The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee at CPT

Last night I had so much fun at CPT's production of The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee. I really love this show because, not only is it absolutely hilarious, it is unexpectedly poignant (I have seen the Broadway touring company and a fabulous production at PTC several years ago) and CPT did a great job with it. The spelling bee is moderated by Rona Lisa Peretti (Alexandra Rae Kalaher), the best realtor in Putnam County and a past spelling champion who frequently reflects on her experience ("My Favorite Moment of the Bee"). She is aided by Vice Principal Douglas Panch (Brandon Green) who is returning after a five year absence due to an unspecified incident. His main function is to give the definitions of the words and use them in highly amusing sentences ("The Spelling Rules"). Mindy Mahoney (Katelyn Johnson), an ex-con doing her required community service, hands out juice boxes to the losing contestants ("The Prayer of the Comfort Counselor"). The first contestant is Chip Tolentino (Jake Heywood), a baseball player defending his title as champion of the bee last year who spends most of his time flirting with a girl in the audience ("My Unfortunate Distraction"). The second contestant is Logainne SchwartzandGrubenniere (Savanna Hansen), the president of the gay/straight alliance in her elementary school who wants desperately to please her two fathers who have been coaching her for this moment for years ("Woe is Me"). The third contestant is Leaf Coneybear (Trevor Hansen), a home-schooled free spirit who makes his own clothes and is at the bee because the winner and first runner-up had to attend a bat mizvah ("I'm Not That Smart"). The fourth contestant is William Barfee (Aaron Linford), an uptight asthmatic who had to pull out of last year's bee because of an allergic reaction. He frequently has to remind the moderators how to pronounce his name (it's Bar-FAY) and uses an innovative method to help him spell ("Magic Foot"). The fifth contestant is Marcy Park (Emily Woods), a transfer student at Our Lady of Intermittent Sorrows Parochial School who placed ninth at last year's national spelling bee.  She is an overachiever who skipped two grades ("I Speak Six Languages") but now just wants to have a little fun. The sixth contestant is Olive Ostrovsky (Taneesa Wright), who hasn't yet paid the entrance fee because her mother is at an ashram in India and her father has not claimed the seat that she has been saving for him ("The I Love You Song").  Which of these six painfully awkward misfits will be crowned the winner? I really loved everything about this show: the cast, the set, the costumes, the choreography, and the random audience members who participated in the bee (they were responsible for many of the funniest moments). Several of the people around me said that they didn't know anything about this show before they came but they ended up loving it! I highly recommend getting a ticket (go here) to this delightful show.

Kristin Chenoweth at Deer Valley

Last night I got to hear Kristin Chenoweth perform with the Utah Symphony as part of the Deer Valley Music Festival.  She was supposed to perform with the orchestra last summer but she had to cancel due to an injury but she promised to return.  It seems like I have been waiting all year for this concert and I almost didn't go.  As I was driving through the canyon, a torrential rain started pouring down along with lots of thunder and lightning.  As much as I wanted to see Kristin Chenoweth, I didn't really want to sit in the rain but I decided to wait in my car for a little while to see if it would stop before the concert started.  Luckily it did and, even though my blanket got a little bit soggy, I managed to stay relatively dry.  Chenoweth came out wearing a giant orange rain poncho and that set the tone for the rest of the evening.  She was absolutely hilarious!  She mentioned that she had an album of standards coming out in the fall and sang a few songs from it, including "I Get Along Without You Very Well" which she said was her favorite song.  When she sang "Zing! Went the Strings of My Heart," she sat on the laps of and kissed several of the musicians saying that no one on the stage was safe from her!  She sang a lovely rendition of "Desperado" with the full orchestra and then finished her first set with "Bring Him Home" from Les Miserables which was amazing!  She frequently pointed out several of her friends in the audience and admonished us not to bother them during the intermission!  When she returned to the stage she performed "Popular" from Wicked (she originated the role of Glinda on Broadway) and she asked everyone to get out their phones to film her, pulled someone up to the stage for a selfie, and then live streamed on Instagram.  It was so funny!  She brought a musical theatre student from BYU ("I'm a cougar, too!") to the stage to sing "For Good" from Wicked with her and this girl was amazing.  Chenoweth loves mentoring young performers and she told her that she had a feeling she would make it big!  Next, she sang "The Man That Got Away" from her forthcoming album and then a mash-up of "You Were Always on My Mind" and "Losing My Mind" from Follies which featured a lovely solo by principal cellist Rainer Eudeikis.  She wondered aloud if Willie Nelson and Stephen Sondheim had ever met!  She sang a stirring rendition of "How Great Thou Art" after talking about the importance of her faith and, for the encore, she sang a sultry version of "I Will Always Love You."  This was a wonderful concert and I am so glad that the rain stopped so I could enjoy it!

