Category: Theatre

REVIEW: King Lear

Ronald McTrump Leave a comment

This production of King Lear was absolutely fantastic.  Although I was watching it on the screen, I felt a strong connection to everything happening on stage. The camera work was incredible, I didn’t miss a single word or motion on an actors face. The lighting, music, and scene transitions of the play was dramatic and engaging. If the Michigan Theater is ever showing a performance live in HD, know that it is the next best substitute to being at the theatre house yourself.

As a warning, this review is not going to be a synopsis of what happened in the play. That is available on SparkNotes. I’m going to write about my thoughts/interpretation, and this review is meant for those familiar with what happened in King Lear.

Although King Lear is very popular today, for many centuries King Lear was not played because of how depressing and dark it is. When King Lear first became popular in the 19th century, it wasn’t Shakespeare’s original version, but an adapted version that had a happy ending where Kind Lear and his youngest daughter Cordelia survive. I am glad that the original version came to popularity because there is so much to learn from the dark nature of King Lear. The word “see” was repeated throughout the play in different ways. It is because seeing with your eyes and seeing with your heart is different. When the Duke had vision, he was blind as to the love of his sons, but when his eyes were plucked out he was able to see the mistake he made trusting Edmund over Edgar. King Lear was blinded by his pride as king, blinded by everyone bowing to him that he couldn’t recognize what authentic admiration. He had grown to believe praise is equivalent to love. However, when he lost everything because of his evil daughters, he is then able to see how foolish he was disinheriting Cordelia. There is a lot we can learn from this in our own lives. It’s hard to get the full effect of Shakespeare’s lessons without actually watching his plays, but simply said, don’t let pride overtake your love of others.

My favorite character was the fool. It seems that in King Lear the crazier the character the wiser they are or become. The fool is an absolute ass, making dumb jokes and a mockery of himself constantly, but he is also the wisest. He tells King Lear how foolish was he was to entrust everything to his evil daughters, and that while he is a fool, King Lear has no more title. He does this with the analogy of cracking an egg and then drinking the inside, leaving the king with two empty shells.

My only complaint was that it was hard to understand at times. Not because of the language, it is a given that understanding Shakespearean English is a tough task, but I am referring to the British accents of the actors. Ian McKellan as King Lear had a strong british accent, after King Lear had gone mad and his speech became more slurred it became especially difficult to understand what he was saying.

My favorite character was Edgar. I liked that he was very mysterious. Edgar has very few lines before meeting King Lear when he is portrayed as someone who has gone mad and is absolutely crazy. We then learn that his craziness is all part of his ploy to hide and disguise himself from his father who has placed a warrant on his head. However, it is also Edgar who forgives his father and exposes the evil plans of his brother Edmund. Edgar is also the only character to get sweet revenge when he kills Edmund in a duel. This is one of the few moments where I felt happy and that justice exists.

REVIEW: Skeletons Out of the Closet

Rachel Safir Leave a comment

Auditorium B of Angell Hall certainly isn’t the most beautiful or noteworthy venue on campus, but the Impro-fessionals brought the room to life and quickly made me forget that I was sitting in a lecture space. Each improv comedian was lively and likable, and was able to keep the show moving and interesting for the entire hour.

The show was broken down into several games, all of which I found entertaining. They opened with a debate about a non-controversial topic: Coke vs. Pepsi. Upon hearing the topic choice, I was worried that it wouldn’t be interesting because I have heard many debates about the sodas before. However, the Impro-fessionals took the debate to new and funny places, and I soon found myself laughing along. As the game continued, I was impressed by the group’s ability to keep the scene moving; they quickly and frequently bounced witty comments off each other so that the dialogue never became stagnant.

Another game I enjoyed was “Party Quirks,” in which four comedians participated. The four characters in the scene were a party host and his three guests: a toothpick, an electrical engineering and computer science (EECS) major, and Britney Spears. The object of the game was for the party host to guess the identity of each guest through context clues. This game kept me laughing along; as you can imagine, a toothpick, an EECS major, and Britney Spears are an entertaining trio. As the EECS major bragged about his employability, Britney boasted about endorsing Bush after he invaded Iraq. When the actor quietly broke the fourth wall and clarified that this fact about Britney was true, I couldn’t help but laugh again. I was also impressed by the ability of the “guests” to maneuver the scene in a way which made it possible for the host to guess their identity, all without making the scene feel awkward, forced, or unnatural.

The humor throughout the show was not hit-or-miss. I found myself consistently smiling and quietly laughing along, or occasionally bursting into louder laughter I couldn’t contain. In my past experiences with improv comedy, I have sometimes felt that the comedians went too over the top with their accents and strayed too far from the original topic, so that the scene became difficult to follow. However, the Impro-fessionals did not seem to have these issues. Their accents were well used and not overdone. They didn’t stray too far from the original topic nor did they hug the subject so closely that they restricted themselves. This made for a show that was enjoyable and easy to watch.

