Wicked - Pantages Theater in Hollywood

Last night I saw Wicked at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood. It ended up being real good - a really lavish production, I must say. The costumes were spectacular, the story a clever spin on "The Wizard of Oz", the vocals excellent, and most of the songs were pretty good. The way this was staged was really quite amazing - I loved the big show-stopper number right before the intermission where they sing "Defying Gravity" and the "Wicked Witch" rises up into the air and appears to really gravitate via the lighting that is done for this number. Neat gigantic bat creature floating overhead, a booming-voiced mechanical "Wizard" that comes rolling out onto the stage, the lighting up of the Emerald City all in green lights - very cool, and love those winged monkeys. One of the best shows I've seen at the Pantages in a number of years. And hey - Jo Anne Worley, well remembered by me from those days when I used to watch Laugh-In every week when it was originally on (yes, I was a mere tot then) - was in this production. I used to go to this theater a lot back in the 70s and 80s when my dad would get season tickets - the sound system is WAY better now, and luckily the absolutely gorgeous art deco interior, original from the 1930s, is still intact (love the deco mirrored powder room in the left-lobby ladies room) - bravo.

Three Starring Robert Montgomery - Movie Reviews

For Robert Montgomery's birthday last week, Turner Classic Movies featured a day of his films. Robert Montgomery has become one of my most favorite 30s/40s actors in the past year, and he's a real adorable heartthrob too (I must say) - - watch out when he's dressed in white tie and tails (wooo) - - I seek out seeing more and more of his films. On this day I watched three (ended up I had seen the first one before, but well worth watching again). Here's my plot summaries and reviews for these films:
First up, was Another Language (1933) - Pre-code sitting room melodrama - Arriving on the French Line is just eloped couple, mama's boy Victor (Robert Montgomery) and new bride Stella (Helen Hayes), who is introduced to her new hubby's family for the first time. This close-knit family are very gossipy and judgmental and pronounce Victor "henpecked" as they just don't seem to approve of anything Stella does. Jump to three years later where conflict is rampant - seems every Tuesday is family dinner night at Victor's mother's house (she was never very happy about the elopement OR her new daughter-in-law) and Stella regularly makes excuses not to go - - and mama manages to get sick every-time Victor and Stella want to go on a trip. Victor is no prize of a husband either as he sides with his family against his wife every single time. Stella finally makes an appearance at a family dinner where she meets young and handsome Jerry, Victor's nephew. Jerry finds he has lots in common with put-upon Stella and quickly falls in love with her. Stella is kind to him and enjoys talking to him, as he seems like the only true friend she really has. Troubles ensue. This is a really excellent film - it features a very intriguing story, is well acted and believable. 9/10


Next, watched Lovers Couragous (1932) - Well done melodrama starring Robert Montgomery as Willie Smith, a young Englishman with a wanderlust who travels about the world running through a string of different jobs - hotel boy to cowboy to finally ending up in South Africa where he's busy working as a tobacconist's assistant. Soon a beautiful young lady enters the shop, Mary Blayne (Madge Evans), the daughter of an admiral and engaged to marry an English Lord. Crazy about each other, they secretly meet - but when Mary's rich daddy finds out, Mary is shipped back home to England to get married. The Lord is a much older, rather pompous old guy mainly interested in hunting and hounds, you know the sort. But Willie is soon back in England himself - in pursuit of his real dream, that of becoming a Playwright. Possible SPOILER: The night before her marriage to the Lord, Mary finds out he's back and runs away to marry him. Now the story becomes a tale of a poor starving couple struggling to make ends meet while he is writing and attempting to sell one of his plays. Troubles ensue for these two. Quite entertaining - the star power is working in this one with a nice chemistry between the two leads; good script too. 8/10


