The Good Fight (2017-22)

The Kings' spinoff of The Good Wife (a stellar legal drama in its own righht) was the perfect way for CBS to enter the streaming wars. The Kings took a successful show, a formula that worked, and were permitted to experiment with profanity, more taboo teams not allowed on network television, and even animated musical segments. They challenged the censors, and memorably let their audience know CBS censored their satirical song on China in a meta episode about censorship. The Good Fight was the boon we needed in the Trump era. When the world turned tipsy turvy, The Good Fight satirized us by cranking up the absurdity further. It gave us a way to process the craziness around us. They rolled with the punches when the pandemic came around, always the most topical show on television. They brought back their cast of kooky judges and Chicagoland lawyers from The Good Wife, and even elevated Audra McDonald to a leading role. At the black law firm of Reddick & Boseman, we were introduced to many excellent black actors. And they played high powered lawyers! That was unheard of before and I hope those roles continue to be written. Clever and timely, poignant and funny-- though I'm not generally a proponent for TV spinoffs, I always looked forward to The Good Fight.

Straight Line Crazy (The Shed) (2022)

It's my first time to The Shed. Aglaia had the foresight to get Culture Pass tickets for a Wednesday matinee. Tickets sold out fast, even when they released a new block, and they were going for hundreds of dollars. It's a decent sized theater on the sixth floor. The stage juts out into the audience, three-quarters in the round. It's interesting (in that you're really close to the action) but it's sort of unnecessary. It requires them to block the scenes in an awkward way. They move around in circles constantly as they converse so that they're sometimes facing you and sometimes facing away. At the back of the stage, there are some extras that don't really have lines.

There are also some weird narrative choices. Act I centers on Robert Moses's early career building the Northern and Southern State Parkways on Long Island, challenging the unsympathetic landed gentry. Act II focuses on his failed attempt to build a highway through Washington Square Park toward the end of his career. We have Jane Jacobs to thank for his defeat, and she shows up in the play as a rather major character, despite them never having met. In Act I, she interjects with totally unnecessary narration. I actually think all the narration is kind of cheesy. The play would have benefited from ending Act I and Act II at the end of the scene, at the height of the drama, instead of closing with narration. Honestly, we could do without Jane Jacobs altogether. The scenes in Washington Square Park are awkward. The peanut gallery reacts to the protests and public hearings by looking straight at the audience and exclaiming pointlessly. And the play loses momentum whenever Ralph Fiennes isn't on stage. Fiennes is phenomenal as always. His repartee is quick and his posture impeccable. His accent was a little difficult to understand at first but I got used it.

What I do like is that Act I build Moses up. And Act II takes him down. He accomplished a lot in his long career. The play just focuses in on these two key moments and gives the audience both sides of the coin. We are allowed to make our own judgments. What's kind of ironic is that the times have shifted. It has been nearly a hundred years since the events of Act I. Moses believed that cars were the future, and he was right, partially because he built New York that way, and the rest of the country followed suit. But we've now come all the way around to where Manhattan is about to institute congestion pricing. Cars are the enemy now. Unfortunately, thanks to Moses, we're already all-in on cars.

1776 (Broadway)

Roundabout's revival of 1776 recasts America's founding fathers as female and non-binary. This might perhaps be more shocking in a pre-Hamilton era but nowadays the founding fathers are whoever you want to be. Maybe they thought they were capitalizing on Hamilton's success but people love Hamilton because it's good, not for some vague fandom for the American Revolution. The protagonist is John Adams, who is decidedly less interesting than Alexander Hamilton. His main characterization is that he was annoying and disliked. He is strongly pro-independence. And he does not compromise.

The play is pretty boring to be honest. There aren't that many songs. There are long stretches of debate that are completely without music. It really makes you appreciate Cabinet Battle. And the music that does exist is mostly forgettable, and kind of irrelevant. What is that Egg song? I expected bigger for the opener or the Act I finale, or indeed the Act II finale.

The plot is pretty empty. In the first act, they clearly do not have the votes for independence. We're never really told how they convince everyone to come around by the end. There is a discussion about slavery, which doesn't really answer why the southern states become amenable to independence. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention had it pretty good because of slavery. They complain about taxes and mistreatment by the crown, but they have it comparatively good if you consider the way Britain treated its other colonies and certainly if you consider how the colonists were treating their slaves. The fact of the matter is that those who opposed independence were pretty satisfied with the status quo. It's the reason they ignore George Washington's entreaties for military support. We don't really get a sense of why they opposed independence nor what convinces them to change their mind.

Westworld (2016-22)

Westworld was supposed to be HBO's successor to Game of Thrones in terms of epic fantasy and expense and violence and nudity. And it had a promising start. Season 1 was top notch TV. It delivered on the spectacle and the mind-blowing twists. And it had a philosophical bent to it. There were some really beautiful, poignant episodes--I specifically remember Akechata's Season 2 episode 8 titled Kiksuya. Season 2 was actually quite good in retrospect with its biblical scope, but I didn't see that until the end. While watching season 2, I found it to be kind of a drag. Seasons 3 and 4 did absolutely nothing for me. They were so complicated and boring. How did they lose the magic of Season 1? It became a totally different show. Once they left the park and entered "reality" it became too convoluted. And it's not like season 1 was even easy to follow. I'm glad they finally pulled the plug because I had felt obligated to slog through the last two seasons.

