Summer Entertainment: Plays, Movies and A Concert

 A Thousand Splendid Suns, based on the Khaled Hosseini novel (author of Kite Runner) and produced by San Diego's Old Globe Theater, was one wallop of a drama. When a young girl in war-torn Afghanistan is told that her true love died in battle, she becomes the second wife of an older man who reminds her how lucky she is to have someone who will take care of her. However, her life is anything but lucky. With only a few props, this poignant and wrenching story unravels against

Photo: Old Globe

exquisite backdrops that nearly steal the show. Elaborate cutouts infused with creative colors and lighting tell a story of their own. An early rendering for an outdoor scene depicts the region's rugged mountain range in stark contrast to a later backdrop for a crude hospital setting. Most jarring of all, bright red splashes on a stark white background jolted me during a blood-drenched surgical procedure. Dismal scenes plunk you in the middle of the three-way marriage with wives destined to despise each other, within a country that's lost its way to terrorists who gnaw at the ancient culture and traditions. Symbolic of other chapters unfolding in the region, the play is a tribute to timely drama, wondrous staging and Khaled Hosseini.

American Mariachi was another Globe production with a new take on an old genre of music, The story features the joyful music of Mexico, a national treasure performed throughout the Southwest United States by bands of men in black sombreros and suits dripping with silver embellishments. You can imagine what happens when a group of female musicians decides to go up against the male-dominated industry to form their own band. The theme of gender equality and ownership of the music

Photo: Old Globe

is a driving force front and center, but the underlying thread is one about the impact of the music on the people who've embraced it, specifically a woman whose Alzheimer's has stolen her memory and rendered her half the person she used to be. When she hears  Mariachi music on the stereo, she's immediately transported to a happy time when she was a young girl and fell for the Mariachi musician who would become her husband. A window opens and, for a moment, she stands and dances. A smile brightens her face, aglow with joy. The female musicians are gutsy women (one is the woman's daughter) who persevere against all odds to perform the time-honored classics with triumph and flair.

Newsies at Moonlight Stage in Vista rounded out our summer season of plays with a story about real life newspaper boys who held a strike in 1899 in New York City when publishers increased the price the boys had to pay for their papers. But they didn't stop there. The rabble-rousers invited all of the kids working in underpaid jobs and some in harsh conditions throughout the city to join in the strike, which established a foundation for child labor laws. Steeped in history, this big stage musical featured a show-stopping chorus line, memorable for the newsies who performed the snappy tap dance number. During bows at the end of the show, several pulled hats off to reveal none other than pigtails! I guess the girls wanted to get in on the act too, just like girls throughout history who've disguised themselves as men to fight in wars, write novels, and do whatever they choose.

I'm a big movie fan, always ready to share a few of my favorites. Summer movies were no exception.

Won't You Be My Neighbor? is the movie that most captured my heart. It's a documentary about Fred Rogers, the host of a children's television show in the '70s and '80s. I recall watching it with my kids when they were small, and have to confess I found him a bit mushy, but the kids didn't, which comes across in the depictions of him. We see Fred in a variety of situations over his lifetime, as a gentle soul who could relate to small children, puppets, animals, and even comedians who made fun of him in TV sitcoms. One reason I think this film tops my list is because it's such a welcome contrast to what appears in the daily news and halls of Congress and the White House. So poignant and authentic, it made me weep. So kind and caring. So rare. A must see.

RBG is a close second and also a documentary, this time about Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Though she is very slight physically, she stands tall among the DC types who have such loud mouths and unprincipled approaches to governing. She's intelligent, tenacious, kind, clever and whimsical as a key voice on the Court, and she's become something of a pop culture icon, held in high esteem by young people who appreciate her depth, style and pizazz and have produced RBG T-shirts. You might even say she's so authentic that you can't help but like her, regardless of her politics or yours. Honesty and perseverance are hard to beat, especially with a sprinkle of achievement, guts and humor, whch have always served her well. Check it out. You'll feel better afterward. 

For sheer fun, there were three movies in a close race for top place. All were just the right medicine for a Friday night date or girls night out.  

