Review of Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch at Lifeline Theatre

"Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch was a great experience for me.  It was a great experience for me because it was really fun, and you got to do stuff you don't usually get to do in plays--like sit on the stage (and I will talk more about that later).  And you got to yell out answers to one of the actors.  You get to get  love notes from the actors.  They are not actually like love love notes, but they are notes that are like for Valentine's Day. The show was really funny at some parts, really sad at some parts, and sometimes it was really hilarious, and sometimes it was really mellow.

The set was very surprising.  They said you can go have those seats right there, and I said "What? We're sitting on the stage?!" Sitting on the stage was kind of scary because the actors are really close. I liked sitting on the stage, too.  Even if it was kind of scary I liked it.  It was really fun how we got to sit on the stage.  The actors were up on the stage and not up on the stage.  They were in the other audience.  It was more like a famous theater that was after Shakespeare but before us.  If you don't know about Shakespeare you can learn it from me--ADA GREY!  Shakespeare is a Elizabethan playwright that was really great and he wrote Romeo and Juliet, but he didn't write Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch.  I thought the person who wrote Somebody Loves You, Mr. Hatch was not as good as Shakespeare, but she was really good.  Her name was Frances Limoncelli.  She just wrote the play based on the book, but she didn't write the book.  Eileen Spinelli is the person who did the book.  They were both really good.

There were only four actors in the play.  And they all played different parts except for the person who played Mr. Hatch (Michael T. Downey).  He only played one part because he had such a big part, and since he got the biggest part he didn't need to play another character.  His performance I thought was really funny and sad.  And mostly he was funny, not mostly he was sad, but sometimes he was a little melancholy.  When he was happy I felt a little more happy, and when he was sad I felt a little more sad.  I think the actor was kind of trying to make the audience feel the way the character felt, and I thought that was good.  And it made me feel good that I was one of the people that was feeling good with him. Mr. Hatch's performance was great.

Sara Sevigny played Mrs. Weed, Co-worker #1 and Mr. and Mrs. Dunwoody.  Mr. and Mrs, Dunwoody you didn't actually see all of their body; you could only see their head and arms because maybe Sara was dressed like her main character, Mrs. Weed, and they didn't want you to see that when she was playing Mr. Dunwoody because she was in a dress!  Mr. and Mrs. Dunwoody were really funny because like the things they said like "What do you think Mrs, Dunwoody?" and she would come out in a bonnet.  And I thought that was really funny. So funny.  The co-workers were kind of nice to Mr. Hatch when they realized he wanted to give them a chocolate and then they realized that he was really nice.  Mrs. Weed had a little dog named Ruffy. It was a puppet.  She made the voice, and she had her hand inside.  And  it must have been animatronical marionette because it was like running when she was actually not moving.  Mrs. Weed was pretty funny at some parts like when she made Ruffy chase the mailman.  I've seen Sara before and she was in The League of Awesome.  I thought she did a good job, and she had a good part, and she had to wear a funny dress in The League of Awesome.

Tuckie White was really fun, and she had to go on a see-saw that was almost too small for her.  It was really small so it would look like a kid's see-saw.  Her different parts were named Tina Finn, and she also played Melanie Todd, and she also played Ms. Smith.  Melanie Todd was younger than Tina Finn.  She did a good job playing different ages, and she did a good job pretending to sneeze because it sounded like she was actually sneezing. She did a great job doing everything she had to do in the play.

Micah J. L. Kronlokken, he played three different parts.  He played Mr. Goober and that character was a mailman.  And he also played Co-worker #2 and a person who sells meat, Mr. Todd.  When he did his parts I thought he did a really good job because then when he heard what Mr. Hatch said ("I'll go pick up your daughter which is Melanie Todd") he seemed really surprised.  And when he asked Mr. Hatch to give him the gift he sounded really sad and then he had an idea that he would make him happier.  We said something that made him feel better because Mr. Goober told us to, and you usually have to listen to the actor if he says something.

The "Good Neighbors" scene was also a song, and it was a fun song, and I have heard it before in the car on my disc of different kinds of plays.  The show was kind of better when you actually got to see it and not just hear it.  My favorite part of the song is the confusingest part when they are all singing all together.  They are singing about all the things they were singing about before like gardening, and good neighbors, and cooking for their neighbors, and lots of good things about neighbors.

The scene where Mr. Hatch gets the package he was sitting down, and then he heard the doorbell ring, and he looked at the doorbell and was like "Huh?" because he didn't know who it was and he didn't even know the sound of his doorbell because he didn't get any packages that much and people almost never came to visit him.  Then it ding-donged it again, and he was like "What? Again?"  And then he realized it was his doorbell. So funny.

