Vanity Fare: Megalopolis
Review by Jeff DeRouen

If aging auteurs want to spend enormous amounts of their own money on an insane magnum opus knowing full well it’ll probably flop (although Kevin Costner has recently elaborated on why preliminary box office is a flawed indicator of a film’s long-term success), I am here for it.

Francis Ford Coppola’s new epic, Megalopolis, is a bold and uplifting tale that, without all the boobs and blood, could be a new classic we see play every year on NBC at Christmas.

The movie follows Cesar (Adam Driver in a fully committed and over the top performance), an eccentric builder who wants to use his magical building material to create a more progressive world to benefit generations. Standing in his way, of course, are folks who have their own designs and desires for power, including Aubrey Plaza who absolutely devours the screen as the scheming and sexy Wow Platinum.
​
Megalopolis, for better or worse, is EXACTLY the movie Coppola wanted to make and any “mistake” you see is an intentional choice from one of history’s greatest filmmakers. Is it on the nose? YES. Is it enormously stylistic in both aesthetic and performance? UNBELIEVABLY SO. Does it wear its heart on its sleeve? YOU BETCHA. And all of it culminates in what can only be described as Coppola’s attempt to inject a giant vision and hope into a society that runs on anger, division, and short-term solutions.

I think it’s a masterpiece.

W New Orleans – French Quarter presents Bad Snacks (pictured), the LA-based producer and multi-instrumentalist known for creating violin-infused, genre-bending electronic music. Rich with loft and dance influences, her catalog boasts an expansive landscape featuring lush strings, driving basslines and hard-hitting grooves, supported by Producer and DJ Modern Lover.

WHERE: W New Orleans - French Quarter, 316 Chartres Street 
WHEN: Friday, October 18, 2024 @ 6:30 PM 

VIP and GA Tix Available: https://ra.co/events/1987907

Toups Family Meal (TFM), Chef Isaac and Amanda Toups’ non-profit and mission for change dedicated to providing food security for families in need, is hosting its First Annual Pumpkin Drive. This event will take place on Saturday, October 5th, from 1PM-5PM with the goal of bringing a little seasonal sweetness to 500 children and families in need by delivering 500 free big pumpkins and festive decorating kits. 

Volunteer delivery drivers will set out in their vehicles filled with pumpkins and decorating kits; a mobile pumpkin patch. These festive gifts will be distributed  throughout New Orleans. 

What began as a grassroots effort in March 2020 to provide meals during the COVID-19 crisis has evolved into a dedicated organization committed to addressing hunger. To date, TFM has served over 175,000 meals and continues its efforts through initiatives like the summer meal program. For additional information or to support this cause, visit www.toupsfamilymeal.com. To donate, click here. To register to be a volunteer driver, click here. Follow Toups’ Family Meal on social media @toupsfamilymeal
 
The Toups Family Meal First Annual Pumpkin Drive will begin at the TFM distribution facility,  located at 845 North Carrollton Avenue in New Orleans. The truck will depart at 1PM and distribute throughout the city until 5PM.

The Substance
​(dir. Coralie Fargeat)
Review by Jeff DeRouen

As a good gay, I’m here for an acting swing from Demi Moore and happy to lay my money down to experience the magic that made her one of the nineties biggest stars.

I’d heard The Substance was not typical “I’m back” fair, that writer/director Coralie Fargeat had crafted something special, and that Demi Moore gives a brave, compelling performance. Holy moly – what an understatement. This is a momentous work inspired by the likes of Cronenberg and Kubrick and absolutely one of the most batsh*t movies I have ever seen.

Moore plays an aging fitness star who takes a secret serum and splits in two – her younger and older self. They are both HER and she must change bodies every week or complications take place (and I wouldn’t dream of giving you any more details than that).

The Substance is a sci-fi/body horror allegory where Fargeat lays bare her view of how
society affects women giving us top notch gore and career-best performances from both
Demi Moore AND Margaret Qualley.

It’s a riveting, unsettling, hilarious, and absolutely disgusting sci/fi body horror masterpiece that must be seen with an audience in a theater – I can’t wait to go again.

A Survivin' Thing: Out of the Boil, A Climate Change Musical @ The New Marigny Theatre
Review by Todd Perley

​The setting: a New Orleans dive bar. The players: neighborhood working folk—a nurse, a teacher, a tech guy, some service industry, etc. The conversation: climate change, education, local infrastructure, and why doesn’t the Algiers ferry run twenty-four hours anymore? Sound familiar?

It should. I think we’ve all been to this bar with these people and discussed these things with similar passion. Except in Rel Farrar’s new play, these aren’t people; they’re crawfish. Socially aware crawfish, dressed in red, complete with little red claws. And they sing. They sing their P.O.V.s to the tunes of E.L.O. songs. Okay, so maybe we haven’t been to this bar.

The conflict: Chef Bezos (played by local treasure Ratty Scurvics) is offering a sizable grant to the crawfish that pitches the best socially-conscious scheme. I’m sure that will work out well. Clearly, the chef has the crawfish’s best interests in mind.

The characters are intellectual, hilarious, and self-aware, reminiscent of classic Woody Allen films. The arguments are tight and multi-faceted, never preaching to the choir. Tech Guy waxes rhapsodic on the philosophy of Ayn Rand to his girlfriend. When rebuffed, he sings his angry response to her via the song 'Evil Woman'.

While the arguments are mature, there’s a childlike joy throughout. All the props are over-sized. Picture a crawfish holding human-sized cups, beer bottles, cigarettes, or scissors, an effective offset to the serious themes when the lines are delivered by someone drinking from a shot glass the size of a paint bucket. The table is a board set upon a bottle of Mod Podge (those crafty crawfish!)

