The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 at HCT

Last night I was really excited for The Musical Comedy Murders of 1940 at HCT because I had never seen it before (this is something that doesn't happen very often). It is a hilarious spoof of both the noir detective thrillers and the slapstick comedies that were popular in the 1940s and I had so much fun watching it! A maid named Helsa Wenzel (Kristi Curtis) is murdered (although no one will notice until the end of Act 1) in the library of a mansion in Chappaqua, New York owned by a wealthy and eccentric impresario named Elsa Von Grossenknueten (Claire Kenny). Elsa has invited Nikki Crandall (Corinne Adair), a young and beautiful singer/dancer, Eddie McCuen (Kyle Baugh), a struggling comedian, and Patrick O'Reilly (Bryan Dayley), an Irish tenor, to the mansion to audition for the creative team behind a new Broadway musical, White House Merry-Go-Round, including the director Ken De La Maize (Zac Zumbrunnen), the composer Roger Hopewell (Dustin Bolt), the librettist Bernice Roth (Jasmine Jackman), and the producer Marjorie Baverstock (Eden Benson). However, it turns out that Ken, Roger, Bernice, and Marjorie were also part of the creative team for the musical Manhattan Holiday during which the "Stage Door Slasher" murdered several women, including Elsa's friend Bebe McAllister. She has assembled everyone together so that an undercover policeman, Michael Kelly (Scott James), can discover the identity of the "Stage Door Slasher" but, instead, there is another murder and Helsa's body is finally discovered. Chaos ensues, including secret passageways, secret identities, and a secret code, until the murderer is revealed! In this production, the plot is presented as a play-within-a-play with an Author (Davey Morrison) who is writing it (with projections of the text on a scrim when the show opens and above the stage periodically during the show) as it is being performed. The Author also speaks all of the stage directions and sometimes interacts with the cast (especially Eddie who is his stand-in during the romantic scenes with Nikki) to great comedic effect. The production design, including the set, the costumes, and the make-up, is incredibly clever and I won't spoil it here because it is such a dramatic reveal! The characters are completely over-the-top and I especially loved the flamboyant Roger and the emotional Bernice because they are constantly bickering with each other as well as Ken because he is so bombastic. The performances are also a lot of fun and the entire cast does a great job with the rapid-fire dialogue and the exaggerated physical comedy. Shout-outs go to Benson for the spectacular way in which she falls out of a chair and Dayley (one of my favorite frequent performers at HCT because he always makes me laugh) for his unhinged facial expressions. I thoroughly enjoyed this because it is both extremely funny and highly original and I definitely recommend it (go here for tickets). It runs on the Sorenson Legacy Jewel Box Stage through November 15 with best availability for the matinees.

Splitsville

I was in desperate need of a laugh so my nephew and I went to the Broadway last night to see Splitsville because the trailer looked really funny.  I did laugh out loud at some of the absurdist physical comedy but it is not the funniest film I've seen this year.  After a traumatic experience, Ashley (Adria Arjona) asks her husband Carey (Kyle Martin) for a divorce because she has been unfaithful and wants to continue sleeping with other people.  Carey commiserates with his best friend Paul (Michael Angelo Covino) and his wife Julie (Dakota Johnson) but he is shocked when Paul brags about having an open marriage and suggests that Carey and Ashley should do the same.  However, when Carey and Julie sleep together, both Ashley and Paul reconsider and realize that they didn't appreciate what they had until it was gone.  The entire premise is revealed in the trailer and, while it is amusing to see the increasingly ridiculous lengths to which both Ashley and Paul resort to get their spouses back, the story is really thin and the resolution is a foregone conclusion.  The characters are pretty unlikable and it is a bit frustrating that none of them seem to have any growth (the final scene mirrors one from the beginning beat for beat).  That being said, there are some hilarious scenes, including an extended fight between Carey and Paul that destroys the house (it is much more involved than what is shown in the trailer) and a sequence with goldfish on a roller coaster, and I did really enjoy many of the secondary characters, particularly all of Ashley's former lovers who move in with her and Carey.  This is a lot of fun if you can ignore the shortcomings and simply appreciate it as a screwball comedy and I recommend it to fans of the genre.

Note:  This has been billed as the funniest film of the year but I think it falls short of that description.  I do not see a lot of comedies but the funniest film I have seen this year is The Ballad of Wallis Island (it features very dry British humor so not everyone will agree with me).

