Reverend apologizes for not posting recently, between prepping for and recovering from our biennial (every two years) church Synod. It was held in Orlando, Florida the first week of October. Synod was excellent, and the location enabled Reverend to spend a pre-church biz day at Universal’s latest theme park. Now that I’ve recovered from all of the above, I am able to tell all about Epic Universe.
In terms of first impressions, the park is beautifully designed and appointed. It is highlighted by various “portals,” one at the main entrance and one at each of four unique entertainment areas. These are the Isle of Berk inspired by the How to Train Your Dragon franchise; video gamey Super Nintendo World; the Universal parks’ latest Harry Potter evocation, Ministry of Magic; and what not unexpectedly emerged as my personal fave: Dark Universe, a celebration of all the classic Universal movie monsters including Frankenstein, Dracula, the Wolf Man, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and many more.
Entering Dark Universe feels like stepping into a 1930’s black and white thriller. Dr. Frankenstein’s castle dominates the landscape, although its current inhabitant is Dr. VictorIA Frankenstein. She puts a welcome feminine twist on the still scientifically obsessed character. The castle’s interior boasts a genuinely thrilling attraction entitled Monsters Unchained: The Frankenstein Experiment. I was fortunate as a solo guest/single rider to be able to walk right onto this ride not once but twice.
Adjoining Monsters Unchained is a roller coaster, Curse of the Werewolf, which appears deceptively small-scale at first glance. However, it’s spinning cars, fast launches and multiple reverses actually make it one of the more intense coasters I’ve ridden in a while.
A slightly less intense and definitely more humorous thrill ride, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, is the centerpiece of the whimsically designed Isle of Berk. An adorable audio-animatronic Toothless pushes the launch button on this wild coaster. The multiple family-friendly attractions in this themed area, plus an opportunity to meet and even pet Toothless, make it a winner.
Epic Universe’s remaining sections, Ministry of Magic and Super Nintendo World, left me a bit cold. Or rather hot--and not in a good way--as the temperature reached 90 degrees on the day I visited and there is currently a dearth of shaded areas and/or cooling stations in the park. The Fantastic Beasts re-creation of Paris is spectacular but its sole ride, Harry Potter’s Battle at the Ministry, was “delayed” (aka broken down) when I first attempted to ride it and later had a 2 ½ hour wait time. Hard pass even for a single rider. Similarly, Nintendo land’s two major attractions were either “delayed” or had too-long wait times. I ultimately felt compelled to leave the park late afternoon for the cooler environment of my hotel room, with visions of classic movie monsters dancing in my head.
Reverend’s Rating: B
Saturday Church (Now playing at New York Theatre Workshop)
In his nearly 30 years of reviewing movies and theatre, Reverend has never described anything in print as fucking fantastic. Sorry to offend you pearl clutchers out there. ; ) Yet that is exactly what I exclaimed verbally to my companion at the end of the performance we attended of this off-Broadway musical world premiere. Others apparently agree with me, as the show has been extended through October 24th.
While Damon Cardasis has vibrantly adapted his excellent, non-musical indie film of the same title for the stage, this new musical boasts two major calling cards: songs by Aussie pop goddess Sia (with additional music by American DJ Honey Dijon) and Tony Award-winning non-binary actor J. Harrison Ghee (Some Like it Hot) in the dual role of Pastor Lewis/Black Jesus. The songs are great, and Ghee plus the entire cast including relative newcomer Bryson Battle as lead character Ulysses are—at the risk of repeating myself—fucking fantastic.
Ulysses is a sexually searching, devoutly Christian teenager who, rebuffed by his family church, finds himself at the LGBTQ+ friendly “Saturday Church” held in a local community hall. While there and under the guidance of numerous queer members of the faithful, Ulysses finds love and discovers their true self…and just in time for their fabulous annual Ball!
Whitney White’s direction, Darrell Grand Moultrie’s choreography, and Qween Jean’s costumes are all eye-popping. The one weak link I detected in the production is Tony winner David Zinn’s scenic design. Yes, the set needs to be multi-functional, but do the walls and upper level sight lines have to be so high and the paint color so lime green?
