Harry Potter and the Cursed Child in San Francisco

I bought a ticket for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child the day they became available online and it seems like I have been waiting forever to see it!  This was actually the reason for my trip to San Francisco and seeing it yesterday was absolutely magical!  It is nineteen years after the Battle of Hogwarts and Harry Potter (John Skelley) now works for the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and his wife Ginny (Angela Reed) writes for The Daily Prophet.  Hermione Granger (Yanna McIntosh) is now the Minister of Magic and her husband Ron Weasley (David Abeles) manages Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.  Their daughter Rose Granger-Weasley (Folami Williams) and Harry's son Albus Potter (Benjamin Papac) are on their way to Hogwarts when Part One begins.  Albus soon forms an unlikely friendship with Scorpius Malfoy (Jon Steiger), the son of Harry's nemesis Draco (Lucas Hall).  Both boys are unpopular and bullied.  Albus is bothered by his father's notoriety and feels that he is a disappointment while Scorpius is plagued by unfounded rumors that he is really Lord Voldemort's son.  Feeling that they have something to prove, the boys decide to steal a time-turner from the Ministry of Magic and they go back in time to save Cedric Diggory (William Bednar-Carter) from his fate.  This act changes the future so now Lord Voldemort rules and Dolores Umbridge (Katherine Leask) is Headmistress of Hogwarts.  Darkness has descended as Part Two opens and Scorpius must enlist Hermione, Ron, and Severus Snape (Andrew Long) to help him go back in time to change the future.  However, the mysterious Auguery (Emily Juliette Murphy), who hopes to fulfill a prophecy that will bring back Lord Voldemort, forces Albus and Scorpius to use the time-turner once again to restore the alternate timeline leading to an epic confrontation in Godric's Hollow.  I loved this show so much!  I loved the continuation of Harry's story and the exploration of father-son relationships.  I loved all of the choreography, especially the Wand Dance where the new students at Hogwarts learn how to use their wands.  I absolutely loved the staging of the magic, especially running into Platform 9 3/4, traveling by flue powder, Harry and Draco dueling, using the polyjuice potion, and the Dementors flying through the audience (which was amazing).  I loved the set, especially all of the House Banners, the Forbidden Forrest, and the moving staircase.  I loved the music, which was composed by Imogen Heap, especially "Unbroken Friendship" which plays when Harry forbids Albus to see Scorpius again (it is so haunting).  Finally, I loved all of the performances but my favorite was Steiger as Scorpius because he is hilarious!  This was such a fun and immersive theatre experience because all of the ushers wore vests denoting their House affiliation during Part One and then wore vests with the Dark Mark for Part Two (all of the banners in the lobby changed from the Houses to the Dark Mark, as well).  Many in the audience also showed their House affiliation (I proudly supported my House, Ravenclaw).  I am so glad I got to see this show and I highly recommend it to fans of the Harry Potter series.

Note:  In between Part One and Part Two I went to dinner at a fabulous restaurant and most of the people sitting around me had also just come from the show.  We all talked to each other about how much we were enjoying it.  It was a lot of fun!

Hamilton in San Francisco

I honestly do not think that I will ever get tired of seeing Hamilton because I love it so much!  I planned this trip to San Francisco almost a year ago to see another show but, when I found out that Hamilton would be playing at the same time, I had to get a ticket.  I have now seen it nine times in seven cities and I was just as excited last night as I was standing in line at the Richard Rodgers Theatre before seeing it for the first time. Last night's production featured the And Peggy Tour, which I had never seen before (the only company I have not seen now is London and I think that needs to happen).  When the Philip Tour was in SLC, I really enjoyed Joseph Morales as Alexander Hamilton and I got a ticket to see the show in Las Vegas because I knew it was the Philip Tour and that I would get to see Morales again.  However, on the night I was there, Morales was out and the understudy went on.  I was initially really disappointed but Julius Thomas III happened to be the understudy and he was phenomenal!  Thomas is now Alexander Hamilton in the And Peggy Tour so I was really looking forward to seeing him again.  I think he has a beautiful voice and his renditions of "Dear Theodosia" and "Hurricane" were beautiful.  I also like how emotional his version of "Quiet Uptown" was (I had spontaneous tears streaming down my face through the whole number).  I enjoyed the rest of the cast but three really stood out to me.  First, Donald Webber, Jr. just might be the best Aaron Burr I've ever seen.  His version of "Wait For It" was so powerful it gave me chills!  I also loved all of his facial expressions in "The Room Where It Happens."  Second, I thought Brandon Louis Armstrong was a riot as Hercules Mulligan/ James Madison.  He incorporated more physical comedy in the role than any other actor I've seen.  He made me laugh multiple times.  Finally, I was so impressed with Colby Lewis because he was the understudy for George Washington.  He is very tall and quite handsome so he gave the character a different energy than I've seen before.  I loved "Right Hand Man" because he almost seemed like a rock star!  Because I've seen it so many times I have started noticing the ensemble more and I particularly loved them in "Ten Duel Commandments," "Guns and Ships" (especially sending the letter from Washington to Hamilton), "Washington On Your Side," and "Hurricane" last night.  I am so glad that I got to see it again!