Camp Siegfried (Second Stage) (2022)

We got free tickets to Camp Siegfried through Culture Card. I probably wouldn't have paid money to see this. It's only 90 minutes without intermission but it felt longer. It's about two teenagers at a pro-Nazi camp on Long Island in 1938. It's a love story. And that kind of obscures the whole Nazi thing. I thought it would be a lot more explicitly anti-Nazi than it was. The setting isn't really all that important to the main plot, but as an audience member it's impossible to look past. Just start with the description of the play in the playbill...it doesn't even mention the Nazi sympathies. It implicitly condones it by not explicitly condemning it. And it's pretty boring overall.

The best part by far is the set. It felt like being outside. There isn't quite a stage, it's a hill built into the theater. And there are branches hanging from the ceiling to simulate trees. There is one mesmerizing scene in which they construct a platform in the side of the hill with planks and mallets. They they use the platform in a few different ways. But later in the play the reveal another platform on the left side of the stage, which comes down like a murphy bed and acts as a pier/dock. The lighting is maybe too good that the darkness put me to sleep. I kind of dozed off after the platform scene. The seats in the theater were nice leather.

The Little Drummer Girl (2018)

I usually find John le Carre's spy thrillers to be slow and boring. But honestly I thought The Little Drummer Girl was a brilliant slow burn. It was intense and legitimately thrilling. It's a tight six episodes. The Mossad don't mess around. They recruit an English actress to go undercover and infiltrate a Palestinian group plotting terrorist attacks in Europe. What's especially interesting about that is that she's an actress playing a part. Of course, that's all undercover work, but it's not usually framed as acting. Usually, the spy has certain sympathies but we're never quite sure where her sympathies lie. She waivers because she's an actress first. In the Mossad agents too, Gadi acknowledges that they may not be the good guys. That's a devastating admission for a spy. 

Park Chan-wook's production is ravishing. The colors, the composition and the camera movement are distinctive Park.  After watching Decision to Leave, I wanted more Park and I'm glad to have finally checked this one off the list. I hadn't realized what a great starry cast he had but was pleasantly surprised. The undercover actress is played by a never better Florence Pugh. She is good in everything. Her handler is played by Alexander Skarsgard. He too plays a part, her target. It allows her to rehearse and learn her character. It reminds me of In the Mood for Love because as they role play, they too begin to fall in love. They blur the line between acting and reality. Michael Shannon plays the leader of the Mossad team and he is fantastic.

Nathan for You (2013-17)

After watching The Rehearsal, I felt compelled to go back and see where the madness came from.  Indeed there are a couple of episodes that presage what will become The Rehearsal, specifically Smokers Allowed and Finding Frances.  What really makes the show work is the huge budget Nathan Fielder gets to work with and the oddball cast of characters he finds (the Bill Gates impersonator makes several appearances, including his own feature-length film). He always takes it just a step too far given all the money to do whatever he wants, and the results are absurd hilarity. I believe that this isn't scripted, and he takes it wherever it will go. He just manages to always get it to go in the wildest place possible. I would say highlights for me: Haunted House, Gas Station, Smokers Allowed, and Souvenir Shop.

Death of a Salesman (Broadway) (2022)

I made it through high school without having read Arthur Miller's classic American Dream tragedy. I've never known another Willy Loman. And much like Marianne Elliott's revival of Company, she (along with Miranda Cromwell) reimagined the play in a new light so inspired and convincing it's hard to believe it wasn't the original. This Loman family is black and it works so well I can't even imagine Philip Seymour Hoffman and Andrew Garfield. The American dream exists for white people; it's much more difficult for African Americans. It also sort of raises the question of what the American Dream is. Is it home ownership? I always thought it was owning your own business. Maybe it's just raising kids who do better than the previous generation. I suppose it's up for interpretation.

The set is very Marianne Elliott. The furniture descends from the ceiling on wires. The rooms move back and forth, without walls. For some reason, the set is crooked, not aligned to the edge of the stage but on a bit of an angle. It makes the theater feel a little off. I love the music, folksy depressing music, strummed on a guitar (kind of like Girl From the North Country?). It's obviously not a musical, but how could you not give Andre DeShields and Sharon Clarke a song, right? They're excellent. Clarke is a shoo in for the Tonys, but I did say the same about Caroline, or Change. 

I did doze off a little bit in the first act during one of Willy's hallucinations/memories. It's a very long show, over 3 hours. It's very powerful, very emotional, devastating really. It's certainly not for the Lion King crowd, but tourists that recognize the title will find an exquisite production. The theater wasn't full unfortunately or unfortunately, we had no one in front of us.

Killing Eve (2018-22)

Killing Eve maybe outlasted its welcome a bit. The first season was phenomenal. The second one was even good. But I simply didn't find seasons three or four all that interesting. The plot became far too convoluted to follow. Early on though, when Phoebe Waller-Bridge led the writing staff, the show was funny and sharp and exciting and surprising. Villanelle and Eve were two of the best female drama characters on TV. Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer have great chemistry. They're both alluring but what is so subversive is the attraction between the deadly assassin and the obsessive agent. It's a bummer Sandra Oh never won an Emmy, but kooky Jodie Comer did land a victory for season 2. The finale episode did leave me unsatisfied. I felt like there was some explanatory closure missing. But I also didn't really want to watch more because the final season wasn't that enjoyable.

