Reading Round-Up: August 2024

Here’s what I read, listened to, and watched in August 2024!

BOOKS

I read 8 books in August: 3 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 2 in audio format. They were:

1.       My West Side Story: A Memoir by George Chakiris and Lindsay Harrison (E-BOOK, Non-fiction Challenge)

2.       A Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne, (Narrated by Tim Curry) (AUDIOBOOK)

3.       Superman Batman: Saga of the Super Sons by Bob Haney, Dick Dillin, Vince Colletta, Tex Blaisdell, and others (PRINT; Graphic Novel Challenge)

4.       Stormgate Press Quick Reads Book #1: The Purple Mystique by Charles Millhouse (PRINT)

5.       Tournament Manners: A Martial Arts Mystery by Jess Faraday (E-BOOK)

6.       In the Hands of Women by Jane Loeb Rubin (PRINT) REVIEW HERE

7.       The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman's Journey to Love and Islam by G. Willow Wilson (AUDIOBOOK; Non-fiction Challenge)

8.       A Princess of Mars: Shadow of the Assassins by Ann Tonsor Zeddies (e-book) REVIEW HERE

STORIES

Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “The Darkness Between the Stars” by Richard Thomas in Lightspeed Magazine #171, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “Resistance” by Cat Rambo

3.       “The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strain'd” by Archita Mittra

4.       “Under the Skin” by Deborah L. Davitt

5.       “Mud Maidens Rise” by K.A. Wiggins

6.       “Look at the Moon” by Dominique Dickey

7.       “What's in a Name?” by Matthew Hughes

8.       “Child of the River” by Oluwatomiwa Ajeigbe

9.       “The Lazarus Cabal” by Sean Lee Levin, from The Lazarus Cabal, edited by Michael Croteau

10.   “Daily Nightly” by Jim Beard, from Moonstone Double Shot May 2024, edited by Joe Gentile

11.   “Streets of Blood” by Richard Scanlan

12.   “The Time Capsule” by Alice Towey, from Clarkesworld #214, edited by Neil Clarke

13.   “The Sort” by Thomas Ha

14.   “A Night in Purple” by Charles Millhouse, from Stormgate Press Quick Read Book #1: The Purple Mystique, edited by Charles Millhouse

15.   “Death in Purple” by Charles Millhouse

16.   “Into the Valley of Death” by William Meikle, from Creature Feature, edited by William Meikle

17.   “Home from the Sea” by William Meikle

18.   “A Rock and a Hard Place” by William Meikle

19.   “One Ear Left Over” by Jonathan Olfert, from Beneath Ceaseless Skies #413, edited by Sean H. Andrews

20.   “An Isle in a Sea of Ghosts” by J.A. Prentice

21.   “Once There Was Water” by Katie McIvor, from The Dark #111, edited by Sean Wallace

22.   “The Operculum Necklace” by Megan Chee

23.   “Bite Me, Drink Me, Get Me” by H. Pueyo

24.   “To Call the Lightning” by Rebecca Burton, from Kaleidotrope Summer 2024, edited by Fred Coppersmith

So that’s 24 short stories in August. Less than “1 per day” again, which keeps me slightly behind for the year! (August 31st was the 244th day of 2024.)

MOVIES

I watched four movies in August:

1.       We Are Doc Savage (2024)

2.       Logan (2017)

3.       The Hitch-Hiker (1953)

4.       West Side Story (1961)

The week ending August 31st was the 35th week of the year, so I’m still behind on the “1 movie per week” challenge.

TELEVISION

·       Batman: Caped Crusader Season 1, Episodes 1 – 10 (10 episodes) REVIEW HERE

·       Slow Horses Season 3, Episodes 1 – 6 (6 episodes)

·       Only Murders in the Building Season 4, Episode 1 (1 episode)

·       The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power Season 2, Episodes 1 – 3 (3 Episodes)

That’s 20 episodes of television, which puts me still well below the “1 per day” I was shooting for and keeps me behind the pace for this challenge.

LIVE THEATER

I saw two live theatrical performances in August:

1.       Back to the Future: The Musical (Winter Garden Theater, New York City) REVIEW HERE

2.       Once Upon a Mattress (Hudson Theatre, New York City) REVIEW HERE

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  24 read; YTD: 226 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 8 read; YTD: 83 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 1 read; YTD: 16 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 2 read; YTD: 14 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 0 read/watched; YTD: 2 read/watched.

Movie Challenge: This month: 4 watched; YTD: 21 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 20 episodes watched; YTD: 169 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 2 shows attended; YTD: 11 of 12 attended.

Theater Thursday: Water for Elephants

I love watching gymnasts and acrobats do their thing. I love creative puppetry. I enjoy tightly harmonized folk-pop music. And I’m partial to stories about the circus/carnivals. So Water for Elephants piqued my interest when it was announced, even before I found out that Grant Gustin, my second-favorite television Flash (sorry, Grant fans, John Wesley Shipp will always have the number one spot there … but that’s a post for another time), would be making his Broadway debut in the lead role. My goddaughter also wanted to see it, so off we went to the Imperial Theatre a week or so before the 2024 Tony Awards.

Based on the novel of the same name by Sara Gruen, which my office book club read shortly after it came out, with book by Rick Elice and music and lyrics by Pigpen Theatre Co., Water For Elephants is a memory play: elderly nursing home patient Jacob Jankowski attends a nearby traveling circus and regals the staff with his own tale of joining Benzini Brothers’ Most Spectacular Circus during the Prohibition years.  Jacob becomes the circus’s veterinarian and falls for Marlena, the horse trainer, running him afoul of the owner/ringmaster (and Marlena’s abusive husband), August, and his trusted assistant Wade.

