Editor's note: Another week has come and gone, and there's a lot we all probably missed. But we're looking out for you, kid. Here are the most popular stories from this past week:
1. Lizard Lounge to spawn little lizard in Deep Ellum. A smaller sibling of the Lizard Lounge, Dallas' temple of electronic dance music, is going into one of the hottest neighborhoods in the city: Deep Ellum. Owner Don Nedler has secured the space at 2911 Main St., which will serve as a showplace for up-and-coming performers and DJs.
2. The Fault in Our Stars preview tour brings Shailene Woodley to Dallas. The Fault in Our Stars is one of summer's most anticipated movies, and Dallas was one of four cities chosen for the Demand Our Stars Tour, a special sneak preview of the film on May 9. The free event brought stars Shailene Woodley, Ansel Elgort and Nat Wolff to town, along with author John Green.
3. Con artists swindle more than $10,000 from NorthPark Center shopper. A Hispanic couple scammed a woman out of more than $10,000 at NorthPark Center recently. Virginia Rodriguez, 65, told police that a couple approached her on April 24 about sharing in an $11 million lottery win.
5. The best restaurants in Dallas to treat Mom on Mother's Day 2014. Although your finally being out of the house is probably the best present you have ever given your mom, she still needs to eat. So get those reservations in order and toast her fabulousness at one of these Dallas restaurants.
Fearing's is one of the Dallas restaurants offering a special Mother's Day menu.
Photo courtesy of Ritz-Carlton, Dallas
Fearing's is one of the Dallas restaurants offering a special Mother's Day menu.
Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo in Wicked: For Good.
Splitting the film adaptation of the musical Wicked into two parts makes a certain kind of sense beyond the financial incentive of making fans pay for two films. Like most stage musicals, there’s a definitive break between the two acts, and it’s hard to resist going out on the high note of “Defying Gravity” for the first film. And expanding the story for the films puts the entire story at around 5 hours, much too long for one sitting.
However, separating them puts a spotlight on the strengths and weaknesses of each act of the musical, and it's a popular opinion that the second act is inferior to the first act. In the awkwardly-named Wicked: For Good, Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) is firmly ensconced as the Wicked Witch of the West, striking fear in people across Oz. Meanwhile, Glinda (Ariana Grande) has ascended as the protector of the land’s citizens, even as she hides the fact that she doesn’t possess the powers that Elphaba does.
The story speeds through a number of different arcs, including Elphaba’s sister, Nessarose (Marissa Bode), becoming governor of Munchkinland; Glinda essentially forcing Fiyero (Jonathan Bailey) to commit to marrying her; even more bad revelations involving the Wizard of Oz (Jeff Goldblum) and Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh); and more. Hanging over all of it is the tenuous bond between Elphaba and Glinda, which is tested on multiple occasions.
Director John M. Chu, working from a script by original musical writer Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox, leads the way on the faithful adaptation that is perhaps a bit too faithful. Chu helmed the memorable adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s In the Heights that brought more life to an already lively production. He accomplished similar results in Wicked part one, but For Good often feels less than cinematic, with many scenes coming off as static and too much like a stage production.
The second film contains a lot of story movement, including the vague or explicit introduction of the four main characters from The Wizard of Oz, providing plenty of opportunity for creative staging or deeper storytelling. Instead, things just sort of happen, with Holzman and Fox failing to see the necessity of connecting story dots in a movie setting. With lots of extra time to work with (the run time is 2 hours and 17 minutes), giving more information about significant events shouldn’t have been an issue, and yet the filmmakers rarely give the audience that luxury.
The songs, as they should be, are the showcase of the film, and yet none of the sequences measure up to the ones in the first film. The rushed storylines make it difficult to connect with emotionally-resonant songs like “As Long As You’re Mine” and “No Good Deed.” “No Place Like Home” and “The Girl in the Bubble,” new songs created for the film for Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, are decent but lack power. “For Good” is the one everyone is waiting for, but it too fails to land properly.
Erivo and Grande certainly give it their all, and when they’re allowed to dig deep into their characters, they make as much of an impact as they did in the first film. Unfortunately, it’s nowhere near as often, and their characters’ bond suffers. Most of the other actors are done no favors by the whirlwind storytelling, but Goldblum still stands out in his various scenes.
Creating a whole film for the second act of Wicked gave Chu and his team a perfect chance to slow things down and give the events it contains extra meaning. Unfortunately, they turned For Good into something that feels less like an expansive movie and more like a slightly more interesting version of the stage production.
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Wicked: For Good opens in theaters on November 21.