Note:  I got talking to a woman sitting in front of me on the plane and she mentioned she was going to Hamilton.  I told her that I was going too and she actually found me in the theatre!

When in San Francisco...

I am in San Francisco for a weekend of theatre.  I have been to San Francisco before and, to be honest, it is not my favorite city.  I had no intention of doing any sightseeing (I have tickets to Hamilton and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child) but once I got to my hotel I spontaneously decided to head to the Golden Gate Bridge.

My Uber driver warned me that I might not have a very good view because it was really foggy but I thought the effect was really cool.

Stay tuned for more from my trip to San Francisco!

Doctor Sleep

I really liked Doctor Sleep, Stephen King's sequel to The Shining (one of my favorite King novels), so I really hoped that the film adaptation would be good.  I had the chance to see a Thursday preview last night and I think it is fantastic.  Dan Torrence (Ewan McGregor) is all grown up and is just as traumatized by the events at the Overlook Hotel as you would imagine he would be.  In a flashback, the ghost of Dick Hallorann (now played by Carl Lumbly) helps the child Danny (now played by Roger Dale Floyd) lock the ghosts of the hotel into boxes within his mind.  As an adult he has become an alcoholic to suppress his "shining" so Dick intervenes in his life once again and tells him to get sober.  Dan moves to a small town, joins AA and stops drinking, gets a job as an orderly at a hospice, and begins using his "shine" to comfort the dying patients which earns him the nickname "Doctor Sleep."  Meanwhile, a sinister cult led by Rosie the Hat (Rebecca Ferguson) has found a way to become immortal by feeding off of the essence of children who "shine" as they are tortured to death.  Now that Dan is using the "shining" again, he is able to communicate telepathically with a girl named Abra (Kyliegh Curran), whose "shining" is even more powerful than his.  Rosie detects Abra's powers and her cult eventually tracks her down which alerts Dan.  Dick meets with Dan one last time and tells him that, just as he once helped him, Dan must help Abra.  This leads to an epic confrontation back at the Overlook Hotel.  Some people may disagree with me but what I liked most about this movie is that it strays a bit from the source material and returns to Stanley Kubrick's version of events so it is not only a sequel to the novel but also a sequel to the film (which I think is a masterpiece).  I really enjoyed all of the callbacks, especially the use of the music from the opening credits (based on Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz) which gave me chills.  I think McGregor is at his best when he is confronting the ghosts of his past at the hotel, particularly in an incredibly poignant scene with his father (now played by Henry Thomas).  Ferguson is also excellent and I found her performance to be terrifying but strangely compelling.  The visual effects are quite good and really bring the book alive (I sometimes had a hard time picturing in my mind just what was happening when the cult members would "feed" off the children in the book).  This is as unsettling as I hoped it would be and I highly recommend it.

Ninth House

I have really enjoyed the Barnes & Noble Book Cub and I was particularly looking forward to last night's meeting because I absolutely loved the October selection, Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. This novel presupposes that the members of the eight secret societies at Yale University (Skull & Bones, Scroll & Key, Book & Snake, Wolf's Head, Manuscript, Aurelian, St. Elmo's, and Berzelius) use magic to achieve success in politics, business, and entertainment. After one of the rituals ended badly, a fictional ninth society (Lethe) was created to have oversight over the other societies and to ensure that the rituals are performed correctly.  Daniel Arlington III, or Darlington as he is known, is the student leader of Lethe and he is responsible for training his replacement. Galaxy Stern, or Alex as she is known, has been chosen to replace him but he considers her to be entirely unsuitable because she has a troubled past. When a murder happens on campus, Alex can't shake the feeling that one of the societies is involved. Against the orders from everyone in Lethe, she uses several of Lethe's magic rituals to investigate (forming an alliance with a ghost) and discovers a connection to another unsolved murder from the past. I must admit that I had a difficult time getting into the story at first because it begins right in the middle of the action with the narrative alternating between the past and present. There are so many people, places, and events that I couldn't figure out what was going on. However, once I did figure it out I found the story to be incredibly compelling and I couldn't put it down. One of the things that I really liked about it is that, while this is a story about the supernatural, it seems very plausible. No one really knows what goes on in these secret societies and, because so many real-life members have achieved wealth, power, and success (George H. W. Bush, George H. Bush, John Kerry, John Ashcroft, Bob Woodward, Jodie Foster, Anderson Cooper), it makes you wonder! I also really enjoyed Alex as a character because she is a fish out of water at Yale but still manages to hold her own and I admire that. The relationship between Alex and Darlington is very dynamic because they each make assumptions about the other that prove to be false and they come to rely on and then respect each other. I also liked the murder mystery aspect of the story. The resolution took me completely by surprise, which is rare for me. We had a great discussion last night and one of our topics was which society would we most want to belong to. I would definitely want to belong to Aurelian because they have power over language and one of their magic rituals involves having words literally enter your body (it is painful but worth it) so that you can become a best-selling author! I highly recommend this book (with the proviso that it is quite dark and there are a few very disturbing scenes).

Note:  The next selection is The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell. I am quite excited to read this because I found her last novel, Then She Was Gone, to be incredibly suspenseful. Join me on January 7 at the Layton Barnes & Noble if you are local or at any other participating location (go here for information and to sign up) to discuss it!