REVIEW: DisEducated

Alex McMullen 1 Comment

A musical that captures the anxieties of being a college student, while also making you laugh. Blank Space Workshop’s presentation of Diseducated took place this past Friday and was a privilege to watch. Blank Space Workshop is in their second year here at Michigan and provides a space for developing shows to be workshopped, re-worked, and staged in a short period of time. 

The plot centered around a college English Literature 101 class, in the struggling english department of a struggling university. The english class is taught by the Professor Whitley, a distinguished scholar, holder of two doctorate degrees, and a world-renowned singer/songwriter. Well, sort of. Whitley has never read any of the books he’s teaching, and his titles are decently illegitimate, which becomes evident almost immediately to our main character Beatrice. Beatrice is a fan of classic literature and finds concern in Whitley’s unorthodox teaching methods. To highlight, the class is taught a song about grapes, instead of reading Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. The class has been drinking tequila, to really understand the classic “Tequila Mockingbird.” Whitley prefers to fake it until he makes it, asserting that a lot of people today aren’t as well-read or as well-rounded as they make themselves out to be. Our protagonist is forced out of her comfort zone, and finds herself taking charge of her deteriorating academic situation. 

 The Cast of DisEducated

The performance was staged in a large classroom in the Walgreen Drama Center, the perfect ambiance for the musical. The audience sat in our orange desks with chairs attached, reminding us of the feeling of sitting in a class that just isn’t right for you- just like Beatrice. The show’s music touched on issues such as Tinder (and Grindr) culture, beefing up your resume, and most interestingly the frustrating differences between GenZ students and the adults tasked with teaching them. Every lyric was relatable, and tastefully forced us to laugh at ourselves. 

The show raised questions about how we see education. Are you reading Steinbeck, or are you pretending that you have for your colleagues? Does it really matter if you have? Is it shameful to enjoy GenZ delights such as multitasking and swiping right? Most importantly, the show was enjoyable. The writing is peppered with clever nods at what it’s like to be our age, like opening the show with a Nick Colleti vine reference. Everyone in the room was having fun, whether they were laughing at GenZ or Baby Boomer critiques. 

A huge congrats to the show’s writers Sammy Sussman and Allie Taylor.

REVIEW: The Pirates of Penzance

Angela Lin Leave a comment

Probably the funniest, most talented by many standards performance from SMTD that I’ve seen in my time here, The Pirates of Penzance was full of absurdity, puns, and laughter, just as Gilbert and Sullivan intended.

From the very first second once the curtain rose, the bright and defined set, with its water and moving pirate ship, set the expectations high. And right away, Commodore C. Primous III’s appearance as the Pirate King exceeded those expectations. His facial expressions, body language, grand movements, and flippant words all felt eccentrically alive on that stage, instantly captivating everyone’s attention and love. Jacob Ryan Smith was a handsomely ignorant yet loyal Frederic, his lack of knowledge for what he desperately desired driving the show forward. However, the female cast members arguably carried the show. Both Nina White’s performance as Ruth and Lauryn Hobbs’s performance as Mabel gave me chills. Their vocal prowess, humorous delivery, and enticing acting truly left me in awe.

Each group of performers were magnificently fabulous with their own defining characteristics. The tough (with a soft spot for orphan) pirates; the beautiful, curious daughters; the incompetent, bumbling, yet extremely talented tap dancing police officers—they all shined on the stage, each individual cast member contributing an extra flavor of personality to the stage.

It’s hard to highlight some favorite moments of the show because of the extraordinary energy that carried through every moment. However, certain instances do stand out due to the extreme talent and sheer joy that they brought. The Major General’s show-stopping number, “I Am The Very Model of a Modern Major-General,” elicited much delight from everyone. Wilson Plonk completely rocked that song, his precise and articulate rapid singing blowing everyone out of their seats. Once his daughters and the pirates joined in for some insanely fast and insanely in-sync choreography, I didn’t realize I was holding my breath through that entire sequence until there was a break in the dancing. Words can’t describe the admiration and amazement that grew in me during that number. The tap battle between the Pirate King and the Sergeant also deserves a notable mention. I felt so ridiculously giddy and happy watching their skills transform into our laughter, I truly felt all my troubles were washed away in those moments.

SMTD’s production of The Pirates of Penzance honestly blew me away, and I know that Gilbert and Sullivan would have been proud of each and every cast, crew, and orchestra member that made this performance beyond emotions and words.

REVIEW: Zombieland: Doubletap.

niezi 2 Comments
Zombieland: Doubletap was written to be Zombieland’s sequel — it seems to exist more for the actors to have a nice time and for the fans of the first film to relive the Good Old Days™ than try to be a sensationally moving film. While the first movie was accidentally pioneering in its genre, Doubletap makes no promises. It is nothing visionary, but works its simple, nostalgic charm enough for it to be fun and fresh. It is the ultimate tribute to a classic film.

