I am moving my blog to my other google account... I messed up setting a gmail address and google won't let fix my user name. So, I created a whole new account and moved the blog there (http://catanddogdoctor66.blogspot.com). If you wish to follow me please go over there from now on :-). In a couple of days I will delete this blog.
THanks!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
101 Dalmatians or How much do I hate stilts...
I am truly sad to write this review. I *wanted* to like this show. In a way I do. There are dogs that do tricks and a group of children that are fantastic performers.... but that is it. They could have done a better job adapting this to the stage.
Let me start by saying this, little ones will love it....... mine did. But for us adults there are some really serious problems with this show. I can't see having them fixed without shutting down and re-doing the whole thing.
Let's dissect, shall we?
First mistake, the "human" characters on the show are on stilts. Why, you may ask... so that you get the idea that they are bigger than the human actors portraying the dogs. The stilts are covered by gigantic bell bottom pants or beyond ample skirts (think circus tent here) that look extremely uncomfortable to wear. From the moment they come out on stage they seem unsteady and stiff when walking. Yes, I know that with practice they might get better, but the stilts are a bad idea, you have to see it to get how wrong it looks. Cruella is on stilts, too, making what could be a deliciously evil character that you would love to hate into too much of a caricature. The actress that plays Cruella, Sara Gettelfinger, does what she can with her character but unfortunately she cannot compensate for the odd look. She is a great singer and when she is evil she is great but like I say everything looks so awkward........
Second mistake, set designer needs to be fired. It is trying to look cartoonish and it is just as awkward as the stupid stilts (can you tell I really hate them?). It looks out of proportion with the players. Elongated flimsy figures that worked well for El Greco, but he was painting 2 dimensional paintings and this is supposed to look tri-dimensional! There is a silly chase that is done with puppets and there is this gigantic gap between the panels that make up the base of it, that you can probably fit a 777 through it! There is also a brick wall made out of painted fabric that just seemed to sway in the breeze, will it be so difficult to stretch it over a frame?
Unfortunately, the above things kill the show. The kids that portray the pups are truly adorable and the most energetic players I have seen on stage since Wicked closed in Chicago. Some of the songs are catchy and cute, not necessarily the kind that you go home humming them, but pleasant enough to enjoy at the show. Most of the players are good and try to make the best out of the material they were handed but, they look so damn uncomfortable!
Let me start by saying this, little ones will love it....... mine did. But for us adults there are some really serious problems with this show. I can't see having them fixed without shutting down and re-doing the whole thing.
Let's dissect, shall we?
First mistake, the "human" characters on the show are on stilts. Why, you may ask... so that you get the idea that they are bigger than the human actors portraying the dogs. The stilts are covered by gigantic bell bottom pants or beyond ample skirts (think circus tent here) that look extremely uncomfortable to wear. From the moment they come out on stage they seem unsteady and stiff when walking. Yes, I know that with practice they might get better, but the stilts are a bad idea, you have to see it to get how wrong it looks. Cruella is on stilts, too, making what could be a deliciously evil character that you would love to hate into too much of a caricature. The actress that plays Cruella, Sara Gettelfinger, does what she can with her character but unfortunately she cannot compensate for the odd look. She is a great singer and when she is evil she is great but like I say everything looks so awkward........
Second mistake, set designer needs to be fired. It is trying to look cartoonish and it is just as awkward as the stupid stilts (can you tell I really hate them?). It looks out of proportion with the players. Elongated flimsy figures that worked well for El Greco, but he was painting 2 dimensional paintings and this is supposed to look tri-dimensional! There is a silly chase that is done with puppets and there is this gigantic gap between the panels that make up the base of it, that you can probably fit a 777 through it! There is also a brick wall made out of painted fabric that just seemed to sway in the breeze, will it be so difficult to stretch it over a frame?
Unfortunately, the above things kill the show. The kids that portray the pups are truly adorable and the most energetic players I have seen on stage since Wicked closed in Chicago. Some of the songs are catchy and cute, not necessarily the kind that you go home humming them, but pleasant enough to enjoy at the show. Most of the players are good and try to make the best out of the material they were handed but, they look so damn uncomfortable!
Friday, February 12, 2010
August: Osage County-A VERY Dark Comedy
Went to see August: Osage County Thursday night. First and foremost.... leave the young ones at home for this one! This is not a play for children, or even most teens. Having said that, I had a blast watching the most dysfunctional/toxic family is America go at each other's throats for 3+ hours.
