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February '22 Digital Week II

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Thursday, 10 February 2022 03:16
Written by Kevin Filipski
In-Theater/Streaming Releases of the Week 
Air Doll 
(Dekanalog)
This 2009 drama from Japanese master Hirokazu Kore-eda doesn’t have the resonance or emotional pull of many of his other films—Like Father Like Son, Shoplifters and After Life, for starters—but its story of a middle-aged loner’s sex doll who has her own separate life and relationships while he leaves the house is too diffuse to be anything more than an only occasionally effective portrait of loneliness, especially coming right after his sublime drama about grieving, 2008’s Still Working. 
 
 
Bae Doona gives a sublimely understated performance in the title role, but the sympathy she engenders can’t completely overcome the surprising one-note shallowness of Kore-eda’s work here.
 
 
 
 
 
Breaking Bread 
(Cohen Media)
In this bracing documentary set at the A-Sham Arabic Food Festival in Haifa, Israel, director Beth Elise Hawk introduces us to Nof Atamna-Ismaeel, a microbiologist who won the Israeli reality series Master Chef, and who presciently founded the food festival in order to foster the beginning of social change among Israelis and Arabs.
 
 
The director and the Master Chef winner both show us the scrumptious-looking meals made by chefs from traditional recipes and ingredients, helping to foster the (maybe outlandish) notion that—just perhaps—satisfied stomachs could be the key to the common ground that has yet to be found in the Middle East. 
 
 
 
 
 
Blu-ray Releases of the Week 
Fidelio 
(Opus Arte)
Beethoven’s only opera, a magnificent but messy masterpiece, concerns liberty, equality and love in its story of a woman, Leonore, who disguises herself as a man, Fidelio, to free her husband, Florestan, a political prisoner.
 
 
The music is as glorious as anything Beethoven ever composed, but the dramaturgy is a little clunky; luckily, this 2020 Royal Opera House (ROH) production from London, adroitly staged by Tobias Kratzer, has in place the superb ROH orchestra and chorus, led by veteran conductor Antonio Pappano. In the leads, there are the magisterial voices of Lise Davidsen (Leonore) and David Butt Philip (Florestan). There’s first-rate hi-def video and audio; extras are short interviews with cast and crew.
 
 
 
 
 
Gold Diggers of 1933 
(Warner Archive)
This nearly perfect display of singing and dancing is the apogee of Busby Berkeley’s onscreen and onstage style: with his story of a producer creating a Broadway musical amid the Great Depression, Berkeley creates a series of exhilarating production numbers like the risqué “Pettin’ in the Park.”
 
 
Then there’s “The Shadow Waltz,” a showstopper featuring several chorus girls in hooped skirts dancing with violins, and their movements are choreographed, shot and edited with skill and precision. Warner Archive’s typically superior hi-def transfer presents the film in all its B&W glory. Extras are a retrospective featurette and several vintage shorts and cartoons.
 
 
 
 
 
King Richard 
(Warner Bros)
In a frightfully overlong biopic that comes perilously close to hagiography—at least it’s not titled Saint Richard—Will Smith plays Richard Williams, father of Venus and Serena and who’s shown as the architect of their championship-caliber careers, in a bizarre, unfocused performance that drops this would-be inspirational drama down a few notches.
 
 
Director Reinaldo Marcus Green and writer Zach Baylin try in every way to make Richard the hero of his daughters’ tennis achievements, with surprisingly little nod to their own talent and perseverance. Far better are the portrayals of Aunjanue Ellis (the girls’ mother Oracene), Saniyya Sidney (Venus) and Demi Singleton (Serena). There’s a first-rate hi-def transfer; extras comprise on-set featurettes and deleted scenes.
 
 
 
 
 
Paranoiac 
(Shout/Scream Factory)
Madness, death, suicide were themes in several Hammer Studios movies, and this 1963 entry, cleverly directed by Freddie Francis (and moodily photographed in B&W by Arthur Grant), takes advantage of its spooky plotline to create some arresting images and eerie moments.
 
 
The 80-minute flick reaches maximum lunacy at its climax, while finely calibrated performances by Oliver Reed, Janette Scott, Sheila Burrell and Alexander Davion finesse its clumsier aspects. The film looks great in hi-def; extras include an audio commentary, a making-of featurette and new interviews with Hammer film experts.
 
 
 
 
 
Stargirl—Complete 2nd Season 
(Warner Bros)
What’s the JSA (Justice Society of America)? Stargirl, also known by her civilian name, Courtney Whitmore, is part of the teen JSA and has difficulty balancing her superhero work with being a normal high school kid. In fact, she has to go to summer school to make up the classes she failed. But when adversaries Eclipso and the Shade appear, the JSA kids band together to stop them.
 
