A Christmas Story at the SCERA Center for the Performing Arts

Last week I saw three different productions of A Christmas Carol and this weekend I have two different versions of A Christmas Story planned. I started with the one at the SCERA Center for the Performing Arts last night and it was so much fun! This musical is a pretty faithful adaptation of the movie of the same name (one of my favorite Christmas movies) and it is narrated by radio personality Jean Shepherd (Ed Eyestone) as he recounts a memorable Christmas from his youth. Ralphie Parker (Tate McBeth) desperately wants an official Red Ryder, carbine action, 200-shot, range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and this thing that tells time for Christmas but his Mother (Celeste Harris), the Old Man (Mark Buffington), his teacher Miss Shields (Caitlyn Galvez), and even Santa Claus (Garrett Smit) tell him that he'll shoot his eye out. All of the well-known scenes from the movie are brought to life on stage including when Randy (Porter McCormick) eats like a piggy, when Schwartz (Mitt Harris) triple dog dares Flick (Isaac Hael) to stick his tongue to the flag pole, when the Old Man wins a major award, when Ralphie says the F-dash-dash-dash word while helping the Old Man change a tire, when Ralphie gets into a fight with Scut Farkus (Elias Kahler), when Ralphie gets a bunny costume from Aunt Clara, and when one of the Bumpus hounds eats the turkey forcing the Parkers to eat Christmas dinner at the Chop Suey Palace. I don't think that the songs in this musical are particularly memorable but I really enjoyed the staging, especially the numbers featuring the children such as "It All Comes Down to Christmas," "When You're a Wimp," "Ralphie to the Rescue," "Up on Santa's Lap," and "Somewhere Hovering Over Indiana."  The choreography in these songs is a lot of fun and McBeth and the children in the ensemble (over 20 of them) execute it very well. With the exception of "A Major Award" with Buffington and "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out" with Galvez, I think the songs featuring the adults, namely "The Genius on Cleveland Street," "What a Mother Does," and "Just Like That," are less compelling because they take the focus away from Ralphie. This is not a criticism of Harris or Buffington, who do an outstanding job, or this production but, rather, it is a weakness in the show itself. The humor works best when we see Ralphie's parents as he does not as they are. I loved McBeth's performance because not only is he incredibly endearing but he is also an excellent dancer, particularly in "Ralphie to the Rescue" and his dance off with Galvez in "You'll Shoot Your Eye Out." McCormick made me laugh quite a few times with all of his antics and I enjoyed it when Eyestone, as the narrator, gets involved in the action. I was really impressed with the elaborate sets, including the two-storey Parker house (I loved the smoke coming from a vent when the furnace acts up) and the impressive Santa display at Higbee's department store complete with a slide. This production also has the best Oldsmobile (with working lights) I've seen! I thoroughly enjoyed this show (it is on par with the Broadway touring production I saw several years ago) and I would highly recommend it but, unfortunately, there is only one more performance and it is completely sold out (with good reason). This seems to be a yearly tradition for SCERA so put it on your list for next year.