The Gist:
Beverly Weston is missing and his family gets together for the somber occasion. Mom is addicted to drugs (prescription ones). Dan is chronically unhappy, hence his disappearance and subsequent death. They have three daughters, each more toxic than the other than the other. This family openly hates and belittles each other mercilessly. Old grudges are rebooted and new ones are created until there is only one person standing... sort of...
Why I loved it:
This play is funny because what is going on onstage is so wrong, you cannot help but laugh because otherwise, you would be plain horrified. The Mother is brilliantly played by Estelle Parsons (she also played Roseanne's mom on Roseanne). This woman will one minute scare the crap out of you and the next you will wish she was dead. She does not speak her lines, she stabs the other people on stage with her words. She generates absolutely no sympathy even when she gets what she deserves at the very end of the play. The rest of the cast is equally fantastic. They all look so drained at the end of the play! The play is long, it has two 10 minute intermissions, but time seems to fly by as fast as the insults. If you like intensity in a play and don't mind profanity or are easily offended, you need to go see this one!
Rate: 5/5
The Gist:
Beverly Weston is missing and his family gets together for the somber occasion. Mom is addicted to drugs (prescription ones). Dan is chronically unhappy, hence his disappearance and subsequent death. They have three daughters, each more toxic than the other than the other. This family openly hates and belittles each other mercilessly. Old grudges are rebooted and new ones are created until there is only one person standing... sort of...
Why I loved it:
This play is funny because what is going on onstage is so wrong, you cannot help but laugh because otherwise, you would be plain horrified. The Mother is brilliantly played by Estelle Parsons (she also played Roseanne's mom on Roseanne). This woman will one minute scare the crap out of you and the next you will wish she was dead. She does not speak her lines, she stabs the other people on stage with her words. She generates absolutely no sympathy even when she gets what she deserves at the very end of the play. The rest of the cast is equally fantastic. They all look so drained at the end of the play! The play is long, it has two 10 minute intermissions, but time seems to fly by as fast as the insults. If you like intensity in a play and don't mind profanity or are easily offended, you need to go see this one!
Rate: 5/5
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Monday, February 8, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Friday, January 29, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Legion (spoilers!!!)
This is an ouch review..... it tried not to be mean but...
OK, so ignoring the reviewers I went to see Legion. What a wreck!! I don't even know where to start...
Here we go..... spoilers ahead, you have been duly warned!
The movie stars Paul Bettany as the archangel Michael, who disagrees with an order from God and decides to leave the "family" and come down to Earth on his own and protect mankind. You see, God is ticked off at humanity and finally decides to destroy mankind. Just after arriving on Earth, he breaks into a toy company, making a grand entrance through the glass roof, cuts his wings (ouch!), which causes him to loose this thing around his neck that looks like an electronic collar (so God keeps angels slaved using collars WTF?), and sutures the wounds with a spool of suture (chromic gut by the looks of the pack, with a needle so big I could only use on a cow's stomach ;-)) that he finds in the medicine cabinet, because as we all know, that is stuff that is kept at toy warehouses (!?!?). Oh, then he arms himself to the teeth, because the toy company is a front for an illegal arms trader, I am guessing because there is a room full of all kinds of cool machine guns. After he gets out by way of an explosion (are the doors locked from the inside?) that leaves a cross shaped opening (wtf?) on the cargo door he confronts two cops and one turns into what cannot be called anything else but a demon. Kills him and steals the patrol car.
Out in the desert in a diner in the middle of nowhere, we come to meet the usual stereotypes. Slutty chick with uptight upper class parents, bitter pregnant chick, boy in love with pregnant chick (but pregnant chick likes him only as a friend), bitter diner owner, religious cook, gangbanger. There is only good scene in the whole movie. A sweet looking little old lady (still think Betty White should have done this part!!!) comes in and after eating a raw steak, she starts swearing at pregnant chick that her baby is going to die and swiftly tranforms into a thing that crawls up the walls and after a brief chase she gets killed by gangbanger. Michael arrives and we learn that the baby preg chick is expecting is the only hope for lasting peace (second coming of Jesus? Why would God want to destroy his own Son. And if the baby is not his son, who is he? In Christian tradition the second coming is nothing like this....nothing in the movie uis based on any tradition that I am familiar with. This is never adressed......... ). A battle ensues between our brave group of misfits and an army of humans possesed by angels. Yeah, by angels......... I am still scratching my head over that one, why not come down from Heaven and carry off God's orders, since they would be almost immune to human weapons (angel wings are bullet proof!) Only Gabriel comes down from Heaven is his true form (looking a lot like Alan Cummings on Cabaret, I kid you not!) and battles Michael. Michael appparently dies and it is up to boy in love to protect the baby, the tattoos that Michael wears appear magically on Jeep's (yes, the character's name is Jeep, no wonder the poor boy is so screwed up!) body. Michael reappears and tells Gabriel that God changed his mind and decided to show mercy and not kill humanity. Michael tells Jeep he needs to continue to protect the baby, that it was his destiny all along. Why, if God has changed his mind, does Jeep and the chick with the baby have to continue running away? At times this seems like a Terrminator knockoff, angels replacing the cyborgs. This could have been a decent movie but it really is a mish mash of stuff that the more I think about it the more confusing it gets!
