Category Archives: QuossOver

Review: Xanadu at Drury Lane Theatre

Show: XANADU
Music and Lyrics: Jeff Lynne & John Farrar
Book: Douglas Carter Beane 		Location: Drury Lane Theater
Director: Rachel Rockwell
Music Director: Roberta Duchak

A sold out show… Who would have thought? Particularly what was originally considered a total flop when the original film came out turned out be quite a hit on Broadway and various theatre groups throughout the country.

Not to be confused with Zanna Don’t, the off Broadway production about a fairy that helps people in Heartsville fall in love (and how homo sexuality was the norm while heterosexuality was forbidden… But that’s a different story / post)… Xanadu is a call back on 1980s music, dance, and peculiar story telling. Not that I am complaining.

The stage at Drury Lane is relatively small and curiosity piqued my interest in seeing how this particular production would pan out. The first thing I noticed was that the cast was comprised of only ten persons… which seemed rather small to me. At least until I noticed that the original cast was comprised of, at least the original intent was to have most of the cast playing multiple roles… and honestly that is fine by me.
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Entertainment: Games / Toys turning into Movies

So, as this old news, what surprise is there in that Hasbro is looking into turning some of their other properties into potential movies? After Transformers, G.I.Joe, and Battleship what else could possibly be turned into a movie?

Plenty as it would appear…

According to the Los Angeles Times:

Hasbro, has signed a deal with independent production and finance company Emmett/Furla Films to make movies based on the board games Hungry Hungry Hippos and Monopoly and the toy Action Man.

Rhode Island-headquartered Hasbro, which has a film production office at the Universal Pictures lot, announced the three-picture deal Thursday and confirmed that the first movie will be “Monopoly,” which the two companies hope to start production on in 2013.

Hmm… oook. I have a morbid curiosity as to how this is going to work out… as I read through the article I noticed that there were other properties in the pipeline for movie-dom:

Along with sequels to “Transformers” and “G.I. Joe” at Paramount, Hasbro has other properties set up around Hollywood, including Candyland at Sony Pictures and Stretch Armstrong at Relativity Media.

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Literary Review: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins

Title: Mockingjay
Author: Suzanne Collins
Format: Audiobook

Mockingjay available summary:

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

One of the things that struck me here was just how attached Katniss has come towards Peeta… upset that Peeta was left behind in favor of her, how she couldn’t understand why she was the symbol of the revolution or why they simply couldn’t find anyone else.

What I have complained over and over again in regards to my not being able to connect with Katniss throughout the series… finally comes into fruition in the third book of the series. I find myself wanting what is best from her, wanting her to succeed to get everything she has ever wanted. At the same time I think this attributed to the fact that she has finally grown as a character as opposed to staying relatively the same throughout the series.

Who knew when President Snow posed to Katniss that she has to act like she was in love with Peeta to make President Snow believe they were in love that the consequence was that in the Capitol taking Peeta and using him against Katniss that she would have actually fallen for Peeta and not necessarily in the romantic scene but in a deep loving bond where she would want no harm to happen to him.

And this is the heart and the center of Mockingjay… what drives Katniss into the directions taken to the ultimate conclusion. And this is why that a part of me is pleasantly surprised that after finding myself drawn to the secondary character I am finally able to relate to Katniss and find her a character worth rooting for.
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Review: The Hunger Games on DVD

Ok… I’ll admit it, I’m a sap… I am a crazy sap particularly when it comes to things like watching Katniss cry over the death of Rue, or watching her care for Peeta or even at the top of the film when she goes for her little sister Prim when Prim’s name was picked from the dish and volunteers to be Tribute of District 12.

But I am getting way ahead of myself. If you have read my reviews for the first two books of the Hunger Games Trilogy (The Hunger Games, Catching Fire) then you know that I am way late in the game with this particular book series and that I was presently surprised at how much I enjoyed the series as a whole. Sure there were times when I felt that the series was a bit predictable and several moments felt forced, but for the most part it was a rather enjoyable series.

The same seems to happen here with the first movie adaptation of the series, I am way behind the times… however, when I finally got around to watching the movie I found that I am much more drawn to the movie version of Katniss than I was with the book version.

Let’s look at what I said about the book version of Katniss:

There were times when I wanted to scream at Katniss for being so damn strong, but then again understood as to why. For someone who had to grow up rather quickly and rather young in life, you can’t help but have a harden outlook on life. However, for some reason Katniss is almost too hardened to be relate-able in any way… and it is those few moments where she lets her guard down and does something straight from the heart that people latch onto and find themselves drawn to where Katniss finds her audience. I suppose by having those extremes in her personality, that is how her more “real” moments become more than special for the reader.

