Roma

The nominees for the Best Picture Academy Award were announced yesterday and there was only one film that I hadn't seen yet (you can read my commentaries for Bohemian Rhapsody, The Favourite, Black Panther, BlacKkKlansman, Green Book, Vice, and A Star Is Born by clicking on the titles).  Since I always like to see the nominated films before the big ceremony, I decided to see Roma while it was still playing at one of my favorite art house theatres last night.  This movie is a masterpiece.  It chronicles a year in the life of a domestic servant named Cleo (Yalitza Aparicio) and the affluent family she works for in Mexico City during the early 1970s.  Much of the narrative involves the mundane chores of Cleo's every day life: cleaning the house and courtyard, cooking and serving meals to the family, waking the four children, taking them to school, and putting them to bed.  Soon, however, both Cleo and Sofia (Marina de Tevira), the matriarch of the family, face a similar situation.  Cleo begins a relationship with Fermin (Jorge Antonio Guerrero) and, when she discovers that she is pregnant, he leaves her (in one of the most heartbreaking scenes I've ever seen).  Sofia's husband Antonio (Fernando Grediaga) leaves to attend a medical conference in Quebec and when it is over he does not return to the family's home.  The tumult in their personal lives is mirrored by the unrest in Mexico culminating in the massacre of student demonstrators.  Through it all the two women support each other and it is a beautiful story of redemption (Director Alfonso Cuaron has stated that this film is a tribute to the women who raised him).  There are two incredibly emotional scenes near the end of the film that absolutely shattered me but serve to highlight the resilience of these women and I don't think I will stop thinking about them any time soon.  The film is in black and white without a score and this really allowed me to see the careful composition of each shot.  There are many recurring images, such as a car being parked in a narrow alley, planes flying in the background, and water being splashed on the cobblestones of the courtyard, which are so full of meaning.  Aparicio gives an incredible performance as a quiet and self-contained woman who becomes more and more concerned about her own and Sofia's situation.  I loved that this film is a deeply personal story set against the backdrop of the larger political context within Mexico.  I highly recommend it!

Note:  I definitely want Bohemian Rhapsody to win Best Picture but, in all honesty, perhaps Roma should win.

Utah Opera's The Little Prince

Last night I went to see Utah Opera's production of The Little Prince.  I almost didn't get a ticket because I don't usually like modern operas with librettos in English and my only experience with the novella by Antoine de Saint-Exupery, upon which the opera is based, is when I was forced to read it in French when I was a senior in high school (I didn't understand it at all).  I am so glad that I decided to get a ticket any way because I loved it!  The story begins with a Pilot (Jared Bybee) telling a group of school children (Choristers of the Madeleine Choir School) about a drawing of a snake eating an elephant.  Every adult thought it was a hat which proves that adults can't see anything!  Then he tells them of crash landing his plane in the desert and meeting the Little Prince (Nitai Fluchel) who wants a drawing of a sheep to eat all of the bushes, especially the baobab trees, threatening to overtake his planet.  The Prince then recounts his life story on his planet which contains three volcanoes, one active and two dormant, and his beautiful, but vain, Rose (Grace Kahl).  When the Rose treats him badly, the Prince decides to visit other planets.  On the first planet, he meets The King (Tyrell Wilde) who has no subjects and only issues orders that can be followed such as commanding the sun to set.  On the second planet, he meets the Vain Man (Joshua Lindsay) who wants to be the most admired man on an otherwise uninhabited planet.  On the third planet, he meets The Drunkard (Addison Marlor) who drinks to forget his shame over drinking too much.  On the fourth planet, he meets The Businessman (Jesus Vicente Murillo) who fails to see the beauty of the stars by his need to count and catalogue them to prove ownership.  On the fifth planet, he meets The Lamplighter (Addison Marlor) who blindly follows orders to light and extinguish a lamppost every 30 minutes to correspond to day and night on his planet.  The Prince finds all of these adults to be ridiculous (the allegory was lost on me when I read it in French) so he decides to visit Earth and lands in the desert.  He meets a Snake (Joshua Lindsay) who tells him he can send him home any time he wishes.  He sees a rosebush which makes him think his Rose is just ordinary.  Finally, he sees a Fox (Melanie Ashkar) who tells him that you can only see with your heart not your eyes and that spending time with his Rose has made it special.  He decides that he misses his Rose and wants to go back home.  He takes the Pilot to a well to find Water (Melissa Heath) which saves him and makes arrangements with the Snake to return home.  The Pilot is upset but the Prince tells him not to worry that he has died because his body is just a shell that is too heavy to return to his planet.  The Snake strikes, the Prince disappears, and the Pilot repairs his plane.  The story ends with the Pilot telling the children that he can always see the Prince by looking at the stars.  This story of friendship, loneliness, love, and loss is so touching (I definitely need to read it again in English!) and Academy Award-winning composer Rachel Portman's music is incredibly beautiful.  I loved the costumes, especially the king's long train, and the set, which consists of a book-lined study and transforms into hundreds of pages from books to represent the desert.  The Choristers of the Madeleine School Choir, especially Fluchel who is amazing, are so talented and their voices add so much to the story.  It is a magical production and I highly recommend it (go here for tickets).

