Prayer for the French Republic at PTC

Last night I saw Prayer for the French Republic at PTC and it is incredibly powerful and thought-provoking. The narrative revolves around the Salomons, a Jewish family who have sold pianos in Paris for five generations. In 2016 Marcelle Salomon Benhamou (Judith Lightfoot Clarke) lives with her husband Charles (Alok Tewari) and her two adult children Daniel (Japhet Balaban) and Elodie (Kim Taff). While hosting their distant American cousin Molly (Maggie Goble), Daniel is severely beaten for wearing a yarmulke in an antisemitic attack. Charles, fearing for his family's safety at a time of growing antisemitism in France, believes that they should all move to Israel just as he was once forced to flee Algeria as a child for the same reason. The decision to leave is not an easy one for Marcelle because of the piano store currently managed by her ailing father Pierre (Joel Leffert) and the situation is exacerbated by Molly's opinions about Israel as a privileged American. Interspersed with this timeline is that of Marcelle's great-grandparents who live in the same apartment and manage the same piano store in 1944. Irma (Jayne Luke) and Adolphe (Joel Leffert, who also plays the older version of his son) stay in Paris during the war but the consequences of that decision become apparent when their son Lucien (Matthew McGloin) and grandson Pierre (True Leavitt) eventually return. The show is narrated by Marcelle's brother and Pierre's son Patrick (Robert Mammana) and he often speaks directly to the audience, posing complex questions about identity, assimilation, persecution, and fear. The narrative offers few answers to these questions, which is why it is sometimes difficult to watch, but I know that I will be thinking about them for a long time. The entire cast is outstanding but my favorite performance was from Taff, especially an incredible monologue where Elodie criticizes the people who post their strong opinions about Israel and the Middle East on social media without an understanding about the complex history of the region. I loved the minimal set, which features a large grand piano as a focal point with small groupings of furniture and sliding walls. This arrangement, and the clever use of darkness, allows for a seamless transition between the timelines. I also loved the the LED lights which outline the rectangular ceiling because they become the flag of France during the recitation of the prayer which gives the play its name. I can't say that I enjoyed this because it is really intense (and three hours long) but it is brilliant and I highly recommend it. There are only two performances left today at 2:00 and 7:30 (go here for tickets).

Peter Pan at the Eccles

Last night I went to see a new and updated version of Peter Pan and I was very impressed with all of the magical special effects (at one point I was actually giggling out loud).  Peter Pan (Nolan Almeida) climbs through the window of the Darling children's bedroom to reclaim his shadow and ends up taking Wendy (Hawa Kamara), John (William Foon), and Michael (Camden Kwok) on an adventure to Neverland to meet the Lost Boys.  They run afoul of Tiger Lily (Raye Zaragoza) and her tribe but they eventually join forces to defeat Captain Hook (Cody Garcia) and his pirates.  Peter does not want to grow up so he stays behind when the Darling children take the Lost Boys back home but he returns years later to take Wendy's daughter Jane (Christina Helene Braa) on a new adventure.  At first it was a little bit disconcerting to see a more contemporary version set in the U.S. instead of Victorian England with references to social media but as soon as Almeida appeared and starting singing "I Gotta Crow" I was completely captivated.  Other changes include a multicultural cast of children, a male actor playing Peter, better representation for Tiger Lily and the other indigenous people (they clash with the Lost Boys because of their lack of reverence for the land and the problematic song "Ugg-a-Wugg" is replaced with "Friends Forever" which emphasizes cooperation), an expanded role for Wendy, and the addition of the poignant song "When I Went Home" (it was cut from the original 1954 production) which explains why Peter wants to stay in Neverland.  Almeida is the highlight of the show because his performance is incredibly dynamic and he displays a child-like wonder that is very appealing.  I loved his voice and I loved watching him during the high-energy choreography, particularly when he interacts with his shadow and when he fights a duel with Hook.  Garcia is a hoot as Captain Hook and I laughed at all of his antics, especially during "Hook's Tango," "Hook's Tarantella,"  and "Hook's Waltz" (all of his pirates play musical instruments during these songs and it is hilarious).  As I mentioned, the technical elements in this show are dazzling!  The flying sequences are amazing (the projections as they fly to Neverland are absolutely spectacular and I actually felt like I was flying, too) and the lighting design for Tinkerbell is so much fun. In addition to the projections, the physical sets include an elaborate bedroom for the Darling children, the lair used by Peter and the Lost Boys in the middle of a lush forest, and the deck of Captain Hook's pirate ship and they are quite impressive.  I appreciated the care taken with the costumes for the indigenous people but my favorite one was for Captain Hook (a red waistcoat and frock coat with gold embroidery, a white ruffled shirt, and black knee boots).  I had so much fun watching this (much more than I was expecting) and I highly recommend getting a ticket for one of the five remaining performances (go here for tickets).