People that would like this play are people that like books, funny things, sad things, and Valentine's Day.  I recommend that people see it a few times because I loved it.  I think this play should be for ages three and up because it doesn't have any scary parts.  It does have some sad parts, but I think it would be ok for three year olds because it is very happy at the end.  It tells you about people--that just because they are stubborn it doesn't mean they are bad.  When you do good things to people if they have treated you badly they will start to do nice things to you like give you presents, and get you tickets for shows, and get you ice cream. The end.



Photos: Suzanne Plunkett

Review of Peter Pan: A Play at Lookingglass Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called...it is one of the greatest books of all and it has a Walt Disney movie of it...Peter Pan!  The story is about a little boy that didn't want to grow up, and he takes some kids that had to grow up--he takes them to Neverland.  I do believe in fairies, luckily.  Because you have to believe in fairies or one fairy will die.  It is at Lookingglass.  The stories and the plays that they do are kids' books, but the shows there are more for grownups than for kids.  I've seen Alice in Wonderland there.  Once I had to go out of the whole entire theater there because a knight went into the audience.  I was younger then.  I did not want to leave the theater during this play.

Tinkerbell was played by Aislinn Mulligan.  She was good at playing Tinkerbell.  She had to dingle a bell and hold up a green light.  The person who played Tinkerbell was not like Tinkerbell in the two movies I saw.  Tinkerbell was like a blond little fairy in a green dress and in the other movie she was like a green light that dingled.  But in this play she was actually not just a light; she was a girl too.  She was like choking out her words when she drank the poison.  I felt kind of sorry for her.  She like talked to other characters only at one part, and Peter Pan explained what she was saying at the beginning--most of the time. I liked her a little bit more than the other Tinkerbells that I saw.

Nana was played by Royer Bockus.  She did a good job, and she had to talk because she didn't want to just bark.  Nana was also in both movies that I saw.  This one she didn't have to dress up exactly like a dog.  How she wore a bow was a little bit doggish.  She talked in her regular voice and didn't bark, but that was kind of cool how she didn't bark at all. There was this funny scene where Nana said "Who wants to be first on the toothbrushing train?" And then John says "I do! I do!"

Wendy went on an adventure with Peter Pan and her two brothers.  The person that played the part was Kay Kron.  I thought she did a good job playing Wendy because she had to be hanged from lots of stuff.  I liked how she had to fly very very high and she had to fly in the dark--that looked pretty hard.  She is trying to make a good mother for the lost children.  She is pretty young to be a mother, and she's pretty excited about it because she didn't know she would get to be a mother so soon.  She learned at the end that it is fun to pretend to be mothers but it is more fun to really be a mother.  She feels a little sad that Peter Pan is taking her daughter Jane (Sarah Fornace)--but she also feels kind of happy. Jane did a good job and she actually in the play was really good at being like a kid.  She pointed at something, and then she would just say what it was, and then she would smash it with the pillow. I thought that was so cute.

John and Michael were played by Jamie Abelson and Alex Weisman.  At a funny part they set out breadcrumbs, and John said "These breadcrumbs will lead us home." And then right behind him Michael was and he was eating all the breadcrumbs.  And he was actually eating them I thought!  They had to fly in the dark with Wendy, and if they fell they couldn't get up until that part was up.  They seemed like they didn't know how to fly already, but they did know how to fly a bit because Peter Pan told them.  And the funny thing was that Michael dropped a few times right over the raging river and he said "AAAAAH, raging river!!"

The lost boys were named Tootles (Nate Trinrud), Nibs (Kareem Bandealy), Curly (Kelley Abell), and Slightly (Matt Holzfeind).   Curly was played by a girl.  I knew it because of her name in the program.  She had to climb out of this dusty thing, and she wore this outfit that was a little bit big for her.  And she wore this beret and a green top and a kind of puffy long sleeves under it.  I thought that was cool.  She said "I am NOT a girl and I always raise my hand when Peter Pan asks a question." That was pretty cool and funny.  Nibs was good and he wore a cap and he got captured by the pirates once but Peter Pan saved him.  Nibs was pretty funny because, when Wendy and Peter Pan were dancing, he got out a little tiny hilarious cat kind of clock that made music.  And it went like ding ding ding ding ding ding--it only went ding. Slightly touched one of my fairies that I brought to the show.  The lost boys did the Peter Pan dance and then Slightly made a sound like this: pe-uurrrh.  That was supposed to indicate shutting down.  I thought it was really funny.  Tootles was the youngest one of them, and he wore like a funny little dinosaur cape.  He had to shoot a gun even though he was the youngest. But not a real one--noooo not a real one.  They did a gun instead of a arrow because if you shoot an arrow if you want it to look real it has to be a real one.  He was kind of funny because he was trying to kill himself, but then he jumped off a place and he said "that didn't work," and he did it over and over again. 

