Golda

Last night I went to the Broadway to see Golda because I have always been fascinated by the history of the Middle East.  It is incredibly powerful with another brilliant performance from Helen Mirren.  The narrative surrounds the Yom Kippur War between Israel and a coalition of Arab states led by Syria and Egypt in 1973 with the framing device of the Agranat Comission during which Prime Minister Golda Meir (Mirren) is called upon to explain her controversial decision not to launch a preemptive strike despite receiving intelligence suggesting a coming attack.  While there are strategy meetings with her ministers and generals and some incredibly tense sequences listening to the audio from battle, much of the focus is on how a chain-smoking and stoop-shouldered woman undergoing treatments for lymphoma responds to the crisis.  The constraints imposed on her by her diplomatic position are shown through her complicated relationship with U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger (Liev Schreiber), her continuing heath problems are shown through her relationship with her personal assistant Lou Kaddar (Camille Cottin), and her despair over the deaths of so many soldiers is shown through her relationship with her secretary Shir Shapiro (Ellie Piercy) and I think this is very effective at showing the real woman behind the politician.  Mirren is absolutely phenomenal and disappears completely into the role.  I was particularly moved by the scene where she keeps replaying the audio from the devastating battle in her mind and when she must inform her secretary of the death of her son in battle.  I also enjoyed some recurring visual motifs throughout, such as the appearance of birds and the use of the ever present cigarette smoke to represent battle, as well as the dramatic sound design and score.  I really liked this historical drama and highly recommend it.

The Hill

Last night I went to see The Hill because I am a sucker for a good underdog sports story (it was the second one in two days).  Unfortunately, this one is not good.  Rickey Hill, the son of a poverty-stricken itinerant pastor, has a degenerative spinal disease that requires him to wear leg braces as a child (played by Jesse Berry) but he is a phenom at hitting a baseball and dreams of playing in the major league.  His father James Hill (Dennis Quaid) believes that it is God's will that he follow in his footsteps and become a preacher but Rickey believes that it is God's will that he play baseball and he (played as a teen by Colin Ford) eventually becomes a star on his high school team.  However, he must overcome a debilitating injury that requires surgery and the disapproval of his father for a chance to try out for an MLB scout.  Hill's story is compelling and inspirational and I actually enjoyed the messages about faith (it isn't as heavy-handed as I expected it to be) and perseverance so I really wish that the telling of it was better.  It uses a linear timeline with all of the predictable beats of a traditional biopic (which doesn't always bother me if there is some other element to keep my attention) so the pacing becomes very sluggish at times.  I also found the climactic reconciliation between father and son that I had been waiting for throughout the whole movie to be incredibly disappointing because Pastor Hill confesses the error of his ways to his congregation rather than to Rickey.  Most of the supporting characters are one-dimensional, the dialogue is hackneyed, and the score is emotionally manipulative.  The performances range from bland at best to cringe-worthy at worst and Quaid, who I usually really like, is almost laughably bad with a permanent scowl on his face (a school yard bully with a comical grimace as he tries to strike Rickey out in a pick-up game is almost as bad).  The only dynamic presence on the screen is Scott Glenn in a cameo as the curmudgeonly scout Red Murff.  I really wanted to love this but, alas, I didn't and I can't really recommend it.

Gran Turismo

Last night I finally had the chance to see Gran Turismo and, as fan of inspirational underdog sports stories, I absolutely loved it!  I may or may not have cheered out loud during a climactic moment in a race.  Danny Moore (Orlando Bloom), a marketing executive for Nissan, pitches the idea to find the best players of the PlayStation game Gran Turismo and have them compete for a chance to race on Team Nissan for the publicity.  He recruits Jack Salter (David Harbour), a former driver turned mechanic, to train the gamers but Salter doesn't think they have the stamina or intuition to succeed and only accepts Team Nissan's offer because his current driver, Nicholas Capa (Josha Stradowski), is too arrogant for his own good. Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) spends all of his free time playing the game and, despite the disapproval of his father Steven (Djimon Hounsou), he is selected to train at the GT Academy and ultimately wins the respect of Salter and a contract with Team Nissan.  However, after struggling in a few qualifying races, he succeeds in placing and earning a F1 Super License but faces growing backlash from the racing community and must prove himself at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans race.  This is somewhat predictable (there is the ubiquitous training montage, the obvious competition between Mardenborough and the driver that Salter abandoned to train him, a convenient love interest, a devastating crash as an emotional arc, and a touching reconciliation between Mardenborough and his father before Le Mans) but it is a really inspiring story about an outsider who overcomes the odds and the visuals are spectacular!  The racing sequences are incredibly immersive and it really seems as if Mardenborough is actually driving when he is playing the game and like he is playing the game when he is driving.   I especially loved the Le Mans race because I was on the edge of my seat during the final lap even though I basically knew what was going to happen (see above comment about cheering out loud).  Madekwe is very appealing but Harbour is the standout for me because, in my opinion, his moving performance as a reluctant mentor is what makes you care about Mardenborough.  The soundtrack is also a lot of fun (I loved the Enya and Kenny G needle drops).  This is much better than I was expecting and I highly recommend it!

