Review of The Moonstone at Lifeline Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called The Moonstone. My dad was in it! It was a mystery, and it was really late at night, and I had a cupcake after. The play was fun and scary. At intermission we tried to guess who stole the Moonstone. The Moonstone was a birthday present that was given to Rachel who is a teenager. The Indians got it, but then an officer got it from them. The Moonstone is a diamond that is magic. I will not be able to tell you who stole the Moonstone because that would be giving away the play. During the show, I felt kind of weird because I felt kind of scared that the person who stole the Moonstone was like someone who you liked who was a main character--and that would be so horrid.

Godfrey was played by C. Sean Piereman. Godfrey was the cousin of Rachel and he proposed to her. I thought that was weird because in this time you can't marry your cousins. It would be weird if my cousin did that. That would be super-weird. I thought C. Sean did a good job playing someone who is in a charity and gives money to people that are poor. He is popular with the ladies in the charities because he is the only man there.

Cuff was played by Dave Skvarla. He was a detective, and it is really cool that there is a detective because I expected just the people in the house to try and find the Moonstone. He loved the roses--that was pretty interesting because most detectives in books don't say what kind of flower they like. I expected that he was going to be interested in finding stuff and not roses. Cuff discovered that it had to be someone at the party, or how could they have gotten inside? There was a smear on the door because it was painted, and we thought we knew who did it, but we actually didn't, and I won't tell you. Cuff thought that someone with a smear on him or her had to have stolen the Moonstone. Dave did a good job pretending that he was a rose detective who tried to find the Moonstone.

Lady Verinder was played by Jenifer Tyler. I thought the character was interesting because she didn't believe that her daughter stole the Moonstone even though Rachel had it last. I thought she did a good job playing a mom because she sounded calm when they were leaving their house even though the Moonstone was lost and, even worse, they thought Rachel stole the Moonstone. I thought she was kind of sad when she was sick. She still runs the house even though she is sick. I thought she was brave.

Kaitlin Byrd played Miss Clack and Rosanna. Miss Clack was funny and Rosanna was more serious. Kaitlin was good at doing two different personalities during the play. Miss Clack was really funny but I think she thought she was being serious. And I didn't think she was serious at all; I thought she was really funny. She kept picking out books to give to people because she thinks they will make them feel better. But not all books can make people feel better. If someone gives you a book that is scary, do not read it when you are sad. The books had scary things like devils and poems that were sad. Rosanna was a housemaid at the house, and she was in love with somebody that doesn't like her that much because he likes Rachel better. She is really sad because she had a lot of sad parts to her life--like going to jail. I feel sorry for her because she is so disappointed and she can't marry Franklin.

There were these two characters and their names were Betteredge and Penelope. They were played by Sean Sinitski and Sonja Field. Betteredge told some of the story--he talked about himself and trying to find the Moonstone. He liked to read books, and most of them he thought happened to him in his life even though they weren't about him. He was a servant and when they moved he was left by himself at the house they didn't live in any more. Then he might have been lonely because his daughter went with them. I felt sorry for him. Penelope was the daughter of Betteredge. I thought she had a cool character because she kept interrupting her father's story because she was saying stuff like "Oh father, don't forget this and this and this and this." When Miss Clack said to her, "you shouldn't wear ribbons in your hair, it is too pretty," Penelope was coming upstairs and she was muttering to herself, " I have never been so insulted in my life," and it was kind of funny because she was so angry.

John Henry Roberts played Mr. Murthwaite, and he also played Septimus Luker. This was his second show at Lifeline. And he played a bad guy and a good guy in this one, but in the other one he just played a bad guy. I didn't see Wuthering Heights but I did see The Moonstone because why would I be writing this review? He did a good job talking about exploring because he was the only explorer and he was very scientific--he did a good job pretending to be scientific. Septimus Luker was a bad guy--there were a few different bad guys--and John did a good job playing two characters that had a very different personality.

Bruff is played by Vincent P. Mahler. Bruff is a lawyer of Lady Verinder, and he takes care of Rachel as her foster father. Bruff was funny at some parts and sad at some parts--when Lady Verinder died. I think he is nice because he takes care of Rachel. He is nice and not nice sometimes when he plays a trick on Rachel to get Rachel and Franklin friends again. Vincent did a good performance when he talked to the explorer about who stole the Mooonstone. I felt kind of excited about who stole the Moonstone when they did the conversation because they were talking about who might have stolen the Moonstone in an exciting way.

Ezra Jennings was played by Peter Greenberg. I thought he did a good job playing his character. I liked when he was telling his plan because I thought that was cool. His plan is to find out who stole the Moonstone actually. He did an experiment to try to make the person who stole the moonstone do it again.

Franklin was played by Cody Proctor. He is one of the people who doesn't die. He is a person that is in love with Rachel--there are two people who are in love with Rachel. He tried to find out who stole the Moonstone and tries to make people talk to him again because people don't talk to him anymore. He is not like Cuff because he is in love with Rachel. He is like Cuff because he is like a detective kind of because he is trying trying trying to find out who stole the Moonstone so hard. I thought he was a cool character because he tries to find the Moonstone really hard.

