Regan's Reviews

Twilight

2008-08-19T22:05:00.001-07:00

Grade: C

I'm pretty late getting onto the Twilight train. As most people know, the fourth book just came out and has caused quite a bit of controversy, according to the reviews. The publicity was enough to intrigue my parents, who promptly bought books one and two. I finally read Twilight yesterday, and was mostly unimpressed.

There are some very good aspects to it. It's a very clean book, meaning no foul language or sex, but that's to be expected for a young adult book. The main character, Bella, also has a lot of very appealing traits: she takes care of her dad, her mom is her best friend, and she's smart (though not very street smart, it appears). The book is also set in Forks, Washington, not too far from my hometown of Seattle. Forks is a very small town, and my main memory of the one time I went there was that it served an amazing ice cream cone, and that their definition of "small" bordered on my definition of "huge."

However, as someone who has read a lot of vampire books and quite a few young adult books, I was not that impressed by Twilight as an example of both. I found Bella to be an overall unbelievable character; the book is written in first person, which leads to a lot of showing versus telling problems. Bella tells us that her character is one way, then proceeds to act in a totally different manner; or she talks a lot about how unpopular and unattractive she is, then shows us all the boys who pant after her as though she is some supernaturally attractive creature. Similarly, she talks a lot about how amazingly handsome Edward, her vampire boyfriend, is, and how much she enjoys touching him, yet all of her descriptions are of a cold, marble-like being. In reality, does anyone find the idea of embracing a cold statue appealing?

By far the most troubling factor of the book is the relationship between Bella and Edward. It's unbelievable in how fast it develops; barely three interactions go by between them before she is expressing her undying (literally...) love for him, and he's telling her that she is the new purpose in his life. Their romance is remarkably one-sided; Edward is good at everything and Bella denigrates herself constantly. In many ways Edward treats her as a pet. Additionally, all of Bella's descriptions of Edward focus on his looks. He is handsome, beautiful, unnaturally gorgeous. His character is less two-dimensional.

I suppose I'll give book number 2 a try, just to see where it's going. However, I was less than impressed by the first.

Avenue Q

2008-08-18T10:33:00.000-07:00

Grade: B

I saw Avenue Q for the first time a few weeks ago, and have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised. For those of you who don't know, this is a show in which more than half of the characters are puppets. It's done much like an adult-rated version of Sesame Street or the Muppets, with the same sort of educational, corny songs, some of which are randy enough to make a grown woman blush. The greatest charm, I think, lies in the song titles, among them: "What do you do with a BA in English?"; "I Wish I Could Go Back to College"; and "Shadenfreude." The music itself is not spectacular, nor is the plot, which centers around the folks who live on Avenue Q and mostly shows their disfunction and occasional sweetness. This is a show mostly concerned with satirizing Sesame Street-type shows and with pointing out truths about society we might not want to admit (for example, with the song "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist").

Avenue Q deserves points for originality and wit. I do think that the biggest blunder of the Tony Awards in 2004, however, was awarding Avenue Q the Tony for Best Musical over Wicked.

A good one to see for adults, although children should steer clear (as the posters warn, there is extreme puppet nudity).

Boy A

2008-08-17T10:13:00.000-07:00

Grade: A

Boy A is a little-known British film that was produced this year. It's nearing the end of its theater run right now and should be on DVD shortly. It's a very powerful, thought-provoking film. Jack is a young man who has been in juvenile hall for about a decade for a crime that he committed as a child. He is now being released into the world, with a new identity, a job, and careful guidance by his caretaker, a worn, good-hearted social worker named Terry. Jack is determined to make a new start for himself, but he's haunted by the memories of his past, particularly his deep friendship with an abused boy named Phillip who was his accomplice in the crime for which he was imprisoned.

The real skill of the filmmaker of Boy A was in creating such empathy for Jack. Even knowing that he has done something terrible--the crime is not shown until the very end--the audience cannot help but be drawn in by his shy smiles and his desperate attempts to reconnect with the world. The movie makes us want to believe that Jack was falsely accused, or that there was some excuse for his behavior. The flashbacks leading up to the crime give us sympathy, an understanding that Jack was so very alone and dependent on Phillip that maybe his involvement in a crime is justified.

