Category Archives: Reviews

Review: Village Theatre Guild’s A Little Night Music

Show: A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC
Music and Lyrics: Stephen Sondheim
Book: Hugh Wheeler 		Location: Village Theatre Guild
Director: Craig Gustafson
Music Director: Douglas Orlyk

I am not going to lie, this was one production that I was looking forward to all year. Take that a step further… I was even more excited when the cast list first came out… to the point that I was jumping up and down in excitement and glee because it included several heavy hitters in the theatre community (Steve Schroeder, Pam Turlow, Susan O’Byrne, Randall Knott), relative novices (Teresa Reinalda), favorites (Heather Miller, Patty Yuen, Justin Triezenberg) and everyone else in between.

This blend of talents made for a very beautiful, well-crafted production of A Little Night Music that should be lasting longer than the original one month run.

First let us start with the director: Craig Gustafson. He has been known throughout the community to helm some very strong productions over the years… most recently Assassins at the Geneva Underground Playhouse and the Broadway Ballot at Wheaton Drama. This production of A Little Night Music is not just the exception to the rule… but the standard (for black box theatre productions).

With a strong production team that includes Douglas Orlyk as Musical Director and RJ Ogren as Set Designer… Craig masterfully directs this timeless production from the large stage into a small black box theatre with sitting only available for just short of sixty people per show. At first glance, one could only wonder at how a stage production such as A Little Night Music could fit into such a small venue… however it only takes about five minutes into the production to marvel at how effortlessly the cast and production team were able to put such a production up in an very efficient and effective manner.

A feat of engineering as I would call it… unlike myself I do not believe any one of them are engineers! How could I not be impressed? 😉

The set (as conceived by RJ Ogren) was gorgeous as we have come to almost expect out of him, but not just that it was also very functional. At the far ends of either side are platforms for various scenes that do not require much movement or interaction and the center stage area is set aside for the majority of the larger scenes. One platform however is designated for the various bedroom scenes one finds in A Little Night Music (take that as you will) while the other blends from moments of Madam Armfeldt with her granddaughter Fredricka to moments that members of the quintet have to themselves between scene changes.

Anyway… enough about the production team… what about the cast? Before I start talking about the cast… let’s find out who they are:

CHARACTER ACTOR
Desiree Armfeldt Pam Turlow
Fredrik Egerman Mark Mavetz
Anne Egerman Teresa J Arnold
Henrik Egerman Justin Triezenberg
Petra Heather Miller
Count Carl-Magnus Malcolm Randall W Knott
Charlotte Malcolm Karen Bronson
Fredrika Armfeldt Brynn Frantz
Madame Armfeldt Teresa Reinalda
Frid Peter Lemongelli
Mrs Anderssen Patty Yuen
Mr Erlanson Stan Austin
Mr Lindquist Steve Schroeder
Mrs Nordstrom Becky Messerschmidt
Mrs Segstrom Susan O’Byrne

But where do I begin with the cast?
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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Hồ Ngọc Hà Edition)

Finally we have the fourth and final team for whom we will look at the breakdown of the seven vocalists as they are whittle down to five.

Taking a look at the official posted results we can easily figure out at least two of the final five that will be moving forward.

First off let us get the runaway favorite out of the way for this team who happens to be Bùi Anh Tuấn who sang Hoang Mang (Bewildered). He received 47.2% of the total team vote.

The second place public vote recipient went to Đinh Thị Thanh Hương (13.81%) who sang Forever And One

So who were the lucky vocalists to be given a free pass by the judge to move on to the next round?
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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Đàm Vĩnh Hưng Edition)

As I have done in the past for the Thu Minh and Trần Lập Editions… this time around the vocalists for the teams of Đàm Vĩnh Hưng and Hồ Ngọc Hà.

First on the list: Đàm Vĩnh Hưng.

Now just like with the previous two teams, The Voice of Việt Nam have posted on their website the results of the public voting.

So just like the previous two teams, the top two contestants of the public vote get an automatic pass to the next round and they are:
Vũ Thanh Hằng who sang Thu Cuối (The End), she received 26.93% of the total vote for the team.