Rachel was played by Ann Sonneville. She was nice to Clack at some parts, but not always. She says to Miss Clack whenever she leaves the room--"Clack"annoyed in a whisper. I thought how she said "Clack" was so hilarious. Clack is a funny name to call someone. I felt sorry for Rachel because she had lost her birthday present, and it was brand new. If I lost a present that I just got, I would have felt sad like Rachel too. When she lost the Moonstone I thought it was kind of scary because she had lost the Moonstone and the Moonstone was a special jewel. She forgives somebody for stealing the Moonstone--I thought that was cool.

There was a scene where Godfrey proposed to Rachel. Miss Clack was telling the story at this part, and Miss Clack said "but I was too late!" because then she saw the kiss. She didn't want to see it because she had a crush on Godfrey. You did know that because she hugged him. I loved this scene! I thought it was funny.

I liked their outfits. Bill Morey did them. All their costumes didn't look like the twenty-first century, which is good because then they got the time period right--it was the time when Jane Austen was writing. A few years later. I thought the masks that the Indians wore were cool but kind of creepy. I liked Miss Clack's outfit--it was kind of funny because she had a bonnet that had flaps over her ears and the flaps went up and down. I liked the white dress that Rachel wore at her birthday: it was down on her shoulders, and I think it had fancy designs on the bottom, and she wore the Moonstone on it. There was the set by Ian Zywica and it had two doors, and it had an upstage that was really cool because it had a fireplace and it turned into a balcony. It also was a place where people usually died. And there was a scene that was in India and they had the Moonstone and they put it into a face. All those things were in the exact same place upstage. I thought the set was cool.

This show should be for ages 5 and up. People that like diamonds, people that like scary stuff, people that like experiments, and people who like mysteries would like this play. And you should go expecting some smoking and dying people--just people in the play, not you. How would I be writing this review if I were dead?

It would have been hilarious if the Indians had said, "If you want to be entertained, that will be one Moonstone."

Photos: Suzanne Plunkett

Review of The Neofuturists' Laika Dog in Space

Laika Dog in Space was a play about a dog named Laika who went into space. It was fun. They sent Laika into space because they wanted to send her up into space before they sent a person into space to find out if it was safe because a dog is not as important as a person is, and anyway they are animals and they don't understand as well. I thought it was a little mean because dogs are actually as important as humans.

You go in to the place before the show starts and there is all this stuff. You can weigh a squirrel, and you can also get your hair static. Mine went really really static, and my hair stood up in the back. The left squirrel was the heaviest. There were squirrels because dogs chase squirrels. The dog pictures had some that I know that are: Scooby Doo, Snoopy, Fala (it was President Roosevelt's dog), Balto. Barack Obama's Dog Bo Obama, he was cute.

There was a part with a puppet dog who was pretending to be Laika. The puppet dog has a friend who was a purple fairy, and she told stories to her at night. And I thought that was really cool. She told her a story called "The Turnip." And there was a dog who failed but she liked it anyway because she only liked stories with dogs in it. They made the dog puppet in outer space because that would make children feel less sad because then Laika wouldn't die. In real life Laika did die, but I like the story that they told better than the real life one.

There was this song called "I Want a Dog!" and it was really funny because Eevin Hartsough was singing a really sad song, and then she went to a rock and roll song. It was about how much she really really really wanted a dog. Because she really wanted a dog that was like Laika because Laika was really brave. One of my favorite parts with Eevin in it was the part with The Little Prince. The pictures were funny. They were always about a boa constrictor digesting something. I had some ideas which were narwhal, steps, and house. The house was right. Eevin said "I should have done a narwhal." She said lines like that that were not in the script. I thought that was good and cool because it made it less like a story and more like improv. The calm voice, played by Caitlin Stainkin, said, "I just figured out what a narwhal is." Everybody laughed when she said that. It made me feel good because I was part of the show.

The game show was called Space Race and these people had to drink orange juice upside down, and they also had to try to get to space by answering questions like "What was in my lunch box in the 5th grade?" The person that played the game show host was named John Pierson. He was funny. I saw him in two other plays: The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett... and Daredevil Hamlet. He played a lot of parts in The Complete Lost Works of Samuel Beckett.... I can't tell you the whole title of that play because it is too long. He played Ophelia in Daredevil Hamlet. It is kind of hilarious thinking that a boy is playing a girl that is in love with someone. Now I am talking about Laika Dog in Space. When they are drinking their orange juice he said, "While they are drinking their orange juice I will entertain you all by licking my elbow!" It wasn't actually all that entertaining because sometimes we were looking at the orange juice. But it was actually pretty funny, so I watched it half of the time and the orange juice half of the time. So that makes a whole time.

