"Motown: The Musical" at Bass Hall

MOTOWN: THE MUSICAL

Recently, the touring company of "Motown: The Musical"  had a stop at Bass Hall.  The Travelling Toe and a Dear Friend attended the Sunday afternoon matinee performance.

The musical is based on the life of Berry Gordy, his founding of Motown records and the talented artists he discovered along the way - and their feuds with him and each other as well. 

The musical premiered on Broadway in April 2013.  It went on to receive 4 Tony Award nominations.  

It tells the story of how in 1957 Gordy formed his record label called Motown since they were in Motor City - Detroit.  Barry began his career by writing a song for Jackie Wilson and that started his climb to success.

Some of the "acts"featured  in the show were:

The Temptations
Four Tops
Smokey Robinson
Diana Ross and The Supremes
Marvin Gaye
The Commodores
The Vandellas
The Marvelettes
Gladys Knight and The Pips
Stevie Wonder
The Jackson Five


SIDE NOTE: The young actor who played Michael Jackson, Nathaniel Cullors, was amazing...he had Michael's  dance moves down pat!

"The Jackson Five"

All of the actors were accomplished signers and dancers.  Each one "covering" a noted performer sounded and acted just like them.  The whole cast was excellent.  In total, about 60 songs were song though out the story.  Here are just a few that were performed:

Ain't Too Proud to Beg
Dancing in the Street
Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch
I Hear a Symphony
Love is Here and Now You're Gone
My Mama Done Told Me
Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours
Where Did Our Love Go

The Travelling Toe must admit it was hard to say seated and not be up dancing and singing in the aisle to this music. 

If this musical comes your way do go see it.  You will not be disappointed.

BASS HALL

Bass Hall

"Dirty Grandpa" (movie review)

DIRTY GRANDPA
movie poster

The Friday Movie Mavens and The Travelling Toe, braved the chilly morning and journeyed out to the local multiplex to see the new release "Dirty Grandpa".  The movie stars Robert de Niro and Zac Efron.  

Zac plays Jason Kelly who is one week away from getting married to Meredith Goldstein.  She happens to be the daughter of his boss.  Also, she is ultra controlling and Jason just goes along with her decisions about their wedding plans.  

After Jason's grandmother dies, he is talked into driving his grandfather Dick Kelly (Robert De Niro) down to Boca Raton.  But Grandpa has other ideas.  They end up in Dayton during spring break.  Jason runs into an old girlfriend and the 2 guys are invited to a party.  Jason does not want to go but Dick sure does as he think he can get "lucky" at the party. And it goes down hill from there.  One can see right through the plot line just like cellophane.   

Well Dear Readers, The Travelling Toe must leave the overview there as after about 50 minutes of this movie, we chose to leave and do something better with our lives.

Perhaps De Niro received a bonus for each F-word that he used along with several others not to be repeated in this blog.  If so, he should be a millionaire by now just for this movie.

The Travelling Toe declines to give this movie a rating since we did not stay for the entire production.  It is rated "R" due to graphic language and nudity, drug abuse and crude sexual content through the movie.

So go see it if you think you can handle all that gross and stupid  behavior...we opted out.

CAST:

Robert De Niro
Dick Kelly
Grandpa

Zac Efron
Jason Kelly

To protect their identities, the remaining cast will not be identified.




Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.  

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" (movie critique)

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

Dear Readers, have you seen the "new" Star Wars movie?  If not, you might the only ones left on planet Earth who haven't seen it yet.  

The Travelling Toe must disclose that she saw the original three Star War movies many moons ago.  But not the three recent prequels - or whatever they were called.  Any who, this current movie is set about 30 years after the destruction of the Death Star.  Out of the ruble of the Galactic Empire comes the new First Order (boo-hiss).  They are out to eliminate the Republic, who are the Rebels.  

Just a very brief overview of the movie will be provided just in case someone out there has not see it yet.  No spoiler alerts will be included.

The focus of this new movie is on a young female scavenger, Rey.  She makes her living on a desert planet Jakku by selling scavenged parts for food and shelter. Rey finds a droid BB-8 and keeps it not knowing it contains a hidden map to locate Luke Skywalker.  Along the way Rey teams up with a former Storm Trooper, Finn.  They make a formidable team.  When the First Order attacks Jakku, Finn and Rey take on the lam and discover a rundown space ship. They   steal it and escape Jakku.  Well, come to find out the air ship is none other than the Millennium Falcon.  When they are captured by a larger ship, there are two of our heroes from previous movies - Han Solo and Chewbacca.  In order to evade the meanies who are chasing them the group escapes to the rebels hideout.  Along the way, Han tells Rey that the last Jedi, Luke Skywalker, has disappeared because he had tried to train new Jedi knights but one trainee in the group turned to the dark side.  Upon arriving at the rebels outpost, they find that General Leia, is now in charge of the Rebel Alliance.  

