My least favorite song
My least favorite song
The homecoming musical performed this year, in the Shaw Center Auditorium, was Little Shop of Horrors. Being part of the crew, gave me the opportunity to see the play grow from rehearsing on an empty stage, to what was presented on opening night. However, I only had one opportunity to seat in the audience and see the entire play on Thursday, September 19th. Not knowing much about the play before that night, I was very surprised about everything that happened. Everyone I thought was important ended up dead, and I wasn’t expecting that. But I really liked it, because it had that surprise factor that made me jump off my seat a couple of times. Also, it was well structured, making it easy to understand what led to every situation and the characters gave live to every scene making the musical exciting and funny, which kept me interested until the end.…
performance. I love that they use Benny Goodman’s composition to end the whole concert because it really brought the 1920’s big bang jazz’s feeling back to the audience. I think the repertoire for this performance was good because there were a mix of many different styles, such as contemporary pieces, swing, blues, free jazz, and etc. In my…
The actors in the play were extremely believable. They accomplished this by nailing all of their lines and moevmentsin the performance. The most successful actress was…
First off, the overall play was well preformed. The audience seemed to understand what was taking place and connected with the actresses' emotions. The people who were involved in putting on the play did an outstanding job. The transitions from sitting down until…
I already knew a good deal of the songs in the play, but there is nothing like hearing and seeing a song performed versus listening to it on a CD. For example, one of the biggest numbers is Defying Gravity. This is the end of the first act when Elphaba decides she will no longer let others hold her back from her own power. She wants to defy gravity', and fly, or in essence, not let others stand in her way because they are afraid of her. At the climax of the song, it is one of those powerful moments with a strong main vocalist and an equally strong chorus that simply shakes the auditorium. Elphaba is raised into the air and I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. The effect the music had on me was what really took me into the show. It flowed perfectly with the story. The music was not just support in Wicked; it was a character in its…
I did like most of the ballet, particularly the portrayal of the male lead – very strong and evidently spoilt in the first scene (his beating his hands on his thighs when he was not getting what he wanted) to the almost foetal being he becomes in the end scene. I liked the Siren and her almost dancing a Pas de Deux with her cape. I particularly liked the imagery of the table being turned and the son sliding down the slippery slope. I found the presence of the ensemble at times confusing, such as when they seemed to turn into crabs when the son was left completely without possessions.…
The song that I chose to listen to was “Hound Dog” by Big Mama Thornton and the cover by Elvis Presley. This is a very popular song and I’ve known it for a long time (as it was in the Disney movie Lilo and Stitch), yet I didn’t know until I was reading the textbook this week that Elvis Presley was not the original performer of this song. I really enjoyed listening to Big Mama Thornton sing it. She has a very deep, rich voice. I like that she sang it more smoothly, kind of legato, than Elvis Presley did. She also had a different instrumental sound and made barking sounds at the end. In contrast, Presley’s version is more bouncy and had different styling to make it so that he wasn’t making a complete copy of Big Mama Thornton’s song. In my opinion,…
Then I joined the Parkview theatre. As far as I could tell, everyone had seen this amazing musical except me. Lacking funds, I could not get the soundtrack. I’d not even heard any of the music until I joined Chelsea and Colleen’s skit of “What is This Feeling?” (Odd correlation, this song twice being my first introduction to the musical). I was blown away by how energetic and powerful the song was when I first heard in full, and scurried as fast as I could to the internet to look it up. Needless to say, I started to really want to see this musical. I had given up conviction of ever getting a chance to see it, though, since I had neither the time nor the money; then, a beacon of hope alighted upon my spirit: I was going to see Wicked at the Fox. That day, I saw Heaven in all of its glory, and I can confidently say that when I die, I am going to Oz…on stage.…
The Wizard of Oz was the famous directors, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayar's, most popular musical in his time. Starring Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale was one of the best…
The music and lyrics have proven to be some of the best in musical theatre with songs that include "Oh What a Beautiful Morning", "The Surrey with the Fringe on Top", People Will Say We're in Love, "I Can't Say No", "Oklahoma! and many more.…
Butterfly Dances was probably my favorite from that entire night. It is a set of variations from traditional Chinese folk songs which Root had expanded into viable melodies. It sounded to be in ABA form, but also seemed to be in symphonic form. It was very beautiful. You could hear the fluttering of butterfly wings from the wind section of the band. The last movement was more dark than the rest. It had a forte and mezzo forte dynamic, as well as there was some ritardando and crescendo in the piece. The tempo changed between vivace, allegro and andante. I really enjoyed it. Thomas Root really got way into conducting. He was jumping and flailing his arms all over, which was rather entertaining.…
With Oklahoma taking place shortly after the turn of the century I think it brought on a whole new genre of entertainment to people. Although the plot is very simple and predictable it was portrayed in an upbeat way that people where not used to seeing. One observation I had from the reading Oklahoma was the clever way they used the music as part of the dialogue. Most plays use song as a way to keep the audience entertained. However, I think Oklahoma used the music to tell the stories of the characters in the play. Several characters were introduced during songs of the musical. The characters would sing songs either about themselves or others in the play. It was a way for them to express their feelings about one another and allow the story to progress on in a smooth manner.…
Combine the costumes with the Caribbean feel to the stage and I saw Havana in Gainesville. The stage had a couple of little tables but an enormous stage for dancing. This resembled a lot of the Latin dance clubs I have been to in Miami as well as the stories that I had been told in my youth. The lights were dimmed to create this blue color resembling the fact that it was nighttime and the club outdoors. The costumes and stage design of the Havana scene was nostalgic for me in a way because I got to remember my late grandmother and the memories I shared with her before her recent passing. I will never forget those stories just as I will never forget Guys and Dolls.…
The best lyrics he wrote for a show was sweeney todd and it's my favorite show in theatre because the movie was cool and i like how they made pies out of humans and people didn't know and sweeney killed everyone it was…
We went to a read through of the play that was at her house, so everyone who was in it could get their script, and meet their fellow cast members. It was all very enjoyable, everyone there was nice, and all had some funny, weird quirks that made that practice, and all other ones after the fact hilarious, if somewhat…