I liked the Liz storyline a lot better than the Beth storyline because Liz just seems to have a much happier life for awhile. She finds love with Josh (Matthew Hydzik), even if the love doesn't work out forever. And in life love hardly ever works out forever, because somebody usually dies first; people don't usually die at the exact same moment as their love. The thing that is important to Beth is having a good job and the thing that is important to Liz is having a good family and having good relationships with people. And I think in Liz's life almost everyone around her is happier than they are in Beth's life. But I don't think that everybody will think the same way as I do. I think the writers are trying to say that no matter what you do, you can't make your life perfect. That is just sadly impossible. That is what I think both Beth and Liz are trying to do, but things go wrong in both their lives and it is heartbreaking to watch. I thought the woman who played Elizabeth had an amazing voice. It was very strong and beautiful, and I really loved her singing.
Kate (Tamyra Gray) and Anne (Janine DiVita) were an adorable couple. But they had a happier life in Beth's world which was different from the rest of the people. In Liz's world Kate divorces Anne but in Beth's world they stay happy and married. Kate and Anne seem to make each other laugh a lot, which I think is very sweet. I thought Kate seemed very open and funny. She was Elizabeth's neighbor in both worlds. She is a kindergarten teacher and she has very different views about what should be taught in schools than some teachers, but I agree with her that schools should be more feminist and study more about women's stories. And I think it is okay for teachers to swear outside the classroom as long as they don't swear openly in front of students. You can't tell a teacher what to do outside of their job!
Lucas (Anthony Rapp) and David (Marc delaCruz) might have been my favorite of all of the couples in the history of this show. They were just so cute and they seemed like they were so happy, but they only know each other in Liz's world, which is another reason why I like Liz's world so much. There is a song called "Best Worst Mistake" which is all about even if you are worried about doing something wrong in a relationship, you have to try it out to find out if it is a bad idea. I also found that entire scene very touching and cute because you were basically watching two people decide to adopt a kid and spend their lives together. It seemed like David is kind of the all-in one and he really wants to get the relationship going and serious. But Lucas is kind of scared and that is what is happening in that scene.
People who would like this show are people who like amazing singing, different paths, and best worst mistakes. I think people should go see this show. It was super fun and a really interesting story and I was really engaged.
Photos: Joan Marcus
Don and Bobby have a father-son relationship. They kind of take care of each other. Donny is trying to give Bobby a better life by giving him advice about what he should eat and how he should behave in different situations. They talk about how Bobby shouldn't skip breakfast and how he should eat healthy. Bobby brings Don yogurt and Don says he should have gotten himself something. And Don says he should go get himself a yogurt. But then Bobby comes back with a Pepsi and some pie, which is not a healthy breakfast at all. And I'm not sure that Don really likes yogurt very much; I think he is just trying to be a good example for Bobby. But then Don eats some of Bobby's pie. Teach doesn't feel like Bobby should be part of the team. Then the thing is that Don sometimes lets his fatherly nature go away and he doesn't protect Bobby when he should.
Teach was my favorite character because he is hilarious but still kind of scary. Sometimes you hated him, but sometimes you felt sorry for him. Like when he has just had a huge tantrum and he keeps trying to make things better between Don and him because he knows he's done something wrong. He is trying to make things better, but he is kind of making everyone else clean up his mess. He even says, "You should clean this place up"! And on his way out he makes a paper hat so he won't get wet. I found that kind of hilarious because a paper hat won't protect you from the rain. That shows you that Teach is not very good at handling situations like this one. I love how he is supposed to be such a tough guy, but then he spends a lot of time complaining about things like the diner cooking the bacon wrong so it is burnt or Don wanting to know his exact plan for going and stealing something.
The coin means different things to all of them. To Don it means revenge. To Bobby it means that Don actually thought something he did was a good thing. It means money to Teach. You have to use your imagination to finish the story and figure out how Bobby got the coin and if it is the same one that someone bought from Don. I like plays that explain things with something happening more than when they just tell you something, and I feel like this show really did that.