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Comparison: Mirror Mirror vs Snow White and the Huntsman

This has happened in Hollywood before… One movie is announced to be in development and soon after there is another movie of a similar vein that is also announced. This happened with The First Daughter and Chasing Liberty and it happened again between Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman.

What is interesting though is that even though Mirror Mirror and Snow White and the Huntsman are deviations from the same fairy tale “Snow White and the Seven Dwarves” they do take two very distinct paths in the retelling / interpretation to their stories…

MIRROR MIRROR
Mirror Mirror very clearly takes a light hearted, comical approach to their storytelling, considering that they have Julia Roberts as the “Evil Queen” I can’t say that I am all that surprised. After all Julia does comedy well… Sometimes almost too well. She does balance it out with the sinister part of the Evil Queen and there are times when I believed in her “evilness” but more often than not I found myself smiling and smirking in the comedy.

But then again there are aspects that I kind of wished I could have seen in this version as well… Like a little bit of fighting between the Evil Queen and Snow White, but you can’t have everything that you want in life.

Oddly enough as I think about Mirror Mirror I realize that it reminds me a little of Ella Enchanted as a bit of a modern day fairy tale where the female is just as strong and independent as their male counterpart. Then again both female heroines had to grow into their independence… Not only that but they happened to fight with their male heroes as well… And nothing says love more than being able to hold your own against a guy!

SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN
On the other side of the spectrum you have an action drama semi-adventure like Snow White and the Huntsman with its fairly predictable plot line and the requisite attempt of a love triangle. Yes there is a bit more mythology involved particularly with that of the Evil Queen and her ascension over time… Or even of that of the Huntsman and his life and the aftermath.

There is a lot that was purposely left open ended with possibilities of sequels down the road and if that is indeed the case, then it is easy to see how and why this first movie was fairly predictable in plot and deviations. Then again between the two, Snow White and the Huntsman tends to stick closer to the original plot while as Mirror Mirror appears to rearrange and takes quite a few liberties with the stories.

Would I have liked to have seen the connection develop more between the duke’s son and Snow White as opposed to taking their relationship at face value? Absolutely, but what can one do? I the end this movie / story is about

Both have something to offer but both also fall short in one capacity or another.

Review: Snow White and the Huntsman

The second movie I decided to watch soon after I concluded Mirror Mirror was – surprise surprise – Snow White and the Huntsman. I mean how could I not? They were both available and it would be a shame to watch one and not the other… So I decided to give it a go.

Snow White and the Huntsman actually keeps the key points of the original fairy tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves more so than that of Mirror Mirror… Obviously with some twists and changes along the way. The major deviation is turning the overall tale of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves into more of an action / adventure type of film and in some ways this works out decently in the grand scheme of things.

The Evil Queen is brought to Snow White’s father’s attention via a battle wherein she was the prisoner of the opposing army. Enamored by her beauty the king married her soon after only to be killed on their wedding night. The Evil Queen then takes over the kingdom with few escapees and makes Snow White prisoner with no one that escaped knowing if Sow White had survived or not.

And this is my first issue with the changes… Why keep Sow White prisoner? What purpose does it serve? The Evil Queen has proven time and time again that she will do what it takes to keep her youth by sucking the life out of other women. And she has no qualms of killing anyone around her for self-preservation even going so far as to sacrifice the life of her own brother… So why keep Snow White alive?

Alas, we may never know the answer to this wee little loophole in the story and as thus we, the audience, are expected to take this conundrum at face value… Ah well.
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Review: Mirror Mirror

So on the plane ride to Korea (on the way to Vietnam) I found time to catch up on a few movies that I was interested n seeing but never really wanted to pay for in any capacity due to the mixed reviews… But watch I did.

First on the list: Mirror Mirror

Julia Roberts as the Wicked Queen / Stepmother is hilarious, some really nice one liners. Heck there are some fun one liners in this movie. she balances the whole vanity / self-indulgent thing to the extent that you are not irritated nor wishing the worst of her. In fact I would go so far as to say that the Wicked Queen is not only the antagonist but also the comedic relief in this particular retelling of the classic story.
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Review: Ranma 1/2 – Live Action Version

Yes, you read that correctly there is a live action version of Ranma 1/2 floating around out there, and before you asked I purchased my copy via EBay… and at a glance it would appear that there are still copies of it available.

