In the Heights at the Grand Theatre

Last night I was really excited to see In the Heights at the Grand Theatre.  I love this show so much and this is a fantastic production!  A woman named Claudia (Sonia Maritza Inoa-Rosado Maughan) acts as an abuela, or grandmother, to everyone in a small community in Washington Heights.  Usnavi (Armando Serrano) runs a bodega which is beset with problems, including a refrigerator that doesn't work, and tries to keep his wayward cousin Sonny (Avery Sims) in line but dreams of returning to the cool breezes of the Dominican Republic.  Vanessa (Sophia Morrill Mancilla) is hoping to escape the barrio, and an abusive mother, to move downtown but a credit check for her new apartment stands in her way.  Nina (Aisha Marie Garcia) is the pride of her parents, Kevin (Monte Garcia) and Camila (Sophia Valdez Davis), and the whole neighborhood because she received a scholarship to Stanford.  But college is a lot harder than she thought it would be, especially since she has to work two jobs to make ends meet, and she is thinking of quitting.  Benny (Onias Snuka) dreams of taking over the cab company owned by Kevin but his interest in Nina sours his relationship with his employer.  Abuela Claudia has looked after all of them their whole lives and she just might find a way to help them make their dreams come true!  The entire cast, which is made up of POC, is amazing but the standouts for me are Garcia and Snuka as Nina and Benny.  My favorite songs in the show are "When You're Home," "Sunrise," and "When the Sun Goes Down" and Garcia and Snuka perform them with so much emotion that I had tears in my eyes during all three!  I also really enjoyed Whitney Harris Gutirrez as Daniela because she is so dramatic and her renditions of "No Me Diga" and "Carnaval del Barrio" are so fun.  The ensemble is also really strong and they can really dance!  Speaking of which, the choreography for "In the Heights," "96,000," "The Club" (the dance-off between couples is so sultry), "Blackout," and "Carnaval del Barrio" is incredibly energetic but I absolutely loved that it seamlessly includes a member of the ensemble who is in a wheelchair (Mason Burr is a fantastic dancer).  I was also really impressed with the set, which features storefronts for Daniela's salon, Usnavi's bodega, and the Rosario Cab Company as well as Claudia's stoop with fire escapes connecting them, and the lighting design, especially the fireworks and the candlelight procession during "Alabanza."  I have seen this show many times and this production is one of the best!  Definitely get a ticket (go here).

Grease

My sister Marilyn and I are huge fans of the movie Grease so we were really excited that it was being released in theaters again to commemorate its 45th anniversary (what?) as part of Fathom's Big Screen Classics series. We went to see it last night and we both loved it (we tried hard not to sing along to every single song but we may or may not have been successful).  Grease is the quintessential high school movie featuring a love story between bad boy Danny Zuko (John Travolta), the leader of the T-Birds, and Sandy Olsson (Olivia Newton-John), a good girl who has recently transferred to Rydell High from Australia.  They have a summer romance but it takes a little help from the rest of the T-Birds (Jeff Conaway, Barry Pearl, Michael Tucci, and Kelly Ward) and the Pink Ladies (Stockard Channing, Didi Conn, Jamie Donnelly, and Dinah Manoff) to get them back together by graduation.  I love all of the songs, especially "Grease" during the opening and end credits, "Summer Nights," "Hopelessly Devoted to You," "Greased Lightnin'," "Sandy," and "You're the One That I Want," and the choreography is so much fun and definitely stands the test of time (I actually prefer the movie adaptation to the stage version because of the new songs that are used and the choreography).  I love Newton-John (it was a little bit sad to see her on the screen after her recent passing) and Travolta as Danny and Sandy because, even though they both look way too old to play high school students, they have so much chemistry together, especially during "Born to Hand Jive." I also really love all of the cameos by popular stars from the 1950s, such as Sid Caesar, Eve Arden, Alice Ghostley, Joan Blondell, and Frankie Avalon.  Finally, even though I didn't grow up during the 1950s, I love all of the nostalgia for the era with all of the leather jackets, letterman sweaters, poodle skirts, malt shops, drive-in movies, and fantastic cars.  It was so much fun to see this on the big screen with my sister and we are now looking forward to seeing The Birds in October and A Christmas Story in December as part of the Big Screen Classics series (go here to see all of the movies in this series).

Note:  Every time I watch this movie as an adult I am always really shocked by the suggestive lyrics because my sisters and I used to sing them at the top of our lungs whenever we watched it as kids!

