***Disclaimer: the portrait is an illustration of Matilda at 30 by Quentin Blake. The header image features the cast of the BBC Radio Dramatization of Neverwhere.
“I’m now very much in the Pullman bubble, both exhilarated and exhausted. . . . I love being able to play all the parts, because I’m essentially a control freak. There are parts I’d never be able to play on film or stage.”
— Michael Sheen talking about returning to narrate the audiobook of The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust Volume Two: the aural portrayal of different characters, his favorite character in the new trilogy, which is Lyra, and the world of His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust.
(Psst: Now is the perfect time to listen to Michael Sheen’s phenomenal performance in the audiobook of La Belle Sauvage: The Book of Dust Volume One if you have not yet.)
The returning Tonys host recruited performers from some of the evening's nominated productions to show why Broadway reigns supreme.
"Pits...against" is probably not the phrase that I would go for, but it's basically accurate... James’ not the first Tony host who's teased the Television while singing praises to the live theater and highlighting its superiority. The topic is too obvious and in-your-face to be ignored. A few years back, NPH (who's the host that year) and his friends had made a hilarious skit out of A Chorus Line's "What I Did For Love," poking fun at the Television, regarding its cancellation system and its better pays and privileges for its actors (compared to the live theater). During the skit Laura Benanti jokingly bursted out "television sucks!" lol.
Jokes aside, as a theater enthusiast, I do sometimes feel indignant on the behalf of theater performers' for the narrow and limited public recognition of their diligence and talents. These actors are all hyper-talented people who work extremely hard ("eight shows per week" sounds really demanding and taxing to me). However, because most live performances are not recorded, not to mention broadcast, they don't travel as far as TV shows or movies, and they are not repeatable, and most of them don't even survive the test of time. Theater actors are hardly getting the public exposure and attention that they deserve, not to mention the same level of public recognition as movie stars (e.g. a lot of people were asking online who Lin-Manuel Miranda--one of the youngest legends on Broadway--was a few months ago when His Dark Materials cast was first announced to the public). You can watch a movie or a TV series anytime and anywhere, but you can only see a Broadway musical/play in NYC during its limited run. One doesn't need a survey to see the difference.
Even the live performances that have been recorded probably won't be shown in a movie theater until a decade and more years later when the show's no longer running in the live theater. And while some original cast may be acknowledged by the media for the brilliant show they put on, the later casts probably will be neglected and always remain nameless in the public eye.
The situation is sad and can't be helped, but I guess it also makes the theater performers seem more noble--somehow--in my book, as they choose to stick to what they love and let go the rest, like the fame and the money and also the popularity.
Twenty-year-old Lyra has to flee Oxford by boat for the third time in her life, this time in the company of the old gyptian Giorgio Brabandt. As they sail towards the safety of the Fens, they hear a zeppelin approaching …
Exclusive extract from The Book of Dust Volume Two: The Secret Commonwealth, by Philip Pullman, sequel to Volume One: La Belle Sauvage and His Dark Materials trilogy. The Secret Commonwealth is coming out October 3rd, 2019, by David Fickling Books in association with Penguin Random House.
James Corden’s electrifying 73rd Annual Tony Awards opening number, where he expresses his appreciation for TV programs (”you watch Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, till you can’t remember which program is on. I’m not speaking of Network TV, which is wonderful, obviously”), and, more importantly, emphasizes the thrill and attraction of being present in a live theater -- “It reminds you it’s thrilling to be alive. Broadway is alive, and it’s worthy to be celebrated. It’s the Tony’s and WE ARE LIVE!”
(Psst. James really outdid himself with the split at 3:29.)
The wait is over. The cover for Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust Volume Two: The Secret Commonwealth is finally revealed! Designed by illustrator Chris Wormell. (Source for the picture: [x])
According to the author, The Secret Commonwealth is set “twenty years after the events in La Belle Sauvage,” and “seven years have passed since readers left Lyra and Will Parry on a park bench in Oxford’s Botanic Gardens in The Amber Spyglass, the final book in His Dark Materials.”
Friendly reminder: there’s still time to pick up a copy of The Book of Dust Volume One: La Belle Sauvage and start to read before the sequel comes out in October 3rd, 2019. It’d be even better if the reader preferred audiobooks, as La Belle Sauvage is narrated by the brilliant, thousand-voiced Michael Sheen, who’s probably one of the best audiobook narrators I've listened to so far. Here’s an excerpt on Youtube.
i love how the tonys opening numbers in the recent years have been about encouraging young people to dream and be in broadway someday. we need this kind of love from the veterans themselves. someday, it could be us.
oh they should also write/sing in the opening number encouraging kids to also be in d creative and technical teams, you know. not everyone wants to be a performer but be backstage in theatre doing the other half of the magical work.
