Tag Archives: musical theatre

Scott Adams goes Inside Out and a Geographical Oddity

Build a Habit-Robot in your Brain (from Scott Adams’ Blog) I find myself further and further fascinated with Scott’s musings, but this one was especially poignant given the number of “what’s going on inside their head” things that I’ve encountered this year (Disney Pixar’s Inside Out and Kristen Anderson-Lopez/Robert Lopez’ Up Here!).   Where the Palm Meets the Pine (from A Geographer’s Scrapbook) This was a fascinating article to read that was randomly posted in an internal work email and something I’ll have to remember to keep an eye out for next time I’m driving north!

Les Miserable – Segerstrom Center For The Arts (OCPAC), Costa Mesa, CA

An all around decent production. Nice to see it on the big stage again. Biggest problem? The pace. Now it’s Les Mis, so I know what you’re thinking, and you’re wrong! 😉 The pace wasn’t too slow, but too fast! When we got to intermission, we felt like we were both out of breathe and that we had just run a marathon! Fantine was not impressive. How did a white baby Eponine grow into a black adult Eponine? A reverse Michael Jackson??? And why did she have to try and turn her one song into a pop ballad? No turntable. Instead they had a giant projection screen for a cyclorama. Didn’t really notice it as an awesome effect until Valjean drags Marius from the barricades to the sewer….it was AMAZING!! Speaking of the barricades…meh.. My first major encounter with Les Miserable had the barricades being formed by massive rotating robots … Continue reading →

Million Dollar Quartet – Segerstrom Center For The Arts (OCPAC), Costa Mesa, CA

A delightful romp that, unlike the fanciful show Tin Pan Alley that theorized a meeting between the legendary Irving Berlin and Scott Joplin, details an actual event where four legends of rock and roll met under the same roof. On December 4th, 1956, Sam Phillips – creator of Sun Records, has coerced and cajoled Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Elvis Presley to “come home” and visit the place where they all got started (or in Lewis’ case where he was about to get started). So aside from having an evening of chart-topping rock-and-roll hits, you’re also treated to a bit of a history lesson regarding rock ‘n’ roll and how it came about. My knowledge of the events were sketchy at best and influenced mostly by Scot Bruce’s speech about Sun Records during his show and the Johnny Cash biopic Ring Of Fire. But it was absolutely … Continue reading →