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West Side Story: 60 Years Later
“Dear Evan Hansen” Review
NBC’s Grinch Musical REVIEW
“Frozen 2” Review
“Showman” Slow To Open
Despite the low numbers at the box office, Warner Brothers The Greatest Showman is expected to deliver big this holiday season leading up to the awards ceremonies in the new year.
The musical adventure of the legendary P.T Barnum who revolutionized how audience have a good time by bringing light to the truly unique has been nominated thus far for three Golden Globes including Best Original Song, Best Motion Picture, comedy or musical as well as Best Performance for a lead actor forHugh Jackman.
The Showman follows the life of PT Barnum from a poor tailor’s son with dreams of creating something unique. His childhood sweetheart, Charity (Michelle Williams) is with him from the first moment he makes her laugh, not to the approval of her high-class parents who only want the best for their daughter. Upon returning from finishing school, Barnum and Charity run off to marry and make a life of their own.
Through the creative lyrics of the lyricist that worked on the Oscar award-winning La La Land, the music will have you toe tapping along as one witnesses the creative genius of the man who still to this day receives a lot of flak for his show choices, but ultimately it shows the compassion of Barnum in order to highlight the specialities of those individuals who are different from the rest.
Also starring Zac Efron as his unwilling apprentice, Philip Carlyle, who learns that happiness can be found in the absurd, the Greatest Showman came out in theaters for the Christmas weekend on December 20, 2018 and is currently playing in a theater near you.
“Beast” Come To Life
The latest live action Disney Classic is taking the big screen and is set to be the biggest opening of 2017 thus far.
Emma Watson plays the iconic Belle and captures the same charm as she did after years of playing Hermione in the Harry Potter Franchise and even goes as far as to throw in a line from the first film in the opening village scene. Overall, the set and costume design of the movie fully captures the time period of the original and one feels a part of the movie from the first moment on.
The beast, played by Dan Stevens, fully embraces every ounce of the original character from the savage, self-absorbed man that transforms into a caring, somewhat sensitive person that Belle can not resist.
Bill Cordon, who directed this live adaptation wanted to create unique moments, including new never been heard songs written by original composer Alan Menken and new lyrics by Tim Rice which also added to the addition of a new character, Cadenza (voiced by Stanley Tucci). Overall, the music, seamlessly meshed together to create a “Tale as old as Time” for a new generation.
Other actors include, Luke Evans as the dastardly sleek Gaston, his sidekick Lefou played by Josh Gad in Disney’s first ever “Gay” character which brought controversy on all sides. Kevin Kline played Belle’s father Maurice and Ewan McGregor voiced Cogworth while Ian McKeller voiced Lumiere and Mrs Potts was voiced by Emma Thompson.
Overall, the new live adaptation of the ’91 classic, fares well to its predecessor, but keeping the same story while giving it a somewhat modern twist for a new audience, while adding more of a back story to our beloved Belle and her beast. Audiences for the first time got the answers to two of the most puzzling questions, “what happened to Belle’s mother?” and “what happened to the beast to make him so cold?”.
For the answers, make sure to see the movie while it is in theaters. Beauty and the Beast opened in theaters March 16 to packed and sold out audiences and is expected to take number one at the box office this weekend after averaging over 63 million as of its Friday total.
Audiences “Sing” To Theaters
The animated musical comedy with a heart for entertainment is continuing to draw crowds to theaters with great music and an even better story about never giving up and doing what you love to do.
Universal’s Sing, starring a long list of big names including, Matthew McConaughey as Buster Moon, the business savvy Koala who desperately wants to save his family’s theater from foreclosure by putting on one last performance, ‘a singing competition’, but through a mistype of the flyer, it appears to be more of a disaster for everyone. But will Moon be able to save his theater, especially when everything seems to be going wrong.
The animated movie also includes the voice talents of Reese Witherspoon as Rosita, the mother pig, who wants more then just being a housewife, her partner in the competition, Nick Kroll as Gunter, the pig with the dance moves, Scarlett Johansson, as Ash, the porcupine with the dream to break free of her boyfriend and just Sing, Taron Egerton as the Soul singing gorilla who wants more then the “family business” and Tori Kelly as Meena the shy elephant with the mighty set of pipes.
Overall, Sing will have audiences laughing, inspiring and thoroughly enjoying all the songs of the entire movie as you go on a journey with a few different kinds of animals that have to band together to just do what they love to do and that’s ‘Sing’.
Sing came out in theaters Dec. 21, the same week as Rogue one and has been trailing the Star Wars film at number two consecutively, bringing in close to 200- thousand to date. It’s a movie that is good for all ages and is highly recommended to all. It’s still currently playing in a theater near you.
“La La Land” REVIEW
There’s an original musical that is bringing crowds into the theaters for the month of December and trying to bring back the old time jazz and live stage performance to the big screen.
La La Land stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as two star cross lovers who are drawn together by their own unique passion. Gosling a struggling jazz pianist whose ultimate dream is to bring back the iconic jazz scene to a new age audience. He encounters Stone, a ambitious actress whose current repertoire is a series of rejections, but as they keep running into each other, a spark is ignited in each of them as they fall passionately in love, giving them extra passion to drive their dream, but is the love enough to hold their relationship when their dreams begin to become reality or will they be pulled apart by distance to achieve what they really want in life.
Set in traditional Hollywood, La La Land is the journey of one couple through an entire year and how fast life, love and work moves in the Los Angeles timeline. At just over two hours, it’s the perfect movie to end the old year and ring in the new year with hope.
La La Land came out in theaters December 9th, 2016 and has already brought in over 27 million in revenues at the box office and has received seven Golden Globe Nominees for best director, cast nominees for Miss Stone, Mr Gosling and J.K Simmons as well as writer, score and song. The Golden Globes are set to air on Sunday January 8, 2017.
La La Land is currently playing in a theater near you.