It’s amazing how a simple, humorless sentence can suddenly change when the punctuation is moved around.  Take the following for example: What is this thing called love?  Now put a comma after what or maybe after called and before love; all of a sudden the stated question becomes funny.  The script for the stage production of The 39 Steps does exactly the same.  It’s the script Patrick Barlow adapted from the one Charles Bennett and Ian Hay wrote for Alfred Hitchcock’s dramatic 1935 movie thriller but with one difference; he moved the punctuation.

As directed by David Hale Dietiein and presented at Gilbert’s Hale Centre Theatre, The 39 Steps is an inventive, laugh-out loud comic farce.  It’s as if the Monty Python crew joined forces with the Carry On gang and decided to put on a show on amateur night.  The four actors and one Foley artist who make up all one hundred and fifty characters have welcomed the lunacy with open arms and embraced it to its fullest, harebrained potential.  The end result is a madcap, free for all that continually appears to be on the verge of falling apart but never does due to several theatrical inventions that actually succeed in both thrilling and surprising, presented by a cast who appear to be having the most fun they’ve ever had in a play.

True to the spirit of the original film, The 39 Steps calls on its central character, John Buchan’s action hero of five novels, Richard Hannay, to find himself on a train from London to Scotland in order to prove his innocence of a murder he never committed and to solve the secrets of whatever the 39 Steps are.  

If you’ve ever seen either the original Broadway or London productions you’ll know how the show is presented purely for laughs, how simple objects represent full sets, and how four actors can play so many roles just by changing hats and accents in a true pantomime tradition.  Because of the challenging logistics of presenting such a show in a theatre-in-the-round, director Dietiein has had to go that one, creative step further.  The sets, as sparse as they were in the original, are even sparser here, but that’s part of the fun.  With careful lighting, sound effects, intentionally tacky models and lots of billowing smoke, all kinds of resourceful, theatrical tricks have been thrown together to decorate the production, and they work.  Dietiein has taken the limitations often created by a theatre-in-the-round presentation and made it part of the show.  By seeing the action from literally every angle we’re in on the joke in ways a traditional presentation can never create.

All four actors attack the silliness with the kind of over-the-top broadness the comedy  deserves. When Chad Krolczyk as the debonair Hannay asks the grumpy Scottish country farmer whether the attractive young woman in his farmhouse is his daughter, the Scottsman declares “That’s my wife!”  Hannay turns to the audience.  With a sly smile he says, “Well done.”  It’s one of the many moments where the audience is acknowledged by the cast and called upon to be a part of the show.  Actors sit in the seats next to regular patrons and even ask them to respond to something happening before them.  It’s just one of the ways this very funny and fast-paced production incorporates elements not usually associated with the show.   During the big climax on the stage of the famous London Palladium we not only watch the outcome of the gun play but as an audience we all become extras in the scene; we’re watching and participating at the same time. 

Chad Krolczyk is an appropriately dashing Richard Hannay; Alaini Beauloye is both  charming and funny in all three female roles, while the remaining 146 characters are played by Gary Caswell and Jere Van Patten who can change characters faster than a speeding train, on a speeding train.  Plus, we have the addition of Ryan Hardy as the Foley artist positioned behind his special effects counter.  He’s the man who creates all the sound effects, like doors closing, bells ringing and whistles blowing.  Watching Hardy in action is almost as much fun as the show itself.  With his presence permanently in the corner of the house it’s like enjoying an old BBC radio play with visuals.

In truth, the accents are all over the place.  To a European ear, Scottish accents sound more Irish, even if the R’s are rolled, and most of the London accents are straight out of the Dick Van Dyke school of cockney, plus the grumpy Scottish farmer with his beard and country accent looks and sounds more Pennsylvania Amish than Scotts, but in an anything-for-a-laugh production, which this is, it hardly matters.  If you laugh then it’s done its job, and that’s all it wants from you.  And with this production of The 39 Steps, you’ll not only laugh but you’ll leave the theatre with the biggest of grins.