In 2009, Jesse Eisenberg hadn’t been in The Social Network yet, and La La Land was but a stray thought to Damien Chazelle who had only finished directing his first movie. In 10 years time, the actors have reached loftier calibers, each one becoming Academy Award nominees and winners. And although the script isn’t the most emotionally complex, they play their parts perfectly, regardless of how vast and complicated their recent roles they’ve grown to fill are. The characters of Zombieland still fit seamlessly from out of the time capsule, despite the decade of change and progress in between.

Horror elements improve the comedy; the underlying morbidity of the tragic demise of humanity helps the banality of some of the more cliché jokes become more palatable. New characters also add a kind of sparkling appeal and novelty to a plot that’s structurally a copy of the first film. Madison, played by the magnetic Zoey Deutch, is simply a trope with a singular note, and yet Deutch makes the note hit bright and spectacular. Although the other new characters contribute to the movie’s success, Madison, with her effervescent denseness, is so obviously the standout element amongst all else.

Much of the comedy in Zombieland: Doubletap stems from Zombieland itself, deriving jokes that often stroke the fourth wall with a kind of impish wit in reference to its predecessor. The movie can certainly be enjoyed as a stand-alone, but it’s main purpose, it’s true blood, can only be recognized in conjunction with the first film. It is full of details written in for the amusement of old fans, with a keen enough self-awareness about its intent that it does falter when it comes to the delivery either. While Doubletap may not be an inspiring, original film, it is an excellent commendation of Zombieland. Enough of the components are there, and given enough heart, Doubletap is fun to watch. It is enjoyable, uncomplicated, and the end credits are killer.

PREVIEW: Sankai Juku

Carly Behrendt Leave a comment

 

Look out for a review on Sankai Juku’s Meguri: Teeming Sea, Tranquil Land this weekend! I’m super excited to see some contemporary Japanese butoh in this dance show brought to the Power Center by UMS. If you’re looking for a unique night of dance and theatre, this might be the show for you. Sankai Juku will be performing two shows, Friday Oct. 25 and Saturday Oct. 26 at 8 PM!

REVIEW: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Ruth 1 Comment

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, attempted to draw out the tale of Sleeping Beauty’s prized villain to the absolute limit. Unfortunately, what started out in the first film, Maleficent, as a well crafted origin story of a not-so-villainous fairy, quickly degraded into something almost unrecognizable in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

That’s not say Disney did nothing right. As with all Disney films, the special effects were on point. Multiple species of fairies were lovingly rendered with CGI and captured in almost every scene. Maleficent’s iconic green flames made several appearances. And let’s not forget the action sequences! Who doesn’t love a long drawn out battle between a battalion of winged fairies and an army of inept castle guards? All that aside, action and fantastical CGI effects can’t hope to save a film if the script of that film is less than adequate.

 

And the script  of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil was just awful. The dialogue throughout the film was plagued with cliched lines, each one like a slap in the face, sinking me lower and lower into my seat. To be honest, I became embarrassed for the actors as they spewed out lines such as: “It’s a new day.”,  “I’ve loved you since the moment I met you…“, and  “You do not know me.”

Of course, there were some small gems of dialogue as well, but those  moments were too few and far between the underwhelming quality of the script as a whole.

Now, perhaps I could have ignored the bad script and just enjoyed the rich and complex plot of the story. After all, I’m a big fan of Disney. However, the plot wasn’t rich, neither was it complex. In fact, it was completely and utterly predictable.  ( WARNING: SPOILERS ) Philip’s mother suddenly has a change of heart when it comes to her precious son marrying Aurora? She must be the villain. Diaval, (Maleficent’s right hand man/crow), randomly mentions that he’d make a great bear? Well, know we know what Maleficent is going to turn him into during the heat of battle.

It isn’t that these events are necessarily bad, but in order to keep an audience enthralled by a film, there needs to be a sense of not knowing what is going to happen next. You’ve felt it before, that uneasy feeling in your stomach as you clutch the arms of your chair, completely at the mercy of the screen in front of you. That is a good film, a film that combines a well developed plot with an original script in order to show you something that you never knew could exist.

Unfortunately for Disney, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is not one of those films, at least for me.

PREVIEW: Take Your Pick: Collecting Found Photographs

JM Leave a comment

The University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) invites visitors to “come help build [their] collection of “ordinary” American 20th-century photographs.” The exhibition Take Your Pick: Collecting Found Photographs, which will be on display through January 12, 2020, features over 1,000 amateur photographs from the 20th century. The photographs are on loan from the private collection of Peter J. Cohen, who has amassed more than 60,000 photographs from flea markets across the United States and Europe. Visitors may vote on their favorites, and the photographs with the most votes will be added to UMMA’s permanent collection.

In addition to being visitor-interactive, this exhibition asks some interesting questions regarding the definitions of art: “What belongs in a permanent collection, and why? Who and what should be represented, and how should we decide?” As is noted on the exhibition webpage, this collection of original photographs is of special significance in today’s digital age, when most photos only ever exist as files on an electronic device.

Be a part of the dialogue and check out Take Your Pick: Collecting Found Photographs at the University of Michigan Museum of Art!