Mamet has a very realistic depiction of actual conversation. People don't always say what they mean, which I think is actually how life is. At one point, Teach says to Bob: "You do not have to do anything, Bob. You do not have to do anything we tell you that you have to do." He probably means "You shouldn't interact with us if we don't tell you to interact with us" kind of like, "We don't need your help." But he basically says, "Don't listen to anything we say"! One of my favorite lines was "F-in' Ruthie!" I like how that is your introduction to Teach's character. And how you don't even know what he is saying, but somehow it is just hilarious. It tells you that he is overdramatic and he doesn't care where he is: he is just going to say what he wants to. And there was another line that he said when he was very angry: "The only way to teach these people is to kill them." I found that hilarious because of course you can teach people many other ways than killing them. And of course you couldn't teach them anything if they were dead.
People who would like this show are people who like buffalo coins, burnt bacon, and paper hats. I feel like it is a great and moving story about trying to get something back. They are actually trying to get a lot of things back, not just the coin. They are trying to get their relationships with each other back and trying not to be categorized as losers--so to get their self-respect back. I think that people should definitely, definitely go see this show. It is Mary-Arrchie's last show, so you should all rush to it because it is your last chance to see a Mary-Arrchie show!
Photos: Michael Brosilow
At the very beginning of the game, you get a tag which has your character name and your section. My mom and I were in Engineering. We had these lockers and we could put our stuff in them. And inside the locker was a jumpsuit (costume design by Melissa Torchia). They were orange with lots of cool patches. Mine was a little big for me, but that is understandable because I am smaller than most of the people there. We went down in the elevator. And the elevator actually seemed like it was actually working! Then the doors open and you see this huge control room (set design by Lee Keenan) with puzzles and rabbits (Elizabeth Penrose and Logan Jones) and a bear (Brian DesGranges) standing around. I was kind of mesmerized in the moment. But you have to get in there and get to work before time runs out!
You have to watch an instructional video (designed by Lucas Merino) which is all about the company you are working for and what you have to do. The person who is telling you about all this stuff is Dr. Truman Heston (Christopher Hainsworth) and he is telling you about how difficult it is to be a Defender. And I thought, "Uh oh. I'm not going to be very good at this." But we ended up doing better than I expected. The way that they talk so nonchalantly about how we could blow up the world at any minute I found kind of hilarious. When they show videos of the Defenders doing their work, it was pretty funny because they were all so happy and were like, "We're dealing with nuclear weapons. Yay!" :-) There was also a giant board where you had to put in plugs and switch switches that they told you to switch and plug. If you didn't do it in time, you had to start all over, which could be frustrating but it was also fun. I found it so fun to try to switch all the things in order.
I really liked this game, but there were a few things I found frustrating. The show is not meant for people my age, but I think people my age can have a lot of fun at it, but they might also get kind of frustrated. I liked that the games were hard, but I didn't like the attitude of some of the other players. Some of them didn't want to cooperate or listen to anyone's suggestions, especially a kid's. It was also very frustrating to talk with the rabbits because they can't talk to you but they can give you clues. They would mime things that were sometimes hard to understand. I was also kind of frustrated when I went to do two different kinds of jobs with these bunks, and they ended up being useless, and I could have just helped my team with other things. I would suggest asking very simple questions to the rabbits, going with a group of friends, staying calm, and talking nicely to other players for an even more enjoyable time for everybody.
People who would like this game are people who like choose-your-own-adventure stories, switching and plugging things, and learning how playing with nuclear weapons can be fun! I think people should go play this game. It is so much fun. It was super cool doing it with my mom; she was a great teammate. I hope you guys have great teammates too!
