The Midtown Men

 Last night my family and I saw the Midtown Men in concert with the Utah Symphony at Abravanel Hall.  It was an absolutely amazing concert!  The Midtown Men are Christian Hoff, Michael Longoria, Daniel Reichard, and J. Robert Spencer and all four of them were in the original Broadway cast of Jersey Boys.  When I saw the Broadway touring company production of Jersey Boys in SLC two years ago, I knew my Dad, who is a huge fan of the Four Seasons, would love the show so I immediately bought tickets for him and my Mom during intermission!  When I read about the upcoming Midtown Men concert, I knew, once again, that my Dad would love it so I decided to get tickets.  I am so glad I did because we all loved it!  My Dad was so excited he could hardly contain himself waiting for the concert to begin!  The Utah Symphony started the show with a medley of songs composed by Henry Mancini and then the Midtown Men came out and performed a variety of music from the 1960s including "Get Ready" by the Temptations, "Can't Buy Me Love" by the Beatles, "Happy Together" by the Turtles, "Dawn (Go Away)" by the Four Seasons, "Up on the Roof" by the Drifters, "Time of the Season" by the Zombies, "Cry for Me" from Jersey Boys, and "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye.  They closed out the first half of the show with a medley of "Big Girls Don't Cry" and "Sherry" by the Four Seasons which really got the crowd going!  After the intermission, the Utah Symphony performed a beautiful arrangement of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel that I really loved.  The Midtown Men continued with "River Deep Mountain High" by Ike & Tina Turner, "California Dreamin'" by the Mamas & the Papas, "Can't Take My Eyes Off You" by the Four Seasons, and a fabulous medley of Motown hits (my favorite was "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5).  They ended the show with "Oh, What a Night (December,1963)" by the Four Seasons.  What a night, indeed!  They were incredible performers with elaborate choreography with each number and they kept up a charming banter with the audience all night.  I love the music of the 1960s, especially the Four Seasons, because my Dad played it so much during my childhood.  It was so fun to experience this concert with him because he is the reason I knew all of the words despite being one of the youngest in the audience!  If you are a fan of the music of the 60s you will definitely want to get a ticket to the show tonight (go here).

Discus Queen

Yesterday I got to see Tashena at one of her track meets and I really loved cheering for her (I may have been a tad boisterous).  She entered five events and placed in three of them.  I think she is absolutely amazing because she also dances with CDT and she had two performances yesterday before the meet!

Tashena's best event is the discus!  I may be just a little bit biased, but she is really good!  Her first throw was 88' (which would have won the event) and her second throw was a scratch.  She was extremely disappointed in these results and actually had tears in her eyes when her coach talked to her.  Even so, just about all of the coaches in the area had their teams watch her to get pointers.  Nobody was even close to her distance!  Her final throw was 102' 8" which was pretty close to her PR (she threw 120' in practice but it doesn't officially count).  I was so proud of her!

Her next best event is shot put.  There is a girl from Kaysville Jr. who is very good (she beat Tashena last week).  When Tashena had her final throw, her coach said that he hoped the Kaysville girl would beat her again because he thinks Tashena can throw a lot father and he wanted her to have some motivation!  Tashena ended up throwing 27' 7 1/4".  The Kaysville thrower beat her by 1/4".  I bet Tashena beats her at the next meet!

This year Tashena is also trying the long jump.  Last week was her first time at this event and she ended up jumping 13' 11" for second place.  She got second place again yesterday but she improved a little bit to 14'.  It is so fun to watch her!

After a long day she was pretty tired!

Note: She also ran the 100m and the hurdles but she didn't place in either event.  She was tired!

