Catching Up...Stage and Screen

The Grandstander has fallen behind in his stage and movie comings and goings, so let's try to catch up, shall we?

This past Saturday I attended the Broadway in Pittsburgh Series touring production of "Hamilton."  You all know how much I love this show.  It is the third time that I have seen it on stage, and this particular production was top notch.  The actors, led by Pierre Jean Cortez as Alexander Hamilton, Warren Egypt Franklin as Lafayette/Jefferson, and Stephanie Jae Park as Eliza Schuyler were terrific.  Every time that I have seen the show, I see something different, and in this particular production, I was especially impressed with the choreography and the music of the climactic "Yorktown" number in Act I.  Just fantastic.

Four Stars from The Grandstander.

Of course, going to this production was bittersweet because, of course, Marilyn is no longer with us.  I was thrilled, however, to have as my "date" for the show on Saturday our 21 year old great-niece, Anna Sproule, currently a junior at the University of Notre Dame.  Anna had not yet seen the show performed on stage, but she has long been a fan of the amazing music of the show.  It was truly a pleasure to take her with me that night, and I know that Aunt Marilyn is thrilled that her ticket that night was being used by Anna.

Through a series of circumstances that I won't get into here, I am actually going to be seeing "Hamilton" two more times in the next ten days.  That's almost embarrassing to admit, but I will also make no apologies for it!

Earleir in the month, the Broadway Series treated us to a production of "Pretty Woman", a musical adaptation of the hit 1990 movie that starred Julia Roberts and Richard Gere.  While I liked the movie when I saw it all those years ago - Marilyn positively LOVED it - I was not a diehard fan, so I went into this show with modest expectations, which was probably a good thing, because I ended up liking the show quite a bit.  Was completely unfamiliar with all of the music, but that didn't spoil the show at all.  Interesting casting note:  the part of Vivian, the Julia Roberts role, was played by Olivia Valli. She is the granddaughter of Frankie Valli, the original Jersey Boy himself.

I gave "Pretty Woman" Two and One-half Grandstander Stars.

Five shows down in this season's Broadway in Pittsburgh Series, and here is how they stack up for me:

1. Hamilton
2. Summer, The Donna Summer Musical
3. Pretty Woman
4. Oklahoma
5. The Band's Visit

Still to come..."Beautiful" in March, "To Kill A Mockingbird" in April, and "Ain't Too Proud" in May

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Regular readers are no doubt asking "Hey, the Oscar nominations came out a couple of weeks ago. Where is The Grandstander's usual cutting edge analysis of the nominations?"

You all HAVE been asking that, right? Right?

Well, the analysis has been missing for the simple matter that I have not seen many of the nominated films.   Of the ten Best Picture nominees, I have seen only two: Licorice Pizza (good, but certainly NOT the best picture of this or any other year) and West Side Story, which I loved, and would be happy to see win.

Of the other eight nominees...

Dune.  I'll pass on this one.  I am not a sci-fi fan, so it has no appeal to me. However, I will not criticize it, nor will I begrudge the glowing opinions of many of my pals who have seen it.

Drive My Car.  It's in Japanese with English subtitles.  In and of itself, that's not a deal breaker (see "Parasite" of a couple of years ago).  It is also three hours long, and the descriptions of the storyline that I have heard makes me want to scream.  So put this in the "Didn't see, don't wanna see it" category.

Belfast, CODA, Don't Look Up, King Richard, and Nightmare Alley are all movies that I want to see and will see before the Oscar ceremonies at the end of the month.  All are available to see via the various streaming services so it should take no great effort to see them over the next few weeks.

That brings us to The Power of the Dog which leads all movies with a total of twelve Oscar nominations including Actor, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, Cinematography, and Adapted Screenplay.  I tried to watch this.  I really did.  I fought against falling asleep while doing so and then gave up after 45 minutes.   I suppose that I could have just been having a bad day when I tried to watch it, and I should probably give it another shot, but I am finding it difficult to work up the motivation at this point.  We'll see.

One other movie that intrigues me is the Best International Film nominee The Worst Person in the World.  It is from Norway and is in Norwegian with English subtitles. Some critics that I respect on one of the podcasts that I listen to have spoken highly of it, so I may just have to seek that one out.

I shall be reporting in with my thoughts and comments as I see some of these other nominated movies.  

Oh, and one other cool Oscar factoid that maybe interests only me......Ariana DeBose is nominated for Best Supporting Actress for playing Anita in "West Side Story".  Rita Moreno won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for playing the same role in the 1961 movie version of "West Side Story."