We Need a Little Christmas

I love it when my house is decorated for Christmas (it is really the only holiday that I decorate for) and I enjoy putting up my tree because all of the ornaments that I have collected over the years have a sentimental meaning.  I actually put my tree up earlier in the week (I usually wait until the day after Thanksgiving) because I was in desperate need of some Christmas cheer.  This year I am especially looking forward to celebrating Christmas, including three more productions of A Christmas Carol, five Christmas concerts (I love hearing Christmas music performed live and I always hope to hear "O Holy Night"), a performance of The Nutcracker, the movie White Christmas on the big screen, and all of the traditional activities that my nephew is planning for us (I am most looking forward to our night of Christmas baking and our gingerbread house party).  I will also be volunteering for the Festival of Trees once again.  Now, more than ever, I hope this holiday season can bring all of us some comfort and joy.

Thanksgiving 2024

I spent Thanksgiving with my family (we definitely missed Tashena and Tucker who live in Washington) and it was a really nice day.  We had a wonderful dinner with ham (instead of the traditional turkey), potatoes, stuffing, yams, pomegranate salad (a family favorite), rolls, and vegetables with dip.  My sisters are amazing cooks and I am so glad that I am always invited because I am definitely not (my contribution is to bring store-bought pies).  After dinner we all had a rest (my nephew and I watched a movie) and then we played this crazy card game called Shanghai rummy.  We haven't played for a long time and it was a lot of fun (I won).  We had lots of treats while we played and then ended the night with pie.  I enjoyed spending the day with my family and I am really looking forward to all of the fun things we have planned for the rest of the holidays.  I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving with the ones you love.

Maria

My nephew and I went to a matinee of Maria at the Broadway yesterday and, even though it is my least favorite of Pablo Larrain's portraits of enigmatic women, I absolutely loved Angelina Jolie's bravura performance.  Maria Callas (Jolie) spends the final days of her life in Paris reminiscing about her celebrated career on stage and her turbulent relationship with Aristotle Onassis (Haluk Bilginer), worrying her devoted butler (Pierfrancesco Favino) and housekeeper (Alba Rohrwacher) with her increasing dependence on prescription drugs, and rehearsing with a vocal coach (Stephen Ashfield) to improve her deteriorating voice in an attempt to become La Callas again.  She also has regular hallucinations in which a reporter named Mandrax (Kodi Smit-McPhee), the personification of the drug she has become addicted to, interviews her for a documentary about her life.  However, it is only when she is able to break free from the prison of her voice and sing for herself that she finally finds peace (this is incredibly fatalistic but I think there is an exultation in Maria's final scene).  The narrative sometimes feels crowded and disjointed but it looks absolutely gorgeous with warm and saturated colors evoking Paris during the 1970s along with dramatic black and white images used to represent moments from the past.  I loved the elaborate staging of operas both on stage in famous opera houses around the world and in various locations around Paris in Maria's hallucinations (my favorites were the mad scene from Anna Bolena at La Scala and a surrealistic interpretation of the "Humming Chorus" from Madame Butterfly on the steps of a historic building during a rainstorm).  I also loved the parallels between the operas used and the events depicted (and, as a fan of opera, I loved that extended excerpts are used rather than brief snippets).  The costumes and sets are incredibly lavish but it sometimes feels like there is more style than substance.  The highlight is Jolie's brilliant performance because she imbues Maria with an imperiousness (I laughed every time she made her butler movie the piano for no reason) and a vulnerability that is absolutely captivating.  I think this is a role that Jolie was born to play because her own star status and troubled off-screen persona add credibility to the performance (just give her the Oscar now) even if the script leaves us wanting to know more about the character.  This will not be for everyone but it is a must-see for fans of Jolie and I recommend it when it comes to Netflix on December 11.

