Rogers & Hammerstein's Cinderella at CPT

Last night my sister Marilyn and I took our Mom to see Cinderella at CenterPoint Theatre and we had so much fun! My Mom has late stage dementia and she also has some mobility issues but she loves the show so much and really wanted to go. Since she had a good day yesterday we called the box office and were able to get ADA accessible seats (the CPT box office is, hands down, the best in the SLC valley). It was a lot of work to get her there but she absolutely loved it so it was worth all of the effort! The Rodgers & Hammerstein version of the story is definitely not my favorite! I don't like the commentary on class structure or the fact that Cinderella is a social reformer who must rescue the prince from the advisors in his court who are deceiving him about the conditions in his kingdom. I also don't like the portrayal of the stepsisters as silly girls, rather than mean ones, who end up as Cinderella's sympathetic co-conspirators. However, I really enjoyed HCT's production a few years ago because it infused the magic back into the more contemporary story. CPT's production is just as magical! The cast is incredibly strong and I especially loved Mailee Halpin as Ella and Cynthia Klumpp as Marie/ Fairy Godmother. The songs require an impressive range and these actresses more than deliver in the songs "In My Own Little Corner," "Impossible," "Glass Slipper/ It's Possible," and "There Is Music In You." Halpin has great chemistry with Doug Wadley, as Prince Topher, and their songs "Ten Minutes Ago" and "Do I Love You Because You're Beautiful" are incredibly romantic. Jaycee Harris (who is my brother-in-law's niece) as the stepsister Charlotte just about steals the show in "Stepsister's Lament" and "A Lovely Night" because her facial expressions are absolutely hysterical. She received more applause and laughter than any one else for good reason. The choreography is so much fun and I really loved how "The Prince Is Giving A Ball" with all of the townspeople in the town square and "The Pursuit" after the ball are staged, especially the transformation of the Fox (Kirsi Jarvis) and the Raccoon (Caleb Hodson) after the stroke of midnight. Speaking of transformations, Cinderella's change into her sparkling ball gown and tiara is absolutely magical and her coach, including horses made of puppets, is spectacular. I loved how the lights around the proscenium blinked in coordination with the Fairy Godmother's wand. Finally the set pieces for Cinderella's cottage, the prince's castle, the woods, and the town square are some of the best I have seen from CPT. I also loved the projection showing the chiming clock at midnight because it is so dramatic! I really feel like CPT has stepped up their game this season because I was also really impressed with the set for The Play That Goes Wrong! My Mom thought the whole show was beautiful (that was what she kept saying on the drive home) and I had such a great time watching her experience it! I would highly recommend Cinderella with the proviso that it is quite different from the Disney version that young children are more familiar with (the little girls in front of me seemed really bored at times but they seemed to enjoy the spectacle). It runs on the Barlow Main Stage through April 9 (go here for tickets).

I Am Here

Last night I went to my favorite art house theater to see the documentary I Am Here and I found it to be incredibly inspiring.  On the occasion of her 98th birthday, Ella Blumenthal gathers her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren around her in order to tell them the story of her survival during the Holocaust for the first time.  Through interviews in the present, archival footage, and animation sequences, she describes the German occupation of Poland, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, and the horrors of the Majdanek, Auschwitz, and Bergen-Belson concentration camps.  She also recounts her guilt at being one of only two survivors in her family, meeting her husband Isaac Blumenthal, starting her own family, and her decision to remove her tattoo and put her experiences behind her.  Blumenthal is incredibly vibrant and charismatic and her story is very affecting.  I was particularly struck by the use of animation to tell the darker aspects of the story because, in my opinion, it made the images more palatable without taking away from the impact.  The symbolic use of blue butterflies, which represent rebirth, is incredibly effective in portraying her fight to survive, especially during a scene where she returns to Warsaw after the war and confronts all of the damage to the city.  I also really enjoyed her message of forgiveness and that one should not return hate with hate because that does not solve the problems found in the world today.  She wakes up every morning with gratitude for every day that she is allowed to live and that is such a lovely attitude, especially after everything she has gone through.  My only disappointment is that a letter by Blumenthal to a Holocaust denier offering compassion and conciliation introduced in an opening montage about the rise of hate crimes around the world is never referenced again (I was waiting through the whole film for this to be explored more fully).  Nevertheless, Blumenthal's story is a powerful one and I highly recommend this documentary.

