La La Land in Concert with Seattle Symphony @ Benaroya Hall

Honest-to-god original live-action musicals don’t come around much anymore—especially not compared to the heyday of the Hollywood Golden and Silver Ages when they were released about every two weeks—so when a good one hits, it hits BIG.

Damien Chazelle’s La La Land came into 2016 like a force of nature and earned a mint, powered by a welcome earnestness, major star power from Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone (who won her first Oscar for her role), and that score. My god, that score. Lush, playful, soaring, melancholic. Whatever your impression of Chazelle’s work as a filmmaker (Whiplash, First Man, Babylon), you can always count on longtime collaborator (and Harvard roommate!) Justin Hurwitz’s compositions to burrow its way into your brain. That Hurwitz also wrote some of the best episodes of Curb Your Enthusiasm and The League is just a bonus for an all-around impressive guy.

Hurwitz is swinging into Seattle for the perfect Valentine’s Day weekend outing: conducting the Seattle Symphony through his work as the award-winning romantic drama plays on their grand screen. So grab your honey and enter his sonic dreamscape:

• the irony-laden group number “Another Day of Sun”
• the Astaire & Rogers-mirroring “A Lovely Night”
• the magical “Planetarium” pas de deux
• the staggering, climactic fast-forward “Epilogue” ballet that stylistically splits the difference between Demy and Minnelli

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