The gymnastics/acrobatics in this show are stunning: pole work, ringwork, aerial silks, tumbling, death-drops, trapeze … and probably a dozen other moves I don’t know the names for but love watching. Most of the full ensemble numbers, from “The Road Don’t Make You Young” to the act one closer “The Grand Spec,” from “Zostan” at the start of act two to the various show-ending reprises, feature multiple gymnastic/acrobatic components happening concurrently. Many of these are also performed at top speed. The cast must be exhausted by intermission and burnt out by the end of the show. (I can’t imagine what a two-show day feels like). The seamlessness in which all of them interweave without collisions, without missing timing … it really blew me away. Of particular note: the aerial silk work of Antoine Boissereau during “Easy” is so stunning it brought me to tears (okay, the lyrics, sung beautifully by Isabelle McCalla as Marlena, also helped the tears to flow).

The animal costuming/puppetry work is also wonderful. Since the setting is a circus, the animals have to be represented somehow. Puppet designers Ray Wetmore, JR Goodman, and Camille Labarre, alongside costume designer David Israel Reynoso, went in a different direction from that other long-running Broadway show where humans play animals (The Lion King). Rather than fully-articulated and detailed puppet costumes, they went for broad details that imply – allowing the actors playing those animals to have greater range of movement, which benefitted the show greatly, especially in the climactic stampede scene.

Speaking of that scene – Bradley King’s lighting design is great throughout the show but spectacular in that specific moment. Combined with the way the scene is staged and the cacophonous music, the lighting puts the audience as close to being in that stampede as you can be without leaving your seat.

I’ve given praise to the ensemble’s athleticism. Now, the leads: Gregg Edelman (who I will see in just about anything) is heartbreaking and loveable as the lonely, wistful elderly Jacob. He is counterpointed by Grant Gustin’s earnest performance as the youthful, also lonely and heartbreaking, somewhat naïve younger Jacob. As mentioned, Isabella McCalla is Marlena; her voice is sweet, soaring, and beautiful. Paul Alexander Nolan’s brutish/conniving/charismatic turn as August might have been my favorite villain turn of the season so far.

The supporting cast were equally enjoyable: Stan Brown’s Camel, the man who takes younger Jacob under his wing, is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time; Joe De Paul’s Walter, the circus clown/comedian, is just hysterical; Sara Gettelfinger steals every scene she’s in as Barbara, who runs the “exotic dancer” sideshow, with a wonderful acerbic wit. And as Wade, August’s right-hand-man-without-a-conscience, Wade McCollum made the part more than just a one-note sidekick.

Pigpen Theater Co’s music is period-appropriate, a nice blend of ballads and folk/pop with lyrics that are emotive and build on character. In the moment, pretty much every song hits the right spot, whether that be infectious joy or deep loss. I must admit, though: after the show was over, I had a hard time calling any particular song to mind. I usually leave a musical humming/trying to remember the lyrics of at least one song. Your experience may be different, of course.

Despite that one little (very personal, not true for everyone) complaint, I would say that if you love the circus, acrobatics, puppetry, and strong vocal performances … see Water for Elephants. I know that as I post this, Grant Gustin is nearing his final performance and Joe De Paul has already left, but don’t let that stop you.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Macbeth Monday: Macbeth (an undoing)

Let’s face it: the women of Shakespeare’s Macbeth are ill-served by the script. The witches are largely stereotypes, there to move the plot along and provide some spookiness amid all the murder; Lady MacDuff appears in only one scene, by the end of which she’s dead; and while she is as commanding a presence as her titular husband at the start of the play, Lady Macbeth’s impact on the action quickly diminishes to nothing, ultimately resulting in an off-stage suicide. Over the years, there have been many attempts to delve deeper into the characters of the women of Macbeth (and their real historical counterparts) or to rewrite their roles and histories. One such successful recent attempt is Zinnie Harris’ Macbeth (an undoing), produced first by the Royal Lyceum Edinburgh and then brought to the states at Polonsky Shakespeare Center’s Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, New York, where I saw it in its limited run in April 2024.

Harris puts the women at the center of the action, restructures their relationships to each other (Ladies Macbeth and MacDuff are cousins, raised together; Lady Macbeth and the Witches (here called Carlin, Mae, and Missy) have a history) as well as to the men (the marriage of MacDuff and Lady MacDuff is far from harmonious here), reorganizes the famous speeches to bring out different depths.

And damn, is it powerful stuff. (I’m not going to pretend the power of the piece is why I’m posting this review five months after I saw the show, which would be a lie. It’s pure procrastination. But here we are.)

As much as I love Shakespeare’s play, it has long bothered me (as it has so many other people; I am hardly the first to point this out) how diminished Lady Macbeth’s role becomes, and how sharply her character changes midway through the play. At the start, she is the strong one, holding to their shared purpose, pushing Macbeth to do what must be done to secure the prophecy the witches gave him, while he is the one who is indecisive, who hallucinates both visually (the dagger) and aurally (the voices crying “Macbeth doth murder sleep…”). Then that all changes, with Lady Macbeth going insane between scenes, reappearing as guilt-wracked sleepwalker, then dying off-stage while Macbeth stays “strong” (for some value of the word) against his rebellious thanes. Harris turns this on its head, in a fantastic sequence of scenes that serve both characters better, in my humble opinion. These are scenes that Shakespeare probably couldn’t have written in his time, but they work now.