The second highest public vote went to Phan Ngọc Luân who sang You’ll Be Sorry with 17.92% of the total votes of the team:

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Review: Tangled Ever After

While listening to ABC’s Dancing with the Stars for the online blog PureDWTS where I am a blogger… there were commercials running for the new DVD / Blu-Ray pack for Cinderella. Typically I zone out these commercials and continue working until something else piqued my interest. Namely the fact that the Disney short film “Tangled Ever After” was to be a part of it.

Say What?!?!?!? Now I loved Tangled when it first came out… so much so that I bought the DVD and watched it a few times since, but now? Yeah… it was a music watch… so here!

Needless to say… I loved it.
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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Trần Lập Edition)

As I did with the Thu Minh Edition… I will look into what happened with Trần Lập’s team and how they got whittled down from seven to five. If you do not remember how the breakdown happened go to the post of the Live Round Edition – Whittling Seven Down to Five.

Looking at Thu Minh’s team there is a massive run away winner in the public vote. In the case of Trần Lập’s team there were three member that got the lion’s share of the public vote with everyone one else trailing a bit behind them. The top two of the three got an automatic in via the public vote:

Nguyễn Thùy Linh (31.7%) who sang “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You”

Trần Thi Kim Loan (31.63%) who sang “Và ta đã thấy mặt trời” (Finally I Saw the Sun)

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Review: Phantom of the Opera – 25th Anniversary Stage Recording

After watching Love Never Dies with a friend of mine months ago… I realized that I never got around to watching the 25th Anniversary Concert / Production of Phantom of the Opera. So I borrowed her DVD completely forgetting two things:
1: her version was a non-U.S. DVD region
2: I already purchased my own DVD in the U.S. region

So since I had already watched Love Never Dies with the Australian cast… I had a bad habit of comparing the Australian cast to their Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary counterpart roles. Interesting thing to note is that three of the roles in the 25th Anniversary Production of Phantom of the Opera were portrayed by the same actors that were in the original West End production of Love Never Dies when it opened:

CHARACTER ACTOR / ACTRESS
The Phantom Ramin Karimloo
Christine Daaé Sierra Boggess
Madame Giry Liz Robertson

There is no denying it, Ramin and Sierra are absolutely amazing vocally and character-wise in their respective roles. Sierra’s voice is absolutely exquisite as Christine, she gives that innocent iridescence to the role and provides the growth necessary as she makes a choice between the two men that she had come to realized that she has loved in her young life.

Here is Sierra as Christine as she slowly acclimates herself as the lead soprano in the aria “Think of Me”

And again when she runs to her father’s family tomb to “Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again”

Ramin is strong and powerful and is able to give that sense of vulnerability when the one thing he has ever wanted he realizes that he would never have and let’s Christine go in the end. There is something about Ramin that is just absolutely mesmerizing and there is no denying it.
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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Rounds – Thu Minh Edition)

With the second round of two teams of seven participating in the second Live Show from teams Hồ Ngọc Hà and Đàm Vĩnh Hưng, let’s look and see how the first two teams fared in the first set of Live Shows. In case you do not know how the teams are whittled from teams of seven to a team of five head to my post: Live Round – Whittling Seven Down to Five.

Taking a look at the online list of how the public vote was separated, Thu Minh’s team had a clear winner in the popular vote running away with more than half of the votes that were called in and everyone else just trailing behind.

The Public Vote winners of Thu Minh’s team were:
“Phạm Thị Hương Tràm” who sang “Anh” (You). According to statistics she apparently earned the lion’s share (57.23%) of the public vote from her team.

… in case you did not know, she sang a Whitney Houston classic during her blind audition.

As for her team mate Dương Trần Nghĩa he sang Bay which translates to Fly (mind you Bay is the Vietnamese word, not the English word). He got about 11.09% of the vote.

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Reflection: Zenobia the Original Musical Production Coming 2013

This was released for public viewing not that long ago:

According to YouTube:

A promotional video for the original musical, “Zenobia,” being premiered in Bolingbrook, IL in 2013 by Theatre-on-the-Hill, a not-for-profit community theatre. Book and lyrics by Lorrisa Julianus, music by Angela Salvaggione. Comments have been deactivated to discourage abuse, but if you are interested in participating in any capacity or attending, please contact us at www.tothbolingbrook.com.

