by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert was aired on NBC on
Easter Sunday, and now it’s on DVD. It
has been nominated for thirteen Emmy awards.
This was a live, concert-like version of the musical, with an
enthusiastic audience that helped add to the show’s theme of celebrity. Brandon Victor Dixon gave an exceptional
performance as Judas, showing his stage prowess in both acting and singing.
Sara Bareilles was also outstanding as Mary Magdalene. John Legend’s acting disappointed some
viewers, but the pop singer certainly sang it well. If you like musicals but can’t stand to watch
the dated 1973 movie version (I've tried - I just can't), I’d encourage you to try watching this one. My daughters and I greatly enjoyed it, and now
I listen to the soundtrack regularly.
The Magicians is a fantasy television show based on the
book series by Lev Grossman. It airs on
Syfy. Our library just added the third
season, but you can start at the beginning since we have all three. The concept is as if Hogwarts from the Harry
Potter books were a college, with all of the rowdy behavior that can go along
with that. Quentin is an ordinary grad
student who is a lifelong fan of a series of books that bear a strong
resemblance to the Chronicles of Narnia, and when he is accepted to the secret,
magical Brakebills University, he discovers how real (and dangerous) those
books are. Despite the echoes of Narnia
and Harry Potter, this is definitely a show for adults who don’t mind an edgy
story.
Ready Player One is the movie adaptation of the sci fi
novel by Ernest Cline. In the near
future, the world is a bleak place, so people spend much of their time in the
virtual world called the OASIS. When the
creator of OASIS dies, he leaves behind clues to a puzzle, and the person who
solves it will inherit his fortune and control of the OASIS. Poverty-stricken orphan Wade attempts to beat
the corporate forces also trying for the prize, while he connects with others in
the virtual world. When I watched this
movie, I was afraid at the beginning that it was only going to be about playing
video games, which I don’t do. But the
plot is broader and more entertaining than that, although the movie is as
fast-paced and visually-busy as a video game.
Chappaquiddick is a new movie about an infamous event in
the life of Ted Kennedy: the drowning of political strategist Mary Jo Kopechne that
happened when Kennedy drove off a bridge in 1969. Based on accounts documented in the
investigation of Kopechne’s death, the movie examines not only the events but
the people involved. Critics mostly
liked it as a character study and a look at how powerful people influence
public opinion.
Other new DVDs you
can check out at the Litchfield library include Final Portrait, a Geoffrey
Rush movie about a portrait artist in the ‘60s, Civilizations, a PBS
documentary series about the history of art, Wes Anderson’s stop-motion animated Isle of Dogs about a
group of quarantined dogs, and the popular religious film, Paul, Apostle of Christ.
