Guys And Dolls Thrills In Sacramento – A Review

I’d tell you that the musical theatre classic Guys And Dolls has never looked or sounded better, but I knew nothing of the show walking into Sacramento’s Wells Fargo Pavilion last evening. I’d surmised, from the show’s title, that boys and girls were in it, but that was the extent of my knowledge. That made …

This Year’s California State Fair & Food Festival Is…Fair To Middling

This year’s California State Fair & Food Festival kicked off with a lot of promise that has, very sadly, gone largely unfulfilled. The event was rebranded this year to emphasize the event’s edible attractions — which is brilliant, given Sacramento is the farm-to-fork capital, but I wonder how they came up with that idea? — …

Disney’s New Lion King Has Tons Of Courage, But Little Heart

The cast of director Jon Favreau’s new “photo realistic” The Lion King faced a daunting dilemma: how do you introduce the story to a new generation that may see the largely hand-drawn 1994 original as old-fashioned? After seeing the new film, that question remains largely unanswered. I have grown to understand the need for updates …

Disney’s Upcoming “Live Action” The Lion King and What The Little Mermaid Has To Say About A Black Ariel

“They just heard my voice and knew what our mermaid was going to be.” – Jodi Benson, the voice of Ariel from 1989’s animated classic The Little Mermaid Disney’s live action adaptations of some of their beloved animated films have been rather hit or miss with critics and at the box office. For every The …

Crawl – Rated R (Spoiler-Free Review)

I saw the new Crawl, which spends about 90 minutes detailing a town bracing for and dealing with the aftermath of a hurricane that reaches landfall, just after I’d spent about the same amount of time watching CNN’s coverage of Hurricane Barry approaching southern Louisiana. Having torn myself away from the television to make a …

Michael Bublé Has (Still) Got What It Takes: A Concert Review

For world-class crooner Michael Bublé, it’s a new dawn, a new day…and if last night’s concert at the Golden 1 Center is any indication, he’s feeling mighty good. So were his fans. Bublé stopped by Sacramento last night during his current world tour, and opened with “Feeling Good.” It was a great introductory message, as …

Toy Story 4: Far From Home, or Cash Grab? A Spoiler-Free Review

My favorite moments in the adorable new Toy Story 4 were the countless times when the children in the audience — and I shared the theatre with scores of them that Sunday afternoon — broke out into infectious laughter. I couldn’t tell you what was going on during those times onscreen, and I’m not sure …

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW — Spider-Man: Far From Home

Spider-Man: Far From Home sees our friendly neighborhood web-slinger ditching his hero gig for a vacation with his high school friends. It was an unconventional start of a fairly unconventional superhero flick…and I loved it. In his fifth turn as Spider-Man on the big screen, British human doll Tom Holland may be a little long …

Should African Americans Celebrate Independence Day? Not Without A Grain Of Salt

Yesterday, I learned that in 1852, Frederick Douglass delivered a speech in which he asked “What to the slave is the Fourth Of July?” It is a searing indictment of the hypocrisy of the United States celebrating Independence Day while many of our citizens owned human beings. I’d realized the depth of that hypocrisy decades …

EXCLUSIVE! “New” Whitney Houston Single Is 30 Years In The Making! The Track’s Original Producer, Narada Michael Walden, Talks About Recording The Vocal

Whitney Houston fans got a surprise late last week when her estate released a cover of Steve Winwood’s & Chaka Khan’s “Higher Love,” featuring a new production bed by Norwegian DJ and producer Kygo. That surprise was 30 years in the making. The new single’s original, transcendent vocal was recorded with legendary producer and longtime …