And the lost person who was the lost girl was played by Ericka Ratcliff.  Her name was Lily.  Lily dies in the play, but she did come back out later in the play because she was pushing things around.  I don't remember a lost girl in the movie or the book but I think she was based on Tiger Lily.  Tiger Lily is an Indian Princess who is there in Neverland. There was a part where she said that grownups always lie to you, but I didn't think so.  She could take care of herself good; she just forgot about what she thought about mothers.  They put on a speaker that she was forgetting about the whole thing.  

Captain Hook was sometimes kind of funny--he was really funny at some points.  There is a funny part where he says "Planning music, please."  I saw another Peter Pan play that had similar planning music.  Captain Hook was played by Thomas J. Cox. Captain Hook had to climb a lot of things.  He was good at the climbing because he had to like climb really fast.  I think he was a good Captain Hook. Even though I know it was just a play, sometimes I was a little scared, but I thought he did a good job acting it. Then when we heard Captain Hook's story we started to love him too.

Smee lost her girl, and she was looking for it ,and she was calling for her, so she was saying "Honey, it'smee."  She was saying "Honey, it's me," so Captain Hook decided to call her Smee because that was what she was calling herself. Captain Hook just decided she would be a good pirate.  She was played by Molly Brennan.  She was also in Animal Crackers and she played Harpo.  I like the Marx Brothers a lot, and I thought she did a really good job at it.  She was kind of like the Smee I thought she would be.  I thought she was going to be loving, kind of, after you heard her backup story--because in the movies Smee was kind of loving, and  this Smee was kind of loving too.  We felt sorry for her because she couldn't find her daughter.  She loved the babies so much because she really wanted to be someone's mother because she missed her daughter so much.

Raymond Fox played Mr. Darling and one of the Pirates.  I know him and I know his daughter too and we have lots of playdates together.  The Pirate that he played was sort of scary but he wasn't the scariest one.  Mr. Darling was kind of angry at some parts but not all the time.  It was kind of funny because he was so angry about the tie, which is actually not that big a deal.  At the beginning of the show all of the characters came out, then Mr. Darling as a kid picked me up, and I turned on a light.  I thought that was cool.  And when he held out his arms I was like, "what?"  But then I was like" ok, I'll do it."  But then he lifted me up, and I was not expecting that.  I expected something not so high up.  I was a little afraid, but I knew it was going to be alright because it was Raymond and I knew he wouldn't try and drop me. And I'm glad that he wasn't dressed like a pirate because I would have freaked out because that was a real scary costume and I would not have let anyone that was dressed like that pick me up because then I would have been like "gulp-aaaaaah!" The gulp is when you swallow when you are so scared.

When the Pirates came out was kind of scary.  Because when they came out they came out in the middle of nowhere and the Clown (Adeoye) just came out first and he didn't look that scary because nobody was actually looking at the dagger necklace.  Not even me.  They came out of the curtains and this lady had like long long claws that looked really sharp and real.  And there was one that was like all black with a helmet on.  The looked scarier than just like striped shirts and pants and pirate hats because they wanted it to be a little more scary than the usual Peter Pan is.  It was supposed to be more of a grown-up play, and it was supposed to be unexpected, and it was very unexpected.

Mrs. Darling was played by Amy J. Carle.  She had to help Mr. Darling put on his tie and you saw big shadows there.  When Wendy, John, and Michael came home to their beds, she thought she was dreaming but then she wasn't.  I thought it was kind of emotioning and I thought it was very cute.  When they just started doing like a big hug, I started crying.  Tears started rolling down my cheek and down to my finger--which is not that far--and then it dropped.  She actually thought that she was dreaming, and then she just created a big hug, and I thought that was kind of touching.

Peter Pan was played by Steve Lenz.  He was a really good Peter Pan I thought because he could fly really well and he could do lots of cool stuff like he could actually make a realish-fake emotion. Like when he was angry he really looked really angry.  I loved the scene where he taught them how to fly.  I also liked where Tinkerbell took the poison medicine.  The medicine was really actually water or maybe they weren't drinking anything at all--which would be better than using real poison.  Peter's emotion was very sad during that part.  When everybody in the whole entire theater started clapping he said, "NO!  That makes it worse!" We were supposed to laugh and giggle and hahahaha. 

There was a fight scene with Peter Pan and Captain Hook and it was really dangerous because they were walking on something that was moving and not that stable. And people were pushing it around and if those people had fallen off all of them could have broken their heads.  They tried to make it be scarier so nobody could believe these people were actually doing it.  It was cool how much they had to climb and some people had to fly during it.

