Fireflies at PTC

Last night I saw Pioneer Theatre Company's charming production of Fireflies and I thoroughly enjoyed this simple story about two people finding love late in life.  Eleanor Bannister (Joy Franz) is an uptight and lonely retired teacher living in the small town of Groverdell, Texas.  She is very set in her ways and is known as the most respected person in town but she has started questioning who she is and what she wants out of life after experiencing a panic attack.  Abel Brown (David Manis) is just passing through town when he notices that a recent storm has damaged the roof on a cottage that belongs to Eleanor.  He seeks her out and offers to repair it and she reluctantly agrees to let him.  A romance slowly blossoms between them but is he ready to settle down and is she right to trust him?  Franz is absolutely delightful as a curmudgeonly woman who delights in correcting everyone's grammar but she also imbues Eleanor with a little bit of vulnerability.  She has great chemistry with Manis and I loved her reaction when he kisses her.  As much as I enjoyed Franz and Manis, my favorite character was Eleanor's nosy neighbor Grace (Joy Lynn Jacobs).  Many of her over the top antics were greeted with hoots of laughter from the audience.  I also enjoyed it when Eugene Claymire (Tito Livas), a police officer who is also Eleanor's former student, spontaneously recites the poem "Kubla Khan" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge when he is questioned about Abel but, as a former English teacher, I was probably the only one laughing at this!  All of the action takes place in Eleanor's well lived-in kitchen over the course of one week.  I really liked the attention to detail because the kitchen looks a bit tidier during every scene as if Eleanor is trying to impress Abel.  Another aspect of the production that really struck me was the lighting design, particularly the sunsets and night skies that are visible through the windows of the kitchen.  The whole show feels very authentic with likable characters who find an unexpected connection and I found it very heartwarming.  Fireflies runs at PTC through April 16 and I highly recommend it (go here for tickets).

Like A Sister

My April Book of the Month selection was Like A Sister by Kellye Garrett (the other options were The Good Left Undone by Adriana Trigiani, Kaikeyi by Vaishnavi Patel, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole by Susan Cain, and True Biz by Sara Novic). Once again, none of the selections really jumped out at me so I defaulted to the thriller and I ended up liking it more than I thought I would. Lena Scott is a graduate student at Columbia who could not be more different from her reality star half-sister Desiree Pierce. She has been estranged from her sister for the past two years because of her addictions and self-destructive behavior so, when Desiree's body is found at a playground near Lena's house in the Bronx, she feels tremendous guilt because she believes that Desiree was attempting to see her when she died. The police have ruled Desiree's death as an accidental overdose due to the heroin in her system but Lena knows that she would never shoot heroin because of her fear of needles. She is obsessed with finding out what really happened to her sister and begins trying to reconstruct her final days. Lena reaches out to her former reality show co-star, her new best friend, her on-again off-again boyfriend, and an old family friend who recently reentered her life. She must also reestablish contact with her father, the man who abandoned her and her mother when she was a child to start a new life with Desiree and her mother. All of these encounters lead to some uncomfortable truths about her sister and her family and they also put her life in danger. There are lots of twists and turns which kept me engaged with the murder mystery aspect of the narrative but I think I enjoyed the commentary on race, class, social media, and celebrity even more. Lena is an entertaining first-person narrator and I really appreciated her perspective on what it is like for a young Black woman to navigate life in today's society, particularly interactions with the police. Much of this novel is set in the world of hip-hop music (Lena and Desiree's father is a wealthy and influential music producer) and, while I did miss more than a few references, I found it to be fascinating. I especially enjoyed all of the scenes that take place backstage at various concerts because I have always wanted to know what really goes on before a performer takes the stage. I was also really intrigued by how social media is used to solve the mystery, especially posts on Instagram. It is a bit frightening how much someone can learn about you from your posts! I don't think I would have picked this novel if left to my own devices (one of the reasons why I like BOTM) but I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to fans of thrillers.

