Box Break: 2025 Bowman Baseball Value Box

 I pulled an autograph from a value box!

Broadway in Tucson Review: 'A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical'

"A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical," is the Neil Diamond retrospective you didn't realize how much you needed it.

Boasting electric choreography, stunning song and dance numbers and an overpowering energy that captures the spirit of Diamond's many incarnations over the decades, the musical serves as a glorious celebration of all things Diamond.

Borrowing its title from Diamond's 1976 album, the jukebox musical runs through the highlights of the rock star's catalogue, dating from his early days as a songwriter for the Monkees. 

A loose, somewhat weak framework has a modern-day Diamond talking to a psychiatrist, who tries to psychoanalyze Diamond via his song lyrics. No matter, whatever excuse to pump "Coming to America" and "Sweet Caroline" into the crowd multiple times is an inherent win.

The entire enterprise is clearly a well-earned Diamond ego trip, careful to touch on controversial aspects of his life while glorifying in his many successes. On multiple occasions, Diamond humblebrags that he drew more fans and outsold Elvis.

A musical like this is only as good as the actor cast as Neil Diamond, and this production thrives on the back of Joe Caskey, who fills in admirably for Nick Fradiani, the 2015 "American Idol" champ. Thriving with a charisma that echoes off the rafters, the electric Caskey seizes ownership of the crowd with a voice that, in the words of the book, sounds like gravel wrapped in velvet.

Most of the musical's most powerful moments belong to Fradiani, with a share going to his present-day counterpart, Robert Westenberg, but arguably the most powerful performance belongs to Hannah Jewl Kohn, a Disney princess musical national tour vet who thrives as Marcia Murphey, Diamond's second wife, and delivers a showstopper with a stunning rendition of "Forever in Blue Jeans."

Buttressed by an impressive ensemble that includes the likes of Zoe Maloney, Vanessa Aurora Sierra and Tasheim Ramsey Pack, who run through costume changes and shifting dance styles like wildfire, the show rarely loses its sense of headlong momentum. 

The crowd-pleasing bows, which enlist the audience to sing along to a pair of Diamond's grandest smashes, sends the production off in thunderous delight, with the soundtrack shifting to the beautiful noise of unbridled cheering and applause.

"A Beautiful Noise: The Neil Diamond Musical" plays through June 29 at Centennial Hall. Buy tickets here.

Hot on Home Video: 'A Minecraft Movie'

A MINECRAFT MOVIE

Now that the likes of Sonic and Mario have shattered the curse of video games adapted to movies, "A Minecraft Movie" takes the ball and runs with it. Filled with clever gags, abundant fan service and original music by lead Jack Black, the film is more fun than it has any right to be. A spiritual successor to "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Nacho Libre," the film bears director Jared Hess's signature penchant for absurdist satire. Jason Momoa, Roy Lee, Job Berg, Mary Parent and Jill Messick round out the cast, which complements Black's manic style.

Extras include a slew of featurettes, including "Building the World of Minecraft Block Party," "Creepers, Zombies and Endermen Oh My!," "A Minecraft Movie: Block Beats," "A Minecraft Movie: Pixel Pals" and "Marlene + Nitwit."

 

Box Break: 2025 Topps Series 2 Baseball Hobby

See which autograph I pulled.

Box Break: 2025 Topps Heritage Hobby Box

 See which relic I pull.

Box Break: 2023 Bowman Chrome Baseball Mega Box

 

Not the best box.

Box Break: 2025 Topps Heritage Value Box

Pulled an autograph from a value box!

Book Report: 'How to Win Friends and Influence People'

How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is an essential read that works as as tool to refine your skills of persuasion, manners, message delivery, and far most importantly, manipulation.

The last part may seem like a cynical take, but it's tough to deny that the book preaches that getting your way is paramount, and the means to an end, no matter how seemingly virtuous are nothing more than your "Art of War"-like stratagems.

Most of the advice centers around detachment and empathy. By separating yourself from the task at hand and seeing things from your adversary's perspective, you can design gambits that get them to drop their inhibitions and shift to your manner of thinking.

The examples given of the success of such tactics often seem exaggerated, but there's little debate that in most cases, underplaying your hand works far better than intensity and pressure.

Recommendations include softening bad news or criticism with compliments, ignoring the objective of your conversation in order to forge a connection that will make the person you're speaking to more agreeable.

Timeless, reliable and still ahead of its time decades after publication, Dale Carnegie's book provides crucial words to live by. I recommend it to all, as well as to myself to reinforce the stark, beneficial truths within.

View all my reviews

 

Arizona Theatre Company Review: ''Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B'

Offering a fresh, feminist twist on the Arthur Conan Doyle dynamic, "Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B" is a breezy, crowd-pleasing production filled with mystery, humor and pizzazz.

The four-member cast bursts with energetic aplomb, delivering rapid-fire dialogue packed with pop culture references, broad physical gags and displaying ample chemistry.

Kelen Coleman, as Sherlock Holmes, is the focal point and undisputed star of the production. A veteran of TV series "How to Get Away with Murder," "The Mindy Project," "The Office" and "The Newsroom," she thrives on dry, pompous mystery explanations. Her counterpart, Regina Fernandez, plays befuddled roommate Joan Watson, thriving on zealous reactions and excelling as the constant butt of jokes.

Aaron Cammack thrives as Inspector Lestrade, a prim, by-the-book detective who scrambles to keep up with Holmes, and wildcard Michelle Duffy, as notorious escort Irene Adler, offers off-kilter momentum shifts, forging a rift in the Holmes-Watson friendship with her shameless flirtation.

The cast makes up for the often uneven writing, willing jokes into laughter with grand flourishes and subtle touches. Interacting like clockwork, the performers sell a series of vignettes with self-aware panache, letting the audience in on the fun as the ludicrously complicated mysteries unravel with improbable twists.

Well worth a look for fans of the Sherlock Holmes oeuvre, "Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson" doles out whimsical delights. The decision of whether or not to spend a night with the two sleuths should be elementary.

"Ms. Holmes & Ms. Watson - Apt. 2B' plays at The Temple of Music and Art trough June 7 and in Phoenix June 14-29. Buy tickets here.