Saturday, November 16, 2013

A (Short) Afternoon at the Theatre

In 1990 several of my co-workers and I left work early to see the movie Ghost. Apart from Patrick Swayze's performance, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. Whenever it's on TV, I sit and watch. It's a funny and endearing movie.

A few years ago I heard the movie was being made into a musical. Huh. Okay. The movie is so iconic. Why mess it up?

Six months ago Chad purchased season tickets to DPAC's Broadway Series which included a tour of Ghost: The Musical. When he asked if I wanted to go, I said yes. I liked the movie and I was intrigued with the prospect of the musical.

It started out promising. The two opening songs "Here Right Now" and "Unchained Melody" were nice although I was a little miffed at the video projection of Sam and Molly making love. (I got that that was where they were headed. I didn't need to see it on the big screen.) The next number, "More," was so completely out of place. It reminded me of the telephone number from "9 to 5." Sam's famous "ditto" response to Molly's "I love you" was nicely done in "Three Little Words." Sam is shot and killed and the show went downhill from there. Hospital Ghosts came out singing to Sam that "You Gotta Let Go." WTH? An ensemble of Halloween costumed ghosts? I was shaking my head in complete disbelief of the number. It was just so out of place. The subway scene where Sam first meets the aggressive ghost was the coolest thing. And then we meet Oda Mae and she was played like a badly acted imitation of Miss Cleo from the Psychic Network. And her "Are You a Believer?" number went on about 10 minutes longer than it should have. Oda Mae should be funny, not over the top. Molly's "With You" was dreadful. She was lamenting Sam's death and killing me with her awful high notes. The act one final number had me wishing I could "Suspend My Disbelief" that this show was anything but drek. "I Had a Life" and Chad and I decided to go and live it. We left at intermission.

We stopped at Tyler's Taproom for a late lunch/early dinner. We did some research on the show and found out it only played on Broadway about 6 months. Even just seeing the first Act we understood why. The show just didn't have a flow to it. Some of the numbers completely stopped the show, and not in a good way. It was just awful.





Wednesday, November 13, 2013

First Quarter Report Card

I'm thrilled to report with A's and B's this quarter that Cade is an:
  
Here's how Cade did:

Language Arts - A (Conduct is satisfactory)
French - B (Good attitude, good class participation)
Math - B (Conduct is satisfactory)
Science - A (Conduct is satisfactory, excellent student)
Social Studies - B (Thank you for supporting your child's education)
Beginning Chorus - A (Pleasant, cooperative student, conduct is excellent)
Beginning Visual Arts - A (Conduct is excellent, shows talent, creativity and motivation, pleasant cooperative student)
PE - A (Conduct is satisfactory)


Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The Official Cast List

The cast is as follows:

Asher Ellis – Bob Bradley (Father)
Cheryl Ann Roberts – Grace Bradley (Mother)
Quinn Bankson – Charlie Bradley
Ava Foster – Beth Bradley
Michael Stewart – Ralph Herdman
Molly Southern – Imogene Herdman
Chai Freedman – Leroy Herdman
Jackson Stover – Claude Herdman
Connor Riley – Ollie Herdman
Ashley Parsons – Gladys Herdman
Madison Mascorro – Alice Wendleken
Mimi Cunningham – Mrs. Armstrong
Caroline Puschinsky – Mrs. Slocum
Kim Parsons – Mrs. Clark
Sheridan Cooke – Mrs. Clausing
Peggie Kaan – Mrs. McCarthy
Adrian Quarles – Rev. Hopkins
Gillian Thornton – Maxine
Kameron Crumb – Elmer Hopkins
Elias Bankson – Hobie
Cade Kellam – David
Vivian Waye – Shirley
Salem Collins – Juanita
Kennedy Collins – Doris
Mary McBride – Janet
Ashley Peake – Laura
Simon Tonidandel – The Little Drummer Boy
Matt Mascorro, Jimmy Quander, Cassidy Wagner – Firemen
Joseph Beckwith, Jacob Ellis, Logan Horning - Shepherds
Tara Flury - Beverly
Sheridan Cooke, Riley Cullen, Matthew Arcuri, Charlotte Carter, Kaitlyn Connors, Olivia Crowell, Emi Curia, Tyson Edwards, Isabella Ellis, Grace Garner, Darron Hayes, Abigail Ingram-Edwards, Thatcher Johnson-Welden, Lauren Kistner, Anna Kummer, Shayla Penn, Ailanni Quander, Jasmyn Slater, Abigail Wagner – Angel Choir
Tara Flury, Chayenne Hughes, Ameerah Slade-McKinney – Baby Angels
Julia Cannon, Carlos Claggett, Charlee Foster, Madison Jones – Baby Sheep