 
With the right amount of humor and drama, the series balances silly and heartfelt, and a cast led by young Brec Bassinger as Stargirl and Patrick Wilson and Amy Smart as her stepfather and mother make this an appealing entry in the superhero canon. All 13 episodes look terrific on Blu; extras are two featurettes and the ubiquitous gag reel.
 
 
 
 
 
CD Release of the Week
Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra—Light in a Time of Darkness 
(Beau Fleuve)
After months of not performing together when the COVID lockdown began in March 2020, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) began returning to its architecturally and acoustically marvelous home, Kleinhans Music Hall, to start recording in fall 2020. The six works on this program might seem random, but as music director and conductor JoAnn Falletta explains in her note, they were works that “were high points … in terms of their emotional depth and spirituality.”
 
 
And what high points there are! Ralph Vaughan Williams’ incandescent Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis kicks things off, a piece I never grow tired of no matter how often I hear it. The trio of short works—Pietà by Ulysses Kay (a world premiere recording), The Winter’s Passed by Wayne Barlow and Lyric for Strings—Lament by George Walker—are unsurpassed in their musical beauty. Bach’s familiar Brandenburg Concerto No. 6 and Haydn’s facile Symphony No. 44 (with its haunting Adagio movement) round things out. Falletta and the BPO perform with their usual elegance and ebullience, making this CD musical uplift of the highest order.

Musical Review—“The Tap Dance Kid” at Encores

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Monday, 07 February 2022 22:03
Written by Kevin Filipski
The Tap Dance Kid
Music by Henry Krieger; lyrics by Robert Lorick
Book by Charles Blackwell; adaptation by Lydia Diamond
Directed by Kenny Leon; choreography by Jared Grimes
February 2-6, 2022
New York City Center, 131 West 55th Street, NYC
nycitycenter.org
 
Alexander Bello and Trevor Jackson in The Tap Dance Kid
(photo: Joan Marcus)
 
As Encores’ first show since February 2020, The Tap Dance Kid felt like a balm, a true crowd-pleaser that, whatever its faults, made everyone happy, both onstage and in the audience.
 
In fact, the cast’s big smiles at the curtain calls let the audience know that the show meant a lot to them as well. Although the 1983 Tony-nominated musical has  problems—starting with a scattershot book that, while ostensibly about 10-year-old Willie, who dreams of following in the tap shoes of his grandfather, Daddy Bates, and his uncle, Dipsey (his mother Ginnie’s younger brother), keeps moving back and forth among the rest of the family’s travails, to diminishing dramatic returns—whenever the dancing, the reason for the show’s existence, takes center stage, all is forgiven.
 
Happily, The Tap Dance Kid is crammed with several exhilarating dancing sequences, which director Kenny Leon and choreographer Jared Grimes—with an assist from playwright Lydia Diamond, who has streamlined the story to make it slightly less choppy—ensure stop the show, time and again. Throughout, a dazzling chorus line functions as an ensemble being rehearsed by Dipsey for a show to be put on in Buffalo with an eye toward Broadway as well as Manhattan residents in Willie’s way on the streets and the bus. There’s also Daddy Bates, who reappears as a spirited spirit, dancing miraculously in the person of Dewitt Fleming Jr., particularly in his showcase number, “Tap Tap.”   
 
But the show hinges on the actors playing young Willie and Uncle Dipsey, and Alexander Bello and Trevor Jackson are simply spectacular, together and apart, as the boy whose precocious talent is ignored by his strict father William but is encouraged by his mom and uncle eventually gets the break he’s been hoping for. Bello is remarkably self-assured, even while dancing alone in “Dancing Is Everything,” and Jackson is so effortless and athletic in his numbers like the first act finale, “Man in the Moon,” and the second act’s “My Luck is Changing” that it’s surprising he actually does break into a sweat after certain strenuous and complex moves.
 
The show falters most when it centers on the family, soap opera style, as William’s singleminded way of providing for his family precludes love, tenderness and any flexibility. But the actors are so good in their spotlight numbers that they sweep aside any criticism of the family storylines: Shahadi Wright Joseph’s Emma, the older teen sister who wants to be a lawyer, powerfully voices her solo turn, “Four Strikes Against Me”; Adrienne Walker, as Ginnie, is dynamic in her lament, “I Remember How It Was”; and Joshua Henry, as tightly-wound father William, finally breaks out in the brilliant showstopping finale, aptly titled “William’s Song,” in which all the pent-up emotion comes flowing out in ovation-worthy fashion.
 
Joseph Joubert and the Encores Orchestra make the most of composer Henry Krieger’s rather derivative tunes, comprising mainly by-the-numbers power ballads and belters that are elevated by the musicians and singers. But it’s all that dancing that Encores audiences will rightly remember of The Tap Dance Kid.

