Sacramento

Yesterday I went to a matinee of Sacramento at the Broadway (there are so many movies that I want to see playing at the Broadway right now so I have to fit them in when I can) and I found it very charming.  The free-spirited Rickey (Michael Angarano) meets a woman named Tallie (Maya Erskine) before learning of his father's death.  One year later, after he is kicked out of his grief support group, he arrives unannounced at the home of his estranged friend Glenn (Michael Cera).  The uptight Glenn is about to become a father and is filled with anxiety to the chagrin of his exasperated wife Rosie (Kristen Stewart).  Rickey notices how stressed Glenn is acting and spontaneously suggests a road trip from Los Angeles to Sacramento and, when Glenn refuses to go, he tells him that the purpose of the trip is to scatter his father's ashes even though he has another motive for wanting to go there.  Glenn suspects that Rickey is lying but agrees to go because he is worried about him.  As they argue over who is having a bigger breakdown, Glenn helps Rickey face up to his responsibilities and Rickey helps Glenn calm down.  This is both funny and heartwarming and plays to the strengths of Angarano and Cera as actors.  I laughed out loud when Rickey and Glenn end up at a boxing gym, for reasons, and end up going at each other in the ring and when they wrestle each other to the ground in the middle of a parking lot because they are just like twelve year old boys.  I also laughed at the lengths to which Rickey goes to keep Glenn on the trip with him, especially arranging for his car to be towed.  There is also an incredibly poignant scene where Rickey helps Glenn through a panic attack and reassures him they will both be okay.  Stewart and Erskine don't have a lot of screen time but they really ground the story.  I enjoyed this buddy comedy (I think it is a more lighthearted version of A Real Pain) and I recommend it to fans of the actors.

Wicked at the Eccles

I really love the musical Wicked because not only is it a powerful ode to anyone who has ever felt different but it is also extremely clever in the way it sets up the events in The Wizard of Oz and the music is so stirring.  I love it so much that I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing it (the usher, who talks to me before every show, asked me how many times I've seen it and I think the number is now ten).  It was so much fun to see it again last night at the Eccles Theatre, especially now that I have seen the movie (I cannot wait for the second part now).  I am really glad that it is still the original production and that it hasn't been changed to conform to the choreography, costumes, and production design of the movie because I've always really enjoyed all of these elements in the stage version (although I thought the projections for the tornado were really underwhelming this time around).  I noticed that the pace is so much faster in comparison to the movie with scenes moving very quickly but I actually appreciated this because I always sit with great anticipation for all of my favorite numbers.  The two leads in this production, Austen Danielle Bohmer as Glinda and Lauren Samuels as Elphaba, are wonderful and I especially enjoyed Bohmer's hilarious rendition of "Popular" (I loved it when she hunched down to get her wand working) and Samuels is incredibly powerful in "The Wizard and I," "Defying Gravity," and "No Good Deed" as well as very affecting in "I'm Not That Girl" (my favorite song in the show).  They also sound great together in "What Is This Feeling?" and "For Good" although their physicality is a bit off because Samuels is very slight in stature (I always think that Elphaba should be larger and more awkward than Glinda).  I also really liked Xavier McKinnon as Fiyero because he is charismatic (and is a great dancer) in "Dancing Through Life" and he has a lot of chemistry with Samuels in "As Long As You're Mine."  He is especially awkward with Samuels when she leaves Shiz for the Emerald City as well as with Bohmer during "Thank Goodness."  Aymee Garcia is one of the sassiest Madame Morribles I've seen and Blake Hammond is suitably smarmy as the Wonderful Wizard of Oz but I found Erica Ito and Alex Vinh to be a bit bland as Nessarose and Boq, respectively.  This show will always be a favorite and I absolutely loved seeing so many people around me experience the stage version for the first time after being introduced to the story by the movie.  I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) through the run at the Eccles Theatre which continues through May 25.

Note:  After seeing the movie, I decided to read Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire.  It is extremely dark and very weird (Elphaba and Glinda do not even interact very much) and I definitely prefer the stage adaptation.

