100 Years of Movie Musicals: Applause (1929)

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Title: Applause
Release Date: October 7, 1929
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Main Cast:

  • Helen Morgan as Kitty Darling
  • Joan Peers as April Darling
  • Fuller Mellish Jr. as Hitch Nelson
  • Jack Cameron as Joe King
  • Henry Wadsworth as Tony
  • Dorothy Cumming as Mother Superior
  • Mack Gray as Slim’s Brother
  • David Holt as Jack Singer

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

This early example of the “backstage” musical genre tells the story of Kitty Darling, a fading burlesque star who tries to save her convent-educated daughter April from following in mom’s footsteps.

My Thoughts:

Applause is a melodrama set in the world of the burlesque theater in which a mother hopes for a better life for her daughter, much like Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Stella Dallas. Dancing star Kitty Darling sends her daughter April away to a convent school until the age of 17, when she’s called home at the instigation of Kitty’s controlling paramour Hitch.  The underlying themes of this movie are the love of mother and child, and “men are awful.” The latter is strongly illustrated in a scene where April endures street harassment.  Even the sailor Tony, who is keen on showing he’s “not like other guys” is kind of a creep (and he uses a slur against Italians to boot).

This is not a traditional musical as all the song and dance is simply the performances on the burlesque stage.  The songs are not memorable beyond the fact that it gives a glimpse into that era of performance. Opening two years after The Jazz Singer, Applause is technologically advanced as a film, not just because it’s fully a talkie, but uses sound design and effects.  The direction is fluid, and there are even some scenes shot on location.  While not a masterpiece, this is definitely a big step forward for the movie musical.

Rating: ***1/2

Theater Review: Wonder: The Musical at American Repertory Theater

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Wonder

Book by Sarah Ruhl
Music and Lyrics by A Great Big World (Ian Axel & Chad King)
Based on the novel “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio and the Lionsgate and Mandeville film Wonder
Music Supervision by Nadia DiGiallonardo
Choreography by Katie Spelman
Directed by Taibi Magar

January 14, 2026: Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Cast

Mr. Tushman – Melvin Abston
Jack – Donovan Louis Bazemore
Justin – Diego Cordova
Via – Kaylin Hedges
Summer – Kylie MiRae Kuioka
Mr. Browne – Raymond J. Lee
Julian – Reese Lvvine
Isable – Alison Luff
Charlotte – Skylar Matthews
Augie – Garret McNally (Note: McNally rotates with Max Voehl in this role)
Nate – Javier Muñoz
Miranda – Paravi
Moon Boy – Nathan Salstone
Ms. Petosa, Mrs. Albans – Pearl Sun
Amos – Nicholas Trupia
Ensemble – Ryan Behan, Maddy Le

Based on the novel by R.J. Palacio and its movie adaptation, Wonder is a story about Auggie, a boy with a facial difference due to Treacher Collins syndrome. Auggie is home-schooled throughout his childhood to accommodate his frequent surgeries, but entering 7th grade his parents enroll him in a nearby private school.  The show follows Auggie through his first year of middle school as he experiences bullying at the hands of children (and their parents!) but also forms his first friendship with a boy named Jack. The large cast includes several characters whose lives intersect with Auggie’s with the biggest subplot for his older sister Via. With the attention focused on Auggie, Via feels overlooked which proves especially challenging in this school year when her best friend Miranda mysteriously stops talking to her.

This production has a strong cast with Garret McNally taking the lead as Auggie on the night of this performance.  I was particularly impressed with Donovan Louis Bazemore, Kaylin Hedges, Alison Luff, and Skylar Matthews. The set is well-designed with a pixelated them resembling Minecraft and a rotating stage that allows smooth transitions between scenes. Which leads us with the songs and the plot.

This show has a lot of musical numbers and I think the composing duo of Ian Axel & Chad King could work on paring down the songs and focusing on making a few great ones.  It seems like every character comes out to sing a solo or duet about their life which makes the show feel choppy and episodic.  It also overshadows the main character Auggie who does not have a big musical number. There’s a character called Moon Boy – a man in a spacesuit – who is something like Auggie’s imaginary friend or inner courage, who appears periodically and sings a few numbers.  But Moon Boy feels like an awkward addition to the story and fails to center Auggie in the narrative.

I’ve read that the original book and movie (which I haven’t read or watched) have been criticized by disability activists as “inspiration porn.”  Unfortunately, the musical has an after-school special feel to it where Auggie is merely an inspiration to everyone around him rather than exploring his experience and interior life.  The message of the show is “Be Kind,” – something I agree with – but in the year 2026 of times it feels insufficient to just say it.  This is disappointing because as I said this is an excellent cast and I feel they’re working hard to try to make something great with weak material. This review from the New England Theater Geek has more on why Wonder doesn’t quite succeed.