Only one week till James Corden reprising his role as a Tony Awards host, and it’s almost time to review one of his finest moments back in 2016 when he hosted the Tonys for the first time. I was completely moved by and in love with the opening number where James Corden marvelously patched together 20-something musical numbers in a remarkably small amount of time to tell a story about the dreams of a little kid whose name’s — oh so coincidentally — “James,” to encourage all the theater kids and aspiring performers out there sitting in front of the TV and watching the awards to dream big and to work towards their dreams, no matter who they might be.
“Don’t wonder if this could be you, it absolutely could be! This could be you. This could be where you belong.”
Message received, loud and clear. Thank you, James Corden. Can’t wait to see you hosting the Tonys this weekend.
Nine previous X-Men movies in one place, in the order I’d personally recommend viewing them in (from left to right for each row). (Images credits: 20th Century Fox)
[Related post with details and spoilers: “Brief Adumbrations of Previous X-Men Movies Before Dark Phoenix Arrives”]
Brief adumbrations of the previous X-Men movies before Dark Phoenix arrives
In light of the upcoming theater release of X-Men: Dark Phoenix, I’m writing this post to summarize the nine previous X-Men movies I think would probably be good to catch up before or after the viewing of the latest and the last installment in the franchise. This is how I say goodbye to the franchise. The post mostly aims at intrigued new viewers who are not afraid of spoilers. If a seasoned fan or expert of sort happens to see this, I’m sorry for embarrassing myself in front of you, and please tolerate my awkward attempt at bidding farewell.
First and foremost, the full list of the nine previous X-Men movies (organized in the order that I’d personally recommend viewing the franchise in):
X-Men: First Class (2011), X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), X-Men (2000), X2: X-Men United (2003), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), The Wolverine (2013), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), X-Men: Apocalypse (2016), Logan (2017).
*Noted: the order is not essential. Viewers can watch the movies in whatever order they prefer—the production order, a different/stricter internal chronological order, or trilogy by trilogy—since the movies are practically independent of each other.
Warning for major spoilers from here on (but I will try making the summaries concise):
1. X-Men: First Class (2011)
Internal chronology wise, First Class is the first installment in the franchise, exploring the history of Charles Xavier (Professor X) and Erik Lehnsherr (Magneto) and explaining how the once best friends have become nemeses for life.
Fans familiar with X-Men (2000) may spot the inconsistency that while the earlier movie has established that Charles’ only 17 when he first met the man who’d become Magneto, in First Class neither Charles nor Erik is remotely close to 17 when they first meet. But like many other inconsistency running in the franchise, it’s too trivial to truly matter.
Set in 1962. Charles Xavier, a powerful telepath who’s then a newly doctorate-d young professor at Oxford and is assisting CIA to hunt down a criminal boss named Sebastian Shaw, saves Erik Lehnsherr, a holocaust survivor with a mutation of controlling metals, from drowning in the sea when the latter man is attempting to assassinate Shaw to avenge his late mother. Working with CIA and with the help of Cerebro 1.0, Charles and Erik go on a road trip across the US to recruit people with mutations. After an unexpected attack, Charles takes the remains of the new mutant recruits back to his family mansion in Westchester, New York, to hone their gifts.
In their final confrontation with Shaw, Erik kills Shaw, despite Charles’ objection. Now Shaw’s gone, it turns out that the human armies intend to smash the beach with all the mutants on it regardless of the defeating of Shaw. Having his paranoia about humans validated by their betrayal, Erik redirects the human missiles to the human armies with his power. During the chaos, where both Charles and CIA agent Moira MacTaggert try to stop the metal bender, Erik accidentally deflects a bullet from Moira’s gun into Charles’ spine. Finally letting the humans go, Erik runs to tend to Charles’ wound and asks the young professor to stand by his side and together they can fight against humans and protect each other and their kind, and is only rejected by the paralyzed and disappointed Charles.
The movie ends with Erik becoming the soon-to-be notorious Magneto and forming the original Brotherhood with the former associates of Shaw and Charles’ adoptive sister Raven (who will be known as Mystique), and Charles losing his ability to walk, starting the “Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters” at his mansion in Westchester, and becoming Professor X.
