Bravo Broadway

Last night I went to the Bravo Broadway concert featuring the Utah Symphony and guest vocalists Scarlett Strallen, Dee Roscioli, and Hugh Panaro.  It was wonderful!  Before the show, guest conductor John Gennaro Devlin told the audience that the first half would feature classic Broadway standards and the second would include songs from popular shows on Broadway today and I'm not sure which I enjoyed more!  The orchestra began with the Broadway Tonight Overture and then all three soloists came to the stage for "Lullaby of Broadway" from 42nd Street.  Strallen, who has a beautiful coloratura soprano voice, continued with a lovely version of "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady, Panaro sang an incredibly moving version of "Not While I'm Around" from Sweeney Todd (all of the lights on stage turned red during this song), and then Roscioli just about blew the roof off Abravanel Hall with her version of "Don't Rain on My Parade" from Funny Girl.  Next came a romantic performance of "Stranger in Paradise" from Kismet and then the orchestra continued with a medley from West Side Story (which included audience participation).  All three soloists performed an amusing version of "Getting Married Today" from Company, Panaro gave a spirited rendition of "Ya Got Trouble" from The Music Man, and then everyone performed "Before the Parade Passes By" from Hello, Dolly! to conclude the first half.  After the intermission, Panaro sang "You'll Be Back" from Hamilton (complete with a crown) and this was obviously my favorite  performance of the night but Roscioli's rendition of "Memory" from Cats gave me goosebumps!  I love that Panaro and Strallen included "The Song That Goes Like This" from Spamalot next because it is such a spoof of Broadway musicals and the fact that they sang it so seriously was hilarious.  The orchestra played a really fun medley from Mamma Mia that got the audience cheering and then Strallen and Roscioli (who has had the longest run playing Elphaba on Broadway and on national tours) sang "For Good" from Wicked.  Roscioli continued with "Defying Gravity" (her dress was pink so she joked that she was wearing the wrong color but at least all of the lights on stage were green) and this was another favorite moment.  A Bravo Broadway concert just isn't complete without Phantom of the Opera so Panaro and Strallen sang "Phantom of the Opera" and then Panaro gave an incredible performance of "Music of the Night" that brought the house down!  For the encore, they performed a medley of love songs for Valentine's Day (my favorites were "Love Changes Everything" from Aspects of Love and "I Don't Know How to Love Him" from Jesus Christ Superstar).  I enjoyed this concert so much and, if you love musical theatre as much as I do, I highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's performance of the same program (go here) but act quickly because there were very few empty seats last night.

Captain America: Brave New World

Last night I went to a Thursday preview of Captain America: Brave New World and, while it is not the best entry in the MCU, I liked it.  Thaddeus Ross (Harrison Ford) is elected President of the United States and, because of his problematic behavior in the past, he wants his legacy to be a treaty in which the adamantium discovered on Celestial Island is shared between several nations including Japan.  However, Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson) holds Ross responsible for his incarceration after the events in The Incredible Hulk and uses his superhuman intelligence to disrupt the treaty negotiations.  Sterns uses mind control to compel the veteran and super soldier Isaiah Bradley (Carl Lumbly) to attempt an assassination of the president as he addresses international leaders.  Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) works with Joaquin Torres (Danny Ramirez) and Ruth Bat-Seraph (Shira Haas), an ex-Widow who is now a government agent, to clear Bradley's name but more manipulation from Sterns forces Captain American and the Falcon to intervene in order to prevent a war with Japan and a threat from Ross.  The story is a bit unwieldy and convoluted (there is also a plot involving Giancarlo Esposito as the Sidewinder and some stolen adamantium) but once it gets going I really enjoyed seeing a president try to be a better man and a new hero grappling with comparisons to an old one before finding his true strength.  I loved Mackie's more stoic performance (it is appropriate and I didn't miss the wisecracking usually found in the MCU at all) and I found his portrayal of Sam's relationships with Isaiah and Joaquin (Lumbly and Ramirez are also great) to be very affecting and a great way forward for the character.  Ford is outstanding as a man trying to reconcile his past mistakes but I feel like Esposito is wasted in role that is not fully realized.  The biggest problem with this movie is the way it looks.  Some of the CGI in the action sequences is really chaotic and the confrontation with the Red Hulk, especially in the cherry trees, is so obviously in front of a green screen that it is laughable.  There are definitely issues but I had fun with it and I am now eager to see more of the character in the upcoming Avengers movies.

