Review: The Sound of Music

A multicultural-looking family singing Edelweiss in the Vancouver production

What's the Christmas holidays without The Sound of Music?

I grew up watching Julie Andrews as Maria who charmed the von Trapp children with her fun songs and eventually won the heart of Georg von Trapp played by Christopher Plummer. Every Christmas we watched the movie on television, always knowing what was coming next but were still transfixed.

Synthia Yusuf is Maria in The Sound of Music

This evening my parents gave us tickets to watch the musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II at the Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage in Vancouver. The production started in November and we were catching the tail end of it, as it finishes on January 5.

I've never seen it on stage before and this was a great production all round. And what's also interesting is that it's very multicultural, which is very Vancouver.

The lead role of Maria Rainer is played by Synthia Yusuf, and many of the children -- so good! -- are Philippine ethnicity, while some of the nuns are African-Canadian. Austria in 1937 didn't look like that!

The set quickly changes from abbey to the von Trapp home

Most of the story in the musical was similar to the movie, though a few things were different. I loved the scene in the film when they sing The Lonely Goatherd and have an elaborate puppet show put on for the Georg and Elsa Schraeder, but alas it was not here on stage; nevertheless the performance was still lots of fun.

The break up of Georg and Elsa was different in the film too, while in the musical it was sped up for time purposes. The climactic ending when the young boy Rolf Gruber finds the von Trapp family in the abby garden is not what was portrayed in the movie and quite surprising. Maybe again it was to hurry the story along to its conclusion, but it was still satisfying in the end.

The talented children are the best part of the show

The whole production was fantastic. The set design was very flexible -- one minute it was the abbey, another the home of the von Trapp family, and there were backdrops to show the alps in the background.

Direction was great too, using all aspects of the theatre, from the nuns filing in from where the audience sat, to the von Trapp family singing Climb Every Mountain and walking out of the theatre area.

Right from the beginning we were impressed by the excellent voices, not just Yusuf, but also The Mother Abbess played by Annie Ramos and Jonathan Winsby as Captain Georg von Trapp. But it was definitely the kids who really stole the show, very poised and played their parts well. You could tell they really enjoyed being on stage, in particular Jolene Bernardino as Liesl von Trapp.

At the end you really want to sing those songs too. When's the sing-along version coming out?

Book of Mormon

Mormon Elder Cunningham tries to convert Ugandans to Jesus Christ

We saw another show that I have been wanting to see for several years -- Book of Mormon.

Again it was a packed show at the Eugene O'Neill Theater, but we didn't have to line up around the block just to get in.

The premise of the story is funny -- a do-gooder Mormon missionary called Elder Kevin Price is considered the most qualified to go on his mission and hopes he'll be posted to Orlando, but he is sent to of all places -- Uganda -- with Elder Arnold Cunningham -- who likes to embellish things... a lot.

Everyone looks up to Elder Price as the model Mormon

It starts off hilarious, with side jokes here and there, but then things start getting really crass -- lots of f-words and outrageous lines that are definitely sung and spoken to get attention and cheap laughs.

But after a while when you swear too many times, the audience gets numbed by it and loses its effectiveness, let alone shock value.

We still enjoyed the storyline, but was the excessive amount of profanities that necessary? We were pretty much cringing towards the end and wondered how it would all end...

Both the leads were fantastic strong singers and the leader of the Mormon group in Uganda was really funny as he had gay tendancies he tried to hide. The most hilarious song had to be Turn It Off, when Elder Price is told to "turn off" his concerns about confronting a Ugandan warlord, much like the Mormon leader being attracted to men.

The lyrics are written by Robert Lopez, Matt Stone and Trey Parker, the latter two famous for South Park, and so you know you're probably in for some crass humour, and took seven years to finally get performed on stage.

Funny satire on Mormons but a lot of swearing in it!

Stone and Parker grew up in Colorado and so they were very familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints. When they were researching for the musical they went to Salt Lake City and interviewed missionaries and former ones, so in a way the audience can tell the musical may poke fun at Mormons, it doesn't slam them completely, that faith, hope and optimism are really important to everyone.

When the musical came out in 2011, the church issued a "measured", saying: "The production may attempt to entertain audiences for an evening, but the Book of Mormon as a volume of scripture will change people's lives forever by bringing them closer to Christ".

There isn't much the church can do since it was a Tony-award winning show and has traveled around to several countries. Doubt it would make it to Hong Kong though!

Book of Mormon

Eugene O'Neill Theatre

230 West 49th Street

New York

Lessons in Kinky Boots

Lots of high energy in the Tony-award winning musical Kinky Boots

One of the Broadway shows we saw was Kinky Boots, the Tony-award winning show featuring words and lyrics by Cyndi Lauper and book by Harvey Fierstein.

Rock star Brendon Urie plays Charlie Price

The musical is based on a 2005 British film called Kinky Boots that was inspired by true events. In the show, Charlie Price is the fourth generation of a shoe-making business but needs to figure out how to keep the company from going bankrupt and has an encounter with a drag queen...

