Days of Wine and Roses (Broadway) (2024)

I had never heard of the film Days of Wine and Roses. I went in without knowing anything. And let's say it was much more of a downer than I was expecting. It's a depressing downward spiral into alcoholism. Kelli O'Hara and Brian d'Arcy James are both very good but it's unlike anything I've seen them in before. Every number is sung by one or the other or both of them. There are no ensemble songs. And even using the word songs is kind of a stretch. They're almost singing a sort of jazzy opera. It lacks melody and is atonal. But they're singing through dialogue moreso than singing lyrics. There is a pretty complex piano part, and you can see the pianist sitting above the stage with the rest of the orchestra on the second level of the stage. But yeah, I don't necessarily recommend it. It's a bit of a challenge.

Beef (2023)

I admittedly came very late to Beef. Everyone has seen it already but I've at least gotten to it before the strike-delayed Emmys. And it's a super quick watch, a ten-episode miniseries at about 30 minutes each. It's an easily digestible format you could get through in a day. It's a compact beginning-middle-end. 

Beef is both dark comedy and thrilling drama. It strikes a balance. Surprisingly, Ali Wong, who I really only know as a stand up comic nails the dramatic side of the role too. Steven Yeun (who sings adequately and plays guitar at a Korean church) plays her rival in a road rage revenge that spirals out of control. The escalations are so extreme and petty you can't help but laugh or gasp in shocked silence. They are two troubled souls entwined. In another life, or maybe simply by talking to each other, they could be kindred spirits. But they enrage each other so much, they end up sabotaging themselves every time they come close to achieving success or happiness. Broken people hurt people and need people.

The supporting cast is fantastic too. While the show features a plethora of Asian American characters, the show isn't really about being Asian. It even features culturally specific notes while not focusing on them as plot point, with the one exception of the Korean church. OK maybe also about Asians being bad at driving. But it's kind of refreshing to see Asians being temperamental, not just passive. Western therapy doesn't work on Eastern minds lol

Here We Are (The Shed) (2023)

Here We Are is Stephen Sondheim's final unfinished work. It is a long gestating adaptation of Luis Bunuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (they can't eat) and The Exterminating Angel (they can't leave), a combination of two brilliant surrealist fantasies.  I think Sondheim knew he wasn't going to finish it. You can see it in Act II. There are scenes that clearly left room for a song. There's a little bit of under-scoring. But Act II is virtually a straight play. And supposedly the cop out is that the nature of The Exterminating Angel doesn't call for music because they're trapped in a room, but I don't really buy that excuse. He just didn't finish it and they left it that way. Act II though has a phenomenal set. And I actually quite like the simpler set in Act I too with the banquette/signs that descend from the ceiling to form makeshift restaurants, along with the cool virtual grass on the sides of the stage.

I don't remember such an explicit eat-the-rich bent to the movie, but it works here and I think makes it relevant and modern. The music in Act I is extremely Sondheim. The wordplay, rhythm, and music are all reminiscent of his classics. I think my favorite was the patter song sung by a fantastic Denis O'Hare at the first restaurant. I didn't know his name but I recognized him from The Good Wife/Fight, though not until I saw him up close. Before the play actually starts, O'Hare and Tracie Bennette in their maid and butler outfits tidy the immaculate stage walls and mirrors. The other standout for me was David Hyde Pierce who essentially plays Niles form Frasier and has just the type of one-liners. It's a star-studded cast of theater vets paying homage to the legend. 

Aside, in a rather quiet moment of Act II there was a loud disruptive noise coming from what I can only guess was the HVAC system. I thought maybe it was part of the show at first, as the actors briefly paused but the show went cause they're professionals. Though the sound went on for quite a while.
 

Poor Yella Rednecks (2023) (Manhattan Theatre Club)

Qui Nguyen's play Poor Yella Rednecks is something of a sequel to his 2016 play Vietgone. It's independent enough that you don't have to have seen the earlier play but there is one direct reference in the dialogue, and many of the actors actually reprise their earlier roles in this play. Nguyen writes himself into this play about his mother's struggles and raising him in rural Arkansas after fleeing Vietnam as refugees. Though specific to the Vietnamese American experience, the themes will resonate with any immigrant audience. It's not exactly haha funny but there is some clever writing. Nguyen plays with the stage play as a form, writing his mother speaking Vietnamese in perfect English while writing the white characters speaking nonsense, the way his mother hears them. It's a clever inversion that works on stage where there are no subtitles. The play is actually delivered with several "songs" that are really more like slam poetry. The beats are somewhat generic, and the lyrics are kind of cheesy and don't all really rhyme, but the awkwardness is sort of endearing. I thought that it was maybe a one-off experiment, but apparently Nguyen played with this style before. It's only the closing song that has melody, the rest is pure spoken word rap, which you don't typically associate with Vietnamese refugees. The lead Maureen Sebastian is fantastic as the mother. She plays a romantic lead and a poor single mother at once and nails both tones. I also loved the set featuring the letters YELLA, the Americana signs framing the stage, and comic book style. There are two cool stage combat kung fu scenes. And the playwright as a child is played by a puppet who emotes and fights pretty realistically. I quite enjoyed the play, and would like to see Vietgone. More different Asian American stories and innovative storytelling on stage please.