Photo: Oceans 8 Movie

Oceans 8
Sandra Bullock can pull off anything -- floating in space with George Clooney, adopting and raising an overweight black youth from the projects, or going undercover and being crowned Miss Congeniality for it. So how could anyone resist a female version of the guys' movie with Bullock in the lead, and Kate Blanchett and Anne Hathaway as her co-conspirators? May daughter and I saw it together, but she was resistant at first. She later agreed it was a great ride. This film is just as much fun as it sounds. I don't remember the details (they're not really important), but you get the idea if you saw any of the Oceans movies, beginning with Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford, and updated by George Clooney and Matt Damon. The women deliver with panache, style and enough balls to play with the big guys. The story was all that I wanted it to be, with plenty of intrigue and twists from some of my favorite actresses. At least a few are in roles like we've never seen them before, which makes it all the more fun.

Mama Mia Here We Go Again  
This time we return to the Greek island where the party music and performances are amplified a few notches higher than the original movie (2008) starring Meryl Streep as Donna and Amanda Seyfried as Sophie. Now grown up, Sophie invites everyone back to the Hotel Bella Donna for an anniversary celebration (Donna already died). Newcomer Lily James (Downton Abbey) plays the young Donna (Merly Streep character) in a backstory that retraces her youthful visit to the island where she gave birth to her daughter and took over the hotel named for her. While the first movie had everything going for it (three possible dads) and the replay was destined to be a hit, Lily James enters and knocks it out of the ballpark. Rippling with talent, she puts fizz and verve into the role and Abba dance numbers. You can't help but fall in love with her. Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgard deliver a bit older fatherly good looks with charm and finesse. Cher in a white-and-gold dazzling costume (what else?) enters to perform a show-stopping moment, Meryl Streep returns as a spirit, and Andy Garcia teases throughout, until his long lost love reappears as guess who? 

Crazy Rich Asians
If I could award only one movie for most entertaining it would be this one. Casting, story (romantic comedy), sets and originality, this movie had everything going for it in the world class city of Singapore. The producers took full advantage of the modern architecture and landscape in the urban center, with unique light shows, water features, outrageous gardens, river setting, underground food courts, and ethnic neighborhoods. Lavish mansion showplaces provided the gamut of styles from sophisticated to garish. Characters were drawn in full technicolor, from the brightest to the dullest, the most crass to the most stern, and the most proper to the most flawed. This was the story of true love winning the day, despite the expectations of class, culture and wealth displayed as only Hollywood can. And for someone who's traveled to Singapore to witness the natural and man-made beauty of this Asian nation, I felt the movie was a love letter to the city -- sealed with a kiss. 

The Jackson Brown Concert 
I saved the best for last. This concert at the Greek Theater in LA was an unexpected delight.

Photo: YouTube.com

I was staying with friends in LA who'd gotten tickets to the concert and invited me to come along. I was embarrassed to admit I didn't know his music, but was told I probably knew the songs, but didn't know the name of the guy writing and singing all those hits. And of course that was true. The playlist that night was 24 songs long...from You Love the Thunder, Lives in the Balance, and These Days, to Somebody's Baby (he played this one for his shrink, who told him it was a hit, but Jackson didn't believe him), The Pretender, Running on Empty and Take It Easy (Eagles cover).

There was a strong vibe in the air, like a soothing balm that permeated the audience, for the hometown boy who shared stories about his songs and growing up in Southern California. The music is hard to deny...sometimes sad, sometimes happy, upbeat or nostalgic. But it's more than the music. What makes the artist Jackson Brown so human and so likable is his underlying compassion and concern for people and our planet. Follow the link to his website and learn about the awards he's received for his commitment to critical causes. See the concerts that are performed for people in Haiti, refugees, and others suffering globally. "Music Heals" says it all.

After seeing Bob Dylan perform a couple of years ago at the Greek in Berkeley, I was struck by the difference in these two artists' performance styles. Brown has an amazing connection with his audience. Dylan never says a word, not even when I saw him in 1967 in Louisville. Brown gave the sense he was having a good time, and he wanted us to enjoy the evening with him. He dropped a few comments about politics and other topics, as well. The audience loved it!

This generous entertainer with a "take it easy" style, delivered a near perfect performance in the charming hillside venue, a hidden gem in LA. Thank you, Jackson Brown, for hanging around so long and for giving all that you give.