Celtic Woman: A Christmas Symphony

One of my favorite things about this time of year is being able to hear Christmas music performed live.  I was, therefore, absolutely thrilled to be at Abravanel Hall last night for a Christmas concert with Celtic Woman and the Utah Symphony!  Celtic Woman is an Irish musical ensemble currently composed of violinist Tara McNeill and vocalists Megan Walsh, Muirgen O'Mahony, and Hannah Traynor.  Their crystal clear soprano voices sounded amazing with the acoustics in Abravanel Hall and their arrangements of both classic and contemporary Christmas songs were incredibly lush with the Utah Symphony backing them.  They performed as a group and individually and their set included, "Ding Dong Merrily On High," "Angels We Have Heard On High," "Do You Hear What I Hear," "O Come, O Come Emmanuel," "Deck the Halls," "The Toys' Waltz," "White Christmas," "Amid the Falling Snow," "I Saw Three Ships," "Carol of the Bells," "The Christmas Song," "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear," "Danny Boy," "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and "Sleigh Ride."  McNeill performed a beautiful instrumental version of "What Child Is This"  and the group was joined by a piper (hearing bagpipes gets me every time) for "Amazing Grace" and "We Three Kings."  I always hope that I will hear "O Holy Night" (my favorite Christmas song) performed live at least once during the holiday season and this year I have been lucky enough to hear it twice because Celtic Woman sang a lovely version (I especially loved the harp used in this arrangement).  Even though I got to hear my favorite song, my favorite performance was "Wexford Carol" because it was incredibly ethereal and their voices blended together so beautifully!  They ended the concert, appropriately, with a rousing rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" which featured the pipes once again.  I am sure that this concert will be a highlight of the season for me because it was simply glorious and I'm so glad that I got to go!

Scrooge: A Christmas Carol at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse

I will be attending three different versions of A Christmas Carol this week and I started last night with the musical Scrooge: A Christmas Carol at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse. I was really excited because I had never seen this version before. I saw the musical by Alan Menken at CPT several years ago and, while I definitely prefer that version, I thought this was very charming and it put a huge smile on my face. It tells the well-known story by Charles Dickens about the reclamation of a miser named Ebeneezer Scrooge (Kim Florence) by the Ghosts of Christmas Past (Jacci Florence), Present (Don Wilhelm), and Future (Jacob Taft) but it includes original music by Leslie Bricusse. The songs are not especially memorable, my favorites were "December the Twenty-Fifth" by Mr. Fezziwig (Duane Beesley), "The Beautiful Day" by Tiny Tim (Beckett Ronnow), and "Thank You Very Much" by Tommy Jones (Shane Alvey), but the cast is very enthusiastic and the choreography is a lot of fun (especially "Thank You Very Much" because it involves dancing on a coffin) so I enjoyed every number. I was really impressed with the number of performers on the stage, including lots of children! I really enjoyed Florence as Scrooge because, while he is still the curmudgeonly misanthrope we all know, he is more a figure of fun who is ridiculed by those who owe him money than a villain who is feared (at one point several characters stick their tongues out at him). Even though he is a bit of a buffoon, his character arc is still really moving to watch because he becomes more and more affected by every vignette shown from his past, present, and future. I also liked Jim Alvey as Bob Cratchit and Tracie Davies as Mrs. Cratchit because their interactions with each other and with Ronnow (who is absolutely adorable as Tiny Tim) are so tender and genuine. The way the intimate space at the Terrace Plaza Playhouse is used is always really clever and this production is no exception. Scrooge's Counting House is located on a platform to the right of the stage and the entrance to his house (the transformation of the knocker into Jacob Marley's face is a great effect) is located on another one to the left.  The Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Future lead Scrooge all around the theatre, including behind the soundboard, to various locations.  A cobblestone street in 19th Century London is depicted on a backdrop and various sets are moved on and off the stage.  I was impressed with the attention to detail in Fezziwig's factory, Bob Cratchit's house, and Fred's house as well as the white silhouettes used to depict Scrooge's childhood with his sister Fan and the giant clock in Scrooge's bedroom. The period costumes are really beautiful, with the possible exception of the strange red tutu worn by the Ghost of Christmas Past (I thought she looked like a deranged Sugar Plum Fairy and her shtick went on far too long). This production is filled with so much heart that you can't help but be filled with a big dose of Christmas cheer and I highly recommend it.  There are nightly performances through December 23 with matinees December 10 and 17 (go here for tickets).

Note:  I have seen HCT's version of A Christmas Carol more times than I can count (I almost have the entire show memorized) so it was really fun to see a different interpretation.

Happy 18th Birthday Sean!

