Latest news with #HighSchoolReunion
Time Out
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Cinespia is pairing ‘La La Land' and ‘Top Gun' with fireworks this July
The surest sign that it's just about summer in Los Angeles? The nightly barrage of fireworks. But the next-surest sign? Outdoor movie screenings in a century-old cemetery. Put 'em together and you have the recipe for a perfect summer night. After making its seasonal return over Memorial Day weekend, Cinespia has announced the classic cinema selections headed for Hollywood Forever Cemetery this July, including two chances to see a fireworks-accompanied film. The lineup—which we'll dive into below—boasts a high-flying action classic, a local love letter, a semi-recent horror sensation and a pair of '90s comedies. Fri, July 4: Top Gun + Fireworks Sat, July 5: La La Land + Fireworks Sat, July 12: IT (2017) Sat, July 19: Romy and Michele's High School Reunion Sat, July 26: The Addams Family Tickets for the events, presented by Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video, are on sale now and cost just under $52 per person for the two fireworks screenings and $30 for the rest, with prices roughly between $24 and $36 for parking. We'd suggest jumping on tickets soon, too; Cinespia's screenings pretty much always sell out. 'Each summer, we invite our city to come together and celebrate the movies that made us laugh, dream and scream,' said Cinespia founder John Wyatt in a statement. 'This July is pure movie magic—from high-flying action and fireworks to nostalgic reunions and spooky classics under the stars.' If you've never attended the summertime rite of passage before, here's the deal: Since 2002, Cinespia has projected movies onto the side of a mausoleum at Hollywood Forever. Thousands of picnickers show up early to claim a spot on the Fairbanks Lawn and dig into their BYO snacks and drinks (yep, including beer and wine). That's in addition to the hot food, popcorn and beer and wine for sale on the grounds of the outdoor movie series. And the series is also renown for its remarkably elaborate and film-accurate photo booths—like this Romy and Michele one below from 2023. View this post on Instagram A post shared by CINESPIA (@cinespia) As for the fireworks show, don't expect a few measly pieces of pyro: This is a full-blown Fourth of July fireworks display. Check out the video below from about a decade ago, when the series last followed Top Gun with fireworks.
Sydney Morning Herald
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
Hobbits in the aisles: The Lord of the Rings musical is a valiant effort
Their affecting duet Now and for Always in the second half is one of the musical's highlights. Laurence Boxhall's performance as Gollum alone deserves five stars as he bounds across the stage on all fours, swings from ladders and somehow croons in the character's trademark breathy rasp. It's like Andy Serkis is in the room with us. Other standouts are Stefanie Caccamo as Arwen, bringing her signature melodic prowess to the ethereal role, an impressive violin-brandishing Hannah Buckley and cello-playing Jeremi Campese as comedic duo Pippin and Merry, and Jemma Rix as the majestic Galadriel. And there's the magic of it all. The demonic Balrog and gigantic spider Shelob are magnificently brought to life. The liminal state Frodo enters whenever he wears the ring is depicted through a stunning combination of lighting, sound and Newton's arrested movements. How you'll feel about this adaptation will hinge on your attachment to the source material, but if you want to see the most fantastical moments of the trilogy resurrected on stage, Lord of the Rings – a Musical Tale mostly delivers. Reviewed by Sonia Nair THEATRE The Comeuppance ★★★ Red Stitch Actors' Theatre, until May 25 High school reunions are sublime stages for the exploration of thwarted dreams, misled desires and suspended states of youth. Robin Schiff knew it when she wrote the play-turned-film, Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, now a musical. Christopher Miller knew it when he created The Afterparty, the darkly comic murder mystery TV series that kicks off with a death at a high school reunion after-party. American playwright Branden Jacobs-Jenkins knew it when he wrote his playscript, The Comeuppance, which premiered Off-Broadway in 2023 and is gracing Melbourne stages for the first time in this Red Stitch debut. Five friends who used to call themselves MERGE (Multi-Ethnic Reject Group) gather in DC to 'pre-game' for their 20-year high school reunion. Edging towards middle age and living through the 'comeuppance' from past decisions, they're in various states of disarray – exacerbated by copious amounts of drugs and alcohol. Party host Ursula (AYA) recently lost their grandma and is nursing partial blindness due to diabetes. Berlin-based artist Emilio (Khisraw Jones-Shukoor) is reticent about his newborn child and seemingly flourishing arts career. Caitlin (Julia Grace) is trapped in an unhappy marriage. Christina (Tess Masters) is severely struggling as a doctor who navigated the worst of COVID. And interloper Paco (Kevin Hofbauer) is suffering from post-traumatic stress as a war veteran. But this isn't any average school reunion. Lurking on the edges of Ella Butler's eerily constructed facade of a suburban porch is Death itself, who