A Tale of Two Cities at West Valley Arts

I really love the musical A Tale of Two Cities (it is my favorite novel by Charles Dickens). I saw both HCT's productions, in 2011 and 2021 (multiple times), and I count them as some of the best I've seen there. When I learned that the same production team (John Sweeney, Anne Puzey, and Marilyn Montgomery) responsible for the 2011 production was back (on the same stage) for the first show at West Valley Arts this season, I immediately bought a ticket for last night's performance. It was amazing! Lucie Manette (Brittany Andam), a young woman in London who believes that she is an orphan, learns that her father, Dr. Alexander Manette (Jared Haddock), is alive after having been wrongly imprisoned in the Bastille by the Marquise St. Evremonde (John Philpott). She travels to Paris to bring him home to London and meets Charles Darnay (Landon Horton), the nephew of Evremonde who has renounced his ties to the aristocracy, on the journey and they fall in love. Darnay is wrongfully accused of treason upon arrival in London but the dissolute lawyer Sydney Carton (Preston Yates) clears his name. Carton is also secretly in love with Lucie but, when she marries Darnay, he remains a friend of the family and becomes attached to her daughter Lucie (Jane Bonner). In Paris, Evremonde is responsible for the death of a child when his carriage recklessly runs him over in front of the Defarge's wine shop. Madame Defarge (Adrien Swenson), who has a grudge against Evremonde, encourages the boy's father, Gaspard (Ricky Dowse), to murder him which ultimately leads to revolution. Darnay feels responsible for Evremonde's household and secretly returns Paris where he is immediately arrested as an aristocrat, denounced by Madame Defarge who wants to wipe out all descendants of Evremonde, and sentenced to the guillotine. This prompts Carton to make the ultimate sacrifice to save Darnay and show his love for Lucie and her daughter. The music in this show is incredibly beautiful and stirring and I especially love "The Way It Ought to Be" by the men and women of Paris, "You'll Never Be Alone" by Dr. Manette and Lucie, "If Dreams Came True" and its reprise by Sydney and Charles, and "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" by Madame Defarge. The entire cast is outstanding but I was blown away by Yates' portrayal of Carton. His versions of "If Dreams Came True" in the second act and "I Can't Recall" as he slowly walks up the steps to the guillotine in the final scene moved me to tears. I also really loved Swenson, who has portrayed Madame Defarge in all three productions I've seen, because she sings "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" and "The Tale" with so much passion! Linda Jean Stephenson, as Miss Pross, Daniel Radford, as John Barsad, and Mason Gates, as Jerry Cruncher, provide a lot of comic relief with their hilarious performances (the novels of Dickens are very dense and filled with a lot of side characters so I appreciate how they are incorporated into the main story in this adaptation). The set, featuring several multi-level wooden platforms which are reconfigured into many different locations seamlessly by the ensemble, is simple but incredibly dramatic. My favorite set piece is the staircase leading to the guillotine, which slowly comes down from the rafters, because it is incredibly powerful! I also loved the bold lighting design, particularly the use of red hand prints projected on the floor during the scenes inciting revolution and the single spotlight on the stairs to the guillotine. I was very moved by this production and would highly recommend it but, unfortunately, the run ended last night. West Valley Arts will also be producing Shakespeare in Love, The Lightning Thief, Legally Blonde, and Jekyll & Hyde this season (go here for information and tickets).

Note:  Jill Santoriello, who wrote the book, music, and lyrics for this show, was in the audience last night. She sat a few rows ahead of me and I noticed that she was mouthing the words to the songs!

Drive-Away Dolls

I have been looking forward to Drive-Away Dolls ever since I saw the first trailer (I thought it looked fun and quirky) so I went to see a matinee at the Broadway yesterday.  Unfortunately, I was really disappointed because I was expecting something much better from one of the Coen brothers.  Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Viswanathan) are lesbians and unlikely best friends living in Philadelphia in 1999.  The free-spirited Jamie has just been dumped by her girlfriend Sukie (Beanie Feldstein) so she invites herself along when the uptight Marian plans a trip to Tallahassee to visit her aunt.  Jamie suggests getting a car from a driveaway service (where someone is paid to drive a rental car one way to a specific destination) but they are inadvertently given the wrong car, one with a mysterious case inside that is also headed to Tallahassee for a criminal organization headed by the Chief (Colman Domingo).  When the Chief discovers the mistake, he sends his bickering associates, Arliss (Joey Slotnick) and Flint (C.J. Wilson), after the girls to retrieve the case but they have taken various detours to lesbian bars to help Marian loosen up.  Chaos ensues.  Qualley and Viswanathan, especially, do what they can with the material but I didn't like either of their characters (I enjoyed Feldstein, Domingo, and a cameo from Matt Damon so much more) and their actions quickly become tedious because they are so meaningless.  The humor, in my opinion, is very juvenile rather than quirky and I did not laugh even once (no one in my audience did, either).  The editing is an absolute mess with transitions that look like they were created with iMovie and there are also several really strange, and jarring, psychedelic sequences with Miley Cyrus that have absolutely no context until the very end.  The best thing I can say about this movie is that it is only 84 minutes long (I don't think I could have listened to Qualley's obnoxious accent for much longer).  I highly recommend giving this a miss.

