She Loves Me at HCT

Last night (after a little nap) I saw Hale Theatre's production of the musical She Loves Me.  This Broadway show was the inspiration for the films Little Shop Around the Corner and, more recently, You've Got Mail.  The setting is Maraczek's Perfumery, a little shop with an eccentric group of clerks, in the 1940s.  We learn that one of the clerks, Georg Nowack (Derek Smith), has been corresponding with an unknown woman whom he calls "Friend."  Amalia Balash (Amy Shreeve Keeler) is soon hired as a new clerk and Georg takes an immediate dislike to her. The feeling is mutual and, soon, they are bickering constantly. Amalia has an unknown correspondent as well and, of course, it is Georg! Can this couple realize that they really do love each other? I will admit that I wasn't immediately drawn into the musical numbers but, as the show progressed, I found them to be more and more charming!  I thought Georg's song "Tonight at Eight" was incredibly endearing. I never imagine that a man gets nervous before meeting a woman for a date!  Amalia's song "Will He Like Me?" perfectly expresses what a woman feels like before a date and Keeler sings it with such vulnerability.  The choreography is quite innovative and intricate.  I loved the scene where the clerks decorate the shop for Christmas and Ilona and Steve dance with a garland!  So fun!  Both of the leads are great in their roles but, in my opinion, Megan Lynn Heaps (a frequent performer with HCT) and Harrison Young steal the show as Ilona and Arpad, respectively.  I loved watching Heaps' facial expressions and Young is as irrepressible as a puppy!  The set is absolutely incredible! Kacey Udy, as usual, has outdone himself with the amazing perfume counter in the center of the stage.  Michelle Jensen is to be commended for all of the beautiful props used on the perfume counter.  Finding all of those vintage perfume bottles and assorted baubles must have been a Herculean task!  This little gem of a show was a lovely interlude in the middle of a busy week getting ready for the new school year!  I recommend it, especially for people who are nostalgic for a simpler time! She Loves Me runs through September 27 but shows are selling out quickly.  Go here for more information.

All You Need Is Love

Fifteen years ago I went on a girls trip to Las Vegas with my friend Candi.  During our stay at Treasure Island we saw the show Mystere performed by Cirque du Soleil.  I had never seen anything like it before and was mesmerized by the acrobatic, aerial, and trapeze performances accompanied by fabulous live music (I especially liked the taiko drums).  I absolutely loved it!  Several years ago the Beatles collaborated with Cirque du Soleil to create a similar show called Love using the recorded music of the Beatles (their long-time producer, George Martin, gave Cirque du Soleil access to original Abbey Road Studio recordings so the music is absolutely amazing) at the Mirage.  I immediately wanted to see this show!  Since I loved Mystere so much, I figured that a Cirque du Soleil show featuring the music of my all-time favorite band would be an epic experience (it was).  I have wanted to see this show for so long (I tried to see it on my spring break trip to Southern Utah but for some reason it was dark that entire week) but I finally made it happen last Friday while I was in Cedar City for the Shakespeare Festival (Las Vegas is a two hour drive from Cedar City).  I loved this show so much!  Every single song and performance was amazing but a few of them stand out in my mind.  The stage is in the round and, at the opening of the show, it is divided into quadrants by blue scrims.  Four performers dressed in blue slowly began climbing ropes suspended from the ceiling to "Because," a slow song sung a capella.  In my opinion, it was a bit anticlimactic.  Then the scrims fell and "Get Back" played while men and women bounced perpendicularly on bungee cords.  The women seemed to drop straight down from the men and it was incredible!  I also loved the performance to "Something."  A man wearing black performed an acrobatic routine while four women dressed in white flew around him on trapezes.  He interacted with them but they all seemed tantalizingly out of reach.  So beautiful and atmospheric!  During the song "Within You Without You" a group of children played on a bed in the center of the stage.  Then a huge white parachute spread around them and throughout the audience, literally covering most of them.  I don't know what the people covered by the parachute saw, but I was sitting in an upper row and it looked like the bed was bouncing on a fluffy white cloud.  I actually felt like I was floating on the cloud and it was surreal, to say the least.  The very next song was "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" and strings of LED lights descended from the ceiling while a girl dressed in silver flew around the theater on a trapeze.  The lights blinked on and off and it literally felt like I was surrounded by stars.  For "Here Comes the Sun," a globe of lights descended from the ceiling and four women dressed in yellow performed aerial dances on suspended ropes.  At the end each woman tumbled down her rope one after the other, perfectly timed to the last four guitar riffs in the song.  It was spectacular!  During "Come Together," four couples danced an acrobatic routine while spotlights flashed on them individually in syncopation with the music.  I was blown away by the performances and I literally had tears in my eyes during the encore, "All You Need Is Love" with images of the Beatles projected on scrims.  Now I want to see it again (I almost bought a ticket to the 9:00 show that same night).  Words do not do justice to this spectacle and I highly recommend Love to anyone who is a fan of the Beatles!