Underground Railroad (2021)

It almost pains me to give this a 4, but it also is difficult for me to recommend this in good conscience. By no means is it bad; it's as incredible as everyone says and I'm glad to have seen it, experienced it. But it's a super challenging watch. I think it's the most brutal depiction of slavery I've ever seen. And yet it's depicted with such mastery and dare I say beauty. The cinematography is stunning, and coupled with Nicholas Britell's haunting score, it is nothing short of beautiful. But beautiful just doesn't seem like the right word to describe a slavery tale. I think the shots that perhaps best epitomize Barry Jenkins's style is the shots in which the slaves stare down the camera. His camera is fluid (he loves those long takes), it moves around a lot, but the figures stand still and tall, dignified. Without words, with empathy, Jenkins confers upon them the dignity that they were denied. The imagery is extremely powerful. 

I was led to believe that it was more of a magical realist take on historical fiction, but it isn't quite magic. Though I suppose you could say that an actual underground railroad is something fantastical. Cora goes from one terrible locale to different kinds of horrible places. And when she finally finds supposed-paradise, it is snatched away in a rather painful episode. There is a heavy emphasis on testimony, that the escaped slaves must provide a written account in order to board the train. It is as if to say that people need to know what happened here, history demands it, lest we forget it. Thuso Mbedu does a lot of heavy lifting  as Cora, processing many complex emotions. And I think Joel Edgerton is actually extraordinary too as the slave catcher Ridgeway. 

I found the 10 episodes to be the opposite of binge-able. Especially in the early episodes, many of the depicted brutalities keep you from clicking next. Hard to do any more than a couple at a time. It's a lot to take in. The end credits of each episode are played over modern music, whether Outkast, Marvin Gaye, Mahalia Jackson, Childish Gambino or Kendrick Lamar. It's surprising, immediately pulling the viewer out of the world, giving us a respite from the horrors of the episode. An orchestral arrangement of Clair de Lune plays over a sensitive show-stopping love scene. The use of music is brilliant. Jenkins and Britell have one of the best director-composer partnerships in the business.

The Good Place (2016-20)

So after 2.5 years evading Covid-19, it finally came for me too. I took a few sick days off work and basically watched TV all day. The Good Place kept my spirits up. And it was very bingeable, breezily going through a season a day. It's bright, funny, and insightful. The characters are likable and redeemable and each have their own quirks. But there are a few things that really elevate The Good Place above other network comedies. 

 First is that it entrusts its audience with rather complex philosophical theory. The series deep dives into Kant and Aristotle and the like. It tackles the biggest philosophical questions and actually gives pretty good answers. Popularizing philosophy is something to be lauded. And it's not just a subplot, it's actually at the core of the show's themes. Second is the brilliant plot, with its unique premise setting up a conception of the afterlife with a points system. It has an excellent twist at the end of Season 1 (that I remember reading about at the time, but it was still a fantastic reveal), and turns the whole premise upside down. Even when it departs from the original conceit, it morphs into some other brilliant thing. Each season does something different, clever, on the same theme but from a different angle. 

Third, I love the diverse casting. William Jackson Harper, Jameela Jamil and Manny Jacinto with top billing on network TV. Harper plays the academic Chidi, a philosopher scholar. Jamil plays the beautiful philanthropic Tahani. And Jacinto, freed from the model minority stereotype, plays the dimwit Florirdian Jason. Kristen Bell, D'Arcy Carden and Ted Danson are all great too, as is Maya Rudolph in a recurring guest spot.

And finally, Michael Schur nails the landing with a poignant finale that provides satisfying closure. The scale of the finale spans hundreds of Jeremy Bearimys, Enough time for our protagonists to fulfill their life's and afterlife's dreams and to find the quietude to move on. It's a beautiful ending. 

As You Like It (2017) (Public Works)

For the tenth anniversary of Public Works, Shakespeare in the Park re-staged the incredible musical-adaptation of As You Like It (which lends itself well to the musical genre) brought to life by Shaina Taub, who also plays Jaques. It's kind of incredible how perfect this play is for the mission of Public Works, to blur the line between community members and professional performers. Because "All the world's a stage, and the men and women merely players". It's about the power of theater as a unifying force. It's beautiful and just the show we need in the pandemic. It's a celebration of community and diversity. The ending is poignant with old Rosalind and Orlando, and young Jaques, who is actually a noticeably stronger singer than the composer who casts herself a la Lin-Manuel Miranda.

The plot is unbelievable and convoluted and honestly kind of irrelevant. It has a happy ending, naturally, relatively lightweight for Shakespeare. But it is hilarious and really quite clever. There is a wrestling scene that is staged as a fun luchador battle. "Let's go Bronco, let's go Frankie" reminded me of Bronco Henry haha. The set is gorgeous. With the Belvedere Castle in the background, there is a bridge and three beautiful trees representing the Arden. The band is beneath the bridge. The cast is easily a hundred strong, surely the biggest company they've had at the Delacorte and they're wonderful. They're a reflection of us and there's something very moving about that.

Better Call Saul (2015-22)

I'll be the first to admit that following the end of Breaking Bad, arguably one of the best TV shows of all time, I did not think we needed a prequel show, much less one about the weird sleazy lawyer supporting character. But I was wrong. Better Call Saul evolved into its own wonderful thing. Yes, it was slow, maybe even slower than Breaking Bad, if you can believe that. But the long cons Saul ran were incredibly complex, dragging out across multiple episodes, full seasons, and so they take time. If you had the patience, you were amply rewarded. It was often funny, quirky, intense and harrowing all at once. The writing and acting were always top notch.

