Tap Dancing, Kid's Movies and Tinsel Teeth... My Week at a Glance!

I've had a very busy first week of summer vacation.  I started it off on Sunday with a get together with friends to celebrate Bacon! That's right, a Bacon Day party.  It was good to see many of my Spelling Bee family but I had to take off earlier than I would've liked to go get the boys as Mark was out of town helping shovel and clean in High River. I don't have the boys in camp this week... I do next week and I am glad for that as it is hard to get them moving and doing things and with the heat there have been some tensions... Anyhow, I tried to alleviate that by taking them to a couple of movies. We saw Monsters University which was a very well done prequel to Monsters Inc.  I love that Gibson got the message of the movie (teamwork and playing fair and that cheating does not make you a winner). We also went to Despicable Me 2 - another great kid's movie. The boys declared it better than the first one and I kind of agree.  Gosh, I love those minions! We started the braces process for Oliver this morning so that was the last popcorn for him for about 18 months so we made it count!

Last night I went to Opening Night of Anything Goes at Walterdale.  I sat next to AM and Joan and had good visits with both of them before the show started and afterwards. I had been to the special invite Dress Rehearsal on the weekend so I was literally back for more! The show was tighter and the jokes landed more firmly so I think their two shows with preview audiences got them warmed up properly for Opening Night.  Anything Goes is a riotous little romp of a show.  It's a Cole Porter musical so the songs are familiar and toe-tapping and for one audience member sitting near me they were also sing-along songs. It's interesting for me to see a show from this era. I am so used to the modern musical which has a very different dramatic investment for it's songs.  It's a challenge because I always want to go back to the questions "Why this Show Now?" and after thinking about it, I guess the answer is "For Fun!".  It was certainly a crowd pleaser and even though there are some culturally suspect things that are remnants of the era is was written in, it was easy to be forgiving of the script and just sit back and enjoy. Highlights for me include the crazy chemistry between Kyle Thulien (Billy) and Morgan Smith (Moonface) as they assemble a myriad of disguises and accents.  Morgan Smith is generally a hoot and a half every time he is onstage. Christina O'Dell as showgirl Reno Sweeney belts it out of the park as she tackles the huge role.  Her Reno has swagger and spark and, boy, can she tap dance! The ongoing dynamic between Lauren Kneteman (Erma) and the sailors is a lot of fun to watch and Lauren certainly has the sex-appeal her character brags about! Finally the tap dancing.  I did prefer the section with the smaller group because I could see how clean the dancing was because of there being fewer bodies, but for making an impression there is something incredible about a stage full of tap dancers. Anyhow, it's a fun lighthearted show full of committed performers.  It runs until July 13th.  Opening Night was Sold Out and advance ticket sales are already high for this one, so I would advise getting your tickets in advance if you want to catch it.

So I Saw Les Miserables Today...

First of all, let me say, I cried four times so I definitely got my money's worth. I can also admit that Les Miserables is my ALL TIME FAVORITE Musical so I knew going in I would have high expectations. I was worried after the first 45 minutes, but then it started rolling and began to gel.  I do not think it was the perfect adaptation of the musical by any means and I think the Direction is the biggest culprit in that respect. However, there are moments, individual performances and sections that do nice service to it and rescue it from being a bad movie.

I cannot fault the acting.  It's there for all of them.  The singing, well, there are disappointments, but again I think the direction is what undercut what could have been so much more.  Anne Hathaway's I Dreamed a Dream escapes damage because it is done as a one-shot, close up so that it reads like it should - as a monologue told through song.  Could she play Fantine on a big stage? Maybe not, but for this film she is terrific.  Because the camera is on her face the whole time and she isn't afraid to sing ugly and she really invests in the song the internal story is consistently present. The whole song becomes a journey.  Unfortunately for Russell Crowe and Hugh Jackman, Tom Hooper (Director) did not afford them the same opportunity in their big monologue songs.  Instead, he has them moving and shifting as though these are songs of action.  They aren't. They are songs of self-discovery and decision and should have been done with that same respect.  There are plenty of songs that move the action wherein movement and shifting locales add to the energy.  Hooper, however, doesn't always capture that opportunity either. There's only three of the leads that could probably hold their own on a stage singing this score - Jackman, Aaron Tviet (Enjolras) and Samantha Banks (Eponine) - but all the leads are perfectly adaptable to play these roles in a film.  To play to their strengths he should have let them be still more often and use those skills.

So, what made me cry?  Red and Black - When those wonderful men are singing, led by Tveit (confession - Enjolras is so much more attractive to me than Marius - both vocally and character wise - so those of you who wished Tveit was Marius, I say "No! Enjolras all the way, baby!").  This is the number where it really felt like an ensemble. On My Own - Samantha Banks was a wonderful choice and she really built up to this song.  I will say, I Dreamed a Dream was wonderfully done, but I wasn't there yet in terms of investment as an audience member.  A Little Fall of Rain - such a wonderfully done moment with commitment from both Banks and Eddie Redmayne (Marius).  The stillness worked so beautifully.  And then finally, Valjean's Death.  I cried from that moment through the end as it shifted into Do You Hear the People Sing - the pay-off came at the end.

