In The Heights

Last night I went and saw the tour of In The Heights at The Pantages Theatre... and I loved it.

This cast was SO good. I cried over and over again, not just because of the subject matter but also because it was one of those things where you're like: They are SO good and TOTALLY singing and dancing their hearts out and this is SO amazing.

Long story SUPER short: this show is about a group of Hispanic people in Washington Heights.

If you want a little longer description: It's about family, pride, life, fulfillment and choices...set to salsa music with a dose of rap...well...WRAPPED in contemporary broadway power ballads.

Full recap would include: Usnavi owns a bodega where his cousin Sonny helps him out and everyone gets their morning coffee. Nina Rosario is home from her freshman year at Stanford having not felt the best about it. Nina's parents, Kevin and Camila are broke and their employee Benny likes Nina. At the hair salon across the street, Vanessa wants to move downtown, but can't afford to and across from them lives the 'mother' of the neighborhood Abuela Claudia.

All I knew about this show was a few of the songs: Breathe, It Won't Be Long Now and When You're Home. I was totally freaked out that those songs were ALL in the first act, like, sort of right away so I got nervous the other music wouldn't be as good because soundtrack wise, they didn't really catch my attention.

I was totally wrong.

Came home and downloaded the rest of the soundtrack. SO GOOOD!



Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the Tony Award winning score and has performed the role of Usnavi on and off AND on and off-broadway since inception. (He's also working on the film version) THis guy is STILL as fresh as EVER! AS EVER!!!!! Shaun Taylor-Corbett was freakin' AMAZING as Sonny. (This is his final week in the tour and moves to Broadway on July 29th! So if you're in L.A.: SEE HIM!!!!) Arielle Jacobs as Nina was great. My expectations of 'Breathe' were high, because Mandy Gonzalez's original broadway cast album is SO perfect and I recently cried listening to Anne Fraser Thomas sing it at her cabaret show at The Magic Castle. And while she didn't quite reach THEM, the rest of her performance was wonderful and her singing spot on.

Rogelio Douglas Jr.'s Benny was out of control brilliant. Lexi Lawson was our Vanessa (there are three on this tour for various dates) and she was sexy, sassy and throughly enjoyable. Another stand out for me was Daniel Bolero as Nina's father Kevin. He remined me of Philip Quast as Peron in the London revival of Evita. Every time Quast came on stage, you could feel the entire audience shift to watch, see, hear what he was doing. The show was called Evita, about Evita, sung 3/4 BY Evita and yet every time Philip Quast came on stage, no one gave a SHIT about Evita. THAT'S how good I thought Daniel Bolero was.

Now then, book wise, I felt like the entire first act was a bunch of sketches and novelty songs linked together. (shout out to [tos]) I get that you need to meet everybody and hear about their issues but it was WAY too simplistic. It was like they were holding a monologue competition on the set of Little Shop of Horrors on a night when the theater was dark.

However, I had Paciencia y Fe and act two was FULL of fabulousness both script wise and beyond.

I would TOTALLY go back and see it again. Great musical and emotional release. GO SEE THIS TOUR! HERE IS THE UPCOMING SCHEDULE!

The Kids Are All Right

(In honor of it being Reviews For Jake's birthday (not the blog's, but the ACTUAL Reviews for Jake person) he got to select what movie to review next! HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAKE!!!!)


Let's put it this way: The Kids Are All Right ...and the film is too.


The Kids Are All Right is about Jules and Nic, a lesbian couple, who are the mothers of two children, Joni and Laser, by artificial insemination. When Joni turns eighteen, her younger brother Laser asks her to contact the sperm bank in order to meet their biological father...and then drama occurs.

I don't care how you film it, who is in it, which theatre it's playing at or what the subject matter is: this is an art film.

A talking, BIG wordy, preachy, message film that tries to sell itself as a gay film but then only shows straight people fucking. (Not that I'm complaining about watching Mark Ruffalo's ass bouncing up and down, 'cause I'm not. I love him. But gimme a fuckin' break, Hollywood!)

I wanted to walk out twice. The first time I gathered my stuff to leave but then the actors finally STOPPED using big words and sentences (that I think were supposed to make me think / impress me with their "brainy" script) and decided to do something. So I stayed.

Glad I did. It finally started to get interesting.

The second time I wanted to walk out was because everyone and their choices had become SO fucking typical. Typical of their characters, typical of movies, typical of art films. Yes, even the talented Julianne Moore.

I know this film premiered at Sundance (which should have been a personal red flag for me) and wowed them (which should have been ANOTHER personal red flag for me) but there is NOTHING new here people.


Annette Bening's character is a bitch. A drunk and a bitch. A TYPICAL movie drunk bitch. It's probably not her fault, but bad direction.

Julianne Moore's character is maybe, perhaps the most honest character.

Mark Ruffalo is sexy, as usual, and pretty fucking charming even if his character doesn't realize he DOESN'T have it all together.

Mia Wasikowska. Hated her in Alice in Wonderland and can't watch her in this either. Was Dakota Fanning NOT available?!?!

Josh Hutcherson is good, I just...didn't really care about him. Again, script or direction.

Maybe I was looking for an ACTUAL gay film when I went to see this and that's where this review is coming from. I LOVE that it dealt with a gay family and it had super stars and that it's "mainstream", but as far as gay film goes, it really was just...all right. With that said, the reason I was happy that I did stay and didn't walk out the second time I wanted to, was because of the scene before the ending. Brought me to tears.

SO GOOD.

Julianne and Annette were DELICIOUS. Fucking beautiful and forgiving. It's that big finish people. Give 'em a great ending and they'll forgive you for anything...except when you have to recap it in a review.