takes turns inhabiting each character to elucidate their relationship to mortality in sonorous, sinister addresses. It's a masterful sleight of hand from Jacobs-Jenkins, displaying the actors' range as they oscillate between their characters and Death, and blending exposition with a blatant reminder that everyone is on a slippery slope towards eventual pain and loss. The script is exquisitely dark, as Death – personified here as a catty gossipmonger – traverses the terrain of miscarriages, accidental deaths, suicide, death of children, loss of pets, war crimes and fatal illnesses. Jacobs-Jenkins depicts how large, traumatic, historic calamities like Columbine, 9/11, the Iraq War, Trump's election and COVID have metastasised into the rot of the characters' personal lives. It's a remarkably pessimistic but compassionate snapshot of life as a Millennial. Under Gary Abrahams' direction, the characters join the fray at different junctures throughout the night and circle each other in various formations of anger, joy, nostalgia and regret. In-jokes are carried out to their headiest conclusions in a particularly memorable choreographed sequence, spittle-specked invectives are uttered – mostly by Emilio, whose memories differ from those who've had to navigate a different version of the truth to cope with living in the hometown they're still in – and feelings are irrevocably hurt. Loading The play is pitched at such a frenetic level that it can be hard to maintain momentum throughout – it's split into two halves, unlike the original which ran for an uninterrupted 140 minutes – and the intensity of the exchanges are diffused when any one character is monologuing at length. Instead, the play is at its strongest at its bookends with intimate conversations that grapple with the sum of a life. The conceit of Death, while portentous, ultimately fizzles in the final sequences. A striking work of fiction that dares to situate itself in the aftermath of COVID, The Comeuppance combines horror with social realism to probe existential fears and chart our collective mental state. Are we OK? No, not really. Reviewed by Sonia Nair MUSIC The Soul of the Cello: Timo-Veikko Valve ★★★★ Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Recital Centre, May 3 There's a lot to love about Timo-Veikko Valve. After almost 20 years as principal cello of the Australian Chamber Orchestra, the Finnish-born musician, affectionately known as 'Tipi', has become something of an Australian musical treasure. Blending prodigious technique with infectious enthusiasm, he continues captivating music lovers wherever he goes. Working with the strings of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, this chamber concert not only confirmed Valve as a charismatic player but proved him a sensitive director and talented arranger. Bringing a questing sense of exploration to the Prelude from Bach's solo Cello Suite No. 4 in E-flat major, Valve grew the music's intensity, leading it directly into a tidy account of Mozart's orchestral arrangement of Bach's E-flat major fugue from The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II. The variegated textures of Valve's effective arrangement of Mozart's String Quartet No. 15 in D minor underlined both the work's passion and playfulness; qualities reminiscent of its dedicatee, Joseph Haydn. Deftly alternating solo quartet passages with full orchestra or spotlighting soloists ensured a welcome lightness of touch, as in the Trio of the third-movement Menuetto, where acting associate concertmaster Tair Khisambeev contributed a sparkling solo. More abrasive textures came with Wiima by Valve's compatriot, Jaakko Kuusisto. After some sonic shrapnel, the music seemed to morph into a dystopian soundscape from which elements of civilisation struggled to emerge. Solo cameos for Khisambeev, principal second violin Matthew Tomkins and Valve's former ACO colleague, principal viola Christopher Moore, were all dispatched with aplomb. Passion and poetry allied with sheer joy made Valve's account of the Schumann Cello Concerto a thrilling highlight. His tender slow-movement duet with principal cello David Berlin vividly contrasted with the folksy rhythmic swagger of the finale. In manifesting all of Schumann's elegiac drama, Valve indeed revealed the cello's dynamic soul. Reviewed by Tony Way DANCE Yirramboi: Monster in the Cyborg Body ★★★ The Channel, Arts Centre Melbourne, May 3 Saturday was a long day for many – politicians, election workers and volunteers at countless sausage sizzles – but for no one more than choreographer and performance artist Joshua Pether, who spent 12 hours in a durational performance, embodying the strange, otherworldly ordeal of Monster in the Cyborg Body. While the democratic process played out in school halls and community centres, Pether staged his own parallel ritual of personal and political transformation – a slow and fluid ritual, still in the process of becoming – in the small studio behind Hamer Hall, overlooking the Yarra. The work, scheduled to run from sunrise to sunset, combined two earlier pieces by Pether exploring the intersections of indigeneity and disability. But rather than restaging them directly, he folded their concerns into an evolving performance landscape – circling, diffusing and reworking them in gestures of suspension and hesitation. It invited