This should be for ages 4 and up because my friend Nora has seen it and she is 4 and she didn't think it was that scary. People that like sword fighting, cool things, scary things and things that go up really high and bright things and being in the dark would like this play.  I do not like being in the dark, but I liked it anyway.  It was a really awesome version of the Peter Pan play.  

Photos: Sean Williams
  

Review of Redmoon Winter Pageant

Once upon a time I went to a show, and it was called the Redmoon Winter Pageant.  And it was a good show.  It was about a band that were very old now and they used to be in a band and now they are not because they are so very old.  The people that played them were actually pretty young.  They wore wigs and they moved like old people.  The characters that are in the band are Winter, Spring, Fall, Summer, and Rita.  When we came in you could make like shakers to shake at the beginning.  That was pretty cool.

Winter was played by Carly Ciarrocchi and she was the main season or why was it called the Redmoon Winter Pageant?  She played the guitar and it was sometimes red and sometimes blue.  So she played two different kinds of guitar—one of them kind of looked like a bass guitar.  And she sang a song by herself, and it was shadow puppets behind her, and it was about going on tour.  The performance was good because she actually acted like she was a little scared when she sang her song.  And it was great because then it actually felt like she was actually singing a song that she wrote, but she actually didn’t write it, I know.  Misha (Mikhail Fiksel), who works at my dad’s theater, he did the composing.

Spring was played by Felicia Bertch.  There was this song called “Millions of Bubbles,” and she had like a tiny little kid costume on that was not exactly like a kid costume but it was tiny, small and had little tiny feet and arms.  And it only had like little tiny shorts.  They were golden.  Everybody had something that was golden on in the song.  And Winter and the girl that played Rita were both little girls in little tiny little costumes too.  The song was really funny.

Fall was a boy (Alex Knapp) and he sang a song called “Apples in Space.”  And I got to shout out something, and I said “corn.”  He was like the one who went in a walker and he paid for it—like he got out fake coins and put them in a box kind of thing and then he went inside to talk about the box. And it was funny because he was like bloop bloop bloop when he put the invisible coins in.  The song was fun because there was a piece of paper that went around and came back--like a story about in space. 

Summer was a boy (Eric Prather) too.  I have no idea why they had Summer to be a boy because Summer is actually a girl’s name.  He was the only person who actually wore glasses, and he had very white hair, and he had a cane.  His song was called “Surf Detective” and the detective wore glasses.  And he surfed and found stuff that were lost.  His performance was sometimes very funny.

Rita was played by Kasey Foster and she was the lead singer of the band.  And she wore a wig that was like toppled up and was white.  She was the seasons’ mom.  She didn’t want to start up the band because she felt like she was a little too old.  Her performance and her singing was good because she had to sing in that voice—in the voice that sounded like her character.  That was a pretty hard voice.  There was this scene where Rita was dancing and she said “turn that down” and it was funny because she was dancing to the music that she didn’t want to be on.  And that was really funny. 

The scene where they were all looking at the box was funny.  So they drank…and they looked at the box…and they drank again.  It was one of my favorite funny things.  That scene had all the seasons in it and even Rita, and they were actually in Rita’s house.  It was supposed to be like a tv show because of the laugh track, and there are usually not laugh tracks in plays.  They were trying to tell you what kind of comedy they were doing, which is kind of a kids’ comedy.  I didn’t like the laugh track that much in the play because I don’t like it in comedy shows and I don’t like it in tv shows either.

Sometimes when I am watching plays I kind of think I am at home, and then when I look up at the play then I actually realize that I am not at home.  And it happened twice at this show.  It says that the show was a little bit calming at some parts.  But some parts were not actually that calming—like they were very like rock and roll and funny.  And then they weren’t actually that calming but sometimes they were.

This show is for ages 1 and up because I saw like a one-year-old there and she laughed during the show—like hahahahaha.  People that like funny stuff and bands would like this show.  See you at my next review.  Bye.

Photos:  G. Thomas Ward Photography

Review of The Hypocrites’ Pirates of Penzance at Chopin Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Pirates of Penzance. It was about pirates and there was a modern major general. It was about a girl named Mabel and daughters of a very model major general. And he was very model-major-general-like. If you don’t know what a general is, you can learn it from me, ADA GREY! There are lots of different kinds of generals. Like a war general who tells you what to do in a war. In A White Christmas there is one general. He was a war general. A modern major general--he is an up-to-date general--his work was to keep people safe because he was keeping his daughters very safe, but then the pirates wanted to marry them so he couldn’t.

