The Music Man at PTC

I love all of the old classic musicals like The Sound of Music, The King and I, South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Fiddler on the Roof,  Oklahoma, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and, of course, The Music Man.  There is just something so wonderful about all of those those familiar songs and I have such fond memories of watching all of these musicals at my Grandma Anderson's house.  Last night I was able to see PTC's production of The Music Man and I loved everything about it!  What a great way to end the 2014-2015 season.  The cast is perfect!  Harold Hill (George Dvorsky) is as charming as he could possibly be and Marion the Librarian (Lizzie Klemperer) is perfectly uptight and buttoned down.  Mayor Shinn (PTC favorite Max Robinson) is the embodiment of befuddled pomposity while his wife, Eulalie Mackecknie Shinn (Anne Stewart Mark) just about steals the show with her Grecian Urn!  Zaneeta (Jessica Blair), Mayor Shinn's oldest girl, and Tommy Djilas (Garrett Hawe), a boy with reform school written all over him, are amazing dancers.  Ye Gods!  Winthrop (Wally Inkley) is adorable, lisp and all, and I loved Amaryllis (Alyssa Buckner) and her cross hand piano piece.  I knew every single word of every single song and had to stop myself from singing aloud, especially in "Ya Got Trouble," "The Wells Fargo Wagon," and "Gary, Indiana."   The choreography in the big production numbers is so much fun to watch and I especially loved all of the business with the books in "Marion the Librarian" and the baton twirling in "Seventy-Six Trombones."  As usual, the set is superb.  The library (both the interior and exterior) is perfect and the foot bridge is lovely with all of the flowers and the twinkling stars through the trees!  I, along with just about everyone in the audience, had a grin from ear to ear throughout the whole performance and I suspect you will love it, too.  The Music Man runs through May 16 (go here for tickets).

Note:  I think I laughed out loud every single time Mayor Shinn said, "You watch your phraseology!"  I don't know why that is so funny to me but it always has been!  I'll probably be saying it to my students for days!

The Age of Adaline

Saturday afternoon, after getting manicures, Marilyn and I went to see the movie The Age of Adaline and we both absolutely loved it!  Due to an accident involving frigid temperatures and a bolt of lightning, Adaline Bowman (Blake Lively) does not age past 29.  Because of her intense fear of being discovered, she changes her name, appearance, and residence every ten years.  The movie begins in the present day after Adaline has lived 107 years and, aside from a friend who is blind, her daughter Flemming (Ellen Burstyn), now a senior citizen, and a series of dogs who all eventually die, she has a very lonely existence.  She meets a handsome stranger named Ellis (Michiel Huisman) in an elevator at a New Year's Eve party and he begins to pursue her.  She once let her guard down and fell in love with a man during the 1960s but this relationship ended in heartbreak so she is wary of falling in love again.  Will Adaline finally stop running and find happiness?  I thought the exposition in this movie was incredibly clever.  Adaline works in the archives section of a library and the story of her life is told as she views old films ready to be digitized.  I also loved Adaline's wardrobe because everything she wears is absolutely timeless (all of her clothes are "vintage").  Lively and Huisman give great performances.  Huisman, especially, is quite endearing.  I'm not a big fan of beards, but wow!  Finally, I really loved that Adaline kept getting the same breed of dog year after year and that it just happened to be a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (my family has a Cavalier named Red and he's a pill).  I would highly recommend this sweet and original love story!

Note:  Marilyn and I enjoyed this movie so much, we saw it again later that evening with our niece, Tashena.  She loved it, too.

