The Hunchback of Notre Dame at Murray Park Amphitheater

Murray Park Amphitheater is one of my favorite outdoor venues in the summer and The Hunchback of Notre Dame is one of my favorite musicals so I had a wonderful time seeing a fantastic production of this show there last night!  Quasimodo (Patrick O'Boyle) has been hidden by his master Frollo (Layne Wilden) in the bell tower of Notre Dame Cathedral all of his life because he is deformed.  The gargoyles convince him that it will be safe for him to roam the streets of Paris during the Feast of Fools and he is eventually crowned the King of Fools.  However, when the crowd turns on him, he is rescued by the gypsy Esmeralda (Mia Crutch).  She also catches the eye of the captain of the cathedral guard Phoebus de Martin (James Dixon) who falls in love with her and she bewitches Frollo who becomes obsessed with possessing her.  When Esmeralda rejects Frollo, he orders Phoebus to arrest her but he refuses and they both become fugitives who are aided by Quasimodo until the final confrontation in the bell tower.  In my opinion, the best part of this show is Crutch because she is such a great singer, dancer, and actor.  She is captivating in "Rhythm of the Tambourine," incredibly powerful in "God Help the Outcasts" (my favorite song in the show), playful in "Top of the World," and very affecting in "Someday."  I was also impressed with Wilden's passionate rendition of "Hellfire" and O'Boyle's renditions of "Heaven's Light" and "Made of Stone" (this gave me goosebumps).  Other highlights of this production are the live orchestra, under the direction of Nate Holcomb, and the choir (I loved that they are robed and located on either side of the stage in areas that mimic the chancel in a cathedral) which adds so much to "The Bells of Notre Dame" and all of its reprises.  The striking set features wooden platforms of different levels, which Quasimodo uses to ring the bells, and is dominated by a large rose window that is reflected on the floor of the stage.  The amphitheater does not have a lot of the technical wizardry that other theatres around the valley do so I really appreciate the clever staging of some of the more complicated scenes, particularly the final confrontation, and the dramatic lighting.  I wish that the gargoyles had more obvious costumes (they wear simple collars over their other costumes) because it is sometimes confusing to know when they are in a scene but I can understand why the actors wouldn't want to wear something more substantial in the heat.  Seeing a show at the Murray Park Amphitheater is a great way to spend a summer evening and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) to this or any of the other performances (I am excited for Peter and the Starcatcher next month).

Twisters

I have been looking forward to Twisters ever since the first trailer dropped during the Super Bowl so I was really excited to see it last night at a Thursday preview.  It is a crowd-pleasing summer blockbuster and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar-Jones) is a storm chaser trying to prove her theory about a method for taming tornadoes with her crew, including her friends Javi (Anthony Ramos), Addy (Kiernan Shipka), and Praveen (Nik Dodani) and her boyfriend Jeb (Daryl McCormack), but when she miscalculates the strength of the storm only she and Javi survive.  Five years later Kate is now working for NOAA in New York but she is still tormented by the deaths of her team members.  However, Javi now has military-grade equipment and corporate sponsors and he lures her back to Oklahoma to collect data during a particularly devastating storm season.  Javi's business partner Scott (David Corenswet) is not happy to have her on their team and things are further complicated by the appearance of Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), a reckless storm chasing YouTube personality known as the "Tornado Wrangler," his crew, including Boone (Brandon Perea), Lilly (Sasha Lane), Dexter (Tunde Adebimpe), and Dani (Katy O'Brian), as well as a British journalist (Harry Hadden-Paton) who is writing an article about him.  Kate begins to suspect Javi's motivation and eventually joins Tyler after he convinces her to resume her research.  It goes without saying that the action sequences are amazing with incredible visual effects and immersive sound design that put the audience in the middle of tornadoes as they wreak havoc on a motel, a rodeo, an oil refinery, and a movie theater as well as fields and entire towns (see this on the biggest screen possible).  Having said that, the story is actually much better than I was expecting and I was particularly moved by the emphasis on the casualties of these cataclysmic storms.  I think Edgar-Jones is really bland in the role but Powell has enough charisma to spare (even though I didn't really buy the romance shoe-horned in at the end) and the supporting cast is a lot of fun despite not having much to do.  I should mention that, other than a cameo from "Dorothy," this is a standalone sequel to the original so don't expect a lot of nostalgia. I recommend it as an entertaining movie to watch with a big tub of popcorn!