I won't even go into the acting.... Bettany has the same facial expression throughout the whole movie, moody and distant. His accent varies from English to an almost Southern twang, very annoying. The rest is not even worth mentioning.
The director also wrote and produced the movie. He should have fired himself. OY!
I guess the animation of the Angel wings is kinda cool.......there, I found something nice to say hahaha!
0/5
OK, so ignoring the reviewers I went to see Legion. What a wreck!! I don't even know where to start...
Here we go..... spoilers ahead, you have been duly warned!
The movie stars Paul Bettany as the archangel Michael, who disagrees with an order from God and decides to leave the "family" and come down to Earth on his own and protect mankind. You see, God is ticked off at humanity and finally decides to destroy mankind. Just after arriving on Earth, he breaks into a toy company, making a grand entrance through the glass roof, cuts his wings (ouch!), which causes him to loose this thing around his neck that looks like an electronic collar (so God keeps angels slaved using collars WTF?), and sutures the wounds with a spool of suture (chromic gut by the looks of the pack, with a needle so big I could only use on a cow's stomach ;-)) that he finds in the medicine cabinet, because as we all know, that is stuff that is kept at toy warehouses (!?!?). Oh, then he arms himself to the teeth, because the toy company is a front for an illegal arms trader, I am guessing because there is a room full of all kinds of cool machine guns. After he gets out by way of an explosion (are the doors locked from the inside?) that leaves a cross shaped opening (wtf?) on the cargo door he confronts two cops and one turns into what cannot be called anything else but a demon. Kills him and steals the patrol car.
Out in the desert in a diner in the middle of nowhere, we come to meet the usual stereotypes. Slutty chick with uptight upper class parents, bitter pregnant chick, boy in love with pregnant chick (but pregnant chick likes him only as a friend), bitter diner owner, religious cook, gangbanger. There is only good scene in the whole movie. A sweet looking little old lady (still think Betty White should have done this part!!!) comes in and after eating a raw steak, she starts swearing at pregnant chick that her baby is going to die and swiftly tranforms into a thing that crawls up the walls and after a brief chase she gets killed by gangbanger. Michael arrives and we learn that the baby preg chick is expecting is the only hope for lasting peace (second coming of Jesus? Why would God want to destroy his own Son. And if the baby is not his son, who is he? In Christian tradition the second coming is nothing like this....nothing in the movie uis based on any tradition that I am familiar with. This is never adressed......... ). A battle ensues between our brave group of misfits and an army of humans possesed by angels. Yeah, by angels......... I am still scratching my head over that one, why not come down from Heaven and carry off God's orders, since they would be almost immune to human weapons (angel wings are bullet proof!) Only Gabriel comes down from Heaven is his true form (looking a lot like Alan Cummings on Cabaret, I kid you not!) and battles Michael. Michael appparently dies and it is up to boy in love to protect the baby, the tattoos that Michael wears appear magically on Jeep's (yes, the character's name is Jeep, no wonder the poor boy is so screwed up!) body. Michael reappears and tells Gabriel that God changed his mind and decided to show mercy and not kill humanity. Michael tells Jeep he needs to continue to protect the baby, that it was his destiny all along. Why, if God has changed his mind, does Jeep and the chick with the baby have to continue running away? At times this seems like a Terrminator knockoff, angels replacing the cyborgs. This could have been a decent movie but it really is a mish mash of stuff that the more I think about it the more confusing it gets!
I won't even go into the acting.... Bettany has the same facial expression throughout the whole movie, moody and distant. His accent varies from English to an almost Southern twang, very annoying. The rest is not even worth mentioning.
The director also wrote and produced the movie. He should have fired himself. OY!
I guess the animation of the Angel wings is kinda cool.......there, I found something nice to say hahaha!
0/5
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Sunday, January 24, 2010
Ak & Zuie /Stephen Jay gig Jan 16. 2010
The trip:
After a trip in which I found out what a chicken thigh feels like in a Shake n' Bake bag, I arrived in Sunny California. Cold for the locals, heavenly mild for me. After stopping at Pyramid Lake and taking some pictures got to Frazier Park kinda early so I drove around, beautiful area. Desert in FP, gigantic pine tree woods to the west of there, mountains everywhere (Illinois is mostly flat as a pancake, so I go gaga when I see mountains :-)).
