Best of the Year: Television

No television program has brought more joy into our household than Pushing Daisies. Each week as many as 15 of us get together to watch Ned the Piemaker and his cohort of odd and endearing characters solve murders. But the murder mystery angle of the show is not what keeps us coming back each week. It's the fairy tale. Ned can bring people back to life by touching them, but if he touches them again they die forever. In the "Pie-lette" episode, Ned brings Chuck, the now grownup girl who gave him his first kiss when he was 10, back to life after her murder on a cruise ship. (By the way, if Ned doesn't touch the person he's brought back within 60 seconds someone else will die so the universe can right itself.) And so, Ned and Chuck are hopelessly in love and hopelessly unable to touch. The thought of it makes me weep, even as I type this.

There is much joy to be found in Pushing Daisies. The characters all care deeply about each other. They are a family, even though Chuck's aunts (the totally amazing, reason enough to watch the show Swoosie Kurtz and Ellen Greene) don't know she's alive. Olive Snook (the totally amazing, reason enough to watch the show Kristin Chenoweth) makes that connection, even as she tries to figure out Chuck's story and even as she pines away for the piemaker herself. And just when things are on the verge of sickly sweet, Chi McBride reminds us how surreal this whole thing is.

Pushing Daisies is a package, though. It's success is also due to incredible writing that is unlike anything else on the air. The narration is beautiful and moving, due in large part to the work of Jim Dale as the narrator. The colors are as surreal as the premise, so vibrant they cannot be found in nature. All of this is conducted under the sure baton on maestro Bryan Fuller, who creates a symphony of color and sound that moves the heart.

And what of Ned the Piemaker and Chuck? Lee Pace is perfect and Anna Friel has arrived at perfection over the first several episodes. It's hard to imagine the show working without either of these two, but it is Pace who stands out. Every smirk, every gesture, every line reading gets us closer to the experiencing the bittersweet world of Pushing Daisies.

OH YEAH! With that whole writers' strike going on, what are we to do for our PD fix? Run, don't walk, to get your hands on Wonderfalls, Fuller's 2004 Fox series that begat this year's favorite. It may just be the best show in the history of television.

Honorable mentions this year go to Ugly Betty, which is having a stellar sophomore season, The Closer, which has gotten better each season, and Damages, which was so drawn out it was painful to watch, but which was totally addictive thanks in large part to the work of Glenn Close.

Best of the Year: Music

So there's still one week left in the year, but no album has come close to The New Pornographer's Challengers as my choice for the best album of the year. Not a single track on the album misses, and the cumulative effect is an album of great wit, great insight and just plain great music. Carl Newman and company have released their best album to date. Nico Case shines as usual.

It's been years since I've given a specific album to people as a holiday gift. This year, quite a few people on my list got Challengers in their stockings. Four months after its release, the album still has a prized spot in my iPod. It should on yours, too.

Honorable mentions for the year go to Annie Lennox's Songs of Mass Destruction, Mika's Life in Cartoon Motion, Rufus Wainwright's Release the Stars, and the studio cast recording of Bare.

Charlie Wilson's War

It was with a small amount of trepidation that I went to see Charlie Wilson's War. I'm no fan of the work of Aaron Sorkin. Never saw an episode of West Wing that I could get into. Same with Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip. A Few Good Men bored me. Until today, there's nothing of Sorkin's work that I would recommend. Until today.

Perhaps reined in by Mike Nichols or supported by the solid work of Tom Hanks (who also leaves me cold at times), Philip Seymour Hoffman and Julia Roberts, Charlie Wilson's War turns out to be a very good film. The humor is laugh-out-loud funny, but leaves you with that bad aftertaste that says, "Oh, maybe I shouldn't be laughing." It's humor that forces you to think, and that is an amazing way to comment on the current troubles.

Charlie Wilson is a flawed congressman who, after a moving visit to Afghanistan, pushes the U.S. to dramatically increase it's covert involvement in supporting the Afghans against the Soviet incursion. He's a good old boy politician to whom everyone owes a favor. So, it's within his power to bring the budget from $5 million to ultimately $5oo million, to get the CIA to change its philosophy that staying out will turn this into Russia's Vietnam, and to bring Israel together with Arab countries for mutual gain.

