#tim minchin
This is my body, and I live in it
It’s 29 and 12 months old
It’s changed a lot since it was new
It’s done stuff it wasn’t built to doI often try to fill it up with wine
And the weirdest thing about it is
I spend so much time hating it
But it never says a bad word about meThis is my body, and it’s fine
It’s where I spend the vast majority of my time
It’s not perfect,
But it’s mine.
And Rewind.
Last weekend I won the digital lottery for the new Broadway musical, Groundhog Day, and J and I went. He liked most of what he’d seen of the movie and I wanted him to see Andy Karl onstage since we’d watched him on Law & Order semi-recently. This is a transfer from London and they know how to make a pretty good musical, so my expectations were decent.
The music is catchy and the lyrics are feisty in a way that only Tim Minchin can be and I enjoyed the first 15 minutes. Then the day restarted and I suddenly, “Oh my god, is this the entire musical? How does it ever proceed forward from this one day? What have I gotten myself in to?!”
To be clear: I’ve never seen the movie before and I only knew vaguely what the premise was. This was my fault completely.
BUT. They do a fantastic job of rewinding the day each time and it doesn’t feel monotonous at all. The set worked perfectly (no first preview difficulties luckily) and it really keeps the show moving along. Without those turntables, the show would be 4 hours long. A couple of the songs get dark a darkly comedic way, and a couple of the songs could be completely cut (the first song of the second act, for starters).
Andy Karl plays this role perfectly. We feel his angst at his situation which eventually turns to morbid joy, which turns out to be hilarious. Barrett Doss, his costar, is lovely, too. I think Raymond Lee, as one of the town yokles at the bar, was the only other cast member to really stand out. He’s hilarious.
It was about 2 hours and 45 minutes long, which is long, but it never dragged. Like I said, they do a really good job at keeping the pace pretty consistent. We both walked out of the theatre having really enjoyed ourselves.
It was definitely not a wasted night at the theatre and I wouldn’t have been too sad to have been forced to relive it at least one more time.
Post link
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical Teaser
Matilda Wormwood is an extraordinary child with a sharp mind and vivid imagination who will stand up to take charge and change her story.
Roald Dahl’s Matilda the Musical stars Alisha Weir, Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough, Sindhu Vee, Charlie Hodson-Prior, Meesha Garbett, Rei Yamauchi Fulker, Winter Jarrett Glasspool, Andrei Shen, and Ashton Robertson. The film is adapted by Dennis Kelly from the award winning stage musical Matilda The Musical. The film is directed by Matthew Warchus with original music and lyrics by Tim Minchin.
i went to see it today and I LOVED IT!
i hope to see it again, and maybe after a second viewing i’ll be able to organise my thoughts. but i just have to talk about it rn. i loved it. i really loved it. i had a great time.
- taron was pitch-perfect as robin. seriously. seriously. i mean, i always talk about how handsome he is because he really really is so handsome (SO HANDSOME). and he’s charming, we know that already. but the trailers tried to give the footage an air of sombreness, which may have made taron’s boyishly sportive robin seem somewhat incongruous. but no, in the actual film itself, his boyish charm and energy is perfect. he really sells it. ugh, my heart.
- please don’t think this is a grimdark movie. the sets are beautiful. there’s lots of colour in this. there are some scenes, like the war scenes, that are appropriately desaturated and rather dark, but it’s not a big problem at all.
- taron and eve hewson’s chemistry is INCREDIBLE. INCREDIBLE. just incredible. i was swooning. honestly, this is the best chemistry taron’s had with a co-star maybe in his whole hollywood career (which hasn’t been a very long one yet!).
- jamie foxx was amazing!!!! he was so into his character. i didn’t feel like i was watching jamie foxx act. i felt like he was his character. i felt his convictions, passion, grief, and anger.
- trigger warning for some scenes of people of colour (including Black people) being brutalised, though. they’re not very long, and they are very much entirely shown to be horrible things that the good guys do not support. the main villain, the sheriff, is shown to be “subtly” racist and little john (jamie foxx’s character) is allowed to be highly, rightfully angry, and john gets to exact revenge on the sheriff that i felt was quite satisfying. i like that john was in no way punished for being furious at the sheriff and seeking retribution. it’s not my place to tell other poc, especially Black people, that they should just ignore the scenes of poc being shackled and brutalised; i’m mentioning this so you can be warned, so if the thought makes you so comfortable you’d rather not see it, you’re informed and can decide to avoid the film. but again, these are appropriately treated as scenes that are horrific, and the good guys punish the evil people responsible for it, and there are many (i was even surprised by how many) poc including Black people among nottingham’s residents and they + little john (who is not from nottingham) have strong agency and are very active and essential members of the ensuing revolution.
- the freaking ENDING, holy shit. i loved it. i loved it so much. i don’t want to be too spoiler-y so i’ll just say that at first i thought jamie dornan’s will scarlet and eve’s marian had little chemistry and all we really see of their relationship is marian so obviously not actually having fallen out of love with robin and marian and will having this completely non-sexual tension, a negative friction. and jamie dornan, though i respect him as an actor, seemed stilted. but near the end, will scarlet’s stiffness is given nuance, and holy shit his story arc is amazing. i loved it.
- taron was!!!! amazing!!!!!! his energy was amazing, but the energy of the film and cast in general is amazing. the beginning has some pacing issues, but once the whole thing is kicked off, it’s amazing. especially when the people all come together, and the nottingham rebels’ synergy is just… amazing.
- it felt a little like an extended (really solid and fun and great) tv show pilot, which isn’t to say it felt like an incomplete film. it feels like a complete film, but… the ending really lets you feel like there’s so much more story to this version of robin hood that should be told. i want to see it! i want to see more!
anyway, it’s only the premiere today. critics panned it, but fuck the critics. i’m not the only one who liked it. if you want to see it, please see it. i recommend it. it’s not a “bomb” yet. again, it’s only the premiere today, and if you want to see it (and i really encourage you to keep an open mind and give it a chance), you have so much time left to see it. this is an energetic film and i loved seeing the cast take down the oppressive people. aaaaaah!
