#2015 stuff

april 2015:

something rotten! (broadway): hate on me all you want but i loved this show. it was fresh, and funny, and catchy. were there flaws? yes. absolutely. as with any brand new show. but i admired the risks they were taking and the fun they were having. a love letter to the theatre. not as sentimental and nuanced as, say, the drowsy chaperone, but still. 

finding neverland (broadway): k i really disliked this show regardless of the fact i cried at the end. it had SO MUCH POTENTIAL and everything just...it didn’t come together. so many great ideas but they didn’t all fit the same aesthetic. so the show was just a clusterfuck of different concepts and ideas and it didn’t remain consistent. its best moments were its small, intimate ones. 

fun home (broadway): while actually watching this show, i wasn’t terribly emotional or overwhelmed. everything just kind of washed over me and i sponged it all in and i knew for a fact i was watching some of the best theatre i have ever and would ever see...but i didn’t become emotionally compromised by the gravity of this show until a day or two later. reliving every word and moment and only then connecting it to my own life. it was an odd thing. but i think that’s what made this show stand out to me. 

the drowsy chaperone (ohio northern university): i assistant directed this show, so i’m a little biased. but i thought it was just wonderful. i’ve always loved drowsy, and watching my friends perform it with such love and dedication made its message all the more poignant 

may 2015: 

carousel (lyric opera, chicago illinois): BREATHTAKING!!!!!!! is an understatement. steve was born to play billy. laura was a (i’ll admit, unexpectedly) transcendent julie, the entire production was so wonderful. i felt like i was in a foggy watercolor painting. everything was so beautiful but something was always very wrong (like, in terms of the story. everything about the show was so very right). 

the wiz (karamu house, cleveland ohio): it was three hours long. 

june 2015: 

a little night music (porthouse theatre cleveland ohio): it was a lovely production with strong voices all around. i didn’t care for the desiree, but the charlotte made up for it because she was incredible. i had also never seen he show before, and so it really made me fall in love with the score all over again and obviously gave me a newfound appreciation for it. i mean, you can’t go wrong with a sondheim. 

shrek, the musical (perrysburg musical theatre company, perrysburg ohio): it was a really good production of a show i really hate. that’s all i have to say

july 2015: 

the king and i (broadway): hold on to your butts people this was probably my favorite show of the year and there’s not question why bc by tony winning queen did what she did best and that was RIP MY HEART INTO A THOUSAND PIECES but honestly this production was incredible. it made me fall in love with the show and i learned so much about myself and how i deal with adversity and also about the world today i want to kiss bart sher rn 

american idiot (beck center, cleveland ohio): okay i just didn’t like the show i’m sorry it was loud it had no plot i didn’t care about the characters at all it was just really great arrangements of green day songs it was like a great sounding emotionally boring green day concert but the production was pretty good i think? 

cinderella (national tour, the palace theatre in cleveland ohio): it was essentially the broadway production! which i appreciated - i think it’s awesome that people who can’t get to NYC can get the same level of production quality as the new york show. i didn’t care for the ella, but the marie and topher were excellent (and that’s tough shoes to fill since i saw santino and vicki). 

camelot (mercury theatre company, cleveland ohio): okay so i’m not a huge fan of camelot or lerner and loewe in general, but mercury’s production made me really ENJOY camelot! they stripped down the orchestrations, creating a john doyle-like show where the actors accompanied themselves (or, in some ballads, were a capella). it was craftily directed and beautifully performed. 

september 2015: 

the taming of the shrew (stratford shakespeare festival, ontario canada): i’ve seen shrew before, at stratford at that. and i liked this production better than the first time (maybe because i’m older now but who knows). i could write another post about my ideas and problems for and about this particular work of shakespeare. i thoroughly enjoyed the production, though, and i thought they tried to do some daring things and appreciated it - even if it didn’t always translate. 

hamlet (stratford shakespeare festival, ontario canada): it was fucking badass. 

the sound of music (stratford shakespeare festival, ontario canada): it proved anyone who thinks this show doesn’t work onstage WRONG. it was incredible. 

edges (ohio northern university): wonderfully sang and directed...but it left me with a bitter realization about myself. most of the songs in edges are those ‘coming of age love songs’ and i’ve never been in love. never had a romantic relationship for that matter. and none of those songs resonated with me. i didn’t connect with them whatsoever. which was kind of sad. so i spent an hour being reminded of how little i understand about a lot of things.

shit have i really not seen a show since september