Overview: Zenobia – who was sold into slavery upon birth – is a slave in the household of Danathus, King of Palmyra. While there she falls in love with the young prince: Alexander, who chooses the rebellion against the Roman oppressors which pushes her into the arms of his uncle, Danathus. Together, Danathus and Zenobia expand the empire until his untimely death where she continues the expansion at the chagrin of the Roman Emperor: Aurelian.

How to describe this musical? Epic… that is the best way to describe it.
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Review: The Voice of Việt Nam (Live Round – Whittling Seven Down to Five)

So I was catching up with The Voice of Việt Nam, Việt Nam’s version of the United States hit The Voice.

A lot of the premise is still the same, but there are some things that I found to be rather interesting.

First let’s go back to what I mentioned about reality television in Việt Nam in general

I didn’t realize this show existed until I was chatting with family in Việt Nam and noticed a news article on Yahoo.co.vn site about a contestant on Việt Nam’s version of The Voice… also known as “The Voice of Việt Nam”. Complete with a Facebook Page, “The Voice of Việt Nam” is similar to that of the first two seasons of America’s version of The Voice. The blind auditions, the battle rounds, then the live rounds.

Each judge/coach has to comprise teams of fourteen vocalists from the blind auditions, then during the battle rounds those fourteen are whittled down to seven. As of this past Monday (September 24) the Live Rounds have begun.

The judging / coaching panel includes:
– Thu Minh: Dance, Pop Ballad
– Trần Lập: Rock, hardrock
– Hồ Ngọc Hà: Pop, R&B, Ballad, Dance
– Đàm Vĩnh Hưng: Việt Nam Pop

Unlike the United States version of The Voice, the judging / coaching panel tend to stay more in the similar realms and don’t really stretch out that much.

So it has been two weeks and already there are changes between the Việt Nam version and what we know in the United States:
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Entertainment News: The Miss Saigon film adaptation Wish List

With the buzz surrounding Les Miserables and the anticipated release on Christmas Day… Musical and Film insiders have their sets on another Cameron Mackintosh production that has potential for the big screen: Miss Saigon.

When reading my RSS feed earlier, Playbill goes into detail of the various parties that have been rumored to be involved with the potential production.

Even Cameron Mackintosh tossed this little nugget to the feeders:

If Les Mis is a success then Miss Saigon will be made into a film. It isn’t confirmed at this point but there are many people sniffing around and offers coming in.

There were reports going on for the past few years that working on Miss Saigon was on “Precious” director Lee Daniels’ wish list. There were also rumors circulating that film producer Paula Wagner was working on a deal with Mackintosh for a spell.

According to Broadway.com recent American Idol contestant Jessica Sanchez has been floating around as a possible star.

Schönberg and Boublil collaborated with Richard Maltby, Jr. on the 1989 musical Miss Saigon, which took inspiration from the Puccini opera Madama Butterfly. Set during the fall of Vietnam, the musical centers on an American G.I. and a young Vietnamese prostitute who fall in love against the backdrop of the war. When Saigon falls and the Americans pull out, the young woman is left behind.

But… for someone like myself who is Vietnamese-American, I will be watching and scrutinizing every piece of news of this potential production with bated breath (ok… maybe not that extreme).

Why? Simple, because I want this to be done right, and not just via the eyes of the Americans (or other foreigners) but I would love to see this done right via the eyes of the Vietnamese that have actually lived through the war. This is afterall as much as Kim’s journey as it is Chris’ journey.

So as a Vietnamese-American I have a very specific wishlist of what I would love to see happen in any potential film production of Miss Saigon… ideas and wishes that I believe would not only enhance the film as a whole, but would bring the struggles of the Vietnamese to light. Afterall who better to describe what caused unease for the Vietnamese-Americans and the Vietnamese refugees when the production of Miss Saigon came to light?