The ending was wonderful. The redemption storyline really resonated after seeing what Saul/Jimmy/Gene went through. He has regrets and that bittersweet flashback to Chuck got me. Chuck, after all, was the major plot of the first half of the series. It is in the second half when Rhea Seehorn as Kim Wexler got a chance to shine.  She was consistently the best performer on TV and I think she'll finally be recognized by the Emmy voters. I think Bob Odenkirk, the comedian, will finally win too for a dramatic role. 
 

A Little Night Music (2022) (Barrington Stage Company)

How appropriate for Act I to end with A Weekend in the Country for our weekend in the country. It's really extraordinary how Barrington Stage Company has grown and thrived over the last 28 years, making Pittsfield, MA a regional theater destination, so much so that we saw Norm Lewis in the audience! It wasn't sold out, but definitely a majority of the seats were occupied. The Boyd-Quinson stage was actually pretty large and the they got some big names in the cast. The 7-piece orchestra was admittedly a little thin. And I think it's not Sondheim's best music. I love the complex counterpoint but it's not especially melodic or hummable. Typical Sondheim, criticism, I know, but after Company and Into the Woods this year, this is definitely the inferior music. It is certainly more challenging to follow and appreciate than Into the Woods. Of course, there is the iconic Send in the Clowns and that scene was brilliantly acted by Emily Skinner. But other than that, I wasn't really into the other songs. The Miller's Son is good, I guess, but doesn't really fit there after Send in the Clowns, sung by a minor character. The opening is a dance, rather than a song, which was kind of surprising. When the chorus sings, it's pretty difficult to make out the lyrics. And of course, near impossible to catch all the lyrics in the counterpoint when they're singing over each other. But I don't doubt Sondheim's brilliance. The story is adapted from a Bergman film, a sex comedy recalling a Shakespearean comedy of shuffling partners. It works on stage and though it took a little while for the plot to get going, by the time we got to Act II with all the players in place, it was a good time.

Into the Woods (2022) (Broadway)

You wouldn't have been able to tell from the Disney movie-adaptation of Into the Woods, but Stephen Sondheim's fairy-tale musical is actually raucously funny. The newest production, recently transferred to Broadway from Encores! at City Center, is extremely campy. And it works so well that it leads me to believe it was always meant to be this way. Especially in the first act, which is generally lighter in tone, the comedy is integral to the production. And even when it takes a darker turn in the second act, it's still there. The second act, by the way, is still excellent, despite being basically an entirely different show. The second act is almost a non sequitur in tone and plot. There is a beautiful moral somewhere in there about childhood and innocence and the example we set for the next generation. It just so happens to be cleverly intertwined with familiar fairy tales. 

The set is pretty bare bones, but it's made up for by some very imaginative puppetry, specifically for Milky White(!), the giant's hands and shoes, and the birds. Kennedy Kanagawa is a standout puppeteer, literally endowing emotions into the simple cow puppet. The orchestra sits on stage and Sondheim's lush melodies come through beautifully (looked like maybe a 20-piece orchestra). The songs are such that there are many one or two-liners that various characters pop onto stage to recite before exiting. The lack of set helps make that more believable. 

Standouts from the cast include Patina Miller at the top. I remember being awestruck by her Leading Player in Pippin, and she is deliriously wicked as the Witch here. Sara Bareilles has now gone full Broadway, and her voice is actually beautifully suited to Sondheim. I would've liked to see Neil Patrick Harris but I think Brian d'Arcy James made an excellent Baker too. And Phillipa Soo as Cinderella is good too (Chinese Cinderella!). Jack and Little Red Ridinghood as the child characters can really play up the camp--Julia Lester as sassy Little Red is especially funny.

PS. Morgan slept through basically the whole thing. I kept nudging her back awake and then she'd get mad at me and promptly doze back off. Shame because it was really good! At least she wasn't missing any visuals. The woman in front of me was really tall unfortunately, blocking a third of the stage.

A Strange Loop (Broadway) (2022)

Michael R Jackson's long-gestating passion project is certainly the blackest, queerest show to ever hit a Broadway stage. Big, black and queer-ass American Broadway show is actually an excellent descriptor for A Strange Loop. Emphasis on the "American", claiming its place in the canon of American musicals, telling a uniquely American story. While the traditional gatekeepers may have kept this from ever seeing a stage, Broadway is all the better for it. It's nothing like the usual American stories we see on stage. And it's not really for your typical Midwestern white tourist family Broadway audience. It is wildly profane, if not visually graphic. It's not family-friendly, and yet I also feel like the high school generation will appreciate it more than the typical retiree theatergoer. 

I will say that the sound mixing in the Lyceum Theater was terrible.  I missed a lot of Jackson's clever lyrics in the catchy music. Maybe the actors aren't mic-ed right, or the band was too loud or our seats were too high or what but the lyrics didn't come through clearly and it's a shame because they're really funny. The Lyceum balcony is very steep. When I walked in to the theater, the curtain was down with the title of the show in small type-writer font, making me a little worried. But when the curtain raised, the actors stood front and center, and they actually weren't that far away; the fonts were a trick of the eye. The action also largely stays at the front of the stage, making most every seat in the house full view. It's a mostly minimalist set, save for one extravagant set piece at the end. 