The audience was walking around on the stage, and it was really cool. At first I felt a little scared that I got to walk around. And I got to hold up a towel during one of the songs. I felt cute because I was holding up a towel that actually had the British flag on it; I felt super-duper cute and some complimented me on holding the towel. All the grown-ups, I think, since they have lived longer, they have walked around on the stage before because they weren’t scared at all.

It wasn’t what I expected from the person who directed the Comedy of Errors (Sean Graney). I expected it to have more funnier parts that weren’t really in Pirates of Penzance. There were some funny parts but Comedy of Errors had more funny parts. Something that there was a girl with a flipper and she was named Ruth and she was a pirate. She did not have a flipper in the original Pirates of Penzance. I am positive even though I have not seen the operetta.

Christine Stulik played Mabel and she also played Ruth. Ruth wanted to 

marry the young pirate whose name was Frederic. And I think he was still a teenager and she was 46. And she wanted to marry him, but she couldn’t because she was too old for him. Ruth’s part wasn’t that big. And I think it wasn’t that big because we didn’t get to see all of it. Mabel had glasses and was the oldest daughter of the modern major general. And her sisters were younger and all the same age. One of them was a pirate and one was a modern major general’s daughter, but they were both played by the same person. And they were exactly different. One of them was more high-pitched and the other one was more pirate-pitched. It was a little confusing when I first saw Mabel. The performance that she did was great because like her performance made me think that she was not the same person in those costumes.

The Modern Major General’s daughters (Becky Poole, Emily Casey, and Nikki Klix) had their dresses that looked like bathing suits and a bathing suit cap. And that was cool. There were pink and white flowers on their dress and hat. They had to pretend to marry pirates. They sang the modern major general and said “Yes he is! Yes he is!” Or “Yes you are! Yes you are!” They played some music. They played the violin, they played the accordion, and they played the ukulele. Their dancing and singing was kind of like hula dancers and policemen and rock stars and brides. They did a good job doing it.

There was this person called the Pirate King and he was a captain of the ship. And it had a song that told everybody about how he was a pirate king. And his part he wore a sailor’s hat that was hilarious and very short shorts. They were cool. There was a song that had a paradox in it, and I remember a tiny bit of the song, and I’ll sing it: “A paradox, a paradox, a one ingenious paradox.” The paradox was that he had only had five birthdays, but he was not five years old. He was twenty or nineteen or something like that. I learned what a paradox is from my a-genius mom. And my mom is also fuh-larious. (Ed. Note: aw, shucks.) The pirate king was played by Robert McLean. He did a terrific job because he acted like there was actually an ingenious paradox. There was not in real life, but he was faking very good.

Zeke Sulkes played the young pirate whose name was Frederic. Zeke had a cool costume. The costume was shorts with a tie and pirates don’t usually wear ties! His singing was really good. Like how when he was singing an emotion--like a sad one in that song where he said he had to say how he couldn’t be with Mabel--it really felt like he was singing like it was really happening. And I felt like it was really happening too. I don’t know if that was what they really wanted do, but I thought that that was a great idea to do it if that is what they wanted. Zeke was also in The Dirty Cowboy and that was a good play too. In both ones he was both playing good guys. The Dirty Cowboy was all about getting himself clean, but this one was more about love I guess.

Ryan Bourque, Doug Pawlik, and Shawn Pfautsch, they played pirates. When they played their instruments they did a good job because I think they had been practicing for a while. They had to try not to drop the instrument as they danced while they played. I think they were good dancers while playing. The pirates wanted to be rich, but at the end they really wanted to marry the girls--but not to be rich but because they loved them I guess.

The Modern Major General was Matt Kahler. He did a good job because when he sang he really sounded pretty funny. And I love that--when people sing funny. There was a song called “The Modern Major General” and he was singing about how he was a modern major general. It was real rocking, and it was real funny. It was really fast. I think it would have been very hard for him to sing so fast--but that is only a hypothesis.

I think this play should be for ages 5 and up because there is some stuff about killing but I think 5 year olds will be old enough for that. People that like pirates, hula dances, singing, and fast-singing hilariousness would like this play. The play was great because it was really funny, and I like funny things. It was more fun than just a play that you just got to sit down at. The people that go to see this should be prepared for threatening to die (not to themselves but just to a character). They should love it because it is a great play.


Photos: Paul Metreyeon

Re-piew of a Preview of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark

I saw a preview of Spider-Man so I am calling this a Re-piew. It is not a review, it is a Re-piew. A preview is that they haven’t made the whole show yet. It was in NEW YORK CITY!

Once upon a time I went to a preview, and it was called Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark. It was fighting at some parts and not fighting at parts. And sometimes confusing, and sometimes scary, and sometimes weird. I liked the funny parts and I liked the confusing parts quite a bit. The music was good--almost all the people were singing during the music. It was kind of rocking and kind of sad-ish.