Utah Shakespeare Festival 2014

Last week I had the opportunity to spend three days at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City.  I had so much fun eating tarts (the cream cheese are my favorite) and seeing all of the plays this season.  It was the perfect way to cap off the summer!  Tuesday afternoon I saw the matinee of Sense and Sensibility.  Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors and I have read this novel so many times that, quite honestly, I did not care for the adaptation.  I kept comparing it to the book and there were many subtle differences.  However, I loved the staging and the performances were outstanding.  There are many journeys by carriage in the story and the way the actors simulated the movement of the horses was very entertaining.  Changes in scenery and the movement of props were effected by actors costumed as liveried servants and I thought this was ingenious.  All of the actors were well suited to their roles but Sam Ashdown was perfect as the rake, Willoughby.  He is very handsome and I don't think any proper English miss could possibly resist his charms.  In my opinion, Bria Sudia stole the show as the silly Charlotte Palmer.  I laughed out loud at everything she said and did.  It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.  Tuesday evening I saw The Comedy of Errors outside in the Adams Theatre (an excellent replica of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre).  This show was easily my favorite!  For this production the setting was the wild West during the gold rush of 1849 and the stage included a saloon, a brothel, and a barber shop.  I usually don't like it when directors stray too much from the source material but this show was hilarious (the spittoon)!  I can't remember when I have laughed so hard!  The actors had to pause several times to wait for the audience to stop laughing!  The story is about two sets of identical twins separated at birth who, unbeknownst to them, are all in the same town and are mistaken for each other with outrageous consequences!  The four actors playing the twins (Chris Amos, Drew Shirley, Aaron Galligan-Stierle, and Misha Fristensky) had brilliant timing and were quite adept at all of the physical comedy.  Definitely my favorite show!  Wednesday afternoon I saw the matinee of Twelfth Night which was directed by one of my festival favorites, David Ivers.  This show also involves twins mistaken for each other and a lot of physical comedy.  My favorite character was definitely Malvolio (David Pichette), who is duped into believing that the lady he serves is in love with him.  The costume he wears to woo her is hilarious and I laughed and laughed when he practiced his smile!  Wednesday evening I saw Measure for Measure, which I had never seen before.  This play is about justice and mercy and I found it to be quite intense and thought-provoking.  Steve Wojtas was excellent as Angelo, a man who judges the act of another man but then commits the same act.  There is a bit of comic relief to all of this seriousness in the form of Lucio (Jonathan Smoots).  He criticizes the Duke (John G. Preston) to the Friar, who is really the Duke in disguise, and then criticizes the Friar to the Duke.  The scene where he gets his comeuppance is hilarious.  Thursday I saw the matinee of Into the Woods, which is one of my very favorite musicals (I am beyond excited to see the new movie coming out on Christmas Day).  The story incorporates well-known fairy tale characters to demonstrate that actions can sometimes have unintended consequences.  I really loved the set!  Backdrops and props looked like original illustrations of the Brothers Grimm fairy tales (I especially liked Milky White the cow).  The cast was amazing, including my favorite festival actor, Brian Vaughn, as the Baker.  I especially loved Peter Saide as Cinderella's Prince because he was completely over the top (he was raised to be charming not sincere).  His song "Agony" with Rapunzel's Prince (Kyle Eberlein) had everyone laughing!  Such a great show!  Finally, on Thursday evening I saw Henry IV Part One, a definite contender for my favorite show of the festival!  It was so good!  Sam Ashdown (who played Willoughby in Sense and Sensibility) was incredibly charismatic as Prince Hal.  Sigh!  Henry Woronicz was irrepressible as Sir John Falstaff, the unsuitable companion of the prince.  While their naughty hijinx were a lot of fun to watch, the scene where Hal is confronted by his father, the king, was incredibly powerful and left me breathless!  I also thought the final scene was very well staged:  a spotlight with King Henry standing on the balcony and Prince Hal standing below him.  A portent of things to come (the festival is currently producing all of the history plays chronologically).  I really enjoyed my time at the Utah Shakespeare Festival this year!  There are so many things to do in addition to watching the plays like backstage tours, play orientations, play seminars with the actors and directors, a greenshow every evening (I especially enjoyed Scottish night with a piper), and, of course, the aforementioned tarts!  The festival continues through August 30.  Go here for more information.

