Suffs the Musical: Keep Marching

This review likely would’ve taken a different tone prior to the election but my opinion hasn’t changed.

So let’s do this.

Back in April, my mom, aunt and I went to go see Six the Musical for my birthday. (I also highly recommend that show). While we were eating lunch, I saw two women walking through the restaurant and they had sashes reading “Votes for Women” on them. I made a comment that they must be seeing Suffs and my mom asked what it was about. I told her it was about the fight for women’s right to vote and we all agreed we wanted to see it.

Fast forward six months and we made it a reality. We trekked into the city yet again, enjoyed a nice lunch and caught a Saturday matinee of this Tony-winning musical.

Even though this deals with historical events, I’m still going to warn for SPOILERS anyway.

Smash: Will It Be Your (Broadway) Star?

Smash lives!

You might remember the short-lived NBC show from over a decade ago that was about the creation of a Broadway show. I recapped every episode on this blog, if you want to read them.

After it ended its run on TV, there was talk of turning the fictional Marilyn Monroe musical the characters worked on (Bombshell) into a real life musical. There even was a benefit concert version featuring many actors from the show, including Megan Hilty (Ivy) and Katharine McPhee (Karen).

Then the pandemic hit and a lot of projects had to wait.

Well, it seems that while they were waiting, it was decided that instead of mounting Bombshell, they would turn Smash itself into a musical and mount that instead.

Once Upon a Time: Redux?

I know I’m a few weeks late in discussing this but better late than never, right?

Inside the Magic, a site dedicated to all things Disney, posted a story about a possible Once Upon a Time revival on Disney+. It was based on comments Colin O’Donoghue (Captain Hook/Killian Jones) made in an article on Collider released ahead of a new project he is working on.

Namely that there had been conversations about reviving Once Upon a Time.

This certainly generated some buzz on social media. Honestly, it was the most I’ve seen my timeline active in a while and my notifications were almost the same as when the show used to air.

I’m not surprised that there have been conversations about possibly reviving the show. Revivals have been happening all over TV and streaming services. Suits is getting a revival despite ending in 2019, one year after Once Upon a Time. So it doesn’t seem like it might be too soon to revive the show.

It also isn’t surprising that it might be on Disney+. The hope may be that it will lure more people to watch Disney+. I also recall reading that ABC wasn’t really looking for new shows after this shortened season. That could change and once again, this is just conjecture based on Colin’s comments. We’ve had no corroboration from either Disney, ABC or Adam and Eddy.

So what do I think? Let me lay out my thoughts for you.

The Wedding Veil Journey–My Big Fat Greek Honeymoon

And we’re at the third movie in this new trilogy!

Honestly, based on the summary offered by Hallmark, I thought this movie was going to go in a different direction. I’ll tell you what it was when we get to the end.

So do Tracy and Nick finally take their honeymoon? Let’s find out!

If we took a holiday/Took some time to celebrate/Just one day out of life/It would be, it would be so SPOILERS!

The Wedding Veil Inspiration: Work/Life Balance

 Avery and Peter are settling into parenthood and so it’s time to move onto our second couple – Emma and Paolo! They are also my favorite couple and so I was so excited to see this movie.

Was it a good follow up to the original movie (The Wedding Veil Unveiled)? Does it do our international lovers justice?

Let’s find out!

I will be there to share forever/Love will keep us together/I’ll be thinking of you/Look in my heart and let love SPOILERS!

The Wedding Veil Expectations: All Great Plans...

 After the success of the original Wedding Veil trilogy, Hallmark ordered another trilogy to make it a series. Once again, we’ll follow our original heroines – Avery (Lacey Chabert), Emma (Autumn Reeser) and Tracy (Alison Sweeney) as they navigate married life. And the veil comes along as well to continue working its magic on some brand new couples.

Once again, we start with Avery and the next chapter of her life.

When the world outside’s too much to take/that all ends when I’m SPOILERS!

“Where Are You Christmas?”: Christmas Makes the World Brighter

Hallmark’s Countdown to Christmas is in full swing and has been since October 20th. As they do every year, they introduce many new movies to add to their collection and I like to try to review at least one before the New Year.

And here it is!

We start with the classic trope of hardworking city woman returns to her small town and learns the true meaning of Christmas while falling in love. But there is a twist in how she learns her lesson.

My world is changing/I’m rearranging/Does that mean Christmas SPOILERS

Summer Movie Round Up

Hard to believe it’s already September! It feels like it was just Memorial Day and here we are, getting ready for spooky season and then the holidays.

But before we speed toward 2024, let’s pause and reflect on this past summer.

Namely, the movies.

It was a good summer for movies. I started at least three reviews but never had the time to finish them. So I’ve decided to just do a round up of my thoughts about each movie.

Here we go!

(Beware possible spoilers under the cut).

The Wedding Veil Legacy: Food, History and True Love

We’ve seen a beautiful Italian lace veil originally made for the wife of an Italian nobleman bring love to a museum curator and an art history professor. Now it is in the possession of their friend, who works at an auction house. She is firmly a skeptic in the veil’s alleged power to bring the owner true lover Will she change her mind?

Of course she will. It’s a Hallmark movie.

How does it happen? Find out in The Wedding Veil Legacy!

I’m so glad you found me in time/And I’m so glad that you’ve rectified my mind/This will be an everlasting SPOILER!

The Wedding Veil Unveiled: A Story of Love and Loss

The story of three friends and their beautiful and possibly magical veil continues in The Wedding Veil trilogy. After the first friend found love, a rare painting reveals there may be more to their veil than meets the eye. Now the second friend has possession of the veil as she heads to Italy, ready for an adventure of her own.

