On a cold, brisk Tuesday night, I attended the musical called Urinetown by Mark Hollmann and Greg Kotis. Urinetown was held in Rowand-Johnson Hall, at the Marian Gallaway Theatre. As I quickly walked in the entrance, I noticed that people were wearing casual attire. I gave the usher my ticket and walked to my seat. This time my seat was located up at the front so I had a great view of the stage. This particular theatre is my favorite, it is very open and you can see from every seat. This musical is known to be a musical comedy which deals with different themes, unique text, and extraordinary technical elements.
The musical Urinetown started off quite differently than the other plays and dances that I have attended this semester. As the lights began to fade, the audience slowly got quiet and the sound of an orchestra amplified the room. When the narrator, known as the “Cop” began telling the story, I was instantly engaged and excited for the musical to start. The main purpose of this musical was to grab the audience’s attention through stepping outside of the fictional reality of the show. Urinetown is based upon your own personal experience of humor, satire, and simply making fun of this specific genre of music. The social fantasy of selfishness, exploitation, environmentalism, and various political topics in our society allows us to laugh at the “headache” of Urinetown.
As we dig deeper into Urinetown, we must take the major themes into consideration. The three most significant themes include the following; corruption of authority, democracy, and class systems. Each of these themes creates the storyline and all relate to one another. A great example of the corruption of authority, is when the poor people are lined up, waiting...
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...ilk dress symbolizing a smooth, wealthy, youthful like style.
The sound design and choreography intensified the overall musical. They created the time, place, and mood through rhythm and great energy. The actors had wireless, behind the ear mikes, that attached to the mike pack which amplified the sound, making it very clear. I could easily understand what they were talking about or singing.
In conclusion, Urinetown was a funny, engaging, and entertaining musical. It is probably one of my favorite musicals of all time. The actors did a great job representing a life-like image of the characters. The music was enjoyable and you could bob your head to the tempo. The choreography was very unique and well organized. Each musical number was fun and grabbed the audience’s attention. I would recommend everyone in the community to come watch the extravagant performance.
Musical theatre has been around for quite a while. But where exactly did it come from? The book Anything Goes, written by Ethan Mordden looks to explore just that. From operas to musical comedies, Mordden covers the basic history of musical theatre and why it’s important for the world to know.
The audience is an important factor to determine the success of a spectacle. It is known that there is no spectacle without audience. The musical theater presentations are known for their number of people, which according to the Broadway League (n.d.), the 2013 season reached attendance of 11.57 million. However, the number of spectators has been decreased in comparison with the peak of popularity for musicals in the last century. The first reason for that is that the spectators of musical theater presentations were a more specific group such as wealthy and intellectual people that used to go to this type of presentation, and this pattern has been consistent until now, as it can be seen in the price of a Broadway spectacle that is very expensive. Second, the spectators have to go where the spectacles are set up, which makes the live presenta...
Every performance was presented with charm. The flashing, changing colors seem to go along with the performances. The director was humorous. The performers outfits were on point too. I liked the color coding of the vocalists, Jeremy, Jordan, and Rowan. Also, Julie wore a pretty suede dress and had a great voice. It was nice to see her come out for the 2nd time to sing. When Spencer kept playing his saxophone in some of the performances, it was just amazing. Some of my favorite performances were Sittin on the Dock of the Bay, Ain’t too Proud to Beg, In a Sentimental Mood, and more. It really made me feel like I was in New Orleans all over again. I absolutely love Otis Redding and The Temptations music, so I wasn’t new to these songs they played. I was sitting in the back (R-125) where I felt comfortable to bob my head to the music. If I ever come back to see another concert, I will make sure to get a seat in the back again. I adore Jordan that did sung the Temptations song. I thought it was exciting to see his enthusiasm while on stage keeping us engaged, but everyone did great in their own way. The song by Duke Ellington made me feel melancholy, the piece was soft. I just couldn’t believe how well everyone contributed and gave an outstanding
On a Wednesday night I saw Texas State Theatre and Dance Department's performance of A Chorus Line. The main plot of the musical entails the audition of 17 dancers for several Broadway roles on the chorus line. However, during their auditions the director Zach asks for personal stories of each dancer's life. Though the plot of this musical is seemingly simple in its twist on the traditional audition, it explores themes that reveal the human experience, the search for individuality, and the sense of self.
