A Seattle moviegoing lifestyle magazine
Through this weekend, the Monty Python stage musical SPAMALOT can be seen at the 5th Avenue Theatre. It was uproariously funny. It is probably the funniest play I have ever seen, which includes The Book of Mormon and The Producers (my favorite musical that is not Chicago).
As the year winds to a close, we’re sharing lists of our favorite films we’ve seen (so far).
But the concept of a thirty-something Will Ferrell playing an, uhh, elf, too large and too human for the North Pole being left alone in New York with only a sweet tooth that requires bidaily dental visits and a snow globe in search of the father who doesn’t know he exists, and that father is Sonny Corleone, is basically too irresistible to fail.
Wicked: For Good picks up where Wicked left off. Elphaba is fleeing the wrath of the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum), whom she angered by calling out his impotence, and she’s being chased by flying monkeys. She isn’t safe anywhere in Oz. Meanwhile, during her exile, the Wizard and Madame Morrible continue their malevolent schemes and promote Glinda as the “good” counterpart to the “bad” Elphaba. They literally brand her as “Glinda the Good,” plastering the slogan across banners throughout Oz.
Several years ago, I first learned about the Japanese phenomenon of “renting” family members. For anyone willing to pay several thousand yen, it’s possible to rent a surrogate to fill an emotional (and physical) vacancy: someone to attend birthday parties, go shopping, or even get slapped by the wife of an unfaithful husband. People are lonely, and these companies exist to fill that void.
Nia DaCosta’s update of Henrik Ibsen’s classic 1891 play Hedda Gabler is such a frustrating watch I found myself making excuses to finish watching it, including watching 29 innings of two World Series games and a Seahawks drubbing of the lowly Washington Commanders. It wasn’t bad, per se, just frustrating because it could’ve been so much better.
“The story unfolds mostly in a dank Argentinian prison where Valentín is being held for his revolutionary activities. Desperate to extract information from him as torture has thus far proven ineffective, prison officials introduce a new cellmate, Molina, who is sent to spy on Valentín in exchange for the promise of release to see his ailing mother in her final days.”
Margaret Qualley stars as Honey O’Donohue, a Bakersfield, CA private investigator on a mission to uncover the suspicious circumstances behind a woman’s death just before their scheduled meeting. The case pulls her into the orbit of a shady church and its sleazy pastor, Reverend Drew (Chris Evans). Qualley is magnetic throughout, commanding attention with her rapid-fire PI cadence. This is absolutely her movie, and she almost saves it from itself. Almost.
Since it’s debut on Broadway in 2013, the musical After Midnight has been a popular revue across the country, with its latest production currently taking stage at the Fifth Avenue Theatre through this weekend. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen on stage before, and it’s well, well worth your time and attention. This is the second successive production at the Fifth Avenue that I’ve reviewed after the immensely fun Bye Bye Birdie, and both are unqualified successes.
Like the previous Naked Gun and Airplane! movies, the comedy here relies on puns, physical humor, deadpan, and visual gags. Most of the bits fall flat (the law of averages demands it), and the humor can sometimes be scatological and certainly not for everyone—but man, did I enjoy it. Director Akiva Schaffer, from the comedy trio the Lonely Island, clearly knows how to generate laughs in the compact 85 minute running time.
