Wicked

I am a huge fan of the musical Wicked (I've seen it in London, on Broadway, in San Diego, and in SLC multiple times) so, even though I really enjoyed what Jon M. Chu did with In the Heights, I still had a bit of trepidation about a movie adaptation and I wasn't sure about the casting of Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo.  I went to see it at an early access screening last night and I needn't have worried because it is amazing and I loved it.  It is a very faithful adaptation of the musical (with a few surprises) and the decision to separate it into two parts allows it to delve deeper into the friendship between Glinda (Grande) and Elphaba (Erivo) as they evolve into Glinda the Good and the Wicked Witch of the West.  I really liked the flashbacks to Elphaba as a child (Karis Musungole) because we see her mistreatment for being different and her protective relationship with her sister Nessarose (played by Cesily Collette Taylor as a child) and I also enjoyed seeing Elphaba's training with Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) and Dr. Dillamond's (Peter Dinklage) interactions with other animals.  The production design is dazzling and I loved how the worldbuilding has been expanded for the movie, particularly all of the elaborate classrooms and dorms at Shiz University and the Emerald City.  The choreography is incredibly lively and the large ensemble really adds to the exuberance, especially in "No One Mourns the Wicked," "Dancing Through Life," and "One Short Day."  Grande is perfect as Glinda and I laughed out loud at all of her antics (I love how she theatrically tosses her hair).  Her version of "Popular" is so much fun because she nails the physicality and the vocals.  However, I was most impressed by Erivo because she blew me away with her powerful and passionate renditions of "The Wizard and I" and "Defying Gravity" but I also loved her nuanced performance of "I'm Not That Girl" which is my favorite song in the show.  The two of them play off each other so well in the hilarious "What Is This Feeling?" and their poignant interactions in the Ozdust Ballroom brought me to tears.  Jonathan Bailey is a charismatic Fiyero (he is spectacular in "Dancing Through Life"), Yeoh adds dimension to Madame Morrible, and Jeff Goldblum has a subversive charm as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz.  I was also really impressed with the casting of Marissa Bode as Nessarose because she has the same disability as the character.  I had very high expectations for this adaptation and it exceeded every one of them!  I highly recommend it because it is the perfect movie to see this holiday season.

A Real Pain

I enjoyed quite a few movies at Sundance this year but A Real Pain was my favorite by far so I was really excited to see it again with my nephew at the Broadway last night.  I loved it even more upon a second viewing!  Two cousins, outgoing and charismatic Benji (Keiran Culkin) and uptight and reserved David (Jesse Eisenberg), take a guided tour through Poland to see where their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor who has recently died, was born.  They come face to face with the tragedy of the Holocaust but they also feel the pain of realizing that, even though they were once close, they have drifted apart.  This is a moving, but surprisingly funny, portrait of generational trauma and the guilt that these cousins feel when they compare the vicissitudes of their daily lives with the horrors experienced by their grandmother.  I also really enjoyed the comparison between the way in which the cousins express their pain because David keeps everything bottled up inside while Benji expresses his every unfiltered emotion which endears him to the tour group despite the fact that he is often inconsiderate and offensive.  The scenes at the Majdanek concentration camp are very sobering and I was particularly struck by the observation from one of the characters that this evil was perpetrated so close to people going about their everyday lives because that was my response when I visited Dachau.  Eisenberg, rather unusually, is the more subdued straight man to Culkin's mania but they both give brilliant performances.  I frequently laughed at all of Culkin's antics but Eisenberg delivers a monologue that had me in tears.  Finally, I loved the use of Chopin in the soundtrack.  This is a very powerful exploration of how people confront pain and I highly recommend it.

A Christmas Carol at CPT

Last night I went to CPT with my sisters and my nephew to see the first of five productions of A Christmas Carol that I have scheduled this holiday season. This version is a musical, with music by Alan Menken and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens, and I have to admit that it was not my favorite adaptation of the novel by Charles Dickens but I enjoyed this production because it got me really excited for Christmas. As the rest of London celebrates the coming of Christmas, Ebenezer Scrooge (Nick Cash) berates his clerk Bob Cratchit (Nathan Sachs) for wanting the day off, refuses an invitation to dine from his nephew Fred (Paul Dixon), and ignores a debtor (Josh Lee) seeking relief. He also has interactions with a lamplighter (Dylan Floyd Panter), a man wearing a sandwich board advertising a Christmas show (Logan Stacey), and a blind beggar woman (Abrielle Hambleton) who eventually become the the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future. When he arrives home, the Ghost of Jacob Marley (Brett Klumpp), his former partner, warns that he will be visited by these three ghosts in order to reclaim his soul. Scrooge takes their messages to heart and strives to make amends. Many of the interactions between Scrooge and the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future deviate from the source material and some of them really worked for me, such as having Scrooge's father put in debtors' prison (which is reportedly based on an incident from Charles Dickens' life), and some of them didn't, particularly a big production number involving tap dancing toy soldiers (I didn't know there were Rockettes in Dickensian London). Even though there are some incongruous elements, I really enjoyed all of the enthusiastic performances because the cast does a great job with the material. I also loved quite a few of the songs because they are beautiful, especially "You Mean More to Me" by Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim (Ross Clemens), "A Place Called Home" by Young Scrooge (Grayson Farr) and Fan (Liza Akerlow), "Christmas Together" by the Cratchits, Fred and his family, and the people of London, and "God Bless Us, Everyone" by the entire company. The staging of "Dancing on Your Grave" with the Ghost of Christmas Future and a group of monks and pallbearers is incredibly dramatic and I love how the scene transitions into Scrooge's reclamation in "Yesterday, Tomorrow, and Today." My favorite part of this production is the absolutely amazing set which brings Dickensian London so vividly to life (I especially loved the Christmas decorations at Fezziwig's factory) and the incredibly immersive projections (those used during Jacob Marley's visit are very effective). The period costumes are very impressive, although the ghosts during the song "Link By Link" looked more like mental patients to me and I was confused by the showgirls in the scenes with the people of London. Even though I didn't love the show itself I did enjoy everything CPT did with it and the message is so heartwarming that it is the perfect way to usher in the holiday season.  It runs on the Barlow Main Stage through December 21 but act quickly  because tickets (go here) are going fast.

