Review: Analisa Bell's PASS ME THE POPCORN at Don't Tell Mama Is Delightful

Analisa Bell’s Pass Me the Popcorn: Songs from the Movies is a delightful solo show, Bell's first back since the originally COVID lockdown. She performed the show several times last year, and I finally caught the December 30, 2024 performance at the intimate back room at Don’t Tell Mama. Bell closed out the year with a bang with laughs, stories and lovely song. In the show, she takes us through some of her favorite musical moments from movies, sharing personal connections along the way. We went all the way back in time from old MGM movie musicals that her dad taught her to love back in Australia at the arthouse cinema where he used to work, up to contemporary classics like 2024’s Mean Girls (she used to babysit for the girl who played Cady in the most recent movie!).

In addition to lovely tunes, the show features plenty of laughs, lampooning everything from Jaws to Disney via clever parody songs. Towards the start of the show, she did a clever medley of movie theme songs with a line or two about it, sending up the likes of E.T. and James Bond with laugh-out-loud act-outs and hilarious lyrics. Bell has an impeccable comedic sensibility; the crowd was in hysterics at Bell’s deadpan delivery of Chrissa Sparkles’ “Disney Channel,” a song about the unrealistic romantic expectations that Disney movies set young girls up for. She accompanied herself on ukelele for the funny “Grow Old With You” from The Wedding Singer.

Bell also chose some lovely classic movie musical songs, sung beautifully, such as “Moon River” from Breakfast at Tiffany’s, “If I Loved You” from Carousel, songs that have special resonance for her as they remind her of the movies her father loved. Talented Musical Director Kevin Winebold, accompanying on the piano, played a rousing medley of selections from classic John Williams scores, with some fun audience interaction (Bell encouraged everyone to see how many movies they could name). Throughout, we got to know Bell a little bit. The December 30th show came on the eve of her 10th “New York-iversary,” which she honored with a poignant “I Happen to Like New York.” We heard the story of how Bell got to meet Faith Prince, who served as a Creative Consultant on this show. Throughout it all, the backbone of the show is Bell’s love for her father, who she recently helped move into a nursing home. She closed out the night by leading the crowd in a sing-along of one of his absolute favorite songs, “Que Sara, Sara,” from The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Pass Me the Popcorn provided a wonderful night of song and a reminder of the role that movies play in our lives: building family relationships, formative memories, and maybe even helping us tell our own stories by showing us the lives of fictional people.

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Header photo credit: Conor Weiss.

See Conor’s full set of photos from the June performance of the show.

For more upcoming shows at Don't Tell Mama, visit their website.

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