Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella at Sundance

One of my favorite summer traditions is to see a production, in conjunction with the UVU Theatre Department, at the Sundance Mountain Resort.  I love being up in the mountains, where it is so much cooler than in the valley, watching a performance under the stars!  This year the show is Cinderella and I was able to see it last night.  Even though I don't especially love the Rodgers & Hammerstein version, this production is absolutely magical!  In this more contemporary version of the classic fairy tale, Cinderella (Lizzy Jensen) becomes a social reformer who rescues Prince Topher (Dallin Suman) from the evil Lord Protector Sebastian (Bradley Moss) who is deceiving him about the conditions in his kingdom.  Her stepmother (Amanda Crabb) and stepsister Charlotte (Erica Schoebinger) treat her badly but her other stepsister Gabrielle (Emma Wadsworth) becomes a sympathetic co-conspirator in pursuit of her own romance with a revolutionary named Jean-Michel (Brendan Hanks).  An old beggar woman named Marie (Nikole York) becomes her Fairy Godmother after Cinderella shows her some kindness and, while she does help her get to the ball, she tells her that she has the power to make her own dreams come true.  Everyone lives happily ever after in a constitutional monarchy!  This is one of the strongest casts that I have seen in a production at Sundance!  I was especially impressed with Jensen as Cinderella and York as the Fairy Godmother because they have beautiful voices and show impressive range in the songs "In My Own Little Corner," "Impossible," "Glass Slipper/ It's Possible," and "There Is Music In You."  Suman is incredibly charismatic (and is very easy on the eyes) as Prince Topher and also has a lovely voice.  He has great chemistry with Jensen and their rendition of "Ten Minutes Ago" is so romantic!  Crabb steals every scene she is in and the audience roared with laughter in response to all of her antics!  The same could be said of Schoebinger, especially in "Stepsister's Lament."  The ensemble is also quite impressive and they execute the dynamic choreography very well in "The Prince Is Giving A Ball/ Now Is The Time" and "Ten Minutes Ago."  I also really enjoyed how Topher's pursuit of Cinderella is staged because they run through moving arches of tree branches (the real pine trees surrounding the stage make this scene even more enchanting).  The costumes are also some of the best I've seen at Sundance, particularly the uniforms worn by Prince Topher and his footmen (I loved all of the gold frogging) and the beautiful ball gowns worn by Cinderella (the transformation scenes are a lot of fun).  The set consists of moving pieces that look like marble and are configured to become Cinderella's house, a large staircase in the palace, and the town square during various scenes.  Cinderella's gold coach, with horses made out of puppets, is quite spectacular!  I had the best time watching this delightful show and highly recommend getting a ticket to one of the four remaining performances (go here).

Bullet Train

Despite getting some negative reviews I thought Bullet Train looked like a lot of fun so I went to see it at the Broadway last night (whenever a big release is shown at the Broadway I always try to see it there instead of a multiplex because I like supporting Salt Lake Film Society).  It was exactly what I expected it to be and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.  A group of assassins, including Ladybug (Brad Pitt) and his handler Maria (Sandra Bullock), Lemon (Brian Tyree Henry) and Tangerine (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), The Prince (Joey King), The Father (Andrew Koji), The Wolf (Benito "Bad Bunny" Antonio Martinez Ocasio), The Hornet (Zazie Beetz), and the Elder (Hiroyuki Sanada), are all searching, unbeknownst to each other, for a briefcase containing $10 million on a high-speed train traveling from Tokyo to Kyoto.  Mayhem ensues!  The plot also involves a Russian leader of a crime syndicate named White Death (Michael Shannon) and his kidnapped son (Logan Lerman) which leads to a lot of twists and turns that kept me guessing until the explosive (literally) conclusion.  I loved the on-screen introductions and elaborate flashbacks for each of the assassins as well as the witty back and forth banter between them as they fight each other.  The action sequences are over the top, incredibly violent, and often implausible but they are certainly fun to watch, especially a long drawn out fight in the quiet car of the train.  Some of the accents are a bit suspect but I think the campy performances work really well and Pitt looks like he is having a ball.  This is nothing we haven't seen before (think Tarantino and Ritchie) and there is a cringe-worthy cameo at the end but I definitely found it to be wildly entertaining!  I recommend it to anyone looking for a fun night out and nothing more.