Yesterday my family celebrated Sean's birthday (it was actually on Saturday) with dinner, presents, and cake.  I can't believe that he is 18!

He asked for Amazon gift cards and accessories for his computers!  I don't like giving gift cards but he was so happy to receive them!

We have a tradition of having an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins for birthdays and Sean has picked this same polar bear cake three times (go here and here).  We had so much fun celebrating with Sean and I hope that he had a very happy birthday!

Ballet West's The Nutcracker 2022

One of my favorite holiday traditions is attending Ballet West's annual production of The Nutcracker and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to see it last night!  I love everything about this ballet and I await every scene with great anticipation, especially the party where the Christmas tree is revealed to all of the children and Clara (Olivia Humeniuk) is given a nutcracker by Dr. Drosselmeyer (Tyler Gum), when everything is magically transformed to an enormous size and the nutcracker defeats the Mouse King (Jake Preece) with Clara's help, when the nutcracker becomes a handsome prince (Noel Jensen) and takes Clara to the land of the Snow Queen (Jenna Rae Herrera) and the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy (Amy Potter), and when all of the divertissements arranged for Clara's entertainment are performed.  I always really love the Arabian dance because it is so exotic and the Russian dance because the leaps and spins are so athletic but last night I was also really impressed with the Waltz of the Flowers because Emily Adams and Hadriel Diniz danced the Pas de Deux so beautifully.  As always, my favorite moment in the entire ballet is the Grand Pas de Deux between the Sugar Plum Fairy and her Cavalier (Brian Waldrep) because the music by Tchaikovsky used for this dance is one of the most romantic pieces in the classical cannon and William Christensen's original choreography really complements it.  This is the first time that I have seen Potter dance the role of the Sugar Plum Fairy and I thought her performance was so beautiful because she seemed to glide across the stage and whirl effortlessly through the air!  I also really enjoyed the young dancers in the cast, particularly Bean Shane because he was the naughtiest Fritz I've ever seen and all of dancers hiding in Mother Buffoon's skirt because they were adorable!  The sets and costumes were updated a few years ago and I love the jewel tones used in the party scene and the pastels used in the land of the Sugar Plum Fairy.  All of the special effects are magical, particularly when the Christmas tree grows in size, when the snow falls in the land of the Snow Queen, and when Clara flies away with her prince in a sleigh.  No matter how many times I see this ballet it always puts a smile on my face and I highly recommend getting a ticket.  There are evening and matinee performances at the Capitol Theater through December 24 (go here for tickets).

Bones and All

The next movie in my Saturday double feature was Bones and All and I have to admit that, while I was really looking forward to seeing it because of all the buzz from the fall film festivals, I was also a bit nervous because a movie about cannibalism did not sound appealing.  It is definitely incredibly thought-provoking (and not as graphic as I feared).  Maren (Taylor Russell) is a young woman with a secret craving for human flesh but it is becoming harder and harder for her to control her urges.  After an incident with a fellow student, her father Frank (Andre Holland) is forced to relocate with her once again but he soon abandons her once she reaches her 18th birthday.  He leaves her a small sum of money and a tape with information about the mother she never knew so, without many options, she decides to go in search of her.  Along the way, she meets Sully (Mark Rylance), another "eater" who takes a proprietary interest in her and tries to introduce her to the lifestyle, but she is unnerved by him and soon flees.  Then she meets a drifter named Lee (Timothee Chalamet) who shares her same proclivities and they begin a relationship as they travel to find Maren's mother.  She is horrified by the lengths to which Lee will go in order to feed but she ultimately participates until she finds her mother (Chloe Sevigny) and learns that she is also a cannibal and that she voluntarily admitted herself to a psychiatric hospital to control her urges.  Maren vows that she will never be like her mother and leaves Lee but, because she loves him, she seeks him out again and convinces him to live a conventional life with her.  But can they overcome the odds?  I really enjoyed the effective blending of the romance and horror genres (I think Guadagnino gets the tone exactly right) and the performances are all outstanding (Russell and Rylance are amazing and this is Chalamet's best work, in my opinion, because he is understated but still incredibly powerful).  The social commentary about people who are relegated to the fringes of society for being different is brilliant and I think cannibalism could be a metaphor for many things (I'm leaning towards addiction but it could also just as easily be queerness, generational trauma, or poverty) that are difficult to outrun.  I will certainly be thinking about its themes for some time to come.  There are some brutal and grisly scenes but the aftermath is often shown rather than the violence itself (characters are covered in blood after feeding).  Honestly, the worst scene for me was more shocking for what was heard rather than what was shown.  This might be too disturbing for some but I definitely recommend it.