Dvorak's Symphony No. 5

I always love it when I have a Utah Symphony concert to look forward to during the week and the one last night was especially worth the anticipation because I was swept away by the music of Bruch and Dvorak.  The orchestra began with Ringelspiel by Ana Sokolovic and it pains me to say this but I didn't particularly care for this piece.  I appreciate that the composer meant to mimic the disoriented and dizzy feeling that one has while riding on a merry-go-round but most of the time it just sounded like noise to me, especially a section where it seemed like everyone was playing a different note (it was so jarring).  This hardly mattered because I absolutely loved the next piece as well as the soloist!  Randall Goosby joined the orchestra for Violin Concerto No. 1 by Max Bruch and he was brilliant!  I loved the themes played by the solo violin because they are passionate in the first movement, melancholy and filled with longing in the second movement, and intense in the third movement.  I also really enjoyed the orchestral background because it is incredibly lush but Goosby has such a magnetic stage presence that I couldn't take my eyes off him and all of my attention was focused on his dazzling performance.  The audience literally erupted with thunderous applause so he performed "Louisiana Blues Strut" by Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson as an encore!  After the intermission, the concert concluded with Symphony No. 5 by Antonin Dvorak.  I had never heard this piece before but I'm glad I had the chance last night because it is so emotional and romantic!  I always love it when the woodwinds are prominently featured and the themes played by the clarinets in the first movement are beautiful.  My favorite movement was the second because it has the feel of a Bohemian folk dance with a lyrical theme played by the cellos and then echoed first by the violins and then the woodwinds.  The final movement includes a tender dialogue between the clarinets and violins and another between the flutes, oboes, and violins followed by a triumphant conclusion from the brass.  It was another wonderful evening at Abravanel Hall and I highly recommend getting a ticket for tonight's performance of the same program (go here for tickets).

Note:  Yesterday I renewed all of my subscriptions (Masterworks, Films in Concert, and Opera) for the 2023-2024 season without even knowing what will be programmed!  That is how much I love attending Utah Symphony concerts (and Utah Opera performances).

Go Home Come Back at Plan-B Theatre

I was so excited to see Plan-B Theatre's production of Go Home Come Back in the Studio Theatre at the Rose Wagner Center for the Performing Arts last night because the playwright is my dear friend (and former colleague) Darryl Stamp. It is a heartwarming and humorous take on second chances and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Will (Calbert Beck) and James (Lonzo Liggins) find themselves in a waiting room of sorts with no explanation of where they are or how they came to be there. There are flashbacks to when Will met his future wife Janice (Dee-Dee Darby-Duffin) and to an awkward encounter between James and his estranged daughter Monica (Marilyn Melissa Salguero) as well as periodic announcements (thanking them for their patience which is, rather amusingly, repeated in Spanish) over an intercom.  They are eventually directed to enter to an office where they each meet Llecenia (Kris Wing Peterson), the replacement for the retired St. Peter. It turns out that both Will and James have recently died but, in a new promotion called "Go home come back," they have each been given the opportunity to go home for an hour before they return for permanent placement. Will uses his time to make sure Janice knows how much he loves her while James attempts to make amends for being an absentee father to Monica. There is a thought-provoking twist when they once again find themselves back in the waiting room. I loved so many things about this show! Heaven is portrayed as a corporation and it is a lot of fun, especially all of the references to marketing, but I also found Llecenia's final monologue about loving her job because of all of the happy reunions she gets to witness to be especially comforting after recently losing both of my parents. I also found it hilarious that, despite some questionable behavior in his past, Will is granted a place in Heaven because he taught middle school for ten years and I found it incredibly poignant that the ne'er-do-well James is offered a chance at redemption. The cast is wonderful (I was particularly impressed with the chemistry between Beck and Darby-Duffin), the simple set in the intimate space is highly effective, and the lighting is very dramatic (especially the pillar of light as the characters move from the waiting room to the office). This is such a lovely play (my audience responded very favorably) and I would definitely recommend getting a ticket but, unfortunately, all of the remaining performances are sold out!

Note:  Darryl also curated a playlist of music for the show which can be heard before it begins.  I especially liked "Once in a Lifetime" by the Talking Heads.