To find out more regarding times, dates and tickets CLICK HERE to go directly to the Hale Centre website.

To read more film & local theatre reviews, CLICK HERE to go to the David Appleford Film & Theatre Review website.

Jackie Robinson was the first African-American to play in Major League Baseball.  “I’m gonna bring a Negro player to the Brooklyn Dodgers,” states General Manager Branch Ricky (Harrison Ford) in the new film, 42.  “Have you lost your mind?” responds a colleague.

Chadwick Boseman plays Robinson and he successfully brings a sense of quiet dignity to the role of a man who broke the baseball color line during the forties.  For the most part he
holds back his anger at what is being said about him, both on and off the field, and allows his talent as a player to overcome his critics.  It’s a tremendous performance from an actor
whose principle work up until now has been in television playing bit parts in shows such as Castle, Fringe and Lie To Me.

Also good is Alan Tudyk as the verbally abusive manager of the Phillies, Ben Chapman, a man portrayed in the film as one rife with racism flowing through every inch of his body.  He opposed the presence of Robinson in the MLB and continually taunted the player, but when criticized for the ugly things he continually said, Chapman defends himself by pointing out that he quite cheerfully calls all players of differing cultural backgrounds names, as if somehow insulting everyone equally justifies the repulsive things he’s called Robinson. 

Only Harrison Ford as legendary MLB executive Branch Rickey falters.  It’s an earnest performance and one that goes out of its way to break the mold of the strong but silent types
that Ford has previously played, and for that alone he should be given full credit, but his grumpy, firm, yet overall fair and kind approach often comes across as artificial.  For the first time it looks as though Ford is acting; the character’s elderly affectations are mannered.  But writer/director Brian Helgeland has also given Ford’s character great lines.  When the GM for the Phillies calls Rickey and tells him he won’t let his team play because of Robinson, Ricky asks the man if he believes in God and expects to go to Heaven.  “Why?” asks the GM. “Because when you tell God you didn’t play because of a Negro, it might not be a sufficient
reply!” declares Rickey.

The film is well shot with a slight brown tint giving the feel of the forties as we remember them through old, color photographs.  Each frame is perfectly composed to the point of almost being old fashioned at a time when many films are fast-paced, edited with the sensibilities of a music video and shot with a hand-held.  Yet despite this solid and deliberately well-framed look, the film’s pace is so fast with a story so continually fascinating, the two hours fly by.

There’s a moment in the film when you actually see the birth of racism.  In the crowds at one of the games a young boy sits with his father.  They talk excitedly about what they’re about to watch, particularly of their hero, Pee Wee Reese.  Then Jackie Robinson appears and the peaceful crowd suddenly turns venomous.  So does the father.  With an ugliness that comes seemingly out of nowhere, the man points and screams racial slurs with a passion at the black
player who has done nothing to deserve this reception.  The young boy sees this, looks around him at the crowds who are doing the same, and suddenly joins in.  It’s both an obvious and powerful moment.  Within the space of a few seconds we see how racism is not an attitude with which you’re born, to our disgrace it’s handed down. 

MPAA Rating:  PG-13      Length: 118 minutes     Overall Rating:  7 (out of 10)

For more film and local theatre reviews CLICK HERE to go to the David Appleford Film & Theatre Review website.

In many respects, Trance is everything you might expect from Danny Boyle.  It incorporates all elements of style and presentation that we have now come to expect from the British filmmaker, including fast edits, a glossy look, simple actions made exciting, and an overall visceral experience that keeps you continually on edge, sometimes uncomfortably so.

James McAvoy is Simon, an art auctioneer in London who we discover is not one of the good guys.  He’s part of a team intent on stealing a Goya painting. Just when the bidding for the painting at a public auction reaches a massive total of more than twenty seven million pounds, the thieves go to work and rob the place.  It’s Simon’s job to cut the painting out of the frame, wrap it up and get it out of the building.  But a blow to the head causes the corrupt auctioneer to become unconscious during the robbery.  When he comes around, his short-term memory has gone and he can’t remember where he’s hid the painting.  All of that happens in the first few minutes. 

