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Jan. 18, 2012 - Issue #848: City of champions

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Joyful Noise

Let there be suck!

Brian Gibson / brian@vueweekly.com
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In the beginning (of 2012), Todd Graff created the joyful and the noise. Darkness was upon the face of deep winter. But Todd said, let there be light, and this Joyful Noise-thing, it was light to the point of blinding-migraine optimism. And Todd said, let there be "uplift," and there was such uplift the plot drifted into space. And Todd made a gospel-choir so full of folksy, pious people that it should appear on Google Earth as Folksy Piousville, Georgia. And Todd cast Sass-Queen Latifah and Wax-Dolly Parton as Vi Rose and GG, always butting heads so adorably. And Todd created GG's bad-boy nephew—so bad he instantly brightens up Vi's son, who has Asperger's, and radiates sunny love with Vi's daughter Olivia.

And Todd said, Let this Southern town have economic problems but no political solutions—winning a national gospel competition shalt be enough. And Todd blessed the choir with an American Idol makeover, circa 2001, so they sang, "now my God and I are the best of homeys," and there was more forced uplift than in GG's double-G bra. But lo, there was none of the crackling noise necessary in drama, not even when Olivia got upset with her strict mom and the script defended Mom as if, like an Old Testament Todd, she was to be obeyed and praised absolutely. And so it was that, out of a void of tension and self-questioning, there came eye-splitting gospel-muzak.
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Joyful Noise

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