Carrie Underwood at the Vivint Arena

I like Carrie Underwood but my niece Tashena is a huge fan!  I wasn't really planning on seeing her on her latest tour until Tashena mentioned that she wanted to go.  Since we had so much fun the last time we saw her, I decided to get tickets and I am really glad that I did!  The show last night was amazing and I loved seeing Tashena sing along to all of her hits!  She played quite a few songs from her latest album Denim & Rhinestones, including the title track, "Burn," Crazy Angels," "Garden," "Ghost Story," "Hate My Heart," "Poor Everybody Else," and "She Don't Know."  I wasn't very familiar with these songs but it didn't matter because Underwood has such a big voice and her performance was spectacular with multiple costume changes (with lots of the requisite rhinestones), pyrotechnics, platforms that emerged from below the stage, a floating sphere that transported her across the arena, and even a drum solo.  She had a long diamond-shaped stage and a smaller stage at the end of the arena which allowed her to interact with lots of the fans and she was so engaging and fun to watch.  However, it was when she sang the hits that the audience, especially Tashena, really got loud.  She started the evening with "Good Girl" and continued with "Church Bells," a rousing rendition of "Undo It" with lots of audience participation, "Cowboy Cassanova," "Wasted" (which was Tashena's favorite of the evening), a powerful rendition of "Blown Away," "Cry Pretty," "Two Black Cadillacs," "Flat on the Floor," and "Something in the Water."  I really love the song "Jesus, Take the Wheel" and her performance of it gave me goosebumps because she included "How Great Thou Art" at the end of it and she just about blew the roof off the Vivint Arena!  She also performed my very favorite of all her songs, which is "Last Name," and I sang every word at the top of my lungs!  For the encore, she sang a cover of "Welcome to the Jungle" by Guns N' Roses (which was another highlight for me) and then she got the entire arena singing with "Before He Cheats."  I had so much fun at this concert and I am so glad that Tashena suggested it (and I'm glad that she still likes hanging out with her aunt).  I think we should see Carrie Underwood together every time she comes to town!

Note:  The opening act was Jimmie Allen.  I wasn't familiar with any of his songs (I'm not a big fan of country music as a genre) but I really liked his voice and he was very entertaining!

We Are the Light

My November Book of the Month selection was We Are the Light by Matthew Quick (the other options were The Wilderwomen by Ruth Emmie Lang, The Last Party by Clare Mackintosh, White Horse by Erika T. Wurth, and Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli). I selected this because it deals with important topics such as PTSD and mental health and I really wanted to like it but, unfortunately, I didn't. Lucas Goodgame, a high school counselor in the town of Majestic, Pennsylvania, is the survivor of a mass shooting that claimed the life of his wife, Darcy. He is really struggling but his Jungian analyst, who also lost his wife in the tragedy, has terminated his sessions and is now refusing to answer his letters. Eli, the younger brother of the shooter, is also struggling because he saw his brother's behavior become erratic but said nothing and now blames himself for what happened. Lucas comes to believe that helping Eli through his trauma will be the way forward in healing himself as well as the people of Majestic. The narrative is completely from the perspective of Lucas because it is in the form of letters written by him to his analyst and this is why I didn't entirely like it as much as I expected to given the subject matter. I found Lucas to be an incredibly unsympathetic character despite his trauma and the obvious mental health issues stemming from his childhood (he was in analysis before the tragedy) and, while I understand that he was suffering, I just couldn't get past my dislike of him as a character and that made it very difficult for me to be invested in what happens to him. Also, I could not understand the motivation for why all of the other characters literally do everything they can to help him, especially his wife's best friend Jill who sells her house and neglects her business to care for him, because we never get their perspectives. Finally, I found all of the constant references to Jungian analysis (phallic energy?) to be incredibly off-putting. Most people seem to have enjoyed this more than I did but it just wasn't for me.

