Bright Star at the Empress

Another show (currently very popular with Utah theatre companies) that I don't think I will ever get tired of seeing no matter how many times it is produced is Bright Star.  I absolutely love it because it is a beautiful and moving story about love and redemption with incredible bluegrass music by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell.  I got to see the Empress Theatre's version last night and it is amazing!  The story takes place in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina during the 1920s and just after World War II.  After the war, Billy Cane (Bradley Barker) briefly returns to his hometown of Hayes Creek and reunites with his father (Kaleb Hunt) and childhood friend Margo Crawford (Stephanie Benson) before deciding to try writing for a magazine in Asheville where he meets the uptight editor Alice Murphy (Heather Shelley).  When the magazine staff, Lucy Grant (Makayla Porter) and Daryl Ames (Sam Phillips), tease her about her boring existence, we see Alice (literally) transform into the wild and rebellious girl she once was in the small town of Zebulon where she has a romance with and is cruelly parted from the Mayor's son Jimmy Ray Dobbs (Trevor Noble).  The narrative goes back and forth from one timeline to the other as Alice learns to deal with heartache and loss and Billy learns the importance of home and the one who really loves him.  The best part of this show is the music and this production includes an incredible live band on stage, featuring Ashley Joseph on cello, Isaiah Perez on bass, Spencer Kellogg on banjo and guitar, Natalie Cardon on violin and viola, Stacy Mayren on piano, Joe DeSisto on keyboard, Kim Brown on fiddle, JD Robison on drums, Christian Porter on mandolin, and Brandon Kerby on acoustic guitar.  I have seen this show many times and I am very familiar with all of the twists and turns in the plot but I was still reduced to tears by the emotional performances by Shelley and Noble in the songs "Please, Don't Take Him," "Heartbreaker," and "I Had a Vision."   I also really loved how Shelley is able to differentiate between her uptight persona in Asheville and her rebellious persona in Zebulon, especially during "Way Back in the Day" and "Firmer Hand/ Do Right."  One of my favorite songs is "Asheville" and Benson gives a beautiful performance of it and she has tremendous chemistry with Barker (who is very appealing as Billy) in "Always Will."  The choreography in "Picnic Dance" and "Another Round" is fun and spirited and the staging is very clever with a set that looks like an old and weathered barn with various pieces for Margo's bookstore, Alice's office, the Mayor's office, and various cabins moved on and off seamlessly by the ensemble.  I wondered how a key scene involving a train would be staged, because it is sometimes tricky to pull off and it needs to be an emotional turning point in the show, but I was extremely impressed with how it is done using a platform above the stage and projections.  I cannot recommend this show enough but, unfortunately, the remaining performances today are sold out (with good reason).  However, standby tickets are sometimes available at the door on a first come, first served basis!

Dumb Money

My nephew has been looking forward to Dumb Money for weeks so we went to see it last night.  He absolutely loved it and, even though I had only the vaguest notion of what was happening at any given time, I had a lot of fun with it, too!  Financial analyst Keith Gill (Paul Dano) uses all of his savings to buy a large block of stock in the company GameStop because he thinks that it is undervalued, much to the dismay of his exasperated wife Caroline (Shailene Woodley), and promotes it on his YouTube channel as "Roaring Kitty" and on the subreddit r/wallstreetbets.  Soon lots of ordinary people, including Jennifer (America Ferrera), Marcos (Anthony Ramos), Riri (Myha'la Herrold), and Harmony (Talia Ryder), are buying the stock on the Robinhood app, developed by Vlad Tenev (Sebastian Stan) and Baiju Bhatt (Rushi Kota), on his recommendation which drives up the price.  This causes several Wall Street hedge fund CEOs, such as Gabe Plotkin (Seth Rogan), Steve Cohen (Vincent D'Onofrio), and Kenneth C. Griffin (Nick Offerman), to panic because they have been short-selling the stock and they need it to fail.  I really enjoyed how funny and self-aware this movie is (it reminded me of The Big Short but it is less heavy-handed) and the juxtaposition between the ordinary lives of the average investor and the extravagant and over the top lifestyles enjoyed by the hedge fund CEOs is incredibly amusing (I especially loved all of the employees standing at attention when they play tennis at a resort).  Dano is perfect as the nerdy Keith (I think he excels in these everyman type roles) and I loved Pete Davidson as his slacker brother Kevin who wants him to sell when the price of the stock starts climbing (although I do think there are too many unnecessary secondary characters to keep track of).  I wish there had been more information provided about specific terms that are used frequently (what are diamond hands?) but I have to admit that the comments on YouTube and Reddit that are shown in lieu of explanations are hilarious and my lack of understanding didn't really detract from my enjoyment.  My nephew highly recommends this (but I think you can wait until it streams).