Utah Shakespeare Festival 2023

Marilyn and I spent Friday and Saturday at the Utah Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City.  We both look forward to this annual trip all year (we brought our tickets last November) and we had so much fun!

Our first show on Friday afternoon was The Play That Goes Wrong in the Randall Jones Theatre.  Marilyn had never seen it before and she was laughing out loud before it even started because the stage crew was looking in the audience for a missing dog!  The titular play that goes wrong is the Cornley Drama Society's production of The Murder at Haversham Manor by Susie H. K. Bridewell.  The cast includes Max (Jim Poulos) as Cecil Haversham/ Arthur the Gardner, Chris (Rhett Guter) as Inspector Carter, Jonathan (Jeffrey Marc Alkins) as Charles Haversham, Robert (Blake Henri) as Thomas Colleymore, Dennis (Chris Mixon) as Perkins the Butler, and Sandra (Nazlah Black) as Florence Colleymore with Annie (Melinda Parrett) as the put upon Stage Manager and Trevor (Cameron Vargas) as the Sound and Lighting Director.  The set is slowly falling apart, the props malfunction or go missing, Trevor accidentally plays Duran Duran instead of the sound cues, the aforementioned missing dog is never found, one actor cannot stay still while playing the murder victim, one actor cannot remember his lines, one actor continually breaks the fourth wall to milk the audience for applause, and the leading lady is injured halfway through the show and is replaced by Annie and then Trevor (with scripts in hand) but the show must go on!  My favorite aspect of this production is the physical comedy, especially when Cecil and Thomas have to answer the phone with their hands full, when Sandra and Annie have a long and drawn out fight to play Florence, and when Thomas and Inspector Carter are trapped in the second floor study.  The cast is superb and everyone has amazing comedic timing, particularly Henri and Poulos.  The set is fantastic because it falls apart so spectacularly!  Both Marilyn and I loved it!

On Friday night we saw Romeo and Juliet in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre.  As I've mentioned, this is my least favorite Shakespeare play but this rendition was more faithful to the text than the version I saw recently and I always appreciate that (even though I loved that production).  This play tells the well known story of woe about the star-crossed lovers from rival houses, Juliet (Naiya Vanessa McCalla) and her Romeo (Aamar-Malik Culbreth).  I really loved McCalla's interpretation of Juliet because she is really sassy in her interactions with Romeo (especially when she interrupts him during the balcony scene) and bossy towards her Nurse (Alex Keiper) in Act I and almost defiant in her interactions with Lord Capulet (Tim Fullerton) when forced to marry Paris (Marco Antonio Vega) in Act II.  I also really enjoyed Culbreth's performance because his Romeo is incredibly impulsive and I was quite shocked by a scene between him and Tybalt (Gilberto Saenz).  Speaking of which, the fight choreography is really dynamic and exciting to watch.  I loved the period costumes and, while the set is very minimal, the colorful ribbons hanging from the rafters during the ball make a very dramatic impression.  My biggest complaint, which kept me from loving this production, is the portrayal of Mercutio (Ryan Ruckman).  He is supposed to be Romeo's friend and contemporary (Ruckman is quite a bit older than Culbreth) and he is also meant to be witty with a way with words but Ruckman portrays him as a drunken and dissolute rogue which makes his rebuke of both the Montagues and Capulets as he is dying less powerful.  Both Marilyn and I enjoyed this performance but we didn't love it.

Saturday afternoon we went back to the Randall Jones Theatre for a production of Emma: The Musical and it was lovely.  Emma Woodhouse (Allie Babich) meets her match when she tries her matchmaking skills with her protegee Harriet Smith (Laura Brennan) and Mr. Elton (Jim Poulos), Mr. Churchill (Gilberto Saenz), then Mr. Knightley (Rhett Guter).  This is one of my favorite novels by Jane Austen and, even though the songs are not particularly memorable (they mainly consist of large chunks of exposition that are sung), I really loved this adaptation.  The cast is outstanding and I especially enjoyed Babich because she has a beautiful voice and her characterization of the conniving but likable Emma is hysterical (especially during "The Recital") but Brennan steals the show as Harriet (especially when she controls Emma like a marionette in the reprise of "Humiliation" which mimics how Emma treats her and Mr. Elton in "A Gentleman's Daughter").  Guter is an appealing Mr. Knightley (Marilyn really liked him) and I loved Saenz as the preening Mr. Churchill, particularly all of his poses during "Should We Ever Meet" (I also liked him as Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet the night before).  Melinda Parrett as Miss Bates and Chris Mixon as the hypochondriac Mr. Woodhouse are also standouts in the cast.  The set, featuring rose covered arches and wisteria laden columns, is absolutely gorgeous and the regency period costumes (I loved all of the empire waists) are beautiful.  Marilyn and I loved this!