The Little Mermaid at HCT

I went to see Hale Theatre's production of The Little Mermaid last night and it is one of the most immersive and magical shows I've ever seen! I loved everything about it! This musical tells the well-known story of a mermaid named Ariel who just wants to be where the people are so she defies her father and trades her voice for a pair of legs to make a prince fall in love with her. What I loved most about this show is that you actually feel like you are under the sea during the first act because all of the characters, especially Ariel and her sisters, fly through the air with lots of really cool water effects. I also really loved the amazing costumes and puppets for all of the sea creatures because they are absolutely incredible! Ursula wears an elaborate gown of black sequins with dancers who manipulate her eight tentacles while Flotsam and Jetsam are in silver lamé with segmented puppets that twist and turn around each other!  The song "Under the Sea" features neon colored fish carried by dancers with headdresses that look like coral reefs, stingrays that flutter above the audience, giant whales and groups of turtles that come in from the wings, and aerialists who spin around on globes that look like bubbles! It is quite the spectacle! Sebastian is covered from claw to claw in red sequins while Scuttle is covered in white features. Ariel and her sisters each have their own color with jewel encrusted gowns and mermaid tails made of organza and King Triton has regal robes of gold and turquoise. Also, I was impressed by the sheer number of sets and my favorites were Prince Eric's ship, Ariel's grotto filled with her collection, and the lagoon where Eric takes Ariel on a boat ride (the hanging vines and all of the lanterns are so beautiful). I also loved all of the clear glass bulbs, which resemble bubbles, around the perimeter of the stage and up in the rafters. The staging of several of the numbers is absolutely magical, especially when Ariel saves Eric after he falls overboard because they seem to float and the aforementioned "Under the Sea!" Finally, the cast is phenomenal!  Sophia Marie Guerrero is the perfect Ariel because not only does she have a beautiful voice but she also has a look of wide-eyed wonder that makes the songs "Part of Your World" and "Beyond My Wildest Dreams" so much fun to watch! Eric was played by the understudy Scott Hendrickson last night and, honestly, I thought he was fantastic! He has great chemistry with Guerrero and is incredibly endearing in "Kiss the Girl." Luseane "Lucy" Pasa, as Ursula, just about blows the roof off HCT with her gospel rendition of "Poor Unfortunate Souls" with Jason Buonforte (Flotsam) and Gunnar (Jetsam) as her back up choir! The same could be said for Alec Powell, as Sebastian, because his rendition of "Kiss the Girl" also had a gospel feel that I really liked. I had so much fun at this show (it is definitely the best production of The Little Mermaid that I have ever seen) and the children sitting around me were mesmerized! You definitely do not want to miss this wonderful show which runs on the Young Living Centre Stage through January 28 (go here for tickets) but act quickly because many shows are sold out!

Aftersun

I was able to check off another movie on my impossibly long list by seeing Aftersun last night at the Broadway.  I loved it but it is one of the most quietly devastating movies I've seen in a long time.  Calum (Paul Mescal) takes his 11-year-old daughter Sophie (Frankie Corio), who lives with her mother most of the time, on a holiday to a run-down resort in Turkey that he cannot really afford.  He is a very young father and he seems to be struggling with life in general but it is obvious that he loves his daughter and is doing the best he can to give her a fun holiday.  There are sun-dappled vignettes where Calum and Sophie seem to be enjoying the pool, the beach, and various tourist destinations, which are often captured by and replayed on Calum's video camera, but there are also moments where Calum is alone and succumbs to despair.  Sophie is still a child but there are subtle indications that she is starting to break away from her father and to notice the darkness that he tries to hide from her, especially in a scene where she arranges for a group of tourists to sing for his birthday to cheer him up.  Interspersed between these memories are sequences in a dark nightclub with disorienting strobe lights where an adult Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) searches in vain for her father (shown at the age he was when she was a child).  These seem to imply that he is no longer in her life and I kept waiting for something dramatic to happen during their holiday.  However, in my opinion, the haunting final shot is more heartbreaking than something more explicit would have been.  It can sometimes appear as if nothing is happening (it is definitely more character driven than plot driven) but I think most people's memories of childhood are episodic and fragmented so this structure is highly effective.  The hazy cinematography is also quite brilliant because images of Calum are often reflected (through mirrors, windows, water, TV screens, and table tops) to emphasize how distorted Sophie's memories of her father are.  Both Mescal and Corio, in her debut, give highly nuanced performances that beautifully capture the complexities of a relationship between a father living with regret and a daughter just starting to live.  I was absolutely gutted by this movie but it will probably be one of my favorites this year!

Cash on Delivery at the Empress

Last night I went to see the British farce Cash on Delivery at the Empress Theatre and it was so much fun!  Eric Swann (Alexander Richardson) has been defrauding the office of Social Services by accepting payments for nonexistent lodgers at his house ever since he lost his job at the Electric Company two years ago.  When Social Services becomes suspicious of so many payments being sent to the same residence, a Mr. Jenkins (Jeremy Jonsson) is sent to investigate.  Swann must enlist the help of his actual lodger Norman McDonald (Tanner Larsen) and his uncle George (Bob Skeen) in order to fool not only Jenkins but also his wife Linda (Cheryl Richardson), Norman's fiancee Brenda (Michelle Gardner), a grief counselor (Audrey Jones), an enthusiastic undertaker (Jennie Jonsson), a marriage counselor (Crystal Ahlemann), and Jenkins' uptight supervisor Ms. Cowper (Emily Jameson).  Chaos ensues as each of them are forced to tell one outrageous lie after another as well as impersonate fictional characters, including one who is supposed to have gout, one who is supposed to be deaf, and two who are supposed to be dead, until the whole thing unravels with hilarious consequences!  This show is so funny because eventually you can't remember who is impersonating whom and I, along with the entire audience, laughed and laughed at all of their antics!  Every member of the cast has brilliant comedic timing, but Richardson and Larsen are particularly fun to watch because they become more and more overwrought as their plans go awry. The fast-paced physical comedy is an absolute hoot, especially when one of the characters who is pretending to be dead is stuffed into a window seat and when all of the characters run around slamming doors.  I thoroughly enjoyed this show and I highly recommend it but it is a limited engagement so get your tickets (go here) soon.