Of course, they work so well because they are in conversation with Shakespeare’s work rather than trying to replace it. Throughout the script, several characters break the fourth wall (most notably Carlin, the eldest “witch,” at the start of the play and at the start of the second act, but also Lady Macbeth and others) acknowledging not only that they know they’re in a play but also that they have veered from the script to look at the story from a different angle. That new angle allows Harris to discuss misogyny, gaslighting, and the threat men seem to think strong women pose (in a particularly telling moment, the Thanes begin to address Lady Macbeth as “King,” and claiming it is his Lady who is slowly going insane … because they just can’t deal with the idea that a woman might be running the country not just capably but more capably than the man they elected; remembering those scenes now, in late August 2024, they definitely resonate stronger).

The production is set in a kind of nebulous 1930s, with costumes and furniture clueing the audience in. The staging made incredible use of moving mirrored walls, which indicate not just the walls closing in on the Macbeths but also how everyone’s actions reflect upon themselves and others. As you may be able to tell, I’m trying not to spoil too much of Harris’ changes; there are some moments that need to be seen in their fully staged glory to be as thought-provoking as they should be.

I do have to credit the cast. Nicole Cooper as Lady Macbeth, Emmanuella Cole as Lady MacDuff and Mae (the middle witch), Adam Best as Macbeth, James Robinson as Banquo, and Liz Kettle as Carlin led a great ensemble. This is not to denigrate the rest of the cast. These characters are on stage the most and command most of the attention. Kettle’s Carlin (who at the top of the show is giving a tweak on the lines Shakespeare gave the Porter, who is otherwise missing) was particularly captivating.

If you get to see a performance of this script, don’t hesitate! It’s an intense night of theater, but well worth the intensity to see a familiar story from an angle that plays off the original’s timelessness while still pointing a lens at our modern world.

I was unfamiliar with Zinnie Harris’ work before this, but I will be seeking out performances of not only her reconstructions/reinventions of other classic plays but her totally original work as well.

It is no secret that my favorite Shakespeare play is Macbeth. I’ve lost count of how many live productions of it I’ve seen, plus movie and TV versions I own in various formats, not to mention all the novels, graphic novels, and non-fiction books. Macbeth Monday is intended to be an occasional feature on the blog where I discuss whatever version or aspect of the story catches my attention at a particular moment.

Theater Thursday: ONCE UPON A MATTRESS

The Broadway portion of this year’s “Books and Broadway for my Birthday” trip into New York City was the revival of Once Upon a Mattress playing for a limited engagement at the Hudson Theater. I was originally supposed to see this production when it was at New York City Center as part of the Encores! series, but work travel got in the way and I sold my ticket to a friend, who loved the show. So I was especially excited when it transferred to Broadway and the Hudson (where we saw Merrily We Roll Along last year) with most of the City Center cast.

The production maintains the music and lyrics of Mary Rodgers and Marshall Barer, with Amy Sherman-Palladino adapting the original book by Jay Thompson, Marshall Barer, and Dean Fuller. I’ve only seen one other production of Once Upon a Mattress, and that was a middle school production with my niece in the cast. Of course, I’ve seen the clips of Carol Burnett as Winifred in the original 1959 production. But my memory of the show was dim, so I have no idea what changes Sherman-Palladino may have made. So for me, it was very much like seeing the show for the first time.

You won’t be shocked to hear if you know me at all: I loved it! Absolutely the best choice of show to see after a full day of hiking around Manhattan buying books (when the security guard waved his flashlight into my backpack, he raised his eyebrow. I said “yeah. It’s books all the way down.” He laughed.). The show is light, funny, touching; the music swings from the romantic to the goofily energetic and back multiple times. Great Prologue by the Jester, great opening number (“Opening for a Princess”), fun act one finale (“Song of Love”), etc.

City Center Encores! productions typically have the orchestra on stage with the cast rather than under the stage or visible at the sides of the stage, highlighting that the music is as important as the talking, singing, and dancing. For this production, the orchestra is slightly above and behind the action. Conductor Annbritt duChateau and her musicians were such a natural part of the staging that I sometimes forgot they were there. They sounded fantastic under Mary-Mitchell Campbell’s music supervision. Lorin Latarro’s choreography was terrific – frenetic when it needed to be (“Spanish Panic”) and subtle when it needed to be (“Yesterday I Loved You”). I believe Lear deBessonet has directed most of the Encores! productions that have transferred to Broadway in the past few years. She directed the Encores! production of Oliver! last year that I loved so much (and reviewed). She has a wonderful knack for picking the right person for each role and teasing great performances out of them, and this production was no exception.

Sutton Foster. Much has been made of Carol Burnett saying that Sutton is the perfect choice among current Broadway performers for Princess Winifred, and I can’t disagree with her. She was endearing, walked the line between slapstick and over-the-top slapstick (which can be precarious) perfectly. Her “Shy” was brassy and loud, her “The Swamps of Home” more subtly comedic, her “Happily Ever After” sweet. I am hard pressed to think of another musical where the lead character’s “11th hour number” isn’t a song but a three-minute-long piece of pantomime (as Winifred tries to fall asleep but just can’t get comfortable); Sutton delivered the silent physical comedy goods without veering into overblown physicality. (This was my first time seeing Sutton on stage. I know. I know. It won’t be my last, I’m sure.)

Michael Urie is adorable as Prince Dauntless. Not an easy task with the way the character is written for most of the play (henpecked, spineless, a bit dim) but he made it work. Musically, he gets to shine in the act one closer (“Song of Love”) and in the middle of act two (“Man to Man Talk”). In the first number, he is adorably infatuated with Winifred; in the latter, he is adorably slow to pick up what his father is silently trying to tell him. What I’m saying is that Michael Urie is adorable. Always. But especially as Dauntless.