The tight seven-person cast is all excellent. The young Jaquel Spivey is fresh out of college in his Broadway debut. He is on stage for most of the 110 minute runtime, sometimes with his back to the audience (interesting choice). His six Thoughts all play double duty. All six of them play multiple characters, both men and women, characters of varying personas. They're all fabulously distinct. The Thought that plays Usher's mother especially stands out, John-Andrew Morrison.

Clearly inspired by Company, the show lacks a plot. It balances comedy and emotion and feels so real and personal. It's super meta. And I'll admit that it was a little too clever for me. Though Usher explains the title multiple times, the title still went over my head. It's brilliant, but I need some help with the analysis. We'll have to revisit this down the road.

Devs (2020)

There are some really beautiful things happening in Alex Garland's miniseries Devs. What it has to say about humanity is kind of profound. How it gets there though is a rather heady theoretical physics sci-fi lesson. And I didn't really follow it all the way through. I barely understood enough to get the ending. The show overall is extremely slow. I don't think they really needed 8 episodes. Kenton is really absolutely necessary to the core plot; he's more of a distraction. The acting is also really robotic, probably intentionally so. Nick Offerman is certainly cast against type in a dramatic role; it's didn't quite work for me just because we know Ron Swanson and I can't dissociate him from that character.  It's all really unsettling--the sound design, the set, the giant statue of Amaya that never really plays a part but to show how weird this place is.

Hadestown (Broadway)

I was very impressed by Hadestown. It's a beautiful production. I love Orpheus and Eurydice and it's a pretty straight retelling. But the Tonys performance didn't really inspire me to want to buy tickets. I think it was a poor representation of the show. They probably sang the most hummable number, but it's far from the best, as I'm sure Sondheim could tell you. Great music doesn't have to be memorable; it is incredibly moving nonetheless. I loved the 7-piece orchestra on stage including fiddle, cello, bass, drums, trombone/glockenspiel, piano/accordion, and guitar. They play jazz, New Orleans style. There is a funny equating of the underworld and New Orleans and hell and jazz. Persephone is dressed in her best Mardi Gras outfit. I don't love the coal mining costumes, but they work in context. And at the end of Act I when the set transforms, I was blown away.

The cast was phenomenal. Eva Noblezada as Eurydice and Patrick Page as the deep-bass-voiced Hades stand out. Page's voice is hypnotically good. Unfortunately, Andre de Shields was not performing so we had an understudy who made the character of Hermes his own. He's not as old, maybe saunters a little less. I thought Jewelle Blackman as Persephone was also fantastic. I don't know how she compares to Amber Gray, but I'm very happy for her getting the promotion from Fate to Persephone. She knocks it out of the park. I'm not really a fan of Reeve Carney (but I also feel kind of bad that he's the only one that didn't get a Tony nomination). His singing is fine, but he plays a very awkward Orpheus. It's definitely a choice. He plays guitar, not exactly a lyre.

The first act felt really long. I think it's because there were several songs that felt like Act I finales. The actual Act I finale was actually not that climactic. And for much of the first act, probably the first forty minutes or so, everyone is on stage, perpetually acting, never exiting. Even Hades, sits on the balcony, back facing the audience. The play actually starts without warning when everyone rushes onto the stage to take their places. The second act is stronger in my opinion. It's just breathtaking. There are some plot points that are a little vague. It's not really clear what choice Eurydice has to make, because we're not familiar with what happens when you die. You "take a train" (the horn is a recurring motif, I guess the River Styx isn't as sonic) to the Underworld, but what if she didn't sign the contract, then what? What is the benefit of working for Hades? And what work are they doing exactly? And what is this Wall they keep singing about? Does Hell have Walls? The Wall as a metaphor for the Southern border works presciently though. It is a hellscape delusion that walls make us free.

Moulin Rouge! (Broadway)

I think Moulin Rouge the stage musical is fine, not quite as good as the movie. What makes the movie so special is its drug-addled frenetic editing, which doesn't really translate to the stage. The medleys are still there, cutting together one line here, one line there--that still works and has a disorienting effect. They updated the songs, and it's all the better for it. I think the best scene musically is Crazy/Rolling in the Deep cause who does heartbreak better than Adele? I don't love jukebox musicals in general but recognizable songs are fun. I think where the play suffers is in the plot, which is pretty thin and basically abandoned at the end. I read the synopsis online afterwards and I don't know if I missed something or if it was implied through song-and-dance or if they flat out didn't finish the plot but we're sort of left hanging. The ending actually does a bit of a Mamma Mia finale jubilantly singing the hits--so much for a tragic ending. The theater is decked out in red lights, a rotating windmill and a giant elephant on the wings. Unfortunately, the scenes "in" the elephant aren't actually in an elephant. I think that was a missed opportunity. The set in the movie (including the miniatures) are so theatrically staged that I think this sort of disappoints. Overall, maybe the production isn't sexy enough? Isn't seedy enough? It doesn't have the edge of Cabaret for instance; it's more sanitized for family-friendly entertainment. In the movie there are copious scenes in which Satine and Christian steal away, but there are just a couple in the abbreviated plot points. I thought Natalie Mendoza was a pretty good Satine, taking over from Karen Olivo. I do not remember her being in Annette at all. Caught Aaron Tveit in his final week. He won a Tony for this role but with the caveat that there were no other nominees.
 