The Farewell

I wasn't able to see The Farewell during the Sundance Film Festival so I have been looking forward to its wide release.  I had to wait a few days because I have been so busy lately but I finally saw it last night and I had quite a reaction to this beautiful and poignant movie.  When Billi (Awkwafina), a young Chinese-born writer struggling to find her way in New York City, receives the news that her grandmother Nai Nai (Zhao Shuzhen) is dying of cancer and only has a few months to live, she is bewildered when the rest of her extended family decide not to tell her.  Instead, a wedding is planned for Billi's cousin Hao Hao (Chen Han) and his Japanese girlfriend Aiko (Aoi Mizuhara) in China as an excuse for the entire family to get together to say their goodbyes to Nai Nai.  Billi is incredibly conflicted about this but ultimately has a meaningful visit with her grandmother who encourages her to keep following her dreams.  This movie is so funny because it is such an authentic portrayal of family relationships and I found myself laughing out loud many times at the wry comedic situations.  In my opinion, this movie is also a touching exploration of identity. Billi is constantly told that her objections to the lie they are telling her grandmother are because she is too Westernized but she idealizes the China she remembers from her childhood when she gets angry with her father for talking about the advantages of living in America.  There were several scenes that brought tears to my eyes because they mirrored my own personal experience of moving away from family to another country.  As her family drives around Changchun, Billi recognizes her grandmother's old neighborhood and asks them to take her back because she has happy memories there.  The last time I was in Canada I asked my Dad to drive me to my grandmother's old house for the exact same reason.  In another scene, an emotional Billi lashes out at her mother (Diana Lin) for moving her away from China and her family.  She is especially angry that she was not able to go to her grandfather's funeral because, the next time she visited China, he was gone and it was hard for her to reconcile it.  I felt the same way when I visited Canada after my grandfather died.  There is a beautiful scene near the end of the movie where Billi and her family are leaving to go back to the U.S.  The camera shows Nai Nai in the middle of the street crying as she watches their taxi drive away.  This absolutely gutted me because I have a distinct memory of looking out of the window from the car at my grandmother standing in her driveway and crying as my family drove away.  That is the last time I saw her.  I was openly sobbing for the rest of the movie and I had to sit through all of the credits before I could compose myself enough to leave the theater.  Awkwafina (who is so funny in Ocean's 8 and Crazy Rich Asians) gives a wonderful performance that is very subtle but incredibly powerful.  It is one of the best performances I have seen all year!  My reaction to this movie is definitely based on my own personal frame of reference but I think the themes are universal enough for everyone to enjoy it.  I loved it and I highly recommend it!

Summer Reading: Then She Was Gone

The final selection on my summer reading list (where has the summer gone?) was Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell. Fifteen year old Ellie Mack is a vibrant girl who enjoys spending time with her boyfriend Theo while earnestly studying for her exams with a math tutor named Noelle Donnelly. She is optimistic and excited for her future but one day she goes missing and is never heard from again. Her mother Laurel is completely devastated and doesn’t believe the police when they conclude that she must have run away.  She spends a decade obsessively trying to find her which destroys her marriage and her relationship with her remaining children. When Ellie's remains are eventually discovered, Laurel tries to put the past behind her and move on with her life. She meets a handsome and charismatic man named Floyd Dunn at a cafe and begins a relationship with him. However, she is soon haunted by a series of coincidences that lead her to suspect that Floyd might be connected to Ellie's disappearance. This novel is incredibly suspenseful because the narrative alternates between Laurel's perspective in the present and Ellie's in the past. Even though Ellie's death is revealed early on, I kept reading well into the night because I had to know what happened to bring it about. You know what happens to Ellie but you don't know why and the answers make for a pretty dark psychological thriller. The characters are very well developed and I found them all to be quite sympathetic. Laurel, especially, is incredibly poignant in her despair over not knowing what happened to her child. Even the characters who are deeply flawed are portrayed with a certain humanity and it is fascinating to see how these damaged people impact those around them. There are some very disturbing elements that I found difficult to read but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of this novel. I highly recommend it as a suspenseful character study that will keep you guessing until the end.

Note:  Have you read Then She Was Gone or any of the other selections on my summer reading list?  What did you think?

Les Miserables in Boise

Before I became obsessed with the musical Hamilton, Les Miserables enjoyed a 30 year run as my favorite musical of all time!  It is still a sentimental favorite and I couldn't help myself when I had the chance to see it on Broadway several years ago and I couldn't help myself when I saw that the Broadway touring production would be in Boise (a four hour drive from SLC) this summer!  When I mentioned to my Dad that I would be out of town this week and why, he asked me why I was driving so far to see a show that I have seen so many times.  I know it is a crazy thing to do but I am so inspired by the epic story of Jean Valjean's redemption and I absolutely love the music!  As I always do, I got goosebumps when I heard those dramatic first notes last night!  As I sat in the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts, eagerly anticipating every single number and trying desperately not to sing along out loud, I was filled with so much nostalgia for the girl whose biggest dream was to see this show and I felt the magic all over again!  This particular cast is a strong one and, as I anticipated all of my favorite moments, they did not disappoint!  Fantine (Mary Kate Moore) was heartbreaking in "I Dreamed a Dream," Javert (Felipe Barbosa Bombonato) was incredibly powerful in "Stars" (this got the biggest reaction from the crowd all night), Enjolras (Matt Shingledecker) was stirring in "The People's Song," and Valjean (Nick Cartell) brought me to tears in "Bring Him Home."  I wasn't sure if I liked Monte J. Howell's characterization of Marius because he was a little goofy in his interactions with Cosette (Jillian Butler) early on but his rendition of "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" was amazing!  My favorite moment in the show is when Eponine sings "On My Own."  I sit, impatiently, through the intermission anticipating this song because it is what made me a fan of this musical!  Paige Smallwood gave one of the most emotional performances of it that I've ever heard and I was quite overcome!  This production featured the new staging without the turntable.  I honestly really like it because the sets are much more elaborate and scenes are more true to the events in the novel by Victor Hugo, especially in the Prologue and "At the End of the Day."  I also think that "Empty Chairs at Empty Tables" is much more dramatic when the students take away the candles.  The only scene where I miss the turntable is when the barricade turns after the battle to reveal Enjolras upside down holding the red flag.  Him laying in a dogcart with Gavroche isn't as impactful in my opinion.  I really loved seeing this show again and I am so glad that I did it!  It runs at the Morrison Center for the Performing Arts as part of Broadway in Boise until August 4 (go here for tickets).

Note:  Broadway in Boise will be performing Bandstand next April and Hamilton the following season so I will be back!