New on Home Video: 'All the President's Men,' 'Ben-Hur,' 'Now You See Me Now You Don't,' 'Song Sung Blue'

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Book Report: 'The Innocents Abroad'

 

The Innocents Abroad, Or, the New Pilgrims' Progress by Mark Twain
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A cocksure, 32-year-old Mark Twain lets fly with rabid wit and cynicism in his genre-twisting travelogue, which topples Europe and the Middle East on its head.

Mixing observational humor with intriguing historical nuggets and fascinating slice-of-life sketches, Twain delivers nonstop edutainment, hardly pausing to take a breath.

Some of the highlights involve his mockery of stuffy ritual and self-importance. His uncanny ability to ridicule convention with deadpan, understated sarcasm is a joy to behold.

"The Innocents Abroad" portends the novelist that Twain would evolve into, while retaining his yellow journalistic roots. Many of the book's passages are reprints of dispatches he wrote for newspapers while on tour, and those portions blend seamlessly into his storytelling web.

Few hold "The Innocents Abroad" as peak Twain, but I found it a refreshing and absorbing read that gets to the DNA of America's greatest author. The one-of-a-kind mind delivered a one-of-a-kind debut book.

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Book Report: "Mark Twain"

 

Mark Twain by Ron Chernow
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In an exhaustive and exhilarating biography that only could have been written after 2010, when Mark Twain's massive autobiography was finally published, a century after his death, Ron Chernow delves into the plainspoken observational genius of the greatest American author.

Chernow goes deeper than cataloguing Twain's successes, weaving in substantial psychoanalysis in an effort to peek under the hood of what made his engine hum. Written with a confident sense of tale spinning that would have impressed Twain, Chernow explores Twain's iconoclastic gusto, his deep, if overbearing, love of his daughters, his uncanny ability to bungle investments and his disturbing tendency to idolize and collect strangely intimate relationships with teenage girls.

There is an air of Greek tragedy to Twain's life, which was plagued with medical maladies, financial insecurity and misdirected passions. Yet no matter what difficulties he faced, Twain managed to keep afloat with a bitter wit that managed to mine humor out of the darkest of circumstances.

Twain's boldness and bravery shines throughout the ups and downs of his career, and Chernow's novellistic yarn cuts through the tapestries of his grandeur and sizes up the man as he was. Exhaustive research and fevered storytelling make for yet another Chernow home run.

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Broadway in Tucson Review: 'The Wiz'

"The Wiz" injects L. Frank Baum's whitewashed world of Oz with a dose of soul early 20th century audiences might have found hard to fathom. But the incongruous blend of folksy morality with disco fervor seems just as right now as it must have more than 50 years ago.

The 1975 Broaday musical, which was adapted into the iconic 1978 film starring Diana Ross, Michael Jackson and Richard Pryor, is especially relevance now that all things Oz are surging in popularity thanks to the "Wicked" films. The touring production high-steps into Centennial Hall just in time to seize its moment, hamming it up onstage to chew the scenery for all it's worth and then some.

A cavalcade of toe-tapping, booming song-and-dance numbers reinterprets Dorothy's quest with exuberant vision. The current production updates the jokes and numbers while embracing the nuts and bolts that have granted "The Wiz" a timelessness akin to Baum's novels and the 1939 film.

Dana Cimone thrives in the lead role of Dorothy, emitting midwestern charm as she bursts into sudden operatic arias or slips seamlessly into intricate dance explosions. 

At its heart, "The Wiz" is a dance spectacle with "Solid Gold"-style flair. Buttressing an athletic and endlessly capable ensemble are standouts Elijah Ahmad Lewis as Scarecrow and D. Jerome as Tinman. Lewis's lanky, rubber-limbed moves bring his bendy, straw-stuffed character to life, and Jerome's precise, angular movements cut indelible marks into the stage.

The backdrop is a whirlwind of inspired projections, which whisk you through twisters, sprawling cities, forests and starry skies. The costumes are just as breathtaking, designed with flash and pizzazz that enhance the lyrics and moves.

Most importantly, each member of the superbly talented cast seems to be having every bit as much fun as the audience members. Every scene of "The Wiz" pops with the joy and vivacity of an impromptu jam session at a party filled with best friends. Performers punctuate particularly explosive moments with pauses that acknowledge the crowd's adulation, taking half a beat to soak in the moment of theatrical bliss.

"The Wiz" takes you on a visceral ride that goes not only over the rainbow, but straight through it, rejoicing in sound, color and triumph. There's no place like the audience at this rambunctious revival.

"The Wiz" plays through Jan. 11 at Centennial Hall. Buy tickets here.