On tap for 2013-14

Book of Mormon, flying cats & a War Horse highlight new Gexa Energy Broadway season

Gexa Energy Broadway at the Hobby Center is going big for its 2013-14 season, which officials announced on Sunday. A melange of something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue (naughty, too) will hit the stage with six musicals that together have earned 25 Tony Awards.

Read on for the selections, each with accompanying video to whet your appetite for tuneful entertainment.

The Book of Mormon (Sept. 3-15)

The creators of the anything-goes television animated series South Park, where nothing is sacred and no one is safe from ridicule (even Jesus), had prior success with satirical, full-length musicals like the film South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Team America: World Police. Though we know that the text of The Book of Mormon is tamer than the lyrics of "Uncle F**ka" and "Kyle's Mom's a B**ch," there's a dash of obscene language that will satisfy fans of Trey Parker, Robert Lopez and Matt Stone.

What happens when pagans from Africa and cute Mormons from Utah appear on the same stage? Goofiness.

Peter and the Starcatcher (Oct. 15-20)

Before there was Peter Pan, the flying, orphan boy in green tights who would never grow up, there was a neglected 13-year-old boy who sought to create his own adventure. In Peter and the Starcatcher, the hero's story unfolds. Peter learns about starcatchers, a group of folks who protect starstuff (the pixie dust that allows things to take flight), meets Wendy and flies for the first time.

The musical has won five Tony awards. Could it be the appearance of a flying cat?

Chicago (Nov. 12-17)

So what if Society for the Performing Arts brought Chicago, starring John O'Hurley, back in 2011? The story of murder, fame, sex, infidelity, fishnet stockings, trials by jury and "All That Jazz" set in the roaring '20s, like a good friend, never gets old.

What matters is who will be cast as Roxy Hart, Velma Kelly and Billy Flynn?

Ghost (Feb. 18-23, 2014)

The 1990 film captured the hearts of many, particularly in the scene where "Unchained Melody" signaled the romantic vignette when Whoopi Goldberg channeling Patrick Swayze lays a wet one on Demi Moore. Can Sam and Molly be united forever on stage? Through song?

Traditionalists will say nay, though the troupe of heavyweights who premiered the work in 2011, including Glen Ballard, who worked with Alanis Morissette on Jagged Little Pill, and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, say yay.

Either way, will there be wet, sloppy clay? Will kids these days start saying "ditto" again?

American Idiot (March 21-23, 2014)

Turning Green Day's seventh album into a jukebox musical follows along what the rock band sought to create when it released American Idiot in 2004. The "rock opera" concept mused the band's guitarist, Billie Joe Armstrong, to collaborate with director Michael Mayer to expand the story into this one-act musical. The tale centers on three characters — Johnny, aka Jesus of Suburbia, Will and Tunny — who must weigh their options. Will they choose the comforts of suburban life or pursue their city dreams?

War Horse (May 27-June 1, 2014)

When Albert's beloved horse, Joey, is auctioned off, the young protagonist gallivants through the trenches of World War I England and France in search of his four-legged friend. The emotional drama is teeming with songs that circle back to their reunion right before tragedy claims their lives. The production features life-sized puppets crafted by the Handspring Puppet Company of South Africa.

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Gexa Energy Broadway at the Hobby Center season tickets (starting at $154) are on sale now and can be purchased online or by calling 800-952-6560. Individual tickets are typically available six to eight weeks prior to each scheduled performance.

War Horse with Christopher Mai, Derek Stratton and Rob Laqui.

Photo © Brinkhoff Mögenburg

War Horse with Christopher Mai, Derek Stratton and Rob Laqui.

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Movie Review

Offbeat drama Pillion features command performance by Alexander Skarsgård

Photo courtesy of A24

Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling in Pillion.

Describing the new movie Pillion is almost an act of futility. It contains a variety of seemingly disparate parts that coalesce into a whole to make it utterly fascinating. Few other recent films have been able to walk the line between filthy and wholesome in quite the way this one does, and that’s only because few other filmmakers would actually dare to try.

It centers on Colin (Harry Melling), a meek man in his mid-thirties who still lives at home with his parents, Pete (Douglas Hodge) and Peggy (Lesley Sharp), while working a dead-end job giving out parking tickets. While performing in a barbershop quartet at his local pub, Colin catches the eye of biker Ray (Alexander Skarsgård), who summons him for a clandestine hook-up the following day (which just so happens to be Christmas Day).

With barely a word exchanged between them, Ray establishes a dominance over Colin that quickly leads to them starting a relationship in which Colin does anything Ray asks. And that means more than just sex: Colin, whether desperate for any kind of affection or unlocking a side of himself he hadn’t known, readily agrees to cook, clean, shop, and basically do whatever else Ray wants him to do.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Harry Lighton, the film is astonishing in the way it’s able to mine humor from Colin and Ray’s atypical bond. To call Ray “unfeeling” might not be totally accurate, but the way he treats Colin borders on cruel. However, the way Lighton structures the film, it’s easy to understand why someone like Colin would be willing to go along with the situation. It’s both hilarious and heartbreaking to see Colin debase himself in a variety of ways.

On the flip side is Colin’s heartfelt arc with his parents. It’s established right away that Peggy, who is sick with cancer, is a bit too involved with Colin’s love life, with the opening scene featuring her setting him up on a blind date. But their easy acceptance of his queerness and desire to see him find love is as heartwarming as it gets. The juxtaposition between the wholesomeness of their family and Colin’s new life is also the source of a good amount of comedy.

Lighton does not shy away from the sexual side of Colin and Ray’s relationship, and the scenes he depicts are as graphic as you are likely to see in an R-rated film. Some go up to and a little past what might be expected in a mainstream movie (including the use of a certain fake appendage). Other times they play out in a comical way to illustrate just how far Colin has progressed from the person he was when the film started.

Skarsgård, who stole the show in the Charli XCX movie The Moment, is the attraction in more ways than one in this film. The part calls for someone who’s not only impossibly handsome, but also a person who can stop dissent with just a glance, and he lives up to both qualities equally well. Melling, best known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter movies, also embodies his role perfectly. He plays Colin as weak enough to be run roughshod over by Ray, but not so hopeless as to not be worth rooting for.

Pillion (which is the name of the secondary seat on a motorcycle on which Colin rides multiple times in the film) operates at a storytelling level that is difficult to achieve. Many people will not fully understand the film’s central relationship, but the way it is showcased by Lighton makes it compelling, gut-wrenching, and sexy.

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Pillion is now playing in theaters.

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