Review by Jeff DeRouen

When my Southern dad became a grandfather, he lost all connection with the often emotionally unavailable “men don’t cry” parent of my youth and turned into a giant softie who says “I love you” and cries during Folgers Christmas commercials. I mention this because, at its core, I feel like Wes Anderson’s new movie, The Phoenician Scheme, is about that kind of personal transition.

Benicio Del Toro (in yet ANOTHER brilliant performance) plays Zsa-zsa, an oligarch they (yes, THEY) call “Mr. 5%” because of his reputation in the global industrial trade game. He is wealthy, powerful, and under constant threat of assassination - a running gag that plays out in hilarious and often cartoonishly violent ways. He reconnects with his estranged daughter (Mia Threapleton in a star-making turn) for an important mission where Zsa-zsa hopes to repair their relationship and talk her into taking over his business/estate before she makes her vows to become a nun.

Watching this pair of moral opposites make their way along this journey is incredibly entertaining and laugh-out-loud funny, not to mention a supporting ensemble boasting the kind of all-star roster they used in 70’s disaster movies. These are great actors having fun and turning in top-notch performances without the threat of the ship sinking around them or the airplane they’re on going into the ground like an exploding earthworm.

Wes Anderson mainstays like Tom Hanks, Geoffrey Wright, and Bill Murray (as GOD) are just some of the players here and Michael Cera, in particular, is positively brilliant as Bjorn, the tutor who joins Zsa-zsa and his daughter on their quest.

Look, either you dig what Wes Anderson throws down or you don’t – and I REALLY dig what he does. The Phoenician Scheme fits perfectly into Wes’s wholly original filmography, both thematically and visually (it’s gorgeous – see it on the big screen), so if his style of storytelling is something you’re drawn to, you’re gonna have a really great time at the movies. It’s an endearing story about family and the crucial life requirement of changing who we are, becoming better people so that we can experience happiness. It’s a true delight, and a perfect movie to take your parents to.

​Jazz, crime and fame make a sinful combo: Chicago @ The Saenger Theatre
Review by Eileen Daley

The truth is in the telling when it comes to sensationalist crimes, as the residents of Chicago know. Any monster can become a bombshell underneath the right lighting. In 50 years (or so) of this jazz musical’s nonstop runs, our obsession with fame hasn’t changed so much as grown, so its spectacle-as-message is prescient as ever.

Chicago’s revues, jailhouses and courtrooms of the 1920s feel like familiar settings, given that it’s a sister city of our own New Orleans when it comes to corruptible authority figures and miscarriages of justice. But the minimalist set, which showcases the phenomenal chorus dancers and jazz orchestra, keeps the show from feeling drab or grimy. Instead it’s all about the glitz and glamour of putting on a performance to save your life.

Taylor Lane and Ellie Roddy star as Velma Kelly and Roxie Hart, two incarcerated ingenues who
are preparing for their separate trials. Their only hope of avoiding death row is to parlay their
growing infamy as smoking hot murderesses into a sympathetic jury. Both stars shine when it comes to vocals and Bob Fosse’s iconic choreography, making every complex song and dance look easy.

Another standout was Josh England as Amos, Roxie’s belittled husband—an understudy who
proved more than capable (I’ll hear no Mr. Cellophane slander in this house!). The cast took the musical performances in interesting directions; most songs started with precise, wholesome annunciation and ended in sultry belting, the singers’ arcs mimicking the corrupting influence of jazz itself.

It feels good to imagine a world where crime leads to fair consequences from one’s community and rehabilitation of the selfish myopic attitude that brought it about. But until then, we have Chicago to hold up a funhouse mirror to our twisted morals. And after a show like this, I’ve got to say: damn, it feels good to be a gangster.

​Chicago plays at The Saenger Theatre through June 15th. Click here for more information and ticketing

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​Ain't Misbehaving: The Fats Waller Musical Show @ Le Petit Theatre
Review by Beth D'Addono

Fats Waller isn’t from New Orleans, but thanks to the showstopping performances of the local
cast of Ain’t Misbehavin’, he might as well be. This brilliant rendition of the 1978 Grammy
award winning tribute musical brings impressive New Orleans talent to the Le Petit Theatre stage
with every shake, shimmy and song. It’s a musical feel-good celebration guaranteed to deliver
toe-tapping joy, and who doesn’t need that right about now?

