The Sting at Parker Theatre

Last night I went to see Parker Theatre's production of The Sting (based on the 1973 movie starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman) and I really enjoyed it. It is 1936 and Johnny Hooker (Spencer Hohl) and his partner Luther (Brinton Wilkins) are grifters working in Joliet, Illinois who trick a courier out of $11,000 unaware that the money was to have been given to the powerful mobster Doyle Lonnegan (Owen Richardson). Luther wants to retire and tells Hooker that he should go to Chicago and learn from Henry Gondorff (Roger Dunbar) because he is ready for the big time. When Hooker discovers that Luther has been killed by Lonnegan for revenge, he escapes to Chicago and finds Gondorff living with his girlfriend Billie (MacKenzie Pedersen). He agrees to help Hooker run an elaborate con game to ruin Lonnegan and they enlist Billie and various criminals, including Kid Twist (Mike Hohl) and J.J. Singleton (Anthony Lovato), for "The Set-Up," "The Hook," "The Wire," and "The Shut-Out" but, before they can get to "The Sting," they must deal with Snyder (Duane Stephens), a corrupt policeman from Joliet chasing Hooker for counterfeiting, and Polk (James Parker), an FBI agent searching for Gondorff. This features snappy dialogue and the talented cast delivers it brilliantly. I especially enjoyed the interactions between Spencer Hohl and Roger Dunbar because they play off each other so well. Seeing the criminals play their roles in the con is also a lot of fun. The fast-paced action takes place in multiple settings which are portrayed on stage with projections, moving panels, and set pieces that are moved on and off stage by the ensemble (it was opening night and I was really impressed with with how seamless the transitions were). My favorites were the projections denoting each part of the con (they reminded me of title cards in a movie), the metal beams representing the elevated train in Chicago, and the elaborate set pieces used for the betting parlor. The staging is very clever, particularly the poker game on the train and a chase scene between Hooker and Snyder through the aisles. This production kept me very engaged and I highly recommend it (I have seen the movie but it was so long ago that I had forgotten a big twist at the end). It runs on Fridays and Saturdays (with matinees on Saturday) through May 3 and tickets may be purchased here.

Note:  Last night was the biggest crowd I've seen at Parker Theatre (there were only a few empty seats) so get your tickets now!

The Woman in the Yard

I was very intrigued by the trailer for The Woman in the Yard because the premise looked so unsettling.  I went to see it last night and it is even more disconcerting than I was expecting.  Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) is almost completely debilitated by depression, guilt, and grief after being seriously injured in a car accident that also killed her husband David (Russell Hornsby).  She is isolated in a rundown farmhouse, which was purchased by her husband as a fixer-upper, in a rural area and is struggling to cope with her two children, Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and Annie (Estella Kahiha).  When a mysterious woman (Okwui Okpokwasili), shrouded in black, suddenly appears in the yard, the tension within the house escalates until Ramona is forced to confront her.  This is a compelling exploration of how mental illness can literally haunt a house and there are moments in the third act that are genuinely scary.  I loved the use of reflected images, shadows, and atmospheric sound design to create a feeling of unease.  Deadwyler is haunting as a mother who is coming undone by the weight of her grief and Okpokwasili is absolutely terrifying.  This features a lot of symbolism and there are several scenes that are open to interpretation, especially the ambiguous ending, but I think there is hope at the end of one of the bleakest sequences I've seen in a long time.  I recommend this to fans of psychological horror with the proviso that one interpretation of the ending could be triggering and upsetting for some.

A Working Man

I am an unapologetic fan of action movies starring Jason Statham (I submit that we should get a new one every year) so I was really excited to see A Working Man with my nephew last night.  There are definitely flaws (I think The Beekeeper is better) but we had a lot of fun with it.  Levon Cade (Statham) is a former commando with the Royal Marines who is trying to put his violent past behind him in order to get a better custody arrangement with his daughter Merry (Isla Gie). He now works for a family-run construction company owned by Joe and Carla Garcia (Michael Pena and Noemi Gonzalez, respectively) and he feels especially protective of their nineteen year old daughter Jenny (Arianna Rivas).  When Jenny is abducted from a club, he reluctantly dusts off his commando skills, reconnects with an old war buddy (David Harbour), and promises the Garcias that he will bring her home.  His investigation leads him to the head of a Russian crime family (Jason Flemyng), a rogue member of that family named Dimi (Maximilian Osinski) who traffics young girls to the highest bidder, the head of a biker gang (Chidi Ajufo) who inadvertently helps him infiltrate Dimi's inner circle, and, finally, the kidnappers Viper and Artemis (Emmett Scanlan and Eve Mauro, respectively) who are bringing Jenny to the client who purchased her.  This leads to an epic showdown in which Cade must neutralize everyone (literally everyone!) involved in order to rescue Jenny and return home to his daughter.  One does not go to movies like this for the plot (this one is convoluted and messy) or for the acting (some of the performances are incredibly cheesy at times).  Rather, one goes to movies like this for the action and Statham (doing what he does best) executes the thrilling fight choreography very effectively as Cade improvises with whatever tools he has at hand.  I especially loved a scene in which Cade fights against two henchmen in the back of a van while he is restrained and the final shootout is a definite crowd-pleaser.  (However, my nephew and I could not suspend our disbelief when the henchmen are unable to hit Cade with a barrage of gunfire as he flees on a motorcycle in a straight line in front of them).  In addition to the action, I also enjoyed seeing a bit of heart in Cade's characterization as a father protecting a daughter as well as his touching interactions with Merry and Jenny.  This is exactly what I was expecting and, if you are a fan of Statham's other movies, I'm sure you will enjoy this.