Photos: Johnny Knight
This was one of the most I-know-exactly-who-I-want-to-get-the-girl love triangles I have ever seen, and that person was Lucius. He actually thought that Phyllida was a smart and cool person. The problem with Percy was that he was a complete sexist but he was a complete womanizer, which is the worst combination. Girls would fall for him, but only for a second because they would realize he was kind of a jerk. All the things that he says are so brainless. He is an explorer and his goal is to find the East and West Poles, but there clearly are not any East or West Poles, geographically speaking, and that is kind of hilarious, but also kind of sad. All the people who go on his expeditions always die or get left behind, like Beebe (Graham Emmons). He literally puts on an old costume from HMS Pinafore to go into battle, which shows you how dimwitted he is! Phyllida, it is pretty clear, only really likes Lucius. She was a very smart and lovable character, but she also has some bad times, just like any person, like when her friend from NaKong slaps the queen in the face!
Throughout the show they had this cool very circus-like thing that they did, where Luigi would throw glasses at different people and it was amazing how they would just catch each of the glasses at the very last moment. The drinks sometimes also splashed on the floor so you know there was liquid in the glasses. I thought that looked super cool and I kind of wanted to learn how to do that. The running joke about the drinks is that every time Luigi makes a drink he says "There you go, sir" and slides it off the bar without looking. The drinks are sometimes not good, but one time he finds a masterpiece. Luigi is tending bar because their bartender is missing and they are trying to hide Luigi from the Queen's secretary, Humphries (Colin Morgan), who is coming to find him. I found Humphries' accent just hilarious and amazing because it was so over the top, but it was over the top in a really funny way. It was very posh and sophisticated, but then over time it just got weirder and weirder, not sophisticated anymore--just plain odd.
There was one person who was obsessed with snakes named Cope (Zack Shornick) and one person who was obsessed with guinea pigs named Walling (Matt Browning). They were best friends and they become enemies over time. Snakes and guinea pigs don't mix, so you could kind of see that something might go wrong. But I did not exactly expect how it would go wrong, just like I didn't expect any of this show because everything was so crazy and unexpected. And every time the characters would try to mime something to each other because they were trying to be quiet and careful, Cope would think that they were trying to play charades and he would try to play along and try to guess. Most of the time they were in a dangerous situation, though, so it would be a bad idea to play charades when they were under attack by Irishmen! And he is not very good at guessing. Each time he guesses, he guesses snake. And when it is finally snake he makes a huge hoopla out of it and goes crazy.
People who would like this show are people who like NaKong bartenders, charades, and the East Pole. This show is really just a lot of fun. It reminded me of Black Adder or Monty Python. I laughed so much. I kind of want to go see it again!
Photos: Michael Brosilow
I really loved the songs! I loved the way you could just tap your feet along with them. The best song in my opinion was "Good Morning, Baltimore." I've basically memorized that song and I absolutely loved it. I loved how Tracy was such an optimist in this kind of terrible town. Tracy is always kind of an optimist and always tries to make the best of a situation. You don't always want to be moping around about one bad thing; you want to find the good things too. And then she tries to make things better. She tries to make her mom a happier person. She tries to make her dad a happier person. She tries to get the love of her life and she tries to get equal rights for African American people. And she tries to get herself noticed for the things that she is good at. And even in the jail, she tires to get out and she's not pessimistic all the time!
I loved the mother-daughter relationship between Tracy and Edna (Michael Kingston). "Welcome to the Sixties" showed you that they weren't just mother and daughter; they were also friends. It showed you that by how they went shopping together; they weren't just going to buy clothes; they were going to have fun together. Edna was afraid that people would make fun of Tracy, but then she realizes that she shouldn't scare Tracy away from what she wants to do. You get to see that opinion develop over time which I think was super cool.
The dancing was so fun and funky! My two favorite dancing scenes were the scene in the record shop where Seaweed and Little Inez (Ariana Burks) were dancing and singing and everyone was having a really good time ("Run and Tell That") and "The Nicest Kids in Town" when Tracy got onto the Corny Collins show. She just was full of so much joy. It was super fun to watch her, and the other dancers had such big and artificial personalities that each one was kind of one stereotype. I thought that was funny because that was what shows like that, like the Mickey Mouse Club, were like then.
