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LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper Reese Theatre Contemporary Chamber Series presents the brass quintet, “Brasstastics” on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 3 p.m.
Arts & Life
LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper Reese Theatre Contemporary Chamber Series presents the brass quintet, “Brasstastics” on Sunday, Jan. 21, at 3 p.m.
- Lake County News Reports
Resilience Project presents Jan. 6 workshop on alternative photo processes
MIDDLETOWN, Calif. – Join Photographer Shane Powers and the Resilience Project at Middletown Art Center this Saturday, Jan. 6, from noon to 5 p.m. for the third and final Alternative Photographic Processes workshop.
LAKEPORT, Calif. – On Friday, Jan. 19, the Soper Reese Theatre Third Friday Live series features Bill Noteman and the Rockets, with special guest, guitarist Kevin Jarvis, AKA “The Jav Man.”
KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – The community is invited to the Jan. 7 first Sunday Fiddlers Jam held in the barn at Ely Stage Stop & Country Museum.
- Ted Kooser
American Life in Poetry: Midnight Snow
James Crews, now living in Vermont, was for a couple of years our assistant here at American Life in Poetry.
He came to us having already won The Prairie Schooner book prize, and his poems have gotten better and better, something all poets wish for.
Here's a lovely poem from How Light Leaves, from FutureCycle Press, that shows us how we can relate to the "other" in the natural world.
Midnight Snow
Outside in the creek that feeds the lake
and never freezes, an otter slaps the water
with his paw to feel the current's pulse—
Slip in, lie back. Slip in, lie back. He shuts
his eyes and obeys, knowing the layers
of hair and underfur will warm him while
he floats on a faith we wish could carry us.
The sound of his splashing fades, but not
his joy in being pushed, light as driftwood,
back to the mouth of the den I have seen
carved out beneath the roots of a fallen fir
now packed with snow and lined with leaves
that promise his sleep will be deep.
Because no dreams wait softly for me,
I open the woodstove and strike a match,
hold the bloom of the flame to kindling
that catches quick as my wish: To be that
slick body sliding into the lake that holds
the moon, bright portal to glide through
without so much as a shiver, no doubt
about where I'm going, how to get there.
American Life in Poetry does not accept unsolicited manuscripts. It is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2016 by James Crews, “Midnight Snow,” from How Light Leaves, (FutureCycle Press, 2016). Poem reprinted by permission of James Crews and the publisher. Introduction copyright ©2017 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction’s author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006.
THE GREATEST SHOWMAN (Rated PG)
There’s a lot more to famous showman and huckster Phineas T. Barnum than on display in “The Greatest Showman,” as the story does not fully explore his rise from humble beginnings to later-in-Life circus partnership with James A. Bailey and a noteworthy career in politics.
First and foremost, this is a musical enterprise, in which the catchy tunes are fashioned by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the creative team behind “La La Land,” the recent television special “A Christmas Story Live!,” and the award-winning Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen.”
Hugh Jackman may be forever immortalized as Wolverine in the “X-Men” franchise, but he had a successful turn as the lead in the New York musical “The Boy from Oz,” and his leap to ringmaster and primary melodic voice in “The Greatest Showman” is no fluke.
Let not the idea of an original musical extravaganza in the form of memorable songs cast a cloud on the idea of enjoying “The Greatest Showman,” which is designed, after all, as a piece of escapist entertainment fit for the entire family.
Besides, the charismatic Hugh Jackman takes center stage, so that can’t be off-putting in the least since he stars as the adult P.T. Barnum, a shameless promoter of oddities and curiosities as a form of mass entertainment that soon materializes into a circus.
First, we see Barnum (Ellis Rubin) as the young son of a working-class father striking up an acquaintance with Charity Hallett (Skylar Dunn), the daughter of a wealthy family that predictably looks down upon the Barnums as beneath their station.
Naturally then, in the span of one musical number, Jackman’s Barnum has not only married the adult Charity (Michelle Williams) after working a few conventional jobs, but they dance elegantly on a rooftop and have two wonderful young daughters before the song ends.
Eager to capitalize on the public appetite for entertainment, Barnum goes deep into debt with the purchase of a museum of wax figures and assorted novelties before grasping the concept of featuring an exploitative array of living human curiosities.
Up against some aggressively hostile bigots and a local critic, Barnum assembles a sideshow of the bearded lady Lettie Lutz (Keala Settle), the diminutive General Tom Thumb (Sam Humphrey), and African-American trapeze artist Anne Wheeler (Zendaya).
Wearing a bright red ringmaster jacket, top hat and twirling a cane, Barnum is front and center to orchestrate a spectacle of elephants and lions backing up an eclectic mix of performers also including the hirsute “Dog Boy,” an Irish giant, an enhanced fat man, an albino and others.
Proving to be the master of low-brow entertainment, Barnum incurs the critical wrath of local newspaper critic James Gordon Bennett (Paul Sparks), which serves no other purpose than to put the impresario into a bad light in polite society.
Seeking to bring acceptability to his endeavors, Barnum recruits upper-class New York playwright Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), whose excellent society connections help to arrange an audience with Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace.
This trip to England brings Barnum into contact with noted opera singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), widely known in Europe as “The Swedish Nightingale,” and before long, he’s has her under contract for a concert tour of the United States.
Performing at an opera house to the high society crowd in tuxedos and formal gowns, Jenny Lind causes the type of admiring sensation that Barnum expected and generates a modicum of respect from the critic Bennett for the flamboyant circus promoter’s shot at respectability.
