tick, tick...Boom!

Before Jonathan Larson wrote the masterpiece RENT, one of my favorite musicals of all time, he wrote tick, tick...Boom!, an autobiographical show about the fear of running out of time before achieving success.  Even though I wasn't very familiar with this musical I was really excited for the movie adaptation because it is directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda!  I was able to see it last night and my reaction was a bit mixed.  Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield) has been working on a musical called Superbia for the past eight years but he can't seem to finish a song needed for a key moment in the second act.  To pay the bills he works as a waiter at the Moondance Cafe on the weekends while he writes during the week but he is starting to feel discouraged because he hasn't achieved success before his 30th birthday, which is imminent, like his idol Stephen Sondheim (Bradley Whitford).  His best friend Michael (Robin de Jesus) has already given up on his dream to become an actor by taking a job in advertising and has moved into an apartment in a high-rise building with a doorman.  His girlfriend Susan (Alexandra Shipp) is thinking about giving up her dream of being a dancer to take a job in the Berkshires.  Freddy (Ben Ross), another waiter at the diner, is dying of AIDS. He wonders if he is just wasting his time trying to achieve his dream. However, despite fact that his agent Rosa (Judith Light) hasn't returned his calls for the past year, his mentor Ira (Jonathan Marc Sherman) has arranged a workshop of Superbia for prospective producers.  When it isn't the success he hoped it would be, Rosa tells him to write what he knows and tick, tick...Boom! is the result.  Interspersed between Jonathan's story is a concert of tick, tick...Boom! that he performs with his friends Roger (Joshua Henry) and Karessa (Vanessa Hudgens).  I loved so many things about this movie (but I didn't love it as a whole).  Garfield gives an absolutely brilliant performance, definitely the best of his career, and I was so impressed with his singing and dancing.  He should definitely be in the mix come awards season. As a theatre nerd I loved all of the cameos by Broadway stars past and present.  I won't spoil them because they are so much fun to spot but I have to mention that I just about lost my mind when I saw Adam Pascal (I love him).  Even though this movie is not about RENT, I loved seeing its genesis in many of the characters and songs, particularly "Boho Days."  Unfortunately, I didn't love some of Miranda's artistic choices because the narrative is very frenetic and messy.  Most scenes are performed at such a fever pitch that when the action finally slows down for an emotional reckoning it feels really hollow.  The story jumps back and forth between the development of the musical and the performance of it very haphazardly and this is sometimes confusing, especially since musical numbers take place in both timelines (big production numbers in the former and simple concert performances in the latter).  It actually took me a while to figure out what was going on whenever there was a scene of Larsen performing on stage.  I liked this movie, and would definitely recommend it to musical theatre fans, but I am a bit disappointed because I wanted to love it.