A Kurt Bestor Christmas at the Eccles 2022

Another one of my favorite Christmas traditions (I seem to have so many!) is the Kurt Bestor Christmas concert and I was able to go last night.  He began with his arrangements of "Sing We Noel," "Angels We Have Heard On High," "What Child Is This?" and "Joy to the World."  Then he performed one of my favorites, "Still, Still, Still," on the flugelhorn and dedicated it to his father.  He told the audience that he considered removing his next song, "Let It Snow," because we have been inundated with snow for the past few days but he decided to perform it anyway!  He premiered a brand new arrangement called "Ukrainian Christmas" which features "Carol of the Bells" and several Ukrainian folk songs.  His first guests were Makenzie and Eliza Hart, both on violin, for this number and it was so moving!  His next guests were members of the One Voice Children's Choir and they sang Bestor's best known song "Prayer of the Children."  This moved me (and many people around me) to tears because it was so beautiful!  He ended the first set with "Christmas Concerto for Woodwinds" which is a fun medley of different Christmas carols featuring musician Daron Bradford on a variety of woodwind instruments.  Whenever Bestor performs this piece he always likes to add another instrument and apparently Bradford broke the Guinness World Record by playing 40 of them!  After the intermission, he played "Coventry Carol" and then pianist Josh Wright joined him for a duet of "Oh, Come All Ye Faithful."  He featured his guitar player Michael Dowdle, bass player Carlitos Del Puerto, drummer Eric Valentine, and percussionist Todd Sorenson on a jazz version of "Christmas Time is Here" and then played "Bring a Torch Jeanette, Isabella" which is another one of my favorites.  His special guest for the evening was the Tony Award-winning soprano Lisa Hopkins Seegmiller and her rendition of "Ave Maria" gave me goosebumps because it was so effortless!  She then sang a really fun medley of "Welcome Christmas," "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch," and "Where Are You Christmas?" from The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.  Finally, she sang an emotional rendition of "I Wonder as I Wander" (Bestor often asks his special guest to sing his arrangement because it is his favorite Christmas carol).  It has become tradition for Bestor to perform his amusing arrangement of "'Twas the Night Before Christmas" and he usually picks someone from the audience to be the narrator.  Last night he had his 91-year-old mother Phyllis Bestor narrate and to say that she was adorable would be an understatement!  He ended the evening with "Silent Night" featuring all of his guests (and the audience) and it was lovely.  I love hearing Christmas music performed live so I enjoyed every minute of this concert.  There are three more performances (go here for tickets) and I highly recommend getting a ticket.

Empire of Light

As a huge fan of both Sam Mendes and Olivia Colman I figured that a collaboration between the two of them would be amazing so I went to see Empire of Light at the Broadway last night.  Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed.  Hilary Small (Colman) is a sad and lonely middle-aged manager of a beautiful Art Deco cinema in the seaside town of Margate in the early 1980s.  Stephen (Micheal Ward) is a young Black man with aspirations of attending university to study architecture who is hired at the cinema as a ticket taker.  They eventually begin a secret relationship but it is threatened by the racial tensions in Thatcher's Britain and by Hilary's worsening depression.  The one thing that helps them both heal is the community they find at the Empire Cinema.  Colman gives an incredibly subtle but powerful performance and the most compelling moments occur whenever the camera is focused on her face, especially in a scene where she is overcome by emotion while watching a film by herself.  Ward is also very affecting and his scenes with Colman are so tender.  The images on the screen are absolutely gorgeous (Roger Deakins just does not miss) and I loved the use of the piano in the score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross because it is so haunting and plaintive.  My biggest problem with this movie is that it lacks focus because there are some extraneous sub-plots, such as Hilary's degrading sexual relationship with her boss (Colin Firth), and a few elements that I wish were explored more, such as Hilary's previous experiences with mental illness and Stephen's experiences with racism.  Also, the message about the power of film is not developed beyond a great monologue from the cinema's projectionist (Toby Jones) and the aforementioned scene where Hilary watches a film.  There are so many ideas and none of them are tied together in a cohesive manner so this movie is more like a series of beautiful vignettes.  I wanted to like it more than I did.

