Musical

In the Heights

/ / Home Video
  • Title: In the Heights
  • IMDb: link

Adapted from the stage musical, In the Heights follows the lives of several characters in New York’s Washington Heights neighborhood. In a reverse of an immigrant chasing the American dream, our main character is a bodega owner (Anthony Ramos) saving his money to leave New York and return to the the Dominican Republic to restart his father’s beach-front business. Other characters include his crush (Melissa Barrera), Olga Merediz as the neighborhood’s matriarch, and the neighborhood’s brightest star (Leslie Grace) returning in failure from Stanford who can’t articulate her problems to her father (Jimmy Smits).

In the Heights is a story about dreamers. Each character is chasing a dream or trying to help others achieve their own. The eclectic neighborhood of Dominican, Cuban, Puerto Rican, and other nationalities is punctuated by vibrant musical numbers around dreams, love, and everyday life.

…

In the HeightsRead More »

In the Heights Read More »

Come from Away

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Come from Away
  • IMDb: link

“We honor what was lost, but we also commemorate what we found.”

Twenty years after 9/11 and 14 months into the COVID shutdown, Broadway reopens for a performance of Come from Away featuring many of the original Broadway performers for a live recording on the musical about 7,000 strangers from all over the world stranded in the small town of Gander for five days. While originally planned to be a more traditional film, with scenes filmed in Newfoundland, the live performance of the first returning Broadway show brings its own kind of magic that is wonderful to watch unfold.

Based on true events, the Canadian musical by Irene Sankoff and David Hein offers plenty of both laughter and tears over its 106-minute running time featuring a small cast playing multiple roles of both the shaken visitors and incredibly hospitable locals. And director Christopher Ashley knows just how to frame each sequence, giving us the best seat in the house. 

…

Come from AwayRead More »

Come from Away Read More »

Legacies – Salvatore: The Musical!

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Legacies – Salvatore: The Musical!
  • wiki: link

Legacies - Salvatore: The Musical! television review

Legacies offers its version of a musical episode with “Salvatore: The Musical!” Unlike how several different shows have handled the concept, the characters don’t suddenly burst into song. Instead, all the musical numbers are saved for the second-half of the episode in which the show puts on its first musical. The episode’s events are caused by the release of a Sprite from Malivore, taking the form of the school’s guidance counselor Robin Goodfellow (T.J. Ramini). The monster distracts the students for a time while playing with MG (Quincy Fouse) who keeps discovering the Sprite’s secret only to forget before he can tell anyone else, which provides one of the best running gags of the series. Although Goodfellow’s actions are initially cruel, pushing characters apart and causing conflict and anger, ultimately they are able to bring several characters closer together.

…

Legacies – Salvatore: The Musical!Read More »

Legacies – Salvatore: The Musical! Read More »

People Suck in Indiana

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Prom
  • IMDb: link

The Prom movie reviewAdapted from the stage musical, The Prom sends a group of Broadway performers (Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannells) to Indiana looking for a cause to turn around public opinion about their narcissistic nature. What they find is a teenage high school student (Jo Ellen Pellman) denied the right to take her girlfriend (Ariana DeBose) to the prom.

Directed by Ryan Murphy, The Prom is a bawdy life-affirming story populated by mostly paper-thin characters walking through the plot to set-up the next song and dance number. While Corden has received the most criticism for a stereotypical performance, other than the two girls in love, none of the characters have any more depth than a damp sponge. Pellman turns out to be one of the best casting choices as the beautiful young woman who wants nothing more than to be herself, and DeBose manages to steal a moment with her performance of “Alyssa Greene.”

…

People Suck in IndianaRead More »

People Suck in Indiana Read More »

Rocketman

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Rocketman
  • IMDb: link

Rocketman Blu-ray reviewA biopic of Elton John, Rocketman is a serviceable but forgettable film noteworthy only for Taron Egerton performance in the title role. Other than admitting to the fact that Elton John was gay, came from bad parents, and struggled with drugs and alchol, the film doesn’t offer much insight to his life. Oddly, the most memorable moments involving John’s songwriting seem taken directly out of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story. I honestly don’t know if writer Lee Hall and director Dexter Fletcher wanted us to laugh with or at the film (I did plenty of both). Although there are certainly comparisons one can make in terms of story and style, Rocketman is less successful than Bohemian Rhapsody whose big musical numbers far outshine even the best moments here.

…

RocketmanRead More »

Rocketman Read More »