Motormouth Maybelle (E. Faye Butler) sang "I know Where I've Been" and her voice just blew me away. Her voice was so powerful and gorgeous and I really loved that song. She was one of my favorite characters. Another of my favorite characters was Seaweed, the son of Motormouth Maybelle. He was just so outgoing and fun to watch. He was so funny too--I loved a lot of his lines. And he had a crush on Penny (Landree Fleming) who was Tracy's best friend and whose mother was a complete racist. I really like Penny and Seaweed's relationship. They didn't just immediately have a crush on each other. They got to be friends first, and I thought that was good because they usually have love at first sight in these kind of shows.
I enjoyed this show more than Bye Bye Birdie because I felt like it had a better view of teenage girls. They can be boy-crazy. But that is not how everyone is. I feel like they represented teenage girls as people who did go through hard times, but they weren't idiots. They do have power to do what they want and they can impact other teen girls to stop wanting to make themselves sticks and to be happy with how their bodies are. Tracy also has an impact on the entire town because she helps make racism not as popular.
People who would like this show are people who like optimism, dancing, and Baltimore. I think people should definitely go see this show. I had a blast and I loved it!
Photos: Liz Lauren
I thought the set (by Grant Sabin) was cool. There was a shelf that became so many things. It became a bed. It became a restaurant wall. They also transform the space from a very very messy apartment to a very clean apartment. It was cool how just one person (Suresh) could pick up what looked like a whole pile of things, but it was all glued together so that he could just pick it up in one swoop. Also he would toss clothes into a ottoman from across the room. There was origami (by Christine Edison) all over the place and I thought that it was all very beautiful. I loved the orbs.
I also really liked Suresh's music (sound design and original music by Stephen Gawrit) that he listened to and also that he rapped. I thought it was super cool how they had a character rapping to make a point about origami. That is an unusual pair, but it actually worked. I liked how it included two things that he loved. I think Suresh was my favorite character. I think he was super funny and interesting. You really wanted to know his entire story. I thought the arguments he made were very cool and true about it being okay to embrace the culture of hip hop even if you aren't African American. Origami was originated by the Japanese, but it was important to everyone in the show even though none of them are Japanese. I thought that really proved the point Suresh was making that you don't need to be of a certain race to like the things that that race originated.
I thought the first scene really showed you a lot about Ilana and Andy. She was freaked out by him at first, but you got to see their relationship develop over the show. He had this book of blessings and he would write them down over time. It showed you that he tired to make the best of everything. Ilana could use more of that in her life, but when you see the play you can see what happens with that. They were so different and their feelings weren't mutual, so I kind of felt sorry for Andy, but you kind of know that they should not stay together forever. The Valentine's Day dinner was very awkward too. It seemed like the relationship was awkward because she was concealing too much and he wasn't concealing enough.
People who would like this show are people who like origami, hip hop, and counting your blessings. I thought that this was a very interesting and cool show. I noticed a lot about origami and about life.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
I really liked the tap dancing number, "Put on a Happy Face." There is one girl (Isabelle Roberts, Maya Lou Hlava) who is very sad because Conrad Birdie is going away. And Albert tries to cheer her up with a big tap dancing number. I thought that scene was really fun. Before he was a little business-y, so it is a different side of him which is fun. Everything was so coordinated and it was my favorite dance number. Sometimes Albert Peterson doesn't realize that even if he does lose Conrad Birdie everything will be okay because he has something else he can do that might make him even happier: becoming a teacher. Rose sings a song ("An English Teacher") at the very beginning about how he could have become a teacher. I thought that was a really good song. I loved the music and the lyrics were very clever. I can't get it out of my head. I thought it was kind of funny that Rose was talking to the guy in the rock and roll business with a really successful client and saying, "I wish you were an English teacher." Instead of a teacher wanting to be a music producer, the music producer wants to be an English teacher.