If I were to make one criticism, it would be about the long-form game towards the end of the show. In this game, three of the characters were witches who were making a potion, which they then gave to their other sister to turn her into a crow. There was a noticeable moment where one fo the comedians struggled to decide which kind of potion they were making. However, I didn’t think that stalling was a consistent issue during the show, so it was easy to let this moment go and become wrapped up in the scene again.

Overall, I had a very enjoyable time watching the Impro-fessionals perform. It was a great way to destress and laugh for an hour, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend their shows to others in the future.

 

REVIEW: Blue moon over Memphis

Abby Z Leave a comment

The Power Center is one of my favorite venues on campus, With the steep incline of it’s auditorium, floor to ceiling windows, and grey concrete staircases lifting off of the lobby floor I always feel like I’m stepping into the Senate Rotunda from Star Wars when attending an event there. The uniquely sci-fi setting proved to be yet another simultaneously clashing and complementary element in the night’s unique performance, a hybrid of American pop culture featuring the myth around “the king” himself, and Japanese traditional Noh theater, the most ancient theater practice in the world that is still being regularly performed today.  

After spotting flyers for the performance scattered across practically every free space on campus, I was curious as to how many people would actually show for the unique event.  When I first arrived a half and hour early I was surprised and slightly disheartened to see only a scattering of people in the section of the audience left open for the show, to say nothing of the empty seats above and to either side. Thankfully, as the show’s start time drew nearer more and more people trickled in until before I knew it, the crowd was sizably filled out.  Before the performance we had several esteemed guests including the head of UM’s Center for Japanese Studies warmly introduce the nights performance as well as acknowledge the Toyota Visiting Professor program that made the entire event possible.

As someone with little-to-no experience in… well… noh, I only had a vague idea of what we were about to witness.  I knew that noh involved slow methodic movement, painstakingly crafted masks, and very little else. Thankfully Theater Ongaku, the troupe that would be treating us to the performance that night first showed off two segments of other performances that they do, to give the audience a sort of “warm up.”  I also found it fascinating when they explained that the troupe had members flying in from quite literally all across the world to be there in person, and had done most of their rehearsing in the last few days leading up to the performance, although their polished performance certainly didn’t give the impression of being rushed.

 

Much to my expectation, the performance was very purposeful and deliberate, which some might also describe as painstakingly slow if they are used to the high energy plays and musicals so popular these days.  Additionally, there is no other way to word it, but several of the moments in the performance seemed to be unintentionally comical, with the dissonance between the subject matter and the art itself feeling slightly awkward and the intense acting on the part of the actors far from what most Americans are used to. I certainly spotted a few other audience members in the crowd trying to stifle their laugher as I was myself out of respect for the performers and the art form itself.  However it wasn’t until near the end of the performance when the groundskeeper character launched into his lengthy monologue that easily made up a quarter of the script that I realized that many of these moments were intentionally meant to be funny, as the groundskeeper himself acted like a jester, dancing around stage whirling about a pair of women’s panties as a prop.

My personal favorite element of the performance was not even the performance itself, but the beautiful and uniquely crafted garments made for it.  The main character of Judy was wearing what appeared to be a traditional Japanese garment sewn out of patched-together denim scraps, combining the American and Japanese elements quite literally.  The costumes worn by Elvis were striking as well, especially the enormous gilded cream outfit that he wore, subtly decorated by an elegant feather motif. The photo below, while not taken at the local performance, shows the interesting design of these two garments, especially in contrast with the plain black clothes most of the other performers were wearing.

While I can’t exactly ascertain how faithful the play was to traditional noh theater, it was evident that the troupe had a deep love and appreciation of noh theater, as well as extensive knowledge and training in the subject, so I can only assume that they did it justice.  

PREVIEW: Let The Right One In

Emma Pinchak Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but I refuse to let go of Halloween right after October 31st. The people who start maniacally Christmas shopping and decorating with Rudolph and snowmen are psychopaths. Give the rest of us Halloween purists some time to grieve, ok?

It seems there is a fellow Halloween lover planning events on campus, because student-run theater group the Rude Mechanicals is performing Let The Right One In this weekend!

The play is adapted from a Swedish film of the same name, telling the story of a shy boy who makes friends with the strange new neighbor girl, who just might be connected to a series of brutal homicides in the town.

Let The Right One In is presented at the Lydia Mendelssohn theater at the following times:

Friday, November 2 at 8:00 pm

Saturday, November 3 at 8:00 pm

Sunday, November 4 at 2:00 pm

Tickets are $10 for adults, $7 for seniors, and FREE with your Passport to the Arts.

Come on out to support Halloween’s immortal soul.

REVIEW: Sweet Charity

Fareah Fysudeen Leave a comment

SMTD’s Sweet Charity is an ambitious attempt to restore a musical of its time. It features a lighthearted, happy-go-lucky dancer and the ups and downs of her romantic life– ultimately culminating in a promising but mildly problematic love interest. The show was entertaining and certainly worth the watch, and SMTD’s performers once again outdid themselves with their beautiful and engaging performances in singing, dancing, and acting; however, I think the musical itself was an overall unsatisfying with its meandering plot and sub-par music. It seemed too sympathetic of past conventions of gender roles and expectations to really land on meaningful social commentary, and missed the mark of nostalgic storytelling.

