Film Review: On Broadway

                    On Broadway

Theater’s a tough business. For starters, you need the right play, the right cast and the right director. Then you’ve got costumes, sets, technology and a myriad other things to worry about.

And if you’re talking about hitting New York’s Broadway theaters – thought by many to be the best in the world – with a new play, the odds are already stacked against you: there’s a 75% chance that it’ll be a flop. 

But no one ever suspected that Broadway would be shut down in toto by something you can’t even see without a microscope – that disease called COVID-19, that started in China and quickly invaded every country in the world, forcing the closing of open markets, then closed ones, then restaurants, sporting events, bars – and theaters.

But Broadway has surmounted other problems before COVID, and even those theaters that have been in lockdown for the past extremely difficult 18 months are poised to reopen. 

Director Oren Jacoby’s film “On Broadway” offers a fascinating 82-minute documentary on how an old broken-down spot in New York City became the theatrical glamour capital of the world in the first place. Along the way you’ll hear comments from theater legends like Helen Mirren, Sir Ian McKellen, Christine Baranski, Alec Baldwin and Viola Davis. 

New York theater descended from a golden age in the 1940s and 1950s to all-time low attendance and near-bankruptcy in the 1960s, when Times Square became a “rathole” of brothels and strip clubs, with 5-6 reported crimes a day.

You’ll get to watch as three powerhouse theater owners (Shubert, Nederlander and Jujamcyn take a chance, invest in new musicals in the 1970s, and witness the rise of Stephen Sondheim, Bob Fosse and Michael Bennett (complete with excerpts from “Pippin,” “Chicago” and “A Chorus Line”).

Then in the 1980s, with the city’s 42nd Street Development plan, a new age of spectacle as theater is initiated, with shows like “Les Misérables,” “Phantom of the Opera” and “Miss Saigon.”

But “On Broadway” is not just painless history; it’s a great reminder of what (and who) it takes to make great theater.

The 1990s saw plays with sociopolitical messages, like August Wilson’s eight-play cycle about African American families. 

Then came the AIDS crisis, which brought “Angels in America” to Broadway. Disney rented a restored theater and brought “The Lion King,” which brought families into the theater district.

Jukebox musicals like “Mamma Mia” and “Jersey Boys” did well, but not as well as the juggernaut of them all – Lin-Manuel Miranda’s “Hamilton,” which changed theater again. And each decade covered comes with excerpts.

If you’re jonesing for a loving look back at Broadway history (in preparation for those new plays about to open), take a look at “On Broadway.”

“On Broadway” opens Aug. 3 at Landmark’s Hillcrest Theatre. 

Film Review: My Best Worst Adventure

Throughout the last two awful pandemic years, I’ve been feeling sorry for myself for being denied the one thing I love above all – travel. But when rebellious 13-year-old Jenny (Lily Patra), the main character of Writer/Director Jack Soisson’s “My Best Worst Adventure,” finds herself on a dilapidated bus in rural Thailand on the way to grandma’s house after her mother’s death and her stepfather’s refusal to put up with her, I must admit that situation doesn’t look like anybody’s dream vacation.

It doesn’t help that Jenny stubbornly refuses to speak. Instead, she writes disgruntled notes in her diary about getting OUT of here before her birthday in a few days, puzzling poor grandma, not to mention Jenny’s teacher.

And why, Jenny wants to know, does she have to go to school in the summer?
Besides, her computer tablet is fading and there’s no way to charge it.

But Jenny is not averse to fisticuffs, and one day she takes her anger out on Archit (Chinnapat Kitichaivaranggoon), the favored grandson of the village kingpin, and then runs into the jungle, where she promptly gets lost and then bumps into someone else who does not speak – her outcast mute classmate Boonrod (Pan Rugtawatr).

Boonrod has his own parental issues, but the two hit it off, he shows her the way back and next thing you know, they’re planning to enter the village’s traditional water buffalo race.