Wednesday, November 06, 2013

A Book Review

I’m finding e-books on my Kindle frequently contain formatting errors. Usually it’s the page format that’s off with the page number and page title appearing in the middle of the “page” on my Kindle. In this instance, any word spelled with two f’s, the f’s were omitted. So office appeared as o ice, suffice appeared as su ice, etc. It was a tad bit difficult to read.

Here’s the book description from Amazon.com:
Charlotte Graham is at the center of the most famous kidnapping in Chicago history.
The task force of FBI and local cops found her two abductors, killed them, rescued her, but it took four very long years. The fact she was found less than three miles from her home, had been there the entire time, haunts them. She's changed her identity, found a profession she loves, and rebuilt her life.
She's never said a word--to the cops, to her doctors, to family--about those four years.
A family legacy has brought her back to Chicago where a reporter is writing a book about the kidnapping. The cops who worked the case are cooperating with him. Her options are limited: Hope the reporter doesn't find the full truth, or break her silence about what happened. And her silence is what has protected her family for years.

Bryce Bishop doesn't know her past, he only knows she has coins to sell from her grandfather's estate--and that the FBI director for the Chicago office made the introduction. The more he gets to know Charlotte, the more interested he becomes, an interest encouraged by those closest to her. But nothing else is working in his favor--she's decided she is single for life, she struggles with her faith, and she's willing to forego a huge inheritance to keep her privacy. She's not giving him much of an opening to work with.

Charlotte wants to trust him. She needs to tell him what happened. Because a crime cops thought was solved, has only opened another chapter...
Yeah, it sounds like a really interesting read. Unfortunately there’s too much going on. About a third of the book involves Charlotte selling coins to Bryce. Ms. Henderson provides detail upon detail upon detail upon detail about the coin selling business. It completely bogs the story line, which is particularly unfortunate.  I found myself skimming most of these pages.

Then we learn Charlotte has inherited a lot of money. A. Lot. Of. Money. She doesn’t want a single dime of it. Bryce knows there’s a lot of good that could be done with the money so he and Charlotte marry and Bryce takes on giving the money away to various charities.

In between all this, a reporter is writing a book about Charlotte’s kidnapping. She’s never told anyone the details, because the kidnapper is still at large. As if that’s not enough, we learn two of Bryce’s friends are looking into a cold case – a baby that was kidnapped around the same time as Charlotte.

Whew! Like I said, there’s a lot of stu  (see what I did here? Deleted the double f’s? Lol.) happening in this book. The additional plotlines tended to reduce the natural flow of the book. Charlotte’s kidnapping is resolved but in no way satisfactory to the reader.

What I did like about the book was Charlotte’s struggle with her faith. God forgives and Charlotte has trouble with Him forgiving the men who kidnapped and hurt her. It’s a very real struggle and Ms. Henderson handles it beautifully through Bryce.

I received this e-book from Bethany House in exchange for an honest review.

Friday, November 01, 2013

2013 Goals - Monthly Update

Here's how I did with my goals during October.

See a minimum of 5 Broadway and Off-Broadway shows in NYC
- Arrrgggghhhh! Still no plans!

Read 65 books for my Goodreads 2013 Reading Challenge
- I read 4 books toward my goal: Romance, The Darkness of Shadows, Seduction and Four To Score.
- Total books toward my goal of 65 - 44 books. (According to Goodreads, I'm 13 books behind schedule. Good grief!) 

Read a minimum of 9 books off the BBC Reading List
-I think I'm ready to admit that this was an impossible goal. 

Visit: 
1.The Barter Theatre in Abingdon, VA 
"I'll Never Be Hungry Again" (Completed April 7)

2.The Moulin Rouge in Paris, France 
Feerie (Completed September 10)

3.Walt Disney World or Disneyland 
- Disneyland Paris counts! (Completed September 12) 

4.Boston, MA
- Nothing planned. 

5.Pittsburgh, PA
- Nothing planned.