My only complaints about the movie are that it drags a bit in some places, and that the sound quality is awful. Seeing it in the theater, I couldn't hear half of what was being said, and the half I could hear was so heavily accented that it was a constant strain to make it out. Despite that, this movie really makes you think about what redemption means, whether it's possible for someone to change, and whether there are acts that are truly unforgiveable.

Wicked

2008-08-16T09:52:00.000-07:00

THE MUSICAL

Grade: A

If you see one musical this summer, see Wicked.

I'm a fan of the classics: Les Miserables makes me cry every time, The Phantom of the Opera never gets old, and Miss Saigon always wrenches at my heartstrings. But Wicked is good, really good. Based loosely off of the book of the same name by Gregory Maguire, Wicked is the "true" tale of the Wicked Witch of the West.

The unfortunately-named, unfortunate-appearing Elphaba ("Like a froggy, ferny cabbage, the baby is unnaturally green!") winds up at school with the unlikely roommate Galinda ("With a 'gah'"), a girl who is more concerned with her appearance and popularity than the deeper problems in Oz which worry Elphaba. Enter Fiyero, the handsome, charming, vapid man who wins both witches' hearts. Follow their journey as the two head on the inevitable path that leads to the climactic finale we all know so well from The Wizard of Oz.

A good friend of mine came to visit me during Spring Break last year and we went to NYC a couple of times. She had never been to Broadway. She has long been a Wicked fan. Of course, we hadn't thought to get tickets far enough in advance and the show was sold out (it still sells out every night)--but, fortunately for us, and unfortunately for a lot of people, there was a freak snowstorm which closed a number of airports and forced people to cancel their tickets, leading to some very nice last-minute seats for us.

The show was simply splendid. The music is highly enjoyable, and the Elphaba/Galinda dynamic is marvelous. The story is intricately woven and plays the emotions of the audience masterfully, building empathy for both Elphaba and Galinda and painting the transitions both characters make over the course of the show. "Defying Gravity," the song directly before intermission, is perhaps the most powerful end of act 1 song other than "One Day More." "For Good," near the end of the second half, is probably my favorite two-women duet in any show, and is poignant and realistic. The lyrics are almost unfailingly clever (Elphaba's first song, the Wizard and I, is full of witty references to later events: "I've just had a vision almost like a prophecy...I swear someday there'll be/a celebration throughout Oz/that's all to do.../with me!"), even when the music is at times jarring. Overall, a stunning production.

Despite its premise, this musical is rarely absurd (and only then when it wants to be), and promises to entertain even the most staunch fans of the classics.

As a side note, I saw Wicked again earlier this summer, when Stephanie J. Block (who is on the original soundtrack of The Pirate Queen, the Boublil and Schonberg flop from last summer) was playing Elphaba, and she was simply amazing. It was the first time I had ever seen a stage production and thought that the stage cast was better than the original Broadway recording. Ms. Block has since left the cast, but she is definitely one to watch out for.

THE BOOK

Grade: C

I read the book of Wicked long before the musical came into production, and it was almost enough to turn me off of the musical without ever seeing it. Gregory Maguire had a lot of big ideas for the book, most of them far grander than the show's more simplistic "what must it have been like to be the Wicked Witch of the West?" He wanted to portray social unrest, a microcosm of our society and America in the early 1900s. He wanted Elphaba to be a truly deep character, with different facets to explore. Unfortunately, as a result, the book is painful to read, both because the language is somewhat inaccessible and because Elphaba is so darned unlikeable. The book has none of the nods toward the absurdity of the original Wizard of Oz to add humor and to keep it from taking itself too seriously that the show does.

A book to be avoided.

