Floyd Collins (Broadway) (2025)

Floyd Collins is a bizarre show. It's not about a particularly exciting subject. Collins was a real life cave explorer in 1920s Kentucky who got pinned under a rock in a narrow section of the cave. His predicament became a news bonanza, attracting people from all over the country with ideas on how to get Collins out. It was a media circus that became a real  above ground carnival. Spoiler alert, he eventually dies there. Very oddly, in this production Collins remains on stage basically the whole way through, sitting on a chaise lounge, not especially stuck-looking. It's an odd-choice, and there isn't a whole lot to make you feel like you're in a cave. The stage design leaves much to be desired. 

The bluegrass music is kind of nice. The yodeling and echoes looping/harmonizing with itself are interesting. I think the best part actually is the score.  The piano and harmonica parts are playful, quite complex. Adam Guettel is the composer, and for being one of his earliest works I'm impressed by the complexity. Also, I just learned that Guettel is Richard Rodgers's grandson. 

Andor (2022-25)

Andor is the best show on TV. It is the most important show of our authoritarian times. Don't be turned off by the Star Wars universe of it all. It has nothing to do with Jedi or the Force. It has everything to do with rebellion. It's about the spirit of revolution, about what pushes ordinary people to finally awaken to oppression and to do something to combat injustice. There are small actions and large, but everyone pays a sacrifice. An iconic quote from Luthen: "I burn my life for a sunrise that I know I'll never see." It's at once devastating and inspiring. It may take place in a galaxy far far away but the emotion is genuinely rousing nonetheless because we can sympathize. We're living through our own empire; it's not hard to see echoes of Ghorman in Los Angeles, Narkina 5 in our prison-industrial complex, Mina-Rau in our farms populated by Central American immigrants for the harvest.

It's a political thriller--a series of heist movies organized in 3-episode arcs (save for a 4-2 combo at the end of season 1). This gives the show a truly cinematic quality. It's like watching a series of Star Wars movies in which time passes between arcs but you're able to fill in the gaps anyways quite deftly. The action and cinematography and production/costume design look as expensive as the show cost. Knowing where this all ends (Rogue One) does not detract in the least from the suspense inherent in Andor. I also like that the show does not solely focus on Cassian. We get the Empire's side too, from the bureaucracy of the ISB. We see both the banality of evil and even hints of how a bureaucrat like Syril could eventually come to see the light. We see the face of the rebellion, and the shadows, the money and the power, the nice and the mean. Mon Mothma's crusade in the senate 

Season 2 Episodes 8, 9 and 10 are three of the most breathtaking episodes in quick succession.  Season 1 Episodes 6, 10 and 12 are also stellar. I'll say other moments that stand out emotionally: Nemik's manifesto and Maarva's last conversation with Cassian, inspired by Aldhani without knowing Cassian's role there, and Bix's final scene. 

Gypsy (Broadway) (2025)

The little I knew about Gypsy going into the latest revival was limited to a couple songs and an overbearing mother. Rose certainly is overbearing. No one else can barely get a word in. She's the original Dance Mom. It's sometimes painful to watch. As far as I know, Audra McDonald is the first black Rose on Broadway. And it adds a different dimension to the character, dreaming a delusional dream in the 1920s, dooming her children every time she denies them an opportunity to go to school. That both daughters eventually found success is a testament to their resilience. They humor their mother at their own cost. It's a tragedy, dressed (or undressed) in glitz at the end with a tinge of hope at reconciliation, but really tragic nonetheless. 

Audra McDonald is a treasure. She is capital-A acting in those book scenes, heavy accent, emphasizing words, throwing around her stage presence like no one else matters. I'm used to hearing her beautiful singing voice but here she strains her voice. It's not effortless. It's not pretty. It's pained. Her Rose's Turn and Everything's Coming Up Roses hit a register of her voice that's very uncomfortable. It's a tour de force. That's what musical theater is about--it's not just singing, it's acting singing. It's not about sounding good, it's about sounding a character. The power comes from her vision of who Rose is and her embodiment of the tragedy of her life. 