You can judge for yourself if I’m being too harsh on this new musical, which continues at the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge through February 15.

Anniversary Year Movie Review: Ménilmontant (1926)

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All throughout this year I will be reviewing movies celebrating an anniversary years.  Happy 100th birthday to Ménilmontant!

Title: Ménilmontant
Release Date: January 2, 1926
Director: Dimitri Kirsanoff
Production Company: Lobster Films
Main Cast:

  • Nadia Sibirskaïa – La jeune soeur
  • Yolande Beaulieu – La soeur aînée
  • Guy Belmont – Le jeune homme
  • Jean Pasquier – Le père

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A pair of sisters leave the country for the city after their parents are slaughtered in a mysterious axe murder.

My Thoughts:

This film starts with a visually-striking (and very modern-feeling) sequence in a man murders a couple with an axe.  The couple’s two orphaned daughters end up moved to the Parisian neighborhood of Ménilmontant, where most of the film takes place.  They each end up seduced by the same cad with tragic consequence.  The impressionistic film eschews title cards and a straightforward narrative instead offering a series of emotional vignettes.  The film is also intercut with shots of everyday scenes in Paris, creating a time capsule of the time that I am a sucker for.

Rating: ****

Anniversary Year Movie Review: Hell’s Hinges (1916)

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All throughout this year I will be reviewing movies celebrating an anniversary years.  Happy 110th birthday to Hell’s Hinges!

Title: Hell’s Hinges
Release Date: March 5, 1916
Director: Charles Swickward
Production Company: New York Motion Picture | Kay-Bee Pictures
Main Cast:

  • William S. Hart as Blaze Tracy
  • Clara Williams as Faith Henley
  • Jack Standing as Rev. Robert Henley
  • Alfred Hollingsworth as Silk Miller
  • Robert McKim as a clergyman
  • J. Frank Burke as Zeb Taylor
  • Louise Glaum as Dolly
  • Olin Francis as the bar tender
  • John Gilbert as a rowdy cowboy
  • Jean Hersholt as a rowdy townsman

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

When Reverend Robert Henley and his sister Faith arrive in the town of Hell’s Hinges, saloon owner Silk Miller and his cohorts sense danger to their evil ways. They hire gunman Blaze Tracy to run the minister out of town. But Blaze finds something in Faith Henley that turns him around, and soon Silk Miller and his compadres have Blaze to deal with.

My Thoughts:

Sometime in the early 2000s you might’ve received an email with “FW:” in the title from an evangelical family member or acquaintance with an absolutely true inspirational story of the power of God.  Hell’s Hinges has that same quality of Christian morality tale.

Reverend Bob Henley, a minister with no skill for ministry is sent by his church leaders to a violent Wild West town to tend to the small flock of churchgoing Christians there.  The local saloonkeeper Silk Miller convinces the hardened gunslinger Blaze Tracy to drive the minister out of town. Blaze, however, is converted – not by Reverend Bob – by his pious sister Faith (a bit on the nose with the names).  When Silk’s plan B to tempt Bob with drink and dancehall girls, and then burn down the new church, succeeds Blaze extracts holy vengeance.

Watching this in 2026, I can’t help but be disgusted by the mawkish morality and “Muscular Christianity.”  But I can’t deny the direction is strong and it features technical achievements that would go on to be trademarks of Hollywood Westerns.

Rating: **

 

Book Review: The Architecture of Charles Bulfinch by Harold Kirker

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Author: Harold Kirker
Title: The Architecture of Charles Bulfinch
Publication Info: Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1969.
Summary/Review:

This book provides a summary of every building known to be designed by Charles Bulfinch or credited to him.  While I’d prefer a history more centered on Bulfinch as a person and the people who used his buildings, this book does exactly what it sets out to do.  There are a lot of interesting tidbits about Bulfinch and his career scattered throughout.

First of all, I am surprised by how many Bulfinch works have been demolished including some that made it well into the 20th century.  The saddest loss may be New South Church in downtown Boston which Reverend George Ellis described as one of Bulfinch’s most beautiful works only 4 years before it’s demolishing in 1868.  I had always assumed that Bulfinch started in Boston and then moved on to other areas as his reputation grew, but two of his earliest commissions were for churches in Pittsfield and Taunton.  He also started a state house for Connecticut in Hartford a couple of years before beginning work on the Massachusetts State House.  Bulfinch also designed the Maine State House at the end of his career, which should make him the only architect to design three state capitol buildings (Massachusetts and Maine are still in use)!