Mothering Sunday

Mothering Sunday is a British period drama (my favorite genre) set during the aftermath of the Great War (a time in history that fascinates me) featuring Colin Firth and Olivia Colman (two actors I admire greatly) about a forbidden romance between a servant and the son of an aristocratic family (swoon).  It seems to be a movie made especially for me and I went to see it last night believing that I would absolutely love it.  I didn't love it.  In fact, I found it to be quite underwhelming.  Jane Fairchild (Odessa Young) is a maid in the home of Godfrey (Firth) and Clarrie (Colman) Niven, a couple who are almost debilitated by grief because both of their sons were killed during the war.  On Mother's Day the Nivens give Jane the day off because they are joining their friends, the Sheringhams and the Hobdays, for lunch to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of their children Paul Sheringham (Josh O'Connor) and Emma Hobday (Emma D'Arcy).  The lunch is fraught with tension because Emma was going to marry Paul's older brother James but he also died in the war and she seems ambivalent about marrying Paul.  It turns out that Paul is only marrying Emma out of a sense of obligation and, instead of joining the families for lunch, he invites Jane, with whom he has been having a passionate affair, to his estate for a tryst.  They enjoy the morning together in bed and, after he leaves to attend the lunch, she stays and wanders around the house (completely naked, as one does) admiring the paintings and books.  Later in the day she receives some devastating news and makes the decision to leave service.  These episodes are periodically interrupted by scenes in the near future when, while working at a bookstore, Jane meets her future husband Donald (Sope Dirisu) who convinces her to use her experiences to become a writer.  It ends with an older Jane (now played by Glenda Jackson) winning a prize for her writing.  The images on the screen are beautiful and lyrical but they don't really amount to much of anything because they are a series vignettes rather than a cohesive narrative.  I was often bored with what was happening (so many close-ups of characters smoking) and, despite some great performances, I didn't feel a connection to the characters.  I was never really sure if this was an indictment of the rigid class system (there is a bewildering reference to a race horse running free at the beginning and end), an exploration of grief, or a portrait of the artist as a young woman.  None of these themes are explored with any depth and I spent most of the runtime waiting for something, anything, to happen.  I wanted to love this but I left the theater feeling disappointed.  I recommend giving it a miss.

Ambulance

I am not a big fan of Michael Bay (a major understatement) but I thought the trailer for his latest movie, Ambulance, looked intriguing and I heard enough positive word of mouth to warrant seeing it last night.  I didn't hate it.  In fact, I liked it more than I thought I would!  Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) is a decorated combat veteran who is trying desperately to find the money for an experimental surgery that his wife needs.  He turns to his estranged brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), a notorious bank robber, for a loan but gets drawn into his latest heist.  The job goes awry when an officer (Jackson White), spurred on by his partner (Cedric Sanders), enters the bank in order to make a date with one of the tellers and is shot by Will.  There is a dramatic shoot-out with the police and Danny and Will are the only members of the crew to make it out alive.  They hijack the ambulance transporting the injured officer and take Cam Thompson (Eiza Gonzalez), the cynical EMT treating him, hostage as they lead police, led by SIS Agent Monroe (Garrett Dillahunt) and FBI Agent Clark (Keir O'Donnell), on a high speed chase through rush hour traffic on the streets of Los Angeles.  Their escape is complicated by the need to keep the officer alive and by the involvement of one of Danny's criminal associates (A Martinez).  The action sequences are as chaotic as you would expect from Michael Bay (I saw it in IMAX and found all of the angles and fast cuts to be quite disorienting at times) but the story is surprisingly compelling with high stakes and characters that you actually care about.  I was especially invested in Will's fate and I was actually dreading what I imagined would be the inevitable conclusion (it was not what I was expecting).  Fans of the director are sure to enjoy this but I would also recommend it to anyone who enjoys action thrillers because it is a wild ride, especially on a Saturday night with a big tub of popcorn.

Hilary Hahn Plays Ginastera and Sarasate

I have been looking forward to last night's Utah Symphony concert for quite some time because it featured the return of fan favorite Hilary Hahn for the second time this season!  The orchestra began with Prelude a L'apres-midi d'un faune (Prelude to the afternoon of a Faun) by Claude Debussy and it was lovely.  I think this piece is incredibly romantic and it always reminds me of Spring (I once saw a beautiful performance by Ballet West to this music).  I especially enjoyed the themes played by the flute and the harp.  Next on the program was the U.S. premiere of Nature Symphony by Composer-in-Association Arlene Sierra.  According to the composer, each movement represents different processes within and against nature such as the migration of butterflies, the destruction of the landscape by fracking, and the rebellion of a bee colony.  I particularly liked the second movement because the main theme repeats and builds and builds in intensity (I loved the percussion).  After the intermission, Hahn joined the orchestra for Alberto Ginastera's Violin Concerto.  I was not at all familiar with this piece or this composer but I enjoyed it because it was very surrealistic.  The opening passage by the solo violin is incredibly technical and Hahn performed it brilliantly.  When the rest of the orchestra eventually joins the soloist it is very dramatic, especially the timpani and the brass.  Hahn returned once again for Fantasy on Bizet's Carmen by Pablo de Sarasate.  This is an adaptation of the Aragonaise, the Habanera, an interlude, the Seguidilla, and the Gypsy Dance from the well-known opera and it is meant to be a showpiece for the violin soloist (it often seemed like the orchestra was accompanying the violin).  It is another highly technical piece and, once again, Hahn gave an amazing performance.  This was definitely my favorite piece of the evening because I love Carmen so much.  It was the first opera that I saw performed live so it will always be among my favorites.  Hearing this version performed by Hahn and the orchestra pretty much blew me away!  The entire concert was pretty spectacular so I would definitely recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance of the same program (go here).