Rose becomes very angry with Albert because he seems to care more about Conrad Birdie than her. So she decides to go away in a "scandalous" red dress cut up the side and calls herself Spanish Rose, even though she is from beautiful, exotic Pittsburgh. She starts drinking at a tiki bar and trying to find cute boys. But she is in a small town in Ohio, so there's not a lot to choose from. So she ends up going into a Shriners' meeting and tries to dance, but then none of them seem to like that very much, so she goes under the table and people keep getting pulled down under the table. I thought it was hilarious to see them reaching up to the surface like they were in a horror movie. It made me laugh so hard. Rose was my favorite character because she was so sassy. If she wants something, she is going to get it most of the time.
I liked this show, but I did have some problems with it too. I wasn't a huge fan of the overture, but that is not the Drury Lane production's fault. One of the first things you hear is teenage girls scream-singing "We love you, Conrad" in high-pitched squeaky voices. I didn't feel like it was a great way to open up a show. All the teenagers repeat the song throughout the entire show, which was another thing I wasn't a huge fan of. This musical depicts teenage girls as screaming and annoying and only caring about boys. And that is not what all teenage girls are like. They could have had maybe one of all the teenagers not be a crazy person who only cares about boys. And the entire MacAfee family (Brianna Borger, George Andrew Wolff, Rowan Moxley and Cam Ezell) seemed so self-involved that you kind of couldn't like any of the characters in that family. Everyone in the musical except maybe Albert and Rose are stereotypes, which shows you that they are trying to make fun of midwestern people and teenagers and lots of stuff that is in lots of people's everyday life. It is okay to make fun of things, but it is more interesting to me if the characters are less completely fake and the stereotypes have more elements that are like real life so it is a little more relatable.
People who would like this show are people who like tap dancing, superfans, and sassy Spanish Roses from Pittsburgh. I loved the dancing and the hilarious musical numbers. I enjoyed it.
Photos: Brett Beiner
Sometimes David feels insecure about how he expresses his sexuality, I think because of how badly his parents reacted to his being gay. I think that must have been very hurtful to him. The important part of his identity was that he was weird, or as he said, queer. Queer means to not just be in love with men as a man but to define yourself as someone who is different from other people. So David feels like you should just have to be in a relationship and that marriage for gays is not something he would ever do because he feels like gay marriage is not queer because it is so normal to get married. He learns a lot from his roommate Frank (Mitchell J. Fain) who had a partner who died: that it can also be good just to decide to stay everyday in a relationship that is not a marriage. Benoit is gay but he doesn't think of it as being queer. He just thinks of himself as being gay and that is the way he is. And Benoit really wants to get married. It shows you that everyone can be gay in a different way.
One of my favorite scenes was the game testing scene. David's sister Sarah (Elizabeth Ledo) basically has my dream job where she gets to read fantasy science fiction and keep track of the characters. The game is about this fantasy world where the entire world is held together by this couple's love. I loved how before Sarah had been saying "This is the worst job you could possibly have" but in this scene she is totally invested in these fictional people's lives. The scene was funny but also kind of sad, because one of the characters made one of the worst decisions of his life. But it was funny up until then because of the way Zachary acted about somebody proposing to somebody. (Sorry to be a little vague here, but there are a lot of spoilers in this scene.) He just kind of screamed and was so excited it was like he was getting proposed to himself. Zachary's entire personality just made it so I wanted him to be my friend.
This play was just so adorable. Benoit and David are like the perfect couple because you know that they love each other so much and they just click. But even perfect couples have fights, disagreements, and trouble in their lives. Just because they love each other, doesn't mean that they don't disagree about really important things. Every single character in the show is adorable and the entire time the people in the show are happy, you are basically happy. I found myself so happy and smiling for the whole first act of the show. I was very worried in the second act. I'm going to let you suffer too until you see the whole play. But it is definitely worth seeing. This is one of my favorite shows I've seen this year!
People who would like this show are people who like adorable stories, flower shops, and insanely enthusiastic best friends. I think that people should definitely definitely go see this show. I thought it was an amazing and absolutely lovely heartwarming story. I absolutely loved it.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