Ana Gasteyer plays the willful, controlling Queen Aggravain. I really, really, really disliked the Queen – which tells you that Gasteyer is brilliant in the role. David Patrick Kelly has perhaps the hardest part in the show, making us care for King Sextimus the Silent without ever uttering a word. It’s a role that in other hands could be (here’s that phrase again) over the top and possibly even offensive but in Kelly’s hands is subtle and lovable. Nikki Renee Daniels and Will Chase as the young lovers Lady Larkin and Sir Harry complimented each other well (both of their duets, “In A Little While” and “Yesterday I Loved You” were sweet, earnest highlights).

If anyone comes close to stealing the show from Foster and Urie, though, it is Daniel Breaker as the Jester. His delivery of the Prologue (“Many Moons Ago”) set the stage for the evening, but his “Very Soft Shoes” pretty near broke my heart. The number is a paean to the Jester’s father, who preceded him in show business. The Jester is surrounded by dancers (including one who is a vision of the father), but I don’t think my eyes left Breaker once during the number. His body language, facial expressions, and vocal delivery all touched me and brought back memories of my father (who was not a dancer, but that’s beside the point). Not gonna lie – I got very emotional.

Once Upon a Mattress runs at the Hudson Theatre in New York until November 30, 2024, after which it is apparently transferring to the Ahmanson Theater in Los Angeles. Don’t be “Shy” – go see it!

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is an occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Series Saturday: BATMAN: CAPED CRUSADER

Batman: Caped Crusader, Season One (2024)

Starred Hamish Linklater, Jason Watkins, Diedrich Bader, Crystal Joy Brown, Eric Morgan Stewart

Produced by Bad Robot, DC Entertainment, and 6th & Idaho Productions

Originally aired on Amazon Prime

FAIR WARNING: I can’t discuss what I liked about this show without spoiling certain character appearances and plot points. So if you care about SPOILERS, walk away after the first paragraph. Of course, much of what I’ll discuss has already been spoiled on various reporting websites and social media platforms … but you can’t say I didn’t warn you.

The ten-episode first season of Batman: Caped Crusader dropped on Amazon Prime on August 1st. It has a lot to recommend it: a 1940s design aesthetic reminiscent of both Batman: The Animated Series and the 1940s Fleischer Studios Superman cartoons, excellent voicework by the leads, and tightly written individual episode scripts. It also has some flaws (season storyline arcs that stall or disappear and moments of animation that are not as smooth as they could be). Despite these flaws, I enjoyed the first season and will definitely be back for season 2 when it bows sometime in 2025.

I am a fan of both B: TAS and the Fleischer Superman cartoons, so the borrowed/melded aesthetic of the animation really works for me. I like that they’re leaning more heavily into real 1940s technology (dial phones, phone booths, cars) and less the “’40’s look with advanced tech and police blimps” of B: TAS. It sets this show apart a bit visually while still recalling its beloved predecessor. I love some of the tiny details as well. For instance, Batman’s gloves are not the full forearm with wings we’ve become accustomed to but rather the “driving glove” style of his earliest comics appearances (minus the purple color of his first appearance), and the ears on his cowl appear to be thin and curved. I also appreciated Harley Quinn’s costume looking very much like a period costume piece, and the decision to go with the heftier/portly Alfred of the 1940s comics.

The voice work of the main cast is undeniably strong. I believe Hamish Linklater has said in interviews that he’s not consciously imitating the late, great Kevin Conroy, but Conroy’s influence on Linklater’s performance is obvious. Linklater’s Bruce and Batman are distinguishable and equally solid. Jason Watkins’ Pennyworth (who only really gets called by his first name in the season finale) is staunch and steadfast, the supportive assistant who is not afraid to stand up to his boss when it really matters. Diedrich Bader’s turn as District Attorney Harvey Dent is as slimy as you could want, with just enough “am I really doing the right thing” throughout the early part of the season to make his internal conflict near the end of the season make sense. Eric Morgan Stewart (Commissioner Gordon), Crystal Joy Brown (Barbara Gordon), and Michelle C. Bonilla (Renee Montoya) are all wonderful as Batman’s slowly developing support cast; likewise John DiMaggio (Bullock) and Gary Anthony Williams (Flass) as the odd-couple corrupt cops and Cedric Yarbrough as crime boss Rupert Thorne.

The semi-regularly appearing characters include Bumper Robinson’s cool but friendly Lucius Fox, Tom Kenny’s photojournalist Eel O’Brian, and Roger Craig Smith’s Detective Jim Corrigan. (Those last two names carry a lot of weight for long-time DC Comics fans. I have no idea if the producers of Batman: Caped Crusader intend to eventually introduce other super-heroes into the mix of this show, but they certainly seem like they’re setting the stage with these character names as well as the appearance of an unspeaking reporter who looked a lot like the Fleischer Studios version of Lois Lane in one episode.)

With as long and deep a bench as Batman’s rogues gallery has, a ten-episode season is bound to disappoint someone in terms of which villains are used. I enjoyed the balance between “big guns” (Catwoman, Penguin, Harley Quinn, and Two-Face) and “lesser lights” (Clayface, the Gentleman Ghost, Firebug, Nocturne, Onomatopoeia, with blink-and-you’ll-miss-them appearances by King Tut, Killer Croc and Deadshot). I think the choice to hold the Joker back for season two (along with, presumably, the Riddler, Poison Ivy, and Mister Freeze) was a smart one (I also don’t think the season finale needed a Joker-coda, but that’s a moot point since it had one). I’m hoping that some of these villains will get return appearances in season two, especially the Penguin and Catwoman (I could do without a return appearance from Onomatopoeia; I found the execution of this character a bit underwhelming.)