Belfast

I have been looking forward to Belfast, Kenneth Branagh's lovely and wistful ode to community and family, for months and I finally had the opportunity to see it last night.  The movie takes place in the titular city in 1969 and opens with nine-year-old Buddy (Jude Hill) fighting imaginary dragons with a wooden sword and the lid of a trash can as a shield.  His Ma (Caitriona Balfe) calls him home to dinner and everyone on his street knows him and calls out to him as he passes by but soon the street is the scene of a riot as a mob of Protestants target the houses of Catholics.  Buddy's shield is now used by his Ma to protect them from the falling debris from the bombs in an incredibly powerful scene.  His Pa (Jamie Dornan) refuses to get drawn into "the Troubles" but worries for his family because he is forced to leave them for weeks at a time to work in England while his Ma worries about paying their back taxes.  Amidst these worries, Buddy's days are taken up with visiting the local cinema, spending time with his Pop (Ciaran Hinds) and Granny (Judi Dench), and trying to get the girl (Olive Tennant) he likes at school to notice him.  As the violence escalates, Pa is offered a permanent job in England and the family must decide whether to leave the only home they have ever known and their family and friends to start a new life.  I loved this movie so much!  The hazy black and white cinematography, the camera angles that mimic the viewpoint of a child, and the use of vignettes to tell the story are brilliant because sometimes childhood memories can be fleeting and fractured.  I loved the references to the movie High Noon, particularly the scene where Buddy views his Pa as the lone hero fighting to keep him safe because children often idealize the adults in their lives.  I also really loved all of the music by Van Morrison (who, like Branagh, hails from Belfast) because it really evokes the mood of that time and place.  The entire cast is wonderful (it was so nice to see Dench in a good movie after a few recent duds and the scene where Granny reminisces about her favorite film is another one of my favorites) but Hill is especially endearing and he portrays the wide-eyed innocence of a child trying to understand what is going on around him so well.  Finally, the narrative really resonated with me because my immediate family moved away from our extended family and friends in Canada to come to the United States when I was close to the same age as Buddy.  I was trying to keep my emotions in check (I did not want a repeat of this embarrassing situation) as the inevitable conclusion drew near but I completely lost it when Buddy says goodbye to his friend from school.  I said goodbye to my best friend Scott in a very similar way (I wonder what he is doing now) and this scene brought the memory back to me.  In my opinion, this movie is a must-see for everyone who has nostalgia for the place they are from and I highly recommend it!

Pink Martini with the Utah Symphony

I had the pleasure of seeing Pink Martini perform with the Utah Symphony several years ago and I enjoyed the concert so much I decided that I would try to see them whenever they came to town!  They returned to Abravanel Hall last night and the concert was so much fun.  Pink Martini is a "little orchestra" that was formed by Thomas Lauderdale in 1994.  It is comprised of twelve insanely talented musicians, vocalist China Forbes (her voice is amazing and she sings so effortlessly), and several guest vocalists.  Their repertoire features classical, Latin, jazz, pop, and world music and last night they performed songs in English, Spanish, French, Croatian, Farsi, Romanian, and Japanese (they even had the audience singing along in French).  The concert began with a really sultry version of "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel and I absolutely loved it!  It is one of my favorite pieces and this version was really cool, especially the trombone and trumpet solos.  My favorite moment in the first half was an incredible rendition of the duet "Belle nuit, o nuit d'amour" from the opera The Tales of Hoffmann by Jacques Offenbach.  Forbes was joined by vocalist Katie Harman and their performance was absolutely beautiful (they joked that this song occurs during an orgy).  I've seen The Tales of Hoffman before but now I really want to see it again!  After the intermission, Pink Martini and the orchestra performed an amazing arrangement of "Malaguena" by Ernesto Lecuona and it emphasized the piano rather than the Spanish guitar.  I really liked it.  My favorite moments during the second half were "Amado Mio," which is probably Pink Martini's best known song, and "Que sera sera."  Forbes introduced each member of Pink Martini and then Lauderdale introduced every single member of the Utah Symphony which was hilarious.  They ended the concert, as they often do, with an energetic version of "Brasil."  Forbes admonished the audience not to form a conga line but that didn't stop people from dancing in the aisles!  I enjoyed myself so much at this concert (and it was much needed after a difficult week).  They will be back at Abravanel Hall with the same program tonight and I definitely recommend getting a ticket (go here).

