twincityhacker | Entries tagged with theatre

I came back from "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum." Which succeeds very well as a parody of Plautus and the rest of New Comedy's plays. The main couple was beautiful but dumb as a box of rocks.

Which was par for the course for the girl in question, in New Comedy. "Bimbo" is the kind term.

The slaves were the smartest people in the entire play, the son and father falling for the same girl, there was cross dressing, and five mistaken identities, and the problem was solved by the slave girl being the long lost daughter of a rich neighbor.

And Sondhim and Co. cut out the really horrendous bits of New Comedy. Which, seriously, yay!

Current Mood: happy

We got done about an hour ago of my Theatre and Drama class' production of "Two Gentlemen of Verona." Oddly, the audience never showed up. I guess all 17 of them forgot?

Anyway, I again played a man's role. I was Outlaw One. I got to threaten Speed and Valentine with a knife - while being a southern gangbanger. As the professor told us to be loud and fast and funny. I think the band of outlaws succeeded, but the professor did not say if as a class we passed or failed.

The play is a bit odd, with a lot hinging on people writing, delivering, and rejecting letters. My favorite part had to be the Duke played it that he had some interest in bedding Valentino. ( And as we entered, Keyon did a bit of break dancing.

Current Mood: accomplished

The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. What the hell? It was billed as a comedy. What it was was Russians drearily going though life, falling in love with disastrous consequences, and being fucked around by those higher up in the food-chain. There did end up being a higher body count than I was expecting, but only just.

Christ, I need to read something with fluffy bunnies and unicorns and mice in feety pajamas.

If you happen to turn your dials - or stream - tomorrow's Prairie Home Companion, you might recognize the name of the place they're doing it from. My university!

And I'll be in the audience. Sooner or later, as they'll probably having all of us doing late seating. = )

And we're all going to hope that Garrison Keller doesn't give the manager ulcers this time.

Current Mood: jubilant

Just signed up for ushering. Of course, since I have an 8:00 AM class, and the sign ups started at 8:00 AM, most of the shows were already gone.

But I was able to sign up for the one thing I really, really wanted to do: Usher one of the Dali Lama programs. With, the real, actual, Dali Lama.* And since it's Saturday, it doesn't conflict with anything!

*As opposed to the fake, soy-based one, obviously.

So, The Lion King!

We drove into St. Louis to the Fabulous Fox Theatre. It really is deserving of the fabulous, with it's blinking Lion eye's and other decorations. Though there are places where I can tell that it must have been damaged because the decoration is v. v. sparse.

The show itself was awesome! It had puppets! It had good, bouncy music! And the sidekicks got the best lines, obviously.

( The bestest )

The parentals thought the best costume went to the giraffes, I thought it was tied between the lionesses, who ripped out tear-streamers when mourning, or the Africa-on-Acid costumes during "I Just Can't Wait to be King."

Scar and Zazu was a definite runners up though.

...

This afternoon I'm going to get my hair cut. Chopped off would be a better term, because it's going from from vaugely waist length ( depending on how curly it is ) to shoulder length. And hopefully Locks o' Love will take it.

Current Mood: bouncy

I went - actually went and paid money for instead of ushering - to go see "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" last night.

It was fantastic! Musical crack at it's best. The lyrics were funny, and the props ( especially the little camel on the wheels that the slave traders where hauling about when they dragged Joseph to Egypt were great. The program was even funny! And the number with the very flexible waitress?

But the best were the costumes. Day-glow cheerleaders! Wild West! And at the very end Joseph and his Amazing Technicolor Disco Ball.

I might have also bought the last years national tour album too.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Music: Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat

I just ushered a Garrison Keiler show.

My through is raw from laughing so much, and so hard. Oh, God, he's fantastic! And even when you saw what was going to happen from miles away, it was still hysterical when the payoff finally hit.

No photos, no sound files, because it's bad form for the people who do the ushering and telling people not to take pictures to be taking bootlegs of the performance. = )

Current Mood: ecstatic

I seem to have far more Ruthie Henshall on my computer than I thought: she's in the Les Miserables Dream Cast! As Fantine, so it's not like there's loads of her, but she's there.

Speaking of musicals, I still have no idea what Anything Goes cast to get. Can I get a recomendation from someone?

Or, if you can, a particular La Cage Aux Folles recording? Help a fangirl out!

I ushered for Hairspray on Tuesday.

By the fact that I'm only now posting about it, I think you can guess about my views on it.

Hairspray wasn't completely knock my socks off awesome like "The Producers." Nor was it the somewhat boredom of the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. It was an amusing diversion, but I have no desire to watch all three performances of it.

One of the real highlights I think I was one of the few people to get, as Link said something along the lines of "I don't see how Rock Hudson keeps the ladies off of him!" Or maybe it wasn't supposed to be funny. That and "Oh, it's your very first blow torch!" and Edna and Walter were cute, as was one of the lines Edna had was "All my life, this is the first time I've been arrested. My mother would be so proud." And explains it with "She was a suffragette."

But the plot? *sighs* I just don't think that the integration story line worked well. It was just a little too simplistic, you know? But I did like the theme on appearance.

