D.L.O musical theatre presents Big Fish on April 25 & 26, 2015 at DHS Dick Van Dyke Auditorium. Big fish is a Broadway musical directed by D.LO David and Jennifer Woodrow, choreography by D.L.O Merrit Spricer and Kathleen Spain-Swiersz, music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa. Big Fish is based on the novel by Daniel Wallace written in 1998. The musical brought out a great audience. There were families, friends, young children and teens who came out to see the musical. A theater critic is “A person who is professionally engaged in the analysis and interpretation of work of art” (The Free Dictionary by Farlex). As a theater critic, I believe big fish was a spectacular musical. The musical was overflowing with love, faith, closure, humor and forgiveness. Not only did the music tell the story but the stagecraft, custom and actors also told the story. Big fish creative ways engage the audience into its love story. …show more content…
Every portion of music that was played in the musical had its own story line and setting. For example, the backdrops and characters were different. In act 1 Edward bloom, who is played by Robert Scott teaches his young son will, who is played by Noah Acree how to properly catch a fish by doing the Alabama stomp (“Be the Hero”). The setting and music also change in act 2 when Edward bloom start to tell his war stories to young Will and his friends around a bonfire. The musical wasn’t just about a relationship between a father and his son, it was also about music. The show was representing music through the art of imagination. There was a story behind every piece of music. Songs comes with lyrics and for any songs that has lyrics, the words of the song tell a story. If the songs were removed from the musical, the musical really wouldn’t be the same. The songs helps the audience better understand the show. Without the songs there’s no show. Without the songs it will be difficult for the audience to enjoy the musical for what it
The producer Bill Kenwright picked up the rights to the musical in 1987, and a re-vamped Blood Brother returned to the West Endthe following year. The story is set in Liverpoolin the 1960s and it centres on Mrs Johnston and her family. It tells a demoralizing tale of two twin brothers separated at birth that grew up in two different social classes and how their lives become unavoidably linked endingin them finally becoming reunited in death. It tells the agonising story of a mother's utter anguish of losing her child and shows us the impoverished life she led and her financial desperation which resulted in her striking... ...
Stephen Sondheim was born in New York on March 22, 1930. His mother was a fashion designer, and his father a dress manufacturer. At age ten, Sondheim’s parents divorced, and he moved to rural Pennsylvania with his mother shortly after (“Stephen Sondheim- Academy of Achievement”). In Pennsylvania, Stephen befriended his neighbor, James Hammerstein, as well as James’ parents Dorothy and Oscar. The Hammersteins would become like a second family to Stephen. He especially admired Oscar, a musical theatre giant, saying of the man, “I wanted to be whatever Oscar was… if Oscar had been a geologist, I would have become one too” (“The World of the Play: Stephen Sondheim”). Sondheim, mentored by Hammerstein, went on to study music and, eventually, became one of the most distinguished composers in musical theatre (“The World”). Stephen Sondheim’s writing redefined American musical theatre and inspired creativity among others in his field. He has worked on some of the most iconic modern musicals and continues to make meaningful contributions to the world of musical theatre (Miranda).
1. The show that I saw was Big Fish by John August. I saw it at the Hale Centre Theatre on November 27th, 2015. The show was two hours and fifteen minutes long.
Musical theatre is a type of theatrical performance combining music, dance, acting and spoken dialogue. Written by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim, ‘West Side Story’ is a classic American musical based on William Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’. The through-composed score and lyrics are used to portray different characters and their cultures, the rivalry between the Jets and Sharks, and the emotions felt as the story progresses. This essay will be exploring the music and how effective the score is in realising the world and characters of the musical. Furthermore, it will discuss how Bernstein and Sondheim relate characters’ diverse ethnicities to particular musical ideas and motifs.
The theme of the play has to do with the way that life is an endless cycle. You're born, you have some happy times, you have some bad times, and then you die. As the years pass by, everything seems to change. But all in all there is little change. The sun always rises in the early morning, and sets in the evening. The seasons always rotate like they always have. The birds are always chirping. And there is always somebody that has life a little bit worse than your own.