The First Order has a new super weapon, Starkiller Base that is more powerful than the Death Star.  It can destroy star systems.  They fire it up to destroy the Republic outpost and its X-wing fighter planes  We do learn that the trainee who turned to the dark side, Ren, is after Han.  But why?  Ren dresses like Darth Vader.  But Rey has found a lightsaber and she uses the force to fight to the death with Ren.  But as they are fighting, the ground begins to separate and leaves them on each side of the chasm and the final fight scene can not be played out.  They each make their escape from the planet.  Meanwhile the Rebels have taken out the Starkiller Base......yahoo! 

How does it end?  Well, Dear Readers you will just have to go see it yourself to find out. However, a sequel is on the horizon.

The Travelling Toe gives this movie 1 big toe up and 1 middle toe up with a lightsaber pedicure.

CAST:

Daisy Ridley
Rey

John Boyega
Finn

Harrison Ford
Han Solo

Carrie Fisher
General Leia

Adam Driver
Ren

Peter Mayhew
Chewbacca

Mark Hamill
Luke Skywalker

JJ Abrams
director

Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.

"The Big Short" (movie critique)

THE BIG SHORT
movie poster

The Friday Movie Mavens and The Travelling Toe went to the local multiplex to see "The Big Short".  The movie is based on the book of the same name by Michael Lewis.  And the book is based on actual events. The book stayed on "The New York Times" bestseller non-fiction list for 28 weeks.

Michael Lewis
author

The Big Short
book cover

Do you remember the stock market crash in 2007?  This movie shows how the stock market took such a drastic drive and why.  

It begins with the housing market.  Home construction was booming all across the country, and many people were investing in the real estate market.  After all you never lose money on a real estate deal, do you?  But what most investors and even some brokers did not know or understand was that the big banks and brokerage firms were bundling AAA type mortgage loans with sub-prime loans. such as B, BB,BBB.  Mortgage loans were being made to people with no or bad credit history, other credit issues and no job. So when the lower end of the economy could not make their mortgage payments, the dominoes began to fall and a ripple effect was felt across the whole economic system.  But there were a few traders who bet against the bubble and saw the bust coming.  These were the short sellers.  And when the bubble did burst, these groups of contrarians make beau-coup of money. 

Now that is a simplified overview of the book and the movie.  You will have to read the book or see the movie to find out all the juicy details.  But you will remember when all the trading companies were laying off stockbrokers and houses were being foreclosed in the hundreds each month and unemployment was high.  The sad side of this whole ordeal is that none of the big CEO's who knew what was happening went to jail.  "Gordon Gekko" would have been proud of them - as yes they were all greedy.

Adam McKay
director

One interesting technique that the director, Adam McKay, used was for an actor in the middle of a scene to turn toward the camera and give audience members an aside about what was really happening or about to happen or that if this is the truth of the situation. There are many funny bits in this movie which were unexpected considering the story-line.

CAST

Ryan Gosling
Jared Vennett

Brad Pitt
Ben Ricket

Christian Bale
Michael Burry



Side Note:  this movie has been nominated for an Oscar.

Steve Carell
Mark Baum

Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.

"Hamlet" presented by National Theatre Live

Recently, The Travelling Toe enjoyed an exciting performance of "Hamlet" presented by National Theatre Live.  A local theater group Amphibian Stage Productions sponsors National Theatre Live programs at the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth in the Magnolia Theater.  We have seen several of them and have never been disappointed in the quality and acting of the productions.  This is an inexpensive way to see English theater right in your own home town. It is way cheaper than purchasing a plane ticket to London (thought that would be fun..right???).  Additionally sometimes they are shown at the local movie theaters so check the listings online.

The production we saw recently was "Hamlet" and stared Benedict Cumberbatch.  Before the play started, the "host" interviewed Benedict who shared that he had to eat a lot each day in preparation for the role as he lost about 10 pounds during each performance .  We found out later why.  