The show:
The place they were playing at is a small art gallery during the day. Cozy place full of locals except us "fangirls" that came from near and far; me, Nancy, Helen, Vikki and Tina. What a treat was to hear the guys play in such a cool setting. The sounds was as close to perfect as humanly possible. There is something very unique about hearing them play live as opposed than listening to their music on a CD, which is fantastic too. There is a lot of improvisation and mixture of rythms that you acan only achieve playing live. They even played a brand new song called "Cold in the Sun", watch for this one on Steve's MySpace and his website pretty soon. It has a very contagious reggaesque sound that you will love!. One song that they allways play that is one of my favorites is "Trouble". This song is good on CD but live you can really hear all the nuances a recording just cannot do justice to. I did not write down the set list, too entranced with the music to do it, plus I was "field testing" my new camera on low light setting for the first time, I got side-tracked. Off the top of my head they played:
"Cool Dry Place"
"All of the Above"
"Trouble"
"Cold in the Sun"
"Sea Never Dry"
"She was the One"
"Can't Wait Long"
"Thank You"
"Big Shoes"
As I think of the other stuff they played, I will add them.
At the end we had impromptu dancing, and jam sessions with two audience members, very cool. Three hours of great music and fun flew by!
After a trip in which I found out what a chicken thigh feels like in a Shake n' Bake bag, I arrived in Sunny California. Cold for the locals, heavenly mild for me. After stopping at Pyramid Lake and taking some pictures got to Frazier Park kinda early so I drove around, beautiful area. Desert in FP, gigantic pine tree woods to the west of there, mountains everywhere (Illinois is mostly flat as a pancake, so I go gaga when I see mountains :-)).
The show:
The place they were playing at is a small art gallery during the day. Cozy place full of locals except us "fangirls" that came from near and far; me, Nancy, Helen, Vikki and Tina. What a treat was to hear the guys play in such a cool setting. The sounds was as close to perfect as humanly possible. There is something very unique about hearing them play live as opposed than listening to their music on a CD, which is fantastic too. There is a lot of improvisation and mixture of rythms that you acan only achieve playing live. They even played a brand new song called "Cold in the Sun", watch for this one on Steve's MySpace and his website pretty soon. It has a very contagious reggaesque sound that you will love!. One song that they allways play that is one of my favorites is "Trouble". This song is good on CD but live you can really hear all the nuances a recording just cannot do justice to. I did not write down the set list, too entranced with the music to do it, plus I was "field testing" my new camera on low light setting for the first time, I got side-tracked. Off the top of my head they played:
"Cool Dry Place"
"All of the Above"
"Trouble"
"Cold in the Sun"
"Sea Never Dry"
"She was the One"
"Can't Wait Long"
"Thank You"
"Big Shoes"
As I think of the other stuff they played, I will add them.
At the end we had impromptu dancing, and jam sessions with two audience members, very cool. Three hours of great music and fun flew by!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
The Addams Family, a New Musical
The preview/tryout for the Addams Family just ended its roughly 3 month run two weeks ago. I had the opportunity of seeing this new play a few times, starting the third time it was performed publically and ending on the closing night.
The gist:
Wednesday turns 18 and as an adult member of the family she is to abide to the rituals and rules of the clan. Well, not so much, she has a boyfriend that she has been trying to hide from her parents, because he is "normal". So of course the Addams, ever the perfect hosts, invite them over for dinner. The Bienecke's arrive and they are normal, well as normal as things are in the Addams Family universe, but the Missus' outfit reminded me of bird poo and has made me develop a sudden dislike of anything golden yellow. Morticia begins to dubt herself as a seductive woman, now that Wednesday is in the spotlight. They have dinner and play The Game, in which the adults reveal their deepest secrets and Mrs. Bienecke, with some pharmacological help courtesy of Grandma's potions (an acident, since she was not the intended reciepient) gives way to a dark, dark, dark song that creeped out everyone, even Gomez. The B's try to leave but a sudden (and convenient) storm ensues and they are stuck at the mansion overnight. Morticia and Mrs. B bond while the guys discuss life and squids, giving way to the funniest, if not most ridiculous (and I mean mean ridiculous with the utmost respect) song of the show.