THE ULTIMATE MISS SAIGON WISH LIST FOR THE FILM ADAPTATION
1: Potential Actors / Actresses
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Review: NBCs the Voice (Updates)

Before I begin here is one vocalist rendition of a Whitney Houston classic from “The Voice of Vietnam”

So NBCs the Voice has been on the airwaves for the past several weeks starting with the Blind Auditions on September 10th and 11th. The blind auditions have continued on for the next three weeks with the last set being October 1 / 2. Afterwards are the Battle Rounds. What is interesting is that tickets to watch the Battle Rounds live were issued for early August… so by this point in time those that are awaiting to be seen in the Live Rounds have been working on their bits for almost two months.

Blind Auditions:
– September 10 / 11 / 12
– September 17 / 18
– September 24 / 25
– October 1 / 2

I will provide commentary, information, thoughts sporadically once the Battle Rounds start over at the Pure TV Network blog. I have also been watching The Voice of Vietnam and will be posting a little bit about that (if it relates to the United States in anyway) over at that blog as well. Anything that is dealing strictly about The Voice of Vietnam you can find here on my personal blog.
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Review: Profiles Theatre’s Sweet and Sad (Understudy Performance)

Earlier this month (Monday, October 1) I went to the soon to be closed production of Sweet and Sad at the Profiles Theatre in Chicago. With this particular production there was a performance on a Monday Night where all the roles were played by the understudies as opposed to the original cast members.

First the cast (original and understudy):

CHARACTER ORIGINAL CAST UNDERSTUDY CAST
Richard Apple Darrell W. Cox Jeff Gamlin
Uncle Benjamin Apple Robert Breuler Scott Stockwell
Marian Apple Kristin Ford Jaimelyn Gray
Barbara Apple Kate Harris Michelle McKenzie-Voigt
Jane Apple Harmony France Angela DeMarco
Tim Andrews Eric Burgher Anthony Venturini

Typically when you have an understudy in the role you can kind of tell where they can improve their performance, particularly when they are with the original cast members and sometimes with other understudies… however with this particular understudy performance, in general, the understudy cast knocked it out of the ballpark.

So why see the understudy performance? Simple… my friends and I came to support a friend of mine for a professional gig that meant a lot to him and his wife. How could you not want to support a friend that spent his lifetime to this point trying to balance building his own theatre company as well as trying to pursue his own professional acting career?

But before I go more into the performances let’s talk about the show itself. First the synopsis from the Profiles Theatre Website:

Profiles Theatre’s Midwest premiere of Sweet and Sad by Richard Nelson opens the company’s 2012-2013 season. Sweet and Sad, directed by Joe Jahraus and featuring Co-Artistic Director Darrell W. Cox, is now playing through October 7, 2012. Performances are held at Profiles newest venue, The Main Stage, 4139 N. Broadway.

With Sweet and Sad, Tony Award-winning playwright Richard Nelson continues his series of plays exploring the immediate present as well as the ever-changing state of the nation. Over Sunday brunch on the tenth anniversary of 9/11, the members of the Apple Family finds themselves talking about loss, remembrance and the family struggle to maintain its moral equilibrium in a world that no longer reflects its values.

Wait? “Series of Plays”? Indeed… it would appear that Sweet and Sad is the second of a series of plays by playwright: Richard Nelson (the first being That Hopey Changey Thing). This series of plays surrounds the Apple Family as they get together first for Election Night in the first play and in the current play the anniversary of 9/11.
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Review: Iron Man on DVD

So when Iron Man first came out I didn’t watch it… didn’t have any inclination to do so…

Then a friend of mine wanted to see the Avengers and I thought “why the hell not” and found that I really enjoyed it.

In fact when I first wrote about The Avengers I went so far as to say the following about Iron Man:

I was apprehensive when the first Iron Man movie came out despite the good reviews, and was just as apprehensive when the second movie came out… but when I watched The Avengers I just started drooling. He was funny, and witty and absolutely delicious. So now I know what I’m going to be catching up with this summer.

So yeah… I actually did do some catching up in some capacity over the summer pre-flight and during flight… except I didn’t watch the Captain America film that was available on flight because I just wasn’t in the mood… ah well.

Anyway this post is suppose to focus on Iron Man… so focusing I will.
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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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