The Boys in the Boat

I was really interested in seeing The Boys in the Boat when it was first released on Christmas Day but then I got busy and eventually forgot about it.  I noticed that it was still at my local multiplex when I was there on Tuesday and decided to see it last night.  It is a very serviceable underdog sports movie based on a true story but, as I am a huge fan of that genre, I absolutely loved it (and even had a tear in my eye at the end).  Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) was abandoned by his family at the age of 14 during the Great Depression and is now fending for himself while attending the University of Washington.  He is behind on his tuition payments and is unable to find work so he, along with hundreds of other students, attempts to win a spot on the men's eight crew because the team offers financial support and a place to live.  Despite having never rowed before, Coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton), who is under tremendous pressure from the school and the booster club to win, is impressed by his hard work and determination and gives him a spot on the J.V. boat.  Overcoming tremendous odds, the team has a successful season and the J.V. boat is given the opportunity to compete at the Poughkeepsie Regatta (an Olympic qualifying race) over the senior boat.  They face even more obstacles (so many obstacles!) when they reach the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and I was literally holding my breath when the final race has a photo finish!  This story is told in a very conventional way (there is even the requisite training montage) but it is still incredibly compelling and I was riveted for the entire runtime.  Turner is very appealing (he looks good as a blonde) and sympathetic in the lead role, especially in a scene where is is reunited with the father who abandoned him.  I have never been interested in rowing before but it certainly looks beautiful portrayed on screen, particularly the overhead shots of the oars slapping against the water in unison.  I loved the 1930s period detail in the costumes and production design as well as the stirring score by Alexandre Desplat (one of my favorite movie composers).  This doesn't do anything new but it doesn't have to because it is so entertaining and inspiring.  I enjoyed it a lot and I recommend it now that it is available on VOD.

Bob Marley: One Love

Now that I have seen all of the new releases at my favorite art house theater I decided to see Bob Marley: One Love last night and, even though I am am only a casual fan, I liked it.  The narrative follows Bob Marley (Kingsley Ben-Adir) for two tumultuous years from 1976 to 1978 and is book-ended by two concerts in Jamaica.  Political turmoil, which brings Jamaica to the brink of civil war, prompts Marley to organize a free concert promoting peace.  However, he, his wife Rita (Lashana Lynch), and another band member are shot in an attack that is thought to be politically motivated and, even though they recover enough to perform at the concert, Marley and the Wailers soon flee to London.  While there he is inspired by his situation and records Exodus, widely regarded to be his most popular and influential album, and embarks on a successful European tour.  It is only when he is diagnosed with a rare form of cancer (which eventually ends his life) that he is able to face his fears and his past to return to Jamaica for another peace concert.  This is little more than a surface level exploration of Marley's life and music because, even though there are brief flashbacks to his difficult childhood (Nolan Collignon portrays Marley as a child), his early relationship with with Rita (Quan-Dajai Henrique portrays Marley as a young man and Nia Ashi portrays Rita as a young woman), his introduction to Rastafari, and his early days with the Wailers, I really wanted to know more about all of the above.  The biggest positives for me are the performances of Ben-Adir, who disappears into the role and nails Marley's physicality on stage, and Lynch, who is incredibly compelling as the only character who really challenges Marley.  I always enjoy seeing a musician's creative process so I really loved the scene where Marley and the Wailers improvise an early version of "Exodus" and the scene where he plays "Redemption Song" for his children and tells Rita that he has been writing it his whole life is incredibly moving.  The use of Marley's amazing music is also a highlight (I am really happy that my favorite song, "No Woman, No Cry," was included and I especially loved that it was performed live).  This could have been more comprehensive but I enjoyed it and would recommend it.

The Taste of Things

The second foreign film in my double feature at the Broadway last night was The Taste of Things.  I was really excited to see this because of everything I had heard about it and it certainly didn't disappoint.  Dodin (Benoit Magimel) is a French landowner in 1885 who meets regularly with a group of his fellow gourmands for a meal he prepares with his cook Eugenie (Juliette Binoche) with whom he has been having an affair for over twenty years.  She refuses to eat these meals with him and his friends and refuses his frequent proposals of marriage.  When Dodin and his friends are invited to an elaborate eight hour meal prepared by the distinguished chef of a visiting prince, they are all disappointed because they prefer the artistry of Eugenie's cooking and Dodin makes plans to invite the prince to his chateau for a simple meal consisting of a pot-au-feu.  However, Eugenie begins having fainting spells that worry Dodin so, while she rests, he prepares an exquisite meal for her after which she finally accepts his proposal.  This is a beautiful and moving story about how the purest form of love is preparing food for someone!  The vast majority of the runtime involves the meticulous preparation of gourmet meals featuring many different courses followed by people eating them with pleasure and there is very little dialogue (and no score beyond the sounds of nature from the open windows) but these scenes are absolutely captivating because the food looks amazing and you can almost smell the aromas through the screen.  Binoche (who is luminous as always) and Magimel give lovely performances because, not only do they have insane chemistry with each other (this is one of the most romantic movies I've seen in a long time), but they also really seem to be cooking all of the food!  The cinematography, whether the camera is panning over simmering and sizzling pots or the sun-dappled garden where many of the ingredient are freshly picked, is simply gorgeous.  I loved everything about this delightful film and highly recommend it.