The cast:
Gomez and Morticia are played by Nathan Lane and Bebe Newirth respectively. I alsmost wrecked my truck when I heard the the announcement on Sirius last year. The are both extremeley talented actors with a gazillion years on the stage under their belts and I had never had the honor of seeing them perform live. I love Bebe as Morticia, got to see her understudy once (Rachel de Benedet and she was fantastic also), Nathan was overdoing it at first, his accent was like the love child of Antonio Banderas and Arnold, the Governator! But he was much better on later performances. Terrence Mann plays Mr. Bienecke, seems a bit restrained at times (his character as a whole is a bit bland, compared to everyone else) but when he sings his solo at the end......... I remember why I love this man's voice so very much. Jackie Hoffman steals the show as Grandma! On later shows she was ad-libing during her monologue and on New Years Eve she made a joke about Dick Clark and dropping balls that made everyone (including the other actors!) crack up laughing for a few minutes, effectively stopping the show. She is being way underutilized on this show, there, I said it. Krysta Rodriguez is effective as Wednesday. She has a very funny song about how freaked out she is about feeling normal that the kids loved. Kevin Chamberlain is adorable as Uncle Fester. Adam Riegler playing Pugsley, has improved a ton since the first show (but I cut him some slack since he is a kid), seeming much more at ease with his character and his interactions with the rest of the cast. Wesley Taylor plays Wednesday's boyfriend, Lucas. He was one of the characters that I was worried about at first, his lines made him seem lost among everyone else but that has improved.. Lurch, played by Zachary James, having only one song and real lines at the end of the show, is a total waste of that beautiful baritone voice he has.
Overall:
The play has good potential of succeeding ........... it just needs a bit of tweaking before hitting Broadway in March...
I give 3.5/5
Favorite line:
"This is Peyote, one swig of this and before you know you are locked up at Bellevue screaming
I AM SPARTACUS!!!!"-Grandma
The gist:
Wednesday turns 18 and as an adult member of the family she is to abide to the rituals and rules of the clan. Well, not so much, she has a boyfriend that she has been trying to hide from her parents, because he is "normal". So of course the Addams, ever the perfect hosts, invite them over for dinner. The Bienecke's arrive and they are normal, well as normal as things are in the Addams Family universe, but the Missus' outfit reminded me of bird poo and has made me develop a sudden dislike of anything golden yellow. Morticia begins to dubt herself as a seductive woman, now that Wednesday is in the spotlight. They have dinner and play The Game, in which the adults reveal their deepest secrets and Mrs. Bienecke, with some pharmacological help courtesy of Grandma's potions (an acident, since she was not the intended reciepient) gives way to a dark, dark, dark song that creeped out everyone, even Gomez. The B's try to leave but a sudden (and convenient) storm ensues and they are stuck at the mansion overnight. Morticia and Mrs. B bond while the guys discuss life and squids, giving way to the funniest, if not most ridiculous (and I mean mean ridiculous with the utmost respect) song of the show.
The cast:
Gomez and Morticia are played by Nathan Lane and Bebe Newirth respectively. I alsmost wrecked my truck when I heard the the announcement on Sirius last year. The are both extremeley talented actors with a gazillion years on the stage under their belts and I had never had the honor of seeing them perform live. I love Bebe as Morticia, got to see her understudy once (Rachel de Benedet and she was fantastic also), Nathan was overdoing it at first, his accent was like the love child of Antonio Banderas and Arnold, the Governator! But he was much better on later performances. Terrence Mann plays Mr. Bienecke, seems a bit restrained at times (his character as a whole is a bit bland, compared to everyone else) but when he sings his solo at the end......... I remember why I love this man's voice so very much. Jackie Hoffman steals the show as Grandma! On later shows she was ad-libing during her monologue and on New Years Eve she made a joke about Dick Clark and dropping balls that made everyone (including the other actors!) crack up laughing for a few minutes, effectively stopping the show. She is being way underutilized on this show, there, I said it. Krysta Rodriguez is effective as Wednesday. She has a very funny song about how freaked out she is about feeling normal that the kids loved. Kevin Chamberlain is adorable as Uncle Fester. Adam Riegler playing Pugsley, has improved a ton since the first show (but I cut him some slack since he is a kid), seeming much more at ease with his character and his interactions with the rest of the cast. Wesley Taylor plays Wednesday's boyfriend, Lucas. He was one of the characters that I was worried about at first, his lines made him seem lost among everyone else but that has improved.. Lurch, played by Zachary James, having only one song and real lines at the end of the show, is a total waste of that beautiful baritone voice he has.
Overall:
The play has good potential of succeeding ........... it just needs a bit of tweaking before hitting Broadway in March...
I give 3.5/5
Favorite line:
"This is Peyote, one swig of this and before you know you are locked up at Bellevue screaming
I AM SPARTACUS!!!!"-Grandma
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