The Creator

I went to an early access screening for The Creator last night and I loved it so much!  In the near future, an advanced artificial intelligence detonates a nuclear weapon in Los Angeles causing the death of millions and prompting a war between the United States and countries that refuse to ban AI.  Joshua Taylor (John David Washington), a special forces agent, goes undercover in New Asia to find the creator of this advanced AI but ends up marrying Maya (Gemma Chan), the daughter of the man he believes to be responsible.  When Maya and his unborn child are killed during an attack by the USS Nomad, an airship with weapons of superior firepower, he returns home a bitter and disillusioned man who is viewed as a traitor.  Five years later, because he knows the area better than anyone else, he is recruited by General Andrews (Ralph Ineson) and Colonel Howell (Allison Janney) to lead a mission back to New Asia to find a powerful new weapon developed by the creator that could defeat the U.S. but he is more motivated by the news that Maya might still be alive.  He eventually discovers the weapon in the form of a "simulant" child he names Alphie (Madeleine Yuna Voyles) and, when he decides to protect this advanced AI because of a possible connection to Maya, he rediscovers his humanity.  This is a bold and original sci-fi thriller and, even though the action set pieces become a bit unwieldy in the final act, the world-building is intriguing, the images are absolutely stunning (definitely see it in IMAX), and the story is incredibly thought-provoking.  It tackles important themes of what it means to be alive, the futility of war, and the fear of those who are different but, at its core, it is about a relationship that is brought to life beautifully by outstanding performances from Washington and Voyles (at one point I had tears in my eyes during an especially poignant moment between the two characters regarding the existence of heaven).  I also really loved the moving score by Hans Zimmer because it adds so much emotional weight.  This is definitely one of my favorite movies this year and I highly recommend it!

Jekyll & Hyde at CPT

When my sister Kristine and I took a theatre trip to New York City in the summer of 1997 we were able to see the original cast of Jekyll & Hyde (featuring Linda Eder as Lucy and including the song "Good 'N' Evil" which was my favorite but is no longer in the show). We saw quite a few shows on that trip but Jekyll & Hyde was definitely our favorite so I was really excited to see it again with both my sisters (and my brother-in-law) last night at CPT. The three of us absolutely loved this production (my brother-in-law was definitely not a fan). This musical is loosely based on the novella by Robert Louis Stevenson and tells the story of Dr. Henry Jekyll (Christian Lackman), a passionate man of science who wants to save his ailing father by finding a chemical formula to separate good from evil in mankind, his alter-ego Mr. Edward Hyde, a terrifying madman created when Jekyll's experiments on himself unleash his inner demons, and the two women, his fiancee Emma Carew (Karllen Johnson) and a prostitute named Lucy Harris (Jessica Knowles Andrus), who love him but are unaware of his dark secret. As Jekyll struggles to control the monster within, he becomes a danger to the citizens of London, to Emma and Lucy, and to himself. I love the music in this show and the three leads do a fantastic job with the rock opera score. Johnson has a beautiful voice and I loved her rendition of "Once Upon a Dream" but the highlight for me was when she and Andrus sing "In His Eyes" because their voices blend together so well. Andrus has an incredibly powerful voice and she just about blows the roof off the theatre with "Bring on the Men" and "A New Life" (although I still think "Good 'N' Evil" makes more narrative sense than "Bring on the Men" because this is the turning point that convinces Jekyll to begin experimenting on himself) and her performance of "A Dangerous Game" with Lackman is incredibly passionate. I really enjoyed Lackman's unique interpretations of Jekyll in the song "This is the Moment" and of Hyde in "Alive" and "Streak of Madness" because each character has a distinct persona but "Confrontation," where both characters battle for control, isn't as dramatic as I've seen it done before. I also really enjoyed the ensemble in "Facade" (the use of mirrors as a motif for hiding who you really are, in this scene and throughout the show, is very well done) but the other big musical number, "Murder, Murder," drags a bit. The incredible set is one of the best aspects of this production and it really brings Victorian London to life. There is a dramatic backdrop featuring buildings with windows that light up and a multi-level area downstage used to create many different vignettes. Jekyll's laboratory comes down from the rafters and features bubbling potions and moving cogs and wheels (it's really cool). The lighting design is dark and atmospheric with spotlights on the aforementioned vignettes and the period costumes are very effective in revealing the ways in which the characters are hiding their true natures, particularly in "Facade." I love this show and this production is so good!  It runs on the Barlow Main Stage through October 21 (go here for tickets).

Note:  In case you couldn't tell, I'm sad that the show no longer includes "Good 'N' Evil"  but I did get to hear Linda Eder sing it again during a concert with the Utah Symphony!

It Lives Inside

I always enjoy seeing scary movies in October, and since we are getting close to my favorite month, I decided to see It Lives Inside at the Broadway last night.  I found it to be an interesting take on a traditional monster movie.  High school student Samidha (Megan Suri), who prefers to be called Sam, has seemingly turned her back on her Indian culture and her former best friend Tamira (Mohana Krishnan) in favor of fitting in with the more popular Caucasian kids and she is at odds with her very traditional mother Poorna (Neeru Bajwa).  When a disheveled Tamira approaches her for help, Sam smashes the strange mason jar she is carrying which releases the monster living inside it.  Tamira mysteriously disappears and an invisible demonic presence begins stalking Sam and harming those she loves.  She eventually discovers that the demon is a Pishach and that she must embrace her heritage in order to defeat it.  I really liked the use of Hindu mythology and the use of a monster as a metaphor for losing yourself in order to assimilate because this makes what could be seen as a derivative story (it reminds me so much of The Boogeyman) more compelling.  There are some great tension-filled sequences, such as a shadowy figure hiding in the closet and an amorphous shape stalking Sam's teacher (Betty Gabriel) down a hallway, that are frightening more for what we don't see than for what we do.  However, this makes the final confrontation, when we finally do see the monster, a little bit underwhelming because it is not as scary.  None of the characters are well developed (I especially wanted to know more about Tamira) but Krishnan and Suri both give performances that sell the terror they feel very effectively.  Despite a few flaws It Lives Inside is an intriguing way to begin the spooky season and I recommend it.