Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Vivint Arena

I had a ticket to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra Christmas show last year but because of everything going on with my family I decided not to go.  It was definitely the right decision because I wouldn't have enjoyed it but a little part of me was sad to have missed it.  Luckily, I had another chance to see the show yesterday (apparently they come to SLC every year?) and it was epic!  Trans-Siberian Orchestra is a rock band and their show is very visual and theatrical, featuring images on giant screens, dramatic lights, lasers, fog, and pyrotechnics in sync with the music, platforms that rise from the stage and lower from the rafters, dramatic choreography, and over-the-top performances (with lots of head banging and hair flipping).  It was an absolute spectacle and I loved it!  Their setlist features rock versions of classic Christmas carols as well as original songs.  Of the former, my favorites were "Oh Come All Ye Faithful/ O Holy Night," "Good King Joy" which is a mashup of "Good King Wenceslas" and "Joy to the World," "Christmas Canon Rock" which is a cool arrangement of Pachelbel's Cannon in D, "What Child Is This," and "Requiem (The Fifth)" which is a fantastic mashup of Mozart's Requiem and Beethoven's Symphony No. 5 (I really loved this because I love Mozart's Requiem so much).  Of the latter, my favorites were "Christmas Dreams," "First Snow," "The Last Ornament," "Christmas in the Air," "Wizards in Winter," and "The Snow Came Down."  The song I loved most was "A Mad Russian's Christmas" because it is a fantastical arrangement of The Nutcracker Suite by Tchaikovsky (one of my favorite composers) and it sounded amazing.  I also loved all of the Nutcracker-themed visuals that went along with this number.  I think the narration before the songs in the first half of the show was a bit convoluted and confusing and the banter with the audience was forced and awkward (the comment about face masks was not necessary in my opinion) but I definitely enjoyed the show!

Elf The Musical at CPT

Last night both of my sisters and I saw Elf The Musical at CPT and we all got a big dose of Christmas cheer! This musical is based on the popular movie starring Will Ferrell and it is so much fun! Santa Claus (Dave Hill), the narrator, reads from a book while sitting in an arm chair and he is the source of much amusement with lots of references to popular culture. He tells the story of Buddy (Addison Welch) who has been raised as an elf at the North Pole because he crawled into Santa's bag when he was a baby. After discovering that he is really a human instead of an elf, he decides to find his Dad, Walter Hobbs (Scott W. Butler), and he ends up bringing Christmas cheer to his new family, his girlfriend Jovie (Emily Woods Sparks), and all the people of New York City. I really enjoyed all of the fun choreography in this show, especially in "Happy All The Time" as the elves (played by some adorable children, including McGuire K. Bingham and Bridget Maxwell who got one of the biggest laughs of the night) make the toys for Santa, "Sparklejollytwinklejingley" as Buddy helps the Macy's employees decorate the store for Christmas, "Just Like Him" as Buddy wreaks havoc on Walter's office, "A Christmas Song" as Buddy and Jovie watch the ice skaters at Rockefeller Plaza (every production that I've seen of this show has had really innovative staging for this scene and this show is no exception), "Nobody Cares About Santa" as Buddy and all of the Santas commiserate about the lack of Christmas cheer (I loved the kick line), and "The Story of Buddy" as Buddy comes to Walter's rescue and pitches an idea for a story to his boss. Welch is a fabulous Buddy because not only is he exuberant in all of the musical numbers but he also has great comedic timing and facial expressions that show a wide-eyed wonder! His performance was the highlight of the show for me, especially when he plays the Salvation Army Santa's bells! I also liked John Nelson Wakley, the young actor who plays Michael Hobbs, because he has a great voice in the songs "I'll Believe In You" and "There Is a Santa Claus." The costumes for Santa, Buddy, the elves at the North Pole, and the employees at Macy's are incredibly elaborate and colorful and the set, which looks like a giant snow globe, is impressive. I even liked the use of projections, particularly for Rockefeller Plaza, but I was a bit disappointed that they were used for Santa's sleigh in Central Park because seeing Santa fly away is usually one of the highlights of the show. Other than that, all three of us thought the production was really cute! You would have to be a cotton-headed ninny-muggins to miss this show (go here for tickets) which runs on the Barlow Main Stage through December 17.

Note:  I have been really impressed with the shows at CPT this season.  My favorites have been The Play That Goes Wrong and Bright Star.  I am especially looking forward to Jekyll & Hyde and Something Rotten next season!