The Collective

My Book of the Month selection for November was The Collective by Alison Gaylin (the other options were A Little Hope by Ethan Joella, The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker, The Family by Naomi Krupitsky, and How to Marry Keanu Reeves in 90 Days by K.M. Jackson). To be perfectly honest, I was not very interested in any of these options and I even contemplated skipping November but I really wanted an add-on so I just defaulted to the thriller. I had very low expectations but, once I started reading it, I couldn't put it down! Camille Gardner lost her fifteen-year-old daughter Emily five years ago when the latter attended a fraternity party where she was drugged, raped, and left in the woods to die of exposure. The young man responsible, Harris Blanchard, was acquitted after his expensive lawyers assassinated Emily's character during the trial. Camille has been unable to move on from her daughter's death because she believes that her killer has gotten away with murder. She causes a scene at an awards ceremony for Blanchard which goes viral on social media and is then asked to join a private support group on Facebook for mothers who have lost children but have not received justice. Spurred on by the other members of this group, she begins sharing her disturbing fantasies about punishing Blanchard herself and this leads to an invitation to join another group on the dark web. This group is a collective of women who work together completing individual tasks assigned by the administrator to mete out the justice they were denied. She carries out an innocuous assignment because she believes that it is all just an elaborate role play to bring consolation to the group members but, when she realizes that it is all too real, she is strangely exhilarated until she is in so deep that she fears for her own safety. This novel is incredibly suspenseful with very high stakes and I loved all of the twists and turns, especially the final one which blew me away because I did not see it coming (even though I should have because the clues are there). I really liked Camille as an unreliable narrator because both her rage and her fear are palpable and I found her to be very sympathetic, particularly when she questions all of her parenting decisions and how they may have played a role in what happened to her daughter. I also enjoyed the discussion about vigilante justice and Camille's reaction to what happens to Blanchard is quite interesting. This is a riveting and thought-provoking read which I was not expecting to like as much as I did. I highly recommend it (and I will definitely be checking out more from this author).

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at HCT

Last night I saw Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at Hale Theatre and, unfortunately, it is the worst production I have ever seen at HCT. Last night was opening night for the THS cast and this could account for some of my issues with the show but not all of them. This musical is based on the 1968 movie of the same name and is set in motion when Jeremy (Asher Nehring) and Jemima Potts (Hailey Burnham) ask their father, an eccentric inventor named Caractacus Potts (Austin Dorman), to buy an old car that won the Grand Prix three years in a row but is now sitting in a junk yard. However, the Baron (Benjamin Henderson) and Baroness Bomburst (Ali Bennett) of Vulgaria also want the car and send their spies, Boris (Ashley Carlson) and Goran (Trevor Dean), to get it. Caractacus refurbishes the car, names it Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, and takes the children and Truly Scrumptious (Whitney Hatch) on a picnic at the seaside. They are attacked by Boris and Goran but they soon discover that Chitty can float and fly and this allows them to get away. Boris and Goran, thinking that Grandpa Potts (Daniel Hess) is the inventor responsible for Chitty's transformation, kidnap him and bring him to Vulgaria to make another car for the Baron's birthday. Caractacus, Truly, and the children travel to Vulgaria in Chitty to rescue him and hilarity ensues. The story is rather silly but it is usually a lot of fun. I say usually because last night was anything but fun. I am almost always impressed with the sets at HCT but with this show I was a bit disappointed. The breakfast making machine is really elaborate but it didn't seem to do anything (from where I was sitting), the giant bubble bath in "Chu Chi Face" is weird and the actors had a lot of difficulty maneuvering in and around it, and the doors in the toy shop kept sticking when they were opened and closed. The car, which is meant to be the showstopper, had technical difficulties during the big reveal which literally stopped the show, not once but, twice. The second stoppage happened near the end of the first act so intermission was called and we never did get to see the final scene (where Grandpa Potts is kidnapped) which caused some confusion in the second act. The costumes and props are fabulous (definitely the best part of the show along with the projections) but cast members were dropping hats and props all evening and it was distracting. I didn't feel like the cast was particularly strong (I even felt that some roles were miscast) and the only actor who really stood out for me was Henderson as the Baron (he is hilarious). The choreography in the big song and dance numbers is underwhelming and, honestly, it seemed as if the dancers needed a few more weeks of rehearsal because their performances looked chaotic. To be sure, this was opening night and a few mishaps are to be expected but the tickets are expensive so I don't think it is unreasonable to demand a show that is more polished than this one was. I have been an Early Bird season subscriber for almost 15 years and I have never seen such a mess before. Part of me wants to see the MWF cast later in the run to see if I enjoy it more but part of me never wants to see this particular show ever again! I was very disappointed with this production and I can't in good conscience recommend it.