A Chorus Line at West Valley Arts

Last night I went to a production of A Chorus Line at the West Valley Performing Arts Center and it is outstanding in every way! A large group of dancers are vying for a chance to be part of the ensemble of a new Broadway show. The director Zach (Joseph Spear) observes as his assistant Larry (Madison Valgardson) takes the group through the choreography and all of the dancers express the hope that they will be cast. Eventually, the group is narrowed down to Cassie (Bailee Johnson), Kristine (Annie Jones), Richie (Phil Lewis), Bebe (Sophi Keller), Diana (Celeste Palermo), Connie (Ally Choe), Mark (Alec Foote), Greg (Dylan Panter), Al (Remy Talanoa), Paul (Angel Martinez), Bobby (Michael Avila), Maggie (Summer Sloan Alvey), Mike (Cameron Robbins), Val (Rosalie Wasser), and Sheila (Heather White). Zach wants to learn more than what is listed on their resumes so he asks them to talk about their experiences and what made each of them want to be a dancer and they do so in a series of stirring musical numbers. My favorite songs are "I Can Do That" as Mike talks about accompanying his sister to dance class, "At the Ballet" as Sheila, Bebe, and Maggie recount how they used ballet as an escape from their unhappy childhoods, "Gimme the Ball" as Richie describes how he almost became a kindergarten teacher before becoming a dancer, and "Dance: Ten, Looks: Three" as Val brags about getting more work after having plastic surgery. As the group learns the choreography for a number from the show, Zach confronts Cassie and it is revealed that she was once the star of one of his shows, as well as his former lover, and he doesn't think she will fit in with the chorus and he also has a poignant moment with Paul as he describes the difficulty he has had with his sexuality. The group rehearses "One" and Zach selects the final eight dancers who then perform this number in the show. The entire cast is stellar, one of the strongest I've seen at West Valley Arts, but the standouts for me are Johnson because I loved her mesmerizing performance in "The Music and the Mirror" and Martinez because his delivery of Paul's monologue is incredibly emotional. I wondered about the staging of this show because the theater is in the round but it is very clever. Zach initially observes the group from a platform above one of the wings but then we only hear his disembodied voice coming from various areas of the theater and this allows the dancers to face different parts of the audience as they speak to him. The choreography is also very clever (I have become a huge fan of co-director and co-choreographer Izzy Arrieta) because, while it is recognizable from other versions of this show that I have seen, lots of different patterns are created on stage so there is always something to look at. I also loved the use of the company as the individual characters perform their solo numbers, particularly during "And..."  The set is minimal because the audition takes place on a bare stage but I really liked the use of clear plexiglass panels around the perimeter because they are somewhat reflective and replicate the mirrors one would find in a ballet studio and the way that actual mirrors are incorporated into "The Music and the Mirror" is very effective. The costumes during the audition are also minimal but the sparkly gold ones used in the finale are quite spectacular (as is the dramatic lighting during this number). This stunning show is definitely one that you do not want to miss! It runs at the West Valley Performing Arts Center through May 3 with performances on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays (go here for tickets).

Warfare

The second movie in the double feature at the Broadway with my nephew last night was Warfare.  It was quite a shift in tone from our first movie because it is incredibly intense!  In 2006 the Navy SEAL platoon Alpha One is sent on a surveillance mission looking for insurgents in the aftermath of the Second Battle of Ramadi.  They commandeer the house of a local family and begin to monitor the market located across the street after it shows an elevated level of activity.  In the ensuing firefight with the insurgents, several members of the platoon are injured and require evacuation but this proves to be incredibly dangerous until Alpha Two eventually reaches their position.  It focuses on Erik (Will Poulter), the Officer in Charge, Ray (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai), the communications officer, Elliott (Cosmo Jarvis), the lead sniper injured in the firefight, Sam (Joseph Quinn), the LPO injured by an IED, Tommy (Kit Connor), a relatively inexperienced gunner, and Jake (Charles Melton), the Assistant Officer in Charge.  Ray Mendoza, the communications officer in the actual Alpha One platoon, is the co-writer and co-director and he wanted the movie to serve as a memory of the events for the injured Elliott Miller and, as such, it is one of the most accurate portrayals of war that I have ever seen.  It is incredibly immersive, especially a scene where the soldiers use smoke to mask their movements and the scenes depicting the explosion of an IED, because the visual effects and sound design put the audience in the middle of the action which is shown in real-time.  The scenes showing a plane strafing the street as a "show of force" are especially visceral.  This is definitely an experience rather than a narrative (although there is more of a story arc than I was expecting) and I was particularly struck by the moments of tedium as the soldiers wait for something to happen juxtaposed with the total chaos and terror of battle.  It is very powerful but, in my opinion, it is quite neutral in its message about war in that it is merely an objective look at what actually happens and the audience is meant to take away their own interpretation.  I highly recommend it but it may be difficult for some to watch.

The Ballad of Wallis Island

I really enjoyed The Ballad of Wallis Island at Sundance this year (it was one of the few comedies at the festival that actually worked for me) so I was secretly happy when my nephew expressed an interest in it because that meant I had an excuse to see it again!  It was the first in a double feature at the Broadway last night and he liked it as much as I did (I liked it even more upon a second viewing).  The awkward and eccentric Charles (Tim Key) retired to a remote island after winning the lottery not once but twice.  On the five year anniversary of the death of his wife Marie, he uses some of his winnings to bring Herb McGwyer (Tom Basden), one half of their favorite folk duo McGwyer Mortimer, to the island to perform a concert.  Charles is a very enthusiastic fan and Herb soon finds the whole arrangement to be strange, especially when he learns that Charles will be the only one in the audience, but he stays because he needs the money to finance a solo album.  Complications ensue when Nell Mortimer (Carey Mulligan), the other half of the folk duo, arrives on the island with her husband Michael (Akemnji Ndifornyen).  There are unresolved tensions between Herb and Nell stemming from their messy break-up both personally and professionally but, as they rehearse, Herb begins to romanticize their time as a duo because he is unhappy with the direction of his solo career.  Charles also romanticizes their music because it reminds him of his late wife and this is keeping him from pursuing a relationship with Amanda (Sian Clifford), the owner of a shop on the island.  Both Herb and Charles must learn to let go of the past in order to move forward into the future.  The story is incredibly charming and I love how music (my nephew and I both loved all of the songs) is used as a way to evoke memories because I am instantly transported back to a certain time and place whenever I hear some songs.  The humor is really dry (you have to listen very carefully to all of Charles's one-liners because they are absolutely hilarious) and it was a lot of fun to hear the large crowd laughing out loud with me because I was sometimes the only one laughing during the Sundance screening.  This is a movie with a lot of heart and I definitely recommend it!