Brendon Urie plays Charlie, and when he first appeared on stage, there were hysterical screams from young women in the audience because he's the frontman for the rock band Panic!

Having someone famous -- and easy on the eyes -- helps sell tickets, and in this case Urie plays the part well.

However his co-star J. Harrison Ghee as Lola was electrifying. He can not only sing his heart out, but has hilarious lines he delivers with pizazz and can dance in heels. He and the other drag queens do some really cool moves... talk about making drag queens more mainstream than ever in a Tony-award winning musical!

Also fantastic is the character Nicola played by Taylor Louderman, who really made the audience laugh with her lines and body language.

J. Harrison Ghee is amazing as drag queen Lola

The storyline is well thought out and focused on the similarities of the two characters even though they have such different backgrounds. It makes you realize how each had to have courage to carry on despite the risks stacked against them.

Nevertheless, overall the show was very high energy and after the show was over, many people wanted to dance their way out of the theatre.

Lots of fun!

Kinky Boots

Al Hirschfeld Theatre

302 West 45th Avenue

New York

kinkybootsthemusical.com

Review: Moana

Moana is another fun action adventure about finding your calling

I had extra time off for Lunar New Year and decided to check out another movie, Moana with YTSL at The One in Tsim Sha Tsui. This mall is so narrow that it really shouldn't be a mall, as the space is very awkward, and also manoeuvering to get around is tedious going up and down several escalators, or waiting for lifts.

Anyway Walt Disney seems to have ursuped Pixar completely, as the preceding credits made no mention of the plucky desk light that jumps on the letter "I" in Pixar.

A short film advising to follow your heart for some fun

And now, like Zootopia, there is a short animation completely unrelated to the feature film as a warm-up act. For Zootopia, it was a love story between two Hawaiian volcanoes, which now in retrospect was a hint of Moana, and this time it was Inner Workings.

It's a hand drawn animation that at first looks like a biology lesson in how the human body works (albeit very simplistic), how the brain, heart, lungs and bladder function. The body we see belongs to a young man who rushes to work, but along the way he is distracted by a delicious pancake breakfast, the beautiful beach, and an attractive sunglass stall owner.

However his brain puts his heart, or emotional side in check before arriving just in time to work at Boring, Boring & Glum. It's another reminder to not have a boring job -- how many people in the audience would be nodding? -- and to find your passion in life.

Moana is a strong-willed determined character in the film

Does this mean the next feature length animation will be similar to Inside Out? Stay tuned.

Moana is a great girl power story -- seems like Disney is keen on female heroes these days, as boys don't seem to mind characters like Frozen's Elsa, Merida in Brave, and bunny rabbit Judy Hopps in Zootopia.

Here Moana is the daughter and heir to the chief of the Polynesian island of Motonui, and even as a child she has an adventurous spirit, keen on going into the ocean. However, her father forbids not only her but everyone else from going past the reef, following his own scary experience when he was younger.

But the island's natural environment is deteriorating, so there is not enough coconuts, fruits or fish to feed on. Moana's grandmother tells her she must save the island by taking a green stone that is the heart of goddess Te Fiti and return it to her. It was stolen by a demi-god called Maui, and he must help Moana bring it back to Te Fiti.

Does Maui (left) look like Dwayne Johnson (right)?

It's not clear how old Moana is in the film, but probably a teenager. It's interesting she was not drawn to have the old school Barbie doll shape, but a very sturdy and strong-looking young woman who is also strong-willed and clever.

There's some hilarious scenes involving a really dumb rooster, a very shiny crab with a huge ego, and an army of evil coconut creatures.

When the characters sang, particularly Moana, they felt like they were written and staged to look like a musical. Is this something in the works for Moana, the Musical? Perhaps it has something to do with Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame for writing the lyrics.

Heihei the Rooster is Moana's sidekick, but not that helpful

In any event, girls will enjoy watching the film, boys will get a kick out of Maui, played by "The Rock" Dwayne Johnson -- and yes he can sing! His tattoos are fun too.

The animation here is really impressive. As you watch each successive feature, the computer generated images become progressively more sophisticated. This time the focus was on the hair, the sea, the details of feathers and skin. Even compared to Inside Out, Moana has far more detail that is really exciting to see and appreciate.

Moana

Directed by Ron Clements and Jon Musker

Co-directed by Don Hall and Chris Williams

Auli'i' Cravalho as Moana

Dwayne Johnson as Maui

Jemaine Clement as Tamatoa (the treasure-hoarding crab)

Alan Tudyk as Heihei, the rooster

That's Chicago

Lining up to get into the theatre to watch Chicago for a matinee show

You can't go to New York without seeing a show. The hottest ticket these past few years has been Tony award-winning Hamilton, which goes up to the thousands of dollars. There is a lottery draw every day for cheap tickets, but apparently 7 million people take part in it everyday so the chances of winning are really slim.

