Sarah McLachlan at the Eccles

Last night I went to my first concert of 2020 and it was such a good one!  I have been a fan of Sarah McLachlan ever since I heard the song "Possession" and bought the album Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (which I played almost continuously in the early 1990s).  I was so excited when I heard that she was coming to the Eccles Theatre because it is an amazing venue for concerts.  I bought a ticket as soon as they went on sale and I've been looking forward to it ever since (it is what got me through two nights of parent teacher conferences).  The concert was billed as an intimate evening of songs and storytelling and that is exactly what it was.  It was just her on piano and guitar with Vanessa Freebairn-Smith accompanying her on cello and backing vocals.  This resulted in some lovely arrangements of her best songs.  She included a few songs from the albums Shine On and Laws of Illusion, which I am not as familiar with, such as "In Your Shoes," "Monster," "Song For My Father," "Beautiful Girl," "Loving You Is Easy," and "The Sound That Love Makes."  However, she spent most of the evening singing all of my favorite songs, including "Possession," "I Will Remember You," "Adia," "Good Enough," "Building a Mystery," "Drifting," "World on Fire," "Fallen," "Sweet Surrender," "Hold On," and "Ice Cream," and hearing them took me back to some really great times and some really dark times in my life.  It was pretty emotional, especially her rendition of "Hold On" with a new arrangement on piano.  She also sang a cover of Peter Gabriels's "Mercy Street" after talking about how much he inspired her as a young girl.  In between each song she would tell various anecdotes about them.  My favorite story was when people tell her that they played "Possession" at their wedding she always wants to laugh because it is about a stalker.  For the encore she sang a new song from a forthcoming album called "Wilderness" and I really liked it (she seems to have had a lot of relationships with narcissists that have ended badly).  Then she played a beautiful version of "Angel" to end the evening.  I really enjoyed this concert so much!  McLachlan is incredibly talented and she was so engaging with the crowd last night.  It was the perfect way to end a long and difficult week!

Note:  As many of you know, there is always one song (usually an obscure song from the artist's back catalogue) that I hope will be played whenever I go to a concert.  Last night I hoped that McLachlan would play "Push" but I wasn't too disappointed because I have heard her play it live before (and I kind of understand why she didn't play it because it is a beautiful love song about her now ex-husband).

Love Story

Yesterday I had the chance to see the movie Love Story for the first time on the big screen and I thoroughly enjoyed it!  Oliver Barrett IV (Ryan O'Neal), the son of a wealthy and prominent family, is a pre-law student at Harvard and Jenny Cavalleri (Ali MacGraw), a working class girl from Rhode Island, is a classical music student at Radcliffe when they meet and fall in love despite their differences.  When he finds out that she has a scholarship to study in Paris, he asks her to give it up and marry him.  She agrees but his father (Ray Milland) threatens to cut him off financially if he goes through with the marriage.  Despite his family's objections they get married and she struggles to put him through law school.  After Oliver graduates and gets a job with a top law firm in New York, he promises to give Jenny the life she deserves but, when fate intervenes, she tells him that she doesn't regret anything.  I was really excited to finally get a chance to see this movie because it is such a classic but I was surprised to see so many negative comments on social media about how cheesy and overly sentimental it is.  I have to admit that the line, "Love means never having to say you're sorry," is pretty lame but Oliver and Jenny are very appealing characters and I was definitely invested in their relationship.  I enjoyed the fact that Oliver is a hockey player but I especially liked Jenny as a character because she gives as good as she gets and isn't intimidated by Oliver's wealth.  I also liked the fact that she wants Oliver to reconcile with his father, not for the money, but because it is an important relationship that needs to be mended.  O'Neal and MacGraw have so much chemistry with each other and they give very affecting performances. The clothes in this movie are so timeless and I particularly liked all of Jenny's plaid skirts and tights.  Finally, I absolutely loved the main orchestral theme!  When I was a little girl I had a jewelry box that played this theme but I never knew what it was from!  Whether you saw this when it was first released 50 years ago or are experiencing it for the first time, I highly recommend seeing it on the big screen.  You have one more chance on Wednesday (go here for more information).

The Rhythm Section

It has been quite a while since my Dad and I went to a late movie so we decided to go last night.  Since we are both big fans of espionage we picked The Rhythm Section and we both enjoyed it.  Stephanie Patrick (Blake Lively) is a promising student at Oxford when her parents and siblings are killed in a plane crash.  She feels tremendous guilt because she was supposed to be on the plane with them and her life has spiraled out of control.  When she learns that the crash wasn't an accident, she tracks down Iain Boyd (Jude Law), an ex MI-6 agent, to help her find and eliminate the terrorists responsible.  He reluctantly agrees to train her and has her assume the persona of an assassin that he killed.  He sends her to Marc Serra (Sterling K. Brown), an ex CIA agent, to complete several missions which don't go according to plan because she lacks the killing instinct.  She ultimately finds Mohammad Reza (Tawfeek Barhom), the man she believes is responsible, but discovers that there is a much bigger conspiracy.  This movie is very different from what I thought it would be based on the trailers.  It has a very slow start because, when we first meet Stephanie, she is addicted to drugs and has been working as a prostitute.  It takes her a while to make the decision to seek revenge and then, once she does, she spends quite a bit of time training with Boyd (although this involves some very amusing scenes because she is so inept).  When it actually gets going there are some amazing action sequences, including an awesome car chase through the streets of Tangiers and some epic hand-to-hand combat on a bus in Marseilles (I really like the fact that it comes down to hand-to-hand combat in the end because that was Stephanie's biggest weakness in her training with Boyd).  Lively gives a very strong central performance as a woman with nothing left to lose and I liked the stylized cinematography because much of it is from Stephanie’s perspective.  Despite the problems with the pacing, both my Dad and I found it to be very entertaining and I would recommend it to fans of action thrillers.

