Review of Flashdance (Broadway in Chicago)

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Flashdance: The Musical. It was about a girl named Alex (Jillian Mueller) who did pub dancing when she actually wanted to be a ballet dancer. She also works at a welder's and she fell in love with the boss Nick (Matthew Hydzik). And there is this ballet audition that she wants to do so she fills out a form. What was really great about the show was that the choreography (by Sergio Trujillo) was very entertaining. But the thing that I thought they could have changed was I thought they could have had fewer songs. It is not appropriate for little kids at all, but it has kind of a little kid's tv show message: that if you can try you can do anything, which is not always true, but sometimes it is.

I liked the choreography because it was very interesting and made me very captivated in the dance. One of my favorite moves was when Alex did the move where her leg went all the way up and her hand touched her foot. It made me really want to be able to do that move. I also really liked when they used the buckets. It looked like something that would be really hard because you had to move with the bucket otherwise you would fall over. I really liked the "Maniac" song because I really like music from that time period. I thought the choreography for that was really cool because it actually seemed like a little concert during the show. The moves that she did were very new and unusual for me--in a good way. I really liked it when she pulled the chain and lifted her head back and water poured on her.

There are a few songs I thought they didn't really need in the show, for example, "Steeltown Sky" because she only really goes to work at a steel mill a few times in the show and you didn't really need to know that much about those characters at her work if you don't see them very much. I think that it would have been better if they had cut the song and just did the scene. I thought they didn't need "Chameleon Girls" because you didn't really need to know who all the Chameleon girls were because they were such a small part. I wish they just cut the song; they could still have a scene to show you what Gloria (Kelly Felthous) was going through.

I liked Alex's friends at Harry's: Tess (Katie Webber), Kiki (Dequina Moore), and Gloria. They were very silly; like one time Tess had to dress up like a bunny and Kiki had to dress up like a maid. And they were talking to Harry (Matthew Henerson) about how their costumes were really weird, and he was like, "no, they're really great." And one of my favorite parts was when they said, "Did you pay for these?" They sang this really cool song called "Put It On" and it was about how he should just let them do their thing and let them do what they usually do. The first time they sang the song was with Kiki, Gloria, Tess and Alex. They are singing to Gloria that time about how she is a little bit scared about her number but she should just go on. They get out of their robes and they go back behind this changing screen for like two seconds and they get into these pretty golden outfits. I thought that was really cool. How do they change that fast?! I thought that this number was funny and it showed me that they really kind of looked up to each other.

It was really weird how Alex got into the ballet school even though she danced hip hop for the audition. I thought that was weird because, if a lady says to you, "I would like a ballet dancer," it wouldn't be the first thing that I would think, "Hey! I'll do some hip hop instead." I thought that the bad message in the play was that to get a girl to like you, you should just do everything for her, like getting her into ballet auditions, and she'll hate you for a few seconds but then she'll love you.

People who would like this show are people who like dancing, quick-changes, and buckets. Most kids should not see this show, I think, unless they are used to seeing a lot of women in bikinis. There are bad messages and good messages, so people who will be able to know which one is which could go and see the show. When you go and see a show you should just be interested in it, not make your life like the person in the musical.

Photos: Jeremy Daniel