94th Academy Awards (2022)

There is much to be outraged over this year's Oscars. The Academy seems to misunderstand who the Oscars are for. ABC may be partly to blame there. They're chasing ratings, and in their quest for the ever elusive audience, they cut 8 awards from the live ceremony, severely disrespecting the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the magic of movie making. Actually, this will make no difference to the general audience who won't tune in anyways. And it will make all the difference to the loyal cinephiles who await the Oscars like the Super Bowl. They somehow managed to find time to sing We Don't Talk About Bruno, which isn't even nominated, and do a tribute to The Godfather but can't present all the awards (and why isn't Van Morrison singing his nominated song from Belfast)? The truth of the matter is that we like the long, boring Oscars. We like the inside Hollywood-ness of it, ratings be damned. Expanding the Best Picture category was supposed to make room for "popular movies" but the good voters of the Academy justly rejected that notion and instead has gravitated toward more internationa smaller, quality fare (see: Parasite and Drive My Car). The Academy hit back by presenting a Twitter-voted award for popular movie; god only knows what will win that. Again, not that it matters. Americans have spoken with their wallets. They want to watch Marvel and Netflix. They're not interested in the quality cinema worthy of awards. They're not coming back. And we shouldn't pander to them. The Oscars aren't for them. The logo of MGM reads Ars gratia artis, Art for art's sake. The relevancy of awards is not about money or ratings, but the art of the craft.

Tyler's Top 10:

1. Spencer
2. C'mon C'mon
3. The Rescue
4. CODA
5. West Side Story
6. King Richard
   
7. Licorice Pizza
8. In the Heights
9. The Mitchells vs. The Machines
10. Drive My Car

Honorable mentions: Cruella, A Hero, tick, tick...Boom!, The Hand of God, Zola, The Green Knight, Parallel Mothers, Dune, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, The Worst Person in the World, In the Same Breath, I'm Your Man, The Harder They Fall

Best Picture (prediction):

1. CODA
2. Power of the Dog
3. Belfast
4. Drive My Car
5. Dune
6. West Side Story
7. King Richard
8. Licorice Pizza
9. Don't Look Up
10. Nightmare Alley

Best Director:
Will Win: Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Should Win: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car

Best Actress:
Will Win: Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Should Win: Kristen Stewart, Spencer

Best Actor:
Will Win/Should Win: Will Smith, King Richard
Honorable Mention: Andrew Garfield, tick, tick...Boom!

Best Supporting Actress:
Will Win/Should Win: Ariana Debose, West Side Story
Honorable Mention: Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Will Win: CODA
Should Win: the infamously unadaptable Dune, or Drive My Car melding three short stories together

Best Original Screenplay:
Will Win: Belfast
Should Win: Licorice Pizza

Best Cinematography:
Will Win/Should Win: West Side Story

Best Costume Design:
Will Win/Should Win: Cruella

Best Film Editing:
Will Win: Dune
Should Win: tick, tick...Boom!

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:
Will Win: The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Should Win: Dune

Best Production Design:
Will Win/Should Win: Dune

Best Score:
Will Win: Dune
Should Win: The Power of the Dog

Best Original Song:
Will Win: Dos Oruguitas, Encanto
Should Win: Be Alive, King Richard
Biggest Snub of the Night: We Don't Talk About Bruno, Encanto

Best Sound:
Will Win/Should Win: Dune

Best Visual Effects:
Will Win/Should Win: Dune

Best Animated Feature:
Will Win: Encanto
Should Win: The Mitchells vs the Machines

Best Documentary Feature:
Will Win/Should Win: Summer of Soul
Other Biggest Snub of the Night: The Rescue

Best International Film:
Will Win/Should Win: Drive My Car (Japan)

Best Animated Short:
Will Win: Robin Robin
Should Win: The Windshield Wiper

Best Documentary Short:
Will Win/Should Win: The Queen of Basketball

Best Live Action Short:
Will Win: The Long Goodbye
Should Win: Please Hold

Update: I scored 20/23. Not bad, but I lost our pool to Helena, who went 22/23, missing only the dreaded Animated Short category, the same one I missed in 2014. Of course, all anyone talked about was Will Smith and Chris Rock.It was a bad look for everybody. Definitely the most buzzed about Oscars of all time. That's what they were going for, right?

Intimate Apparel (2022) (Off-Broadway)

I've never been to the theater downstairs at Lincoln Center Theater. It's very small, 75% in the round; with a turntable for a stage, every seat in full view and we were in the second row. This co-production with the Metropolitan Opera of Intimate Apparel is an operatic adaptation of Lynn Nottage's play. The score is sparse, just two pianos, elevated on both sides of the stage. The music is not particularly memorable. It was a bit too contemporary for me, lacking in melody and harmony. George maybe gets a bit of melody but not much. The music meanders, going nowhere, as opera often does. The plot recalls Cyrano de Bergerac, in which love letters are ghostwritten by someone else. The plot sort of skips over how George comes to know Esther. In 1905, you don't exactly have catfishing through the psot, but that's kind of the idea. It's a sumptuous production nonetheless for such a small theater. The period costumes are really great.