Shrek the Musical

2008-08-15T23:48:00.000-07:00

Grade: B

Tonight, I was in the audience of the second showing ever of the new Shrek musical, at Seattle's Fifth Avenue Theater. I was dubious. This is not the first show I've seen that was created in Seattle to be sent immediately to Broadway. There was also Hairspray, which spawned a great movie that had none of the screechy voices of the stage production. There was Young Frankenstein, whose only jokes were repeats from the movie. And of course there was The Wedding Singer, which was so unmemorable that my mother forgot she'd seen it.

Shrek blew them all away.

Let's start with the good, because there was lots of it. Of the four main characters, Fiona (played by Sutton Foster) and Lord Farquaad (Christopher Sieber) stole every scene they were in. Ms. Foster has a terrific voice (she's starred in a number of productions on Broadway, and been nominated for a Tony) and a charming willingness to act absurdly. She has the only really good, hummable song in the show, "I Know It's Today" (also well-sung by two young girls playing Fiona at ages 7 and 10).

Christopher Sieber was by far the most impressive part of the show. In an impressive display of athleticism, he parades around the stage on his knees, as his character is very short, all the while belting clever if not classic tunes. It won't be a surprise if Mr. Sieber is nominated for a Tony for his excellent work once Shrek makes it to Broadway in December.

The stage designs were generally well done, with greenery everywhere. The costumes were at times excellent and at times awful. Lord Farquaad's costume was the cleverest, and the ogre costumes for both Fiona and Shrek were decent, as was Donkey. The many fairytale creature costumes were too chaotic, as were most of the scenes involving those characters--more on that later. The dragon, played by about seven women at once, one of whom wears a pointed bra a la Madonna that looks like it could impale someone, started out impressive and quickly grew tedious.

Shrek does a great job of keeping the humor from the movie (most of the dialogue, if my memory serves me, is straight out of the movie), while maximizing its potential as a stage production with clever sets and performances. Many of the songs were decent, though none could rival the powerful songs of Les Miserables or Wicked.

There were a number of great references to other shows, and I'm sure I missed others. An experienced theater-goer will note the nod to A Chorus Line when Lord Farquaad is preparing to evict the fairytale creatures; two Wicked references; and an explicit Lion King parody. The show would have been better with even more (I can think of a scene where the Monty Python killer rabbit would have fit in perfectly, and a scene where the Les Miz flag could have been waved above the heads of fairytale creatures marching together).

Now for the bad.

Shrek, the title character, who is such a star in the movie, fell a little flat. It wasn't that Brian D'Arcy James' performance was poor, but he never stole the stage and never had a really great song. He was almost furniture to offset the stellar performances of Fiona and Farquaad. Similarly, Chester Gregory, who played Donkey, did his best, but the songs that had been written for him (and boy, were there a lot) were mediocre at best, and some should have been cut completely.

The fairytale characters were probably the worst part of the show, as all of their ensemble scenes ran too long and were both boring and annoying. Perhaps when it came to them it would have been best to deviate a bit from the movie, particularly when it came to the Gingerbread Man and Pinocchio having such large roles. As a whole, most of the ensemble scenes were weak compared to the scenes with only one or two characters; the songs were not good and the dancing was pretty lame.

Maybe the most important lesson that Shrek has to learn, and that it will hopefully implement in the coming weeks, is that less is more when it comes to most humor. Jokes that run too long quickly cease to be funny, and gimicks that are played up too much, or over and over (such as Pinnochio's nose growing over, and over, and over again), cease to impress and begin to annoy.

Keep in mind that this show is very, very young still, and will undoubtedly change a lot before it leaves for Broadway. Despite my complaints about it, I enjoyed it thoroughly, which was more than I expected. It's a show for kids and adults (though the six year old sitting next to me burst into tears of fright minutes into the show and had to be removed from the theater), and parents and children alike could be seen sporting ogre-ear headbands. I predict that the show will be a great success on Broadway, much better than the Disney adaptations that are currently there, though it is certainly no Wicked or Jersey Boys. This is one to keep an eye on, and promises to be a pleasure for anyone who's willing to let their hair down for a few hours.