Ben Platt at the Eccles

I love Ben Platt's latest album Honeymind but I especially love the song "Andrew," which was released as the first single several months before the album dropped.  I listened to this song over and over and, every time I did, I would imagine how amazing it would be to hear it live!  So I was absolutely thrilled when the tour was announced and, even though the ticket was more than I wanted to spend, I bought one during the presale (my plan to be more frugal this summer is not going well).  Last night's concert at the Eccles was my first time hearing him live and it was incredible!  He performed quite a few songs from Honeymind including "Right Kind of Reckless" (which opened the show), "All American Queen," "Shoe to Drop," "Monsters," "Cherry on Top," "Before I Knew You" (which ended his main set), and "Andrew" (which definitely did not disappoint and was the highlight of the show for me).  He also performed some of his favorite songs from his previous releases Sing to Me Instead and Reverie (both of which I also love), prefaced with some highly amusing anecdotes, including "Ease My Mind," "Rain," "Share Your Address," a brilliant rendition of "Grow as We Go," and "I Wanna Love You But I Don't."  His covers of James Taylor's "Your Smiling Face" and Joni Mitchell's "River" were fantastic but he blew the roof off of the Eccles Theatre with "Maybe This Time" from Cabaret (his homage to Liza Minnelli was complete with an *ahem* appropriate costume).  For the encore he sang a beautiful medley of "When You Wish Upon a Star" and "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" which was unique to SLC audiences!  Platt is quite the performer and he, and his talented band, put on an amazing show that I won't soon forget.  He was so funny and he sounded even better than his recordings!  I had so much fun because all of the theatre girlies sitting around me were pretty much losing their minds screaming, crying, and singing every single word of every single song at the top of their lungs! Just kidding. It was me. I am theatre girlies!

Note:  I love the song "Andrew" so much because, to me, it is the perfect description of what unrequited love feels like when you are young (even though it is from a queer perspective, many of the feelings evoked are universal).

Touch

I already had a ticket for Touch at the Broadway last night but, when a friend highly recommended it to me, I was even more excited to see it.  I absolutely loved this tender ode to love, loss, and memory.  Kristofer (Palmi Kormakur) is a student from Iceland at the London School of Economics.  When he becomes disillusioned with his studies he impulsively takes a job as a dishwasher at a Japanese restaurant when he sees the proprietor's daughter Miko (Koki).  He immerses himself in the culture and language of Japan and eventually falls in love with Miko.  Takahashi (Masahiro Motoki) holds Kristofer in high regard and even teaches him to cook traditional Japanese dishes but he disapproves of his relationship with his daughter and separates them.  Fifty years later, Kristofer (Egill Olafsson) is a widower who runs a restaurant in Iceland.  After he receives some news he travels to London, then Tokyo, then Hiroshima to find Miko (Yoko Narahashi).  On the surface this is about a man searching for his lost love with a timeline that alternates between 1969, when he and Miko fall in love, and 2020, when they are reunited.  However, as it progresses, more and more layers are uncovered to reveal a story that is even more captivating and poignant than I was expecting.  I loved the character of Kristofer, in both timelines, because he is such a kind, gentle, and understanding soul and both Kormakur and Olafsson portray him so beautifully (the actors do not necessarily look alike but they have such similar characteristics and mannerisms that you just accept that they are the same person).  I also loved the warm glow of the cinematography in 1969 juxtaposed with the cool tones used in 2020 because memories are often idealized and I enjoyed all of the scenes involving the preparation of food, particularly the meal that Kristofer prepares for Miko.  This is beautiful and meditative (my favorite kind of movie) and I highly recommend it.

Longlegs

I was so excited to see Longlegs at the Broadway last night after all of the hype surrounding its release and the huge crowd only increased my anticipation (I don't think there was an empty seat in the theater).  Unfortunately, I think I would have liked this more if I hadn't had such impossibly high expectations.  FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) is assigned by her superior (Blair Underwood) to a cold case involving a serial killer known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage) after she is shown to possess a heightened sense of intuition on another case.  Over the course of several decades a series of men have suddenly snapped and killed their families before killing themselves and every crime scene features a Satanic message in code from Longlegs even though there is no evidence that anyone else was there.  As Harker investigates, she discovers that there is a connection between the daughters in each family and that she also shares this connection and may have interacted with Longlegs as a child.  There is a very palpable sense of dread that is enhanced by unnerving sound design, atmospheric lighting, and a brilliant performance from Monroe (I was genuinely afraid for her character on multiple occasions because of her ability to portray the terror Harker is experiencing).  Cage is also very committed but I found his performance to be more disturbing than scary and his bloated and clown-like appearance (with some wild prosthetics) is, in my opinion, at odds with the Satanic character he is portraying so it is hard to take that threat seriously.  My biggest disappointment, however, is that the unbearable tension so painstakingly crafted in the first two acts is undone as the mystery is revealed.  It is such a letdown after what was incipiently promised.  Director Osgood Perkins definitely delivers on the style but not the substance and I was expecting both after all of the buildup.