Dear Evan Hansen in Las Vegas

This weekend I went on my first road trip of 2019 and I had so much fun!  I love road trips so when I found out that the musical Dear Evan Hansen was playing at the Smith Center in Las Vegas I got a ticket the day they went on sale.  I have wanted to see this musical for a really long time and, even though it is coming to the Eccles Theatre next season, I didn't want to wait!  I packed my car Thursday night so I could leave as soon as school was out on Friday to make it to Las Vegas for the Saturday matinee.  It was a quick trip but worth it because I loved this show so much!  Evan Hansen (Stephen Christopher Anthony) suffers from anxiety and feels insignificant and all alone ("Waving Through a Window").  Heidi (Jessica Phillips), his busy single mother, doesn't know what to do to help him ("Anybody Have a Map?").  His one friend, Jared (Jared Goldsmith), is only nice to him so his parents will pay for his car insurance and he is too scared to talk to Zoe (Maggie McKenna), the girl he likes.  His therapist encourages him to write letters to himself to help build his confidence but Connor (Marrick Smith), a deeply troubled young man, intercepts one from the printer because it mentions his sister Zoe.  When Connor takes his own life, his parents, Cynthia (Christiane Noll) and Larry (Aaron Lazar), find the letter, and assuming it is a suicide note, reach out to Evan.  To comfort Connor's parents, Evan pretends that they were friends ("For Forever").  When Cynthia and Larry press for more information, Evan asks Jared to create a history of emails between him and Connor ("Sincerely, Me").  Larry and Zoe struggle to reconcile Evan's version of Connor with the difficult son and brother they knew ("Requiem").  Zoe tells Evan that the only nice thing Connor ever said to her was in his suicide note, which Evan wrote ("If I Could Tell Her").  Alana (Phoebe Koyabe), another lonely girl at school, wants Evan to do more to keep Connor's memory alive ("Disappear") so they create The Connor Project.  Evan gives a heartfelt speech at an assembly ("You Will Be Found") about loneliness and it goes viral.  He begins a relationship with Zoe ("Only Us") and bonds with her family ("To Break in a Glove") to the exclusion of Jared, Alana, and his Mom ("Good For You").  When the truth is finally revealed ("Words Fail"), Evan realizes that he was never really alone ("So Big/So Small"). This story is incredibly powerful and anyone who has ever felt like they don't belong will be moved by Evan's story (the people in my audience were so overcome they started applauding before the final song was over and didn’t stop).  I loved every song and how they are staged but my favorite was "You Will Be Found" which brought tears to my eyes.  I also really liked the set because it consists of a series of moving panels on which computer screens and social media posts are projected.  This is now one of my favorite shows and I can't wait to see it again when it comes to SLC.

