Ballet West's Firebird

Yesterday I went to a matinee Ballet West performance featuring a trio of ballets celebrating the 60th anniversary of the company.  I definitely prefer full length ballets but, over the years, I have come to appreciate these one-act pieces and I really enjoyed this production.  The first piece, Firebird, is a classical ballet choreographed by Ballet West's founder William Christensen and it is based on a Russian fairy tale with music by Igor Stravinsky (so I obviously loved it).  An Evil Magician (Tyler Gum) keeps a group of princesses captive in his castle and turns the knights who come to rescue them into stone.  A Prince (Jordan Veit) enters the Magician's garden and encounters the Firebird (Amy Potter), a magical creature illuminated by light, and immediately captures her.   In a beautiful Pas de Deux, the Firebird struggles in the Prince's arms so he releases her.  In gratitude, she gives him one of her feathers to use if he is ever in peril.  When the princesses are released into the garden, the Prince woos the loveliest one (Kazlyn Nielsen) in another beautiful Pas de Deux where they vow their love for each other.  He attempts to rescue the Princess but the Magician appears with a group of wild animals, who wear incredible masks created by Logan Long (I especially loved the insects) and wield torches of fire, and tries to turn him into stone.  He reveals the Firebird's feather which summons her to the garden and soon the Magician is defeated (very dramatically), the princesses are released, and the stone knights are brought back to life.  The ballet concludes with the marriage and coronation of the Prince and Princess.  I especially enjoyed Potter's performance as the Firebird, because all of her stylized movements mimic those of a bird, and the traditional Russian costumes in the coronation scene.  Next came the world premiere of Fever Dream which is a modern ballet choreographed by former Ballet West soloist Joshua Whitehead (I liked him when he danced with the company) featuring music that he composed and contemporary costumes.  In this piece, a dreamer is torn between his mundane life and the unsettling and eerie dream world and I loved all of the innovative patterns created by different groups of dancers and the dramatic use of red to highlight some of the dancers.  The final ballet, Stars & Stripes, is a patriotic extravaganza choreographed by George Balanchine with music by John Philip Sousa.  It is divided into five campaigns with three different regiments of dancers, a Pas de Deux, and a thrilling finale and it is meant to mimic a parade with marches in unison and athletic leaps and spins.  My favorite was the second campaign because the regiment was led by my favorite dancer, Katlyn Addison.  The costumes for the women are so much fun because they incorporate military uniforms (I loved the epaulets) with tights and pastel tutus!  This was a wonderful production but, unfortunately, last night was the final performance.  However, The Nutcracker is up next and you don't want to miss this holiday tradition (go here for tickets).

Audra McDonald with the Utah Symphony

Last night I spent an incredible evening with Audra McDonald and the Utah Symphony (and my friend Angela) at a concert featuring lots of Broadway classics and standards from the great American songbook.  I loved every minute of it!  The orchestra began with "Carousel Waltz" from the Rodgers & Hammerstein musical Carousel and then the incomparable Audra McDonald took the stage with a powerful performance of "I Am What I Am" from La Cage aux Folles.  She continued with "Pure Imagination" from the movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (which I've heard her sing before) and she told a hilarious story about performing her next song, "Cornet Man" from Funny Girl, in a competition as a 14 year old girl and being criticized for not picking a more appropriate song!  Next came "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" by Duke Ellington, a sultry rendition of "Summertime" from Porgy and Bess, and then a spirited version of "I Could Have Danced All Night" from My Fair Lady (a song she has always been hesitant to sing because it is such a standard for all sopranos).  She talked about her hobby of gardening (very badly) which led her to add the song "I Always Say Hello to a Flower" to her repertoire and I thought her performance was really fun!  She ended her first set with "Home" from The Wiz and she just about blew the roof off Abravanel Hall with her powerful vocals!  After the intermission, she returned to the stage with "Before the Parade Passes By" from Hello, Dolly!  Next, she performed a lovely arrangement of "Bein' Green" accompanied by a guitar and a beautiful mashup of "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" from South Pacific and "Children Will Listen" from Into the Woods (I loved this so much).  She continued with "Can't Stop Talking" from the movie Let's Dance and then an amazing rendition of "Somewhere" from West Side Story.  She told the crowd that she found her next song, "I Love Today," on singer-songwriter Emily King's social media (it was written by King's mother Kim Kalesti) and reached out to her to ask if she could sing it.  It is a beautiful song about living in the moment and living life to the fullest and I loved it!  She concluded her main set with a really cool arrangement of "Life is a Cabaret" from the musical Cabaret.  For the encore, she sang a mashup of "Happy Days Are Here Again" and "Get Happy" with her music director Andy Einhorn and the crowd exploded into an appreciative standing ovation!  Both Angela and I have seen her perform before and both of us agreed that McDonald's vocals were especially powerful last night and we both found her to be even more loquacious than usual with lots of funny anecdotes to introduce every song.  It was an amazing night and, if you are a fan of Broadway, I highly recommend getting a ticket to tonight's concert (go here).