The movie had a warm reception after its release, and flourished the movieverse fandom with a wave of romantic speculations on the true nature of Professor X and Magneto’s youthful relationship. Many fans believe the movie is a "love story" of the close pair who eventually grow apart for their opposite ideologies regarding the coexistence of humans and mutants. My favorite term coined by the very active fandom following the movie is “Beach Divorce,” which is to refer to the final separation of the star-crossed pair in the near final scene. I like the term because it’s slightly sad but apropos, especially considering the pair even divides their “adoptive children” and fights for the “custody” of Mystique in the following movie (Days of Future Past). I applaud whoever coined the term in the first place.
Wolverine Cameo: First Class is set before X-Men Origins: Wolverine, but Logan makes a cameo in the movie nonetheless. Charles and Erik seek Logan out in 1962 when they’re on the road trip to recruit mutants, and Logan--still James Hewlett then--tells them to “f***” themselves.
2. X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009)
Begins in 1845, the movie first shows a roughly 10-year-old James Hewlett, whose mutation manifests for the first time, murders his biology father by mistake and fleets from the scene with his older brother Victor Creed. Time jumps to roughly the 1970’s-1980’s, now James “Logan” Hewlett, a war veteran who looks as though in his 30’s despite being much older than that, is serving for William Stryker in his “special team” alongside his brother Victor. Disgusted by Stryker’s and Victor’s cruelty toward innocent people at their mercy, James walks out on the team and his brother.
Six years later, when Victor comes back to hunt down Logan, Logan’s been leading a peaceful life off the grid with a school teacher named Kayla. After Victor “kills” Kayla, Logan seeks Stryker’s help for revenge, and gives his consent to weaponizing his body by filling it with adamatium. Logan runs after realizing Stryker’s been working with Victor, and decides to take revenge on them both. The movie wraps up after Logan releases the mutant teens Stryker keeps to experiment on with the help of Gambit, and is shot in the head by Stryker with an adamatium bullet and loses his memory. The mutant teens, including Scott Summers and Emma Frost, are rescued by Professor X. Logan runs away before the police’s arrival, without any knowledge about himself except for his codenames, “Logan” and “Wolverine.”
3. X-Men (2000)
Likely set in present time, which is somewhere near 2000, a new mutant registration law is likely to be passed by the human government. Outside the public hearing, Professor X and Magneto meet. Professor X asks Magneto to give humans more time to come around and they will accept mutants eventually, while Magneto insists humans never change, and warns Professor X to not get in his way. Meanwhile, Anna Marie, a newly manifested mutant teen goes by “Rogue,” runs away from home and encounters Logan, who’s been fighting in a cage for a living. Scott Summers and Jean Grey save Logan and Rogue from an attack plotted by Magneto, and take the pair back to the school. Professor believes Magneto’s after Logan for some reasons, so he convinces Logan to stay by promising to help Logan retrieve the memories he lost 15 years ago. However, it’s in fact Rogue’s power Magneto’s after, in order to complete his plan to mass-transfer humans into artificial mutants. When no one’s looking, Rogue’s kidnapped by Magneto; the X-Men go out to save Rogue.
The movie ends with a scene in a customized plastic cell where a now prisoned Magneto’s being kept. Professor X visits Magneto in his cell. Magneto announces that the cell won’t keep him forever. In return, Professor X promises that he will be ready and continue to fight Magneto at every step he takes.
4. X2: X-Men United (2003)
Fallowing X-Men (2000). While Logan travels to Alkali Lake under Professor X’s instruction, trying to retrieve his memories, an attempt assassination breaks out at the capital and further intensifies the contradiction between humans and mutants. While Jean, Scott, and Ororo are convinced Magneto’s behind the disturbance, Professor X believes there’s something weird about it. Logan returns to the school. Professor X demonstrates how Cerebro works to Logan and leaves the school temporarily under Logan’s supervision while the professor and his X-Men are away to visit Magneto in prison. William Stryker sees the disturbance as an opportunity to further put down the mutant kind and goes on to shut down the School. It later turns out that Stryker is actually behind the attempt assassination, whose aim is to further divide humans and mutants. Now having the Cerebro, and Professor X under Stryker’s mutant son’s influence, Stryker intends to use Professor X’s telepathic power to find out every mutant on the earth for his use. The X-Men successfully rescue Professor X and save both the mutant and human kinds from Stryker’s and Magneto’s respective plots. However, in saving the X-Men, Jean Grey sacrifices herself to defend the squad from a collapsing dam and disappears in a wall of water. The movie wraps up with a scene where the school re-opens and Professor X gives a lecture at the School.