I am lucky enough to be a part of Urinetown as the understudy for Penelope Pennywise and Josephine Strong. I have had a unique perspective of the show because I participated in pre-production, watched nearly every rehearsal, and even performed as Pennywise in front of an audience. I have witnessed first-hand how hard all of the actors and members of production team have worked. Being an understudy in this production has been one of the most enriching, stressful, rewarding, trying, and incredible theatre experiences I have ever had.
Wells, E A. (2011) West Side Story Cultural Perspectives on an American musical. Maryland: Scarecrow Press, Inc.
Theater is acting, and each actor that was involved in this production was fantastic. Page Ogle who played Dolly did a very good job being a sweet talking, yet manipulative woman in the 1890s. I would have critiqued her on just one thing, slow down!
The Music Man made interesting use of the technical aspects of theatre. Sound was used appropriately, as music from the monitors did not overpower the voices of the actors. Lights, however, did not leave any sort of impression on me. Hardly any lights were utilized to enhance the mood were present. This caused for less emphasization on spectacle than what would be expected of such a dramatic play. Although, intricate costumes and set made up for the dull lighting techniques.
The production had many elements which for the most part formed a coalition to further the plot. The characters, the three part scenery and costumes represented well the period of time these people were going through. As far as the performers entering and exiting the stage, it could have been more organized. There were a few times when the performers exited at the wrong times or it seemed so due to the echo of the music. At certain moments the music was slightly loud and drowned the performers. Many of the songs dragged on, so the pacing could have been more effectively executed. Though the music was off at times, the director's decision to have most of the songs performed center sage was a wise one. Also the implementation of actual white characters that were competent in their roles came as a great surprise to the audience and heightened the realism.
Overall, the score was beautiful and appropriate, adding suspense and mystery at all the right times. The sound effects added psychological flavor to the story without drawing too much attention to it.
In conclusion, everyone who enjoys the magic of Broadway and the fantasy world of Hollywood must watch Chicago. Although it is at most difficult to translate a stage musical to an Award-winning film, the vision of director was carefully carried making Chicago a very enjoyable film for the whole family.
During our Intro to Theatre class, I watched the NBC production of The Wiz which was a live broadcasted musical from the story book adaptation of The Wizard of Oz. For a four-day period, we discovered the adventures of our teenage protagonist named Dorothy, who was whisked into the magical world of Oz. Along with a Scarecrow, Tin Man, and Lion, Dorothy and the gang go through Oz to seek the magical Wiz to get Dorothy back home to her farm in Kansas. On her journey, she learns the true meaning of love, courage, and what home really means to her. As an overall musical, The Wiz brought a compelling note recreating a classic story and twisting it into a musical with a unique cast, delightful costumes, and melodious songs. For me, the musical was
...attracted more audiences. There were different features in this musical like stereotype on teenagers and racial issues, they appeared in some of the scenes and they were important to the story plot. The other big feature in the production was the tradition of cast in Edna Turnblad’s role, every production of this musical used actor to take the role instead of actress. It became one of the reasons that made audience went to cinemas to watch this film and this role received quite a number of positive comments. There were also symbols in the production as well, they signified different meanings towards to plot and the character traits for example fame and the growth. Finally the themes were positive in the musical and made the audience learn from most of the characters, the settings were also good and it was a good piece of production either in stage and film version.
The performance started with an exhilarating motivational dance to introduce the performers then led into this very emotional piece about a seventy-year-old woman who was titled The Flood. This sorrowful story was about an elderly lady that lived her life embarrassed about her vagina after a terrible date she had as a teenager. On a night out with her date this unfortunate woman was overcome with a sexual arousal symptom of vaginal discharge, in her dates car seat this discharge comes flooding out of this woman’s vagina and forever terrifying her for any future relationships, forever worrying that this act may happen again. This woman’s story was an eye opener for me because of the fact that she had no idea what or why this symptom was occurring and that she had never told anyone about her disturbing experience. This just indicated that back in her time these issues where not open for discussion. ...