The Sound of Music at CPT

There are a few shows that just put a smile on my face no matter how many times I see them and The Sound of Music is definitely one of them because my mom loved it so much during the final year of her life. Last night my sisters and I went to see a production at CPT and all three of us really loved it! The story of how a prospective nun named Maria Rainer (Emily Henwood) brings music back to the household of Captain von Trapp (Clay Rockwood) when she becomes the governess to his seven children is so heartwarming and I always anticipate all of my favorite songs (although the order is a little bit different from the movie and I always find that a bit disorienting because I've watched the movie so many times). I really have to stop myself from singing along to every one of them! Henwood has a beautiful voice and her performance is lovely. Her interactions with the von Trapp children, Liesl (Kali Garrett), Friedrich (Jack Fillmore), Louisa (Audrie Corbaley), Kurt (Ty Wilson), Brigitta (Malan Poll), Marta (Eleanor Stephens), and Gretl (Kacey Kemp), are endearing in the songs "Do-Re-Mi" and "The Lonely Goatherd" and those with Rockwood when they dance the Landler and in the song "Something Good" are incredibly romantic. I always enjoy watching the young actress who plays Gretl and Kemp is adorable but in this production Poll steals the show as Brigitta because her line deliveries and facial expressions are hilarious (be sure to watch her if you see the show). I also really liked Garrett's performance because her chemistry with Drew Dunshee, who plays Rolf, is really sweet in "Sixteen Going on Seventeen." Other highlights are Valerie Parker's powerful rendition of "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" and Rockwood's emotional performance of "Edelweiss." There are some interesting variations in the staging of several numbers, including having Captain von Trapp and the children walk towards Maria during the wedding, having soldiers stationed throughout the theater wearing Nazi armbands during the music festival (it is so ominous), and having the von Trapp family climb to safety through a window in the abbey. The use of archival footage projected on screens around the stage, which I have never seen done before, is also very powerful. Finally, the set is absolutely incredible! It features a large structure that resembles a cathedral with beautiful stained glass windows on top and a snow-capped mountain with a valley filled with flowers below. This structure opens up to become the von Trapp villa with a spectacular double staircase and a terrace while dramatic set pieces are moved on and off stage to become Nonnberg Abbey and other locations (the large eagle and swastika over the stage during the music festival is particularly striking). This show is a classic for a reason and every aspect of CPT's production is outstanding! I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) but they are going fast so don't delay!

No Other Land

Last night I went to see the Academy Award winning documentary No Other Land at the Broadway and, no matter where you stand on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, you cannot help but feel devastated and heartbroken after seeing firsthand the fate of people who have been displaced from land owned by their families for generations and who now have no place to go.  In 1980 the Israeli government declares that Masafer Yatta, a collection of 20 rural villages on the southern edge of the West Bank, will now be used for military training.  After a protracted legal battle fighting against expulsion, the Israeli high court rules against the villagers and the army begins demolishing homes with bulldozers.  Basel Adra, inspired by the activism of his parents against the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, decides to to start documenting the destruction in 2019 with the hope that people might be moved by what they see and do something to help.  He gains the attention of an Israeli journalist named Yuval Abraham, who disagrees with what the Israeli government is doing in the West Bank, and together they shoot footage with Hamdan Hallal, a Palestinian filmmaker, and Rachel Szor, an Israeli cinematographer and editor.  The images they capture are visceral and very difficult to watch.  I was in tears when a mother begs the soldiers to stop the bulldozers from tearing down her house because her two daughters are still inside and they tell her that they don't care, when the soldiers shoot a man because he won't give them his generator, when the mother of this man tearfully wishes that he would die because she doesn't have a house in which to care for him now that he is paralyzed, and when a family goes looking for any of their chickens that might still be alive after the soldiers bulldoze their chicken coop but the scene that affected me the most is when a group of crying children watch their school bulldozed to the ground.  I was really struck by the attitude of the Israeli soldiers, which ranges from callous indifference to outright cruelty, towards the villagers in the name of following the law.  However, I was also struck by the growing friendship between Basel and Yuval, contemporaries who have very different lives simply because they were born 30 miles apart, in scenes where they discuss the ongoing conflict because it gives some hope that Israelis and Palestinians might eventually be able to work together for peace despite the events of October 2023 depicted in the epilogue.  This is one of the most powerful and important documentaries I've seen and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to see it (it still does not have a distribution deal in the U.S. so independent theaters like the Broadway are screening it on their own).