Now Playing – Page 2 – notes from a chair

It is not lost on me that that the only two TV series I’m watching at the moment are Wednesday and Dexter.

Though why wouldn’t you want to keep up with a snide, too-smart-for-the-room malcontent who can’t completely bend the world to her will despite her vast intellectual powers, or the dark passenger of good guy serial killers who only kills the bad guys?

So many of us are frustrated that well-reasoned, fact-based logic no longer works. And I’ll bet even more fantasize about the countless ways we could do away with the truly evil bad guys who are wreaking havoc on our streets, or from inside buildings of rarefied power.

Though, well, perhaps it’s just me.

Let’s face it, these are macabre times.

If you are of the baby boomer (1946-1964) or Gen X (1965-1980) generations it’s particularly strange to see U.S. soldiers in an airfield on their knees rolling out a literal red carpet to the president of Russia and all that implies.

From an ongoing nuclear arms race to a free democracy vs. autocratic dictatorship stance, the dangerous differences between us allowed polite constructive conversation for the good of the planet but never a glad-handing, subservient welcome wagon.

It’d be like Dexter greeting David Berkowitz, the Notorious “Son of Sam” killer in NYC in the 1970s, at a dinner party with a bear hug and a back slap.

At best, Dex would politely nod at him in order to keep the peace, and then spend most of the rest of the evening listening to suss out the danger and to quell any potential violence on the immediate horizon.

And if that analogy sounds like a reach, it should be known this season’s Dexter: Resurrection actually has our amiable anti-hero at a serial killer dinner party, assembled by a fictional tech billionaire played by Peter Dinklage, for his own amusement, with help from his icy assassin assistant in the form of Uma Thurman.

And yes, Dinklage wears a Doctor Evil suit

It seemed like a bit of a stretch at first, but as world and domestic events unfold in 2025 one can’t help but wonder how many secret confabs of real world baddies go unnoticed right under all of our collective noses.

Of course, it depends on what your definitions of bad and good; heroes and villains are. And for that definition I couldn’t venture a guess on anything timely enough to satisfy a majority of Americans, never mind the world’s population.

This is what happen when there is no longer an accepted baseline of what is acceptable in a country that is often touted as the actual leader of democracy in the free world.

We’re all tap dancin’ with Sutton because Anything Goes #hyuckhyuck

As for Wednesday, she lives merely on television, in a community of people who are “different” from the norm (Note: In her case, a school for gifted teenagers with supernatural power, aka Outcasts), located in a town of so-called “normies.” It’s a place her parents bring her to so she can be educated and thrive in a free environment and thus ultimately have a better life.

Sure, it sounds good on paper, but in practice…. well, let’s just say the school and the town is loaded with barriers of pre-judgement and predators, often coming from the upper echelons of power at the school itself.

Though not entirely.

And how can we be mad when the outfits are Bewitched levels of amazing?

Wednesday may be tough, smart and possess unique powers that could benefit those around her, but her difference proves too great. Her elders see her as a threat to the current social order and their futures. Too many in her community find her confidence and looks off-putting. And she does herself no favors in how little tolerance she has for any of it – or anything else.

At another time and in another place, she might even be referred to as “uppity.”

No one believes Wednesday Addams will always do the right thing or turn out to be one of the “good” ones once she is an adult. But a principle premise of the series is that she, and the rest of those society snap judges to be “outcasts” without any proof their differences equal danger and justify contempt, should be given a chance in a world that purports to run on freedom.

It’s the argument for democracy.

It’s the argument for immigrants.

It’s the argument for free and fair elections on an even playing field in a country that professes to be emancipated.

Just as no one believes Dexter Morgan, a guy whose skill at slicing up the human bodies of his victims into a dozen neatly wrapped freezer bags and then thrown into the nearest ocean or trash compactor, is the best role model we have for moral virtue and decision-making.

What’s scary is that these days, at the end of one of our maddeningly endless “news” days, their choices are beginning to look not half bad.

“Bloody Mary” – Lady Gaga (sped up via Wednesday)

There’s an overused word used to describe a moment or a song or a performance in show business. And that word is:

Showstopping.

But how many times in your life have you witnessed a performance, song or an actor literally stopping a show for any significantly measurable length of time?

I’ve seen a few but not too many.

But never have I witnessed the FULL TWO MINUTE spontaneous standing ovation Cynthia Erivo received at the Hollywood Bowl Friday night during her performance in the title role in Jesus Christ Superstar.

It was organic, impromptu and sustained for such a significant amount of “stage” time that it appropriately felt, in 2025 theatrical terms, about as close to religion as one can get in the theatre.

Or pretty much anywhere these days.

And it came at the end of her climactic song Gethesamne (I Only Want To Say), at a moment where a very human Jesus begins to question his mission from God.

I won’t begin to describe what happens when a once-in-a-generation talent immerses themselves so completely in such an unexpected role. But thanks to technology you can watch it here yourself.

Though I can testify viewing it from your screen at home doesn’t quite duplicate what it was like to be outside, under the stars, in an audience of 17,000, and being a part of a group who saw it occur seemingly out of nowhere.

This three night production of the rock musical Jesus Christ Superstar headlining an out gay woman of color, and co-starring/featuring a ton of out LGBTQ+ performers, might initially seem like a theatrical stunt to some, or oft-putting to others.

It is not.

What it does is instead reinforce the universality of the messages of kindness, equality, inclusion and love the basic stories in scripture provide when we are forced to look at the story in a new and decidedly different way.

Don’t take my word for it. Here are some samples courtesy of an article from Broadway World:

There are numerous moments and performances to call out in what pretty much amounts to a mind-blowing three-night production.

But I’d be remiss to not also specifically mention what a treat it is to hear a singer like Adam Lambert bring his high Cs and Ds, and pretty much every note below that, as well as his acting chops, to what is truly the lead role of the Christ-betraying Judas.

And that’s saying something from a guy like me, whose high school American history teacher actually took my class in Queens to see the original Broadway production in the early 1970s early in its run.

Thanks, Mr. Vidakovich – and how did you ever manage that?

“Superstar” – Raul Esparza, Cynthia Erivo, Adam Lambert in Jesus Christ Superstar

notes from a chair

Category Archives: Now Playing

The Macabre of it all

Jesus Christ Superstar