Culture Junkie: Looking back on a year of plays, movies, music and ‘Frankenstein: The Ballet’

Being a voracious consumer of “pop culture” (which these days includes categories once considered actual “non-pop” culture), I tend to be somewhat omnivorous in terms of the entertainment I partake in. As I now look back on the last twelve months, my own personal cultural landscape of 2018 includes not just movies, plays, concerts, CDs and television shows, but also operas, ballets, books, formal lectures, comedy shows, storytelling events and (being an arts journalist) even a few red carpet interviews at film festivals. And because we live in an area so rich and bursting with artistic expression and opportunity, that landscape (geographically speaking) has occasionally taken me beyond the borders of Sonoma County to wherever a promising theatrical, musical or cinematic adventure might await.

I’m not alone in this, of course.

Which is why, whether taking a seat at Cinnabar Theater, or standing in line for a movie at the Mill Valley Film Festival, or traipsing the streets of Ashland, Oregon for the annual Shakespeare Festival, I frequently run into other people from right here in Petaluma.

Clearly, the designation “culture junkie” applies to plenty of you as well.

This being the start of a new year, it is traditional to produce a list of those cultural events (whether inside or outside an actual theater) that stand out to me, personally, as the brightest and best of all of my various entertainment-seeking adventures. I now reveal my favorite movies, plays, concerts and related “moments,” in chronological order.

“Manahatta” and “Henry V” – Though the Oregon Shakespeare Festival is often thought of as a summertime event, the truth is, it actually launches every year in the spring, when crowds are smaller and restaurants are easier to get reservations in. The downside is the weather, which can sometimes make the six-hour drive to Ashland a bit additionally exciting. Last February, on opening weekend, the weather was perfect, as were two of the shows that opened the festival. In staging Shakespeare’s “Henry V,” director Rosa Joshi, took the bard’s tale of war and its costs and turned it into a beautiful and brilliant, deeply personal exploration of humanity pushed to its limits. I may never forget the way Joshi used red fabric to illustrate the deaths of characters large and small, piling up on the small Thomas Theater stage as young Henry’s bloody battles carry him across France. Likewise, Mary Kathryn Nagle’s stunning “Manahatta” – about the history of Manhattan and the Native Americans from whom the region was very deliberately stolen – was an unforgettable, gorgeously staged drama that’s stuck with me for almost a year now. Careening from the 1600s to the recent past, the play, impeccably directed by Laurie Woolery, cleverly compared the Wall Street collapse of 2008 with the machinations of the Dutch settlers who “bought” Manahatta (the area’s original name) and then built a real wall to keep its rightful original residents out (thus “Wall Street”). Taken together, these two dramas prove why theater is still a vital, living force of provocation and change, and why so many of us continue to annual take that drive up to Oregon.

“Frankenstein: the Ballet” – Mary Shelley’s shocking horror story might not seem like a logical choice to turn into a ballet, but in March, San Francisco Ballet staged a reprise of its 2017 hit, with choreographer Liam Scarlett’s mesmerizing adaptation. Featuring outstanding special effects and costumes, and alternately epic and intimate choreography, the story of a science student and the creature he builds from dead bodies was not just visually and musically dazzling. It was heartbreakingly emotional, and deeply, courageously humane.

Kiefer Sutherland at the Mystic – One of the big musical surprises of the year was the appearance of Hollywood star Kiefer Sutherland on the stage of the Mystic Theatre. Turns out his foray into country rock isn’t the shallow vanity project that it often proves to be with so many actors who fancy themselves to be rock stars, too. With a superb band at his back, Sutherland’s tightly written tunes and throaty, growly delivery – not to mention the ingratiating humility and charm of his onstage presence – made this one of the first great shows of 2018.

“Peter Pan” – As a fan of the book by J.M. Barrie, I am often critical of the musical version, which I tend to feel trivializes the classy-scary menace of Captain Hook and the sociopathic narcissism of Peter Pan himself. Think I’m wrong? Read the book again, then we’ll talk. But in Spreckels Theatre Company’s dazzling, full-scale staging last May, director Sheri Lee Miller didn’t just give us an epic entertainment full of flying children, swashbuckling pirates, and massive sets. She managed to pull the story back from mere “family entertainment,” casting actor David Yen as a funny-but-charmingly-tragic Hook and Sarah Wintermeyer as a Peter with a bit of blood-thirsty edge, thus giving audiences a glimpse of the dark, melancholy magic of Barrie’s original vision.

“The Great God Pan” – Cinnabar’s production of Amy Herzog’s 2012 drama was a highlight of the company’s season, and one of the best plays staged in Sonoma County in 2018. With an inventive swinging-trees set by Jon Tracy that was both dreamlike and strikingly beautiful, the play, under the direction of Taylor Korobow, dealt with the heavy subject of child abuse in a way that was alternately gripping (like a great mystery), surprisingly funny, and unsettlingly thought-provoking.

“Roma” - I saw Alfonso Cuaron’s big screen masterpiece at the Mill Valley Film Festival in October. Set in the Roma district of Mexico City in the 1970s, it looks at a year in the life of a middle class family, largely from the perspective of the selfless, unstoppably loving and kind housekeeper they employ. Now available on Netflix, and getting loads of Oscar-buzz, the beautifully made black-and-white film took details from the filmmaker’s own life, and created something that was as small, sentimental, and almost intrusively personal as it was occasionally grand, vast and expansively larger-than-life.

Chatting with Steve Carrell about “Beautiful Boy” – Another highlight of the Mill Valley Film Festival was my opportunity to talk with actor Steve Carell, on the red carpet before a screening of his film “Beautiful Boy.” Based on a true story of a father trying to save his son from drug addiction, the movie was greeted with a standing ovation. But before that, Carell engaged in a short, down-to-earth, unexpectedly eye-opening discussion of the importance of humanizing victims who are often treated as criminally “deserving” of the pain they endure, and frequently afflict on their families.

Wine Country Spoken Word Festival – Petaluma is fortunate to have become the northernmost hub of the Bay Area spoken word community, with its monthly West Side Stories series, and the annual Wine Country Spoken Word Festival. In October, the event featured a fantastic roster of storytellers. These included the riveting poet-performer Steve Connell, who tore up the boards of the Mystic Theatre with his fiery, furious recitations of his own works. Tackling enormous social issues in a deeply private way, his performance in Petaluma was further proof of the idea that the political and the personal are often one and the same.

“Springsteen on Broadway” – Sadly, my travels this year did not take me to New York City, where the legendary Bruce Springsteen just ended a yearlong run of his remarkable one man show. Fortunately, it was just released as both a Netflix film, and a full-length, two-CD recording. The audio version, stripped of the visuals of seeing The Boss tell vignettes from his life, is just as emotionally satisfying, as Springsteen candidly and lyrically describes the places, people and observations that shaped him. Ultimately, he turns his story outward, inviting those watching and listening to take a look at their own doubts, appointments, triumphs and joys. “Springsteen on Broadway” is a jubilant, life-affirming explosion of humor, heartache and generosity. And when the man sings, as he does here – covering a smattering of his best loved and less known songs – Bruce Springsteen still totally rocks.

(Culture Junkie runs every-other-week. Feel free to share your thoughts with David at david.templeton@arguscourier.com)