We Are Who We Are (2021)

Man these kids are annoying as hell, but I guess that's sort of the point. The first handful of episodes get filed under the kids-behaving-badly Euphoria genre. But Luca Guadagnino's style is such that it's filmed in an interesting and loving way. He recreated his own military base set to film on; there is definitely a message in there about Donald Trump and race and the military abroad. There was way more gratuitous nudity than I was expecting. And one episode verges on child porn. But getting past those episodes, the last two are excellent. There was a lot of Bologna nostalgia in the last episode. They filmed on location, and I recognized all the places. I love that they call San Luca the most beautiful place in the world, cause it's extraordinary and picturesque. I love that Guadagnino filmed mundane everyday places that I recognize too, like Piazza 8 Agosto, Bologna Centrale, that little window with the canal, etc. Take me back!

Hawkeye (2021)

Jeremy Renner finally gets his due. Is a 300 minute miniseries more prestigious than a feature film nowadays? Maybe. I think he probably got a longer end of the stick than Scarjo did with Black Widow. In the grand scheme of the Marvel Universe, this is probably not that important, but I think that's what's so refreshing about it compared to the complex Loki. They can go small. What they created is a Christmas movie, or an extended Christmas episode. It's designed just to make you smile and it does the trick. Christmas in New York is magical, isn't it? Hailee Steinfeld is fabulous as Kate Bishop, the rare Hawkeye fan who was inspired to pick up archery and becomes something of a hero in her own right. There is a deaf played by Alaqua Cox. Following the success of The Sound of Metal and CODA, it was a pleasant surprise to see a deaf character thriving in the hearing world, and multiple hearing characters signing to her, entering her world, handicapping themselves for her benefit. There is also a pretty good gag (prediction?) about a Marvel musical. Maybe they forgot about the Spiderman musical. The song and choreography are painfully accurate; I can see it transitioning to Broadway for real and succeeding.

Little Shop of Horrors (Off-Broadway) (2022)

Aglaia and Rachel both won lottery tickets to the same performance of Little Shop of Horrors at the Westside Theater Upstairs. Did not realize until we got there that both Seymour and Audrey were being played by understudies in their Off-Broadway debuts. I guess that's why they both won. Josh Daniel stepped in for Conrad Ricamora and did admirably. Chelsea Turbin was a little weaker for Tammy Blanchard. She usually plays the puppet, which is not a singing role, so this is a pretty major step up. Her accent for Audrey is very thick, which Aglaia said was typical for Audrey. Christian Borle plays multiple roles (Orin and others), and he is very funny and versatile. He's probably the biggest name in the cast, even when Ricamora is there, so I was surprised it wasn't the lead. 

The puppet is scary as hell. In the medium Audrey II puppet, you can see the legs in the vines, but only one pair. In the program, there are three names for the puppet, including Turbin. At the bows, only two people came out of the large puppet. So maybe the third person is optional? Or maybe the two of them need to operate with more limbs. The plot is way out there. I didn't really know what to expect, but man-eating plant is wild. And the ending is very bleak. 

Maybe we were sitting too close to the stage, or too close to the wall (second row, far right) or underneath the speaker but I had a hard time understanding most of the actors, with the notable exception of Christian Borle who enunciates clearly. Was it the way they were mic-ed?  So I felt like I was missing jokes. Even though the rest of the audience was laughing really hard. I like the Motown sound Alan Menken was going for. Skid Row is pretty great, but the rest of the music is just ok.

Flying Over Sunset (Broadway) (2022)

We had tickets to see Flying Over Sunset last year but it was canceled for Covid. They did reopen this year, though maybe they shouldn't have; sadly they are ending their limited run two weeks early. I don't know how this concept even got greenlit; it's way out there. It's an LSD trip taken by Aldous Huxley, Carey Grant and Clare Booth Luce. Though they are all on the record as having taken LSD, there is no historical evidence that they did so together, let alone even knew each other. So it's entirely made up, and what an odd thing to make up. Who in this day and age are interested in these three random historical figures? With a concept like LSD, they could've gone way further with either absurdist comedy. In that way, the problem is that it's not funny enough. They almost get there with the reference to Blue Origin (actually predating Blue Origin). But on the whole, they should've swung wilder.

Tony Yazbeck plays Carey Grant. He actually kind of resembles him a bit. He sings and tap dances atop a desk. Harry Hadden-Paton for me is always going to be Henry Higgins from My Fair Lady. He has the accent and the quintessential British-ness. He plays Aldous Huxley similarly. Carmen Cusack plays Clare Booth Luce, who was at one time Ambassador to Italy, and also a playwright and magazine editor. The actors are all actually fine but the material is not that interesting. The first act, with the three separate trips is kind of boring. The second act is a little better when the trip together. But it's not really coherent and there isn't really a point to it. And the music is mostly unmemorable.

By far the best part of the show is the set design by Beowulf Boritt. The set is lush and wondrous. The back wall curves and shows projections (including clips from Houseboat during a hallucinatory dance with Sophia Loren)  and moves back and forth and swivels real fast. The drug store in act I transports us straight to the 50s. The choreography is also kind of interesting. Aside from the explicit tap dancing, there is a lot of syncopated walking. That can't be easy getting the rhythm right.