One of the problems when discussing Trance is the issue of giving too much away. The story is really a series of reveals where pieces of the puzzle come to ight one step at a time.  By the end, if you’ve pieced together everything in the way director Boyle has guided you, you should see the overall big picture, but to discuss any of those reveals in detail is to take away the experience of discovery.  Without realizing things for yourself, there’s no film.  

There are three questions that run throughout the story; when did Simon hide the painting, why did he hide it, and what does hypnotherapist Elizabeth Lamb (Rosario Dawson) have to do with all of this? 

Dawson’s character is hired at random to essentially hypnotize Simon so that she can reach into his mind and recreate those moments before the blow to the head.  When asked why did Simon pick this certain, expensive Harley Street hypnotherapist to put him into a trance, he replies, “I don’t know.  I like her name.”  The problem is, we don’t believe him.  There’s something about her that we instinctively know is wrong.  She has a connection to the robbery.  We don’t know how or why, but something tells us all is not what we think, and it’s this nagging feeling of doubt and uncertainty, not only about Dawson’s character but of everything and everyone involved that runs throughout the film.  The one thing we know for certain; there is no such thing as honor among thieves.

Trance is not an easy film to like.  Being challenged is fine; in fact, it’s actually fun.  In
some ways it’s a breath of fresh air to have a story line that refuses to spoon-feed information and wants us, the viewers, to do some of the detective work, but director Boyle decorates the film with such flashy moments of extreme violence that come at you like kicks to the stomach that what began as an intriguing look into the mindset of a working criminal ends up being an altogether unpleasant experience, not to mention that once you’re in a position to see the
whole picture what was presented as complicated is really quite simple.  It’s like having the rug pulled from under your feet.  You actually feel cheated.

MPAA Rating:  R    Length:  101 Minutes   Overall rating: 5 (out of 10) 

For more film and local theatre reviews CLICK HERE to go to the David Appleford Film & Theatre Review website.

They tell us that the film is loosely inspired by true events.  Starbuck is a French/Canadian comedy about a man who over a period of two years made several ‘donations’ to a Quebec
sperm bank when he needed money.  One day, a lawyer from the bank tells the man that because of the several visits he had previously made he has now fathered 533 children.  142 of them have joined together to file a class action lawsuit in order to have the clinic reveal the identity of the donor.  All they know of the donor is that he signed the papers as Starbuck.

The man in question is David Wozniak (Patrick Huard), a delivery guy at his father’s butcher shop, and by all accounts he’s the worst delivery guy in history.  “You know I love you like a son,” his father says when trying to explain how awful a worker Wozniak is.  “I am your son,” Wozniak replies.

Wozniak is a total screw up.  He owes some local bad guys more than $80,000 and they want it back.  The way he tries to raise some of that money is by growing pot in his apartment, only, like everything else, he’s not very good at it.  While buying a pile of books explaining how to successfully grow weed in the home, the boy behind the counter asks, “No rolling papers with this?”  To make matters more complicated, his girlfriend is now pregnant.  Yes,
despite the 533 children he has already inadvertently fathered, he is about to have a child.

Starbuck is a very funny comedy that because of its subject borders on smuttiness yet never
quite sinks that low.  Despite the occasional moment of drama – one of the teenagers he has fathered overdoses – the film has a continual genial approach that ultimately wins you over and has you leaving the theatre feeling surprisingly charmed.  Even the overdose subplot has a happy ending.  

There are a series of highly amusing episodes as Wozniak secretly becomes involved in some of the lives of those he has fathered, though they’re always unaware of whom this friendly stranger before them really is.  At one point he even turns up at a meeting where all 142 teenagers have gathered to discuss the class action lawsuit, mingling among the crowd, observing his offspring.  “Stop seeing your children,” his lawyer tells him.  