a porous kind of attention: audiences drifted in and out, collaborators appeared and disappeared. The performance seemed to breathe with the ebb and flow of its witnesses. In the morning, there was minimal action as piles of dry leaves were gradually shifted around the space and its centrally placed trestle table. By early afternoon, haze drifted through the room and a glitchy, subterranean soundscape began to pulse. WeiZen Ho, who created the sound design for one of Pether's earlier works, joined him as a performer. A tangle of yarn was slowly, unsystematically straightened out and then wrapped around a large column: a neat way of registering the passing of time. By late afternoon, the calm solemnity of the performance gave way to a more intense atmosphere. Appropriately, perhaps, the work reached its climax just as polling booths closed and counting began outside – a moment collective transition registered in the work's search for new ceremonial forms. Reviewed by Andrew Fuhrmann THEATRE Hans Zimmer ★★★ Rod Laver Arena, April 29 'I haven't done anything yet,' Hans Zimmer grins when he walks out on stage in Melbourne to immediate, rapturous applause. It's not hard to see why the mere sight of the man might cause such a response – any movie lover of the past few decades will know his iconic film scores, from The Lion King and The Dark Knight to Dune and James Bond movies. Zimmer's unique compositional style melds classical and synthesised elements, so a show bringing it all to life is a little like seeing the MSO if they were all wearing leather and performing in an arena with drunk men heckling them. Unlike other composers who might stay behind the scenes, Zimmer is a part of the experience: the 67-year-old plays guitar and keys throughout, and also chats candidly. 'I treat this like a big dinner party,' he says. 'It's like my best 10,000 friends coming over.' More than 20 musicians are on stage, with instruments including an electric cello, two drum kits, bagpipes, brass and a large gong. The technical prowess on show is impressive: special mention to Leah Zegler, whose vocal range in the Interstellar suite is incredible, and Pedro Eustache, who makes the Armenian duduk sing sorrowfully alongside Melbourne's own Lisa Gerrard for the music from Gladiator. Zimmer's music is masterful, often building from an unassuming foundation to something grand and sweeping – What Are You Going to Do When You Are Not Saving the World? from 2013's Man of Steel is a great example, beginning with Zimmer on piano. It's a joy, too, to hear the spirited music from Pirates of the Caribbean live. But the show is let down by a poor sound mix – a blown speaker blares intermittently, and at one point the bass is so loud that it is actually painful on the ear. Generic footage accompanies the music – even stills from the films would evoke a stronger emotional response from the audience, who first found the music this way. The concert's runtime of more than three hours means there are also dips in energy – a tighter selection of music may have made for an overall more cohesive experience. Still, there are great moments in the show, such as the iconic Lion King music, though the strange inclusion of a non-Zimmer composition (He Lives in You) is ironically my favourite moment of the night. Zimmer ends on Time from Inception – a meditative piece that has the arena silent. It's a reminder of what good music can do. Reviewed by Giselle Au-Nhien Nguyen JAZZ International Jazz Day Celebration ★★★★ Hanson Dyer Hall, Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, April 29 In 2011, UNESCO designated April 30 as International Jazz Day. Since then, the annual event has become a universal celebration of jazz, with cultural and educational activities held around the world in the lead-up. This year, the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music hosted a free concert on the eve of International Jazz Day, highlighting some of the most recent additions to the teaching faculty – a faculty that now includes many of this city's finest jazz musicians. Andrea Keller (head of the jazz and improvisation department) was positively beaming as she introduced the musicians, who performed in different combinations alongside special guest Simon Barker. Barker has been working as artist-in-residence with the Con's jazz students, many of whom were in the audience on Tuesday to marvel at the Sydney drummer's artistry. They were treated to a masterful display of technique in the service of musicality – not just by Barker, but by all the performers. Solos were deliberately compact, emphasising communication rather than parades of individual virtuosity. International Jazz Day is about the value of shared experiences, after all. Alto saxophonist Angela Davis lent her ravishingly graceful sound to several ballads, while tenor saxophonist Carlo Barbaro variously strutted, swaggered and delved into turbulent freeform clouds. The rhythm section (Brett Williams on piano, Stephen Magnusson on guitar, Sam Anning on bass and Barker on drums) sketched deft backdrops for the shifting frontline, instinctively driving the energy forward or pulling back to a whisper when required. Gian Slater sang mostly wordlessly – including on a striking duet with Barker, where her voice rose like a ceremonial chant over Barker's expressionistic drums.
