May We All at HCT

Last night I had a chance to see May We All, a new jukebox musical featuring songs by Brooks & Dunn, Chris Stapleton, Dolly Parton, Florida Georgia Line, Johnny Cash, Kacey Musgraves, Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney, Little Big Town, Loretta Lynn, Miranda Lambert, Reba McEntire, Sara Evans, Tim McGraw, and Zac Brown Band, and, despite a really cheesy story, some exaggerated performances that feel more like caricatures than real people, and a genre of music that I usually dislike, I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would (I almost didn't go because I thought I would hate it). Jenna Coates (Dawn Deitlein) returns to her hometown of Harmony, Tennessee after struggling to pursue her dream of becoming a country music star in Nashville for two years.  However, going home again is not as easy as she expected because Harmony is facing a hard economic future, her parents Crystal (Adrien Swenson) and Harley (Brock Harris) and her sister Kylie (Savannah Carrasco) are hurt that she has seemingly abandoned them for fame and fortune, her best friend Liz (Libby Ferguson) is struggling with the loss of her brother, and her ex-boyfriend Dustin (Nathan Bowser) is seeing someone new (Teaira Burge) who just happens to want to bring a big box store to Harmony. She eventually realizes how important her friends and family, and Dustin, are to her and that the best way to help Harmony is to bring the music back. However, what will happen when her biggest Nashville dream suddenly comes true? The story follows the plot of every Hallmark movie ever made (which is not necessarily a bad thing but I am not a fan) so I didn't find it very compelling. I also didn't like the portrayal of some of the characters because the performances (especially those of Swenson and Harris), the costumes, and the hair really lean into stereotypes (to be fair I don't really know many people from this area of the country but it seemed a bit overdone for laughs to me). I am not a big fan of country music but, to my surprise, the musical performances are what I enjoyed the most. An insanely talented band, including Kelly DeHaan on keyboards, Eric Noyes on keyboards, Memphis Hennesy on guitar, Bryan Hague on guitar, Davin Tayler on bass guitar, Julie Beistline on fiddle, and Todd Mitchell on drums, are located on stage in the wings and they sound great! The female leads are also outstanding, particularly Deitlein and Ferguson. I loved Deitlein's performance of "Born to Fly," "Play Something Country" with Ferguson, "Can't Go Back" with Bowser, "Rainbow" with Carrasco, and "Back to My Boots" (an original song by Florida Georgia Line's Brian Kelley and Tyler Hubbard) with the company.  As always, the set is phenomenal and I loved the use of large wooden panels suspended from the rafters for projections and live feeds during the musical numbers. This wasn't really my cup of tea but I'm glad I saw it and I'm sure fans of country music will absolutely love it! This runs on the Young Living Centre Stage through June 8 with lots of tickets (go here) available.

Come From Away at the Eccles

I was able to see Come From Away the last time the Broadway touring company made a stop in SLC and I loved it so much!  The only time I stopped crying was when I was laughing out loud!  I was so happy for the chance to see it again last night and my response was pretty much the same because not only is it a touching and entertaining true story about the power of community and the indomitable human spirit but it is also makes me feel incredibly nostalgic for Canada (all of the pop culture references made me smile).  After the 9/11 attacks, U.S. airspace is restricted and 38 international flights have to be diverted to the airport in the tiny town of Gander, Newfoundland, Canada.  The nearly 7,000 stranded passengers almost double the population of Gander but the townspeople willingly do everything they can to provide them with food, clothing, shelter, and comfort.  This show features an outstanding ensemble cast of twelve who seamlessly, with just the addition of a article of clothing or a prop, play multiple roles to tell the stories of both the townspeople and the stranded passengers and crew.  My favorites involve a local woman named Beulah (Kristin Litzenberg) comforting a passenger named Hannah (Candace Alyssa Rhodes) when she cannot locate her firefighter son in New York, two lonely passengers, Diane (Molly Samson) from Texas and and Nick (Stanton Morales) from England, who begin a relationship after being thrown together, and a member of the local ASPCA (Kathleen Cameron) who sneaks on board the empty planes to care for the animals left behind (including a pregnant bonobo chimpanzee).  I love all of the music in this show but my favorite songs are "Prayer" because it incorporates elements of multiple religions into a beautiful message of comfort, "Screech In" because it is a hilarious ceremony to become an honorary Newfoundlander involving copious amounts of alcohol and a codfish, and "Something's Missing" because it perfectly captures that hollow feeling I remember in the days after the attacks (I also have to give a shout-out to a rendition of "My Heart Will Go On" during an impromptu karaoke session).  The set is very minimal but it is impressive how just a few tables and chairs are quickly configured to represent the airport, buses, planes, the legion hall, and emergency shelters and I loved how the lighting design portrays the fear and confusion of the passengers as they arrive in Gander in "Wherever We Are" and "Darkness and Trees."  This is a show that will restore your faith in humanity and I highly recommend it (just bring tissues because everyone around me was also crying).  There are four more performances at the Eccles Theatre through Sunday, April 28 (go here for tickets).