Spider-Man was played by Reeve Carney. I met him afterwards, and I got his autograph. It was awesome. I think he did a really good job playing Spider-Man. He did a good job swinging, and he wasn’t scared. And a good job grabbing things and a good job talking like something bad was actually happening. What his emotion was in the play made me feel the emotion. Peter Parker was the secret identity of Spider-Man. The person that played Spider-Man also played Peter Parker. I liked the character of Peter Parker quite a bit because he doesn’t always have to have a good time because he is a super hero. Ones that are treated nicer--then they can be happy all the time. Usually super heroes are treated nicely in their secret identity, but Peter Parker isn’t. Batman is very rich, but he has had a very sad life, and his parents died, and he hates Christmas because his parents died on Christmas. And Batman is kind of like Peter Parker a little bit because his parents died at a very young age and Peter Parker’s uncle died when he was very young for his uncle to die.

Arachne (America Olivo) was like Arachne from the story of Arachne. It is a Greek story, a spider story, and a told story. She was a spider and she turned into a human at the end. She wanted life and freedom. She is in Peter Parker’s dreams. They wanted to put her in the play because they wanted to show Peter Parker’s dreams. It makes it like he is in love with Arachne but he is actually not in the story. That was not very clear to the audience. Her songs and dancing were cool, and she robbed a shoe store. I liked how she robbed the shoe store.

The Green Goblin (Patrick Page) was scary in his costume, and he had a mask or face-paint. I think it was face paint because then how could you see his mouth move? And he had spikes on the outside of his costume on his shoulders. They were like shoulder spikes. It was pretty awesome. He did a good job playing the Green Goblin. Everyone clapped after his song which was very funny because it was about destroying New York. And then he said “Thank you, thank you very much” even that nobody in the play was actually supposed to be listening--which was so hilarious.

Mary Jane (Jennifer Damiano) sang some songs with Peter Parker. For one song they were actually singing the same thing that everybody else on stage was singing. It was called “No More”--they were singing about that their life was so hard. Her performance was awesome, but her part that was made was not as good as she was acting--like she was doing a better job playing that than the part was.

J. Jonah Jameson was played by Michael Mulheren. J. Jonah Jameson was against Spider-Man. I have no idea why he was against Spider-Man. But he should be against the Green Goblin, but he had no problems with the Green Goblin. He thought the Green Goblin was the hero and Spider-Man was the villain because Spider-Man was destroying things so he could save people. It was awesome because he acted like he hated Spider-Man, but the actor actually likes Spider-Man quite a bit because why would he ask to be in the musical if he really hates Spider-Man?

These are some of my favorite scenes. There was this scene where Peter Parker was fighting with the kids that didn’t like him after he got his super powers. So he like came in and like punched two back and they were like hovering in the air in the back with their mouths open like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! There was like a part in the scene where at the end everyone was hovering in the back like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhh! And Flash Thompson ran away because he was very scared because he didn’t expect Peter Parker to have all these super powers. It was kind of funny. Peter Parker was strong and it was cool. I didn’t think they would be hovering in the back like aaaahh!

There was this part where Spider-Man was fighting with Green Goblin, and he was flying around in circles, and Green Goblin scratched at the people at the top, and we were at the top, and it was very very scary. And then when Spider-Man came off from flying and webbing everywhere, and then when he was walking to go through the door, a kid who was sitting in the balcony chased after Spider-Man. It was very weird.

Peter Parker was bouncing off the walls in the song and scene called “Bouncing Off the Walls.” It was very cool. The scene was cool, and he was like bouncing off the walls, and his house looked like it was falling apart. Some people were holding on to his house so it looked like it was falling apart. He woke up and then he just started bouncing off the walls because he had his super powers. I wish I was in that scene because it was so AWESOME. And I’ll sing the lyrics: “Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls! Bouncing off the wa-aa-aalls!” They actually do it more than six times--more than one hundred, like a trillion. I said it six times so you would be prepared to be annoyed.

There were some scary things that were in the play. There were villain projections that were very scary. I think that they wanted children to come see it, but they made it too scary for children. The ugly pageant was great. The ugly pageant was whoever was the ugliest of the villains winned the ugly pageant. They should have done more stuff like that because the projections were scarier than the ugly pageant.

It was confusing that it looked like Peter Parker was marrying Arachne instead of Mary Jane because he asked Mary Jane to marry him. But then it looked like he was marrying Arachne. It was very confusing because everybody thought Arachne was only in his dreams.

