The Eagles at the Sphere

Seeing U2 at the Sphere was an incredible experience so when I heard that the Eagles would be doing a residency there I knew I had to get a ticket.  I took a road trip to Las Vegas for the first show Friday night and it was absolutely amazing!  I ended up sitting by some people from Virginia who were big fans but had never seen the Eagles before and they were so excited.  While we waited for the show to start we tried to guess what the first song would be and they suggested "Take It Easy" because it was their first big hit and I thought it would be "Seven Bridges Road" because they often start with it but it was actually "Hotel California" which they usually perform during the encore!  I tried to prepare them for how immersive the three-dimensional images would look on the state-of-the-art screens but they just about lost their minds when a car on a dark desert highway appeared to drive right into the audience!  The images also take the audience through a dark corridor with burning sconces to check in and then to a courtyard for a feast.  It was seriously so cool!  I also really loved the visuals for "Witchy Woman" (the band performs in a haunted forest), "Tequila Sunrise" (the sun slowly appears through the clouds), "In the City" (apartment buildings get bigger and bigger until they surround Joe Walsh during an epic guitar solo), "New Kid in Town" (filmstrips featuring archival photos and videos of the band are configured and reconfigured into 3-D cubes), "Life's Been Good" (archival photos and videos spin around the band as they play), "The Boys of Summer" (a couple runs on a beach then they swim underwater), and "Life in the Fast Lane" (a car races along the Las Vegas strip).  They also performed "Lyin' Eyes," "Take It to the Limit," "Peaceful Easy Feeling," "I Can't Tell You Why," "Seven Bridges Road," "Those Shoes," "Already Gone," "Take It Easy," and "Rocky Mountain Way" with a live feed of the band performing on the screens (there is not a bad seat in the venue because all of the images appear at eye level).  The encore included an incredibly emotional version of "Desperado," with silhouettes of an orchestra performing behind a curtain, and "Heartache Tonight" (dedicated to JD Souther), with animated images of gambling.  Vince Gill is such a great addition to the band because, even though he doesn't necessarily sound exactly like Glenn Frey or Randy Meisner, it just somehow sounds right when he sings their songs.  I was also glad to see Deacon Frey back with the band (he looks so much like his dad and sounds a lot like him in the songs "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Already Gone").  Neither of them spoke to the crowd but they were heavily featured on the screens.  Don Henley provided most of the commentary (although Joe Walsh was predictably hilarious) and he joked that they were just the house band for all of the high-tech wizardry!  Just like with U2, this was another mind-blowing concert and I recommend getting a ticket (go here) during the residency (they keep adding more shows due to the overwhelming demand).

Note:  Hearing the audience singing along with "Hotel California" gave me goosebumps because it was so loud!

Transformers One

I am not a huge fan of the Transformers franchise (Bumblebee is my favorite and I liked Transformers: Rise of the Beasts well enough) but I thought the trailer for Transformers One looked like a lot of fun so I went to see a Thursday preview in IMAX last night.  I had a blast with this animated origin story detailing how friends Orion Pax and D-16 become the arch-enemies Optimus Prime and Megatron.  In the aftermath of war with the Quintessons, during which the original Primes were destroyed and the Matrix of Leadership was lost, Sentinel Prime (Jon Hamm) leads Cybertron from the underground city Iacon.  He frequently visits the surface to look for the Matrix of Leadership because it is needed to restore the rivers of energon.  Orion (Chris Hemsworth) and D-16 (Brian Tyree Henry), two of the many bots who are missing the cog that would allow them to transform, are forced to work in the energon mines but they are demoted to waste management because of a stunt.  Hoping to regain their status, they recruit fellow miners Elita-1 (Scarlett Johansson) and B-127 (Keegan-Michael Key) to go to the surface with them to find the Matrix of Leadership in order to impress Sentinel.  Instead, they discover a betrayal.  Orion, who wants to use the truth to unite all of the bots to work for change, and D-16, who wants to control them all to take revenge, disagree on what to do about this discovery which leads to an epic confrontation.  I really enjoyed the surprisingly engaging story (which also has deeper themes than I was expecting), the relationship between Orion and D-16 and their believable evolution from friends to enemies, the excellent voice work from Hemsworth (who really impressed me with his, er, transformation from a goofy optimist to a leader with gravitas), the dazzling animation (I especially loved the visuals on the surface), and the exciting action sequences.  I was actually really surprised by how much I liked this and think it might be my favorite in the franchise!  See it in IMAX if you can!