I enjoyed the slow, multi-episode development of Harleen Quinzell (the wonderful Jamie Chung) and Harvey Dent into villains, and the gradual development of respect for Batman by the Gordons and Montoya. But If I have one major complaint about this first season, it’s the way certain subplots were just dropped to make room for Dent’s season-ending arc. In particular, the establishment of a Batman-hunting task force. The episode in which it was introduced, headed by Montoya, was effective. Then the Mayor turns it over to Flass and Bullock and … it’s barely mentioned for the rest of the season. Even in the season finale, it’s given one line (“If you’re still around when they [the Gotham patrolmen] get here, I’ll have to take you in.”). Given the amount of attention that is paid to the cops’ distrust of Batman in the first half of the season, it should have been given greater weight in the second half.

A lot of people online are unhappy with changes that have been made to certain characters (everything from the Penguin being a woman, to the Gordons being Black, Montoya being heavy-set/buxom, all the Robins being orphans in the same orphanage, to Harleen’s origin having no connection to the Joker at all). Here’s my take: If you can proclaim your love of comics stories in which Batman is a vampire, or is Clark Kent instead of Bruce Wayne, or in which Batman is active in the Victorian Era rather than the “present,” you can accept an animated series where the Penguin is a woman and the Gordons are black and where Batman’s wards may or may not ever become Robin(s). And if you can’t accept a gender or race-flip … then don’t watch the show. The existence of a female Penguin, or a Harley Quinn whose origin has nothing to do with the Joker, does not in any way negate the existence of the versions of those characters that you love.

Final thoughts: In conversation after I’d finished watching the season, my friend David said, “It was good overall, I agree, but it mostly made me like Batman: The Animated Series even more.” That said, I am looking forward to season two of Batman: Caped Crusader, with the hopes that some of the villains and supporting characters from season one will get more development (Dave and I agree that both the Penguin and Catwoman would have benefited from one more episode each.).

This is an occasional blog series about … well, series. I love stories that continue across volumes, in whatever form: linked short stories, novels, novellas, television, movies, comics.

Theater Thursday: Back To The Future The Musical

Sometimes, you need a little spectacle. Back to the Future: The Musical provides it, in great heaping doses.

I feel like the Winter Garden Theater usually goes out of its’ way to make the house feel like part of the set/show. For BttF:TM, they’ve rigged flashing computer circuits from the stage out along the box seats and across the ceiling to at least midway above the orchestra seats to keep you in mind of a mad scientist’s crazy plan. (If you’re sitting along the outer edges of the orchestra, as we were, this makes reading the Playbill before the show exceedingly difficult, but it definitely sets a mood.) The front scrim (instead of a curtain) shows the show’s logo when it isn’t reminding you that photography during the show is prohibited because it would mess with the space-time continuum (pretty cute).

The staging is heavy reliant on special effects (the front scrim and back display do a lot of the heavy lifting on that score) both for the time travel scenes (including Doc’s number, “21st Century,” that opens Act Two) and for just moving around town or even around the school. The car, of course, is the big draw and it looks and sounds great (the car even gets a bit of KITT-like personality, although I scoured the Playbill and could not find out who voices her).

Casey Likes is a likeable Marty McFly. He’s got a great singing voice and sells both the ballads (his “Got No Future” was particularly moving) and the rock numbers (“The Power of Love” and “Back in Time”). But if I’m being totally honest – his dialogue often sounded like he was trying too hard to be Michael J. Fox. Which, okay, that’s not a horrible thing, but I would have liked to see Likes make the part more his own.

Which is what Roger Bart did with Doc Brown. There was little of Christopher Lloyd’s mannerisms or inflections in Bart’s performance, and I absolutely loved it. He was just as “over the top” as Lloyd, but in a vastly different way, and was clearly enjoying every moment he was on stage. He also knew exactly when to tone it down. I will go on record here that Bart’s Act Two ballad, “For the Dreamers,” made me tear up and is hands-down my favorite original song in the show.

The chemistry between Likes and Bart is palpable. They’re a great pair, all of their scenes together crackle. I may be mistaken, but I think there are a few moments where they improvise, and there was one moment where they both broke slightly. It was as much fun to watch their scenes together as it was as a kid to watch Harvey Korman and Tim Conway crack each other up on the Carol Burnett Show.

We had understudy Becca Petersen as Lorraine Baines McFly, alongside Evan Alexander Smith as George, and they were both fantastic. Petersen played the difference between 1985 alcoholic bitter Lorraine and 1955 romantic lusty Lorraine wonderfully; Smith doesn’t get to show that same type of character change until the final scenes but his nerdy, anxious, underdog George is someone you can’t help but feel sorry for and want to see succeed (something I don’t think I ever really got from Crispin Glover in the movie). I totally believed Lorraine falling for George after he punches Biff and when he shows himself to be a gentleman at the dance.

I feel a little bad for Nathaniel Hackmann, as Biff is not really given a chance to be anything beyond the stereotypical villain. He does have a solid “villain song” in Act Two (“Teach Him a Lesson”), and physically he looks more like Thomas F. Wilson than any of the other actors look like their movie counterparts. I’m not saying bully Biff should have been given any kind of tragic backstory (as we see with so many classic villains who get their own movies these days), but I wonder if the show couldn’t have added a little more depth or at least given Hackmann a bit more variation to play.

A great surprise in the show was understudy Kevin Curtis as Goldie Wilson. His “Gotta Start Somewhere” was the showstopper of Act One, with at least a full minute of applause. I love it when a supporting character gets a spotlight moment and delivers on it. Curtis has an incredibly voice; I hope wonderful things are in his future.