I love Helena Bonham Carter but thought the choice of her and Sacha Baron Cohen for the Thenardiers was kind of predictable and didn't see anything from them that made me say wow.  I think there could have been better choices to make those roles more than just humorous cameos.  Daniel Huttlestone is perfect as Gavroche (I might have cried then, too), and Isabelle Allen is quite lovely as young Cosette. I loved that there were chairs (I was wondering about that - such an iconic image from the stage show).

So, not perfect, by far.  Not something I will buy the soundtrack for, but I think there are enough moments to sustain it. I think there are many missed opportunties and disservices to the actors in the film. I feel kind of bad for Russell Crowe, because he comes off so weak due to the direction.  He actually does some fine acting.  Amanda Seyfried's voice is no stronger, but she is shot in a much more sympathetic way. But who really goes to Les Mis to watch Cosette? Ha ha ha... No but really, the whole live-singing thing worked better for some moments and was not a good choice for others.

A New Year!

I had a nice, relatively quiet Christmas with fun for the kids at Grandma and Grandpa Strand's on Christmas Eve and then having them (G&G) over for Christmas dinner on the actual day. The turkey was smaller to reflect the smaller crowd and that meant a later start time to the preparations and a much more relaxed day as a whole. I was surprised and delighted by a new camera (Yay!) and a few days later the arrival of The Tudors - Boxed set. Both were on my wish list. I recognize more and more as I get older that I am hard to buy for because I feel like I have everything I need except time and how can you give that? I also got 3 hours with a personal trainer from the Mom and Dad and that will be put to good use. My eldest brother and his wife got mine and Mark's names and they overwhelmed us with movie and restaurant gift certificates. We have used one of the movie gift certs to see the latest Harry Potter when the boys had school Monday but the store was closed. Very nice to be able to go out without the chilluns and although some of you might think 'what?! and you went to a kid's movie?!?!' I have to say it is not one that they are old enough to see in my opinion and although Oliver might be old enough, we have a rule that he has to read the book before he can see the movie and he is only on book 3 so far.

The boys were over-blessed again with bounty. Legos were assembled as were bionicles and puzzles and DS games were played abundantly. They wore the clothes that Mom and Dad got them and looked cute in their new pyjamas from G&G Finlay and Mom and Dad. I got to play a few Board Games because an adult was needed to figure out the rules and referee. Much fun. They also decorated their gingerbread men and ate their fair share of Lindor and Purdy's chocolate!

The week immediately following Christmas struck the household with illness. Mark and Oliver were throwing up for a few days and I was hit by something respiratory/achy all over/dry coughy... I am still in recovery as I feel okay for the most part but am still dealing with coughing fits that prevent me from sleeping well. I am hoping it is over soon... please... pretty please. Luckily I had The Tudors to keep me company as I lay on the couch for about a week.

This week is the week of beginnings... rehearsals start for Threepenny and re-start for Rabbit Hole. I have a very busy month and a half ahead of me. I am not sure how much singing I will be able to do tonight at the first Threepenny music rehearsal but I will bring my digital recorder to capture all the work and practise with that if I can't sing much myself.

Home for a Rest...

Okay, so I am back home and I am tired already. This is not the fault of the trip itself, but rather the return to laundry, messy kitchen, laundry, tight schedule, writing a paper (at midnight), doing payroll (at 11 p.m.), having to get up to hand the paper in, kids fighting (they were up late, too) and having lines to learn. I would love to come home to a kitchen as clean as the one I left (or cleaner, that would be awesome) but I don't think that will ever happen. I would love to not have all the laundry to deal with. Maybe some day.

I did have a great time in Toronto. It started off quite fast paced with lunch, a movie, dinner and a pub on Saturday. Then dim sum, a play, and dinner on the Sunday. We slowed down for Monday and Tuesday and fit in a mani and pedi and another movie but mostly visiting. That's what it was really for. I did want to get to a play and managed to get to the Tarragon for Daniel McIvor's new work, Communion, a great 3-hander for women of a certain age (well 2 of them, anyhow). I preferred seeing that because that is very much where my head is at with regards to theatre right now. For movies we saw Hot Tub Time Machine (a delightfully good cheesy movie) and Repo Men (extremely high budget for fake blood - but good - filmed in Toronto). It was nice to go and not have to worry about a sitter...

All in all, it was a good visit. Annie and I talked ourselves out and that was good. I got away and breathed in different air and walked a tonne and that was good. I drank some wine and laughed loudly in conversation and in watching a film and that was good.

I Quite Enjoyed It...

This afternoon, the family went to see Bolt, the new Pixar film. More often than not, if I am in a movie theatre it is for a kids film. Some are a waste (Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium, Surf's Up...). However, Bolt, is really good! What a good movie. It was enhanced by the 3D, which I hadn't expected. The kids liked it and so did we so it was money well spent. Oh, well, I actually used the gift certificates I got for my birthday so it was even better being 'free'!