Over the River and Through the Woods at HCT

Last night I had the opportunity to see the play Over the River and Through the Woods at Hale Theatre.  It is a lovely story with a very warmhearted message about family (the little old ladies sitting next to me were crying).  It is also incredibly funny and I laughed out loud on numerous occasions.  Nick Christano (Alex King) is offered a big promotion at work which means that he will have to relocate from New York to Seattle. His overprotective Italian grandparents (Jared Dunn, Jayne Luke, Gary Pimentel, and Jane Merrell Huefner) in New Jersey don't want him to leave so they plot to give him a reason to stay. They decide that he needs a girlfriend which involves a painfully awkward set-up with Caitlin (Kylee Wood), the niece of his grandmother's canasta partner. Hilarity ensues. In addition to the humor, there are some tender moments as well because this play is a touching commentary on generational differences. Many of our grandparents worked hard their whole lives to provide more opportunities for their families, but in so doing, they paved the way for their children and grandchildren to leave them far behind.  A particularly memorable scene is when Nick's grandfather talks about coming to America for a better life and then realizes that Nick is also searching for a better life even though it is a different one from his.  I was lucky enough to have all four of my grandparents (and even a great-grandfather!) around until I was a young adult and I certainly recognized many of the situations portrayed.  One of my grandmas, who recently passed away, always wanted to feed everyone just like Nick's grandma. One of the funniest scenes in the play is when she tries to give him a ten pound pan of lasagna for the plane ride.  My grandma also sent me home with containers of food! The entire cast is very well-suited to their roles and I particularly enjoyed King's overwrought portrayal of Nick.  His facial expressions are hilarious, especially as he gets more and more exasperated with his grandparents' attempts to play Trivial Pursuit! As usual, I loved the set.  There were so many little details which were a lot of fun including the collections of spoons on the walls.   I definitely recommend this wonderful show.  Go here for tickets but do it soon because many performances are selling out.

Note:  If your grandparents are still alive, give them a call!

True Story

Jonah Hill and James Franco were some of the biggest Hollywood celebrities to attend the Sundance Film Festival this year (aside from Courtney Love and Frances Bean Cobain promoting Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck).  While I'm not a fan of James Franco, the premise of their movie, True Story, intrigued me and I tried, unsuccessfully, to get a ticket to a screening.  The movie is now out in limited release so I went to see it last night.  Michael Finkel (Hill) is a reporter who has been fired from the New York Times for creating a composite character in a story about the child slave trade in West Africa.  Christian Longo (Franco) is a manipulative sociopath awaiting trial for killing his entire family.  Finkel, now in disgrace, learns that Longo impersonated him while on the run and arranges to meet him for a series of interviews in jail.  Finkel desperately needs a big story to revive his career and gets completely drawn in by the charm and charisma of the accused murderer despite the overwhelming evidence which points to his guilt.  It is an intense psychological analysis of two proven liars discussing their perceptions of the "truth" and I found it fascinating, albeit unsettling.  The film is at its best in the scenes depicting the intimate conversations between the two main characters.  It was strange to see Hill in such a serious role but he does a good job with the material and Franco made my skin crawl, especially during an upsetting courtroom exchange between Finkel and Longo.  The parts of the film that didn't work for me were the artistic flashbacks of Longo's wife and children playing and the completely superfluous character of Finkel's wife Jill, played by Felicity Jones.  Furthermore, the film concludes with a highly charged scene where Finkel confronts Longo about his lies to which Longo counters that Finkel got a lucrative book deal out of it so he shouldn't complain.  This scene had such a note of finality about it so it was disconcerting to see a slide in the end credits which said that Finkel and Longo still regularly correspond. In my opinion, the film, which already took artistic license with the "truth," would have been more powerful without that information.  Despite these flaws, it is a compelling story with great performances and I would recommend it to fans of psychological thrillers.

Ballet West's Almost Tango

Last night I went to a thrilling performance of three ballets featuring the amazing dancers of Ballet West. The first ballet was Square Dance which I really enjoyed because I found it to be highly amusing. While the choreography, costumes, and music (various selections from Vivaldi) were very classical, all of the steps were prompted by a caller on stage, who just happened to be Ballet West Artistic Director Adam Sklute!  He was absolutely hilarious because he made the traditional ballet steps sound as if they were being performed at a hoedown.  My very favorite phrase was, "Make your feet go whackety-whack!"  I also really liked, "Watch her twirl. Watch her whirl. My but she's a pretty girl." The solo performed by Rex Tilton was wonderful (he is very easy on the eyes, too). The next ballet was Almost Tango and it was my favorite of the three. The choreography was very innovative, the lighting was dramatic, and the performances were sensuous.  I absolutely loved all of the music in this piece but I also thought it was striking when there were interludes of dancing without music. One of the main soloists was Christiana Bennett. She has been one of my very favorite members of Ballet West for years and she is retiring after this season. I am really happy that I got to see her dance so beautifully one last time. The final ballet was In the Middle, Somewhat Elevated.  The music in this piece was very industrial and rhythmic, sometimes even jarring, and I thought the choreography was incredibly athletic.  It almost seemed like a spontaneous dance-off in a club. The performances were outstanding, especially the featured soloists. If you don't already know this, let me tell you now that Christopher Ruud is amazing!  His performances are always riveting and whenever he is on the stage it is difficult for me to see any other dancer but him.  I thoroughly enjoyed all of these ballets and I recommend that you get a ticket to one of the few remaining performances (go here), especially if you want to see Christiana Bennett one last time!