When explaining to his father that he’s the Starbuck all the local media is talking about, he laments, “For once I’d like to be a normal person.”  His father replies, “A normal person wouldn’t be in this situation.”

The film ends on a sentimental though perfectly acceptable high note that leaves you with the kind of warm feeling that only the hardened cynic would complain about.  Plus, the fade out has perhaps the largest group hug on film.   

A fun piece of trivia:  Though this is never explained in the film, there’s an interesting piece
of Canadian culture incorporated into the title.  Starbuck was the name of a Canadian Holstein bull that during the 80’s was responsible for thousands of offsprings created by artificial insemination.  When the filmmakers state that the film is loosely inspired by true events, maybe it’s the bull they’re really talking about.

MPAA Rating:  R   Length:  109 minutes    Overall rating:  8 (out of 10)

For more film and local theatre reviews CLICK HERE to go to the David Appleford Film & Theatre Review website

Please note:  Starbuck is presented in French with English subtitles.

Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, the smash hit Broadway musical, is back in Tempe! Based on the Academy Award®-winning animated feature film, this eye-popping spectacle has won the hearts of over 35 million people worldwide. This classic musical love story is filled with unforgettable characters, lavish sets and costumes and dazzling production numbers including "Be Our Guest"and the beloved title song.  Experience the romance and enchantment of Disney's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at ASU Gammage!

And KEZ will be there! 

If you’re going to the Thursday evening performance (April 11) make sure to stay for KEZ’s Talk Back Thursday where yours truly gets to co-host a special Q&A session between you the audience and the cast after the show.

See you there, and have your questions ready!

For more information regarding times, dates and tickets CLICK HERE to go to the ASU Gammage website.

 For more film and local theatre reviews CLICK HERE to go to the David Appleford Film & Theatre Review website.

The 2013 Phoenix Film Festival is currently in full swing!

On Saturday, I had the opportunity of wandering around the festival, talking to volunteers, attendees and even a fellow reviewer from the Phoenix Film Critics Society, plus perhaps the most important woman at the festival, the lady responsible for the parties at the VIP Lounge.

Also, Saturday evening saw the premiere of the film Underdogs with Natalie Imbruglia, directed by Doug Dearth.  Natalie and Doug flew in to the valley especially for the festival, and I had a chance to talk with them before the Saturday evening showing of their film.

To hear Part One of the conversations by the Scottsdale 101 theatres click on the following.  My thanks to all the volunteers and attendees who agreed to an interview.

 To hear our full interview with Natalie Imbruglia and director Doug Dearth, click on the following.

To find out more about Natalie’s movie, Underdogs, CLICK HERE to go directly to the movie website.

To look at the remaining schedule for the 2013 Phoenix Film Festival CLICK HERE to go directly to the festival website.  The festival continues until the 11th.

Valley Youth Theatre continues to surprise.  Just at this critical economic time for local theatre when most groups should be thinking in terms of presenting something more obviously attractive in order to garner the attention of audiences, VYT takes a different and, to its credit, a more risky approach.  It presents a show that on the surface would seem like nothing more than an excuse to drumbeat a serious message and raise awareness rather than an evening of entertainment, but that’s where the surprise comes in.

They Chose Me! deals with the subject of adoption as seen through the eyes of children, and it’s a ton of lively fun that practically explodes on stage before you.  The show has of a large cast.  There are twenty-three characters, and all twenty-three remain on stage throughout the production’s duration.  It’s amazing that the intimate stage of the VYT is able to house such a large cast without it looking as though they’re falling over each other, but at no time does the show ever look cluttered or over populated.  Director Bobb Cooper keeps the proceedings lively and energetic by having the cast move in constant motion, supported by smart and efficient choreography from Cambrian James. 