Wolf Hall (2015,2024)

Almost a decade passed between the first series, covering the first two books of Hilary Mantel's trilogy and the second completing the trilogy. Perhaps most confusingly, some of the actors were switched out for new actors in season 2. But Mark Rylance and Damian Lewis are both superb, acting like no time has passed at all. Rylance plays Thomas Cromwell, a brilliant and ruthless political maneuverer, a commoner who rose up the ranks in King Henry VIII's court until his spectacular Shakespearean fall. Rylance plays him in an understated way very effectively. In contrast, Lewis plays the larger than life king, notorious for his six marriages. I perhaps didn't realize how his reign, and indeed the trajectory of British history, hinged so heavily on his consequential marriages. That's the birth of the Anglican Church and Cromwell is perhaps the biggest proponent of the English Reformation. The political intrigue is fascinating from a modern perspective and is executed really well. The music is similarly understated, kind of perfect for a period piece. The costumes and sets transport us to Tudor England. I visited Hampton Court a few years ago during a strike, which made it particularly difficult to reach the suburban neighborhood on the outskirts of London. Makes me want to read the books!

Salome (Opera) (2025)

Two straight hours of music, without applause breaks, the new Met Opera production of Salome boasts a large 100-person orchestra. Yannick Nezet-Seguin is at the helm, his music stand glowing in gold. The music, like everything about the opera frankly, is wild. Richard Strauss got some bizarre sound effects out of the orchestra. The music is undoubtedly interesting. There are bits of melody, but no such arias really. It has the drama of Wagner without the beauty. Not intro level opera. The singing role of Salome is extremely demanding and Elza van den Heever sings it powerfully.

The production design has two levels, the palace upstairs and the cistern downstairs. When the scenes transition like an elevator, it's quite a sight to behold. The cistern is stark, but has a steep staircase and ominous shadows. There are small children playing younger/inner Salome; they just sit on stage observing. It's traumatizing. The little girls will never forget the severed head. It's all super creepy like a nightmare. The projections shimmer tricking the mind as though the floor moves--which of course it does. Some of the characters wear rams heads rather inexplicably. For much of the first act, they remain in the background coming on and off stage bandying around a woman in a bikini. There is a ram-man statue that they actually smash to pieces! They have budget to irreparably break props performance after performance. 

Wonderful Town (Encores!) (2025)

Wonderful Town is a lesser known Bernstein musical. It's no West Side Story.  It's no Candide. Or even On the Town. The music is fine. It's sort of all over the place. It spans multiple genres. It's not just the music, but the whole show that is sort of incoherent. And frankly, the show is kind of boring. It put me to sleep. Kind of like On the Town, it's a show about New York. Two sisters move to Greenwich Village from Ohio to live a "Bohemian" life and strike it big in the big city as an actress and writer. The plot doesn't really go anywhere though. Nothing special.

Sunset Blvd (Broadway) (2025)

Jamie Lloyd's revival of Sunset Blvd is extraordinary.  His stripped down play could be described only as live cinema, if there is such a thing. He makes use of high quality cameras to project on a big screen the action happening on-and-off stage. And so it's not just blocking on stage, but actually live cinematography. The framing is stunning. The camera rig is used to imitate a car, camera the steering wheel. And of course they take the action outside at the start of Act 2, singing Sunset Boulevard in Shubert Alley, halting traffic, rain or shine. There's one scene in particular that I loved, where Joe and Betty are talking to each other, and visually Norma separates them on camera, while on stage you see them actually standing in a triangular formation and they move around each other. There's a lot of staring pensively on camera fading to someone else staring. And lots of close-up head shots so clear you can see the pores on Nicole Scherzinger's face.  After the big opening number, there's actually opening credits and it's thrilling. After all, we're watching a cinematic adaptation of a classic movie. True to its noir roots, everyone wears black and white. The theater is very dark and foggy (and sleep-inducing). The lighting is only for the camera to shine on the actor's face, but it's otherwise so dark that you can't see any of the audience behind them. Film noir loves shadows. There is no set to speak of, occasionally a chair, that's it and yet we can still envision it perfectly.

