Hello, Dolly! at HCT

Last night I saw the most charming and delightful production of Hello, Dolly! that I have ever seen! I loved everything about this show at HCT and I had a giant smile on my face from beginning to end! At the turn of the century, the irascible Horace Vandergelder (Brian Neal Clark) wants to get married again so that he will have someone to do all of the chores at his Hay & Feed store in Yonkers, New York. His niece Ermengarde (Rachel Bigler) wants to marry an artist named Ambrose Kemper (Dale Hoopes) but her uncle objects because he doesn't have a steady income. His clerk Cornelius Hackl (Landon Horton) is longing for an adventure in New York City so he convinces his fellow clerk Barnaby Tucker (Justin Gibbs) to come along with him and they vow not to return to Yonkers until they have both kissed a girl. They soon meet Irene Molloy (Shae Robins), who owns a millinery shop in NYC but wants a rich husband to take her away because she hates hats, and her assistant Minnie Fay (Amanda Baugh). A recently widowed matchmaker named Dolly Levi (Mack) is hired to find a wife for Vandergelder but she decides that she wants to marry himself. She just needs to convince him! She eventually arranges for all of the couples to meet for a memorable evening at the Harmonia Gardens Restaurant in NYC and merriment ensues! The choreography in this show is incredible and the big song and dance numbers, including "I Put My Hand In," "Put on Your Sunday Clothes," "Dancing," "Before the Parade Passes By," "Waiters' Gallop," and "Hello, Dolly," are exuberant and dynamic and feature a large and incredibly talented ensemble. I really enjoyed the staging of these numbers, particularly "I Put My Hand In," because Dolly appears in the audience handing out her matchmaking cards to audience members (a cute girl sitting next to me got one of the cards and she held it tightly in her hands during the whole show), and "Elegance," because Cornelius, Barnaby, Irene, and Minnie travel all through the audience to get to the Harmonia Gardens because they boys can't afford to hire a cab. Mack oozes charm and charisma as Dolly and, while she has a wonderful voice, I loved all of her interactions with Clark because it is so much fun to watch all of her hilarious facial expressions as she bamboozles him! The rest of the main cast is also fantastic with Horton (I loved his voice) and Gibbs (he is an amazing dancer) as standouts. I was impressed by the set before I even reached my seat because the stage is stenciled with a pink, red, and black pattern with pink and white miniature Victorian houses with working lights around the perimeter of the stage to represent Yonkers and larger pink and white buildings in the wings, which are moved around the stage during the show, to represent NYC. The wings are also decorated with thousands of pink, white, and red flowers with bouquets of flowers and chandeliers hanging from the rafters. Elaborate set pieces, such Vandergelder's Hay & Feed, the millinery shop, and Harmonia Gardens Restaurant, come up from the pit, down from the rafters, and in from the wings, but I loved the train and cutouts of a marching band that cross the stage during "Put on Your Sunday Clothes" and "Before the Parade Passes By," respectively. Finally, the period costumes are gorgeous! Every dress features textured, embellished, embroidered, or bedazzled fabrics and every suit features patterned waistcoats, cravats, and hats. This show is so much fun (I found pink, red, and white confetti in my car when I got home) and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) before the parade passes you by!

Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret

The next movie in my double feature at the Broadway yesterday was Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.  Like most everyone my age, I read this classic book by Judy Blume when I was a pre-teen and I absolutely loved this funny and heartwarming adaptation.  Eleven-year-old Margaret Simon (Abby Ryder Fortson) moves with her mother Barbara (Rachel McAdams) and father Herb (Benny Safdie) from New York City, and her grandmother Sylvia (Kathy Bates), to the suburbs of New Jersey.  Because her parents belong to different faiths Margaret has been raised without religion but she turns to God as she navigates the travails of making new friends, dealing with peer pressure, experiencing her first crush, and trying to understand her changing body.  This movie portrays the awkwardness of early adolescence in an incredibly empathetic way and I related to both Margaret and to Laura Danker (Isol Young), a girl in her class who has developed before everyone else.  There are so many poignant moments, especially when Margaret discovers that Nancy Wheeler (Elle Graham), the friend she has been trying to impress, might not be worth the effort and when she realizes that she has been judging Laura for her early development in the same way that others have been judging her for her lack of development, but I also laughed out loud multiple times, such as when Margaret and her friends do exercises to increase their busts and when they attend a socially awkward party with the boys in their class.  I also really enjoyed both Barbara's and Sylvia's character arcs as they cope with changes in their lives as well (the scene where Barbara says she just doesn't want to be part of the PTA any more made me want to cheer).  Fortson gives an incredibly compelling and honest portrayal of a teen girl and all of her complexities but I also loved McAdams and Bates!  This is an absolutely delightful movie that I recommend to everyone, not just teen girls!