First I found this little trailer via YouTube (unfortunately no English subtitles):

Before I purchased this anomaly I researched all that I could about this movie even locating the Facebook Page that was created for this live-action film.

But what is the movie about… officially? There is a long thorough summary over at Furinkan.com, but for the essence of spacing there is a shorter summary that I took from AsianWiki.

Akane (Yui Aragaki) is the youngest of three daughters for Soun Tendo. Her father Soun Tendo (Katsuhisa Namase) runs a dojo for martial arts. Akane hopes to carry on her father’s dojo into the distant future.

Meanwhile, Akane has been selected to marry Ranma (Kento Kaku), the son of her father’s long time friend Genma (Arata Furuta). Akane and Ranma’s relationship has developed into a love and hate relationship. Also, Ranma isn’t your typical boy. While on a training journey Ranma fell into the Spring of the Drowned Girl and now changes into a women whenever cold water is splashed on him. Warm water will allow him to revert back to a male. Problems arise when Akane’s father declares that the successor to their dojo must be a male. Now, Akane and Ranma (being a man only half of the time) must find a secret spring that can cure him of his curse.

After surfing a little more there was someone who did a video review of the Ranma 1/2 Live Action film and I highly recommend it:
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Literary Review: Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

Title: Catching Fire
Author: Suzanne Collins
Format: Audiobook

The second book in the series we are re-introduced to Katniss and the world around her. She and Peeta have both made it out of The Hunger Games alive and relatively in one piece, but when Katniss admitted to Peeta that she didn’t really fall in love with him, she was just playing the game in an effort to keep the both of them alive. Except she is feeling a little broken hearted and the connection they felt while within the arena had virtually disappeared… at least according to Katniss.

We are introduced to the notion of the Quarter Quell… where every 25th Hunger Games there is a special twist that is added to the mix. During one Quarter Quell all the districts had to nominate the children to send into the Games, in another Quarter Quell all districts were expected to send double the tributes. In the third Quarter Quell all the tributes would be polled from the pool of previous living victors. In this case Katniss was automatically a part of the Quarter Quell and for the men it was between Haymitch and Peeta and as it would turn out, Peeta volunteered for the Quarter Quell.
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Literary Review: The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Title: The Hunger Games
Author: Suzanne Collins
Format: Audiobook

So I finally got around to finishing out the trilogy that every one has been talking about for years. Yes I am that behind.

Unfortunately one of the things that kept me from reading / listening to the trilogy earlier was that a lot of the premise reminded me a lot of Battle Royale that was created back in 1999 with a movie adaptation in 2000.

I enjoyed Battle Royale despite the insane amount of blood, violence and sex… because the provocative storyline is something that I could see would happen in the not so distant future (which was the setting of the story in general).

Available summary of Battle Royale (from Amazon.com):

In an alternative future Japan, junior high students are forced to fight to the death! Koushun Takami’s notorious high-octane thriller is based on an irresistible premise: a class of junior high school students is taken to a deserted island where, as part of a ruthless authoritarian program, they are provided arms and forced to kill one another until only one survivor is left standing. Criticized as violent exploitation when first published in Japan — where it then proceeded to become a runaway bestseller — Battle Royale is a Lord of the Flies for the 21st century, a potent allegory of what it means to be young and (barely) alive in a dog-eat-dog world. Made into a controversial hit movie of the same name, Battle Royale is already a contemporary Japanese pulp classic.

A bit too close to that of the “present time” as opposed to The Hunger Games where the setting was post-current Earth. It would appear that a World War III of some sort occurred and now everyone is left in a very authoritarian world. In fact it was rumored that Albert Einstein once said:

I do not know with what kinds of weapons the Third World War will be fought, but the Fourth World War will be fought with sticks and stones.

Yeah, no kidding. In any case, to the fantasy / science-fiction mind a premise of using children as play pieces in a game / fight to the death is not a new premise. In fact this has been the kind of story from ancient times most typically:
– Gladiator style in ancient Roman times
– the mythology of the Minotaur where fourteen young sacrifices were given to please the monster in a massive maze

So it is rather believable that two authors could have come up with rather similar premises to create their stories. After a significant amount of time as passed I finally decided to listen to the audiobooks more out of curiosity than anything else.
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Review: Emursive presents Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More

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Early in April (the first weekend of April) I made a trip to New York City to watch a couple of theatre productions for one of the blogs that I write for. While there I saw Disney’s the Newsies the Musical and Once the Musical… in fact my impressions of those particular shows have been posted on my blog already.