The Deuce (2017-19)

Not as groundbreaking as the Wire, but every bit as astute, insightful and well made. David Simon remains our greatest chronicler of the American city, this time New York in the 70s and 80s around 42nd Street. The epilogue shows what it has transformed into now, a tourist trap, a far cry from the Taxi Driver-era. Simon is interested in the how; what are the socioeconomic and political drivers that cause a city to change? Ed Koch looms over the show though he is never shown on screen. The third season's coverage of the AIDS epidemic is especially poignant. In parallel, it's also about the pornography industry, in that window it enjoyed mainstream success. For that the story expands out to California. I'd say the third theme is the mafia, showing the audience how organized crime makes money in as much detail as The Sopranos. Simon treats his characters equally and with dignity, whether they are government officials, policemen, reporters, mobsters, pimps, prostitutes or pornographers.  They all have rich, thoughtful characterization with satisfying arcs. The stars are James Franco, who plays twins, and Maggie Gyllenhaal, who plays a prostitute turned porn-director turned art house filmmaker. The rest of the cast is full of David Simon regulars who appear in his other works. He continues to cast them because they're good. Simple as that.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (2013-21)

Brooklyn Nine-Nine almost ended three years ago before it was revived by NBC. At the time, there was a grassroots campaign to bring it back on the air; and with good reason, it was a funny show with a high laughs per minute ratio. It's a lot of Andy Samberg though and he's not everybody's cup of tea. At the same time, shows like Brooklyn Nine-Nine presented cops (the NYPD specifically) in a benign, playful light. It's a cast of goofy, rather memorable, characters. They're going to catch the baddie and just have fun doing it. The show recognized that this is problematic in our culture, quite troubling really that these are the quirky buffoons that are supposed to be protecting us. In its final season, the only one following the killing of George Floyd, it directly addressed police reform, the police union and police brutality, rather deftly for a network sitcom.  Anyways, while I enjoyed the show, it's probably for the best.

Company (Broadway) (2021)

I'll start by saying I love Company. I'm a little biased. I played violin in the pit of my college production of Company so I'm very familiar with it; it's one show-stopper after another. In retrospect, we were all a little young for Company. The protagonist is turning 35, anxious about aging and still being unmarried. The brilliance of the new production is that male Bobby becomes female Bobbie. Marianne Elliott astutely realized that in 2021 there is nothing so special about a 35-year old bachelor but there are interesting things to say about a 35-year old bachelorette. Tick-Tock takes on a new meaning with Bobbie's biological clock. It mostly works. Some of the characters' names have gone through gender changes. Some of the lyrics were changed a bit ("life" doesn't rhyme with "fella"). I think there are two big gender hurdles. The first is when Bobbie proposes to her gay friend Jamie, which is less convincing and comes off more like a joke than male Bobby seriously proposing to Amy. The bigger one is when you get to Bobbie's 11 o'clock number, Being Alive. In the original, the older, jaded, twice-divorced Joanne propositions Bobby. She says she'll take care of him and he responds, "But who will I take care of?" In the new version, Joanne instead offers her husband Larry. It doesn't quite work the same. She tells Bobbie to take care of Larry, and she responds "But who will take care of me?" Don't change the line! It's 2021. We've just spent two hours questioning marriage and gender roles. Bobbie is a liberated woman. If she desired to get married, it's certainly not to be taken care of like some damsel. The scene with Jenny and David demonstrates that wives do not need to be taken care of and indeed can be the ones who take care. Elliott swapped them, with now David the uptight spouse. It is Jenny that takes care of David, pushing him to not partake further in the marijuana he dislikes. 

Necessarily there are brand new arrangements of the songs for gender-swapped voices. Songs previously sung by men are now sung by women and vice versa. I am not really a fan of the barbershop trio-style You Could Drive a Person Crazy. But I love the male Another Hundred People and Getting Married Today. It's now a gay marriage and in perhaps the best, most raucous scene. There are lots of surprises in the kitchen set piece with the priest popping out of all sorts of unexpected places. There isn't much dance, per se, but the blocking is highly choreographed. There are a lot of swiping and selfie motions; it kind of gets a smirk the first time in Bobbie's cramped apartment. But I like the musical chairs/tables bit in Side by Side, which is very precise. I also thought that Company and Side by Side were a little slow, maybe because of the simultaneous choreography.

The set design is stellar. It's like Alice in Wonderland with the big rooms and small rooms and rabbit holes. I love the interchanging rooms and hallways that attach to each other. There are hidden 35s everywhere.  I'll say again the kitchen secrets are hilarious. I love that the band sits above the sets and are in full view. I did have an issue with the neon lighting, which was kind of distracting. It also casts bad shadows in the jiu-jitsu scene. The big neon "COMPANY" letters in Another Hundred People was unexpected but I think works, and appropriately recognizes the song as New York's solo.

Katrina Lenk is on stage nearly the whole show. Even when she's not singing, she is there reacting non-stop.  She is actually kind of old to be playing 35-year old Bobbie, as she is approaching 50 (and fittingly supposedly unmarried), not that you could tell from the mezzanine. She is beautiful dressed in a solid red jumpsuit, contrasted with the blues of the set. Her red bra and panties also contrasts Andy's blue briefs. She is a great actor and a capable singer but I found her solos to be a bit breathy. Matt Doyle as Jamie stood out for me. And Patti Lupone is the diva that steals the show whenever she's on stage, even just swinging her legs from atop a high barstool. Her Ladies Who Lunch is very different from Elaine Stritch's but her style works. She enunciates all the consonants at the end of every lyric.

Overall it's very entertaining. It's way funnier from the audience than from the pit. The vignettes are all great. And the songs are some of Sondheim's most hummable. Very happy we got to see this on a Thursday, after they canceled two performances on Sunday due to non-COVID illness, supposedly Patti Lupone had rotavirus. Broadway generally seems to have lowered the non-COVID sickness threshold for cancellation. So much for the show must go on. But glad ours did.