Peter and the Starcatcher at CPT

Last night I got to see Peter and the Starcatcher, one of my favorite shows, at Centerpoint Legacy Theatre and it was so much fun!  This play tells the story of how a lonely and mistreated orphan boy becomes Peter Pan.  We learn how he gets his magical powers, how he arrives in Neverland, and how the inept pirate Black Stache becomes his arch-nemesis Captain Hook. What I absolutely love about this show is that it takes place on a minimal set and uses everyday objects as props so it requires you to use your imagination just like the lost boys. You must be willing to believe ("Clap if you believe") that stars fall from the sky and give people magical powers, such as turning the male ensemble into dancing mermaids. There were people around me who didn't quite understand what was going on but I think the script is so clever and I was laughing out loud from beginning to end! The entire cast is fantastic with many of the actors playing multiple roles. I particularly enjoyed Jason Shumate as Peter Pan because his characterization was a lot angrier than I have seen before and I think it really worked. I always love the character of Molly Astor because she is such a strong and independent girl but I think Emma Kate Leishman imbued her with a bit of vulnerability and she had great chemistry with Shumate. I also really enjoyed Logan Stacey as the alteration-loving Mrs. Bumbrake because he was completely over-the-top! However, as always, my very favorite character is Black Stache (a misunderstood poet at heart who only wants to find a hero to defeat so that he can become a memorable villain) and Brandon Green stole the show with his incredibly flamboyant antics! He brought a lot of physicality to the role and I especially loved it every time he would roll himself on to a different level of the stage. His facial expressions were absolutely hilarious (I was sitting on the font row) and his ad-libbed remarks had me laughing so hard (sometimes I was the only one laughing). The minimal set consisted of several pieces which could be moved around to become various locations on two different ships as well as various locations on an island, the costumes were very clever (especially the aforementioned mermaid costumes), and the props were a lot of fun (particularly the life-preservers and lanterns used to represent the crocodile). It amazes me to think that CPT is a community theatre with a minimal budget because this is one of the best productions of Peter and the Starcatcher that I have ever seen. I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) to this clever and imaginative show.

Dear Edward

Last night I went to a meeting of my book club to discuss this month's selection, Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano. Because I was really sick in the middle of January and then busy with the Sundance Film Festival I didn't actually start reading this until a few days ago but, once I started, I couldn't put it down and I became completely absorbed in Edward's story. Twelve year old Edward Adler boards a plane from Newark to Los Angeles with his parents, his older brother Jordan, and 183 other passengers. When the plane crashes in Colorado, Edward is the only survivor and is taken in by his mother's sister Lacey and her husband John who have had their own heartbreak. He must deal with the devastating loss of his family, the fact that he has become a figure of national interest, and the well-meaning attempts of his aunt and uncle to shield him from anything that might upset him.  Ultimately, he must come to terms with what happened to him and find a way to live again. The narrative alternates between Edward's perspective after the crash and the perspectives of several passengers during the flight leading up to the crash. This device is incredibly effective because part of what keeps Edward from moving on is his refusal to think about the moments leading up to the crash. The crash actually happens just when Edward is forced to remember it when he gets a letter from one of the first responders. It was also really effective to have all of the passengers spend most of their time during the flight thinking about what they are going to do once they land in Los Angeles not knowing that their lives are about to end and that they won't have the time to do all of those things. Living in the moment is an important theme of the novel and something that Edward must embrace to move forward. As always, we had some great discussions! We talked about the fact that Edward's aunt and uncle try to shield him from anything relating to the crash and they keep the letters that the family members of the victims send him hidden away. It is just human nature to want to protect someone you love from pain but it is the letters that give him a connection to the other passengers and his decision to help the families anonymously gives him the motivation to live again. We also had a great discussion about Edward's relationship with his next door neighbor Shay because, throughout the novel, is appears that she is saving him from despair but at the end of the novel she tells him that he has saved her.  Our facilitator mentioned that our discussion was really depressing but all of us felt that the book was incredibly uplifting and hopeful.  I found it to be a beautiful and moving story about resilience and I highly recommend it.

Note:  Next month's selection is American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins. Apparently there is a bit of controversy surrounding this book so it will definitely be interesting to read.  Go here for more information about the Barnes & Noble book club and to sign up at a location near you.  As always, if you are local, join us at the Layton Barnes & Noble on March 10.  We have a small group but we are lots of fun.