Donald Jones-Bordenave brings it as the show’s director and choreographer and in one of the
starring roles, showcasing both his impressive moves and his resonant pipes. Joining him onstage
with charisma, talent and sass to burn, are Danielle Edinburgh Wilson, Rahim Glaspy, Jarrell
Hamilton, and Kadejah Onē. Each actor puts their whole heart and soul into solos and ensemble
performances worthy of the Broadway stage.

Delivering pathos, sex appeal, humor and plenty of double entendres, the cast crushes with some
of the best-known tunes from the Tin Pan Alley artist’s canon. Of course, there’s the title song,
“Ain’t Misbehavin’ ” and a red-hot duet of “Honeysuckle Rose,” and the hits just keep coming.
“Tain’t Nobody’s Biz-ness if I Do,” “Keepin’ Out of Mischief Now,” “I’m Gonna Sit Right
Down and Write Myself a Letter,” “Mean to Me,” “The Jitterbug Waltz,” “The Viper’s Drag,”
“Fat and Greasy,” “Black and Blue” and “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” offer a glimpse
of the composer’s genius. He only lived 39 short years, but with more than 400 songs to his
credit, his legacy is epic.

The New York-born Waller was part of the Harlem Renaissance. His innovations with stride
piano – which means playing bass with the left hand, melody with the right – remains a
foundation for modern jazz piano. If you love James Booker, that’s another reason to see this
show. Booker was a master of New Orleans flavored stride piano, inspired by Morton as well as
our own Professor Longhair.

The action takes place in an impressive bi-level night club setting from Bethany Lee, with
sumptuous costumes from Tiffany Sherrif and hair and make-up from Chazonia Lewis. This
song and dance revue is fueled by a kick ass seven-piece band: piano player Max DoVale,
Utopia Francois and Nicholas Harrison on alto and tenor sax, Cam Michal Clark on trumpet, Ian
Monroe on bass, Peter Gustafson on trombone and John Jones on drums.

​The flirtations and mini dramas onstage unfold easily. There’s no real story to follow. Instead, the thrum of incandescent home-grown musical talent impresses until the last note is sung, the last step danced. Get your tickets now – this show is a winner.

“Ain’t Misbehavin’” runs through June 22 at Le Petit Theatre, with shows Thursday through
Sunday.  Students of all ages get discounted tickets and groups of 10 or more can use code GROUP to save 20 percent online.

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Laughter is the best medicine: A first night review of The Imaginary Invalid @ Lupin Theatre, Tulane
Review by Todd Perley

Hypochondria is no laughing matter...except in the hands of Molière, who thought it was a hoot. The Imaginary Invalid follows the story of Argan (Doug Spearman), a perpetual sicky (when it suits him, to garner pity and attention), who is trying to marry his daughter Angélique (Alexandra Miles) off to a doctor so he may have access to free medical attention.

Headstrong Angélique is, naturally, in love with another, and her relationship with her curmudgeonly father becomes strained. Toinette (Jessica Podewell), the scheming maid steps in to facilitate a plot to get Angélique and her hot-but-dim lover Cléante (Brandon Sutton) into blissful matrimony.

The farce is punctuated by a Greek chorus singing of Argan’s follies, a parade of various doctors examining Argan and prescribing absurd and conflicting cures, and a constant stream of enemas (pun inevitable) to ease Argan’s “gentle bowels.”

This was Molière’s final play from 1673. The author collapsed during the fourth performance and died shortly after, an ironic twist that surely would have amused him if he wasn’t ... y’know ... dying. Ryder Thornton’s new adaptation makes a lovely meta reference to this Fun Fact.

The ensemble of twelve work well off each other. Podewell’s brazen, snarky Toinette both amuses and moves the plot along at a nice trot. Phillip Andrew Monnett’s choice to “gay up” Angélique’s unwanted fiancé is a standout hilarious scene, and Spearman’s wild vacillations between lamentation and rages as the long-suffering father carries the show.

Medical knowledge in the 17th century was tenuous at best, and absurd by today’s standards. Molière was ahead of his time as he skewers the entire medical profession, exposing self-serving quackery and hiding ignorance behind fancy Latin jargon. And yet have things changed so very much in the ensuing 350 years? This satiric commentary is weirdly relatable today. Maybe with slightly fewer enemas now.

Why not open the Shakespeare Festival with a nice old French play, I ask you? Make an appointment to see these bumbling doctors now — don’t (ma)linger!

The Imaginary Invalid runs as part of the New Orleans Shakespeare Festival at the Lupin Theatre, Tulane University, through June 22nd . Click here for more information and ticketing. 

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