Current Mood: apathetic

I ushered at the Drummers of Brundi concert at the audiotorium.

I am never, ever, doing such thing again.

The warm-up act - Mombasa Party - was somewhat intresting. Well, it was more miss than hit, as out of the eight song set I only cared for two of the songs. The first one was because one of the preformers played that insutument that is just the little pices of scrap metal that you pluck, and it made soe nice music. The other was the song "Jambo." It had a sum total of six lines of song that was refrained in the entire piece, and since the program helpfully gave the English translation of the song... though really, I could have gussed what they were saying, as the song pretty mch was made up of all the Swahli that I understand (Jambo! Habari gani! M'zuri Sana! Kenya mwakaribishwa! Hakuna matata! - Hello! How are you? I'm fine. You are welcome in Kenya! No worries!) The song is surprisingly catchy, though it made most of the ushers imediately either sing "Hakuna Matata."

Somewhere durring the third rythem, my mind just gae up and wandered off becaue it just seemed so bloody long. So I was debating about some minor detail in a story or homework assignemnt I was startled out of my revire when I realized that the show was over. Apparently, I suck at judging when the rythms changed, as the hugely long third rythem was rythems three though twelve, and thus really was an hour and a half.

So, in the future I know to pass on musical entertainment that centers on purely drums. Or Swahili.

Today was the last two shows of The Producers at the Audiotorum. I got to do stage guard, so I sat in the front row (though way far to the right side) for the show, and it was quite awesome. Especialy since I could see all the way into the wing and see them prepping sets and doing quick fixes like the old lady on roller skates geting a cervical collar.

I also noticed that two of the alley dances were seemtresses, and that one makes a later apprence as someone going backstage during the Good Luck song. (It's the same costume, so I'm guessing.)

And I did late seating. It sucked, because for a moment I thought that there were someone sitting in the seats that I had the ticket for, and then the woman of the couple I was escorting asked if the two empty seats in the middle wasn't theirs. -_-O the evening ushering went far better than the afternoon ushering, though. I didn't seat anyone in the wrong seats, though my patter sucked far more at night - especialy for the cast memeber, because I coudn't very well ask if it was his first time seeing "The Producers," huh? = )

But, pre-ushering we untied a 15 person knot. And played some pretty cut throught games of "special fact muscial chairs."

though best moment was clearly singing "Happy Birthday" to one of the cast memebers during "Betrayed". *nods*

Current Mood: tired

For some reason, the IU audiotorium decied that it would treat those in the usher corps to a free viewing of The Producers.

And since I got dropped from ushering today, I went. And had the best set in the audiotoruim, just above the C door in the upper orchestra so I was dead center and eye level with the cast.

And dear God, I thought that the movies were intesting, but this took the cake. Maybe because I was watching it with a few hundred of my closest friends. Though I could tell where things were changed from the brodway show to the road show, as the modern swedish office was tossed. I'm always disapointed that the bit about Calgulia being killed by his mother was thrown out (perhaps since my mind always throws it back in after I watch the newer versions?) But, it was lovely, with the singing and dancing, and all the little sight gags (hello, brodway hookers!) and that one of the theatres in the background was St. James.

Though, honestly, one of my favorite parts was INTERMISSION! part of "Betrayed!" as the guy lodly proclaimed as he was presuing the playbill that the trumpeter was an IU alum. Everyone burst out at that. With a close second of "'Till Him" with tons of awwws. Or "Goodbye!" where Roger swept Carmen into his arms and Max slapped Leo on the butt. = )

I think I died of laughter, as I' way too tired from just sitting and watching a musical for a few hours.

Current Mood: ecstatic
Current Music: The Producers - Springtime for Hitler

I ushered for the IU Audiotorium for the first time last night. I had door duty, so I just held open the door and greeted people as they entered, told people where the various diffrent ticket lines were, and said that the IU Audiotorium did not validate parking.

The other guy that held the other door open was pretty cool. I mean, how often does someone ask what flavor of multipule dimenional theory you cater too?

But the most exciting thing of all was when the fire engines came. For pretty much no reason, except a little earlier I saw a pulled alarm, but if it was for that, they were more than two hours late.

Anyway, I did my bit and so I got to watch Martha Grahm's Dance Company for free. I was... underwhelmed by it, and very glad I did not pay to see "Diversion of Angels" or "Appalacion Spring" when then they started to do segements of "The Chronicles" That last one just rocked the house down, if one can indeed rock down with modern ballet. Especialy the first segment of "Spectre - 1914." Though "Steps in the Street" and "Prelude to Action" where also lovely.

All "The Chronicals" deals with the horror of war, and was specificaly written in 1936 inconcurrence with rise of fascisim in Europe, with "Spectre - 1914" being subtitled before the catastrophy, and "Steps and the Street" being subtitled after the catastrophy, and "Prelude to Action" being subtittled a plege to the future, but sadly the ending parts of the dance where everyone realized that the idea sucked didn't happen until the deaths of 55 million people.

In other words, I apparently like my modern ballet with heeps of angst.