An extended tour across America with the opera singer causes a rift in Barnum’s marriage, a situation not helped by the fact he’s overextended on his finances and the family is evicted from their mansion.
In due course, Barnum turns back to what he really knows best, and after a disastrous fire destroys his business, he regroups with his performers in a tent that represents the future of a traveling circus.
The Bearded Lady, supported by the rest of the gang, makes the most of the big musical number “This is Me,” an anthem to the uniqueness of the circus performers as they push back against the intolerance of local riff-raff.
Another challenge to societal mores comes with Zac Efron’s Phillip falling hard for Zendaya’s pink-haired acrobat and the stirrings of an interracial romance proves awkward as society frowns on crossing racial lines.
“The Greatest Showman” has enough musical razzle-dazzle that it would seem almost fitting for the legend of P.T. Barnum, though one suspects that the ostentatious showman might be perplexed about a modern representation of his storied career.
Nevertheless, Hugh Jackman is effortlessly magnetic, compelling and charming in this role of the American pioneer of popular culture.
“The Greatest Showman” undoubtedly takes liberties with his life story, but it is still a wonderfully choreographed entertainment.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
There’s a lot more to famous showman and huckster Phineas T. Barnum than on display in “The Greatest Showman,” as the story does not fully explore his rise from humble beginnings to later-in-Life circus partnership with James A. Bailey and a noteworthy career in politics.
First and foremost, this is a musical enterprise, in which the catchy tunes are fashioned by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, the creative team behind “La La Land,” the recent television special “A Christmas Story Live!,” and the award-winning Broadway musical “Dear Evan Hansen.”
Hugh Jackman may be forever immortalized as Wolverine in the “X-Men” franchise, but he had a successful turn as the lead in the New York musical “The Boy from Oz,” and his leap to ringmaster and primary melodic voice in “The Greatest Showman” is no fluke.
Let not the idea of an original musical extravaganza in the form of memorable songs cast a cloud on the idea of enjoying “The Greatest Showman,” which is designed, after all, as a piece of escapist entertainment fit for the entire family.
Besides, the charismatic Hugh Jackman takes center stage, so that can’t be off-putting in the least since he stars as the adult P.T. Barnum, a shameless promoter of oddities and curiosities as a form of mass entertainment that soon materializes into a circus.
First, we see Barnum (Ellis Rubin) as the young son of a working-class father striking up an acquaintance with Charity Hallett (Skylar Dunn), the daughter of a wealthy family that predictably looks down upon the Barnums as beneath their station.
Naturally then, in the span of one musical number, Jackman’s Barnum has not only married the adult Charity (Michelle Williams) after working a few conventional jobs, but they dance elegantly on a rooftop and have two wonderful young daughters before the song ends.
Eager to capitalize on the public appetite for entertainment, Barnum goes deep into debt with the purchase of a museum of wax figures and assorted novelties before grasping the concept of featuring an exploitative array of living human curiosities.
Up against some aggressively hostile bigots and a local critic, Barnum assembles a sideshow of the bearded lady Lettie Lutz (Keala Settle), the diminutive General Tom Thumb (Sam Humphrey), and African-American trapeze artist Anne Wheeler (Zendaya).
Wearing a bright red ringmaster jacket, top hat and twirling a cane, Barnum is front and center to orchestrate a spectacle of elephants and lions backing up an eclectic mix of performers also including the hirsute “Dog Boy,” an Irish giant, an enhanced fat man, an albino and others.
Proving to be the master of low-brow entertainment, Barnum incurs the critical wrath of local newspaper critic James Gordon Bennett (Paul Sparks), which serves no other purpose than to put the impresario into a bad light in polite society.
Seeking to bring acceptability to his endeavors, Barnum recruits upper-class New York playwright Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron), whose excellent society connections help to arrange an audience with Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace.
This trip to England brings Barnum into contact with noted opera singer Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), widely known in Europe as “The Swedish Nightingale,” and before long, he’s has her under contract for a concert tour of the United States.
Performing at an opera house to the high society crowd in tuxedos and formal gowns, Jenny Lind causes the type of admiring sensation that Barnum expected and generates a modicum of respect from the critic Bennett for the flamboyant circus promoter’s shot at respectability.
An extended tour across America with the opera singer causes a rift in Barnum’s marriage, a situation not helped by the fact he’s overextended on his finances and the family is evicted from their mansion.
In due course, Barnum turns back to what he really knows best, and after a disastrous fire destroys his business, he regroups with his performers in a tent that represents the future of a traveling circus.
The Bearded Lady, supported by the rest of the gang, makes the most of the big musical number “This is Me,” an anthem to the uniqueness of the circus performers as they push back against the intolerance of local riff-raff.
Another challenge to societal mores comes with Zac Efron’s Phillip falling hard for Zendaya’s pink-haired acrobat and the stirrings of an interracial romance proves awkward as society frowns on crossing racial lines.
“The Greatest Showman” has enough musical razzle-dazzle that it would seem almost fitting for the legend of P.T. Barnum, though one suspects that the ostentatious showman might be perplexed about a modern representation of his storied career.
Nevertheless, Hugh Jackman is effortlessly magnetic, compelling and charming in this role of the American pioneer of popular culture.
“The Greatest Showman” undoubtedly takes liberties with his life story, but it is still a wonderfully choreographed entertainment.
Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.
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