Moana 2

Last night I went with both of my sisters and my nephew to see Moana 2 at an early preview.  The original is my all-time favorite animated movie from Disney so I was both excited and nervous to see the sequel.  It is definitely not as good as the first one but I enjoyed it.  Moana (Auli'i Cravalho), who is now a Wayfinder, receives a vision from one of her ancestors asking her to break a curse placed by the storm god Nalo on the island Montufetu which once connected all of the people living in Oceania.  She sets sail with a crew of fellow islanders, including a master builder (Rose Matafeo), a grumpy farmer (David Fane), and a storyteller (Hualalai Chung), and eventually finds Maui (Dwayne Johnson), who has been captured by an underworld goddess named Matangi (Awhimai Fraser), while battling a giant clam for the Kakamora.  Maui joins the crew but they must survive Nalo's destructive storms in order to find Montufetu.  The story follows the original beat for beat and seems better suited for streaming but the gorgeous animation, particularly the dazzling storm sequences, makes it worth seeing on the big screen.  The message about needing to work together in order to solve a problem is not particularly subtle but I really loved the idea that you sometimes need to find a different way to do something.  The villains are not very memorable (Matangi had potential but she is abandoned after one epic scene) and many of the other new characters are one-dimensional but I really liked the dynamic between Moana and Maui (Cravalho and Johnson are great).  I think a lot of the humor is very crude (it involves a lot of slime being expelled from various orifices) but the children in the audience were laughing out loud the whole time.  Finally, the songs are definitely not as good as the ones by Lin-Manuel Miranda in the original (I absolutely love "How Far I'll Go" and "We Know The Way" so it was always going to be hard to top them) but I did like "Get Lost" in a fun sequence with Matangi and her back-up singing bats and "Can I Get A Chee Hoo" as Maui tries to boost Moana's confidence.  This is a fun movie to see with the family over the Thanksgiving holiday (the kids will love it) but it is good rather than great.

A Christmas Carol at Parker Theatre

Last night I went to Parker Theatre for the second of five productions of A Christmas Carol that I have scheduled this season. This version tells the well-known story of the reclamation of Ebenezer Scrooge's soul by the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future but it is much more atmospheric than others I've seen and I loved it! I especially enjoyed some of the more dramatic differences, such as when Jacob Marley (Stephen Harmon) dies at the beginning of the show and then haunts Scrooge (Brinton M. Wilkins) before he appears to him in his chambers, when characters that Scrooge meets on the streets of London return at key moments from his past to soften his heart, when young Ebenezer (Matthew Delafuente) has a romantic dance with Belle (Isabelle Purdie), and when Scrooge learns the truth about his fate by opening his coffin in the cemetery (it is so ominous). I also enjoyed all of the elaborate special effects as Scrooge interacts with the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Helene Parker), Present (David Hanson), and Future (Helene Parker) because they are quite impressive. The use of a scrim, fog, and atmospheric lighting as Scrooge sees memories from his past as well as shadows and silhouettes as he is shown a frightening possible future is incredibly effective in creating an otherworldly mood. Wilkins is outstanding as Scrooge because there is a marked change, shown through facial expressions and body language, between the bitter old miser at the beginning of the show and the lighthearted character he becomes at the end after his transformation. His interactions with Bob Cratchit (Lucas Charon), when his clerk tearfully thanks Scrooge for his generosity, and with Fred (Tanner Tate), when Scrooge entreats his nephew to let him into his life, are very moving and brought a tear to my eyes. The sets and costumes may be simpler than other local productions but they portray a more realistic interpretation of Victorian London (I loved the street lamps). This is one of my favorite adaptations of the novel by Charles Dickens and I highly recommend including it as one of your Christmas traditions. It runs at Parker Theatre on Fridays and Saturdays through December 24 (go here for tickets).

Note:  I have become a huge fan of Parker Theatre and I am so excited for next season!  The shows include Persuasion, The Sting, Noises Off, Macbeth, Silent Sky, and A Christmas Carol.  Season and individual tickets are now on sale (go here).