Cameron Bautsch and Holland Vavra star in Stages Theatre's production of Xanadu.
Photo by Bruce Bennett
The popular Stages Theatre production of Xanadu has to close this weekend as the company makes way for a encore production of Full Gallop, the one-woman show about the legendary Diana Vreeland. But fans of the '80s musical romp will have an extra chance to join in the fun — and hum along to such classic Olivia Newton John songs as "Suddenly" and "Magic."
"There's not a dull moment in the show," Vavra says.
Stages has added an extra performance on Saturday at 3 p.m., in addition to performances Friday and Saturday at 8 p.m. and the final performance at 3 p.m. Sunday.
The musical, based on the cult classic film, follows Kira, a Greek muse, who descends from Mount Olympus and heads to Venice Beach, Calif. She meets a struggling artist named Sonny whom she inspires to follow his dreams — one which thankfully involves rollerskates.
"It is music that everyone grew up with," says Holland Vavra, who portrays Kira in the production. "Not only that but it is cheeky humor, it's fun campiness. There's not a dull moment in the show."
"What's not to love about a musical set in the '80s on rollerskates with all these great songs that we grew up with," says CultureMap's Editor-in-Chief Clifford Pugh in this week's KHOU CultureMap Moment. "It really brings back a lot of great memories, I think that's one reason it's so popular."
See Varva, Pugh and Channel 11 Morning News anchor discuss the musical in this week's KHOU CultureMap Moment, shown above. Call the Stages box office at 713-527-0123 to purchase tickets.
For a story that is 3,000 years old and has been referenced innumerable times since the advent of the moving picture, it’s striking that The Odyssey has not been adapted into a film more often. Christopher Nolan’s new film is, depending on your definition, just the fourth time in film history that someone has attempted to tell the original story (oddly, the third film — The Return — came out just two years ago).
Matt Damon stars as Odysseus, who has been gone from his home of Ithaca for over 20 years. Waiting at home for him is his wife Penelope (Anne Hathaway) and son Telemachus (Tom Holland), as well as a hall full of suitors — most notably Antinous (Robert Pattinson) — who are hoping that Penelope will finally believe that Odysseus is dead and choose to marry one of them.
In typical Nolan fashion, the film goes back-and-forth in time often to show what has happened to Odysseus in the past two decades. His sea voyages with his crew have him attacking Troy using the legendary Trojan Horse; taking on the cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin); trying to escape the clutches of the witch Circe (Samantha Morton); living with the nymph Calypso (Charlize Theron); communing with the vision of Athena (Zendaya); and more.
Nolan, who wrote and directed the epic film, has a clear reverence for the material and, perhaps more than any current filmmaker, has the chops to make the sprawling story feel coherent. With a plethora of characters who have names that take some time to understand for those not familiar with the ancient tale, it’s extremely tough to wrangle everything and everyone together, and Nolan and his team make that trick seem relatively easy.
However, there’s a difference between making the story comprehensible and making it compelling, and Nolan is not as successful on this front. As portrayed in this film, it’s difficult to care whether Odysseus ever finds his way home. His connection with Penelope and Telemachus is tenuous, at best, and his status as a hero is called into question on multiple occasions. Complicated protagonists are nothing new, but in a story where the hero’s journey is the whole point, Nolan fails to make the quest all encompassing.
That’s not to say that there aren’t some standout moments along the way. The sequence in Polyphemus’ cave is tremendous, as are a few other scenes in which Nolan’s reported reliance on practical effects make you wonder how the crew accomplished what they did. Damon has said this is the hardest movie he’s ever made, and that effort shows up in every scene, especially those on the water.
At 56 years old, Damon is getting close to elder statesman status in Hollywood, and he ably embodies the role of the respected and feared leader. Hathaway, Holland, and Pattinson get the next most screentime, and each makes their character interesting if not mesmerizing. The murderer’s row of the supporting cast — Theron, Lupita Nyong'o, Zendaya, Elliot Page, Morton, Jon Bernthal, John Leguizamo, and more — give each scene a nice sheen whether or not their individual arc makes sense.
While the technical achievements of Nolan and his team in The Odyssey are admirable and occasionally awe-inspiring, the story he lays out is not quite as overwhelming. The structure he chose to use doesn’t allow the story to overcome the episodic nature of Odysseus’ brutal journey, keeping big emotions mostly at bay.