5. X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006)
Fallowing X2. Jean Grey mysteriously resurfaces as a changed person. She lures out a sulking Scott, and kills him with her uncontrollable power. Meanwhile, a medicine is invented by human pharmacies claimed to be able to cure the “disease” that causes the abnormality known as a mutation. Hank McCoy, the secretory of mutant affairs, reaches out to Professor X and his X-Men for help.
While Professor X tries to save Jean from her dangerous self, Magneto sees Jean’s losing control as an opportunity to recruit her. Unwilling to give up on Jean, Professor X stands his grand when Jean releases her anger and power. Professor X’s body is dissolved in the wave of Jean’s limitless power. Jean is then recruited by Magneto and joins his crusade against humans. X-Men are losing in the battle against Magneto now they’ve lost not only Jean but also the Professor and Scott. Despite his heartbreak, Logan has to kill Jean to end the bloodbath. Hank, the Beast, injects Magneto with “cure” during the battle, and turns the stubborn, arrogant old mutant into a baseline human.
The movie ends with a suggestive scene where Magneto sits alone in a park in front a chess board. A metal king shakes ever so slightly when the mutant raises his hand. An even more surprising ending scene occurs after the ending credits and shows Professor X wakes up in the body of a brain-damaged patient previously know as having a perfectly functional body but no consciousness to speak of.
6. The Wolverine (2013)
Probably the most standalone movie in the franchise, which is focused on Logan’s solo journey in Japan following Jean’s and Scott’s death. Logan is in Japan to see an old man whom Logan saved during the WWII. The old man offers Logan a normal life and a normal death in exchange of Logan’s healing power, and dies after Logan rejects his proposition. Logan unwillingly gets involved in a mob chaos following the old man’s funeral, and has a brief romance with the late man’s grand daughter… During Logan’s brief stay in Japan, Jean Grey’s ghost never ceases haunting Logan’s dreams. The movie wraps up with Logan getting on a private plane to leave Japan and going on his next adventure. The movie doesn’t have much to do with the main X-Men plot, or other X-Men except Logan, so I personally think it can be skipped unless the viewer’s a hardcore fan of the Wolverine.
7. X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)
Set in 2023, a dark futuristic age for both the mutant kind and their human allies, where the former is on the verge of being wiped out by powerful evil robots invented by anti-mutants scientists and the latter are criminalized and prisoned for sympathizing with mutants. Knowing Mystique’s capture by the humans in 1973 following her association of scientist Bolivar Trask and the following experiments on her are the beginning of the invention of the killing machines, Professor X, Magneto, and the few remains of the X-Men decide to send Logan back to 1973 and stop the fateful event from happening. The first obstacle Logan encounters in 1973 is ironically from the younger Professor X himself, who’s been sulking since he lost Raven (Mystique), Erik, his ability to walk on the same day, and then his school soon after. The broken young professor is now without his telepathic power due to his abuse/overdose of the suppression medicine to keep his legs working. Having managed to convince the young professor, and broken out the young Magneto from prison, Logan and the younger versions of the Beast, Professor X, and Magneto go on a quest to rewrite the history and save the mutant kind from its future extinction.
The movie ends with Logan waking up in his room at the School in 2023, realizing everything has been rewritten and changed for the better. In the future of the new timeline, both Jean and Scott live, and everyone at the School seems happy and content. Professor X, being the only in the know, promises Logan to help him catch up with his lost time between 1973 and 2023.
The movie sets a new timeline for the franchise and basically wipes clean everything happened in X-Men (2000), X2: The X-Men United (2003), and X-Men 3: The Last Stand (2006). Most importantly, in case I didn’t emphasize enough: both Jean Grey and Scott Summers live in this new timeline, well, for now.
8. X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)
Set in 1983 in the new timeline, an ancient evil mutant, En Sabah Nur, who claims to be a god, wakes up and plots to recruit four horsemen and bring the apocalypse upon the world. Meanwhile, the peaceful life Erik’s been leading comes to a sudden halt when his identity of being Magneto is exposed and his wife and daughter are slaughtered by human law enforcement. A devastated Erik joins En Sabah Nur, and becomes one of his horsemen, alongside Storm, Psylocke, and Angel. Through Magneto, En Sabah Nur discovers Professor X, and recognizes the professor’s telepathic power as what he needs in order to take over the world. En Sabah Nur and his four horsemen arrive at the School and abduct Professor X. Students, including Jean and Scott, go after En Sabah Nur and his horsemen to rescue Professor X. Magneto’s frozen heart is eventually warmed up by the memories of his youthful years spent at the School and his friendship with Professor X. The mutant with a gift of controlling metals finally comes around and assists the students in defending and defeating En Sabah Nur.