Note:  I'm so glad that my nephew came with us.  He has a lot of Christmas spirit this year and it is making all of us excited for the holidays.

The Great Gatsby on Broadway

When I saw Jeremy Jordan in concert earlier this year, he performed "For Her" from his forthcoming musical The Great Gatsby and I loved the song so much I decided then and there that I wanted to see it!  Since I was already going to be in New York for Hold on to Me Darling, I got a ticket for Saturday night and I considered seeing Jeremy Jordan as the cherry on top of an epic day!  Unfortunately, Jay Gatsby was being performed by the understudy that night but, even though I was a bit disappointed, I still really loved the show.  The musical is based on the novel of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald and tells the story of how an eccentric and mysterious self-made millionaire named Jay Gatsby (Austin Colby) attempts to rekindle a romance with his former lover Daisy Buchanan (Eva Noblezada) by throwing lavish parties to get her attention.  It is narrated by Gatsby's neighbor and Daisy's cousin Nick Carraway (Alex Prakken) as he becomes more and more disillusioned by the careless behavior of Daisy, her husband Tom (John Zdrojeski), and her friend Jordan Baker (Samantha Pauley) which leads to tragedy (there were so many audible gasps at the conclusion it made me wonder how many people in the audience had read the book).  The musical emphasizes the romance between Nick and Jordan a lot more than in the book and the role of Meyer Wolfsheim (Eric Anderson), who engages in bootlegging with Gatsby, is expanded and includes interactions with George Wilson (Charlie Pollack).  In addition to "For Her," which is my favorite song from the show, I also really liked "My Green Light," when Gatsby and Daisy find each other again, "Past is Catching Up to Me," as Gatsby tries to recreate a party he once attended with Daisy, and "Beautiful Little Fool," where Daisy hopes her daughter will only aspire to be a rich man's wife.  The dancing in "Roaring On," "New Money," and "La Dee Dah With You" is absolutely spectacular and I loved the dazzling costumes and opulent sets (the costumes and sets reminded me of Baz Luhrmann's 2013 movie).  I was also really impressed by all of the effects used in the party scenes and the use of real period cars.  Colby, Prakken, and Pauley are fantastic but Noblezada absolutely blew me away, especially in "For Better or Worse" and "Beautiful Little Fool."  There are some comedic elements, particularly in "The Met" and "Only Tea," that didn't really work for me and create some wild tonal shifts but I enjoyed this show and would definitely recommend it (I'm sure there will be a touring production eventually).

Hold on to Me Darling Off-Broadway

Adam Driver has been my favorite actor ever since I saw Kylo Ren remove his helmet in The Force Awakens and it has long been a dream of mine to see him perform on stage.  When I heard that he would be in a play called Hold on to Me Darling by Kenneth Lonergan (he wrote Manchester by the Sea which is a favorite of mine) at the Lucille Lortel Theatre for a limited engagement this fall, I really wanted to go but I didn't do anything about it and every show sold out very quickly.  I was disappointed to be missing out so I kept randomly checking the website and, when I saw that some isolated single tickets had been released for a few shows, I found a date that would work for me and bought one.  I was able to get a flight and a hotel for a good price (the stars definitely aligned for this trip) so I left for New York last Friday and I had the best time!  I saw a matinee of the play on Saturday and I was on the fourth row!  I let out an audible sigh when Driver first appeared on stage (I was struck by how much he dwarfed the other actors on stage with him) and the three cute ladies sitting by me thought that was hilarious!  Driver plays Clarence "Strings" McCrane,  a country music star who is in the middle of an existential crisis brought on by the sudden death of his disapproving mother.  In an attempt to finally make her proud of him he decides to move back to his hometown in Tennessee, open a feed store with his estranged brother Duke (CJ Wilson), get married to his current fling Nancy (Heather Burns), and hopefully start a family.  His plans go awry when his notoriety disrupts life in his small hometown, when he is sued for dropping out of his current movie production and his upcoming world tour, when Nancy decides she would rather be married to a global superstar than the owner of a feed store, when he becomes reacquainted with his distant cousin Essie (Adelaide Clemons), and when someone (Frank Wood) from his past suddenly appears.  I really enjoyed the story because it is both funny and very moving with an interesting take on the price of fame and how it distorts one's view of one's self.  Driver is amazing in a role that requires sexy charisma one moment (he really delivers here!) and petulant narcissism the next with an emotional reckoning at the end that blew me, and my audience, away.  I also loved seeing him play the guitar (and get undressed *ahem*).  The rest of the cast is also outstanding (but it was sometimes hard for me to take my eyes off Driver because he has such a compelling stage presence) and I loved the rotating set, which consists of a funeral parlor, various hotel rooms, assorted living rooms, and a feed store, because it makes great use of the small stage.  I am still on a high from seeing this show and I am so glad that I was able to go!

Note:  Driver doesn't come to the stage door for matinees so I wasn't able to interact with him.  It was amazing just to see him perform so I wasn't too disappointed and, honestly, it was probably for the best because I'm sure I would have hyperventilated!