Uncle Barkey's Bites Travel Theater Review

Al Pacino stars in "Hunters."

By Ed Bark unclebarky@verizon.net

Promos for “Hunters” seem to be nearly as plentiful as ads for the lately besieged presidential campaign of Michael “Mike” Bloomberg.

That said, Amazon Prime couldn’t break its bank no matter how hard it tried. But the big money walkup to this wildly imaginative series about Nazi track-downs, circa 1977, is clear evidence that Amazon thinks it has a hot one.

Starring Al Pacino and debuting on Friday, Feb. 21 with Season One’s 10 episodes, “Hunters” is a barrelful of misdirection and vitality, disappointment and exhilaration. The deadly business at hand – liquidating “goddamn, gold ribbon, Grade A Nazis” as Pacino’s character puts it in the 90-minute first chapter – tends to be compromised at times by out-of-body side trips,

AMAZO N PRIME

including song-and-dance production numbers. Still, there’s not yet enough goofiness to waylay the genuine chills and thrills running through the first five episodes made available for review.

The principal behind-the-camera maestro is executive producer Jordan Peele, whose feature film directorial debut with 2017’s “Get Out” made him an instant, award-winning auteur. “Hunters,” which was created by newcomer David Weil, envisions an earlier world in which vicious, Germany-bred Nazis are not only plentiful but intent on launching a Fourth Reich in the U.S.

Given scant help from either the government or mostly dismissive law enforcement agencies, Pacino and his team are largely going it alone in their quest to kill before being killed. Along the way, elements of your basic Quentin Tarantino film tend to intrude upon “Hunters” and take away some of the tautness established in a jarring opening sequence in which a Marylanddwelling, concentration camp butcher takes extreme action after a young guest recognizes him.

Pacino plays ultra-wealthy New Yorker Meyer Offerman, an uncompromising survivor of Nazi atrocities who asks a young recruit, “You know what the best revenge is? Revenge.”

The recruit is 19-year-old Jonah Heidelbaum (Logan Lerman), whose beloved grandmother Ruth (Jeannie Berlin) has just been murdered in the apartment she shares with him. In flashbacks, we see that Ruth is also a concentration camp survivor who’s played in those scenes by Annie Hagg (an uncanny ringer for Anne Hathaway).

Jonah initially is repelled by some of the methods Offerman’s team deploys to get information from at-large Nazis. This hardly endears him to veteran team members such as Sister Harriet (Kate Mulvany), a tart, all business nun whose insults also fall on other team members. Offerman’s entire group is introduced via a game show motif in Episode 2. They include the husband-and-wife team of Mindy and Murray Markowitz (veterans Carol Kane and Saul Rubinek), egotistical faded actor Lonny Flash (Josh Radnor), martial arts expert Joe Torrance (Louis Ozawa Changchien) and foxy Roxy Jones (Tiffany Boone).

The regular cast also includes a trio of Nazi plotters, with Lena Olin as “The Colonel,” Dylan Baker as fellow war criminal Biff Simpson and Greg Austin as a bloodthirsty, amoral, young American recruit named Travis Leich.

Working between these two battle lines is FBI agent Millie Malone (Jerrika Hinton), an African American woman who laments in Episode 3, “It would be a whole lot easier at work if I had a penis and a white man’s comb over.” Instead she has a Latina live-in lover named Maria (Julissa Bermudez). Millie initially is investigating the mysterious gassing of an elderly woman whose very unsavory past is quickly exposed. This puts her on the scent of something bigger while also making her of extreme interest to the sinister Travis Leich.

“Hunters” isn’t always well-stitched, but to point out particular plot holes would be giving away too much. Viewers also are left wondering (after the first five episodes) whether Offerman is who he says he is and if Sister Harriet might be a mole.

In the first episode, though, all is taut and terrifically staged. Also look for a deft touch in which the same “TV Guide” with Farrah Fawcett on the cover is visible in three different venues. Lest we forget, the old pocket-sized version was America’s biggest-selling magazine, with seemingly every household relying on it for the latest TV news and listings.

The TV landscape could be easily navigated back in 1977, when ABC, CBS and NBC combined to draw more than 90 percent of viewers. Those weren’t quite the days of CBS’ “Me and the Chimp,” which came and quickly went five years earlier in 1972. But “Hunters” can’t resist the dramatic license required for a TV news anchor to say, “And now back to your regular programming, ‘Me and the Chimp,’” after an undercover Nazi lies on the air about his family being massacred at the pool party that opens Episode 1.

Critically speaking, it’s still up in the air whether “Hunters” eventually will fall prey to its excesses or become the latest TV series that “everyone is talking about” no matter how bent it might become.

One thing is certain, though. Nazis are pure, unadulterated vermin under all circumstances. So, count me all in when Pacino’s Offerman commands, “We leave shortly. Time for the hunt!”

Ed Bark, who runs the TV website unclebarky.com, is a past member of the national Peabody awards board.