Hadestown at the Eccles

The Broadway musicals Hadestown, Jagged Little Pill, SIX, and Moulin Rouge have been at the top of my must-see list for years.  I get to see ALL OF THEM this year (I'm so excited) and I started with Hadestown last night at the Eccles Theatre.  It was even better than I was expecting!  With the name Phaedra I have always been fascinated by Greek mythology so I loved this retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice (even though it is very tragic).  I also really loved how the story includes commentary on climate change, poverty, capitalism, exploitation of workers, nationalism (I think the song "Why We Build the Wall" perfectly encapsulates everything that is wrong in the world today and it is an incredibly powerful moment in the show), fatalism, and, ultimately, the power of music to show how the world ought to be rather than how it is!  The music, which is a mix of folk, jazz, and Cajun, is absolutely amazing and I loved every single song but my favorites were "Any Way the Wind Blows," "Livin' It Up On Top," "Way Down Hadestown," "When the Chips Are Down," "Wait For Me," "Flowers," and "Doubt Comes In."  The stage, which is reminiscent of an old New Orleans neighborhood, is really simple but the use of a turn table and atmospheric lighting is breathtaking, especially in the numbers "Chant," Wait For Me," and "Doubt Comes In."  The man cast, including Levi Kreis as Hermes, Kevyn Morrow as Hades, Kimberly Marable as Persephone, Chibueze Ihuoma as Orpheus, and Morgan Siobhan Green as Eurydice, is brilliant and I loved every performance.  I was particularly blown away by Morrow's rendition of "Hey, Little Songbird" because he is so sleazy and Green's version of "Flowers" (it brought a tear to my eye).  I also really liked how the Fates (Belen Moyano, Bex Odorisio, and Shea Renne) are integrated into the story and how the choreography of the Workers (Jordan Bollwerk, Lindsey Hailes, Courtney Lauster, Eddie Noel Rodriguez, and Marquis Wood) mimics an assembly line in a factory.  I loved this musical!  I loved it so much (it is second only to Hamilton in my affections and that is high praise if you know me) and I definitely recommend getting a ticket if you have the opportunity!  It runs at the Eccles through August 7 (go here for tickets).

Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 at St. Mary's Church

Last night I went back to St. Mary's Church in Park City for another wonderful Utah Symphony concert.  I always love hearing music performed in this church (it is an amazing venue) and last night was no exception because it was a lovely evening!  The orchestra began with Concerto Grosso by Ralph Vaughan Williams and I really enjoyed this piece.  Vaughan Williams composed it for students of various abilities and I thought it was very deep and sonorous in tone.  I especially loved the stirring beginning.  Next came Concerto No. 5 for Violin and Orchestra by my favorite composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with Geneva Lewis, in her Utah Symphony debut, as the soloist.  As with much of Mozart's work, this piece is light and airy and very accessible to the listener.  I loved the violin solo in the second movement because Lewis performed it with such delicacy and I loved the percussive sound created by the cellos and basses striking the strings with the wood of their bows in the third movement because it was so dramatic.  After the intermission, the concert concluded with Symphony No. 1 by Felix Mendelssohn (composed when he was just fifteen years old).  This is very lively and energetic and I especially loved the melody played by the clarinets and bassoons in the third movement and the fiery ending complete with timpani!  I really enjoyed watching guest conductor Stephanie Childress because it was exciting to see a young woman on the podium and she was incredibly dynamic.  Unfortunately, last night was the final concert at St. Mary's this summer but there are two more concerts at Deer Valley (go here for tickets) this weekend before the orchestra returns to Abravanel Hall for the 2022-2023 season (for which I am so excited).

Vengeance

Last night I finally got myself to the Broadway to see Vengeance and I think it is incredibly thought-provoking.  Ben Manalowitz (B.J. Novak) is a writer for the New Yorker who aspires to have a podcast to use as a platform for expressing his opinion on the cultural divide in America.  One night he receives a phone call from Ty Shaw (Boyd Holbrook) informing him that his sister Abilene (Lio Tipton) has died of a drug overdose while at a wild party.  Ben only hooked up with Abilene a couple of times but Ty is under the impression that they were much closer and insists that he come to her funeral in West Texas.  He reluctantly agrees and meets Abilene's family, including her mother Sharon (J. Smith-Cameron), sisters Paris (Isabella Amara) and Kansas City (Dove Cameron), brother Mason (Elli Abrams Beckel), and grandmother Carole (Louanne Stephens), who all think he is Abilene's boyfriend.  Ty asks Ben to help him get vengeance against Sancholo (Zach Villa), the man he believes is responsible for Abilene's death, but Ben thinks that Ty is creating a conspiracy because the family can't bear to accept that Abilene turned to drugs because of the hopelessness of her life.  He thinks this might be a great subject for a podcast and his producer Eloise (Issa Rae) agrees.  He stays in West Texas investigating Abilene's death and recording content for the podcast but he ends up discovering more than he bargained for.  This is a compelling murder mystery, with a resolution that I did not see coming, but it is also a razor sharp bit of social commentary.  Writer and director Novak explores quite a few thought-provoking ideas, such as the cultural divide between the red and blue states, exploitation for the sake of content, and the opioid crisis, but sometimes these ideas become a bit unwieldy.  The dialogue is highly amusing, especially in an opening scene featuring a cameo by John Mayer (who is essentially playing himself), and I laughed out loud during an extended joke at a rodeo.  Novak is great, even if he doesn't quite sell the idea that he is a player, and Ashton Kutcher gives one of the best performances I've seen from him as a record producer.  This dark comedy is very entertaining and I definitely recommend it.