Guillermo Del Toro's Pinocchio

Yesterday I found myself at the Broadway, my favorite destination on a Sunday night, to see Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio.  I was absolutely amazed by this dark interpretation of the classic tale about a puppet who comes to life.  In Fascist Italy a woodcarver named Geppetto (David Bradley) is mourning the death of his beloved son Carlo, who was killed by a bomb during the Great War.  He uses the wood from a pine tree near his son's grave to make a puppet to replace him.  Seeing his despair, a Wood Sprite (Tilda Swinton) brings the puppet she names Pinocchio (Gregory Mann) to life and asks Sebastian J. Cricket (Ewan McGregor), who was living inside the tree used for the puppet, to help him be good.  Pinocchio is exuberant and disobedient so Geppetto, wanting him to be like Carlo, tells him that he is a burden.  This causes Pinocchio, upon learning that he is immortal after an encounter with Death (Tilda Swinton), to leave and have a fantastical adventure with the unscrupulous Count Volpe (Christoph Waltz), a puppet master who uses him in his traveling show, the Podesta (Ron Perlman), a fascist government official who forces him to become a soldier, and the Podesta's son Candlewick (Finn Wolfhard), who is trying to live up to his father's brutal expectations.  After a change of heart Geppetto sets out to find Pinocchio and has an adventure of his own with a giant whale before learning to accept him for who he is.  I loved so many things about this movie, including the beautiful stop-motion animation, the whimsical character design for Pinocchio (particularly when his nose grows), the powerful themes about the need for fathers and sons to love each other for who they are and that blind obedience is not always the answer, the emotional score and charming original songs by Alexandre Desplat (one of my favorite film composers), and the delightful performances (especially McGregor and Mann).  This might be a bit too dark for younger children but I think it is enchanting and highly recommend it!

She Said

The second movie in my Saturday double feature was She Said.  I had been anticipating this for a really long time but, unfortunately, I didn't love it.  When New York Times reporter Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) receives a tip that actress Rose McGowan was sexually assaulted by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, she begins investigating and discovers that Ashley Judd and Gwyneth Paltrow had similar encounters with him.  However, none of them want to go on the record because they are afraid that their careers will suffer.  Kantor asks Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan), a reporter who broke the story about allegations of sexual assault against Donald Trump, to help her with the investigation.  They find three former production assistants at Miramax, Rowena Chiu (Angela Yeoh), Zelda Perkins (Samantha Morton), and Laura Madden (Jennifer Ehle), who also report being sexually assaulted but fear speaking out after receiving settlements.  Even though Kantor and Twohey eventually receive corroboration from an accountant at Miramax, it is when two of the women consent to go on the record that the story is published.  For a movie that is about such an important investigation that launched a global movement and systemic change in the workforce, I found it to be strangely flat and not very compelling.  I feel like this topic could have benefited from from waiting a few years in order to get more perspective because it definitely didn't help that the details as well as the outcome of the investigation were fresh in my mind. Kazan and Mulligan do give very powerful performances but I found the scenes about their experiences as women investigating the story, such as Kantor's guilt at leaving her children, Twohey's postpartum depression, and their male editor (Andre Braugher) having to intervene on a phone call to get an answer to a question for them, to be more interesting than the investigation itself.  Morton and Ehle are also outstanding but the interviews of the victims start to become monotonous after a while, especially since they are not learning anything new just trying to get victims to go on the record.  Also, many of the interviews, including those with an unseen Weinstein, McGowan, and Paltrow, happen over the phone so they are not very interesting from a visual standpoint and they lack tension.  Finally, for a movie with a $32 million budget, the production design, while authentic, is quite dull.  I wanted to like this more than I did but I struggled with it.

The Menu

Because there are so many movies that I want to see right now I decided on another double feature yesterday and I started with The Menu.  I laughed out loud all through this scathing indictment of the privileged class.  A select group, including self-styled foodie Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) and his date Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy), outspoken food critic Lillian Bloom (Janet McTier) and her editor Ted (Paul Adelstein), wealthy businessman Richard Liebbrandt (Reed Birney) and his wife Anne (Judith Light), washed up actor George Diaz (John Leguizamo) and his assistant Felicity (Aimee Carrero), and entitled investors Soren (Arturo Castro), Bryce (Rob Yang), and Dave (Mark St. Cyr), travel by boat to a private island for dinner at Hawthorne, the trendy but exclusive restaurant operated by celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes).  The captain Elsa (Hong Chau) is disconcerted by the fact that Margot is a last minute replacement for another guest but service begins with one pretentious course (with amusing on-screen descriptions) after another.  The guests, especially Tyler, try to out perform each other with their pompous analysis of each dish but Margot is decidedly not impressed.  She soon realizes that the guests are not there by accident and that the chef has sinister intentions.  This is a delicious dark comedy making fun of haute cuisine and those who partake of it but I found the message that success can sometimes ruin the joy that one takes in executing one's craft to be very poignant.  Fiennes gives an over-the-top performance, especially when he imperiously announces each course with a loud clap, but it works so well because he plays it completely straight, especially in his interactions with Taylor-Joy when Margot refuses to fawn over him.  Chau and Hoult are also a lot of fun to watch because their characters are so slavishly devoted to the chef.  What begins as a satire eventually becomes a suspenseful thriller that kept me on the edge of my seat with tension that builds and builds until the action comes full circle with a conclusion that is a hilarious antithesis of fine dining.  Finally, the production design is fantastic and I loved the overhead shots of the meticulously prepared dishes.  This is clever and wildly entertaining (it reminded me of Triangle of Sadness) and I highly recommend it!