The isolation part with space suits was really funny because they were doing the moon walk and having light fights. They went in corners so it would look like isolation. But it wasn't isolation because they were talking to each other! They kept telling stuff even though the calm voice was telling them to be quiet. That was hilarious.

The cooking was good. They made borscht. Rob Neill told us that the soup was made in Russia because Laika was Russian. It was a great kind of soup. I got to have it afterwards, so that's how I know. The actors gave the audience the soup so the audience would stay longer and the actors could talk to the people. That felt like they liked us. Rob was also the guy in the black coat that came to visit Laika. I thought he did he did a good job pretending to fight.

There were three story times but I am only telling you about my favorite. And Jill Beckman read it. So, Laika was walking in the woods, and then she went into the city, and then someone picked her up that was smiling. And then he took her to his laboratory and sent her into space. I liked it the most because it was a true story. I think she did a good job reading the story because she watched the story with the puppet Laika in it so then she could kind of make the Laika in the book kind of like Laika the puppet. I thought that was cool.

People who would like the show are people who like dogs and people who like space and people who like borscht. People should go see it because it is so funny. I always felt interested and happy. Laika liked her house, and she liked her friends, and people came to visit her. I like this way of thinking about Laika better--even if it is not the true story. I think the play wants you to think the not sad way.

Photos: Evan Hanover

Review of Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus at Emerald City Theatre

Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus. And they had different stories from the Pigeon books by Mo Willems. They had Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus and The Pigeon Wants a Puppy. They also had The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog. They also had Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late. That was cool. People love all the Pigeon books, so people want a lot of Pigeon books in the show. I know all the stories that Emerald City is doing as plays this year. I thought the play was really good, but it was a little bit more for littler kids I thought.

The Duckling was played by Daiva Bhandari. She had a funny line in the book and the play which was "Hmm. Needs mustard." And she did a good job playing the Duckling because she really acted like Duckling. She was very quick-talking and cute and sweet. When the Duckling was cutest was when she was writing all the stuff the Pigeon said with an enormous notebook and an enormous pencil--because she was a bird. She was also as funny as the Pigeon when she did the Duckling dance--it was hilarious and they played old-fashioned music. The songs were always funny and they were never sad or scary because the show was for little kids.

The Bus Driver was played by Bret Beaudry. He was the person that was always in every Pigeon book except for The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog--instead there was a duckling. The Bus Driver was one of the serious characters except when he played the game-show man. Then he was really funny. The Bus Driver makes it easier to see how the Pigeon is not doing what other birds and people should do--they should give pieces of hot dogs to other people.

The Pigeon was played by James Zoccoli, we call him JAZ because I know him--that's how I know I call him JAZ. He did a good job playing the Pigeon. He just gave the play a lot of funny stuff. He wouldn't do anything at all that the Bus Driver wanted him to do. I don't do that to my mom, luckily. He loved to refuse stuff. Everything that he refused was something that was supposed to be good for him, like when he wouldn't go to bed. But I go to bed every night, but when I wake up in the night and I have had a bad dream I call my mom in to cuddle with me--or my dad if my mom is not home. The play asks you to do what the Pigeon is NOT doing. It is really kind of funny because everything that I really like to do is do everything that the Pigeon doesn't want to do. You need a driver's license to drive, and I never drive, but someday I will. But the Pigeon never will because he is a Pigeon. James looked like the Pigeon. The Pigeon's head is round and he looked like the Pigeon because of his head--because he is bald and that makes his head look roundish. They had this outfit for the Pigeon that looked like human clothing and also like Pigeons. JAZ is as funny as the Pigeon too. When he made the face when the puppy came out, it didn't look that scary to us, but because he was playing a part he just screamed, and that was funny. He was one of the funniest people in the show because the rest were more serious.

My favorite parts that were in the play that were in the book were the Duckling saying "Hmm. Needs mustard," when the Pigeon wanted to drive the bus and the Bus Driver would never let him, and the Duckling writing with the enormous pencil and notebook. The parts that were not in the books were the parts which were the game shows. It was funny how the Duckling was in all the game shows, and usually there are no game shows in the books, and the Duckling is not in most of them. She is only in one book. When they did the game shows it was kind of a little bit good because then it made the play longer and most people that went were older than what the books were written for. And it was kind of not a little bit good because it also meant that people that have not read the book will think there is going to be a game show, and they will get the books and realize there is not going to be a game show in them.

These are some of the stuff I think they should change in the play. They should get a bigger puppy that is still not a real one, and they should also get out the game shows. They should keep all the stuff that is in the book.

The people that would like this are people who like Mo Willems and people who like birds. You should expect a craft for the kids to do, but this time they don't let the kids do everything. It is a shaker that is a hot dog, and you can decorate it with stickers, but it sounds like you can only have one sticker. I think this play should be for ages 3 and up because there is no fighting or killing or stabbing and it is all the way funny. People should go see it because it is funny, and it is a good experience for little kids who don't know a lot about Mo Willems because then they will. It is a good adaptation of the Pigeon books.


Photos: Emerald City Theatre Company

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