There are some parts of the film that just couldn’t be adapted to stage, even with the incredible special effects. So the skateboard-and-car chase of the film (that ends with Biff and his cronies covered in manure) is replaced here with a foot chase through the school, full of slapstick pratfalls, all while Lorraine sings “Something About That Boy.” It’s a strong end-of-Act-One full cast number, although nowhere near as funny as the movie chase.

Ultimately, Back to the Future: The Musical is exactly what it claims to be: feel good fun for the whole family, special effects and sound effects heavy, with a couple of original songs that might stick in your head (alongside classics by Chuck Berry (“Johnny B. Goode”) and Huey Lewis (The Power of Love” and “Back in Time”) that are required when adapting Back to the Future). It doesn’t pretend to be anything else. Go in with the expectation that you’re just going to have fun, and you won’t be disappointed.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

READING ROUND-UP: July 2024

Here’s what I read, listened to, and watched in July 2024!

BOOKS

I read 15 books in July: 9 in print, 3 in e-book format, and 3 in audio format. They were:

1.       Represent! by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler and Brant Day (PRINT)

2.       Let the Games Begin by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler and Betty Yuku (PRINT)

3.       Hunter's Tall Tales by Rosalie Mastaler, Hunter Mastaler, and Danelle Prestwich (PRINT)

4.       A Scout Is Brave by Will Ludwigsen (E-BOOK) REVIEW HERE

5.       Caesar Now Be Still (Wilson Hargreave #1) by Frank Schildiner (E-BOOK) REVIEW HERE

6.       Changes in the Land by Matthew Cheney (PRINT)

7.       Prez: Setting a Dangerous President by Mark Russell, Benjamin Caldwell, Wilfredo Torres, Mark Morales, and others (PRINT, Graphic Novel Challenge)

8.       Reflections (Indexing #2) by Seanan McGuire (AUDIO)

9.       Star Trek Adventures: The Operations Division Supplemental Rulebook by Chris McCarver, Andy Peregrine, Jack Geiger, and others (PRINT)

10.   Dancing on the Edge by Russ Tamblyn (AUDIO, non-fiction challenge)

11.   Lovely Creatures by KT Bryski (PRINT)

12.   A Stick-Figure Macbeth by Mya L. Gosling (PRINT) REVIEW HERE

13.   Super Sons: The Complete Collection Book 1 by Peter J. Tomasi, Jorge Jiminez, Patrick Gleason, Carlo Barberi, and others (PRINT, graphic novel challenge)

14.   We by Yvgeney Zamyatin, translated by Clarence Brown (AUDIO)

15.   Victory Harben: Tales from the Void, edited by Christopher Paul Carey (E-BOOK, ARC (book to be published in September)

STORIES

Here’s what I read this month and where you can find them if you’re interested in reading them too. If no source is noted, the story is from the same magazine or book as the story(ies) that precede(s) it.

1.       “The Last Lucid Day” by Dominique Dickey in Lightspeed Magazine #170, edited by John Joseph Adams

2.       “The Only Writing Advice You'll Ever Need to Survive Eldritch Horrors” by Aimee Picchi

3.       “The Heist for the Soul of Humanity” by Filip Hajdar Drnovšek

4.       “The Aliens Said They Want to Party” by Joel W.D. Buxton

5.       “Songs of the Sorrow of Thorns” by Amayah Perveen

6.       “The Red Queen's Heart” by Vanessa Fogg

7.       “A Guide on How to Meet the Deity of Many Faces” by Oyedotun Damilola Muess

8.       “Between Above and Below” by Carrie Vaughn

9.       “The Girl Who Loved Peacocks” by Seanan McGuire, from the Author’s Patreon

10.   “The Terms and Conditions of Kindness” by James Bennett, from The Dark #110, edited by Clara Madrigano and Sean Wallace

11.   “That Maddening Heat” by Ray Cluley

12.   “Every Hopeless Thing” by Tia Tashiro, from Clarkesworld #214, edited by Neil Clarke

13.   “Pellucidar: Dark of the Sun” by Christopher Paul Carey, from Victory Harben: Tales from the Void, edited by Christopher Paul Carey

14.   “Victory Harben: Clash on Caspak” by Mike Wolfer

15.   “Victory Harben: Stormwinds of Va-Nah” by Ann Tonsor Zeddies

16.   “Victory Harben and the Lord of the Veiled Eye” by Christopher Paul Carey

17.   “Jason Gridley of Earth: Across the Moons of Mars” by Geary Gravel

18.   “Beyond the Farthest Star: Rescue on Zandar” by Mike Wolfer

19.   “Grottmata” by Thomas Ha, from Nightmare Magazine #142, edited by Wendy N. Wagner

20.   “Automaton Boy” by Sara S. Messenger

21.   “The Museum of Cosmic Retribution” by Megan Chee

22.   “Tamaza's Future and Mine” by Kenneth Schneyer, from Asimov's Science Fiction 582/583, edited by Sheila Williams

23.   “The Phantasmagoria of Castle Specfel” by Greta Hayer, from Kaleidotrope Summer 2024, edited by Fred Coppersmith

So that’s 23 short stories in July. Less than “1 per day” again, which puts me slightly behind again for the year! (July 31st was the 213th day of 2024.)

MOVIES

I watched one movie in July:

1.       The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969)

The week ending July 28th was the 31st week of the year, so I’m still way behind on the “1 movie per week” challenge.