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder at HCT

Several years ago I had the opportunity to see the Broadway touring production of A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder and I thought it was one of the funniest shows that I had ever seen! I was absolutely thrilled when I learned that it would be a part of HCT's 2019 season! I got to see it last night and I laughed and laughed! After the death of his mother, Monty Navarro (Jacob Squire) learns that she was once a member of the wealthy and aristocratic D'Ysquith family but was disinherited for marrying his father. He is really Montague D'Ysquith Navarro and he is in line to inherit the earldom. However, there are eight family members in line ahead of him! When his vain and heartless girlfriend Sibella (Erin Royall Carlson) marries the rich and handsome Lionel Holland, he decides to murder all eight family members ahead of him in the succession to become the earl and win her back. Standing in his way are the Reverend Lord Ezekiel D'Ysquith (who has an unfortunate fall from a cathedral tower), Asquith D'Ysquith, Jr. (who has a bizarre ice skating accident), Henry D'Ysquith (who is stung by his hive of bees), Lady Hyacinth D'Ysquith (who disappears in deepest darkest Africa), Major Lord Bartholomew D'Ysquith (who is decapitated while lifting weights), Lady Salome D'Ysquith Pumphrey (who is killed by a prop gun with real bullets during her debut in Hedda Gabbler), Lord Asquith D'Ysquith, Sr. (who is driven to a heart attack), and, finally, Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith, the Earl of Highhurst (who is poisoned). The entire D'Ysquith family is played by Dallyn Vail Bayles and he is absolutely brilliant! I was sitting on the front row in the Jewel Box Theatre so I had a great view of his facial expressions and they are hilarious! I laughed out loud many times at his antics! Every member of the D'Ysquith family has a distinct personality. I loved them all but my favorites are the eccentric Reverend Ezekiel (there was a bit of a mishap with his prosthetic teeth but it was so funny how he played it off), the flamboyant Henry, and the over the top Lady Hyacinth. Along the way Monty falls in love with Phoebe D'Ysquith (Lisa Zimmerman) and marries her to make Sibella jealous. Eventually, Monty becomes the Earl of Highhurst but he is arrested soon after for the murder of Lord Adalbert, the only D'Ysquith death for which he is not actually responsible! The charges are dismissed when both Phoebe and Sibella each give proof that the other one committed the murder! But Monty might not have long to live because Chauncey, another disinherited member of the D'Ysquith family, is lurking! The songs are all a lot of fun but my favorites are "I Don't Understand the Poor," "It's Better With a Man," "Lady Hyacinth Abroad," "Barrel of a Gun," and "That Horrible Woman."  Squire, Carlson, and Zimmerman have beautiful voices but I especially loved Bonnie Wilson Whitlock as Miss Shingle and Kacee Neff as Eugenia D'Ysquith, Countess of Highhurst, because they are such crazy characters. The set is incredibly clever with projections to depict the many locations. I especially liked the singing portraits of D'Ysquith ancestors at Highhurst Castle!  I loved this hilarious production and I can't recommend it enough! Get tickets (go here) as soon as possible!

Bohemian Rhapsody Sing-Along

My obsession with Bohemian Rhapsody knows no bounds!  When I heard that there was a sing-along version showing in cinemas in the UK, I really hoped that it would reach the US!  When I learned that it would be in a theater near me I immediately bought a ticket and went on Saturday night.  I had heard complaints that people were not singing but I hoped for a fun and rowdy crowd.  As soon as I entered the theater I felt the energy and knew it would be completely awesome!  Sing-alongs (go here and here for others that I have attended) feature the full length movie with the lyrics to the songs on screen, much like Karaoke.  The crowd was a little bit tentative during "Somebody to Love" but once we got to "Fat Bottomed Girls" everyone was singing at full volume!  In the scenes where Queen performs "Killer Queen" on Top of the Pops and records "Seven Seas of Rhye" and "Bohemian Rhapsody," the words are not on the screen but we sang them any way, especially the Galileos!  Everyone stomped and clapped during "We Will Rock You" and it really felt as if we were at a Queen concert!  The absolute best part was the Live Aid concert.  We did the claps for "Radio Ga Ga" and we participated in Freddie's call and response (although we couldn't sustain the "Ay-Oh" for as long as Freddie did which made us all laugh).  By the time we got to "We Are The Champions," we all were swaying our arms in the air and we even applauded at the end of the concert.  They included the words to "Don't Stop Me Now" and "The Show Must Go On" in the credits and most of us stayed to sing these songs as well.  It was so much fun!  My only complaint is that, even though I know the words to every single song (I have listened to nothing but Queen since I saw the movie for the first time), I paid so much attention to the words on the screen that I missed some of what was happening.  I have seen this movie so many times that it didn't really matter but if you are seeing Bohemian Rhapsody for the first time I definitely recommend the regular format!  As far as I know, the sing-along will be in theaters through the rest of this week so check it out if you want to have a good time...