Benedict Cumberbatch

As you must know Dear Readers, "Hamlet" was written by Williams Shakespeare.  Scholars think it was written sometime between 1599 and 1602.  There are different versions of the play, but each one follows the main story line of a son in distress over the sudden death of this father, the King.  Additionally within a very short time, (a month) his mother has married his uncle who is now the new King.  Ah, the plot does thicken from there.  Is revenge best served cold? Hamlet might not agree with that!

One of American's most famous early Shakespearean actors was Edwin Booth.

Edwin Booth
as Hamlet

The production was so intense and emotional.  Benedict was excellent in this role as were all the other actors.  The staging was inventive and often the actors on stage had to move tables and other things around to set up for the next scene.  Benedict was part of the stage crew along with everyone else.

If National Theatre Live comes your way, do go see a production, you just might like it.


Amphibian Stage

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Symphonic Series with the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

The Travelling Toe and 2 friends enjoyed a recent trip to Bass Hall to attend a concert presented by the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra.  Music Director, Miguel Harth-Bedoya conducted the program.

Miguel Harth-Bedoya

The first two selections on the program featured contemporary composer, Mason Bates, who was in attendance for all 3 performances of his compositions.  

Mason Bates

Mason Bates

The first piece, titled "Mothership"utilized a large variety of percussion instruments and even a laptop.  The piece is 9 minutes in length and expresses techno rhythms.  As noted in the program by Mason, he provides a brief overview of the piece:

                                  .....imagines the orchestra as a mothership that is "docked" by several
                                   vising soloists who offer brief but virtuosic riffs on the work's 
                                   thematic material over action-packed electro-acoustic orchestral
                                   figuration

We found the piece to be very interesting and enjoyable,

During a brief pause to re-set the stage, Miguel introduced Mason to the audience and they had a wonderful conversation about his compositions.

The second piece on the program that Mr. Bates composed is simply called "Cello Concert".  It featured Joshua Roman on cello.

 


Joshua Roman

This piece also had a very contemporary feel but was interesting to hear how all the pieces of the orchestra supported and inter-played with the soloist.  It was enjoyable watching Joshua play this piece and even at one time in the performance he used a guitar pick on the cello.  He interacted with the players around him making the music even more enjoyable.  Here is hoping that Joshua (who is originally from Oklahoma) will return soon to Bass Hall for another performance.

At intermission, The Travelling Toe was not feeling well and was unable to stay to hear the final selection on the program, Beethoven's "Eroica".However, reports are that was excellent.

"Life Is Better With Music"


Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra

Bass Hall

"Spotlight" (movie critique)

SPOTLIGHT
movie poster

Recently The Travelling Toe and the Friday Movie Mavens, saw the award winning movie "Spotlight'.   The film, based on actual facts, showcases the investigative journalist at the Boston Globe newspaper magazine,"Spotlight".  The reporters have been assigned the task of investigating a major cover-up concerning Catholic Priests. The focus of the investigation is the pattern of on-going child sexual abuse by Catholic Priests and the continuous cover-up by the Boston Archdiocese of these Priests actions .  The reporters discovered that Priests were often moved from parish to parish even after their pedophile abuse was reported.  Law suites were settled out of court, pay offs were made and public records were sealed.  Often the reporters hit brick walls even within the judicial system as the Boston Archdiocese wielded a lot of power through the city of Boston.  They even ensured that certain public records would be unavailable and sealed from being reviewed.  

The movie follows the 3 reporters and their editor as they try to uncover the lies, the pay-offs and obfuscation in order to get justice for the victims.  

The Boston Globe won the 2003 Public Service Pulitzer Prize for the series of stories that the team wrote on the abuse, the cover-up and the scandal.

We found the movie to be an interesting and riveting film concerning an uncomfortable subject.  All the actors did an excellent job trying to get around brick walls, talking to victims, and having to still live and work in Boston.  There are a few twists and turns along the way.  How does it end?  The Travelling Toe will not provide a spoiler alert.

Since this movie has no car chases, gun play, fight scenes, or sex scenes, not many will see it. But for those who do they will be rewarded with excellent acting and an engrossing plot line. Mark was awesome in his role and it was great to see Michael in such a meaty role too.  And Rachel as always was super.

CAST

Mark Ruffalo
Michael Rezendes

Michael Keaton
Walter "Robby" Robinson

Brian d'Arcy James
Matt Carroll

Rachel McAdams
Sacha Pfeiffer

The Travelling Toe gives this film 2 big toes up with a side order of Boston Baked Beans.

Boston Baked Beans

Disclaimer:  The Travelling Toe is not a professional critic and any opinions expressed are for entertainment purposes only.