Polite Society

I had a really fun double feature at the Broadway yesterday beginning with Polite Society.  I missed it at Sundance this year so I was excited to have a chance to see it now that it is in wide release.  Ria Khan (Priya Kansara), a Pakistani teen living in London, is a martial arts enthusiast who aspires to be a stuntwoman and her older sister Lena (Ritu Arya) wants to be an artist but has recently dropped out of art school and is at loose ends.  Their traditional father Rafe (Jeff Mirza) and social-climbing mother Fatima (Shobu Kapoor) disapprove of their career goals and would rather have them make advantageous marriages.  When Lena gets engaged to Salim (Akshay Khanna) after a whirlwind courtship encouraged by his mother Raheela (Nimra Bucha), Ria believes that it is a big mistake for her to abandon her art.  She enlists her two best friends Clara (Seraphina Beh) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri) in escalating plots to stop the wedding and hilarity ensues.  This movie is an absolute hoot because it is such a fun mash-up of different genres including action, comedy, and social commentary (with a Bollywood-like musical number thrown in for good measure).  I loved all of the stylized action sequences, including a running gag where Ria attempts a reverse spinning kick multiple times, and a hilarious scene where Ria and her friends execute an elaborate plan to find incriminating evidence against Salim had me, and everyone else in my audience, laughing out loud.  I enjoyed the relationship between Ria and Lena because they are so supportive of each other as they push against the traditional roles and expectations their immigrant parents have of them.  The plot does descend into the absurd at times but it doesn't matter because the tone is so lighthearted and infectious.  Kansara is really endearing in the role and is equally adept with the both the action and the comedy but Bucha steals every scene she is in as an over the top villain with a maniacal grin on her face.  I had a blast with this and I highly recommend it!

Return of the Jedi

I was 14 years old when Return of the Jedi was first released in theaters.  As a huge fan (understatement) of the first two movies in the trilogy, I had been anticipating this one for what seems like forever (it was the first movie for which I remember feeling great anticipation) and I have a very distinct memory of seeing it opening weekend with my family because I loved it so much!  It is now back in theaters for a limited engagement in honor of its 40th Anniversary (what?) and I had so much fun seeing it last night with a boisterous late night crowd (I may or may not have started the cheering when the opening crawl, accompanied by the instantly recognizable fanfare by John Williams, appeared on the screen).  In this final installment of the original trilogy, Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, Lando Calrissian, Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2 rescue Han Solo from the clutches of Jabba the Hut before joining once again with the Rebel Alliance to stop the Emperor from rebuilding the Death Star.  There is an epic battle on Endor and a thrilling final confrontation between Luke and Darth Vader!  I eagerly awaited all of my favorite moments, including when Princess Leia defeats Jabba the Hut, when Luke reunites with Yoda on Dagobah, when the Ewoks use guerrilla warfare to defeat the stormtroopers, when Han Solo tells Leia that he loves her, when Darth Vader rescues Luke from the Emperor, and when Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Yoda appear as force ghosts at the celebration, and I had to stop myself from saying all of my favorite lines out loud ("I'm a Jedi, like my father before me.").  I freely admit that I have a lot of nostalgia for the original trilogy and this is definitely not without flaws but I think I loved it as much last night as I did when I saw it for the first time!  I highly recommend seeing it while it is in theaters again, especially if you are a Star Wars fan!

Note:  I own a Blu-ray copy of every Star Wars movie and I also subscribe to Disney+ so I can watch them any time I want.  However, there is just something about seeing them on the big screen!

The Pirates of Penzance at Parker Theatre

I am a big fan of Gilbert and Sullivan's comic operetta The Pirates of Penzance so I was really excited to see a production at the Parker Theatre (one of my new favorites) last night. It was so much fun! Frederic (Alan Smith) has reached his 21st birthday and decides to leave the band of pirates to whom he has been mistakenly apprenticed. Soon after, he meets Major-General Stanley (Owen Richardson, Jr.) and his daughters, falls in love with the youngest daughter Mabel (Karllen Johnson), and enlists the Sergeant of Police (Connor Evans) and his constables to arrest the pirates. Chaos ensues when the Pirate King (Tyler Oliphant) and Ruth (Natalie Killpack-Daniel), Frederic's former nursemaid, tell him that he was born during a leap year and, since he has only had five birthdays, he must continue to serve his apprenticeship. I was really impressed with the main cast because they all have beautiful voices! Smith is incredibly engaging with brilliant comedic timing, especially in his interactions with Ruth in "Oh! false one, you have deceiv'd me" when he learns that she is not as beautiful as she has claimed to be and with the Pirate King in "When you had left the pirate fold" when he learns that he must join the pirates once again. Oliphant also has great comedic timing and I loved his melodramatic version of "Oh, better far to live and die." Johnson gives one of the best performances of "Poor wand'ring one" that I've seen and she has tremendous chemistry with Smith in "Stay, Fred'ric, stay," "Ah, leave me not to pine," and "Oh, here is love, and here is truth." Richardson is absolutely hilarious in "I am the very model of a modern Major-General," especially when he marches and clicks his heals together, and I laughed out loud during "I'm telling a terrible story" when he admits that he is not really an orphan. However, Evans steals the show with his exaggerated movements and facial expressions (watch his eyes) during "When a felon's not engaged in his employment." The ensemble, including pirates (Danny Eggers, James Carter, Daniel Pittam, and Matty Boyd), daughters (Alicia Fairbanks, Alice Maphey, Elizabeth Myers, Natalie Sandberg, and Katherine Tietjen), and constables (Doug Hendriksen, Arza Joseph Marsh, Ryan Withers, and Logan B. Stacey), are also outstanding because each of them have distinct personalities which make them fun to watch (especially the daughters when they rebuff the advances of the pirates and the costables when they try to hide in the graveyard).  The costumes are great, particularly the colorful dresses worn by the daughters, the epaulets and medals worn by the Major-General, and the spats worn by the constables. The set is quite simple but effective and consists of a ship, the seaside, and a graveyard, and I loved the use of the Union Jack on the proscenium arch.  Hurrah for this delightful production because I enjoyed everything about it!  It runs through May 13 and tickets may be purchased here.