Beetlejuice at the Eccles

Believe it or not I have never seen the movie Beetlejuice (the people I sit by at the Eccles Theater were incredulous when I mentioned this) so I didn't really know what to expect when I saw the musical adaptation last night.  It ended up being a lot of fun and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Beetlejuice (Andrew Kober) is a lonely demon who is tired of being invisible but in order to be seen he needs someone who is alive to say his name three times.  He enlists the help of Barbara and Adam Maitland (Britney Coleman and Will Burton, respectively), a recently deceased but very mild-mannered couple, and convinces them to haunt their former house which is now owned by Charles Deetz (Jesse Sharp) and his daughter Lydia (Isabella Esler).  She is obsessed with death because she is still mourning the loss of her mother and this enables her to see the Maitlands and Beetlejuice.  Chaos ensues as Lydia uses Beetlejuice and the Maitlands to stop her father from replacing her mother with her life coach Delia (Kate Marilly) and to find her mother in the Netherworld while Beetlejuice uses her to bring him to life.  As with many musicals that are adapted from popular movies, most of the songs (except for"Dead Mom" and "Home" which are my favorites from the show) are not particularly memorable but the performances more than make up for this.  Kober acts as a sort of Master of Ceremonies and breaks the fourth wall with lots of off-color but humorous asides to the audience.  His renditions of "The Whole 'Being Dead' Thing," and its many reprises, "Fright of Their Lives," "Say My Name," and "That Beautiful Sound" are incredibly frenetic and highly entertaining with an ensemble backing him up as a marching band and cheerleaders, a gospel choir, cloned versions of himself, and large skeleton puppets.  Marilly brings a lot of comedy and physicality to "No Reason" and both Coleman and Burton are the perfect foils to Kober's mania in "Fright of Their Lives" and "Say My Name."  However, the star of the show, in my opinion, is Esler.  Her version of "Dead Mom" is incredibly moving as Lydia asks her mother to help her through her grief.  I think this show loses a bit of focus and momentum in the second act but the song "Home" is such a beautiful turning point because Lydia realizes that her mother is dead but that there are people in her life who love her and Esler just about blows the roof off the Eccles Theater singing it.  I loved all of the special effects, especially how falling into the Netherworld is depicted, the amazing set featuring a house that is transformed multiple times, and the iconic Beetlejuice striped suit (which I saw many people in the audience wearing).  I enjoyed this so much more than I expected and I am sure fans of the movie will love it (although the people around me told me that it differed quite a bit from the source material but in a good way).  It runs at the Eccles Theater through Sunday August 13 (go here for tickets).

Meg 2: The Trench

I went to see The Meg on a whim and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it despite the negative reviews.  Even though the sequel, Meg 2: The Trench, also received negative reviews I thought it would still be a lot of fun so I went to see it last night.  Unfortunately, it has too much intrigue and not enough megalodons.  Jonas Taylor (Jason Statham) exposes environmental crimes part time and, since Suyin Zhang has apparently died, he works with her brother Juiming Zhang (Wu Jing) on the Mana One research station while caring for her teenage daughter Meiying (Shuya Sophia Cai).  Jonas and Juiming lead another expedition to the Mariana Trench along with Meiying (who stows away) and a few other expendable crew members and, once again, they are trapped and, once again, their escape allows several megalodons to reach the surface as well.  However, this time the megalodons are not the only threat.  Our heroes must also contend with a villainous financier (Sienna Guillory) who wants to use Juiming's technology for deep sea mining, an eco-terrorist (Sergio Peris-Mencheta) with a grudge against Jonas, and other prehistoric creatures that have escaped from the trench.  What made the first movie so much fun is all of the silly and campy action set pieces but, other than some dark and messy CGI sequences set on the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the first two acts of this one are incredibly dull and boring with way too much exposition.  It does get a bit better in the final act when Jonas and crew must save the tourists on Fun Island (the best scene involves Jonas fighting a group of megalodons with harpoons while on a jet ski because it is just so ridiculous) but it is too little and too late.  I was a bit disappointed with this and recommend giving it a miss.

Note:  Pippin makes another appearance and, honestly, that was the high point for me.

Catch Me If You Can at HCT

It is always really refreshing when I have the chance to see a play or musical with which I am not familiar (all of the theaters around me tend to cycle through the same popular shows) so I was excited for Catch Me If You Can at HCT last night. This is not the musical adaptation of the movie starring Tom Hanks and Leonardo DiCaprio but a cat and mouse mystery that kept me guessing until the very end! An advertising executive named Daniel Corban (Dallin Bradford) is honeymooning in the Catskills Mountains at a cabin owned by his boss. When his new wife Elizabeth goes missing after an argument, he coerces the bumbling local detective Inspector Levine (Jason Hackney), who is also investigating the theft of an expensive bracelet at a nearby hotel, into looking for her. Eventually the local priest, Father Kelleher (David Weekes), brings Elizabeth (Meg Flinders) back to the cabin but this woman is not his wife and this sets off a series of mysterious events, including murder, after Daniel is unable to convince Levine that she is an impostor. I really enjoyed this because it is filled with lots of twists and turns and red herrings but, when the mystery is finally solved, you realize that all of the clues have been there all along. It is so clever! Bradford gives an incredibly compelling performance because Daniel becomes more and more confused as the play goes on and you never really know if he is losing his mind or not and this provides a lot of tension. Hackney provides a bit of comic relief as a wise-cracking inspector who pits Daniel and Elizabeth against each other. Flinders also gives a brilliant performance because her portrayal of such an unlikable character is highly exaggerated and I loved the hostile interactions between her and Bradford as they attempt to outwit each other. The set, featuring a multi-level luxury cabin in the mountains, is really impressive with lots of 1960s period verisimilitude and I especially loved the wall of windows upstage through which projections of the woods are shown, the working fire pit, and the curved sofa. It was also fun to see the attention to detail with all of the props (so many ashtrays) and costumes. This is a well-crafted and entertaining murder mystery that might surprise you as much as it did me and I definitely recommend it (go here for tickets). It runs on the Sorenson Legacy Jewel Box Stage through November 11.

