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Usually when I'm in a show, I try to do as little commenting on it as possible. I link to press releases and general press on the show. I link to reviews, both positive and negative, by title and author. I like to maintain some level of neutrality, after all, while still trying to bring attention to things I'm in. Unfortunately, unlike the rest of VLT's season fare, the current production of Godspell I'm in doesn't have a linkable press release. And, for reasons you'd have to ask of the reviewers themselves, we haven't gotten a single review. And I find these facts sad and distressing because this is, bar none, the show I am proudest to be a part of. Forget about me, I'm upset that no one wants to sing the praises of the fantastic ensemble of this show. And, really, this is rather the epitome of an ensemble show. With the brief exceptions of a minute or two at the top of each act, the entire cast of this show is onstage from start to finish. Emphasis goes to the "on" there. It doesn't matter who's talking or singing or dancing, every minute you're there, you have to be there, absorbed in the stories and the songs, reacting to your cast mates, keeping up with the crazy ad libs. And these people do all that and more. If there's no rest for the wicked, there's even less of it for the good people in this show. So to hell with neutrality. Today, bias or no, you're hearing from me about Godspell, because somebody needs to say it, and I'm tired of waiting for somebody else to get around to it: Quincy Broussard has a vocal range and sound that is impressive all on its own, and even moreso for how effortless Quincy makes it all look. Stephanie Costello is the comedic ad lib queen. Every bit out of this woman's mouth is so brilliantly hilarious, I love to sit back and watch her go. Or, when we're ad libbing together, I just hope I can manage not to fall too far behind. Chelsea Gonzalez does sweet and naive like nobody's business, and she manages to do it without slipping into the saccharine over-sweet that far too many fall prey to. Deniz Hakim knows her melodrama. Not because she overacts, but because she's not afraid to live by the "go big or go home" motto. Deniz definitely isn't going home. I dare you to watch this girl eating her food as "the rich man" and not bust a gut. Lauren Kelly's got more heart than anyone should get away with, and she brings it all to her performance. Even when she's chastising someone onstage, all it takes is a flash of that brilliant smile and you love her all over again. Tay Tufenkjian is possessed of a quiet focus I envy. And, on top of all the singing and dancing she does with the rest of us, she also does some amazing guitar playing (and wait until you hear the recorder solo). Nicole Valentino has quirky down to a science. She's stuck with some of the cornier jokes in the show, but she pulls them off like they were natural knee-slappers. David Walker is a hilarious master of voices. He's also a dancing machine. And when everyone else is out of breath trying to keep up with him, he's still going, and still belting out the high-energy songs to beat the band. Craig Weiskerger came to the show about a week and a half before we opened. You wouldn't know it. He's always on, always ready, and he manages to go from goofy sidekick in some segments of the show to tortured traitor in the end, and all of it looks natural. And that's just the cast. I could go on just as long about the production staff and crew, unsung stalwarts that they are. If you haven't seen the show, we're in our last week. There's still time to see the great people I've gotten to work with almost daily for the last few months. There's time to feel the energy they put into every performance from minute one. And when the performance is over, there's time to stand up and cheer for them the way I know they deserve. Tags: hype, reviews, theatre
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I've given into some of the hype. Picked up both New Excalibur and New X-Men as impulse buys. I don't have much to say on the Excalibur book; it was a bit uneven, but the good bits were good enough that I'll probably try the next issue. New X-Men, though, was an odd read. Some minor spoilers, so a cut tag and a warning: ( Where's Waldo Cast Edition )So, while frustrated by some lacking context, I'm interested to follow up on Wither, and to see who it is that's dating Wallflower. I want to know what's going on with the blonde telepath cult. And then there's the final page and the fate of the character on it. Plenty of things to draw me in next month. Only, as I understand it, the characters on the cover are meant to be the core players in the series from here on out. Given that, I kind of scratched my head at the fact that five out of seven of them only get a panel apiece this issue (actually, two of those five share their panel). If it weren't for the cover, I'd have no idea these kids weren't just a handful more of the litany of "Name. Codename. Power." captions throughout. In the end, the issue was interesting enough that I'll likely be back to check it out next month. But I'm still a little confused as to why the issue gets me interested in a whole bunch of characters whom, as I understand it, are either on the way out or meant to be supporting players. The people I'm supposed to be following are for reasons unknown camouflaged into the masses. Odd choice, that. Tags: comics, reviews
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Yes, there was a spanking new issue of a comic starring Power Pack last week: Marc Sumerak and GiruHiru's X-Men / Power Pack #1. Of course I bought it. And now, after hoping, perhaps, you would escape, I'm going to dissect it. But because I'm such a lovely person, a cut tag and spoiler warning: ( Snikt and Shrakt from clicking here )Once again, solid work in the vein of the first mini. The characters remain true to themselves and their source material. Lots of fun with sibling rivalry and some nice action sequences. And if I could do without Wolverine, well, I've always been in the minority there anyway, so I should probably get used to that. Tags: comics, power pack, reviews
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I think this week How I Met Your Mother may have earned its narrator. I'm still not keen on the kids, or on the need to remind us "nope, that's not who he'll marry, either," but both of those were reduced mostly to blips this week. And in their place, the show's writers realized they had a first person narrator, meaning he's both unreliable and limited in pov. One of the running bits this episode was an "I wasn't there, but..." that let the writers to do some over-the-top stuff under the auspices of the narrator only having someone else's word for what happened. They get to provide daring, third-story window jumping and still claim they're a reality-based sit-com. Slick, that. Tags: reviews, tv
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I'm really starting to enjoy How I Met Your Mother. Back up and rephrase: I'm really getting a kick out of a lot of the characters in How I Met Your Mother. I like how neurotic Lily and Marshall are about their coupledom. Barney's not as scene-stealing as I think the writers want him to be, but I've had crazy friends like that--folks you hang out with and you just don't know why you do, but there they are. So, Barney is sort of a self-reflective train wreck kind of fun to watch. That said, I was pretty much tired of the premise of the show after the pilot, and by this time I'm almost in earth-shaking snore about it. Each week we get the kids narrated to from off-camera, and each week they ask "oh, was that Mom?" and--non-surprise--it's not. These characters I like are stuck inside this frame that annoys the living crap out of me, because really I just don't care about the stupid kids' mom. So, while Ted's "I need to find a soul mate!" obsession is kind of funny, especially given how poorly it's going, it just keeps reminding me someone thinks they'll amuse me with the same stupid trick every week, and thus I groan. When they announced the show, I had this hope that the title itself was a trick: what if there were an emphasis on the "your." I mean, any woman with a kid (now or in the future) qualifies, so the "you" could change all the time. Set that up in the pilot and you never have to come back to it, and thus you avoid having to get the kids to give up their ride home to fight off Venger one more time and the like. No such luck. So, we'll see how it goes. I don't mind the Bob Saget narration per se, I just mind that it reminds me I'm going to have to put up with more shots of the eye rolling kids. If we can just forget about that part, I think I might be duly hooked. Tags: reviews, tv
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