TELEVISION

·       Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2, Episodes 1 – 20 (20 episodes)

That’s 20 episodes of television, which is well below the “1 per day” I was shooting for and keeps me behind the pace for this challenge.

LIVE THEATER

I didn’t get to any live theatrical performances in July!

Summary of Challenges:

“To Be Read” Challenge: This month: 0 read; YTD: 6 of 15 read.

366 Short Stories Challenge: This month:  23 read; YTD: 202 of 366 read.

Goodreads Challenge: This month: 15 read; YTD: 75 of 120 read.

Graphic Novels Challenge:  This month: 2 read; YTD: 15 of 52 read.

Non-Fiction Challenge: This month: 3 read; YTD: 12 of 12 read.

Read the Book / Watch the Movie Challenge: This month: 1 read/watched; YTD: 2 read/watched. (I read The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie earlier in the year and finally watched the movie this month.)

Movie Challenge: This month: 1 watched; YTD: 17 of 52 watched.

TV Shows Challenge: This month: 20 episodes watched; YTD: 149 of 366 watched.

Live Theater Challenge: This month: 0 shows attended; YTD: 9 of 12 attended.

Theater Thursday: OR, WHAT SHE WILL

I think my first encounter with the writing of Liz Duffy Adams was as part of the writing staff for Serial Box’s (now Realm’s) four seasons of Ellen Kushner’s Tremontaine (the prequel audiobook series to Kushner’s “Riverside” fantasy series). I really enjoyed her episodes (but that’s a whole different blog post at some point). She’s been a playwright for far longer than I’ve been aware of her, and I began seeking out her published scripts, many of which are neo-Restoration or touch on that period.

I finally got to see a live performance of one of her works when Red Bull Theater produced a reading of OR (retitled Or, What She Will) at the Sheen Center Shiner Theatre in New York City on May 6, 2024 (yes, I’m behind on my theater reviews. Forgive me.) The reading was directed by Gayle Taylor Upchurch, and featured Kelly Curran as Aphra Behn, b as Nell Gwynne and others, and Santino Fontana as King Charles II and others.

This was an incredibly fun, high-energy evening. All three actors were wonderful; I was extra impressed when I found out they’d only had one rehearsal, that afternoon. They made effective use of a handful of props, including masquerade masks, and b and Fontana were a master class in transforming from one character to another, sometimes mid-sentence, through body language and vocal inflections. Fontana’s King Charles II and William (a former lover and fellow spy of Aphra’s) were equally earnest and slimy; b’s Nell Gwynne was sexual and sensual, her Maria the epitome of hapless and long-suffering. At the center of it all, Kelly Curran’s performance as Aphra Behn was captivating.

For those who may not know, Aphra Behn was a poet and former spy for King Charles II during his exile. She was one the first English women to make a living by writing, moving into playwriting after her time as a spy. Some of her early life is shrouded in mystery, as is whether she actually went to debtor’s prison and who paid off her debts to free her. She did eventually go to work for the King’s Company and the Duke’s Company, theatrical troupes that would have brought her into contact with famed actor Nell Gwynne.

OR attempts to answer some of the questions of Behn’s adult life in the form of a neo-Restoration comedy, postulating romantic/sexual liaisons between Behn and King Charles II, Behn and Nell Gwynne, and giving a possible origin point for the affair between Nell Gwynne and King Charles II. There’s lots of bedroom farce type comedy, characters being shuffled from room to room or being forced to hide in wardrobes to keep them from seeing each other, as Aphra Behn tries to juggle not just visits from three different present and former lovers but also from Aphra’s elderly servant woman Maria and from Lady Davenant, patroness of the Duke’s Company, from whom Aphra hopes to secure work after being released from debtor’s prison.

I can only imagine what a fully staged production of OR would look like, with all the slamming of doors, hiding in wardrobes, and quick costume changes with two actors playing the majority of the roles. During the reading, the cast did a wonderful job of implying all of this physical comedy without much in the way of actual movement.

The script allows for the possibility of Lady Davenant, who enters in a breathless rush and delivers a two-and-a-half-page monologue without pause before sweeping out again, to be played by either of the performers who are not playing Aphra. In the reading, Santino Fontana delivered the energy and the comedy perfectly – although as is the nature of readings, he lost his place mid-monologue and turned finding it again into a bit that had the audience laughing along with him.

OR, set in the 1660s, is particularly topical right now, dealing as it does with, as the program notes state, “a cyclical view of history: against a background of drawn-out wars and a fervent counter-culture of free love, gender fluidity, political optimism and pastoral lyricism…” that we’ve seen in the 1960s and are seeing currently. Written during the early years of the Obama administration, it feels even more contemporary in the political climate of Fall 2024.

If you can find a performance of OR in your area, I highly recommend seeking it out. I may as well also mention here that Liz Duffy Adams’ Born with Teeth, about the professional and personal relationships between William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, is playing at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival through the fall. I have yet to read the script or see a production, but it sounds as interesting as OR.

A full list of the works of Liz Duffy Adams can be found on her website.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: N/A

I got to check another name off my “actors I’d love to finally see live on stage” list at the end of June: Holland Taylor. I was trying to fit one more show in in June, knowing that July would be hectic with work travel, and N/A was in previews at the Mitzi E. Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center.