Is that exotic enough? I thought so, too, and in fact the whole film is likely to both disarm and charm you as much as it did me.

Kudos to cinematographer Vardhana Wanchuplao for making the film look alternately charming and hopelessly old-fashioned, and to Jetsada Hongcharoen for a score that echoes the action wonderfully.

Leave it to a water buffalo to save the day.

“My Best Worst Adventure” opens on digital platforms on Sept. 1.

 

 

 

Film Review: My Father's Brothers

This week’s announcement of the U.S. pullout from Afghanistan makes Shawn Kelley’s documentary “My Father’s Brothers” even more relevant and touching than it already is.

In this short, multiple award-winning documentary, Kelley shows the brotherhood that developed among U.S. troops fighting the ground war in Vietnam, recording in particular what happened when his father, Shawn Kelley, Sr., led his men on one “ordinary Wednesday” in June, 1966.

By the end of that year, U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara had begun doubting the possibility of winning the war, and by 1973 the U.S would pull all forces out.

But here, Kelley shows you what it was like for 140 American troops on a search-and-destroy mission to be outnumbered 10 to 1 and be savagely attacked while awaiting reinforcements.

The men suffered loss, misery, the horror of losing friends and the wondering whether they’d get home alive.

At one point, Kelley was informed that two men had been wounded and left behind. Kelley sent a crew out to search for them; they were located and the whole company was proud to say “We left no one behind.”

Fifty years later, Kelley got his dad and seven other survivors together to tell viewers what it was like and what problems they still have coping with the past.  Some of them returned to Vietnam in search of closure and peace. They are a remarkable group. 

“My Father’s Brothers” should be seen by all Americans and anyone else contemplating war. This film should dissuade them.

“My Father’s Brothers” opens Aug. 24, 2021 on demand and DVD

Theater review: A Chorus Line

                                          Cast of "A Chorus Line"

There are musicals, and there are juggernauts that audiences never tire of seeing. One of the best in the latter category – “A Chorus Line” – is playing through Sept. 4 at Vista’s Moonlight Amphitheatre.

You know the story: A group of tirelessly hopeful wannabe Broadway hoofers show up for auditions again, this time with director Zach (Tyler Matthew Burk) and his assistant Larry (Samuel Shea). They will alternately beg, wish and hope to “get this job” in the chorus. 

The Pulitzer Prize-winning show won nine Tonys and holds the record as the sixth longest-running Broadway show ever.

There are reasons for that. One is that the script came out of a tape that the show’s original director made with all those hopeful dancers. He asked them all why they dance and what their story is, and put the answers on tape. Those tapes (which still exist) give these dancers a human dimension that draws viewers in.

Another is the choreography. This show is directed and choreographed by Hector Guerrero, using the original dances by Michael Bennett and Bob Avian. The footwork here is wondrous fun to watch – tricky, often amusing and just plain impressive.

But it’s the dancers you’ll remember. Some of my favorites are Sheila (Natalie Nucci), a sassy aging dancer who started dancing to escape from home; Paul (Steven Rubalcaba), a young Puerto Rican trying to pass as Italian; Val (Holly Echsner), who doesn’t get jobs until she gets a boob job; Mike (Jeffrey Scott Parsons), who got into dancing via his sisters. He saw them and said “I can do that”; and giggly Kristine (Danielle Airey), who admits that “I can’t sing,” but comes along with husband and dancer Al (Drew Bradford).

And of course there’s Cassie (Jennifer Knox), Zach’s ex, whose mere appearance there creates problems and distraction for Zach.

Getting those steps just right and being in the right place at the right time is a tough job, but this show offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of what these dancers “did for love.”

The enormous cast of 26 is uniformly excellent, as is the 16-member orchestra, wonderfully directed by Dr. Randi Rudolph. The tech (especially in Cassie’s “The Music and the Mirror” number) is also impressive.

The rented costumes (from JMW Costume Designs) and sets (from Gateway Set Rentals) add to the atmosphere as well.