Out final show on Saturday night was A Midsummer Night's Dream in the Engelstad Shakespeare Theatre.  This was my most anticipated show of the festival because I taught this play for so many years and it did not disappoint!  In fact, it was my favorite show!  The course of true love does not run smooth when Oberon (Corey Jones), the King of the Fairies, has Puck (Max Gallagher) play a trick on Titania (Cassandra Bissell), the Queen of the Fairies, which inadvertently involves four lovers from Athens, Hermia (Naiya Vanessa McCall), Lysander (Aamar-Malik Culbreth), Helena (Kayland Jordan), and Demetrius (Jimmy Nguyen), and Nick Bottom (Topher Embrey) the weaver.  I loved so many things about this production!  The set for Athens is very classical with large columns and fabric covered walls but, once the characters go into the woods, the columns become trees (which are moved around and light up) and the fabric is removed to reveal intricate panels of flowers and a moon made of twigs and lights.  It is really cool, especially when the columns are moved to show that the characters are lost in the woods.  Since the woods are in juxtaposition with Athens, I loved seeing the actors who play Oberon, Titania, and Puck also portray Theseus, Hippolyta, and Philostrate (they are all really good).  I loved the entire cast but my favorites are Jordan as Helena, because her interactions with the the other lovers are so over the top, and Embrey, because his antics had me laughing throughout the entire show (but especially during the performance of Pyramus and Thisbe for the Duke).  The costumes are some of the best I've seen at the festival (especially for all of the fairies) and I loved that the four lovers gradually come undressed as they come undone!  This was such a fun play to end our time at the festival with because we loved it so much!

I enjoyed all four plays this year and I am happy to report that the tarts are as delicious as in years past (I had several).  I am already looking forward to next year!

[title of show] at the Grand Theatre

Last night I went to see [title of show] at the Grand Theatre and, once again, I was really happy to have the chance to see a show with which I was unfamiliar!  This musical about the writing of a musical is clever and funny (especially if you are a fan of Broadway) and I really enjoyed it.  Jeff (Jacob Barnes) and Hunter (Brian Cota) are two struggling writers living and working temp jobs in New York.  They hear about a new musical theatre festival and, even though the deadline for submissions is only three weeks away, they decide to enter with the help of their friends Susan (Ashley Coombs) and Heidi (Michelle Lynn Thompson) and a pianist named Larry (Jonathan McDonald).  As they struggle to write material for an entirely original musical, they realize that their conversations about writing the musical are more interesting than what they are writing and that becomes the show.  Once it is accepted by the festival, the show's subject becomes the process of mounting a show Off-Broadway and then transferring it to Broadway (including videos on YouTube called The [title of show] Show that you can actually find on YouTube).  It is so meta because Jeff Bowen (music and lyrics) and Hunter Bell (book) really wrote the show about their experiences with their friends Susan Blackwell and Heidi Blickenstaff and the four of them actually starred in productions both on and off Broadway with Larry Pressgrove as musical director!  It is so fun!  My favorite songs are "An Original Musical," about how hard it is to come up with an original idea (I loved the lyric that makes fun of turning movies into musicals), "Die, Vampire, Die," about refusing to listen to the doubts inside your head about your art, "Change It/Don't Change It," about refusing to abandon your original idea to make it more commercial, and "Nine People's Favorite Thing," about being proud of your work no matter what.  The song "Secondary Characters" also made me laugh (this show explores a lot of the tropes found in Broadway musicals).  All of the actors do a great job with the material and give energetic performances but I was especially impressed with McDonald because he plays the piano on stage.  Speaking of which, the audience is also located on the stage (it is a so-called Backstage Production) so it really feels like you are observing the writing process inside Jeff's loft apartment.  I was very pleasantly surprised by this show and I would definitely recommend it, especially to fans of musical theatre.  It runs at the Grand Theatre through September 9 with shows Thursday - Saturday (go here for tickets).

Note:  This show does contain a lot of profanity (in fact, there is a running bit about the need to clean up the language for families, tourists, and the ladies who see matinees).