Nicole Scherzinger is phenomenal.  Her voice is so powerful and haunting. I daresay her renditions of With One Look and As If We Never Said Goodbye are better than Glenn and Patti and all the rest. It's a little slower, she luxuriates in the melodies and takes her time. It's all the more spine tingling for it. I think she's too young to play Norma but she is so good. Tom Francis, too, is excellent. His voice is well suited for the title song. The music has grown on me. It's kind of weird that you have really dramatic orchestral music juxtaposed with more ridiculous circus-type music as if from a completely different show. The big group numbers though are kind of fun though. 

And then there's closing credits!

The Penguin (2024)

The Batman directed by Matt Reeves was a fantastic entry into the Batman universe, establishing a gritty, crumbling Gotham. You don't necessarily need to have seen it to follow The Penguin. The Penguin stands alone as a limited series that takes place shortly after the events of The Batman. The caped crusader doesn't make an appearance nor does he really need to. The Penguin is a far more interesting character. He's Tony Soprano, complete with the sick mother. And HBO gave us the best gangster drama character study since The Sopranos. Colin Farrell is completely unrecognizable under all that makeup with his old timey Queens accent. He's ruthless and scrappy.  He's vicious. And the series in later episodes goes back to show us what happened to make him this way a la Wicked. The plot and subplots are all devastating. It's a lot to handle. Not a show to binge in one sitting. He's not even necessarily the worst character. Cristin Milioti is maybe even more devious as Sofia Falcone. She is phenomenal. Love good dark storytelling. Surpasses The Batman.

Redwood (Broadway) (2025)

Redwood has a marquee star at the helm, Idina Menzel, belting out song after song. I don't think the show does her a lot of favors unfortunately. The songs are mostly forgettable, many of them solos, but the best one is not even Menzel's number, but the son's. The sound in the Nederlander theater is dialed up way too loud to be able to understand any of the lyrics. I did kind of like the bare set. There are screens all along the back and sides of the stage, going all the way up to the boxes. The projections have the effect of transporting us to a forest, aided by the only setpiece: a giant tree trunk that rotates to reveal a screen on the opposite side. The stage is quite steep and for most of the show they're rigged up to climb up the tree. Menzel even gets a Defying Gravity-type solo as she ascends.

It's the musical equivalent of Wild, that Reese Witherspoon movie with the walking lady.  It's about connecting with nature in the face of personal strife and grief as a means of finding oneself. All to say, it's a little boring. And Menzel's protagonist Jesse can come off as a bit of a Karen. She is not qualified to climb Redwood trees. And she is incessant in insisting people break protocol for her sake. And ultimately she gets her way. 

Oh, Mary! (Broadway) (2025)

Oh, Mary! is the most raucous time on Broadway since Book of Mormon. It's perhaps even more unhinged thanks to the twisted mind of Cole Escola. It combines lots of physical comedy and revisionist history and uncensored gags. It answers the question: how soon is too soon? I, for one, can't wait for the day that we can satirize the assassination of a certain president (who might be gay and whose first lady is a drunk who just wants to sing at the cabaret). It's hard to talk about the wildest jokes without mentioning spoilers. But the whole theater was laughing out loud. So 160 years is definitely long enough. I did not see the ending coming. It's frankly a perfect ending. And then there's one final hilarious scene to put the cherry on top.

Phillip James Brannon plays President Lincoln. Honestly, in a post-Hamilton world, it's not even notable that the white president is played by a black actor. And if given the opportunity, I would go back to see Titus Burgess play Mary for a very limited 3-week run. Betty Gilpin was so good at the physical comedy and the high-octane yelling (and the cockney scene) but Titus is going to blow the roof off that cabaret.