New York Philharmonic Ushers in a New Year at Carnegie Hall

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Monday, 07 February 2022 15:18
Written by Jack Angstreich

Branford Marsalis with the New York Philharmonic. Photo ©2022 Chris Lee.

On the evening of Thursday, January 6th, at Carnegie Hall, I had the great pleasure of hearing an excellent concert featuring the impressive New York Philharmonic under the sterling direction of the remarkable Finnish conductor, Susan Mälkki.

The program opened promisingly with an unfamiliar but marvelous work, the exciting An American Port of Call by contemporary African-American composer, Adolphus Hailstork. The celebrated jazz saxophonist, Branford Marsalis, then took the stage as soloist for the concerto for his instrument written by the eminent John Adams. There was a compelling propulsive segment in the first half of the piece but, regrettably, on the whole I had the impression that this is not one of his most engaging creations.

The true highlight of the event, however, was the second part of the performance, devoted to a magnificent reading of the extraordinary Fifth Symphony by Finnish composer, Jean Sibelius. After a somewhat enigmatic—even mystical—introduction, the opening Allegro moderato attained moments of awesome grandeur as it unfolded, amidst turbulent episodes. The breathtaking execution and sheer wondrousness of the music garnered surprising applause at the movement’s conclusion. The lyrical beginning of the ensuing Andante mosso was succeeded by dancelike passages as well as instances of intense Romanticism, until the movement gradually acquired a portentous character before quietly closing. The finale began suspensefully while rapidly acquiring the majesty heralded at the work’s outset, achieving a stunning apotheosis.

The Philharmonic season continues at Lincoln Center while I hope for the return of this outstanding conductor to a local stage soon.

Kathleen Turner In “Finding My Voice” Gives Voice To Strong Views and Lengthy Career

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts
Category: Reviews
Published on Thursday, 03 February 2022 15:19
Written by Brad Balfour

 

Kathleen Turner
“Finding My Voice”
Director: Andy Gale
Producer: Ken Davenport
Musical direction/arrangements/accompaniment: Mark Janas

Town Hall
123 W. 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
Thursday, December 16th

Recently when I got invited to see Kathleen Turner’s one-woman show Finding My Voice. I wasn’t sure what to expect. Certainly she was never seen as a mellifluous singer. But with her husky-smoky tonality, she applies her voice to offer commentary on a life of fame and money but one graced with a sense of social responsibility, too.

She filled out her solo stage performance with songs from the great American songbook, crooning hits such as It’s Only a Paper Moon, I’d Rather Be Sailing, On the Street Where You Live and Every Time We Say Goodbye. Showcasing not only her trademark voice, “Finding My Voice” proves to audiences that she can project a sense of intimacy cabaret-style even in a concert venue such as Town Hall.

She took the sizable audience on a quip-laden behind-the-scenes look at her extensive and well-documented career. She’s a talented performer, a stage and screen star, a notable name who has struggled with the travails of age in a world where women get the shit end of the stick as they grow older and seem less bankable.

As the 67-year-old actress has said: “When they know me, they love me.” People have been telling Turner about her career since she broke out in 1981’s Body Heat — a steamy thriller co-starring William Hurt. That film and “War of the Roses” both earned her Golden Globe nominations. Turner’s other movies include “Romancing the Stone” and “Prizzi’s Honor,” each of which also earned her a Golden Globe; Peggy Sue Got Married, which brought both Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations to her. Turner supplied the voice of temptress Jessica Rabbit in the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

kathFor her stage work, she was nominated for Tonys in 1990 for playing Maggie in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and in 2005 for her performance as Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? opposite Bill Irwin. She also toured as Texas-based political columnist Molly Ivins in Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins. And she starred in Joan Didion’s solo drama, The Year of Magical Thinking, at Arena Stage in Washington, D.C.

Whether it was producers intimidated by her power at a young age or studio executives’ insistence that men sold more tickets than women, Turner has never walked away from a challenge. She maintains that those she’s worked closely with over the years regard her with respect — despite her reputation as a crusty diva. But her survival in this cut-throat business is testimony to her power of personality and an ability to earn continuing recognition.

For all those reasons, seeing her live on stage was a rare experience. That coupled with her strong progressive political views, self-deprecating humor and lighthearted takes on various standards made the night all the more worthwhile.

Directed by Andy Gale, Finding My Voice featured musical direction, arrangements and accompaniment from pianist Mark Janas. Though the show never took any really adventurous turns, this rarely seen, bluntly honest performance made the evening a memorable event. Packed with humor, classic music, and pointed insights spanning her lengthy career, it was a rare opportunity to see another aspect of her life.

More Articles...

  1. February '22 Digital Week I
  2. 75 Years of The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Carnegie Hall
  3. January '22 Digital Week IV

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