The movie ends with the School being rebuilt with the help of Magneto and Storm, Professor X and Magneto reprising their classic conversation in X-Men (2000), Magneto leaving the School, and Professor X wheeling away after checking up on the training of his young students who are now the X-Men.
In the new timeline, Mystique returns to the School and takes up a teaching position. Pietro (Quicksilver), the illegitimate born son of Magneto, Scott (Cyclops), Kurt (Nightcrawler), and Ororo (Storm) enroll in the School at this point.
Wolverine Cameo: In the new timeline, Jean, Scott, Kurt run into and release an imprisoned Logan, who’s just been injected adamantium, when the band’s on their way to rescue Professor X. The budding bond between Logan and Jean is heavily hinted in the brief moment they meet.
9. Logan (2017)
Personally I think this is the best movie in the franchise (though my personal favorite might be First Class, or Days of Future Past on the second thought), even though it broke my heart to pieces. I can literally write a paper on it, but I will try to be brief summarizing it here.
Set in 2029 in the new timeline. The world is once again a mutant-unfriendly dystopia, where there hasn’t been a mutant child naturally born in decades, humans are creating mutants themselves as lethal weapons, and the once prosperous Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters is gone for an yet unrevealed reason. The last surviving X-Men, Logan and Professor X, are hiding out with Caliban. While aging degenerates Logan’s healing power and has him gravely weakened by the poisonous adamantium in his body, it gives the now nonagenarian Professor X dementia that causes him to have seizures from time to time. The telepathic wave the professor unknowingly releases whenever he has a seizure attack is destructive enough to paralyze or even kill anyone in a distance. Logan, being the only one almost immune to the professor’s telepathic power, takes care of the professor and decides to buy a boat with his hard earned money by driving a limo cab and take the Professor to live out in isolation on the sea, to protect both Professor X from the humans looking for him and the world from the professor’s deadly illness.
Then a roughly ten-year-old girl with a similar mutation to Logan’s and is chased by a group of humans is literally dropped on Logan’s doorstep, demanding to be escorted to a safe meeting place known as the Eden.
Professor X tells Logan the little girl, Laura, is Logan’s daughter created by humans with Logan’s DNA. Logan and the professor run from their hiding place to take Laura to the safety she’s looking for. After a nice evening the three spent with a family of farmers, Professor X is murdered by a clone of Logan, after the old man confesses to the clone, whom he misidentifies as Logan, that he’s had the most perfect night in a long time but he doesn’t deserve it after what he’s done, and that he finally remembers he’s responsible for the destruction of the School. He himself hasn’t been able to remember, and Logan never says anything. The real Logan arrives, but by then the professor is beyond savable. Logan can only keep assuring the dying professor that it wasn’t him. The legendary Professor X dies at Logan’s side, longing for and murmuring “our boat.” (Darn it. Give the professor his boat, I dare you.)
Logan passes out in pain and heartache after burying the Professor. Waking up in a clinic, Logan realizes he’s weaker than ever and therefore refuses to take Laura go further. The two have a fight, which results in Laura driving an unconscious Logan to go on with her pursuit of the Eden. Waking up in the Eden, Logan is ready to send Laura and her mutant friends off to cross the border to their safe heaven, and only realizes the humans are following these mutant kids.
The movie ends with Logan fighting for Laura and her friends to his last breath. Before Logan dies the father and daughter finally acknowledge each other as blood. Laura buries Logan, and rearranges the “cross” at the head of his “tomb” into the form of an “X” to honor Logan as the last standing X-Man.
Kicking off Pride Month 2018 by bringing back Lin-Manuel Miranda’s incredible and iconic sonnet slash acceptance speech from the 2016 Tony Awards, as a friendly reminder for us all (members and allies of LGBTQ community) that “love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.”
Keep up the good work, friends and allies, and make the world a better place by filling it with love, hope, peace, promise, and pride.
“ …
This show is proof that history remembers, We lived through times when hate and fear seem stronger;
We rise and fall and light from dying embers, remembrances that hope and love last longer
And love is love is love is love is love is love is love is love cannot be killed or swept aside.
I sing Vanessa’s symphony, Eliza tells her story
Now fill the world with music, love and pride.”