Bulfinch was not able to earn much from his profession and also served on Boston’s board of selectmen.  As chairman from 1799 to 1817, Bulfinch essentially held a position akin to mayor in the years before Boston was chartered as a city.  He was able to focus on city planning allowing him to influence the design of Boston beyond his architectural work.  As chairman he also hosted President James Monroe on his 1817 visit to Boston.  This lead to a job offer as Bulfinch was appointed Architect of the United States Capitol.  Bulfinch was responsible for continuing construction after British troops burned the capital in the War of 1812.  He was humble and diplomatic in deferring to the plans of his predecessor Benjamin Latrobe rather than creating his own design.  Bulfinch completed the Capitol in 1829 although his dome has since been obscured by the present-day dome.

Recommended books:

  • Boston: A Topographical History by Walter Muir Whitehill

Rating: ***1/2

Book Review: Spock’s World by Diane Duane

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Author: Diane Duane
Title: Spock’s World
Publication Info: New York : Pocket Books, c1988.
Summary/Review:

Several years ago I learned that Diane Duane wrote some excellent novels in the Star Trek franchise, and I’m finally getting around to reading one.  As the title states, this story is set on Spock’s home world of Vulcan (as it’s known to humans).  A crisis emerges when separatists force a planetwide vote for Vulcan to exit the United Federation of Planets (Vulc-exit?).  A conference is called with diplomats called in to testify for or against secession, including Spock, Kirk, and McCoy.  While on Vulcan, the trio along with Spock’s parents Sarek and Amanda, uncover a conspiracy by someone from Spock’s past.

This is a very character focused book as well as philosophical and intellectual debates.  Alternating chapters also focus on the long history of Vulcan and how its peoples’ identity formed.  This book would be almost impossible to adapt into a good tv episode or movie, so it’s good that exists in book form.  To anyone familiar with Star Trek lore, there’s some continuity that’s been replaced by later shows and movies, but it is nonetheless fascinating to see the worldbuilding ideas Duane had in 1988 when there was still a lot of Vulcan history that was unexplored.

Recommended books:
Rating: ****

Movie Review: Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream (2014)

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Title: A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
Release Date: September 8, 2014
Director: Julie Taymor
Production Company: Londinium Films | Ealing Studios Entertainment | Ealing Studios
Main Cast:

  • Kathryn Hunter – Puck
  • David Harewood – Oberon
  • Tina Benko – Titiana
  • Lilly Englert – Hermia
  • Max Casella – Nick Bottom
  • Jake Horowitz – Lysander
  • Mandi Masden – Helena
  • Zach Appelman – Snug

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A recording of Julie Taymor’s New York stage production of William Shakespeare’s comedy.

My Thoughts:

This pro-shot film captures a 2013 stage production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn.  Director Julie Taymor is perhaps best known for her adaptation of The Lion King which is rooted in elaborate puppetry and fantastic costumery.  She uses similar stagecraft to lean into the fantasy of Shakespeare’s work.  Of particular note is a large cloth (sheet? sail?) that is frequently moved from covering the stage to high on the ceiling, while being used as a screen for projections and even carrying the actors aloft.  The health and safety supervisor for this production must be a nervous wreck. The production is on a thrust stage with largely minimal sets (apart from the large cloth) and a lot of the supporting cast performing in a style akin to Cirque du Soleil.  I don’t know what this looked like to the in-person audience but the cameras get up close and personal and follow the characters again.

Kathryn Hunter’s unsettling performance as the sprite Puck is a combination of a mime, a contortionist, and The Man from Another Place from Twin Peaks.  Mandi Masden’s Helena also stands out because while the other young lovers in this play are in a fantastical romantic comedy, Helena is in a horror movie.  The Mechanicals practicing their play are performed as modern day laboring men, with Nick Bottom being a chatty Brooklyn contractor. Overall the acting is good and the over-the-top production elements are a fascinating interpretation of Shakespeare’s work.  But I also wonder if there was a valid plot reason for having all four of the hot young actors playing the young lovers strip down to their underwear over the course of the show.  Just more visual spectacle, I guess.

Rating:  ****

Book Review: A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

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Author: William Shakespeare
Title: A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream
Publication Info: New York : Washington Square Press, 1993 (originated in 1595)
Summary/Review:

For the first time, Shakespeare ventures into fantasy and it proves to be quite entertaining.  The plot is complex (in a good way) so I won’t summarize it here.  Suffice to say it’s a story of relationships and how they can go horribly wrong.  This is particularly true for Oberon and Titiana, the King and the Queen of the Fairies, whose marital difficulties result in problems for a lot of human couples.  Theseus the Duke of Athens is engaged to wed Hippolyta, the Queen of the Amazons.  But first he plans to wed his daughter Hermia to Demetrius.  But Hermia flees to the woods with her lover Lysander instead.  Meanwhile, Hermia’s friend Helena suffers unrequited love for Demetrius.