The show opens up with a song about Charity (later dubbed “Sweet Charity” by her problematic future lover) and her first lover, who turns out to be a sleazy “gentleman.” She dumps him while talking with her friends at the dance club, where she works as a dancer. Most of the first act is the wandering, slightly whimsical adventures of Charity’s fruitless romances and sex life, until– at last– she lands on a good, reliable, suit-wearing, morally trustworthy man: Oscar Lindquist. He seems to suffer extreme anxiety, but this doesn’t bother Charity. The main problem, however, is that Charity works as a taxi dancer in a dance hall– a job she knows Oscar wouldn’t approve of. She lies to him, letting him believe that she’s a banker.

Perhaps I’ve become too familiar with feminist ideas and have reflexive knee-jerk reactions when anything even slightly sketchy appears, but Oscar is the re-incarnated version of every single problematic nice guy. When Charity and him are on a date, he holds her hands on a ferris wheel, the stage ceiling glittering with stars, and says (paraphrasing), “Charity, Sweet Charity, you have what no other woman has these days– and that is pure virginity.” I had to stifle a gasp of outrage. The guy next to me cursed loudly under his breath.

Eventually, Charity confesses that she’s a dancer at the Fandango ballroom, through tears, refusing to look at Oscar’s eyes, and he proposes to her anyway, promising her that her profession and her past mean nothing to their future. Yet, a day before their wedding, Oscar leaves her last minute, admitting that every time he thinks about her, he can’t help but imagine all the men she’s slept with, all the men that have paid her to dance with them. By the end of the musical, however, he returns to her, declares his everlasting love, and they are, yet again, engaged.

The plot is certainly intriguing, and gives a glimpse into the degradation of sexually expressive women and the limited options of lower-class women in general. However, the first act of the musical, though entertaining, was largely insubstantial to the main ideas of the musical and its later characters. The musical also ends on a note that seemed totally inconclusive– I wanted to see if Charity’s marriage with Oscar actually ended up working, or if she suffered the consequences of living with man who had very specific and conservative qualifications for a “good” woman and wife– but we never end up seeing that.

There there many themes that would have been interesting to explore more that never saw out their full arc in the musical– we see threads of working women’s entrapment in the dance hall, Charity and her friends fighting for respect in the field they work in, and the line between romance, love, and desperation– but all these are just faint thematic shadows of an unactualized musical. Perhaps if the songs had been more robust and engaging, these themes could have been more actualized, but many of them were disengaging and meaningless. Though the performances were perhaps the strongest part of the musical, I can’t say it made the characters, plot, or songs any more likeable.

Despite my opinion of the musical, I will say that it was certainly worth the watch and entertaining enough to keep me invested in the story, and understanding it as a musical of its time makes a great deal more tolerable. The performers were riveting– I will never stop being wholly amazed at the sheer talent of SMTD students at Michigan. I can’t wait to see the next musical SMTD puts on next– but I sincerely hope it isn’t one about the romantic ups and downs of one particular dancer in the 60’s.

REVIEW: Sweet Charity

Angela Lin Leave a comment

The music by Cy Coleman burst out of the pit of the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater with grand flair and style. Dance hall hostess Charity made her way onto the stage, dancing her little dance with a sweet fashion that becomes characteristic of her personality throughout the 1960s musical appropriately named Sweet Charity.

Nevada Koenig portrayed that sweetness and purity in Charity beautifully with an unbridled and unlimited amount of excitement and belief in the greatness in people. With “big” dreams for her life, Charity’s aspirations can be viewed as naively sweet, which makes the heartbreak she experiences over and over that much more painful to watch.

Charity comes across film star Vittorio Vidal for a night to remember, and Blake Bojewski gave the audience a song to remember as his majestic voice floated through the air in his showstopping number, “Too Many Tomorrows.” As Charity laments about greatness and love, the fickle finger of fate finally falls in her favor during the hilarious elevator scene with Oscar, played by Lake Wilburn who captured the panic with excellent comedic acting and accurately showed Oscar’s personality as a timid guy stuck in his own head.

Sweet Charity is basically a romantic comedy musical with a small dance show in the middle of the first act. The dance number for “Rich Man’s Frug” was spectacular in every sense. It actually felt like a real dance show and I never wanted it to end. Again, the ensemble brought the energy to the stage as the Rhythm of Life Church, which indeed is a powerful beat.

While Charity may not have purity in the purest sense, she still possessed a purity that is rare in the world today: she believed in the best of people and in the best of the future, and that is a sweet purity that is hard to come by.

Overall, Sweet Charity was a wonderful production by the Department of Musical Theatre in every aspect, from the costumes to the pit orchestra to the set designs to the acting to the choreography to the singing. Though I am not a huge romcom fan, I enjoyed this musical and its message of pure bliss and hope greatly, particularly because of the phenomenal orchestra and cast that made Sweet Charity that much sweeter.