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New musical-comedy's pre-Broadway tryout proves delightfully not in need of fixing
The “out-of-town tryout” has been a staple of Broadway show development for an eternity, built on the premise that a brand-new production needs someplace to work out the kinks before heading to the American theater’s biggest showcase.
Call Jane, Till, Wendell & Wild, The Good Nurse and more
All Quiet on the Western Front ***1/2More than a century after the end of the First World War, this latest adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s landmark novel demonstrates that its story is still a powerful reminder about the futility of war, and how it kills souls even before it kills bodies. Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) is one of several German schoolmates who enthusiastically forge their parents’ permission to enlist in 1917, only to discover the horrifying realities of what has been sold to them as a heroic enterprise.
Black Adam **Warner Bros. has spent the past decade playing catch-up with Marvel, trying to build the cinematic profile of its DC Comics characters beyond Superman and Batman; here, it feels like they’re trying to do it all at once. The main story involves the awakening of the title character (Dwayne Johnson), a supernaturally-powered warrior known as Teth-Adam 5000 years ago in an ancient Middle Eastern kingdom, and now seeming not particularly interested in serving as the hero-protector of his homeland.
Halloween Ends **
Over the course of three films now, co-writer/director David Gordon Green has attempted to turn the four-decade-long conflict between Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) and serial killer Michael Myers into a brooding examination of trauma and fear on both an individual and communal level. But he keeps hitting this awkward spot between “not interesting enough as psychological drama” and “not scary enough as horror.” Four years after Michael’s last rampage in Haddonfield, Laurie’s granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) begins dating Corey (Rohan Campbell), a young man whose own life has been forever changed by the legacy of “the boogeyman.” Green and his co-writers are full of potentially compelling ideas, ranging from the way people create the monsters they fear, to evil as a kind of infection (a bit too literally underlined).
The spectacle of stagecraft elevates this telling of a familiar story
It takes only a few minutes of the touring production of Disney's The Lion King for anyone unfamiliar with this version to realize it’s a completely different beast from its film cousins.