There’s no plot. Each child has a specific character to present and story to tell.  The device is something akin to A Chorus Line where each of the auditionees tell of their lives accompanied by music and dance, but in They Chose Me! the characters speak not of auditions and show-biz but of their thoughts and feelings on being an adopted child, what it means to them, how it affects their lives and occasionally how it affects their hopes, dreams and fantasies. 

At the beginning, as the children gather on stage, ready to present themselves we can already hear their thoughts and concerns on how it feels to even be talking about the subject.  “What if they think I’m a dork?” asks one child aloud, while another states, “I’m missing American Idol to be here!”  It sets the tone and humor of what’s to come.

With a cast as large as this it’s practically impossible to name them all, but as often is the case with VYT there are always some performers who are given the chance to shine, depending on their character and the material, and in They Chose Me! there are standouts.  Thea Eigo’s song about herself, Mei-Ling, is both a tuneful and humorous production that explores the issue of being raised in two cultures; her full name is Mei-Ling Moskowitz and at one point when the characters fantasize of having celebrity parents, Mei-Ling dreams of being the off-spring of Lucy Lui and Adam Sandler.

But it’s Lily Castle, a newcomer to the VYT stage, who brings the house down.  She not only moves well and presents her character, Sharla Franco, with the assurance of a performer older than her years, but she takes her character’s song The Day I Was Told, sells it and makes it her own.  The opening night audience couldn’t wait to cheer.

The music and lyrics by Ned Paul Ginsburg and Michael Colby have roots in Broadway.  These are good songs with solid showbiz melodies and witty lyrics, and the cast embrace them with all the high-spirited energy each number deserves.

The problem now has nothing to do with the subject of adoption but with raising the awareness of the continual high-standard of productions as presented by Valley Youth Theatre.  I would urge fellow colleagues in the theatre community to attend and spread the word.  What happens and who performs on the VYT stage is beyond a doubt the future of valley theatre.

For more information regarding times, dates and tickets, CLICK HERE to go directly to the VYT website.

For more film & local theatre reviews, CLICK HERE to go to the David Appleford Film & Theatre Review website.

Even though this fourth episode in the Evil Dead series is being promoted as a sequel to the original 1981 version, it’s not, not really.  This new version takes place about thirty years later.  It’s the same, run-down, fixer-upper in the middle of the woods – you may even notice the same car from the original, rusting in the grass nearby – but a new family bought the place and presumably cleaned it up a little.  With that in mind, rather than call it a sequel, this new Evil Dead is more a continuation and you’d think that by now someone had learned their lesson not to open that suspicious looking Book of the Dead.  The fact that it’s found covered in black plastic and wrapped with barbed wire should have been a clue not to touch the thing.

The setup is simple.  Five teenagers spend the night at the cabin in the woods.  One of them finds the Necronomicon – the Book of the Dead – and gets to the page that states “Don’t Read It, Don’t Write It and Don’t Say It.”  Naturally, he does the opposite and lets loose the demonic spirit that haunted the place all those years ago.  As each teeneger becomes possessed, it does terrible things to those around it until there is only one teenager left to see the sunrise.

Believe me, there are no surprises at any point throughout the film, with the one exception being you won’t predict who that final teenager is going to be.  Other than that, it’s by the book.

Obviously, if any character did anything that even hinted at common sense, nothing would happen, but, of course, if they did that, there would be no film.  Entering the cabin and immediately smelling something rotten would be the first clue.  “Smells like burnt hair,” says one.  Then they enter the basement and see all kinds of dead and mutilated animals hanging on chains from the ceiling. I don’t know how you feel, but for me, that would have been another clue to get out of there.  But again, this isn’t that kind of film.

Evil Dead is pure and simply a gore-fest to the nth degree.  It’s probably the most obscenely violent, mainstream blood soaked film ever. No kidding.  There’s nothing else to it.  In graphic detail we’re witness to every sharp, metallic, pointy thing puncturing or ripping open human flesh.  Knives, hatchets, axes, nail guns, chainsaws, you name it, this film has it.  If it’s
lying around the cabin and it’s sharp, chances are it’ll eventually be used to puncture someone’s flesh in one way or another.