But is she ready for love?

Time to find out in The Wedding Veil Unveiled!

I’ll be your hope, I’ll be your love, be everything that you SPOILERS!

The Wedding Veil Trilogy: The Wedding Veil

Christmas may be Hallmark Channel’s bread and butter but it produces movies all year round, often timed to the different seasons – winter movies after Christmas, spring movies as the weather warms, summer movies for the hottest months and then autumn movies before Christmas comes back around again. While I tend to watch more of the Christmas movies, I do like to check out the channel’s other fare and I must say I was intrigued by the idea of The Wedding Veil Trilogy movies – The Wedding Veil, The Wedding Veil Unveiled and The Wedding Veil Legacy.

The Wedding Veil trilogy surrounds three friends who meet up every so often to go antiquing together. On one of these trips, they find a beautiful wedding veil. According to the shop owner, anyone in possession of the veil will find true love. The friends decide to split the cost and buy it, vowing to wear it at their weddings. One by one, the veil brings them love and happiness.

Uniting three of Hallmark’s leading ladies – Lacey Chabert, Autumn Reeser and Alison Sweeney – this movie trilogy certainly got 2022 off on the right note.

We’ll go movie by movie, so let’s start with The Wedding Veil!

You smiled, you smile, and then the spell was cast/And here we are in Heaven, for you are SPOILERS!

The Royal Nanny: A Fun Christmas Adventure

It’s that time of the year again! Yes, it’s Hallmark holiday movie time! And of course, I’m watching them. They’re comforting and festive. No one can resist their charms.

Especially me, as you all know.

I don’t know how many of the new movies I’ll be able to review. But I’m going to try, starting with this one set in England.

So, grab an umbrella and avoid SPOILERS!

Walt Disney World: Trip 2 Report

I’m back from my second trip to Walt Disney World for this year! And just like I promised in my last post, I have some more to report and comment on so let’s get it started!

Weather

It was hot.

I don’t remember our last trip in June being that hot. It felt more like August than June and I pretty much had to do laundry when I got back because I sweated through everything.

Most people in Disney had fans or cooling towels. My sister got us these nice fans we could wear around our necks. I could just leave it on and let it blow up at me or hold it against my face. It was a godsend.

Even on some rides! I read that many suspect that Disney is not fully utilizing the air conditioning to save money and I would believe it. Sometimes I was sweating inside on some rides, such as Spaceship Earth – and not because we were stuck near Rome “burning.” But there were other places where it did allow you to get comfortable but it still wasn’t as cool as I’ve experienced in the past.

Walt Disney World: A Round Up of My Thoughts

Several years ago, I did a countdown to a Disney trip I was taking by writing something about the park each day for like 100 days. It was massive and I think I had to backdate a few posts but I did it!

However, it was several years ago and Walt Disney World has made a lot of changes since then.

I recently got back from Walt Disney World and I thought I would discuss my thoughts on some of the latest changes and additions to the parks.

Here we go!

2021: A Wrap Up

I hope 2022 finally brings us that new normal we've been waiting for, one where we can live our life even with COVID still among us but without the fear of a surge. 

In 2021, I made 56 posts to this blog. And I went back to look at the view counts to find my top 10 popular posts so I can count them down. 

So let's begin! 

The Nine Kittens of Christmas: Cute Kitties Solve Everything

Merry Christmas! I hope who celebrate are having an amazing day filled with loved ones, fun, gifts, food, music and movies. We’ve made it through another year and have reached my last Christmas movie of 2021. While I’m not sure I’ll be doing these monthly in 2022, I’m sure I’ll have more to write about throughout the year.

For now, we’re going to finish 2021 with one of the new movies Hallmark introduced this year, which is a sequel to one of their 2014 movies – “The Nine Lives of Christmas.” I’m fond of it so I was very excited to see it got a sequel and wanted to know what happened to the characters.

Let me just quickly recap the first movie: Firefighter Zachary and Vet Student Marilee cross paths after he ends up inheriting a cat named Ambrose. They develop a friendship that blossoms into something more as Christmas approaches but they both have their own issues to work through in order to be together.

Presents and cards are here/My world is filled with cheer and you/This SPOILERS!

“The Christmas Carousel”: Art Can Bring Magic

It’s November, everyone! And I know this is coming out on Thanksgiving, so Happy Thanksgiving!

But we’re in the final countdown to Christmas. Hopefully you aren’t tired of Christmas movies by now since Hallmark has been playing them for almost a month.

So we’re close to wrapping up our movie recaps/reviews for this year. And I hope you can look back and put together a good Christmas movie marathon now.

And we’re going to add another one to that list – The Christmas Carousel!

Lullay, thou little child/Sleep well, lully, lullay/And smile in dreaming SPOILERS!

The Spirit of Christmas: A Ghost Story for Christmas!

Happy (almost) Halloween!

Since it’s the spookiest month of the year, I thought this movie was appropriate. It’s a ghost story, you see. But it’s also a romantic movie because it’s a made-for-tv Christmas movie. Most of them are romances, let’s be real.

(Speaking of which, Hallmark has already started to air their movies. How many have you seen already?)

Anyway, let’s check out this ghostly yet romantic Christmas movie!

They’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glory of SPOILERS long ago! 

Welcome Back, Phantom!

Raise the chandelier once more on Broadway's longest running musical - welcome back, Phantom of the Opera! 

Let the music of the night live on! 

Happy Opening Night, Six!

 Best wishes to the Queens and crew of Six the Musical on their opening night! 

They were supposed to open on March 12, 2020 - the same day Broadway had to shut down due to COVID. But now they are back and ready to tell their stories! 

Can't wait to see the show!