Kimberly Akimbo at the Eccles

Last night I went to see the Broadway touring production of Kimberly Akimbo.  This was one of my most anticipated shows this season because it won so many Tony Awards and, even though it is very dark, I liked its quirkiness and message about living life to the fullest.  Kimberly Levaco (Carolee Carmello) is a teenager with an unnamed disease that causes her body to age four times faster than normal and will soon prove fatal.  She also has a dysfunctional family with an alcoholic father named Buddy (Brandon Springman) and a narcissistic mother named Pattie (Dana Steingold), who are having another baby to replace her, as well as an aunt named Debra (Emily Koch) who is a criminal and may or may not have necessitated a hasty move by the family to New Jersey.  Kimberly is now trying to navigate the normal travails of adolescence in a new school with these added issues but, when she meets the nerdy Seth (Miguel Gil), who speaks Elvish, plays the tuba, and loves anagrams, and four members of the show choir, Delia (Grace Capeless), Martin (Darron Hayes), Teresa (Skye Alyssa Friedman), and Aaron (Pierce Wheeler), who act as a Greek Chorus, she decides to experience everything the world has to offer while she can.  All of the shifts in tone really work in this show.  Kimberly's fate is tragic and her family members are despicable but humor (I laughed out loud multiple times, especially at a running joke about the unrequited feelings the members of the show choir have for each other) is one of the ways she deals with her situation and she is ultimately able to thrive (the morality of what she does may be up for debate but I loved the feel-good ending).  I definitely don't think the music in this show is strong enough to warrant the Best Musical Tony but I did love "Father Time," which Pattie sings as a lullaby to her unborn child but is really a plea for more time with Kimberly, "Good Kid" in which Seth laments that he has always done the right thing but it hasn't made much of a difference, and "Our Disease" in which Kimberly realizes that getting older is her disease but it is the cure for everything that plagues her friends.  Carmello does an outstanding job portraying a 16 year old trapped in the body of a 70 year old but I didn't always love her vocal performance (it was sometimes very strident).  Gil is amazing as the irrepressible Seth (it was his performance that really drew me in) and I also really loved the young ensemble.  The set design is simple but really creative (I loved the ice skating rink because it appears as if the characters are actually ice skating) and I was especially impressed by the seamless transitions between scenes.  The costumes are perfect for the 90s setting.  I enjoyed this and recommend getting a ticket to one of the five remaining performances at the Eccles Theatre (go here) with the proviso that there is quite a bit of profanity.

The Return

Yesterday I went to a matinee of The Return and, as a fan of Homer's The Odyssey and of both Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche, I was really looking forward to it.  Unfortunately, I found this retelling of the classic story to be really bland and lifeless.  It has been twenty years since Odysseus (Fiennes) left Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War and his wife Penelope (Binoche) has been besieged by suitors who wish to wed her and take his place.  The suitors have also despoiled the island and bullied the inhabitants causing Penelope to keep her son Telemachus (Charlie Plummer) close to her and, therefore, weak.  Odysseus washes up on shore naked, battered, and completely unrecognizable with no explanation for where he has been other than he has been traumatized by war.  He takes refuge with the swineherd Eumaeus (Claudio Santamaria) but he is forced to reveal his identity when the suitors attack Telemachus and when the suitor Antinous (Marwan Kenzari) forces Penelope to choose a husband.  Odysseus is the only one able to complete the challenge for Penelope's hand which provokes a battle during which Telemachus is finally able to prove himself and Odysseus is able to reunite with his wife.  Both Fiennes and Binoche give compelling performances but I still found this very tedious to watch.  In order to ground this retelling in reality, filmmakers have removed everything fanciful from the source material and replaced it with it with so many interminable close-up shots of silent contemplation.  Even with a long runtime there is not much backstory and those without a familiarity with the mythology might not understand anything that is going on because not much actually happens.  I even found the final battle, while incredibly bloody, to be very anticlimactic.  Aside from Fiennes, Binoche, and possibly Plummer, the rest of the acting is quite stilted and most of the characters do not make any sort of impression.  I really wanted this to be better than it was and recommend giving it a miss (unless you are big fans of the lead actors).

