The Nightmare Before Christmas in Concert

I am a huge fan of Utah Symphony's Films in Concert series because it is so much fun to watch a movie on the big screen at Abravanel Hall while the orchestra performs the score live!  Last night I had the opportunity to see The Nightmare Before Christmas and, frankly, I had been looking forward to it for months.  It was the perfect way to get excited for Halloween (my favorite holiday).  Jack Skellington, the Pumpkin King and leader of Halloween Town, is getting bored with scaring everyone with the same old tricks every year, so when he accidentally discovers Christmas Town while wandering in the woods, he decides that Christmas is a more appealing holiday and that he should take it over this year.  Santa Claus is kidnapped and all of the residents of Halloween Town are put to work making terrifying toys to disastrous effect.  Will Santa Claus be able to save Christmas in time?  I love this movie because of the spectacular world-building using stop-motion animation.  Only Tim Burton could dream up such a macabre, yet strangely enchanting, world filled with quirky characters and dazzling images on the screen that are so inventive and imaginative that you cannot look away.  Danny Elfman's iconic score is absolutely brilliant and having the Utah Symphony play it live was amazing.  I enjoyed this so much!  It will be shown again at Abravanel Hall tonight and tickets may be purchased here.

Note:  I wish that I could have seen The Nightmare Before Christmas at the El Capitan Theatre (it is screened there every October) while I was in Los Angeles but I ran out of time!  I will just have to go back!

Hamilton in Los Angeles

For my third road trip this fall I left early yesterday morning to begin a ten hour drive to Los Angeles in order to see Hamilton at the Pantages Theatre last night.  My good friend Karen is a season ticket holder at the Pantages and subscribers were allowed to purchase extra tickets to Hamilton before they went on sale to the general public.  She very generously asked me if I would like a ticket and I asked her to try and get me one during my fall break (and I also gave her a price limit).  I couldn't believe it when she sent me a text telling me that she had been successful!  I was so excited to be able to see my favorite musical again (so excited that I didn't mind another ten hour drive this time to a city I hate driving in).  It was so incredibly special to be able to see the original cast on Broadway, including Lin-Manuel Miranda, but I really enjoyed what each actor in this production did to make the role his or her own.  Michael Luwoye, as Alexander Hamilton, has a beautiful voice and he sang the role in a more traditional manner rather than spitting out the lyrics, particularly in "My Shot."  His version of "It's Quiet Uptown" made me cry because he was literally sobbing through the song and when Eliza took his hand to forgive him he kissed it.  This absolutely shattered me and I heard the woman behind me sniffling after this as well.  I also really enjoyed Joshua Henry's portrayal of Aaron Burr because he infused a lot of humor into the role, especially in "The Room Where It Happened" and "The Election of 1800."  Isaiah Johnson was incredibly powerful as George Washington in "Right Hand Man" but surprisingly vulnerable in "History Has Its Eyes on You" and then pretty much blew the roof off the Pantages Theatre at the end of "One Last Time."  Jordan Donica didn't strut around the stage as Thomas Jefferson like Daveed Diggs did but, instead, he struck a pose (which Hamilton imitated) during key moments and the mic drop in the first Cabinet Battle was hilarious.  Amber Iman, as Peggy Schuyler, had the funniest pout every time she sang, "...and Peggy" during "The Schuyler Sisters."  Finally, King George was played by Rory O'Malley, who I saw on Broadway, and it seemed like he had a lot more choreography in this production which made the audience laugh out loud!  My two favorite numbers were, once again, "Yorktown" and "Hurricane" because the staging is so dynamic.  I didn't think it was possible for me to love Hamilton any more than I already did but seeing it again was thrilling!  Now I can't wait to see it again in SLC in the spring!