If you’re looking for a pleasant evening’s outdoor entertainment, “A Chorus Line” is an excellent choice.

“A Chorus Line” runs through September 4, 2021. 

Performances: August 18-29, Wednesday thru Sunday

            Sept. 1-4, Wednesday thru  Saturday

Tickets are available at www.moonlightstage.com

Theater review: Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical

Who needs billionaires like Bezos and Branson getting richer by sending people into space when you can watch Claude, Berger, Hud and the rest of the 1968 gang “walking in space” on earthbound stuff like marijuana and hashish – and singing while doing it?

The Old Globe Theatre, stopped by the pandemic from producing an indoor version of the old hippie musical “Hair” last year, finally got the show on the boards of its outdoor Lowell Davies Festival Stage last night, which had all the ancient hippie dippies like me in the audience in heaven and singing along (behind our masks). The show has already been extended through Oct. 3, but don’t wait to get those tickets. 

James Vásquez directs a fabulous cast, several new to me but with Broadway, other New York or London credits, joining many of our favorite local performers. The setting, with the park’s trees in the background, actually adds to the pastoral hippie interests of opposition to the Vietnam War, astrology, togetherness and trying to get in touch with nature. Aiding in these adventures, of course, are the mind-blowing effects of the favored drugs of the period.

The cast plays to the audience by running up and down the aisles now and then to sing or point out what’s happening onstage. And to give us a closer look at those fabulous, colorful costumes by David Israel Reynoso. 

One of the major plot points is what the guys will do when those draft notices arrive in their mailboxes. Claude gets the first one. Will he go or burn the draft card?

The political relevance doesn’t stop there. The prevalence of recreational drugs, the attempt to cooperate with (rather than trying to conquer) nature and larger considerations like what really matters in life are all considered here, with humor and sometimes even grace by Galt MacDermot’s music, augmented by the book and lyrics by Gerome Ragni and James Rado.

It’ll keep your toes tapping, if not your voice humming along beneath that mask.

Kudos to this bravura cast, every one of whom adds to the joy of the celebration going on here. 

Nyla Sostre’s Dionne opens the show with a lovely rendition of “Aquarius,” setting up the astrological interests of the group.

Tyler Hardwick is excellent as Claude, the leader of the tribe, who insists on using a fake British accent and pretending he’s from Manchester, England when he’s really from Flushing, Queens. 

Jaygee Macapugay’s Jeanie just wants a normal life, meaning she wants to marry Claude even though he’s not the father of her soon-to-be-born child.

Alex Joseph Grayson’s Hud is a militant African-American who declares himself to be the “president of the United States of Love.”

Andrew Polec is the free-spirited Berger “looking for my Donna.” Storm Lever’s Sheila is the NYU student and committed activist. 

Angel Lozada’s Woof is the agrarian of the bunch who likes to “grow things” (presumably some of them pharmaceuticals), and young Crissy is looking for a boy named Frank Mills.

Kudos to choreographer Mayte Natalio, who keeps everybody moving to some often-astonishing dance steps.

Bravo also to orchestra conductor Angela Steiner and her seven stalwart musicians, who play from various parts of the stage.

These are all people and situations we’re familiar with. And everybody’s looking for something. If you’re looking for a great night of theater, give “Hair” a try.

“Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical” has been extended through October 3, 2021. Prices start at $37. 

Tickets available at www.TheOldGlobe.org 

Film Review: The Meaning of Hitler

If that title sounds like a yawn, rest assured that this film is anything but boring.

Everybody knows something about Hitler, the fanatical hater who ordered and oversaw the extermination of six million Jews before committing suicide with his wife in order to avoid the consequences of his actions.

But what many don’t know is that Hitler was really just another guy (called here by one expert “the original radical loser” who managed to latch onto the malaise of the time and give people what they wanted: someone and/or something to blame/hate. 