Here Lies Love (Broadway) (2023)

After seeing the immersive staging of Guys and Dolls on the West End, I was very excited to see the transformation of the Broadway Theatre for Here Lies Love. I unfortunately came down with Covid for the second time just the August weekend I had bought tickets for. Morgan went in my place and saw Lea Salonga. Luckily I was able to see it still before the show closes at the end of the month. 

The marketing for this show has seemingly not reached the general public. Any time I tell someone I'm going to see Here Lies Love, they ask what's that and then give a dumbfounded stare when I say "the David Byrne immersive disco musical about Imelda Marcos". Yes, this show's very existence is kind of bizarre. The premise is that reportedly Imelda was known to have partied it up at Studio 54, and so they recreate the atmosphere of a discotheque. The music is by David Byrne and Fatboy Slim, and I'll say it is recognizably in the weird/cool/kind-of-catchy style of The Talking Heads (American Troglodyte especially). None of the music, save for the title song, is especially memorable/hummable but it works. The immersion is cool, but I think not quite as well executed as Guys and Dolls. The stage doesn't rise and fall, rather it rotates and so the audience moves around clockwise with it. And it's quite crowded like a nightclub such that you can't move around as much. And there is actually a proper front where the stage would normally be since the balcony still has seats. It's not actually in the round. I did like the use of live footage though. The all-Filipino cast is beautiful--a wonderful Broadway first. The dance parts were fun too, maybe less so in a seat but I had a grand ole time. 

There is a valid question to ask about whether the show glorifies Imelda. I think it starts in a way that kind of does. The crowd cheers at the election of Ferdinand Marcos and decries Ninoy Acquino's dismissal of Imelda as being too tall (Also, I need a fact check on that because it's unbelievable that Imelda was courted by both Acquino and Marcos). But the show certainly ends on the right side of history. Ninoy Acquino dies a martyr and calls out the rampant corruption and horrors of martial law. And the show ends with two poignant songs: an elegy sung for Ninoy by his mother and an acoustic sung by the DJ to lyrics set to real accounts from the People Power Revolution. I think it's also interesting to note that the concept album dates back to 2010, predating the ascensions of Bong Bong Marcos and Rodrigo Duterte and Donald Trump. The show takes on a different urgency in 2023. It urges us to learn from history because we keep on forgetting.

How To with John Wilson (2020-3)

How To with John Wilson defies categorization. I struggle to explain to people what exactly the show is, let alone what makes it so great. But this show was consistently one of the most interesting on TV. So let me try here. Each episode is a video essay in the form of a how-to. It begins with one topic, but it inevitable meanders into something wholly unexpected. It is narrated by John Wilson, an anxious New Yorker who really seems to understand New York. His camera captures all sorts of random found footage. It makes you wonder whether the words are made to match the images or the vice versa. The matching is hilarious. The images are often independently funny but put to words they take on a whole different meaning that makes you chuckle. And somehow the essays always turn out to be poignant, even profound. He interviews the strangest people who let him into their homes. They'll say something wild nonchalantly and he'll say "wait, what?" and then they can expound upon some crazy tangent that becomes the new focus of the essay. He loves to attend niche conventions and travel to remote corners of the country. With that HBO money, he lets the wind take him where it will and he just runs with it. And in the end, in the final episode, he came to a similar conclusion as Executive Producer Nathan Fielder did in The Rehearsal Season 1...a childless middle-aged man contemplating fatherhood. 

Barry (2018-23)

Barry ushered in the era of the black comedy.  How do you pitch a comedy about a marine-with-PTSD-turned-hitman-turned-aspiring-actor? The premise is ridiculous but it works. Bill Hader is a tour de force. He is a good actor, playing a character who is a bad actor, improving as an actor. Yes, the Bill Hader from SNL known for Stefon. He does some serious acting. And as showrunner, he created a poignant existentialist story. And as a burgeoning director, he directed some of the series's best episodes. There are some masterful shots Hader directs himself. He's not just a sketch comedian. Henry Winkler is fabulous as the acting teacher Gene Cousineau. And my personal favorite is Anthony Carrigan who plays the gay Chechen mobster Noho Hank. His viciousness and sarcasm is matched with a heart of gold.