Breathe

Fall break continues and I spent yesterday sleeping in scandalously late and then reading all afternoon.  In the evening I went to a Thursday preview of Breathe which I had been looking forward to for quite a while.  I am a sucker for British period pieces and the trailer for this inspirational true story looked gorgeous.  However, it left me feeling a bit flat.  Andrew Garfield plays Robin Cavendish and Claire Foy plays his wife Diana.  They meet, fall in love, get married, move to Kenya, and become pregnant with their first child in rapid succession.  Then Robin is stricken with polio and is paralyzed from the neck down.  He begs everyone to just let him die but Diana demands that he fight to live.  With her help Robin is able to leave the hospital, become mobile with the help of a wheelchair that breathes for him, and travel the world advocating for the rights of the severely disabled.  Garfield and Foy give wonderful performances and the cinematography is breathtaking but there is something lacking in the story itself.  We never really get to know the characters beyond a superficial level.  Diana's devotion to Robin doesn't feel authentic because their love story is never fully explored.  Robin sees her at a cricket match, in the next scene they are going on a date, in the next Diana tells her brothers (both played hilariously by Tom Hollander) that she is getting married, and then they are in Kenya.  It is literally that quick, almost as if the filmmakers are merely ticking boxes.  The whole film moves from one episode to the next without much explanation.  Also, the difficulties that the Cavendishes must have surely faced are glossed over so that their life looks like one big garden party after another on their sprawling estate.  They laugh when the dog unplugs Robin's respirator and throw a party when they are stranded on the road in Spain.  It ends up feeling very bland and I was hoping for so much more.

The Foreigner

I am now on fall break and to celebrate I went to see The Foreigner last night. Now I am not normally a big fan of Jackie Chan action movies but, to me, the trailers for The Foreigner made it seem more like a political thriller so I decided to take a chance.  I really enjoyed it!  After a terrorist bombing claims the life of his daughter in London, a distraught Quan (Chan) goes looking for answers.  When a faction of the IRA claims responsibility, Quan looks to Liam Hennessy (Pierce Brosnan), the Deputy Minister for Northern Ireland and a former IRA member, for answers.  Hennessy is less than forthcoming, and is clearly more involved than he will admit, so Quan sets out to convince him to tell him the names of the bombers in some fabulous action scenes.  Details about both men are slowly revealed and I found the conclusion to be quite satisfying.  The story reminded me of the novels of Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, or John Le Carre, which I love, and I found the twists and turns to be very engaging (I've heard some critics say that the story is convoluted).  Chan gives an intense portrayal of a grieving father out for revenge but Brosnan is fantastic, one of his best performances in years.  The movie has a few flaws (lots of scenes with politicians talking in offices while drinking scotch) but I had a great time watching it and I recommend it to fans of action-thrillers.

Note:  This movie features Rory Fleck Byrne as Hennessey's nephew.  I may have found my latest celebrity crush.

Bob Dylan at the Eccles Theater

I first saw Bob Dylan in concert many years ago at Deer Valley and I was really disappointed.  I literally couldn't recognize what song he was singing because he performed most of them with very different arrangements and different phrasing.  I suppose he has earned the right to do as he pleases but it is something you have to understand in order to enjoy his show.  When I found out that he was coming to SLC again, I decided that I could listen to "Mr. Tambourine Man" any time I wanted on my iPod and this concert would be an opportunity to see an unbelievably talented musician, a rock and roll icon really, jam with a group of equally talented musicians in a live show so I bought a ticket.  This time around the fact that nearly every song was virtually unrecognizable mattered not because it was Bob Dylan on the stage!   He can jam.  With a mane of unruly hair and a permanent scowl on his face, he spent as much time behind a baby grand piano as he did standing with a microphone in one rock-star pose after another.  He played for over two hours and his set featured an eclectic mixture of hits and covers of the old standards.  Of the former, my favorites were "Things Have Changed," which is how he opened the show, and "Blowin' in the Wind," which he played as part of the encore.  Of the latter, I particularly enjoyed "Melancholy Mood" and an incredibly atmospheric rendition of "Autumn Leaves" (which rivaled the version performed by Leslie Odom, Jr.).  Dylan performed with a five member band, each of whom played multiple instruments, and they sounded amazing.  He did not acknowledge the audience in any way but, again, it simply didn't matter because he is pretty much the coolest dude around.  If there is anyone cooler than Bob Dylan, I have yet to see him!  This same concert will be performed again at the Eccles Theater tonight (tickets may be purchased here) and I recommend it if you want to see an incredible live show.  Stay home and listen to your iPod if you want to hear the songs the way you remember them from your youth!