Buzz Feed
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Share The Best Example Of Onscreen Chemistry You've Ever Seen
Chemistry is everything in TV shows and movies, and audiences love to see it. It's always pretty clear when actors don't jive, but when they do it's impossible to look away. Pop culture fans, what's the best example of onscreen chemistry you've ever seen? Maybe you couldn't stop swooning over Crazy, Stupid, Love. due to Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone's ~electric~ energy? Perhaps Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler are still your #1 rom-com"it couple" thanks to their work in The Wedding Singer and 50 First Dates? And let's not forget our BFFs! Maybe the Flossy Posse in Girls Trip is your definition of friendship goals? What about Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino's hilariously iconic performance and impeccable comedic timing in Romy and Michele's High School Reunion? © Buena Vista / Courtesy Everett Collection
Yahoo
12-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alan Cumming is 'sure there's going to be a dance number' in 'Romy and Michele' sequel: 'There's got to be'
Alan Cumming isn't going to miss out on the next reunion. The Traitors host will join Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino in the long-awaited sequel to Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, he confirmed to Yahoo Entertainment. He played Sandy Frink in the 1997 cult classic. Cumming played coy at first when asked if he could tease the premise of the forthcoming film. "It's not allowed," he told Yahoo on Feb. 8 at the AARP's Movies for Grownups Awards, which he hosted. "It's actually not allowed." See for yourself — The Yodel is the go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories. By signing up, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy. However, Cumming — who said production will likely begin this summer — confirmed he's spoken with Kudrow. "We were actually having a chat about Sandy, they're going to do some rewrites on Sandy, which I think are great," Cumming continued. "I loved it. Then they had some other ideas and I talked to her and was like, 'Ooh, I like that even more.'" When asked if the sequel will feature another dance number with Sorvino and Kudrow, Cumming seemed more than hopeful. "I'm sure there's going to be a dance number, there's got to be. I mean, it's so funny that it's so iconic, that [scene]," he said. Cumming's character, Sandy, was a geek in high school who shows up at the reunion as a very wealthy and successful businessman. He was always in love with Michele, but the standout scene at the end of the film involved all three characters. "I did a thing the other day for Vanity Fair. You know, when you look at your old films and you talk about them, and I remember that we got nominated for an [MTV Movie Award for] Best Dance Sequence. We didn't win, we were robbed," the actor said. Cumming recalled how in the original script, there was just one sentence: "That Sandy, Romy and Michele do a modern interpretive dance." "My god, we rehearsed for ages," Cumming said, adding that they all worked with a choreographer. "It was not ad-libbed." On Jan. 29, the Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Sorvino and Kudrow were in final negotiations to star in the sequel along with many involved in the original. The actresses will also serve as executive producers. Tim Federle will direct, and Robin Schiff, who wrote the original screenplay, is writing the sequel. When Yahoo talked with Kudrow in December, she appeared to hint at the possibility of a sequel. We asked if she had done any projects, like Romy & Michele, that she wouldn't want to be revived or rebooted. "I think it's OK," the Friends star said at the time. "Reboot whatever you want."
Yahoo
11-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alan Cumming is 'sure there's going to be a dance number' in 'Romy and Michele' sequel: 'There's got to be'
Alan Cumming isn't going to miss out on the next reunion. The Traitors host will join Lisa Kudrow and Mira Sorvino in the long-awaited sequel to Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, he confirmed to Yahoo Entertainment. He played Sandy Frink in the 1997 cult classic. Cumming played coy at first when asked if he could tease the premise of the forthcoming film. "It's not allowed," he told Yahoo on Feb. 8 at the AARP's Movies for Grownups Awards, which he hosted. "It's actually not allowed." However, Cumming — who said production will likely begin this summer — confirmed he's spoken with Kudrow. "We were actually having a chat about Sandy, they're going to do some rewrites on Sandy, which I think are great," Cumming continued. "I loved it. Then they had some other ideas and I talked to her and was like, 'Ooh, I like that even more.'" When asked if the sequel will feature another dance number with Sorvino and Kudrow, Cumming seemed more than hopeful. "I'm sure there's going to be a dance number, there's got to be. I mean, it's so funny that it's so iconic, that [scene]," he said. Cumming's character, Sandy, was a geek in high school who shows up at the reunion as a very wealthy and successful businessman. He was always in love with Michele, but the standout scene at the end of the film involved all three characters. "I did a thing the other day for Vanity Fair. You know, when you look at your old films and you talk about them, and I remember that we got nominated for an [MTV Movie Award for] Best Dance Sequence. We didn't win, we were robbed," the actor said. Cumming recalled how in the original script, there was just one sentence: "That Sandy, Romy and Michele do a modern interpretive dance." "My god, we rehearsed for ages," Cumming said, adding that they all worked with a choreographer. "It was not ad-libbed." On Jan. 29, the Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Sorvino and Kudrow were in final negotiations to star in the sequel along with many involved in the original. The actresses will also serve as executive producers. Tim Federle will direct, and Robin Schiff, who wrote the original screenplay, is writing the sequel. When Yahoo talked with Kudrow in December, she appeared to hint at the possibility of a sequel. We asked if she had done any projects, like Romy & Michele, that she wouldn't want to be revived or rebooted. "I think it's OK," the Friends star said at the time. "Reboot whatever you want."