I think this should be for ages 8 and up. It was very scary. You would have to go on a very long plane trip to get there, so be prepared to be bored for a second on the trip to New York and to be bored for some of the play, but most of it will not be boring luckily. People that like Spider-Man and super heroes and villains and violence and kissing would like this play. I think people should go see it because it is fun and hilarious in some parts, and be prepared to be scratched by the Green Goblin if you are in the balcony. ( And watch out for super villains.)

Review of The Nutcracker at the House Theatre of Chicago

Once upon a time I went to a show. It was called The Nutcracker, and it wasn’t a ballet at all. I thought that that was weird because The Nutcracker is usually a ballet. I think it was good that they got it to not be a ballet because the ballet has all these weird stuff, like dancing snowflakes and sugar plum fairies, and this didn’t have as much weird stuff--except for the Nutcracker being Fritz. But the play was not called Fritz, it was called The Nutcracker.

Clara (Carla Kessler) was the main character in the show. And Fritz (Chance Bone) was her brother, but he died in the war, but he came back to life because Uncle Drosselmeyer put a spell on him. He turned him into a nutcracker. At least everybody thought that it happened but really he didn’t.

Clara got to dance a lot, and she got to sing most of the songs. That was cool. There were also all these songs like “Baking Cookies.” They were cool and more rocking than I thought they would be. The Nutcracker was also Fritz and that was cool because it is not in the ballet. When he came back to life it was awesome because it was a trick--everybody thought that he was really back to life. He was standing by a doorway, and then he became Fritz by standing still. Then he moves his body a bit--he moves his arms like a nutcracker, back and forth--and then he realized that he was human. Clara and The Nutcracker’s performances were great.

There were all these rats who all had British accents. The rats were always trying to get the Nutcracker and Clara and the dolls. And the dolls names were Monkey (Mike Smith), Hugo (Joey Steakley), and Phoebe (Trista Smith). And all of them were in trouble because the rats didn’t like light. So then they try to hang up all these light bulbs but then it doesn’t work. The mom (Carolyn Defrin) and the dad (Jake Minton) and Uncle Drosselmeyer (Blake Montgomery) were all playing rats because like in Wizard of Oz all the people there were actually in her dream.

There was a scene with the Mom-Rat where she was eating chinese noodles. She just came out on stage eating noodles, and they dropped on the floor, and then she ate them off the floor. That is just soo yucky. I think she ate the noodles off the floor because she was playing a rat and rats eat stuff off the floor. She is good at doing yucky stuff even though sometimes she doesn’t want to do them. She knows how to act very well. In Wilson Wants it All she ALSO played a MOM! She played moms in both plays that I saw. I think she has played moms a lot of times because she tells her children what to do and stuff like “you shouldn’t go there, you broke up with that guy” and “it is all your imagination. There is really no rats in the wall.”

The dad also played a rat, but he was not the rat that ate noodles off the floor. He was the rat that got stabbed. The rats had red glasses. The eyes are real glowing red when they turn into big rats. Him as a rat was cool because both the parents were rats. It was scary and so kind of weird--the guy that plays a father playing a rat too. His performance was awesome. Uncle Drosselmeyer was the great uncle of Clara. They seemed surprised to see him. The actor was funny in his part. He was funny when he was the rat too--he was kind of scary when he was playing the rat too.

There was this cookie-baking scene. Then they were going to save Christmas by making Christmas cookies that everybody thought were the best. I didn’t get to taste them to know that they were the best because we were sitting in the back row. People in the front and second row got to have cookies. And if we go see it again, then maybe I could get cookies. They were singing, and then they had to go, and they left Hugo, and then the Monkey said, “Stay here while we go and get something and you entertain all these nice people. “ And

then Hugo sings “Baking Cookies,” and then they come back. And the second that he started singing they just came back--that was funny. Hugo was the guy with a light bulb on his head. I thought he was hilarious. There was this monkey whose name was Monkey and he was French. He had a french accent and he wore a beret. And he was fu-larious. If you don’t know what fu-larious means you can learn it from me--ADA GREY! Fu-larious means “funny and hilarious both at the same time.” Phoebe was a doll, and she was the only girl doll. Her back had a pull string. She said things like “Let’s have a party!” and “Let’s bake cookies!” and “I’m afraid of the dark.” and “Everybody’s good at something!” She is so funny I want to have her as my own doll.

I think this play should be for ages 6 and up because there is a lot of killing and The Nutcracker dies, but then they just bury him in the snow so he can at least come back to life sometimes. I think he will come back to life because if he is The Nutcracker and he was Fritz and he died and came back to life then he could do it again. I think people who like fighting and rats and toys and cookies would like this play. People should go see it because it is funny and delightful.