Saint-Saens' Organ Symphony

Friday night I attended my final performance of the Utah Symphony 2014-2015 season.  It has been a fantastic year (go here, here, and here for some of my favorite concerts) and I certainly picked an amazing concert to end with!  The orchestra began with A Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky.  I have heard this piece performed many times and I always picture a coven of witches dancing around a large bonfire.  It is very atmospheric!  The concert continued with Symphony No. 5 by Alexander Glazunov.  I was completely unfamiliar with this piece but I really enjoyed it.  I thought is was very dramatic and I especially loved the themes played by the brass section.  After the intermission, the orchestra played the Organ Symphony by Camille Saint-Saens (who is becoming one of my favorite composers).  This piece featured Richard Elliott, the principal organist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  Several years ago, I saw the orchestra perform this piece with the same soloist and I enjoyed it so much that this one was one of the first concerts I picked when creating my season package.  I absolutely loved it!  There is a section in the second movement where the organ plays in unison with the strings, punctuated rather dramatically by the timpani and cymbals, that is so incredibly stirring I had goosebumps!  The guest conductor for the evening, Kuzuki Yamada, was absolutely brilliant and there was a particularly touching moment when he ran over to embrace Elliott at the end of the concert.  It was a very enjoyable evening of music, as always.

Note:  The Utah Symphony still has a few concerts left in the season and they will be performing in many outdoor venues throughout the summer.  I already have tickets to a concert at Red Butte Garden and I am really excited about some of the Deer Valley concerts!  Go here for information and tickets.

Running Jumping Throwing

Last Thursday I got to see Tashena compete at another track meet.  Once again, she was entered in five events: long jump, hurdles, shot put, 4 X 100m relay, and discus.  She did really well and I absolutely loved watching her!

In the long jump, Tashena's best distance was 15'4" which is a PR.  She was in the lead until a girl after her jumped 15'5".  She was really happy with her distance because her coach has been working with her on technique and she had a goal to break into 15' which she did!  I am so proud of her!

I finally got to see Tashena run the hurdles!  It is usually the very first event contested so I always miss it but I left school a little early so I could see her.  She placed third overall!

In the shot put, Tashena had to complete all three of her throws one after another because she had to head to the relay (very disorganized meet).  She still managed to throw 25'6".  The girl from Kaysville Jr. beat her again but Tashena was really rushed.  Maybe the next meet?

This is the first meet this year that Tashena ran the 4 X 100m relay (she ran it last year).  Her team ended up third overall.  I didn't get to see the discus because it was contested before the meet even started due to a baseball game.  Some of the girls had to go straight from the bus to the event and none of them got any practice throws (did I mention that this was a disorganized meet?).  Tashena still managed to throw 100' to easily take first place!

Note:  Tashena threw the discus 125' in practice on Friday (which is unofficial) because her coach purposely marked the distances wrong to see what she could do!  She is amazing!  I can't wait to see what she does in the District Qualifier next week!

Avengers: Age of Ultron

Late last night (early this morning?) I went to see the first screening of Avengers: Age of Ultron.  The movie opens with the Avengers, Iron Man (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), the Incredible Hulk (Mark Ruffalo), the Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), in the fictional Eastern European country of Sokovia battling von Strucker, of Hydra, to retrieve Loki's scepter.  They soon encounter the twins Pietro and Wanda Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen, respectively), upon whom Strucker has been experimenting, giving them super-human powers.  The Avengers obtain the scepter, elude the twins, and return to their headquarters where Tony Stark and Bruce Banner use the artificial intelligence found in the scepter to activate Ultron, a global defense program created by Stark.  When Ultron (voiced by James Spader) becomes self-aware, it decides the only way to save Earth is to eradicate all humans and it travels to Sokovia to recruit the Maximoff twins.  Multiple battles ensue!  By the end of the movie, I had only the vaguest notion of what was happening!  There are many characters (each dealing with their own inner demons through the use of flashbacks which are often confusing), multiple subplots, a myriad of locations (there were many times where I wondered where the Avengers were and how they got there), and very little exposition.  But all of that hardly matters because the movie is just so much fun!  (It was especially fun with the late night crowd, many of whom were dressed in character!)  The dialogue is so funny with all of the great acerbic quips we've come to expect from Tony Stark.  I particularly loved his throwaway line about being in a Eugene O'Neill play and his banter with Steve Rogers about the use of bad language is hilarious.  The battle scenes are awesome and Ultron (James Spader is a great villain, in my opinion) is a worthy foe for the assembled Avengers!  I loved it!  Fans of the franchise will definitely enjoy this movie but people not familiar with the other movies might find it hard to follow.

Note:  Don't be like me (and almost everyone in my audience) and stay through all of the credits.  There is one mid-credits scene involving Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet (setting up the next Avengers movies) but that is all.