The Play That Goes Wrong at West Valley Arts

Last night I went to see The Play That Goes Wrong at the West Valley Performing Arts Center and, since I am very familiar with this show, I was really intrigued to see how it would be staged in the round. They actually pulled it off because it is one of the funniest versions I've seen! The titular play is The Murder at Haversham Manor by Susie H. K. Brideswell and it is being performed by the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society. It stars Max (Dan Radford) as Cecil Haversham/ Arthur the Gardner, Chris (Adam Packard) as Inspector Carter, Jonathan (John Valdez) as Charles Haversham, Robert (Bryan Dayley) as Thomas Colleymore, Dennis (Samuel Wright) as Perkins the Butler, and Sandra (Britty Marie) as Florence Colleymore. The Director is Chris, the Stage Manager is Annie (Jillian Joy), and the Sound and Lighting Director is Trevor (Armando Serrano Huerta). The set is slowly falling apart, the props malfunction or go missing, the sound designer accidentally plays Duran Duran instead of the sound cues, a missing dog is not found until bows, one actor cannot stay still while playing the murder victim, one actor cannot remember his lines, one actor is overly dramatic and then milks the audience for applause, and the leading lady is injured halfway through the show and must be replaced by Annie (and then Trevor) with script in hand but the show must go on! The staging (which I won't spoil here) is absolutely brilliant because, since it is in the round, everything happens in front of the audience! I especially loved the visible backstage area and all of the stage crew members (more than are usually used in this show) who are shown running around in a panic. The set is one of the most elaborate I've seen at West Valley Arts and I particularly loved the second floor study, which eventually collapses spectacularly, and the elevator, which is hand-cranked to great comedic effect. The physical comedy is so much fun to watch and my favorite moments are when Florence, Thomas, and Inspector Carter get stuck in a loop which involves drinking paint thinner instead of whiskey because Perkins can't remember his next line, when Cecil and Thomas have to answer the phone (with the help of an audience member) while holding the set together, when Perkins and Thomas walk through the audience because they can't open the door, when Cecil cannot bring himself to kiss Florence, and when Annie and Sandra have a long and drawn out fight over who gets to play Florence. The entire cast is fantastic but the standouts for me are Dayley because he is so hilariously exasperated (he was often standing near me and his facial expressions made me laugh out loud), Radford because his gestures are so over the top, and Joy because she is an absolute hoot once she gets into character while playing Florence. I don't think I stopped laughing all night and I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) for a really fun night out!  It runs at the West Valley Center for the Performing Arts through Mar 1.

Note:  If you go (you should!) try to get to your seat as early as you can because there are hijinks before the show even begins!

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

The second movie in my double feature at the Broadway last night was The Seed of the Sacred Fig and it is an incredibly compelling and powerful indictment of the authoritarian regime in Iran.  Iman (Missagh Zareh) is promoted as an investigating judge in the Revolutionary Court of Tehran but, because he must regularly sign death warrants, the position is dangerous because people often attempt to seek retribution.  He is advised to keep his job secret from his family, which includes his wife Najmeh (Soheila Golestani) and teenage daughters Rezvan (Mahsa Rostami) and Sana (Setareh Maleki), and he is issued a gun for protection.  However, Najmeh insists that he tell his daughters about his job but they are becoming critical of the regime after the death of a young woman in police custody sparks widespread protests.  Rezvan eventually confronts her father when her friend Sadaf (Niousha Akhshi) is beaten and arrested at a protest.  Iman is under tremendous pressure at work because he is now expected to sign hundreds of death warrants due to the protests so, when his gun mysteriously disappears, he blames his daughters and subjects them to an intense interrogation.  When his personal information appears on social media, Iman's paranoia intensifies and he takes his family to hide at his childhood home which leads to an epic confrontation.  This has a really long runtime but I was absolutely riveted as the domestic drama mirrors the one that is playing out on the streets of Tehran.  The tension escalates very slowly as the two girls come to realize that the information on the news is not supported by what they are seeing on social media (actual footage from the protests that erupted in Tehran in 2022 is used and it is horrifying to watch) and that their father is complicit in what is happening.  Then the tension becomes almost unbearable in the third act with a truly frightening interrogation scene and an extended chase sequence that had me holding my breath.  The performances are understated but very effective (and incredibly brave) and I was especially impressed by Golestani because you can feel how torn Najmeh is between supporting her husband and protecting her daughters.  I was blown away by this movie, and the lengths to which director Mohammad Rasoulof went in order to bring it to the screen, and I highly recommend it.

I'm Still Here

When the Academy Award nominations were announced a few weeks ago, the only Best Picture nominee that I hadn't seen yet was I'm Still Here (click on the titles for my commentaries on Anora, The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Perez, Nickel Boys, The Substance, and Wicked) so I decided to see it as part of a double feature at the Broadway last night.  It is incredibly moving with a powerful performance from Fernanda Torres.  In 1970, Rubens Paiva (Selton Mello), a former congressman ousted by a military dictatorship in Brazil, is living in Rio de Janeiro near the beach with his wife Eunice (Torres) and his five children, Marcelo (Guilherme Silveira), Vera (Valentina Herszage), Eliana (Luiza Kosovski), Nalu (Barbara Luz), and Maria (Cora Mora), while working as an architect.  His happy and boisterous house is always filled with family and friends but, unbeknownst to Eunice, Rubens is active in the underground resistance to the regime.  Rubens is eventually arrested in a military raid and is "disappeared" but, when Eunice inquires about his whereabouts, she and her daughter Eliana are brought in for questioning and she is tortured for several days before being released.  Without a definitive answer about the fate of her husband, Eunice (who cannot even access her bank account without her husband's signature) must hold her family together while searching for answers which do not come for decades.  This is a straightforward story about resilience in the face of unimaginable terror but what makes it so devastating is the slow and measured introduction to this loving family and their idyllic life together before everything changes with a knock on the door.  You feel the weight of what has happened to them because you know how happy they were before their husband and father was taken from them.  There are so many scenes of quiet heroism as Eunice makes difficult decisions but I found it absolutely heartbreaking when she tells the children that they have to move away from their house in Rio.  Torres gives an incredibly nuanced performance in which you see every emotion Eunice is feeling on her face (the scene in the ice cream shop as she observes happy families all around her just about did me in) and she is definitely deserving of the Best Actress nomination.  I would highly recommend seeking this out.

Note:  Now that I have seen all of the Best Picture nominees, I want Dune: Part Two to win but, with the exception of Emilia Perez, I wouldn't mind if any of them did.