Merchant Ivory

The second documentary in my double feature at the Broadway last night was Merchant Ivory and, as someone who absolutely loved their movies as a teen and young adult in the 1980s and 90s, I found it to be fascinating.  This is a very straightforward look at the professional and personal partnership between director James Ivory and producer Ismail Merchant and how they, along with regular collaborators screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, composer Richard Robbins, and costume designers Jenny Beavan and John Bright, revitalized the costume drama with some of the most acclaimed movies in cinematic history.  Despite being obsessed with A Room with a View, Howards End, and The Remains of the Day, I didn't really know very much about the filmmakers who made them so I enjoyed the discussion about the yin-yang dynamic in their partnership with Ivory being calm, cool, collected, and dedicated to the purity of his artistic vision while Merchant was loud, bombastic, passionate, and determined to work faster and cheaper.  I also loved the discussion about how most of their movies have subversive themes about the hypocrisy found in polite society juxtaposed with gorgeous production design.  It was fun to see all of the behind the scenes stills and footage from my three favorites but it was also really interesting to learn about the difficulties in making their earlier movies (I now want to watch Shakespeare Wallah after learning that they only had enough film for one take in the final climactic scene) and to see how different perceptions impacted their later films, particularly with Jefferson in Paris.  My favorite aspect of this documentary is all of the contemporary interviews with many of the actors they worked with, especially Rupert Graves, James Wilby, Hugh Grant, Samuel West, Vanessa Redgrave (who is an absolute hoot), Emma Thompson, and Helena Bonham Carter.  A common theme in these interviews is how difficult it was to work on one of their movies because of the limited budget (at one point Merchant was catering the food for the cast and crew himself) but they were always lured back to make another one because of the final product.  I definitely enjoyed this and recommend it to fans of Merchant-Ivory movies.

Will & Harper

I don't see a lot of documentaries but there are two currently playing at the Broadway that piqued my interest so I decided on a double feature last night.  I started with Will & Harper because I missed it at Sundance this year and, just as I had heard from so many people at the festival, it is equal parts funny, heartwarming, and powerful.  Writer Andrew Steele and actor Will Ferrell are close friends dating from their days together on Saturday Night Live but, when Steele sends an email coming out to him as a trans woman after living for years in the closet, she wonders if their friendship will be the same (and she wonders if she will feel comfortable going to all of the places she once enjoyed as a man).  Ferrell suggests that they take a 16-day cross-country road trip together so that he can learn the best way to support her and so that he can act as a buffer when she interacts with new people who might not be accepting of her.  There are lots of really funny moments as these two friends who have known each other for decades bounce off each other (my favorites were a recurring bit involving Pringles and an attempt by Ferrell to go incognito in Las Vegas).  However, what really resonated with me was how much genuine emotion this trip elicits from Ferrell, especially when he realizes how much Steele suffered when she was forced to live an inauthentic life and when he sees first hand how dangerous it is for her to simply exist in some parts of the country (a scene in a Texas steakhouse is especially difficult to watch).  Ferrell is very curious about Steele's experience and asks her lots of questions ranging from what it feels like to have boobs, to how she chose her new name, to how she might navigate a romantic relationship in the future (as well as if she thinks she is now a bad driver because she is a woman) and his empathy and compassion set an important example for mainstream audiences, especially for those who are uncertain about how to interact with trans people, to follow.  This begins streaming on Netflix September 27 and I highly recommend it for everyone.

The Magician's Elephant at HCT

Last night I saw the U.S. premiere of The Magician's Elephant, a musical originally commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company based on the book of the same name by Kate DiCamillo, and I really enjoyed this fantastical tale about believing in the impossible. The town of Baltese is still suffering the effects of a long war so Peter Duchene (Weston Wright), an orphan whose father died in battle and whose mother died in childbirth, is being trained by his guardian Vilna Lutz (Mark Knowles) to be a soldier. However, Peter is more interested in his recurring dream about a crying baby than in discipline, control, and routine so, when he is sent to the town square to buy stale bread, he gives the coin to a fortune teller (Malia Morris) that only he can see instead. She tells him that the baby in his dream is his long lost sister and that he can find her by following the elephant. Peter is doubtful until a Magician (Bryan Dayley), who only intended to summon lilies, accidentally conjures an elephant during his show at the opera house. At first the Police Chief (Jake Ben Suazo) tries to hide it and a Countess (Michelle Blake) imprisons it in her ballroom for attention but soon the elephant brings hope to Peter and the whole town but in an unexpected way. The story about how a town is brought back to life by magic is really touching and, while the music is a bit underwhelming (the lyrics are very repetitive), I enjoyed the songs "If This Is True," "What If Why Not Could It Be," and "Anything Could Happen" because they express a longing for normalcy after a traumatic event and that is something that I think many people can relate to. I also really enjoyed the comedic elements in "Count Who Doesn't Count." Wright, who appears in almost every scene, is incredibly endearing with a lovely voice and I also liked Keith Evans' performance as the policeman Leo Matienne because he is so earnest in his desire to help Peter and his wife Gloria (Becky Jeanne Knowles), who longs for a child, believe in magic. The elephant puppet, designed and fabricated by Acheson Walsh Studios and brought to life by puppeteers Sam Cooper, Julia Wihongi, Daniel Miskin, and Sarah Neipp, is absolutely astonishing and I was particularly struck by how expressive it is because it really does seem to be sad when it is chained up. The costumes, which look like they are inspired by the folklore of Eastern Europe (I loved the traditional embroidery), are gorgeous with drab colors that are distressed in the first act and vibrant pastels in the second to reflect the mood of the town. Finally, the stage is definitely a highlight because it reminded me of a medieval town in Eastern Europe with cobblestone streets, a city wall, a market square complete with a fountain, and a crenelated castle that rises up. I also loved the dirigible used by the Countess and the fortune teller's tent. In my opinion, the magic of this production overcomes the issues I had with the music and I would definitely recommend getting a ticket (go here) because we could all use a bit of magic. It runs on the Young Living Centre Stage through October 26.

Note:  Don't forget the hilarious production of The Addams Family now playing on the Sorenson Legacy Jewel Box Stage through November 16 (go here for tickets).