Review of The Iliad at A Red Orchid Theatre

Once upon a time in our solar system there was a war. And it was the scariest war--and that is what The Iliad was about. It was called the Trojan War. Paris took a girl from Menelaus, but the girl wanted to go. A war happened in that country because Paris took her. It was actually a play directed by Steve Wilson at A Red Orchid Theatre. There were boy characters but they were played by girls, and all the female parts were played by Barbies.

At the very beginning, Paris (Nicole Rudakova) and Menelaus (Paola Lehman) were sitting down with a Barbie. They brushed her hair. They didn't share nicely either. I didn’t know that it was Paris and Menelaus. I thought it was just plain girls. I learned that they were not just girls in the middle of the play because I realized those two actors were playing characters and that Paris started the war--kind of a silly war because they are fighting over a girl.

There were two scenes where a Barbie head rose out of the water--it was Achilles’ mother. I liked those scenes. They were so calming and sweet, though the Barbie head was weird. One of the scenes Achilles (Jaiden Fallo-Sauter) needed help from his mother. He needed help so she told him what to do. She was nice to him.

There is a scene with Calchas (Kara Ryan) and Agamemnon (Najwa Joy Brown) and Agamemnon had to trade a girl but he said “Ok, but I’ll need a new girl in exchange for this old girl.” Calchas is telling him what to do about the girl. He wants one of Achilles’ girls, and then Achilles said “You can have one of the girls.” Achilles feels sad because he liked the girl. He stays away from Agamemnon. He didn’t want to fight in the war because he didn’t want to help Agamemnon.

There was an armor scene where Achilles gave Patroclus (Elenna Sindler) his armor so he could go fight. Nestor (Marissa Meo) told Patroclus to go get Achilles’ armor. The Trojans thought Achilles was there because who would usually be wearing Achilles armor? Achilles! I liked how Achilles put the armor on Patroclus. They liked each other--I could tell by how he put on his armor. Hector (Aria Szalai-Raymond) killed Patroclus and then Achilles killed Hector because he killed his friend. When Achilles saw Patroclus was dead he was sad and angry both at the same time.

Scamandrius (Katie Jordan) wanted Hector, his father, to not go to war. Hector said no because he had to work for his country. I felt sorry for the kid because he couldn’t spend as much time with his dad. Hector couldn’t help his wife because he would be in war. I thought Hector felt sad about having to go to war. Hector said “I like to be hated more than loved.” I think he said that because he felt more comfortable in the war than he did at home in his nice warm bed. Maybe he was fighting the war when he was very young, before he got married.

King Priam was played by Melanie Neilan. I liked the Barbie scene that she was in. She did the voices of the Barbies as well. It was funny because King Priam was talking to the Barbies and comforting them. Well, they were actually his wife and daughter-in-law. His wife does a good job comforting Helen. When he talked to the Barbie and he said “Stop crying!” in an angry voice it was funny because I sometimes like funny stuff that is kind of a little mean. But it wasn’t real people at least.

There were these fights that were like real fights but they weren’t--luckily. Almost everybody in the play had a fight because almost everybody in the play actually died. There was a scene where Ajax (Eden Strong) and Odysseus (Madison Pullman) led the war and they had a big battle-fight. They thought it was all good now, but then they had a big battle-fight because Pandarus (Isabella Mugliari) shot Menelaus with an arrow.

At the end Paris was going to shoot a guy--Achilles. His mom told Achilles that his life was almost over anyway.

The costumes were cool. Ajax’s costume was like a fighting costume and had a lot of parts to it. A shirt, a helmet, and some pants. I thought that there weren’t costumes to begin with--because they looked like regular clothes. But some of them were not regular clothes. No. Not at all. Nobody wears a belt with belts on it or a helmet or a robe with a crazy crown now. It made the costumes better because it made them a little cooler.

The director I actually saw in another play (Comedy of Errors) where he actually got stabbed. I think it helped him in this play very much because he was used to seeing people stabbed. It was funny how he chose Barbies to be the girls. Because he didn’t want to disappoint the girls--because some of the girls might want to play girls--that’s why he got Barbies. The girls that wanted to play girls got to play boys, but he didn’t disappoint any of them because none of them got to play girls because they were not Barbies. I think he did a very good job teaching them how to sword fight and how to read their lines. The words that grownups usually use when they are in a play--those are some words that they might need to know before the play actually happens.

You have to like fighting and heroes and wars and Barbies to like this play. I liked the play because I like all those things! I don’t like real wars, but I like fake ones. I like fighting because I like Batman. It should be for ages 4 and up because I think 4 year olds will be able to handle fights. When I was three, I saw my Dad fight and I cried because he died in the play. But when I was 4 I saw some other fights and I was okay.