In N/A, Holland Taylor plays “N” and Ana Villafañe plays “A.” “N” is a life-long member of the House of Representatives, a former Speaker of the House and now Minority Leader. “A” is a newly elected Representative (“of the Bronx and Queens!”), the youngest woman ever elected to the House. While they are part of the same political party, and share many goals and ideals, their philosophical and strategic disagreements place them at odds even on common ground. The characters are clearly based on Nancy Pelosi and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, although neither woman’s name is spoken during the roughly 90-minute performance (nor is any other politician’s name, although when they discuss “that man” it is equally clear who they are referring to). Taylor and Villafañe both delivered powerhouse performances during the preview I saw. There were a few small gaffes, but hey – that’s what previews are for. Reviews I’ve seen online since the show officially opened have all been positive, regardless of the age of the reviewer (I’ve seen reviews from a 13-year-old actor to a 70-year-old frequent theatregoer).

Taylor’s “N” is all quiet control, occasionally condescending (and quite aware of when she’s doing it, and to who) but also willing to acknowledge when that condescension is misplaced, leveraging decades of compromise and slow progress to institute positive change. She moves carefully across the stage at all times, regardless of her emotions. Villafañe’s “A” is boundless energy, also occasionally condescending (in that “youth knows better than age” way), striving to do the Right Thing even when it’s not the most politically expedient thing, swinging for the substantial changes over the incremental. At times, she veritably ricochets from one end of the small set to the other, and in one highly effective moment she conveys movement without moving or speaking, trembling in place. They balance each other very well – or perhaps I should say, in the playwright’s words, they orbit one another well, literally and figuratively dancing around each other and the issues that concern them. Most of their scenes are together, although each gets at least a few moments on stage alone. Those moments are as telling, as informative about the characters, as when they are verbally sparring.

Mario Correa’s script mixes actual conversations and sound bites from the real “N” and “A” with conjecture about what they may have said to each other in private in various meetings between 2018 and 2022. The playwright gives each woman equal weight, neither idolizing nor vilifying either one. The audience the night I saw the show seemed evenly distributed age-wise, obvious in the response to N’s lines about disaffected youth who spend all their time trying to raise their social media cachet and A’s lines about older people who think “close enough” is “good enough.” (I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the point.) I personally came out of the show with a greater appreciation of what it takes to accomplish anything in Washington, playing what Otto Von Bismark called “the art of the possible” (a quote I have to admit I mostly know because Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice based a song around it in Evita), a greater appreciation for how even people who broadly want the same thing can have very specifically different ways of attaining it.

N/A is a classic two-person show, perfect for the more intimate Newhouse space where the audience surrounds three-quarters of the stage. The set is minimalistic, the few pieces of furniture see-through plexiglass, allowing the focus to stay on the actors. The passage of time and change of locations is indicated through photos and words projected on the rear wall, including some well-known photos from our recent history. Fair warning: there are some fast-flashing lights and loud sound cues, especially in the scene that takes place on January 6th.

N/A runs at the Mitzi Newhouse Theater at Lincoln Center through September 1st (the run was recently extended). I highly recommend seeing it.

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is an occasional series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.

Theater Thursday: WITHOUT YOU

Based on his memoir of the same name, Anthony Rapp’s “one man with a band” show Without You is a tour-de-force look at grief, chronicling Rapp’s friendship with playwright/composer/lyricist Jonathan Larson, Larson’s unexpected death just as RENT was opening, and the slow decline and death from cancer of Rapp’s mother. It’s an emotional 90 minutes of theater, filled with a combination of Larson’s music and original songs written by Anthony Rapp with David Matos, Joe Pisapia, and Daniel A. Weiss, and Rapp holds nothing back emotionally. It’s clear throughout that he is still in touch with the raw emotions of the highs and lows of that period of his life, even if he has made peace with it.

The show is not all doom and gloom. There are cathartic moments of humor spread throughout, and lots of joy at the happier moments. Rapp’s warmth, and his love for his family and friends, shines through even the darkest moments, and he is a fantastic storyteller. From the start, his voice and his body language draw you in – you want to hear his story, and you want to hear it from him. Still, as a cancer survivor myself and as someone who was primary caregiver to my mother during the final three months of her battle with cancer, some moments hit hard. But those moments also allowed me to accept that grief is never-ending, to shed some of my own long-pent-up tears … and also to celebrate my mother as Rapp was celebrating his.

The set is minimal: a few chairs and rolling tables that Rapp moves around throughout the show stand in for his New York City apartment, the RENT audition/rehearsal/performance spaces, his mother’s home and hospital room, and other sundry locations. Photos are projected onto the walls of the set (which evoked memories of the RENT set) at key moments, and the lighting and sound design perfectly complement and support the story Rapp is telling without overwhelming the actor himself.

The band is on-stage throughout. For the off-Broadway run at New World Stages, which I saw in May of 2023, that band was composed of Daniel A. Weiss on keyboards, Clérida Eltimé on cello, Paul Gil on the bass, Jerry Marotta on drums, and Lee Moretti on guitar. They were terrific, very well meshed.

During the run at New World Stages, most performances concluded (after the bows) with Rapp being joined on stage by a friend or industry peer for a duet of a number from RENT. The night I saw the show, the effervescent Jessica Vosk joined Rapp for a high-energy, incredibly funny rendition of “Tango Maureen.”

Since closing off-Broadway, Anthony Rapp has been intermittently touring the show. He had some dates in Japan in March and is playing at the Wimberly Theatre in Boston through April 14th. If you can get to Boston to see the show, I highly recommend it! (I have no idea if the post-bow duets happen during the tour, but how awesome if they do!)

Side Note: I saw the evening performance of Without You at New World Stages the same day I saw the matinee performance of Oliver! at New York City Center (My review of Oliver! can be found HERE). That was quite the heavy day of theater!

I’ve always loved live theater, and in the past couple of years I’ve been making a stronger effort to see more of it. Theater Thursday is a new occasionally series where I talk about live theater, both shows I’ve seen recently and shows I’ve loved in the past.