Hans Christian Andersen in New York at HCT

Last night I went to the world premiere of the musical Hans Christian Andersen in New York at Hale Theatre. It is a reimagining of the 1952 movie musical Hans Christian Andersen and includes all of the songs by Frank Loesser but features a more contemporary story about the famous Danish storyteller's fictional ancestor who lives in New York City in 1962. Hans Christian Andersen (Alex King), a former dancer on Broadway, has inherited the lease of a bookstore from his aunt but she was behind on the payments so he faces eviction.  He lets his best friend Bunny Bailey (Erin Royall Carlson) use the back of the store as a dance studio where she teaches her young students, including Tiffany (Lucy White), Rosalie (Elsa Parry), Carol (Hailey Burnham), Ashley (Libby Despain), and Darlene (Sophia Quinn), to make some extra money.  She suggests putting on a show with her students to save the bookstore and, while he is initially against the idea, his great uncle Hans (Mark Pulham) appears periodically to encourage him.  Add Bobbie Tone (Selena Quayle Proctor), a Broadway friend roped into the job of director and choreographer, a possible romance with Nancy Offenbach (Amy Shreeve Keeler), the mother of two children, Natalie and Ian (Olivia Dietlein and Mason Burnham, respectively), who try out for the show, and Harry Porter (Ben Henersen), a bumbling but helpful community theatre actor from Omaha who offers to play Santa Claus, and merriment ensues!  This has the thinnest of plots (most of the scenes exist to set up the songs rather than tell a story) and it is not very compelling but, having said that, all of the musical numbers are fantastic!  I especially enjoyed "I Hear Music," "Hoop-Dee-Doo," "Thumbelina," "Tallahassee," and "The King's New Clothes" because they feature really fun choreography with the children who are unbelievably talented and charismatic! Unfortunately, I didn’t care for King in the title role because every movement, gesture, and facial expression is very mechanical so I didn't really buy his performance. The rest of the cast is fine but I loved Proctor's turn as an over-the-top diva, particularly when she instructs the girls on how to bow, and Mason Burnham steals the show every time he is on stage (he received the loudest applause and cheers during the bows).  There is an amazing live band, composed of Derek Crane, Reed Le Cheminant, Craig Moore, Alex Marshall, Eric Noyes, Emily Maddison, and Cris Stiles, and they sit in the windows of the buildings that surround the NYC set.  Speaking of which, it is pretty spectacular with a two-storey bookstore on one side of the turntable and a dance studio on the other.  The Christmas decorations at the store and the backdrops used for the show are a lot of fun and so are the 1960s era costumes. This show is a throw-back to the golden age of musicals and the big song and dance numbers are sure to put a smile on your face. It runs on the Sorenson Legacy Jewel Box Stage through July 15 (go here for tickets).

Note:  Don't miss the delightful production of Hello, Dolly! now playing on the Young Living Centre Stage through June 10 (go here for tickets).

BlackBerry

I was really excited to see the movie BlackBerry because I had one of the earliest models back in the day and I thought it was the coolest thing ever (before I bought an iPhone).  I saw it with my nephew at the Broadway last night and we both enjoyed it.  Mike Lazaridis (Jay Baruchel) is a socially awkward tech genius who, along with his best friend Doug Fregin (Matt Johnson) and the nerdy employees of his company Research in Motion, has an idea for a revolutionary device that acts as both a phone and a computer.  However, he lacks the skills and connections to successfully market his invention so, against Doug's advice, he joins forces with an aggressive and unscrupulous businessman named Jim Balsillie (Glenn Howerton).  Mike's creativity and Jim's ruthlessness turn Research in Motion into a billion-dollar company but compromise and corruption eventually bring about its downfall.  This is a fascinating character study that is almost Shakespearean because both Mike and Jim foreshadow their fatal flaws of ambition and greed early on which lead to devastating, but entertaining, results.  I enjoyed the structure of the narrative because it follows the rise and fall of the company without much in between and there are clever scenes at the end that mirror earlier ones.  I found it to be both riveting and funny (although I am Canadian and I noticed that there were many times when I was the only one laughing at specific references, especially a scene where Jim is watching Hockey Night in Canada with Don Cherry).  I also liked the hand-held camera work because the documentary style is very effective at depicting a behind-the-scenes corporate environment.  Finally, Baruchel gives one of his best performances but Howerton is completely unhinged (in the best possible way).  I liked this even more than I was expecting to (my nephew ranks it as one his favorites this year) and I highly recommend it.

The Last Word

My May Book of the Month selection was The Last Word by Taylor Adams (the other options were The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Brammer, Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez, Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul, The Half Moon by Mary Beth Keane, and Paper Names by Susie Luo). I, once again, defaulted to the thriller and I am glad that I did because this is a good one! After suffering a personal tragedy, Emma Carpenter takes a job house-sitting on an isolated island along the Washington coast. Her only human contact is Deek, an old and enigmatic neighbor with whom she plays word games from afar using a whiteboard and a telescope. She spends most of her time reading and, after finishing a poorly written horror novel by H.G. Kane, she decides to leave a one star review. She is disconcerted when the author responds to her online with a threatening message but that soon turns to fear when disturbing incidents begin happening. Emma eventually discovers that all of Kane's novels involve stalking and murder from the POV of the murderer and she suspects that they are based on true events. Is Kane stalking her and will she be the subject of his next book? The narrative alternates between Emma's POV as she plays a cat-and-mouse game with an intruder who seems to have the upper hand and the manuscript of a novel describing the events as they happen and this device is incredibly effective at creating suspense because you are never entirely sure who is writing this manuscript! Speaking of which, there are so many twists and turns and, even though I thought I had a big one figured out early on, this definitely kept me guessing until the last page. Adams uses the isolated cabin trope very well with an atmosphere of unease and foreboding and there were multiple times when I was genuinely scared because the tension is unrelenting. I really enjoyed Emma as a character because she is sympathetic with a lot of unresolved grief and trauma, which is revealed little by little, but she is also very strong and clever with an arc that feels earned. This is an action-packed thriller but I also liked the thought-provoking commentary about art vs. criticism, especially with the anonymity of the internet. I honestly couldn't put this down (I read it in one day) and I highly recommend it!

Note:  This features a dog in peril and that could be triggering for some people.