Challengers

I have been anticipating seeing Challengers for a very long time and I was really excited to finally have the chance last night.  I loved it even more than I was expecting to!  Art Donaldson (Mike Faist) is a champion tennis player who is in a slump after recovering from an injury.  His wife and coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya), herself a former prodigy, suggests that he play as a wild card in a lower level challenger event to boost his confidence before the U.S. Open.  Patrick Zweig (Josh O'Connor) is a down-on-his-luck former prodigy who sleeps in his car and plays in challenger events for the meager prize money.  Art and Patrick end up facing each other in the final of this challenger event and, through flashbacks as they play in this heated match, the audience learns that they have a complicated past with each other and with Tashi and that the stakes are even higher than they realize but not what they imagine.  Zendaya gives an absolutely riveting performance and both O'Connor and Faist match her in intensity.  The three of them have absolutely insane chemistry with each other and I honestly cannot decide what was sexier: a scene in a sauna or a scene involving a churro.  The use of tennis as a metaphor is very clever with all of the back and forth that happens between the characters and I loved the exploration of power and what happens to relationships when the power dynamic shifts.  Having a nonlinear timeline, which can sometimes disrupt the pacing, is very effective in this movie because the flashbacks slowly reveal events that directly inform what is happening on the court in the final match and the tension is palpable (I laughed out loud when I realized how Patrick was going to serve the ball and what it meant within the context of the past).  I don't follow tennis or understand much about the game but the way in which the tennis scenes were filmed is incredibly dynamic and exciting.  I especially loved the scenes from the POV of the ball!  Finally, the techno score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is amazing and really amps up the energy in every scene ("Compress/ Repress" is basically a NIN song and I loved it).  I am sure that this is going to be one of my top movies of 2024 and I highly recommend it!

Abigail

Yesterday I spontaneously decided to see Abigail and I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed it!  A mastermind named Lambert (Giancarlo Esposito) assembles a group of criminals with the pseudonyms Frank (Dan Stevens), Joey (Melissa Barrera), Sammy (Kathryn Newton), Dean (Angus Cloud), Rickles (Will Catlett), and Peter (Kevin Durand) to kidnap Abigail (Alisha Weir), the 12-year-old daughter of a powerful underworld crime boss, for a ransom of $50 million.  They bring her to a creepy and secluded mansion (with lots of atmospheric lighting and creaking floorboards) and are told to hold her there for 24 hours but, when Abigail starts to kill them one by one, they realize that she is not an ordinary girl.  This puts an entertaining spin (pun intended) on the usual tropes by having Abigail be a ballerina because this adds a lot of visual flair (and a score by Tchaikovsky) to the action sequences.  Abigail is also a vampire (I almost wish that this had not be revealed in the trailers because not knowing anything about the killer would have added a lot more tension to the first act) so these action sequences also feature enough blood and gore to keep horror fans very happy.  While the characters are incredibly one-note (they are each assigned a defining trait, from which they never deviate, when Joey proves that she can read people), the campy performances are really fun to watch, especially Stevens, because he steals every scene he is in as his character becomes more and more unhinged (he is having quite the year), and Weir, because she has a very compelling presence as both a terrified little girl and a terrifying villain.  Despite a few flaws, I had a bloody good time with this and I think fans of the genre will, too.

How to Train Your Dragon in Concert

Seeing How to Train Your Dragon, a movie that I love, while the Utah Symphony performed the amazing Academy Award nominated score by John Powell live in front of an enthusiastic capacity crowd last night was so much fun!  The Vikings on the island of Berk are regularly attacked by dragons but Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the son of the chief Stoik the Vast (Gerard Butler), is deemed too weak and awkward to fight them.  He is apprenticed to the blacksmith Gobber (Craig Ferguson), instead, so he makes a mechanical device which he uses to shoot down the rare Night Fury dragon during an attack.  When he discovers that the dragon was only wounded, he can't bring himself to kill him and sets him free.  He eventually befriends the dragon, naming him Toothless because of his retractable teeth, and makes a prosthetic for his wounded tail fin so he can fly again.  Hiccup ultimately discovers that everything the Vikings know about the dragons is wrong and that they must join together to face an even bigger threat.  The score features lots of booming brass and percussion with elements from Scottish folk music (I wish that there had been a piper on stage) but my favorite pieces featured beautiful themes by the strings, including "Forbidden Friendship" when Hiccup finally gets Toothless to trust him (this received lots of applause from the audience), "Test Drive" when Hiccup learns to ride Toothless, and "Romantic Flight" when Toothless flies Hiccup and Astrid (America Ferrera) through the clouds and the Northern lights.  I also loved the piano in "Where's Hiccup?" in the aftermath of the battle with Red Death.  Since the music is so epic, the experience of hearing it live while watching the movie is incredibly immersive!  I guarantee that if you love the movie you will love the concert!  Due to popular demand, the Utah Symphony has added two more chances to see it (in June) but you need to act quickly because tickets are almost gone (go here).