White Noise

When I read the novel White Noise by Don DeLillo in a Contemporary American Lit class in college I did not like it at all (I suspect I was too young to really appreciate the topic of existential dread).  When I heard that Noah Baumbach was directing an adaptation starring Adam Driver, I decided to read it again and it resonated a bit more with me this time around for many reasons.  I have been anticipating the movie ever since and I finally had a chance to see it at the Broadway last night.  Jack Gladney (Driver) is a professor of Hitler Studies at College-on-the-Hill in a small Midwestern town living a suburban life with his fourth wife Babette (Greta Gerwig) and a collection of his, hers, and ours children (Raffey Cassidy, Sam Nivola, and May Nivola) while trying to bury his fear of death in the mundane.  However, when a train derailment creates an airborne toxic event and Babette reveals that she has been taking an experimental drug called Dylar, Jack is forced to confront his fears.  Even though it explores serious themes, this is a comedy of the absurd and its surreal tone might not work for others but it really worked for me and I had a lot of fun watching it.  It is a very faithful adaptation of a somewhat unwieldy novel and I think Baumbach does a great job with the material even if it does go off the rails a bit in the third act.  The best part, for me, is Driver's performance because he really humanizes a character that I found remote in the novel.  He plays Jack as a pontificating intellectual who is also a bit of a buffoon to his family and his deadpan delivery is perfect.  My favorite scene is when he and a fellow colleague, played by Don Cheadle, give a lecture together about the pervasive themes of death in the lives of Hitler and Elvis because he is so over the top (the editing in this scene is brilliant).  I also enjoyed his scenes with Gerwig (who is also outstanding) and the children because he has such a great rapport with them and they seem like an actual family in their chaotic interactions.  There are some amazing action sequences (this is Baumbach's most ambitious project), particularly the train derailment and the evacuation sequences, and the production design, especially the A&P, is a lot of fun.  I predict this will be a movie that people will either love or hate but, since I love it, I will recommend it to fans of dark comedies (it will begin streaming on Netflix on December 30).

Note:  Definitely stay through the credits because there is a dance sequence with the whole cast in the A&P to a new song by LCD Soundsystem (their first music in five years) and it is hilarious!  Be sure to watch Jodie Turner-Smith (who plays a professor).

Lower Lights Christmas Concert 2022

One of my many favorite Christmas traditions is the annual Lower Lights Christmas concert and I have really missed it for the past two years!  I was thrilled to be back at Kingsbury Hall last night for this concert and I think it was the best one yet!  The Lower Lights is a supergroup of insanely talented songwriters, musicians, and singers, many of whom are popular in their own right, who periodically join forces to record folk and bluegrass renditions of hymns and Christmas carols.  I really love their sound and I especially love their Christmas music (any time you can add a mandolin and a banjo to a Christmas song you should definitely do it).  They began with "I Saw Three Ships," "O Come, All Ye Faithful," "Angels We Have Heard On High," "Away in a Manger," and "The Holly and the Ivy" which were absolutely beautiful!  Then Marie Bradshaw, Kiki Jane Sieger, and Cherie Call sang "Still, Still, Still" which is my favorite song at every Lower Lights Christmas concert because the three of them harmonize so beautifully that it gives you chills!  The group also performed "Beautiful Star of Bethlehem," "Maybe This Christmas," "Mary's Boy Child," and "A Cradle in Bethlehem."  Dustin Christensen performed a lovely rendition of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" and Sarah Sample's "White Christmas" got many people slow dancing in the aisles at her request.  I really loved the instrumental versions of "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "What Child Is This?" and I found it incredibly amusing when every member of the group played the banjo during "Once in Royal David's City" (another Lower Lights favorite of mine).  In the middle of their set they performed a number of their gospel songs, including "Just a Closer Walk With Thee," "The River Jordan," "This Little Light Of Mine," and "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?"  These songs turned Kingsbury Hall into an old time revival and some people were really moved by the holy spirit (especially the people siting by me!).  They also performed a rocking version of "Didn't My Lord Deliver Daniel" during which they jammed for a good ten minutes!  My favorite moment of the concert came during a beautiful and affecting acoustic version of "Happy X-Mas (War Is Over)" because it brought tears to my eyes!  During the encore they performed a hilarious version of "You're A Mean One, Mr. Grinch" (which has become a tradition), an upbeat version of "Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)," and a rousing rendition of "Go Tell It On The Mountain" with lots of audience participation.  They brought all of their family members to the stage for an acoustic performance of "Silent Night" (another tradition) to conclude the evening.  I loved every minute of this concert and highly recommend it!  Unfortunately, last night was their final performance this year but definitely put it on your list for next year!

Note:  This has been an incredibly festive week with three different productions of A Christmas Carol and two Christmas concerts!  I am overflowing with Christmas spirit!