A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder at HCTO

I recently had the chance to see A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder at the Empress Theatre and I was very impressed by what they did with an incredibly ambitious show in such a small and intimate space.  Because HCTO is similar in scale I was really eager to see their version and I had the opportunity last night.  I was equally impressed by this production!  After the death of his mother, Monty Navarro (Jordan Nicholes) is informed by her friend Miss Shingle (Bonnie Wilson-Whitlock) that she was once a member of the wealthy and aristocratic D'Ysquith family but was disinherited for marrying his father.  He is really Montague D'Ysquith Navarro and he is in line to inherit an earldom.  However, there are eight family members ahead of him!  When his vain and heartless girlfriend Sibela (Brittany Sanders) marries the rich and handsome Lionel Holland, he decides to murder all eight family members in order to become the Earl of Highhurst and win her back.  Standing in his way are the Reverend Lord Ezekiel D'Ysquith (who has an unfortunate fall from the bell tower of his cathedral), Asquith D'Ysquith, Jr. (who has a bizarre skating accident), Henry D'Ysquith (who is stung by bees), Lady Hyacinth D'Ysquith (who disappears in deepest darkest Africa and is presumed dead), Major Lord Bartholomew D'Ysquith (who is decapitated while lifting weights), Lady Salome D'Ysquith Pomphrey (who is killed when a prop gun is mistakenly loaded with real bullets during her debut in Hedda Gabbler), Lord Asquith D'Ysquith, Sr. (who is driven to a heart attack after hearing about all of the deaths in his family), and, finally, Lord Adalbert D'Ysquith, the Earl of Highhurst, (who is mysteriously poisoned).  Along the way, Monty falls in love with Phoebe D'Ysquith (Lisa Zimmerman) and marries her which makes Sibela jealous.  When Monty becomes the Earl of Highhurst he is arrested for the murder of Adalbert, the only D'Ysquith death for which he is actually not responsible!  The charges are eventually dismissed when Phoebe and Sibela each give proof that the other committed the murder but Monty might not live happily after because Chauncey D'Ysquith, the next in line to the earldom, is lurking!  The cast is absolutely stellar and I particularly enjoyed both Wilson-Whitlock and Laurel Asay Lowe (as Lady Eugenia D'Ysquith) because their characters are so unhinged!  However, the star of the show is Bryan Dayley who plays every member of the D'Ysquith family (I loved him in a similar role in One For The Pot at HCT last year).  He is absolutely hilarious and makes every character feel distinct with his facial expressions and comedic physicality (as well as some quick costume changes).  Every time I see this show I always love a different family member and this time my favorites were the Reverend Ezekiel (because of the way he flails about before he falls) and Lord Adalbert (because of his plummy accent).  As with most productions of this show, the set is reminiscent of an old music hall but I loved the use of a falling red curtain in between scene changes and the elaborate painted backdrops.  A scene where Monty must keep Sibela and Phoebe apart at his flat is staged in an especially clever way and I also loved the singing ancestors at Highhurst.  Finally the period costumes are incredible, especially the highly embellished gowns worn by Sibela and Phoebe!  Do yourself a favor and get a ticket to this hilarious show (go here).  It runs through April 8 but many dates are sold out!

Cocaine Bear

Last night my nephew Sean and I went to see Cocaine Bear with a large crowd at the Broadway and we had a blast with all of the chaotic humor!  When a large shipment of cocaine is inadvertently dropped into the Chattahoochee National Forest, a 500-pound black bear ingests it and becomes highly aggressive as two unfortunate backpackers (Kristofer Hivju and Hannah Hoekstra) soon discover.  Drug kingpin Syd White (Ray Liotta) sends his henchman Daveed (O'Shea Jackson, Jr.) and son Eddie (Alden Ehrenreich) to retrieve it with a local detective (Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) hot on their trail.  Meanwhile, two teens named Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince) and Henry (Christian Convery) skip school and head to the forest so she can paint a waterfall while her mother (Keri Russell) enlists the help of a park ranger (Margo Martindale) and a wildlife expert (Jesse Tyler Ferguson) to find them.  Add three juvenile delinquents (Aaron Holliday, J.B. Moore, and Leo Hanna), two paramedics (Kahyun Kim and Scott Seiss), and a police officer on the take (Ayoola Smart) and mayhem ensues!  As soon as I heard "Jane" by Jefferson Starship (all of the needle drops in this movie are fantastic) during the opening scene, I knew that it would be a wild ride and it was!  There are too many characters to keep track of and the pacing is sometimes uneven but I have to admit that it is wildly entertaining!  Sean and I laughed out loud through the whole thing with some of the funniest moments coming when the violence is at its most graphic (the ambulance scene is hilarious).  This is exactly what you would expect from a movie about a bear jacked up on coke and, if you go in knowing that, it is a lot of fun!  I recommend seeing it with the biggest crowd possible!

An American in Paris in Concert

I love the movie An American in Paris so I was positively giddy with excitement to see it on the big screen while the Utah Symphony performed the score by George and Ira Gershwin last night!  Who could ask for anything more?  Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) is an American ex-GI who decides to stay in Paris after the war to study painting.  One day he meets a lovely Parisian shopgirl named Lise Bouvier (Leslie Caron) and they immediately fall in love while dancing along the Seine.  However, Lise is engaged to Henri Baurel (Georges Guetary) and feels that she can't break her engagement because he kept her safe during the war.  Jerry also feels indebted to his sponsor, an American heiress (Nina Foch) who is in love with him, because she is helping him sell his paintings.  It takes an incredible dream sequence with Jerry and Lise dancing through Jerry's paintings of Paris for them to realize that they belong together.  I loved hearing the orchestra play all of those wonderful Gershwin songs, including "Embraceable You," "Nice Work If You Can Get It," "I Got Rhythm," "Love Is Here to Stay," "I'll Build a Stairway to Paradise," and "'S Wonderful."  However, my favorite moments from the score were Concerto in F for Piano and Orchestra and the American in Paris ballet.  The former is a piece that Adam (Oscar Levant), a composer living in the same building as Jerry, daydreams that he is performing and it is hilarious because he is also the conductor, several musicians, and members of the audience but I was too busy watching the same musicians in the Utah Symphony mimic him (especially the gong and the timpani) in those moments.  The latter is the music used during the extraordinary 17-minute ballet which is said to represent George Gershwin's impressions as an American visitor walking the streets of Paris and I especially loved the themes played by the oboe and horns.  I say this after every performance in the films in concert series but this was so immersive and I loved that the audience applauded after every number!  It was wonderful!

Note:  I had so much fun at this concert but I honestly cannot wait for the next one, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, because I get to hear "Kylo Ren Arrives at the Battle" performed live!  Go here for tickets.