Junie B In Jingle Bells Play Analysis

Live Theatre Critique of "Junie B. in Jingle Bells, Batman Smells"
On Sunday November 20, 2011 at two o'clock pm, I went to the Nashville Children's Theatre to see a play that was written by Allison Gregory called "Junie B. in Jingle bells, Batman smells. The play was directed by Peter Vann. I choose to see this particular play because as a child, I enjoyed reading Junie B. Jones books. The author does a great job telling stories about Junie B. in a way that makes a child want to keep reading. As I was being seated, my initial impression was that the theatre was very small and simple. It wasn't fancy like most theatres. It reminded my of a high school auditorum. They had the stage set up like a class room for the scene they were doing first. The first part of the play was set up
like an classroom, and the second part pf the play was set up like a bookstore. The pre-show music that was playing was soft chrismas music. Not much singing just mostly instumental. As I was expecting, there were more children then teenagers. Parents and grandparents were there, but as for ages that attended, it was mostly children. Before the show began, the producers asked everyone to turn off their cell phones and anything with a distracting light. The show was mostly dark so any bright lights would distract the play. The play ran smoothly nothung distratcing happened. The plot of the play was about a girl named Junie B. Jones who was stuck between buying gifts for others or herself. Her parents gave her enough money to go to the book store and buy gifts for her family. Once she went to the book store, she laid her eyes on something she wanted for herself. The toy was called a squeeze a burp. Meanwhile, in class the teacher decided for the students to draw names of others in the class to buy gifts for. With her luck, she drew May's name. May is a girl in Junie B. class that does not get along with her. They always fight and get in trouble. Junie B. just had to have that toy for herself. She went home and asked her grandpa Miller for some money and he gave it to her. She now had enough money to buy gifts for her family and herself. She decided that she was going to give May some ashes because she was a mean girl and didn't deserve any gifts. She end up buying the squeeze a burp toy for herself. As the children were putting the gifts in each other stocking she stated to think to herself is what she doing is right. Junie B. decided to do right so she could be on Santas nice list and gave May the squeeze a burp toy. The girls ended up being friends at the end and they played with the toy that Junie B had bought. The characters in the play behaved exzactly like they should have for this play. They portrayed a typical child in school. Selfish and argumenative with each others at time. The main characters of the play were Junie B. Jones, played by Brooke Bryant and May who was played by Cori Anne Laemmel. I think the genre of the play was comedy. Many of the scenes acted out in the play had not only the children laughing, but also the adults has well. Throughout the play Junie B and May did not get along as much. Junie B was also being selfish towards others than herself. The play was trying to accomplish friendship between the two girls and also teach Junie B not to be selfish, but giving. Through out the play they played christmas music, and music that inspired the things that were going on during that scene. They also played special effects sounds for certain parts. The part where Junie B gets into trouble, they played a noise that you would expect to here when someone is getting in to trouble or is doing something they shouldn't be doing. They also had great use of the lighting effects. There were parts of the play were Junie B would talk to her self as she were talking in her head. They would put a spot light on her and black everything else out so that you know that it is ment only for the audience to here and not the other characters.
The director Peter Vann did a wounderful job in directing the play. He made sure that it felt as if the characters were actually children instead of adults. They played it well putting their self in a childs place. Each character acted out their lines perfectly. If any mistakes were made I didn't notice. Their tone and body language went well with their emotins and expressions that they had to act out. Having a little knowledge about Junie B, I would have never expected for her to buy May a gift or for them to get a long in the play. Brooke Bryant did a great interpetation of Junie B. Her voiced matched her personality of a snooty, selfish girl that thinks she knows it all. I think that Brooke Bryant and Cori Laemmel held their chacter of the girls very well. There were parts of the play whene they had to do or say funny things and they did it without laughing and remained in character. Brooke Bryant broke the forth wall in a scene where she was in the spot light talking to her self. But I think that it was part of the play for her to do that. Maybe to get the audience involved or just to make contact with the children to
make them laugh. I noticed that many of the children enjoyed the play. The costume designer Patricia Taber did a good job designing the costumes. Each costume fitted each of the characters personalty that was being portrayed. Their was a rich girl in the class named Lucille and her costume was a pretty dress that looked expensive. Since her charcter was a rich girl, her fancy dress showed that she came from money without her having to say anything about it. I would definatly recommed this play to a friend or a family memeber that has children or have read any of the Junie B Jones books. The play ended on the note that Junie B and May finally got along and Junie B felt proud of herself for doing what she did. After that scene I thought the play was over. Brooke Byant, the character of Junie B began to sing. I didn't expect to her such beautiful singing. All the charcters joined togther and began singing a christmas song. They said Merry christmas and bowed and then the play was over. My favorite part of the play was at the end when they start singing. I didn't expect for them to sing at all and especially not the way they did. The play was a huge successe and I would defintaly go see it again.