportunity to see a Wednesday preview of Ready Player One.  I just finished reading the book by Ernest Cline because so many of the boys in my sophomore English classes were reading it.  Reading is a hard sell to sophomore boys so I wanted to check it out to understand the appeal.  As a child of the 80s, I absolutely loved it and I, along with my students, have been eagerly anticipating the movie adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg.  If you are a fan of the book there are quite a few changes in the movie, which bothered me initially, but ultimately made for a better narrative.  In the year 2045 much of the population tries to escape from the dreariness of their daily lives by entering a virtual reality simulation known as the OASIS created by an eccentric gamer named James Halliday (Mark Rylance).  When Halliday dies, he reveals a contest to locate three keys leading to an Easter egg granting the winner sole control of both the OASIS and his vast fortune.  A rival software company called Innovative Online Industries (IOI), controlled by Nolan Sorrento (Ben Mendelsohn), compels indentured servants to search for the keys because it wants to use the OASIS in order to generate revenue through advertising.  Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), a Gunter (egg hunter) who uses the avatar Parzival, eventually teams up with Samantha/Art3mis (Olivia Cooke) and Helen/Aech (Lena Waithe) to find the egg using clues from Halliday's personal life, such as a fondness for 80s pop culture and his relationships with Ogden (Simon Pegg) and Kira Morrow (Perdita Weeks).  Most of the differences from the book involve the tasks needed to be completed in order find the keys but these scenes are absolutely exhilarating, especially an epic street race and a sequence from The Shining.  The movie is visually stunning, as if you are actually in the middle of a video game.  I loved all of the pop culture references, especially the ones that are very subtle.  When I saw the poster for the Rush album 2112 hanging on the wall in Halliday's teenage bedroom, I may or may not have squealed out loud.  Even though the nostalgia made watching this movie a lot of fun, the message about the dangers of disengaging with reality really resonated with me.  Online you can be anyone or anything that you want but it is always better to be appreciated for who you really are.  I really liked the fact that Art3mis the avatar is incredibly sexy but Wade ultimately wants to be with the mousy Samantha.  I loved this movie and I highly recommend it!

Note:  The only difference from the book that bothered me was that many of the references to music were not used, especially in the club scene.  I really wanted to hear "Union of the Snake."