The Marvels

Last night I saw a Thursday preview of The Marvels and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it!  Dar-Benn (Zawe Ashton), a Kree leader who is trying to restore her planet after it was damaged by Captain Marvel (Brie Larson) when she defeated the Supreme Intelligence, locates a Quantum Band and uses it to create a jump point in space.  Carol Danvers/ Captain Marvel and Monica Rambeau (Teyonah Parris) are enlisted by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) to investigate the jump point and their light-based powers become enmeshed with each other and with those of Kamala Khan/ Ms. Marvel (Iman Vellani) because she has the other Quantum Band.  This causes the three of them to switch places when they use their powers (and provides endless amusement and some great action set pieces).  Eventually they realize that Dar-Benn is creating jump points to plunder the atmosphere, water, and sunlight from planets that are significant to Danvers and the three of them must work together to stop her.  I have been vocal in my criticism of the MCU for becoming bloated with too many characters, stories, and timelines for the casual movie fan to keep up with but, honestly, as someone who has only seen WandaVision, I didn't find the story hard to follow (I thought Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was much more convoluted).  Obviously a familiarity with the TV shows (particularly Ms. Marvel) will provide a greater appreciation for the subtleties of each character but I found the quick recaps to be sufficient for my own understanding and enjoyment.  I really loved the deeper exploration of Danvers as a character, especially her relationship with Rambeau and her developing role as a mentor to Khan.  Larson, Parris, and Vellani have really fun chemistry in their scenes together and some of these scenes are absolutely bonkers (in the best possible way).  I laughed out loud so many times!  I think Dar-Benn is fine as the villain because her motivation is understandable (she reminded me of Killmonger in this respect) while Goose the Flerken and Prince Yan (Park Seo-joon) steal the show!  Finally, this movie has the second best use of a Beastie Boys song this year and the best use of a song from the musical Cats ever!  I had so much fun with this movie and definitely recommend it!

Note:  It goes without saying that you should stay for a mid-credits scene.  It's a good one!

Beethoven's Ninth

The program for last night's Utah Symphony concert was curated by guest conductor and creative partner David Robertson to portray all aspects of the human experience from the depths of despair to the pinnacle of joy and it was absolutely spectacular!  The evening began with a piece of sacred choral music called Christus factus est by Anton Bruckner which was performed by the Utah Symphony Chorus unaccompanied.  It was both sorrowful and powerful and featured atmospheric lighting which allowed Robertson to simply appear at the podium without an introduction.  Next, the orchestra and chorus were immediately joined by soloists Celena Shafer (a Utah favorite), Deborah Nansteel, Chad Shelton, and Zachary Nelson for a semi-staged version of Act III from the opera Wozzeck by Alban Berg.  The theme of this opera is the impending doom felt by Berg at the end of the Great War and this act tells the story of a poor and abused soldier named Wozzeck who is driven mad with jealousy over his wife Marie's infidelity with a drum major.  After Wozzeck kills Marie he becomes obsessed with the blood and, in an attempt to wash it away, he wades into a pond and drowns while his child is playing with neighbor children.  There are two crescendos played by the brass and percussion after Wozzeck kills Marie that are incredibly dramatic and convey the enormity of what he has done.  They gave me goosebumps!  After the intermission came what is widely regarded as the greatest symphony ever written!  The orchestra was once again joined by the chorus and the soloists for Symphony No. 9 by Ludwig van Beethoven and I was completely swept up by the emotion of this celebration of the universal brotherhood of man.  I was captivated by the very first hushed note which soon erupts to create a first movement that is incredibly stirring and dynamic.  The second movement is lively and exuberant and the third movement brought me to tears, as it always does, because it is so hauntingly beautiful.  All of this is merely the prelude to the incredible fourth movement featuring the chorus and soloists singing the lyrics from the poem Ode to Joy by Friedrich Schiller to the accompaniment of the instantly recognizable main theme played by the orchestra.  This performance was absolutely amazing and, even though it is over an hour in length, it felt like it went by in an instant.  I cannot recommend this concert enough and I suggest you get a ticket to tonight's performance (go here) as soon as you can because there were very few empty seats at Abravanel Hall last night (with good reason).

Priscilla

I was so excited to be back at the Broadway last night to see Priscilla because I am a huge fan of Sofia Coppola and I have been anticipating it ever since Cailee Spaeny won the Volpi Cup at the Venice FIlm Festival for her performance.  It is a fascinating if melancholy coming of age story that initially left me a bit disappointed but, the more I think about it, the more I appreciate it.  Priscilla Beaulieu (Spaeny) is a shy and lonely teenager living in West Germany, where her father is stationed, when she is invited to a party and meets Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi), who is doing his military service.  She comforts him over the recent death of his mother and they bond over their shared homesickness for the U.S.  Despite the objections of her worried parents, she is soon spending all of her free time with him and grows despondent when he is discharged from the Army.  She eventually visits and then moves into Graceland where she is completely controlled, manipulated, isolated, and ignored by Elvis.  She becomes a wife and mother before she finally finds the courage to create a life for herself.  This reminded me, beat for beat, of Marie Antoinette and that is both a good thing and a bad thing.  The compelling story is similar in that a young and naive girl is thrust into a situation for which she is completely unprepared, is forced to mold herself into someone else's ideal, and is not allowed to have a voice while living in a rarefied environment of luxury.  The gorgeous production design is also similar in that it brilliantly immerses the audience into a different time and place while including anachronistic music to create a vibe (my favorite is the use of "Crimson and Clover").  Unfortunately, it also feels like an insubstantial bit of spectacle because the protagonist still feels like a mystery when all is said and done and this left me wanting to know more about who she really was.  However, upon reflection I think that is actually the point because Priscilla didn't really have an identity while she was with Elvis.  Spaeny gives an incredible performance, literally transforming from a child to a young woman right before our eyes.  She is able to communicate so many emotions with just a glance or one word of dialogue and it always appears that she has so much more to say.  Elordi is unbelievably appealing and charismatic as Elvis and it is easy to see how Priscilla could fall under his spell but he also vividly portrays a darker side to the king of rock and roll so it is understandable why she would leave.  I'm still thinking about this one but I would definitely recommend it.