We all bring preconceived concepts when we go to the theater. With “Camelot,” I have many. The source material – T.H. White’s “Once and Future King,” detailing the Arthurian legend, is my favorite book – and I was dazzled by Lerner & Loewe’s 1960 Broadway show with Richard Burton, Julie Andrews and Robert Goulet. I can even remember how Jacqueline Kennedy associated it with her late husband’s brief tenure as President of the United States. Just the name “Camelot” strikes a deep resonance inside me.

So while I was eager to see the new version of “Camelot” at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, I was curious about Aaron Sorkin’s revision of Alan Jay Lerner’s libretto and Bartlett Sher’s casting. The first I found provocative, the second disconcerting.

Best known for TV’s popular “West Wing,” Oscar- and Emmy-winning Aaron Sorkin is a master wordsmith; he’s updated T.H. White’s romantic fantasy to a more idealistically political concept, no longer filled with sorcery and spells.  After all, the reason France’s Princess Guenevere (Phillipa Soo) married England’s King Arthur (Andrew Burnap) was to broker a treaty between their nations. 

While their union brings peace and prosperity, along with a new concept of equality and fairness, at no time does the insecure, aloof Arthur express any modicum of affection for Guenevere. Instead, he calls her his “business partner.”  Indeed, he seems far too boyish, awkward and sexless to cope with her snarky sophistication – which makes one wonder if their union was ever consummated.

So when uber-manly, vainglorious Lancelot du Lac (Jordan Donica) arrives in court, it seems only natural for Guenevere to be attracted to him. Sorkin hints that her adultery isn’t as much a betrayal as a desperate plea for physical affection. Of course, that’s not the way it’s reported by malevolent Mordred (Taylor Trensch), Arthur’s illegitimate son from a one-night stand with cynical, conniving Morgan La Fey (Marilee Talkington). 

In 2019, Bartlett Sher staged a Lincoln Center concert version of “Camelot” with Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Arthur; too bad he could not repeat that sublime casting. Eliminating the magic was one thing but not to offer equally aspirational casting in its place is a major mistake.

Scenic designer Michael Yeargen disappoints by never showing an actual ‘Round Table’ on his overly-spare set but Jennifer Moeller’s medieval costumes are quite sumptuous and kudos to B.H. Barry’s rousing swordfight.

Fortunately Frederick Loewe’s original score remains intact – except “I Loved You Once In Silence” is sung before, not after the love-making, which doesn’t make sense.  But Robert Russell Bennett & Philip J. Lang’s orchestrations are well served by Music Director Kimberly Grigsby’s 30-piece orchestra.

Performing Tuesday through Sunday at Lincoln Center’s Vivian Beaumont Theater, “Camelot” runs approximately 2 hours, 55 minutes with one intermission. 

Tom Hanks stars in “A Man Called Otto,” a remake of the popular 2015 Swedish film “A Man Called Ove” which was Oscar-nominated for Best Foreign Language Film.

Forcibly retired from his engineering manager job, widowed Otto Anderson (Hanks) is bitter and resentful.  So now he spends the majority of his time patrolling and enforcing the rules of his gated neighborhood, located somewhere in suburban Pennsylvania. 

Cranky Otto complains a lot, unleashing his anger at a delivery truck driver for unauthorized parking, a woman whose dog urinates on his lawn, a man who exercises in a skintight outfit, a stray cat that settles near his garage and – above all – a large real estate conglomerate.

Aptly described as “a grumpy old bastard,” he’s contemplating another suicide attempt when very pregnant Marisol (Mariana Trevino), his new immigrant neighbor, seems determined to befriend him, along with her dim-witted husband (Manuel Garcia-Rulfo) and two young daughters.

Even for Otto, her plaintive requests for help are irresistible, as he gradually not only lends her husband some tools but also volunteers to teach her how to drive. Good-natured Marisol repays by delivering delicious homemade food.

What most people don’t realize is the heartache behind misanthropic Otto’s contentious behavior. Flashbacks reveal how and why Otto lost his sense of purpose in life after his beloved wife Sonya (Rachel Keler) died. 

Tom Hanks delivers a carefully modulated, understated performance. It is fascinating how well his son, Truman Hanks, plays ‘young’ Otto. 

Formulaically adapted from Fredrik Backman’s best-selling novel by David Magee and directed with restraint by Marc Forster, this comedic drama tends to be a bit too melodramatic, encompassing a railroad train track rescue, Otto’s reconciliation with a former friend and the despair of Sonya’s transgender former student.

FYI: Tom Hanks’ wife, Rita Wilson, is listed as a producer and she sings “’Till You’re Home” with Sebastian Yatra on the soundtrack.

On the Granger Gauge of 1 to 10, “A Man Called Otto” is a subtle, sincerely redemptive 7, streaming on Prime Video.

It’s disappointing to be watching a gothic whodunit and suddenly realize: Who cares?

That’s the problem with “The Pale Blue Eye,” introducing dour Augustus Landor (Christian Bale), a tormented, widowed detective who has a cottage in New York’s Hudson Valley near the West Point Military Academy in the winter of 1830.

When a cadet’s body is found dead in the snow and then his body is brutally mutilated, reclusive Landor is recruited by Colonel Thayer (Timothy Spall) and Captain Hitchcock (Simon McBurney) to find the perpetrator and save the fledgling Academy’s tenuous reputation.

Questioning the victim’s fellow cadets, Landor befriends pallid, young Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling), an obvious eccentric who was a published poet at the time but had not yet established his literary reputation writing murder mysteries. Landor also becomes involved with a local barmaid (Charlotte Gainsbourg) who fills him in on some pertinent details.

There’s Dr. Daniel Marquis (Toby Jones), married to socialite Julia (Gillian Anderson). They have two grown children: arrogant cadet Artemus (Harry Lawtey) and ailing daughter Lea (Lucy Boynton), whom impetuous Poe is covertly courting.

And – on occasion – Landor visits an old friend (Robert Duvall) who seems to be an expert on satanic rituals and the occult.

Based on the 2003 novel by Louis Bayard that was allegedly drawn from real-life events, it serves as a Poe origin story but director/screenwriter Scott Cooper fails to establish any empathy either with Landor or Poe, making the bleak story-telling a bit of a slog. Curiously, since the setting is American, most of the actors are British.

The title comes from Poe’s famous “The Tell-Tale Heart” (1843): “One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture – a pale blue eye with a film over it.” And the character of Augustus Landor appeared in Poe’s “Landor’s Cottage,” his final short story.

On the Granger Gauge, “The Pale Blue Eye” is a florid yet frosty 5, streaming on Netflix.