Emilia Perez

I found the trailer for Emilia Perez to be really intriguing (to say the least) so I went to a matinee at the Broadway yesterday.  This crime thriller that is also somehow a musical is incredibly bold and, even though it doesn't always work, it is never boring.  Rita Mora Castro (Zoe Saldana) is an overworked and underappreciated lawyer in Mexico who is disillusioned by the number of violent criminals that she is forced to defend.  After winning a big case, she receives a lucrative offer from Juan "Manitas" Del Monte (Karla Sofia Gascon), a notorious leader of a drug cartel, that she cannot refuse.  He asks her to help him become the woman he has always wanted to be so she secretly finds him a doctor to perform gender affirming surgeries, arranges for his wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and his two children to relocate to Switzerland, and helps him fake his death in return for an exorbitant amount of money.  Manitas begins a new life as Emilia Perez but, four years later, she is desperate to see her children.  She contacts Rita and has her arrange for Jessi and the children to return to Mexico to live with her in the guise of a distant cousin.  As Emilia sheds her old identity, she is still haunted by her violent past so she and Rita create a nonprofit organization to locate the missing victims of her former cartel so she can atone.  She also begins a relationship with Epifania (Adriana Paz).  However, she cannot escape who she really is when Jessi resumes a relationship with Gustavo Brun (Edgar Ramirez), with whom she had been having an affair during the marriage, and takes the children away from her.  I enjoyed the songs individually (none of them are particularly memorable) but the shifts in tone are all over the place with big choreographed group numbers raging against violence and hypocrisy, poignant ballads about identity (my favorite is "Papa" when Emilia's son tells her that she reminds him of his father), a campy sequence detailing the surgeries involved in transitioning, and upbeat pop songs about love.  There are also issues with pacing because the scenes involving the search for those who are missing go on a bit too long while the romance between Emilia and Epifania and the fiery climax both seem a bit rushed.  The theme of living authentically is very compelling but I'm not sure how I feel about the assertion that you can never change who you are because that seems to diminish Emilia's arc as a trans woman (I was especially disturbed by a scene in which Emilia threatens Jessi using the voice she had before she transitioned).  Having said all of that, my attention never waved because everything on the screen is so audacious and all three actresses give amazing performances, particularly Gascon in a powerful double role.  I didn't totally love this (my favorite genre-bending musical is Annette) but I recommend it for its creative swing for the fences.

Anora

I am a huge fan of Sean Baker's films (my favorite is The Florida Project but Tangerine is a close second) because they are always provocative but humane character studies about people on the margins of society.  His latest, Anora, is no exception and I was really excited to see it last night at the Broadway last night with my nephew.  Anora "Ani" Mikheeva (Mikey Madison) is a Russian-American who lives in Brighton Beach with her sister and works as a high-end stripper at a club in Manhattan.  Because she speaks Russian, the owner of the club introduces her to Ivan "Vanya" Zakharov (Mark Eydelshteyn), the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch, who hires her for a lap dance and then for sex at his family's mansion in Brooklyn.  After several nights together, he hires her to spend the week with him as his girlfriend and then proposes marriage so that he can get a green card to stay in America and avoid his controlling parents back in Russia.  They get married in Las Vegas and have a whirlwind romance before his minders Toros (Karren Karagulian), Garnick (Vache Tovmasyan), and Igor (Yura Borisov), who have been lax in their supervision, are ordered by his father to deal with the situation.  Ani eventually proves that she has more class than the feckless Vanya and his wealthy parents (Aleksei Serebryakov and Darya Ekamasova).  This is surprisingly hilarious (I laughed out loud when Ani bests the two henchmen who are trying to subdue her) and incredibly poignant (the final scene is absolutely devastating but hopeful).  I especially loved the relationship between Ani and Igor because he sees the vulnerability behind Ani's bravura and she finds an unexpected ally against people who see her as transactional.  Madison gives one of the most magnetic performances I've seen in a long time (one that is garnering a lot of much deserved Oscar buzz) and Borisov is quietly powerful.  My only criticism is that the narrative sometimes drags in places, particularly the sequence where Ani and the henchmen wander around Brighton Beach searching for Vanya.  I loved this and highly recommend it (with the proviso that it is very explicit).

Here

The second movie in the double feature my nephew and I saw last night was Here.  I was really intrigued by the premise but I was ultimately disappointed in the execution of it.  This portrays events that occur at one location, and one single point of view, from prehistory to today.  The narrative is non-linear and includes the extinction of the dinosaurs, an indigenous man (Joel Oulette) and woman (Dannie McCallum) who live on the land where the house will eventually be built, the colonial governor of New Jersey (Daniel Betts) who lives on a plantation that becomes a museum across the street from the house, a man at the turn of the century (Gwilym Lee) obsessed with flying and his disdainful wife (Michelle Dockery) who are the first inhabitants of the house, an inventor (David Flynn) and his pin-up model wife (Ophelia Lovibond) who live in the house during the 1930s, and Devon Harris (Nicholas Pinnock) and his wife Helen (Nikki Amuka-Bird) and son Justin (Cache Vanderpuye) who live in the house during the COVID-19 pandemic.  However, most of the timeline involves Al and Rose Young (Paul Bettany and Kelly Reilly, respectively), a couple who buys the house at the end of World War II and raises their family there through the mid-2000s.  Their son Richard (Tom Hanks) marries Margaret (Robin Wright) when she gets pregnant and they also live in the house and raise their daughter Vanessa (Zsa Zsa Zemeckis) there.  The static camera angle is really clever at first but then it left me feeling kind of bored and detached from the action.  The scenes are short and move through the timelines very haphazardly (the transitions occur with an outline of a shape through which you see one timeline inserted into another one) so a lot of the emotional impact is lost because, just when you feel a connection, the scene changes.  Hanks, Wright, and Bettany, especially, are great but almost everyone else inexplicably overacts.  At one point, my nephew and I looked at each other and had to stifle laughter behind our hands during what is meant to be a poignant moment.  I found the message to be very depressing (my nephew disliked it even more than I did) because Al and Rose buy the house thinking that they are achieving the American dream after the war but the house eventually stifles all of Richard's dreams.  I also think the score by Alan Silvestri is incredibly manipulative.  This movie thinks it is more profound than it actually is and I recommend skipping it (or at least waiting for it to stream).