The show that used to be the most popular in town before Hamilton was Book of Mormon and those tickets have now dropped to US$145 each, but we opted for even cheaper tickets to see Chicago at the Ambassador Theatre.

The orchestra took up most of the stage

I'd seen a live performance many years ago in Hong Kong and then saw the Oscar-winning film starring Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones.

So while the story line was a bit fuzzy, we still remembered many of the songs.

The stage in this theatre was very small -- so small that the orchestra took up a big chunk of the stage sitting stadium style. As a result the performers didn't have much of a set to work with, and even interacted with the conductor to connect the music with the characters.

However, the performers were very strong, which made up for the very small stage. The two women who played Roxie Hart (Charlotte d'Amboise) was vibrant and amusing, while Velma Kelly (Amra-Faye Wright) was fun and bitchy.

Jaime Camil after the show signing autographs

They were both in jail for killing men, and their lawyer, the slick Billy Flynn was performed by Jaime Camil, who is considered a very well-known actor in the Spanish-speaking world.

This was apparent after the show, when many fans waited outside for him to come out and sign autographs and have his picture taken.

Because the stage was so small, the performers couldn't do much choreographed dancing which was a pity, and so it was important to know the story line well. Perhaps the best scene was Billy Flynn acting like a ventriloquist using Roxie Hart as a puppet mouthing his words during a press conference to give her side of the story.

The actors added a few witty words here and there or fun body language to keep the script fresh, and the conductor was also a character in the show.

He got lots of applause for his performance

The ending was anti-climactic, with the two women singing and dancing together, but nothing too complicated. Nevertheless we still enjoyed the show, about revenge, greed, ego and sex.

Chicago

Ambassador Theatre

219 West 49th Street

New York

(212) 239 6200

Showtime -- The King and I

The local production of The King and I presented at Gateway Theatre

Yesterday we went to see a local production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's The King and I at Gateway Theatre in Richmond.

A family friend joked to my New York-based sibling that this show was amateurish compared to productions on Broadway, but we were undeterred and bought tickets.

As we walked into the theatre it occurred to me that perhaps this musical was chosen because it was being presented in Richmond, where there is a large Asian (Chinese) population, but regardless it's a feel-good show that's good for the holidays.

The original King of Siam Yul Brynner

The last time I saw a live production of The King and I was many years ago when Yul Brynner played the title role at Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver. I just remember him being such a dynamic and charismatic character. He had played the King of Siam so many times on stage and screen that he was the king.

On a side note in 2006 my family and I took an Asian cruise on Princess and visited Vladivostock, Russia, where the only thing we found interesting was Brynner's childhood home which had turned into an office.

Nevertheless I didn't remember much of the story so this show was a good refresher.

The musical is based on the 1944 novel called Anna and the King of Siam by Margaret Langdon, which was derived from the memoirs of Anna Leonowens, an English governess to the King of Siam's children in the 1860s.

In the show Anna is a strong-headed female character which is unusual for that time, but perhaps because she was a widow and teacher, her only wish was to be treated fairly.

Brynner dancing with Deborah Kerr

Meanwhile the King's sexist attitude towards women seems outrageous to westerners, but not surprising to Asians who used to, and in Thailand's case still revere their king.

The King and Anna don't see eye-to-eye on many things and on many levels, while the king's children are eager to learn as much as they can from Anna and they are confronted by trying to understand the difference between scientific knowledge and traditional beliefs.

Overall Barbara Tomasic as Anna was fantastic, a strong singer who easily stood up to King Phra Maha Mongut played by Jovanni Sy, who is also the artistic director of of the show.

We also liked Rosie Simon as Tuptim, the Burmese princess sent as a "gift" to the King of Siam. Her singing was ethereal to say the least paired with her lover Lun Tha played by Justin Daniel Lapena.

Could we just add that Tyler Wong as Crown Prince Chulalongkorn sounded like Charlie Brown?! He wasn't very articulate and tried very hard to look regal...

A few scenes were cut in the already long show -- such as the blooming romance between Tuptim and Lun Tha, the banquet scene of the King hosting diplomats from England, and torturing Tuptim after she is caught trying to flee Siam.

The local production featured a number of Asian kids on stage

Perhaps the longest scene was the Thai version of "The Small House of Uncle Thomas" featuring a narrated dance about black slaves escaping the underground railroad to Canada. Choreographed by Jerome Robbins, the dance sequence here didn't stray far from the original.

A number of children were recruited for the production, many of them Chinese, while a few were Caucasian and just barely looked the park with their dirty blond hair.

Set mostly in the palace, the set was relatively minimalist, but did the job, with a few props to embellish the stage.

In the end the show was very enjoyable and for $49 a ticket, was great value for entertainment on a cold day.

The King and I

December 5-31, 2013

Gateway Theatre

6500 Gilbert Road
Richmond
604 270 6500

gatewaytheatre.com