Hamilton on the Big Screen

Seeing the Original Broadway Cast of Hamilton was one of the best experiences of my life!  I cannot adequately describe my excitement as I sat in the Richard Rodgers Theatre (in the balcony) eagerly anticipating the iconic opening notes of "Alexander Hamilton" or the exhilaration I felt when I walked out of the theatre with all of my impossibly high expectations exceeded.  A filmed version of this production was released on Disney+ in the middle of the pandemic but it is now in movie theaters for the first time in celebration of its 10th Anniversary!  Even though I have now seen it *ahem* many times on Disney+, I just had to see it on the big screen last night and sitting in the dark with a large crowd made me feel like I was back at the Richard Rodgers Theatre (but with a much better seat).  I loved seeing all of my favorite moments up close, especially Jonathan Groff's pout (and his projectile spitting) when George III whines about the colonies in "You'll Be Back," Renee Elise Goldsberry's look of regret after Angelica Schuyler introduces Hamilton to her sister in "Satisfied," the look of panic Jasmine Cephas Jones gives as Daveed Diggs leers at her when Lafayette walks down the aisle with Peggy Schuyler in "Satisfied," the look of contrition on Lin-Manuel Miranda's face when Washington orders Hamilton to go home in "Meet Me Inside" and his look of disappointment when Angelica announces that she is leaving to get married in "Non-Stop," the mega-watt smile Diggs flashes when Thomas Jefferson milks the crowd in "What'd I Miss" and the look of absolute glee on his face when Jefferson realizes that Hamilton is no longer a rival in "The Reynolds Pamphlet," Phillipa Soo's simmering anger over Hamilton's betrayal of Eliza in "Burn," the devastation on her face over Philip's death in "Stay Alive (Reprise)," and the exact moment she forgives Hamilton in "It's Quiet Uptown" as well as the tears brimming in Goldsberry's eyes in this song, Leslie Odom, Jr.'s look of incredulity when Hamilton endorses Jefferson over Burr in "The Election of 1800," his exasperation when Hamilton delivers all of his grievances one by one in "Your Obedient Servant," and his remorse over Hamilton's death in "The World Was Wide Enough," and the look of tenderness Miranda gives Soo as Eliza describes preserving Hamilton's legacy in "Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story."  I also loved the different perspectives shown through the dynamic camera work, particularly the view of Christopher Jackson just before Washington turns around and storms the stage in "Right Hand Man" ("We are outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, outplanned.  We've got to make an all out stand!") and the views that put the audience in the middle of the action in "My Shot," "Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)," and "Hurricane."  Finally, it was great to see a new introduction featuring behind the scenes footage from the production as well as contemporary interviews with the cast about the legacy of the show.  My crowd was kind of subdued but there were a few of us singing (quietly) and applauding after every number and it was so much fun!  I highly recommend seeing this on the big screen, even if you have seen it on Disney+, because it is the next best thing to being there for the OBC at the Richard Rodgers Theatre!

Jaws

I had a blast seeing Jaws, the original summer blockbuster, on the big screen in a packed theater at the Broadway yesterday.  It is back in theaters with a 4K restoration for a limited engagement in honor of its 50th Anniversary and I think it holds up really well.  After several suspicious deaths happen in the waters around the island of Amity in New England, Police Chief Martin Brody (Roy Scheider) and marine biologist Matt Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) believe it to be the work of a man-eating great white shark and want to close the beaches until it can be caught.  However, Mayor Larry Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) fears that closing the beaches over the Fourth of July holiday will hurt the economy and refuses to allow it.  After another attack on a crowded beach, Vaughn eventually agrees to hire an eccentric fisherman named Peter Quint (Robert Shaw) and both Brody and Hooper join him on his boat, the Orca, for a perilous hunt for the shark.  The fact that the audience rarely sees the shark but instead hears a menacing score by John Williams featuring the iconic alternating pattern of two notes adds to the unrelenting tension.  The scenes in which the shark actually appears are terrifying as a result, especially when it comes up on the deck of the boat to attack Quint, and I admit that I jumped out of my seat multiple times (although the first time was when Hooper dives down to the wreckage of a boat that was attacked by the shark).  I haven't seen this in a really long time, probably decades, and the narrative is much more thought-provoking than I remembered.  One of the themes that I really noticed is the clash between experience, as represented by Quint, and technology, as represented by Hooper, but I found it very interesting that Brody, the "everyman" character, is ultimately the one who is able to kill the shark (in a dramatic scene that elicited cheers from my audience).  This is such a great movie and I highly recommend seeing it as it was meant to be seen while it is back in theaters.

The Roses

The second movie in the double feature at the Broadway with my nephew last night was The Roses, another movie we were both looking forward to seeing.  Unfortunately, it was not at all what I was expecting and I found it very disappointing considering the talent of the two leads.  Theo Rose (Benedict Cumberbatch) is a successful and visionary architect and his wife Ivy (Olivia Colman) is a gifted chef who has put her career on hold to care for their children Hattie (Hala Finley) and Roy (Wells Rappaport).  Theo buys her a small restaurant so she can indulge her passion several times a week as he designs a maritime museum in the shape of a sailboat but an unexpected storm reverses their fortunes.  Theo's museum is destroyed, and his design is blamed, while stranded motorists, including an influential food critic, congregate at Ivy's restaurant.  He is fired and her restaurant becomes a huge success so she decides to work full-time while he cares for the children and indulges his passion by designing their dream home.  This role-reversal leads to dissatisfaction because he feels unappreciated and resents her success while she feels like she is missing out on family time with her children.  These simmering recriminations eventually lead to all-out war between the two of them.  This is definitely not as funny as I thought it would be (I didn't hear any laughter from my audience).  All of the humor is spoiled in the trailer and, even then, when we see these moments in the context of the movie, they do not seem as funny.  However, my biggest complaint is that it isn't dark enough.  I never felt like Theo and Ivy truly hated each other (Cumberbatch and Colman have too much chemistry as lovers and not enough as enemies) because they are always tearfully making up with each other and the final "war" is very rushed and underwhelming (I waited impatiently through the whole movie for the fireworks to finally start and then they were over in fifteen minutes).  The supporting characters do not add much to the proceedings (I have grown weary of Kate McKinnon's schtick as the sexually inappropriate friend and I am struggling to remember if Sunita Mani even had any lines as a sou chef in Ivy's restaurant).  The exception is Allison Janney because she steals the show with her five minutes of screen time as Ivy's aggressive divorce lawyer.  Ugh!  I love both Cumberbatch and Colman so it pains me to say this but you should give this a miss.