97th Academy Awards (2025)

This Oscars season has been a wild ride. It was only in the last few weeks that a real front-runner emerged. There were probably up to six nominees that had the lead at some point this month. Notably, the most nominated movie (an inexplicable 13!) Emilia Perez no longer stands a chance thanks to the stunningly vitriolic comments from its star Karla Sofia Gascon. I'm not hosting an Oscars watch party this year because my friend Chelsey beat me to the punch, and she has rented out a bar so it's getting serious. I will be attempting to bring the least transportable thing possible: ice cubes, molded in the shape of the Oscars statue. I've spent the last several days making ice. Hopefully they don't all melt by the time I get there.

My Top Movies

1. Dune: Part Two
2. Challengers
3. Sing Sing
4. Problemista
5. Hit Man
6. Anora
7. A Real Pain
8. Nickel Boys
9. Exhibiting Forgiveness
10. The Brutalist
11. Robot Dreams
12. La Chimera
13. Between the Temples
14. Close Your Eyes

Best Picture

1. Anora
2. The Brutalist
3. Conclave
4. A Complete Unknown
5. Wicked
6. Dune: Part Two
7. Nickel Boys
8. Emilia Perez
9. The Substance
10. I'm Still Here

Best Director
Will Win: Sean Baker, Anora
Honorable Mention: Brady Corbet, The Brutalist

Best Actress
Will Win: Demi Moore, The Substance
Should Win: Mikey Madison, Anora

Best Actor
Will Win: Timothee Chalamet, A Complete Unknown
Should Win: Colman Domingo, Sing Sing

Best Supporting Actress
Will Win/Should Win: Zoe Saldana, Emilia Perez

Best Supporting Actor
Will Win/Should Win: Kieran Culkin, A Real Pain

Best Adapted Screenplay
Will Win: Conclave
Should Win: Sing Sing

Best Original Screenplay
Will Win/Should Win: Anora
Honorable Mention: A Real Pain

Best Cinematography
Will Win/Should Win: The Brutalist

Best Costume Design
Will Win/Should Win: Wicked

Best Film Editing
Will Win: Conclave
Should Win: Anora

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
Will Win: The Substance
Should Win: A Different Man
Probably the tightest Makeup and Hairstyling category there's ever been, with all 5 nominees featuring especially distinctive makeup.

Best Production Design
Will Win: Wicked
Should Win: Dune: Part Two

Best Score
Will Win/Should Win: The Brutalist

Best Song
Will Win: The Journey, The Six Triple Eight
What better time to finally honor Diane Warren than right now to deny the win to Emilia Perez, a musical without any good songs or really any melody to speak of.

Best Sound
Will Win: Wicked

Best Visual Effects
Will Win/Should Win: Dune: Part Two

Best Animated Feature
Will Win/Should Win: The Wild Robot

Best Documentary Feature
Will Win: No Other Land

Best International Film
Will Win: I'm Still Here
I haven't gotten a chance to see The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which I suspect would've been my pick if for no other reason the enormous sacrifice that Mohammad Rasoulof made for his important art.

Best Animated Short
Will Win: Magic Candies

Best Documentary Short
Will Win: The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Should Win: Incident

Best Live Action Short
Will Win/Should Win: A Lien

Results: 15/23 was good enough for third place at Chelsey's wonderful Oscars party at Halyards. Loved being able to celebrate the Oscars with a few dozen other movie lovers who hooted and hollered throughout the ceremony. Lots of people happy with the Anora sweep, and pleasantly surprised by Mikey Madison. Conan O'Brien killed it as expected--give that man a show! The opening Oz medley was brilliant. And lots of moments to bring tears to your eyes: LA montage, No Other Land, Zoe Saldana, Paul Tazewell, etc. Most of the speeches were great, shoutout to Kieran Culkin. Adrien Brody droned on too long and there was some weird mansplaining in the Animated Short category. Weird that they chose to sing 3 Bond songs but couldn't find time for the actual Best Song nominees. And who would've guessed we'd get two songs from the Wiz?! And Queen Latifah, who doesn't really sing much anymore.