Saturday Church seems Broadway-ready and I would love to see it transfer there this season BUT it would likely have to compete with the stylistically similar and fantastic (if not fucking so) Cats: The Jellicle Ball. I recommend Black Jesus on Broadway for the 2026-2027 season. That is, unless the Cats reimagining ends up running “now and forever” (ahem).
Reverend’s Rating: A-
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (The Metropolitan Opera)
God knows comic book superheroes have been all over the big screen and small screen in recent years, so it’s only fair that they finally make an appearance on the main stage of the world’s most revered opera company. The Met’s new production of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay just completed its initial run on October 11th, but it proved to be such a success that a revival as well as an HD broadcast in movie theaters has already been announced for early 2026.
Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Michael Chabon, this excellent opera just had its world premiere last year at decidedly smaller-scale Indiana University. With a melodic, dramatic score by Mason Bates and strong libretto by Gene Scheer, it relates the story of its title characters. Both are Jewish cousins who flee Eastern Europe for the USA as Hitler rises to power in the 1930’s. Once they are together in New York City, they unite their writing and artistic talents to create a new superhero: The Escapist. Their resulting comic book becomes a smash success. This hardly ends the challenges they face, however, especially since Clay is a closeted gay man.
Reverend was privileged to attend its final performance of 2025 and I’m so glad I did. The production, directed by Broadway vet Bartlett Sher, is strikingly designed and gorgeously sung. Act II suffers a bit from its length (the whole performance ran 3 hours including intermission) as well as the use of an excessively large turntable battlefield that cut off images on the back wall for those of us seated in the Met’s upper levels. Perhaps that can be re-thought before future performances.
Nevertheless, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay has the potential to become an operatic classic. It is also exposing younger audiences to the art form. A boy no older than 10 behind me in the bathroom line during intermission told me how much he was enjoying it. Hopefully this was the first of many positive days or nights at the opera for him.
Reverend’s Rating: B+
Kiss of the
Spider Woman (Now playing in
movie theaters)
I was thrilled to learn 2 or 3 years ago that acclaimed filmmaker Bill Condon was going to make a movie of one of Reverend’s favorite stage musicals, Kiss of the Spider Woman. In fact, the original Broadway production starring the late great Chita Rivera was one of the shows I saw during my first time in New York City way back in 1993. Of course, it was based on the Oscar-winning 1985 film that was itself adapted from Manuel Puig’s acclaimed 1976 novel. That’s nearly 30 years of spider women, gay window dressers, and straight South American revolutionaries thrown together in one prison cell, whew! If you’ve read, seen or listened to any of these iterations, you know what I’m talking about.
This latest adaptation premiered to mixed reviews at the Sundance Film Festival in January of this year but Reverend has been chomping at the bit to see it ever since. I finally had my chance with its US theatrical release on October 10th. Sadly, the movie has bombed at the box office so if you want to see it on the big screen you’d better move fast. I expect it will hit streaming sooner or later, to reference one of the score’s songs by divinely inspired gay composing duo John Kander (who is still going at the age of 98) and Fred Ebb (who passed away in 2004).
Condon (who previously adapted both Chicago and Dreamgirls for the screen) stays fairly faithful to the stage version but makes some subtle changes. The story is now set in the early 1980’s, so some of the film within a film references and other elements have been somewhat updated. Molina--the flamboyant, effeminate character forced to share a cell with brooding Valentin—has been made more gender-fluid or non-binary than in previous versions. Most disappointingly, some of the original show’s songs have been cut including one, “The Day After That,” which provides some critical backstory for Valentin. A couple of new songs have been added but they aren’t particularly memorable.
The movie’s biggest strengths are its lead performances and elaborate, retro-technicolor musical numbers. Queer actor Tonatiuh makes a strong impression as Molina, while veteran Diego Luna gets to display his singing and dancing chops (he is also in his tighty whities a lot). Jennifer Lopez dazzles as the Spider Woman and her movie star alter ego, Ingrid Luna playing Aurora, and she seems to be having fun with her dual roles.
Kiss of the Spider Woman has hit movie theaters at a time of social and political upheaval in the US that Condon and his collaborators could not have envisioned when they went into production. While this may be hurting the film at the box office, it only makes this story’s/show’s themes more relevant. Catch this spider (woman) while you can.
Reverend’s Ratings: B
With all these reviews and related costume suggestions completed, I wish all my readers a safe, spooky and happy Halloween!