Danielle Small directs this serious piece with campy lightheartedness. The mood matches the tongue-in-cheek vibe of her 'Waterworld', which has played, hilariously, in local swimming pools for years (I look forward to these annually). Neal Todten as musical director pounds out E.L.O. hits on the piano beautifully.

But it’s the cast that brings the Zatarain’s to this crawfish berl. They’re all just having so much fun, and the actors’ joy is infectious. Whenever things get dark, someone starts playing darts…with dart props made of four foot pool noodles.

The goofiness never detracts from the message. As Rel tells us in her author’s note, “This show is about believing you can make things better…maybe pigs can fly (metaphorically speaking).”

You can suck da heads of these concerned mudbugs at the New Marigny Theater, October 3–6.
​

The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and Congo Square Preservation Society kick off a new season of the Elders Sacred Talk Series with Luther Gray and Jamilah Yejide Peters-Muhammad, co-founders of the Congo Square Preservation Society. Poet and author Kelly Harris Deberry moderates the conversation. The program also includes a drumming performance by Timothy Brown and Wesley “Kamau” Phillips. 

Wednesday, September 25, 6:00–7:15 pm 
New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins C. Diboll Circle

Costera, the Coastal Mediterranean Uptown restaurant and bar by Chef Brian Burns and Reno De Ranieri, is pleased to announce its Fall Wine Dinner Series. Showcasing a different region of the Iberian Peninsula each month from October through December, the decadent three-course pairing dinners are certain to tantalize the palates of oenophiles and foodies alike. The series will kick off on Thursday, October 10th, showcasing the wines of Parés Balta – a third-generation organic and biodynamic family-owned winery in Penedes, Spain.  

With only 20 seats available, the intimate and exclusive dinner, crafted by Chef de Cuisine Kathryn Searcy (click for our interview with Kathryn), will feature perfectly prepared dishes alongside beautiful wines curated by General Manager Steve Groom. The family-style tasting will feature an array of specialty plates not found on the Costera menu, as well as some signature classics. Priced at $125 per person (includes tax and gratuity), the menu will be:

First Course
Jamon Iberico, Pan Con Tomate, Scallop Crudo
Second Course
Crispy Duck Pappardelle, Seared Gulf Tuna with Calabrian Chili Salsa, Roasted Heirloom Carrot & Cauliflower Salad
Third Course
Chef’s Choice of Assorted Desserts
 
The Costera wine dinner will occur on Thursday, October 10, at 6:30 PM. For reservations, please call 504-302-2332. Costera is located at 4938 Prytania Street.

A group of seven young whooping cranes is being raised at the Freeport-McMoRan Audubon Species Survival Center, part of an ongoing effort to save these endangered birds from extinction. The youngsters hatched earlier this year, and five of them will be released to the wild this fall to help build a sustainable population.
 
The chicks are being hand-raised by keepers wearing crane costumes to limit their exposure to humans. Five of the birds will be released to the White Lake Wetlands Conservation Area in Vermillion Parish, the remaining birds will be kept in human care for breeding. All of this year’s chicks are named for types of pasta: Fiori, Capellini, Ziti, Vermicelli, Gemelli, Gigli, and Lasagna.
 
“Every whooping crane chick that is successfully raised for release or breeding is one critical step in the preservation of these species,” said Richard Dunn, Assistant Curator at the Species Survival Center. “We are encouraged to see birds grow to adulthood and released to our Louisiana population.”
​
Audubon Nature Institute is an active part of whooping crane conservation and works closely with the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries and other partners with the goal of developing a self-sustaining population of whooping cranes in Louisiana. 

More from the Audubon Nature Institute

Tumble deeds: Cirque du Soleil's Songblazers @ The Saenger Theatre
Review by Dorian Hatchett

Is there anything French clowns and acrobats can’t do?  If you said “pay homage to the uniquely American art and culture that is country music without seeming condescending or silly” I would posit that you are wrong.  The proof is in Songblazers, a Cirque Du Soleil Theatrical production currently on tour across the US.  

With a forty-year history of wowing audiences around the world, Cirque is currently operating nineteen different productions, either touring or resident, in ten countries. Their shows are the gold standard for production level, and this one was no different. The sets are designed to be more than backdrops, and the costumes tell stories all their own. Cirque owns its own music production company, just to make the show that much more seamless, and you won’t find a better produced stage outside of Broadway.  

Songblazers tells the story of an aspiring country music songwriter, set in Nashville Tennessee. There’s a slow wind-up, as the environmental entertainment while awaiting the curtain smoothly transitions into the show proper, and we’re greeted by a massive, complicated set featuring balcony stages for a live band, and a giant moving steam engine that is occasionally a stage and occasionally the moon and is always the center of the action.  

I am always excited to see how a traveling show will use the stage. The flexibility, the professional knowledge, that must be used to shift the blocking and lighting and props for every single location on a tour is a source of wonder for me. The performers made it look like they grew up on that stage, using every single inch, never looking crowded or sparse. Dancers and acrobats confidently chewed up scenery and there wasn’t a bad seat in the house.  

There was real genuine laughter and joy from the audience. What country music backed show doesn’t have a full-cast bar fight? It hits a little different when the actors are acrobats. A juggler performs feats of midair organization, with a whole stack of red solo cups, set to the song Red Solo Cup. Toby Keith would be proud. There’s no way someone doesn’t love that bar.

There was a carnival strongman advertising nails by driving them into a board with his hands, and I cannot stress how very difficult it would be to do aerial silks in a cowboy hat, but they pulled it off with aplomb. They might have friends in low places, but they are at the height of their craft. 

More information about Songblazers and Cirque du Soleil
​