Leslie Odom, Jr. at the Eccles

Last night I was able to combine my love of Christmas music with my love of the original cast of Hamilton.  I went with my friend Wendy to see Leslie Odom, Jr. in a Christmas concert at the Eccles Theatre and it was absolutely amazing!  I am still on a high from it!  He took the stage dressed all in black with his insanely talented band, including Chris Cadenhead on piano, Steven Walker on guitar, Eric England on bass, and David Chiverton on drums (all of whom had extended solos all night which thrilled the audience), and played selections from his two Christmas albums, Simply Christmas and The Christmas Album.  I really love his jazz interpretations of Christmas classics and I enjoyed hearing "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," "My Favorite Things," "The Christmas Waltz," "The Christmas Song," "First Noel," "Please Come Home for Christmas," "Last Christmas," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," and "O Tannenbaum" (sung in German).  He also sang a beautiful rendition of "Christmas" by Pete Townshend as well as his own original songs "Snow," "Winter Song" and "Cold" (which was one of my favorites).  He was joined by his band members all around him for some stirring a capella versions of the Sam Cooke songs "Jesus Gave Me Water" and "He's So Wonderful" and these got the audience cheering as if we were at an old-fashioned gospel revival!  He then recited "Twas The Night Before Christmas" which was absolutely mesmerizing and I was reminded that he is not only a beautiful singer with a velvety smooth voice but he is also a talented actor!  He continued with an exquisite performance of "Ave Maria" and then ended his set with "Heaven & Earth" (which was another of my favorites).  For the encore he sang acoustic versions of "Merry Christmas Darling" and the Sam Cooke song "I Wish You Love" which was a lovely way to end the concert.  In between those songs he performed an acoustic version of "Wait For It" from Hamilton (he apologized that it wasn't a Christmas song but I can assure you that no one in the audience minded) and it was incredible!  It was so thrilling to be able to see Leslie Odom, Jr. again and I loved every minute of this concert!

Flow

I have been anticipating the release of Flow ever since I saw a trailer and I finally had a chance to see a matinee yesterday afternoon.  It is visually stunning with an incredibly poignant story and I loved it!  When a cataclysmic tsunami completely submerges a forest in a post-apocalyptic timeline without humans, a curious and expressive black cat finds refuge on a sailboat occupied by a somnolent capybara.  They are eventually joined by an acquisitive ring-tail lemur, an irrepressible yellow Labrador, and a protective secretarybird.  They have a series of misadventures during which they must learn not only to coexist but also to work together in order to survive.  I love the way the animals are portrayed because, while they are not anthropomorphized (they definitely move and behave as animals and there is no dialogue), they do have distinct characteristics which are maintained throughout.  The cat likes to explore and is often in peril as a result (I couldn't breathe whenever the cat is thrown overboard and struggles to swim to the surface), the capybara falls asleep at inopportune times and in inconvenient places, the lemur is enamored with a collection of items (particularly a hand mirror) that must be protected, the Labrador loves to play which sometimes causes conflict (especially after the lemur's glass ball is thrown overboard during a boisterous round of catch), and the secretarybird takes a position of leadership (both literally and figuratively) and defends the group against a flock of other angry secretarybirds.  These defining characteristics made me feel a deep emotional connection with the characters and I was very invested in their fate (which is more hopeful than I was anticipating).  I loved both the naturalistic soundscape (the labored breathing of a beached whale reduced me to tears) as well as the evocative score (the dramatic theme as the water continues to rise over the cat's home gave me goosebumps).  The animation is beautiful, dynamic, and immersive and I love that it is both grounded in reality and otherworldly (there is a scene involving the secretarybird that is absolutely transcendent).  I loved this movie so much and, in a year that also included Inside Out 2 and The Wild Robot, it is my favorite animated release of 2024.

Note:  This is Latvia's official entry for the Best International Feature Academy Award and it has my nonexistent vote to win!

Nightbitch

The second movie in my double feature with my nephew at the Broadway last night was Nightbitch.  I didn't know what to think about this movie when I first heard about it because it sounded so bizarre but I found the trailer to be really intriguing so I decided to see it.  Unfortunately, it is not bizarre enough and is all bark and no bite.  Mother (Amy Adams) was an artist of some renown who worked in a gallery before giving up her career to stay home with her Son (Arleigh and Emmett Snowdon).  Her Husband (Scoot McNairy) is away on business for most of the week and, frankly, isn't much help when he is home.  She fears that she no longer has an identity beyond that of mother, feels simultaneously overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood and bored by the monotony of it (there are lots of scenes in which she cooks the same breakfast and lunch over and over again), and doubts all of the decisions she has made about raising her Son.  Eventually she suspects that she is becoming a dog and it is not long before she physically transforms into one (in some amusing scenes involving magical realism).  It is when she fully embraces her animalistic instinct that she finds liberation and becomes a better mother and better artist.  I have not read the book by Rachel Yoder upon which this is based but it seems like there is an interiority that does not translate well to the screen because there is a lot of voice-over narration that becomes very tedious (lots of telling rather than showing).  The central metaphor is an interesting one so it is a shame that it is only ever explored on a superficial level.  Many of the scenes where Mother acts like a dog are comedic rather than scary and I wanted more rage and I definitely wanted more body horror (there is only one relatively benign scene where Mother discovers a tail).  I also wanted a more meaningful resolution (it veers from an honest examination of motherhood to a less compelling dissection of a marriage in which the Husband has an unearned redemption arc).  Adams is absolutely fearless but I can't help but feel that her performance would have been better if she had been allowed by the script to be more ferocious (the best performance comes from the Snowden twins who are adorable).  This is not quite as daring as it thinks it is and I was a bit disappointed.