The fairy Robin Goodfellow (aka – Puck) stirs up some shit with several pranks on these lovers.  He also messes with a group of “Mechanicals” as they rehearse and perform a play based on Pyramus and Thisbe. Notably, he gives the weaver Nick Bottom a donkey’s head and enchants Titiana to be in love with him.  Just because.  Alls well that ends well, of course, and everyone ends up betrothed to the right person as they enjoy Pyramus and Thisbe in a Mystery Science Theater style.

Very enjoyable and once again it shows remarkable evolution in Shakespeare’s writing style.

Rating: ****

I’m reading every Shakespeare play, one per month, in chronological order.  Here’s my progress thus far:

  1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  2. The Taming of the Shrew
  3. Henry VI, Part 1
  4. Henry VI, Part 2
  5. Henry VI, Part 3
  6. Titus Andronicus
  7. Richard III
  8. The Comedy of Errors
  9. Love’s Labours’ Lost
  10. Richard II
  11. Romeo and Juliet

100 Years of Movie Musicals: The Jazz Singer (1927)

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Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the movie musical, and to celebrate I’m embarking on a two-year project to watch 100 movie musicals from 1927 to the present!

Title: The Jazz Singer
Release Date: October 6, 1927
Director: Alan Crosland
Production Company:  Warner Bros. Pictures | The Vitaphone Corporation
Main Cast:

  • Al Jolson as Jacob “Jakie” Rabinowitz (Jack Robin)
    • Bobby Gordon as Jakie Rabinowitz (age 13)
  • Warner Oland as Cantor Rabinowitz
  • Eugenie Besserer as Sara Rabinowitz
  • May McAvoy as Mary Dale
  • Otto Lederer as Moisha Yudelson
  • Richard Tucker as Harry Lee
  • Yossele Rosenblatt as himself

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.

My Thoughts:

The Jazz Singer is a straightforward melodrama about Jakie Rabinowitz (stage name Jack Robin) whose Jewish immigrant father raises him to be the fifth-generation cantor at their synagogue.  But Jakie is more drawn to singing the popular music of the time.  Father and son have a falling out and Jakie leaves home to find fame on Broadway.  But when his father falls ill, Jakie must taking his father’s place as cantor for Yom Kippur service or opening night for his first big show!

If this movie came out a year or so earlier, or a year or so later, it would probably be forgotten.  But as noted in Wikipedia “it is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous singing and speech.” I appreciate that for a movie from 1927 when Jewish immigrants were far outside mainstream American culture that this movie treats Jewish culture and traditions respectfully.  I also like the location shooting in the Lower East Side and on Broadway that give brief glimpses into both sides of Jakie’s world in 1920s New York.

The majority of the “talking” parts of the movie are the musical numbers with just a couple of spoken word conversations, the rest is a silent movie with title card.  While Al Jolson was a popular performer of his era, I’ve listened to a lot of music from the 1920s and Jolson’s style is just not that appealing to me in comparison.  Which leads to the problems of cultural appropriation.  The film is called The Jazz Singer, but while informed by jazz, Jolson’s style is merely contemporary pop music.  And the even more unfortunate trend of the time was to wear blackface for singing “jazz” which we see Jakie do for his act in the Broadway musical revue.  Even more unpleasant, there’s an entire scene of Jakie putting on his blackface makeup while considering his own Jewish heritage which is an awkward analogy at best, and harmful at worst.

With this as the first movie musical, it can only go up from here!

Rating: **

 

Book Review: Elsewhere, Home by Leila Aboulela

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Around the World for a Good Book selection for: Sudan

Author: Leila Aboulela
Title: Elsewhere, Home
Publication Info: London : Telegram, 2018.
Summary/Review:

This collection of short fiction contains stories of people in transitional spaces.  Immigrants to Britain as well children of immigrants visiting their parent’s home in Africa, each feeling outsiders.  There are stories of interracial marriages and converts to Islam as well.  The people and their homes are marked by the effects of imperialism and globalism.  They also tend suffer from a sense of internalized inferiority and impostor’s syndrome.  The stories are brief but in the slices life they say a lot about the characters and their relationships.  Stories that standout include “Something Old, Something New” in which a Scottish convert to Islam goes to Sudan to marry, “Souvenirs” in which a many visits his mother in Khartoum and looks for the perfect souvenir for his Scottish wife, and “The Museum” in which a couple visit a display of the spoils acquired by Scottish imperialism in Africa.

Recommended books:

Rating: ****