The Hundred-Foot Journey

I wanted to see a movie last night but, in my opinion, there is a dearth of good movies in theaters right now.  I think studios are transitioning from summer blockbusters to the more sophisticated Oscar-worthy films typically released in the fall.  At any rate, I spontaneously chose to see The Hundred-Foot Journey without knowing much about it.  I figured that I would enjoy any movie directed by Lasse Hallstrom (The Cider House Rules and Chocolat) starring Helen Mirren. I absolutely loved this charming and delightful film!  After losing everything in a riot in Mumbai, a family relocates to the south of France to open an Indian Restaurant.  Madame Mallory (Mirren) owns Le Saule Pleureur, a restaurant with a Michelin star located across the street, and takes exception to this arrangement.  It is a typical clash-of-cultures-which-eventually-leads-to-understanding movie but it is filmed so beautifully and the characters are so endearing that it feels fresh.   Hallstrom liberally makes use of the picturesque setting in the French countryside and, as someone who loves France as much as I do (I'm going back next summer), I certainly appreciated all of those lovely wide-angle shots.  Manish Dayal is adorable as Hassan Kadan, the Indian cook who takes the recipes from Le Saule Peureur and adds the spices of India to create dishes worthy of a coveted second Michelin star.  I loved the chemistry between Dayal and Charlotte Le Bon, the sous chef Marguerite who initially helps him learn about French cuisine but becomes jealous of the competition.  I loved the scenes where Hassan has Marguerite try his sauces and when he throws a pebble at her window.  The scenes between Madame Mallory and Papa (Om Puri) depicting their battle for supremacy are also quite hilarious and the scene where they dance is enchanting.  I highly recommend this lovely movie, especially for anyone who enjoys food!

Fiddler on the Roof at Sundance

One of my favorite things to do during the summer is to head up to the Sundance Resort to see a show performed under the stars.  It is really beautiful at Sundance and it always feels so good to be up in the mountains with the fresh smell of the pine trees.  This year Sundance, in conjunction with Utah Valley University, performed Fiddler on the Roof and it was wonderful.  The set was very innovative with various buildings representing the village of Anatevka.  During specific scenes, the buildings would open up to become the inside of Tevye's house, Mordcha's Inn & Tavern, and Motel's Tailor Shop.  I really loved the staging, especially in "Tevye's Dream."  Fruma Sarah came out on a huge platform which was wheeled around the stage with ghouls dancing around her (I once played Fruma Sarah and I totally embarrassed Marilyn by singing along).  It was very effective!  The choreography was amazing!  I loved the Bottle Dance at the wedding and the Russian dancers in "To Life."  All of the actors did a nice job but David W. Stensrud was particularly charismatic as Tevye (I saw him as the Ghost of Christmas Present in A Christmas Carol last year at Hale Theatre).  He added a lot of business to make the iconic role his own.  I thought it was hilarious when he started warming up for a fight before he told Golde about Perchik and Hodel.  It was such a fun show to watch because all of the fabulous songs like "Tradition," "Matchmaker, Matchmaker," "If I Were a Rich Man," and "Sunrise, Sunset" are so familiar.  I highly recommend this show for a lovely evening in a spectacular setting.  Go here for information and tickets.  It runs through August 16.

Note:  It is quite the process to get to the theatre.  The upper parking lot was full so they sent us to an unpaved overflow parking area.  The parking attendant laughed at my parking skills!  Next we took a shuttle to the lower parking lot and then a tractor pulling a trailer up to the theatre.  It was a crowded Saturday night so we had to hike quite a ways up the mountain to find a spot to sit.  After the show we had to do it all again to get back to the car.  I had a small meltdown when I saw the line (at least a hundred people) for the shuttle to the upper lot.  It was a really good thing that the show was so great...