Hanks does a wonderful job of capturing the complexities of Wilson. Even when the script stumbles--and it does here and there, particularly in the last few minutes--Hanks is totally engaging. You can see the internal conflict of a man who laughs off ethics investigations and plays politics with natural ease. This cause means something to him.

Roberts gives a fine turn as the sixth wealthiest woman in Texas. For her this is a religious cause, and she brings her power to bear to get the cause on Wilson's radar. Similarly, Hoffman shines as Wilson's partner in bringing about U.S. involvement.

There's an absurdity to these proceedings that is captured beautifully by Mike Nichols. He's in great form here, and he serves up comedy at its most effective: thought provoking.

The film does falter in the final moments. To be sure, we all know the ending, but it's tough to swallow a preachy ending--we spent billions fighting the war, but can't even spend $1 milllion rebuilding the country--after a film that has shown us atrocity rather than preach about it.

Definitely one of the year's best, though!

Don't Quit While You're Ahead

The SpeakEasy Stage Company's production of The Mystery of Edwin Drood is great fun. Drood is one of the few Tony winners I never had a chance to see, so I'm grateful for the opportunity to take in a production of such fun and charm. The music hall setting of the show gives the company great freedom to involve the audience throughout. Members of the company connect with their sections of the audience from the start, and you find yourself rooting for your player throughout. It's a wonderful bonding moment that becomes totally engaging.

Drood, for those who don't remember, is the unfinished, serialized murder mystery by Charles Dickens, subsequently musicalized by Rupert Holmes. The 1985 production won a slew of Tony Awards and firmly entrenched the "let the audience decide the ending" gimmick used commonly on TV and in the theater these days. It obviously worked then and it definitely works now.

The SpeakEasy production is marvelously cast. Though a few off notes are hit here and there, the cast is uniformly charming and engaging. The choreography and direction make great use of the small stage, employing inventive solutions to theatrical problems.

Drood is the perfect musical for the season. Great fun, engaging. It just brought a big smile to my face.

Fun Fact: Halfway through the run of the Broadway production, Joe Papp changed the name of the play from The Mystery of Edwin Drood to, simply, Drood to secure a better position in the Times alphabetical theater listings.

Bare...the album

I've lived with Bare for a few days now. If you don't know the story behind the album release, Bare is a small show that played way-off broadway (in L.A. and New York) in 2004. It was announced for a commercial run that never materialized. A free highlights disk was released in anticipation of the commercial run. As the regional rights became available the creative team decided to do a full studio cast recording. They expected to sell a few disks, but were deluged with orders that delayed its arrival on my doorstep by almost a month.

I had the opportunity to see the New York production of Bare. While I thought it was tragically flawed, I also developed a great affection for the show. The original CD is one of the few recordings to have permanent space on my iPod. Having the complete recording has only increased my affection for the show. I think it's still flawed, but there are truly extraordinary moments throughout.

Since it's not a well-known show, a word about the plot. Bare is set in a Catholic boarding school, spanning the feast of the epiphany to high school graduation. Peter and Jason have been lovers throughout high school. Peter is ready to bust out of the closet; Jason isn't. The terrified Jason has a one-night stand with Ivy. She gets pregnant; Jason has even more to deal with...and he doesn't deal well.

What's to love? The recording has been beautifully assembled. The cast has not a single weak link. Matt Doyle (standing by over at Spring Awakening) is an amazing Peter. I thought Michael Arden offered the definitive Peter, but Matt does fantastic. James Snyder is fine as Jason. Jenna Leigh Green is also fine as Ivy. I think her performance on stage surpasses her album performance, but this is a quibble. She's also faced with a character I still find poorly drawn. (More on that in a moment.) All 12 actors who make up the student cast are great, and the adults are, too. A particular shout out to Kaitlin Hopkins who also repeats from the New York cast with great emotion.

The music is also great. Moving, memorable. People have said the music is a mashup of Rent and Spring Awakening, but it has great originality and beauty. The style is appropriate to the show. The lyrics, too, support the show well. There are certainly clunkers among the lyrics, but many more moments are inspired.