The real issue with Evil Dead is this; whether you want to call it a sequel or a continuation, it doesn’t really matter, it’s hardly a worthy inclusion to the series.  People tend to forget that the first Evil Dead wasn’t really funny, but it had a certain amount of camp.  Number 2 was a hoot, and number 3 was simply bizarre.   Unfortunately, this new addition has none of the camp that made Sam Raimi’s originals fun.  By taking it seriously – there is not one intentional laugh in this new version, though you may still laugh, regardless – and not adding anything fresh nor inventive to the proceedings, there hardly seems to be a point in making the film in the first place.  The recent horror/parody of teenagers spending a night in a cabin in the woods called – wait for it -  Cabin In The Woods pretty much sent the whole thing up to the point where more of the same is redundant.  But here we are with another.

Here’s the bottom line; you already know if this is for you.  If you want to see teenage mutilation in graphic detail, then be my guest.  Just becareful what you eat before you go.

MPAA Rating:  R     Length:  91 minutes   Overall Rating: 4 (out of 10)

For more film and local theatre reviews CLICK HERE to go to the David Appleford Film & Theatre Review website.

The Place Beyond the Pines is an ambitious though not altogether successful film that is told in three parts, runs for two hours and twenty minutes and spans fifteen years in its story telling.  The title is based on “Place beyond the pine plains,” a Mohawk phrase for  Schenectady, New York, the setting for director Derek Cianfrance’s elaborate story. 

In part one we’re introduced to Luke (Ryan Gosling), a heavily tattooed daredevil motorcyclist in town with the carnival.  Luke has been in town before.  On a whim, he drops in on the home of Romina (Eve Mendes) a young woman with whom he once had a passing fling.  To his shock, he discovers Romina now has a child, and the child is his.  “Anything you wanna tell me before I leave and never come back?” he asks her, but it doesn’t matter what Romina says; Luke is so affected by the news that he has fathered a child that he quits the carnival and stays.  He wants to do the right thing and if he can’t raise the child as a father, at least he can help with the money. But there’s a problem; he has none, so Luke turns to a life of crime and starts robbing local banks.

At about the fifty minute mark, part two introduces us to Police Officer Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) who becomes an overnight hero after catching up with the carnival bank robber.  By all accounts, Avery is a decent man and a good cop, but he has ambition, plus he becomes embroiled in a case of corruption which threatens to change everything in his life, particularly his marriage and his ability to be a father to his child.

Part three jumps fifteen years and concludes by having Luke’s boy and Avery’s boy, both now teenagers, meeting up but not knowing how they’re connected or how their fathers knew each other. 

The first episode works best.  Ryan Gosling has developed the ability to make unpalatable characters acceptable. His Luke is not overly bright, doesn’t think things through, and always appears on the edge of being more dangerous than he is, but at least it feels as though we’re watching a fully developed character.  Bradley Cooper is not quite so lucky.  We already know how good Cooper can be when given the right material, but here, when it comes to requesting
an enormous promotion, the aspirations of his police officer and the way he goes about demanding what he wants seem out of character. 

The Place Beyond the Pines is primarily about choices and the results of continually making the wrong ones, something that all principle characters appear to do at one time or another.  There’s no denying the film’s aspirations and they’re admirable, but the telling becomes less interesting with each step.  By the time we reach part three a lot of time has already passed and watching these characters take the wrong route to realize their desires is not only frustrating but also annoying.  Plus, despite the film’s epic length, important characters seem undeveloped.  They say things and engage in activities that don’t always feel like a natural development of their persona; they’re merely things that the mechanics of the script needs them to say and do.

 MPAA Rating: R      Length: 140 minutes      Overall Rating:   7  (out of 10)

For more film and local theatre reviews CLICK HERE to go to the David Appleford Film & Theatre Review website