The Foreigner at West Valley Arts

Last year I had the opportunity to volunteer as an usher at the West Valley Performing Arts Center and I had a lot of fun while getting to see some great shows. Unfortunately I am not able to do it any more because of family responsibilities but I went back as a patron last night to see The Foreigner which is an absolutely hilarious show. Froggy LeSueur (Xander Richey) is a British demolition expert who is visiting rural Georgia to conduct training sessions at an army base. Froggy brings his friend Charlie Baker (Joseph Paul Branca) with him because he is depressed over his marital difficulties and installs him at a fishing lodge owned by Betty Meeks (Vicky Pugmire) while he is on maneuvers. Charlie doesn't like this arrangement because he is painfully shy and fears having to interact with strangers but Froggy solves the problem by telling Betty that Charlie is a foreigner who doesn't speak English. The other guests at the lodge are drawn to Charlie because they believe he can't understand them. Catherine (Amanda Anne Dayton) pours her heart out to him because he is a good listener, Ellerd (Brandon Green) gains confidence by successfully "teaching" him English, and David (TJ Thomas) inadvertently reveals a plot he has hatched with a local member of the Ku Klux Klan (Oran Marc de Baritault). Chaos ensues until Charlie begins to feel like he belongs. The show is incredibly funny because it exaggerates the idea of being a fish out of water but there are also some really important deeper themes about fearing those who are different so, even though I was laughing out loud through most of it, I was also thinking about how much we need a little understanding in the world right now. The entire cast is fantastic but the standouts for me are Green (who I have seen in The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee and Peter and the Starcatcher at CPT and Is He Dead? and Arsenic and Old Lace at HCT) and Branca. Ellerd is a little bit slow so when he tries to teach Charlie the words to a few of the items in the lodge (fork has somehow become a two syllable word) it is absolutely hysterical because of Green's facial expressions. At one point, Charlie is asked to tell a story in his native language, which is completely made up, and Branca's delivery is the highlight of the show!  I couldn't breathe because I was laughing so hard. The set of the fishing lodge is a lot of fun and I was particularly impressed with the attention to detail (I loved all of the knickknacks everywhere). My only complaint with this show is a really strange costuming decision which put the Ku Klux Klan members is army fatigues instead the white robes they would normally wear (I've seen this show several times). I understand that the production team might have wanted to be sensitive in their portrayal of this group but it is very clear from the beginning of the play who they are so the robes wouldn't have been a surprise and this decision lessened the impact of the climax in my opinion.  Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this show and would definitely recommend it.  It runs Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays through March 26 and tickets are very reasonable (go here).

Dog

I didn't get a chance to see Dog when it was first released a couple of weeks ago so I decided to make time to see it last night and my dog loving heart is so glad that I did!  Jackson Briggs (Channing Tatum) is a former U.S. Army Ranger who is suffering from PTSD after a traumatic brain injury.  He is trying to join a global diplomatic protection service but he needs clearance from his former commanding officer who is hesitant to give it because of some lingering effects from his injury.  When a fellow Army Ranger commits suicide, Briggs is asked to drive his dog Lulu, a Belgian Malinois who has also been severely traumatized by combat, from Washington to Arizona to attend his funeral and then to a nearby military base to be euthanized afterwards.  He will receive his clearance if he is able to deliver the dog as promised but Lulu doesn't make it easy for him.  They have a series of misadventures, some of which are very amusing (ahem) and some are incredibly heartwarming, before they end up saving each other.  I really enjoyed Tatum's performance as a man so damaged that he can't make a connection with anyone in his life until he is finally able to make one with a dog.  He imbues Briggs with a lot of vulnerability and I think it is one of his best performances.  I also loved Lulu (the three dogs who play her are pretty good little actors) and several of her scenes reduced me to tears, especially her actions at the funeral of her handler.  The resolution is totally predictable and a bit emotionally manipulative but it hardly matters because I spent most of the movie hoping for the very thing that happens.  I love dogs and I honestly can't remember a time when my family hasn't had at least one so I really enjoyed this feel-good movie.  It might not be for those who are expecting a road trip buddy comedy or for those who don't like dogs but otherwise it is definitely worth checking out.

Uncharted

I am not a gamer and I do not know anything about the world-building or the characters in the popular Uncharted gaming franchise but I finally had the chance to see the movie adaptation last night and I thought it was a lot of fun.  Fortune hunter Victor "Sully" Sullivan (Mark Wahlberg) recruits Nathan Drake (Tom Holland), bartender, pickpocket, and younger brother of his former partner Sam, to help him locate the long lost treasure of Ferdinand Magellan.  They form an uneasy partnership with Chloe Frazer (Sophia Ali) and attempt to stay one step ahead of Santiago Moncada (Antonio Banderas), a descendant of the family who financed Magellan's voyage, and Jo Braddock (Tati Gabrielle), a mercenary hired by Moncada.  Drake faces many physical challenges as the search for clues takes him from Barcelona to the Philippines but his biggest challenge is deciding who to trust.  The characters are very thinly drawn, especially the villains, but Holland and Wahlberg, who is very hit or miss with me, are incredibly charismatic and I really enjoyed their chemistry together and the physicality of their performances.  The treasure hunting plot is one that we have all seen many times before (there are even references to Raiders of the Lost Ark and Pirates of the Caribbean, which are better movies, in the dialogue) but I was still really engaged with the story and I think a lot of that has to do with Holland.  Despite some of the sub-par CGI, I found the action sequences to be very exciting, especially Drake hanging out of a cargo plane and Magellan's ships being airlifted by helicopters.  There are flaws but I enjoyed this movie much more than I thought I would and I recommend it for a fun night out.

Note:  As the post-credits scenes (there are two) suggest, there is definitely the possibility of a sequel and I would probably watch it.