Death Becomes Her (Broadway) (2025)

Death Becomes Her is camp dialed up to 11. The jokes come a mile a minute. The leads (Megan Hilty and Jessica Simard) are fabulous at belting out their numbers, though the music is kind of forgettable. Rather refreshing is that the book scenes are actually really good. They're funny and they're uncensored.  There is one scene in particular with some unbelievable slow-motion acrobatics that puts the magic of the theater on full display. I also like the tromp l'oeil depth of perspective in the set. The costumes and production design are lots of fun. 

And what a year for older stars in showbiz clinging to their youth. The plot heavily mirrors The Substance. And it's not exactly without body horror, as much as you can disfigure someone on stage. But what lengths will people go to for a chance to reclaim their glory days. The Last Showgirl, Sunset Boulevard, etc. None of those are comedies though, and that it takes this theme more lightly is all the better. Even tragedy doesn't have to end so tragically.

Urinetown (Encores!) (2025)

Urinetown is quite the strange musical, but in its own way it's very funny and incisive. The show opens and closes with a narrator breaking the fourth wall, joking about musical tropes and hitting us over the head with the moral of the story in case you missed it. It is kind of a downer and so they use that sarcastic humor to lighten things up a bit. The show is perhaps even more relevant now than it was when it premiered a quarter century ago. It decries corporate greed and the degradation of our planet. The plot doesn't really make a whole lot of sense--the narrator addresses that too--but if you don't think about it too hard and just focus on the immediate concerns at hand, it does tidily deliver the metaphor. The music isn't especially memorable. Jordan Fisher is alright. He has a cool gospel number that he knocks out of the park. Tiffany Mann is an understudy for some reason, but she filled in for the role of Miss Pennywise and killed it. Rainn Wilson from The Office sings, who knew, and he plays a diabolical villain.

My Brilliant Friend (2018-24)

My Brilliant Friend has consistently been one of the best shows on TV. But it hasn't gotten so much attention stateside being in Italian. I think Americans are getting more accustomed to watching subtitled content. But I think that's kind of the Netflix effect pushing the content via algorithm. Outside of Netflix, if you have to look for the content yourself, people are not seeking it out. And it's a shame because there's a uniquely Italian story here that's quite beautiful. It's shamelessly melodramatic in a way that I think is more acceptable abroad. You might call it soapy in America, but we're getting more of that in our prestige content too. It's deeply felt, passionate, aided by Max Richter's extraordinary score and the striking cinematography. 

It's a story of epic proportions, spanning decades in the lives of two friends. It's about their lifelong friendship, with all the complications that come with two competitive women. And at its heart there is a story about the power of education in a poor and dangerous community.  The intellectual circle and the mafia circle often intersect. We watch the whole community grow old. As kids they may have been enemies, and as adults they may still hate each other but their lives are so intertwined nonetheless. Beautiful show.

Loki (2021-3)

The Marvel universe has gotten unwieldy.  In the early years, they used to be pretty good at making standalone movies. But now they've started making TV shows too, it's all so interconnected. Season 1 was actually pretty decent. But I did not follow a single plot point in Season 2. Single season contained shows is the sweet spot for Marvel. There's too much happening in between seasons. 

The Time Variance Authority is not named accidentally. The acronym TVA recalls the New Deal Tennessee Valley Authority program. The design of the TVA evokes the FDR era. The production design is the best part of the show. That and Owen Wilson playing his usual self. Ke Huy Quan is fun too. I don't know if I completely buy into the message of the show either. We're made to believe that the sacred timeline is the inherently correct one. But the fact that there are branches suggests that to be untrue. And I think I had other problems with it back at season one but I don't really remember now.