The third film was not as good as the first two -- Live, Love and Learn (1937) - Romantic comedy about struggling artist Bob Graham (Montgomery) who marries Julie (Rosalind Russell) the society gal who is used to the good things in life, then brings her to live in his shabby one-room flat - and she don't mind a bit! Privacy is an issue for them as Bob has a drunken roommate (Robert Benchley) who sleeps on his couch, plus the walk-in-without-knocking landlady's boy (Mickey Rooney in only ONE brief scene - shucks). Julie sees everything as great and even is happy to encourage hubby to turn down a $2,000 check from her rich uncle. Sudden success for Bob the artist and he immediately starts spending his new found money including a huge, stylish new luxury penthouse for them to live in - and wifey is just *not* happy as she believes he has sold himself out to the idle rich as he paints rich people's portraits and ignores his roots. With lots of star power in this film - Montgomery, Russell, Benchley, and even old reliable Monty Woolley as a man who owns a gallery and wants to exhibit the paintings of his new discovery - you would think the film would be better than it is, the problem is simply a poor script. I found this film a bit dull and tedious, the plot somewhat implausible, and absolutely no romantic chemistry between the two leads - it was always hard to ever believe them as a happy couple (easier when they are not so happy). So so, best for Montgomery and Rosalind Russell fans only. 6/10

Popcorn Night

I love popcorn, plain and simple. I normally prepare my popcorn simply popped in a little vegetable oil, poured into a big bowl, then lightly salted (or I try to go light on the salt, anyway) - no butter, for health reasons. I recently acquired a red Whirley-Pop popcorn popper and I'm loving it! Makes good popcorn, no burnt or unpopped kernels either - I like that. Now, it came with four packs of "Real Theater Popcorn" (with, quote, "Secret Ingredients Used By Movie Theaters!") which makes the perfect amount of popcorn to fill the popper to the top and tastes just like the yummy buttered popcorn you get at the movies - real good. I sometimes go on a popcorn kick and crave having a big bowl of popcorn every day (usually to eat while I'm watching a movie or show) - I'm on a kick like that right now, thus this blog entry. After several weeks it normally fades away and I sometimes go months without popcorn. Okay, nostalgia time - when I was a kid all those years ago, Wednesday night was popcorn night at our house. My dad would pop up a big bowl, then we would sit on the couch in front of Laugh-In or one of those shows (gee, what *was* on on Wednesday night in the late 60s?) - my sister would sit on one side of him, me on the other - we would each reach our hand into the bowl at the same time so we got the same amount of handfuls of popcorn (yeah, you know how kids are!). Good times!

The Lovers, 1958 - A Film Review

Yesterday I enjoyed watching a Netflix rental, the 1958 film "The Lovers" (Les Amants)". My review:
French language film about love and loneliness, expertly directed by Louis Malle. Here's a short summary of the plot: Jeanne (played by Jeanne Moreau) lives in a very lovely house in the French wine country outside Dijon - she has a young daughter, loyal servants, and a well-to-do husband of eight years, a newspaper publisher who is way more interested in his job and listening to Brahms records than being with his wife. Lonely and bored, Jeanne spends lots of weekends in Paris with her best gal pal Maggy - and those weekends get to be more and more frequent as beautiful Jeanne has fallen for a magnificently tall, dark, and handsome (Maggy knows 30 women who would do anything to have him) polo player who is madly in love with Jeanne. The husband begins to get jealous and oddly insists she cut her latest trip to Paris short and invite Maggy and the polo player to come back and stay with them for a few days. But when Jeanne's car breaks down on the way back home, she gets a ride with an attractive male stranger who is then asked by the hubby to join the group for dinner and stay overnight. Now we've got dinner and conversation round the table with hubby, wife, Maggy, the polo player, and the stranger and - Possible SPOILER - the whole situation becomes a sort of farce in Jeanne's eyes - until a night of passion leads to a complete life change (and I won't go into the details of this as it's too much of a SPOILER).
This film is very passionate, with almost a third of the film devoted to the love scenes between Jeanne and her lover, with an amount of in bed (and bath and boat) love-making and a touch of nudity that, though seemingly tame now, is surprising for a film made in the fifties. The film is interestingly photographed in black-and-white, and the plot, though slow moving, completely held me captivated - I really became interested in this woman's story. Jeanne's voice is sometimes heard as voice-over narration, telling her thoughts in third-person, like reading a storybook. An excellent film all around. 10/10