'Little Women' lights up like no other local performance

By Brian Wilson brian.wilson.usmc@gmail.com

It’s strange to open a review with something that very few theatergoers, whether in “the business” or patrons, with lighting. But gadzooks! If lighting designer Marcus Dilliard doesn’t win all the awards this season, then there is no justice in the world. His work in “Little Women,” presented by Dallas Theater Center at Kalita Humphreys Theater at 3636 Turtle Creek Blvd., now playing through Sunday, March 1 is absolutely incredible. I will even double down and say that the costume design (Moria Sine Clinton) and set design (Wilson Chin) was in perfect harmony with the lighting, and the combination was the best I’ve seen this season.

The text of the play comes courtesy of Louisa May Alcott of course, but through Kate Hamill’s adaptation. Ms. Hamill is having quite a moment right now in Dallas, with her “Pride & Prejudice” having just closed at MainStage Irving. The pace of the show is excellent throughout, moving the characters various and interwoven storylines along with moving performances by the entire ensemble, especially some of the supporting roles. Maggie Thompson as Beth March was the standout of the group. She managed to take the crowds breath away with her deft movement and exquisite delivery.

Lilli Hokoma as Amy March provided a delightful spontaneity as well. While notionally, the main character of the story

JOR AN FRAKER Jennie Greenberry as Meg March, Pearl Rhein as Jo March, Maggie hompson as Beth March and Lilli Hokama as Amy March.

is the rebellious Jo March (Pearl Rhein), her quest to be a writer and her relationship with Laurie Laurence (Louis Reyes McWilliams). But it was the supporting cast members that brought a tremendous emotional resonance to the performance. Even smaller parts such as Mike Sears as Mr. Lawrence/Mr. Dashwood, whose gravitas was piercing, and Sally Nystuen Vahle as Hannah/Mrs. Mingott/ Aunt March, bringing impeccable comedic timing. Jennie Greenberry as Meg March and Alex Organ as Laurie’s tutor John Brooks were lovely through both their courting phase and their marriage. The play spans about 15 years, so we get to see these characters go through a great deal of tumult, especially since much of the play takes place during the Civil War. The themes of “growing up,” societal expectations versus individual desires and the nature of the creative impulse are all explored through the different characters choices. A great deal of the play focuses on wanting to escape, especially Jo through her rejection of gender norms as well as her love of fiction and plays. We see the characters come back again and again to rehearse a play that Jo has written about a damsel in distress. A common trope, but Jo always wants to play the masculine hero that saves the lady.

The trouble with Jo (as a character, not in Ms. Rhein’s charismatic portrayal) is that it seems like her desire to escape her situation has halted facing the reality of what’s going on around her, which makes one question why she’s seen as such a sympathetic character. While her sister Beth nurses a poor child whose mother is incapacitated, her father is serving as a doctor during the Civil War and her mother is trying to provide for her family, Jo’s writing plays and stories and she only works in order to save up for a trip to Europe. While the denouement of the play redeems Jo to a degree, as she turns away from fiction and writes a “real story,” we do wonder if that story is her apology for not trying to find a way to help those around her. In this way it makes sense that she has so much friction with her sister Amy, who is similar in character to Jo, but channels it in a different and more socially acceptable direction.

Director Sarah Rasmussen has done a spectacular job with this work regardless. The seamless fusion of the various parts of the performance were breathtaking and wonderfully emotionally resonant.

New Design District concert venue opens in May WINDING ROADS

By Jo Ann Holt joannholt@gmail.com

The HiFi Dallas, a new live concert venue at 1323 North Stemmons Freeway in the Design District across the highway from the American Airlines Center, opens on Friday, May 15. Blue October takes the stage for the opening night performance. Another Texas favorite, Bowling for Soup, performs Saturday, May 16.

Other popular acts scheduled for the venue include “Wallows,” with two shows on Sunday, May 17 and The Revivalists on Wednesday, May 20. Palaye Royale appears on Saturday, May 23, and The Struts perform Sunday, May 24. Yung Pinch, Kevin Fowler, SNBRN and Power Trip are also on the May lineup.

Cross Rags and Young perform June 13, with iconic Texas singer/songwriter Robert Earl Keen on June 19.

Hi-Fi Dallas is 25,000 square feet and features two floors plus an outdoor patio serving craft beer, inventive cocktails and food. The new venue has a 1,000-person capacity for shows. The upper level has box seats and premium ticket seating, with upscale food and beverage offerings. Concertgoers have a variety of choices for dining that includes food and beverages on both levels.

Longtime promoter Live Nation operates the venue, with plans to produce 250 annual concerts and events. The company currently operates or books House of Blues, South Side Ballroom and Toyota Music Factory. Live Nation Clubs & Theaters, a division of Live Nation Concerts, promotes more than 25,000 shows a year. More than 20 million fans attend events in 1,700 venues annually. Dallas Mavericks owner and "Shark Tank" regular Mark Cuban owns the land.

Live Nation’s Clubs & Theaters COO Ben Weeden said, “We’re proud to announce an exciting and diverse list of artists for our opening lineup to the music-loving community of Dallas. The attention and time we’ve taken to invest in building something special and unique will all be worth it when fans experience their favorite artists inside this amazing new venue. The sound system we are putting in and the sightlines are really just incredible.” They are leasing the venue from Cuban. Tickets for many