The musicals that were produced around that time period were meant to be strictly for entertainment, for the most part. It was a very brave move for the creative team of this musical to tackle themes like racism, violence, and death. The risk definitely paid off, because even today West Side Story still remains a very popular musical. The main message that this show is trying to convey to the audience is that it shouldn’t take a horrible tragedy to finally unite people. Just because someone may not look the same way you do, or act the same way, or share your same belief system, that doesn’t mean you have to be fearful of them. Instead we should try our hardest to embrace the fact that this world would be a very boring place without a little diversity, and it’s ok to celebrate the things that make us
As in all genres, the musicals have had its share of failures. Some worthy dramas have been pressed into service and musicalized and sometimes butchered in the process, and audiences have had to watch a fine play diluted into a mediocre musical. But the successes have been many and spectacular and they have left a long lasting effect on the American art and culture.
There were different types of music mentioned in the play. Work songs were one of the types of music mentioned. In the play, The Charles family men sat around the table and sang a work song reminiscing on the days of the past. Work songs, which are c...
Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein were both writers and producers in the theatre, but, their collaborative venture in the 1940’s introduced a new era of musical theatre. First, they wrote the first musical in which every element: music, lyrics, narrative, and even dance contributed to telling the story, each part blending and woven into the whole. Their new idea was a huge sensation with audiences, and brought with it, new recordings of shows with albums and records to follow and revival productions around the world. The duo changed the fate of musical theatre practically overnight, but, it couldn’t have been done without the projects, big or small, that got them there, their
Musical theatre is a type of theatrical performance combining music, dance, acting and spoken dialogue. West Side Story is a classic American musical based on the classic story "Romeo and Juliet". The through-composed score and lyrics are used to portray different characters and their cultures, the rivalry between the Jets and Sharks, and the emotions felt as the story progresses. However, we should inspect how the musical film through its music, its dances, its romantic melodrama, and its exoticism of cultural differences distracts from the racism in it. How does it attract, interpellate, and position ideologically the perceiving spectator — whose social construction of reality and racial differences belong to the U.S.A. — by spatially dividing
Also the songs really present the build up of certain situations on the stage and put a lot of attitude in the specific scene. For example the “ Jet Song” is the first song in the play. This is sung by a jet and it shows how much of a family they are. Another important song that is sung by Tony is “Something is Coming”. Tony sings this song to express his true feelings about the jets and how he has moved on from them. He has a gut feeling that something wonderful is going to take place soon in his life. Tony also sings a song called “Maria” which is about the girl he fell in love with at first sight. Maria sings a song called “ I feel pretty”. She sings this and explains how she is so in love with tony and she describes how nothing will tear her love with him apart. Riff sings a song called “cool” and it express his attitude and how he carries himself in fights, he means well and wants the best for the gang. All of these songs show how music can be a very powerful tool to express feeling and help be in that character 's
I experienced Chicago, the Broadway musical, and because I had seen the movie many times before, I knew all the songs and dances by heart. I loved it, but it was actually the movie that influenced me to become a “Chicago fan.” The movie is based on the 1996 Chicago revival of the original musical version of 1975. It was thrilling knowing that the making of the musical into a mainstream production would increase its accessibility and widen its distribution into all the corners of the world; now there is no excuse for people not to experience Chicago, and though not everyone can go to Broadway to see it, just about anyone can indulge themselves in this dazzling movie in the comfort of their homes. In addition to a fantasy world of singing, dancing and Vaudeville, the film also provides a narrative that is explicitly presented through Roxie’s point of view, creating a counter-human side to Roxie’s fantasy world so that the audience can easily identify and engage.
William, Johnny, Brick, Danny and Doug find in music a way out to their unfulfilled lives. They play the chords of their idols, embodying their lyrics as their own. He is leaving his hometown recreating himself in a new man, a new
thesis of how the musical brought our inner child out to realize our true struggles in life.
Big Fish, directed by Tim Burton, is a heart warming, comedic film, with many twists and turns. It explores the world of an eccentric father, while telling his life story. And so, our story begins.