Survivor Fans vs. Favorites Finale

Well, another Survivor has ended - this one was a very entertaining one, what with all the trickery and dumb plays (like not playing the immunity idol when you've got it, then finding yourself voted off, and right after a different player did the same thing - um!). Since all my faves - Yau-Man, James, and of course, Ozzy, were already voted off by the finale, I was pretty much pulling for Cirie since she did such a fine job of pretty much manipulating the entire game throughout the season, I thought. I can't say I was real pleased when Amanda and Parvati made the final two (gosh, I was pulling for Cirie in that last agonizing immunity challenge) . So between those two, I really thought that Amanda would win Survivor hands down (though I personally didn't care who got the win between the two of them) - quite a surprise, I must say, when Parvati ended up winning. Okay, yes poor Erik made the dumbest move ever in Survivor history (so far anyway!) and I've seen them all. I was just, like, "don't do it, don't do it, don't do it" when Probst was asking if he wanted to give his immunity necklace up to another player - then he does it and gives it to - of all people - the evil queen Natalie. One last thing - - I thought Amanda and Parvati were close to unrecognizable when they appeared on the final reunion hour - so much make-up! To me, both of them looked much cuter when they were on the island with their hair just hanging or tied back, and no make-up, but maybe that's just me.

Frankie Month

It's Frank Sinatra month on Turner Classic Movies and ya know I love Frankie, so I'm going to try and watch as many movies as I have time to fit in. Last week I watched Higher and Higher (1943), an early Sinatra film that I used to watch fairly regularly, but haven't seen in a number of years.

Here's my plot summary and review: - - romantic comedy/musical about a household of servants who love to break out in song as they work understairs to serve a man named Drake who is about to have his New York mansion foreclosed because of debt. So - the staff (unpaid for the last 7 months, but still willing to work for this guy, by the way) joins forces to form a "corporation" to try and get money to save the property - their method is to have the attractive scullery maid (Michele Morgan) try to hook a wealthy man to marry by posing as Drake's deputante daughter, just back from Switzerland (which I guess explains her accent). She's pretty inept at playing up the deputante - she just seems to love being a maid too much, it seems, as she keeps getting caught dusting things and washing the front steps - stuff like that. A man is found quickly for her - one Sir Victor Fitzroy Victor - problem is, she's madly in love with the household valet (Jack Haley) who seems oblivious to her passion despite her constant not-so-subtle mooning around and gazing into his eyes, etc. So how does Frankie fit into all this, you may ask - well, he plays himself as a neighbor (and *what* a nice neighbor to have - ooh la la!) who lives in the next-door house and has befriended the scullery maid by waving at each other from opposite windows.

Okay, so this film is fun, light entertainment boosted up to the hilt by a very young and handsome Sinatra crooning his heart out throughout the film (according to my dad, as my Aunt Billie used to say in the day "When Frankie sings, *all* the girls swoon!"). Most of the songs are not super catchy, but with star turns by the likes of Sinatra, not to mention Jack Haley, Dooley Wilson, and a really young "Velvet Fog", Mel Torme, everything is very enjoyable to watch. One number that I've always remembered to this day is when the teenybopper maid (Marcy McGuire) sings "I Saw You First" with Sinatra ("Ooh Frankie"). A silly, but quite a fun romp. rating: 7/10

Startin' Up

Okay - I have been wanting to start my own blog, but what to write about - what to call it? I want my blog to be a sort of personal diary talking about this and that, what I'm doing, thinking, etc. Well, my biggest hobbies are this - I love to "Eat", cook, try new recipes, host parties and entertain - I even collect cookbooks. I also love to "Play" - I like to play games online, on my Playstation, play board games - you get the idea. But most of all - I love to "Watch". I'm mainly talking movies, movies, and more movies - I love films from all eras from the silent days to now. A huge movie buff I am - so, naturally, it's what I think about and write about the most. I watch a few TV shows too, mainly of the reality show variety, or retro TV (you know, of the "I Love Lucy", "Leave it to Beaver" sort of thing). So - I'm calling my blog "Eat, Play, Watch". And so it begins.