There is one show – if it can be considered a “show” – that I also went to that went beyond all words and description that it literally took me a few months to truly comprehend what I had experienced and realized that when I go back to New York, I would be more than willing to plop down more to see the production a few more times. Yes, a few… and I’ve already “seen” it twice.

British Theatre Company: Punchdrunk made the trip over the ocean to introduce the Americans to a new kind of theatre experience with the presentation of Sleep No More. They first made their debut in Brookline, Massachusetts, when they took over an abandoned school and transformed it into a variety of scenes that delve into the world of Shakespeare’s Macbeth and tying this Shakespearan tragedy into the world of the Speakeasy / Film Noir.

Even now I am having difficulty organizing my thoughts on this fantastical production. I’ll see what I can do though:
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SPOILERS: Disney’s the Newsies the Musical

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There have been a lot of questions swirling about in regards to the changes between the original Disney film the Newsies and the stage musical production of the same name.

In my original review I made a point of glossing over any major plot / character changes that may reveal too much of what is going to happen in the stage production. However, I am sure that there are people out there that are curious about what changes were made in the musical and how was the storyline changed.

Well I am posting that for you… mind you this is a SPOILER and all bits about the changes in the show will be just beyond the break. You enter at your own risk and as thus you cannot blame me for spoiling the musical for you.

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Review: Once the Musical – Original Broadway Production

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I’ll admit, I was a bit hesitant about this particular musical. I have never really been a huge fan of musicals that were based off of straight movies (Catch Me If You Can, Legally Blonde, Ghost, Shrek, Footloose), moreso if the movie never really had songs in them except for background. However, once in a while there would be a musical that is based off a movie that I may be willing enough to see (State Fair, The Bodyguard, Newsies) mainly because in a way those movies were seemingly made for musical theatre. Once on the other hand teetered at a knife’s edge for me. I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of it or how it would be staged, so when a co-blogger of mine from PureSYTYCD.com got tix to see Once the Musical, I went… with reservations.

Walking into the theater, you automatically realize that this particular show is not going to be like anything you’ve seen before. Think of it this way, when you’re first walking into the Jacobs Theatre the atmosphere is festive, joyous and at first you think it’s music playing in the house. However, it’s not coming from the speakers and it’s not a record, instead you to the stage and realize that the cast is actually doing a kind of pre-show for the audience… a warm-up act if you will. Not only that, but those audience members sitting up in front or even if they have time to run to the stage are allowed to come on stage and join the cast! I haven’t seen or heard anything like it.

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Review: Disney’s the Newsies, the Musical – Original Broadway Production

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When The Newsies first came out to movie theaters in 1992, it was well known as a massive financial and commercial flop. The star of the movie, Christian Bale, was said to have hated the movie so much that he reportedly wouldn’t talk or even acknowledge its existence in his acting career (but between you and me Christian should thank his lucky stars that the Newsies was a flop otherwise it wouldn’t have given him the drive to improve himself as an actor and therefore be an Oscar winner today – but that’s a different story).

Fast forward a couple of decades and the Newsies became a massive cult classic… what started as a flop in movie theaters across the country became a cult classic when put on VHS and DVD (I know I’m guilty of that). So when it came out that Disney Theatrical was working on a musical version of the beloved movie, the general consensus was cautiously positive and with just cause because the movie did not do well how would a stage production fare?

So Disney got smart, they tested the show out of town to positive reviews, reworked a few things here and there and brought it to Broadway on a limited but open ended engagement. Next thing you know it has been a packed house ever since.

Being a Newsies fan I was intrigued with the concept of the stage production and so far liked what I saw. However, knowing that some pieces of the storytelling got changed or rearranged, songs got cut others got added in, I was reasonably apprehensive. Was Disney selling out the integrity of the story in favor of catering to a larger audience? I didn’t quite know what to think, so originally I decided to wait until the soundtrack came out to make my decision of whether to see the show live or not… originally.

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Review: Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice (at NYMF)

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The New York Musical Theatre Festival is a musical only festival that appears on the New York theatre scene that takes in some of the strongest full productions of up and coming musicals from across the country and gives them the chance to show off their stuff in the heart of New York City.

Such known alumni include:

Every year presents a new crop of productions trying to find their footing and every year there has been standouts. This past year is no exception.

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