Note:  Do not miss the fantastic production of Newsies on the Young Living Stage through August 26 (go here for tickets).

Something Rotten at CPT

I love the musical Something Rotten!  Because I am a former high school English teacher and a self-professed theatre junkie I feel like this hilarious spoof of Shakespeare and musical theatre was written just for me! I was so excited when I saw that it was part of the 2023 season at CPT and I couldn't wait for my sisters to experience it (I may or may not have been hyping it up to them for months). Needless to say they now love it as much as I do after seeing a performance last night!  Nick and Nigel Bottom (J.R. Moore and Zach Watts, respectively) are playwrights in London during the Renaissance but, unfortunately, they have not been very successful. Their patron, Lord Clapham (Doug Caldwell), is withdrawing his support, Shylock (Doug Caldwell) wants his loan repaid, Nick's wife Bea (Annie Ferrin) is pregnant, and Nigel has fallen in love with Portia (Grace Liljenquist), the daughter of a Puritan (Dan Call) who wants to shut down the theaters for debauchery. To make matters worse, they are constantly overshadowed by the immensely popular William Shakespeare (Isaac Carillo). In desperation, Nick consults with the soothsayer Nostradamus (Scott W. Butler) to see what will be popular in the future. He suggests writing a play with singing and dancing in one of my favorite numbers in the show, "A Musical." When inspiration fails yet again, Nick asks Nostradamus to look into the future to see what Shakespeare's most popular play will be but, instead of Hamlet, he sees omelette (so close!).  As Nick tries to produce Omelette: The Musical, Shakespeare suffers from writer's block in another one of my favorite numbers, "Hard to Be the Bard," and tries to steal his own play back! Chaos ensues until Nigel teaches Nick an important lesson in "To Thine Own Self." This show is hysterically funny and I honestly don't think I stopped laughing from beginning to end! I had so much fun spotting all of the references to musical theatre (my favorite is RENT in "A Musical") and to Shakespeare's plays (my favorite is Richard III in "Will Power"). The entire cast is outstanding! My sisters really liked Butler because of his fully committed physical performance when predicting the future and I loved Carillo because he is so over the top and plays Shakespeare as if he was a rock star strutting across the stage while posing for his adoring fans (his facial expressions when he hears Nigel's play about a Danish prince had me laughing so hard I couldn't breathe). The ensemble is also incredible, especially with the high energy choreography in "A Musical" and "Make an Omelette." Speaking of which, it is absolutely brilliant because it mimics the instantly recognizable choreography of the musicals being parodied (I loved the homage to "Sisters" in White Christmas as well as all of the Fosse-style Jazz hands and the high-kicking chorus lines).  The elaborate set, featuring half-timbered thatched-roof buildings and a replica of the Globe Theatre, and the Renaissance costumes are a lot of fun (although I missed Shakespeare's giant cod piece from the Broadway touring production). This is an incredibly entertaining show that will have you laughing out loud and I highly recommend it!  It runs on the Barlow Main Stage through September 2 (go here for tickets). My sisters and I want to see it again!

West Side Story at West Valley Arts

I have always really loved the musical West Side Story so I was very happy to have the opportunity to see a production at West Valley Arts last night! It is fantastic! The story revolves around the forbidden romance between Tony (Maxx Teuscher) and Maria (Samantha Paredes) and the animosity it stirs up between the Jets and the Sharks, two rival street gangs who are vying for territory. My favorite aspect of this particular show is the dynamic choreography by Ben Roeling! I especially loved the Prologue because it immediately establishes the tension between the two gangs just by using stylized movement, the Dance at the Gym because the way in which the Jets, the Sharks, and their girls part when Tony and Maria first see each other is incredibly dramatic, "America" because Anita (Sophia Morrill Mancilla) and the girls are so athletic and exuberant, the dream sequence during "Somewhere" because it is unbelievably ethereal and heartbreaking, and "Gee, Officer Krupke" with Action (Byerly Nielson) and the rest of the Jets because the physical comedy is hilarious. The performances in this show are outstanding and I particularly loved Teuscher's renditions of "Something's Coming" and "Maria" as well as his versions of "Tonight" and "One Hand, One Heart" with Paredes. Speaking of Paredes, her performance in the final scene is so affecting that it brought tears to my eyes. However, I was most impressed with Mancilla because her rage during "A Boy Like That" and her terror during the scene at the drug store when the Jets attack her are palpable. The minimal set, featuring brick walls and chain link fences surrounding the main stage and fire escapes (where the famous balcony scenes take place) in the areas above the wings, is very effective and so is the lighting design which uses warm reds for the Sharks and cool blues for the Jets. Having said that, I wish the costume design had done more to distinguish between the two gangs (especially at the dance) but I loved all of the period dresses with all of the layers of tulle. This is a beautiful production of a show with a powerful message that it still very relevant today and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here). It runs at the West Valley Performing Arts Center through August 26 with performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.