For 30 years, historian Martin Amis says, “Hitler was a flop. He had an Oedipus complex and megalomania and no job. He lacked human relationships. Though it is said that he liked his dog, it is also true that he gave the animal cyanide to test the effect. In addition, he was semiliterate, resisted understanding and saw no downside to lying.” And he was a failed artist.

So how did this nobody rise to power? And how can we avoid giving rise to another such “leader?”

Filmmaker Petra Epperlein and writer Michael Tucker start with the 1978 book “The Meaning of Hitler,” by Sebastian Haffner (pseudonym for journalist Raimund Pretzel, who was a witness to the rise of the Nazis).

Then Epperlein and Tucker take us take us on a road trip through the psychology, geography and events that combined to elevate this nobody to the world stage. Along the way, they talk to experts on Hitler and various other contemporary freethinkers.      

One observer says that if you turn on German TV, there’s a good chance you’ll find a documentary about Hitler. Assuming that’s true, is it evidence that the cult isn’t dead or an attempt to understand him?

We visit Braunau, the “Bethlehem of the Third Reich,” where Hitler was born, observe a rowdy meeting of an anti-Islamist group, then go on to Vienna, where he failed twice to get into art school and we are told he lived in a homeless shelter for a time.

In Mazury, Poland, we meet writer and Holocaust denier David Irving, spouting the usual nonsense that Hitler didn’t order the murder of the Jews.

But somewhere along the way, Hitler started spouting the Führer rhetoric for which he is famous. We see a meeting in Munich, the birthplace of Nazism, in which Hitler speaks to thousands of followers in the orderly groups he became known for. He is aided by new microphones of the time which allowed the speaker to move, gesticulate and alter the volume of the voice and still be heard.

“The Meaning of Hitler” is a warning offered by these filmmakers about those of claim to have “the answer” to any political problem. This film (which, in case you were wondering, includes a few shots of Trump) is a must-see.

"The Meaning of Hitler" opens in theaters and on-demand on Aug. 13.

Film Review: Free Guy

 

An admission: I am an old lady who has never played a video game and has little patience for films that depend on violence, crashing cars, ridiculous-looking characters, or monsters (and people) that kill as entertainment. So for me, the best thing about “Free Guy” was getting to escape the unlivable heat in a nice, air-conditioned movie theater that isn’t dangerously overcrowded.

Surprisingly, though, “Free Guy” overcomes the unpromising premise that the film’s star is nothing but an unaware NPC (non-playing character) in a brutal video game by giving us a hero who decides to write his own story.

The titular character in Shawn Levy’s film is Guy (Ryan Reynolds), a mild-mannered, terminally upbeat bank teller who ends every interaction with “Don’t have a good day. Have a great day” and goes home to his goldfish because, as he says, “I have everything I need … except one thing.”

Guy’s best friend is Buddy, played by Lil Rey Howery, a security guard at the bank, also a background player in “Free City” the video game. He is aware of both worlds. 

The game’s star is Molotovgirl (Jodie Comer), British and horrifyingly dressed in black leather, heels, straps, the sort of thing that signals “Don’t mess with me.”

But wait – Molotovgirl is also a pretty blonde video game designer named Millie, and Guy is instantly smitten with her. Could she be interested in him?

The rest of the film depicts the struggle between those two worlds, with plenty of video game elements like monsters, mean people, weird-o critters and the like, balanced by the good, old-fashioned humanity of the Guy/Millie relationship.

What makes it work is a script that is as amusing as it is violent, and excellent actors to bring their characters to life.

Comer and Reynolds, the charming heart and soul of the show, are balanced by Taika Waititi as super bad guy Antwan and his employee Mouser (Utkarsh Ambudkar), a coder for “Free City,” dedicated enough to his boss to wear an outrageous outfit I’ll let you discover.

Kudos to Levy for producing a film that shouldn’t work. It was written by committee, has elements people like me hate, and still I recommend it. Go figure.