Bare particularly feels fresh and real--maybe even raw--in its representation of boarding school teens. Over the years, friends have recounted Catholic boarding school experiences, and their stories would fit right in with those in Bare. The cliques, drugs, relationships all ring true.

Most of the changes are for the good. The new lyrics for "Epiphany" give the opening a better vibe and cleaner start. Tweaks throughout add some nice humor (though there was always humor). Sister Chantelle gets a bluesier "911 Emergency," which is the only jarring change from the past recording.

So, why do I still hesitate? The cliche. For so much of the album I have the feeling that it ranks with the best I've heard. Nonetheless, I still struggle to get past Jason and Ivy's relationship. It's to cliche to have everyone consider her a slut, when we know she's a virgin. Really, her chastity serves only one function: to make it clear that Jason is the father when we realize she's pregnant in Act II. And Jason's struggle throughout often seems stuck firmly in the 80's. (SPOILER ALERT) The album allows for the possibility that Jason's death is an accidental overdose rather than a suicide, but his struggle with coming out feels so dated. That's in stark contrast to the rest of the story, which feels fresh and current.

And if that's my only complaint, it keeps Bare from being very great theater. Flaws and all, though, Bare is special. It's special for me personally, but it's also special because of the love and care that has gone into assembling the recording.

In addition to the video above, check out the website.

And check out these scenes from the NY production:

Enchanted?

Yes, I still am. I would count myself among the skeptics who doubted Enchanted was going to be all that. Well, truth be told, it is all that. It's an excellent film that will without a doubt charm the britches off the kids, but will resonate strongly with the rest of us. In fact, those of us weened on Disney films will find the iconic Disney moments thrilling.

The latest Disney heroine, Giselle (Amy Adams), is cast out of Andalasia--cartoon land--by the evil Queen Narissa (Susan Sarandon) who will lose her crown when Giselle marries her son (James Marsden). Giselle ends up in modern day New York--live action land--where she applies her two dimensional fairytale charms to three dimensional problems. The resulting story takes a journey that is at once charming, sweet and laugh out-loud funny. Enchanted flips the Disney cartoon universe on its head.

The film stumbles here and there. Patrick Dempsey is his typical sexy, charming self, but there's nothing new here. Idina Menzel is stereotyped, though her performance is redeemed at the end. The story drags in places.

But these are quibbles. Enchanted is so good as to almost be subversive. Almost. It is Disney after all.

For a great guide to Disney films that are quoted in Enchanted see our bud at maninchair.

Thumpa Thumpa Theater

I'm always a little disappointed when my first thought at the end of a show is "I feel like I got my money's worth." I guess that's better than leaving with with the feeling that I didn't get my money's worth, but my experiences at the theater--even bad theater--are generally so much richer and worthy of ongoing thought.

But that is exactly the feeling I had last night at the end of Fuerzabruta, the off-broadway experience at the Daryl Roth Theatre in Union Square. Most people I know seem to think that "from the people who brought you De La Guarda" is sufficient description of the show. The show is a hour-long collection of set pieces accompanied by an awesome, pounding techno beat organized around the idea that it takes brute force to get through life.

Fuerzabruta is fiercely creative. You're never amazed with the thought of how did they do that, but always amazed at the thought of how did they think of that. And you're always part of the show. You have to let yourself be seduced. Otherwise, the annoyance of being stepped on as the audience gets shifted around or the combination of mist and powder forms a glue on your clothes will get to you.

After being relocated the first couple of times, I did get into it. I liked being part of the audience. And in the final moments, when you're forced to commit or stay on the sidelines, it was awesome to commit. I think I even registered a little disapproval at those on the margins who refused to jump in and dance in the rain.

So, how best to experience Fuerzabruta. Think of it as going to a club with a circus going on all around you. Does that mean it's for the clubkids? Well, they were there in force and right in the center of things from start to finish. But it's also for those of us who can enjoy and appreciate creativity with a throbbing techno beat.

For those interested, here's the trailer. There's also lots more on YouTube, since there's no prohibition against photography (only flashes). Fair warning, though: my companions felt the trailer gave away 95 percent of the show.