There were some scenes with Joe’s family to show you that he was not very nice to his family. But they were very supportive of Joe. I thought they were very funny because of how Siggie (Morgan Maher) and Anna (Laura Lapidus) were quarreling and then they were completely in love with each other. There was a friend of his dad’s named Carp (Jerry Bloom) who owned a candy shop and he liked to talk about candy and philosophy. I thought that he was really funny, how his goodbye present to Joe was a lollipop. It doesn’t end happy and funny though because of what Joe says to his dad about his birthday present. It made you angry at Joe because his father did a lot to get him that present and then he just didn’t want it.
Joe had kind of two families. His real family and his boxing family that helped him through getting to be a boxer. The members of that family are Roxy (John Connolly), Tokio (Jason Lindner), Moody, Eddie (David Prete) and Lorna. I think that Tokio was the nicest of his boxing family. I thought Tokio seemed like he was very complimentary and nice to everyone. He seemed like someone people might actually want to be friends with. I thought how he was always encouraging Joe was awesome. Not all people encourage. Roxy never encouraged him because he was always bickering about how Joe should have done some other kind of punch. Moody encouraged him more than Roxy but still not enough. His manager Eddie seemed like he almost gave him enough encouragement, but the thing was he just wanted women to be attracted to Joe; he didn't want Joe to be a better boxer. He just wanted to see someone else end up like him, and he wanted all the attention so he wanted people to look at him and say he helped Joe so he must be rich and handsome too. Joe's sort-of girlfriend Lorna sort-of helps him. But sometimes she doesn't when she leaves him hanging on a question or something.
I think one of the most hilarious scenes was the one with Mickey (David Cady Jr.) and Pepper (Connor McNamara) in it. Pepper was fighting the same night as Joe, and Mickey is his trainer. It was really funny because Pepper seemed really really stupid. He thought that 1200 was less that 1000. I thought that Mickey seemed like the smarter one, because he is the one who told him that he got $1200, then Pepper said I only work for $1000 or more. Then Mickey was like, ok, you get $1000. So Mickey got $200. I think he did deserve it because he did a lot of work. Right after this funny scene there was a very sad scene, where a boxer called the Chocolate Drop was killed by Joe. He punched him too hard. And then his manager (Johnny Moran) came in and started yelling, “You killed my boy!” I felt very sad. I think that these two scenes being together made the Chocolate Drop’s death more sad.
There is a love triangle in this between Lorna, Moody, and Joe. It is not the most tricky love triangle but Lorna keeps going back and forth between I love him, no I love him. It is obvious that she should be with Joe, but she just doesn't see that. She should be with Joe because he gives her more happiness. She's unhappy because she feels unhappy for Moody, but Moody should have just stayed with his wife. He was purposely trying to make his wife not love him anymore so he could go and marry Lorna. I don't think that's good because if his wife was happy with him but he just found another woman, then if he was not unhappy with her, he should have just stayed. But Lorna does finally make a decision, but it doesn't turn out as well as she hoped it would.
People who would like this show are people who like love triangles, boxing, and candy-shop owning philosophers. People should definitely go see this show. It will make you find ways to think of boxing that you never thought to think about before. It also tells you a little bit about love.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
When you first meet Miss Pross (Katie McLean Hainsworth), you think, "That seems like a nice little governess." You think she would never kill anybody. But then she does! That made her seem heroic because of who she killed. I liked that a lot, I was like "Yeah! She did it!" It shows you that Miss Pross loves Lucie a lot. It shows you that you can't judge a book by its cover. Miss Pross looks like a children's book but inside it's like The Count of Monte Cristo. And every few pages there's a flower that meets a bunny and they do a little jig together. It was so sad when she went deaf. I was like, "It's not fair! She did something good! She won the fight! But now she's deaf!"
The Resurrection Man (John Henry Roberts) is in the play because he tells the story and he helps build characters. He helps people in the play and people in the audience if they don't understand something. He helps the audience by telling them what is going on. Miss Pross doesn't understand that she is deaf, but the Resurrection man makes her realize that. He brought characters closer together, too. He brought the Seamstress (Melissa Engle) and Sydney together. He was the one who said, you go up there and talk to him for a little bit. The Seamstress was all alone and she didn't have anybody that she knew that she could communicate to and she was in jail so nobody could help her. And then she met Sydney and then she had somebody that she could talk to and they became friends.
Madame Defarge (Carolyn Klein) and Monsieur Defarge (Dan Granata), when you first meet them you don't think they are that bad, but they get worse and worse, and by the end they are terrible people. They are husband and wife and they are basically the ones that start the revolution. Madame Defarge sometimes does good things, but they still have to do with killing people. Like one time she gives a knife to a man (Sean Sinitski) whose kid has been run over by a carriage so he can kill the man who ran him over. Monsieur Defarge is more kind-hearted because he thinks that they shouldn't put the Seamstress in jail because she was the mistress to Evremonde (Chris Hainsworth). She was doing that because she wanted to get her husband back. Now this is turning into a jerk paragraph. Here are the jerks of the play. Not the Seamstress or the father, but the other ones. Evremonde just wants to look at women's private parts. I think he did a good job playing this character, even though he is not at all like it. The actors who play the Defarges are great at being horrible people, even though they aren't in real life.
I think Lucie made the right choice to marry Charles Darnay because Sydney Carton was a drunk. They both seem devoted to her, so I think she might have been fine with either of them if one of them wasn't a drunk. Even though Sydney is devoted to her she wouldn't be happy. I think that Dickens could have made the love triangle more interesting by not making it an easy choice for Lucie. Sydney's choice is kind of about the love triangle, because he gives up his life so Lucie can be happy. He does make her happy after all, but if he'd stayed alive she might not have been so happy.
People who would like this show are people who like revenging fathers, awesome governesses, and starting your own revolution. You should see this play if you want to know how start a revolution. Step one, knit all your plans. Step two, tell your husband about it. Step three, tell all your neighbors about it. Step four, behead the king and queen. Step five, put everyone that you see in jail. And, there. Now you have your own revolution. The play is funny as well and also sad and touching and bittersweet. I think everyone should go see this show. It is such a great show and all the acting is really amazing.
Photos: Suzanne Plunkett
There was one dance called Panem Nostrum Quoditianum, which means "our daily bread." The choreographer was Ahmad Simmons. I think it was about The Lord's Prayer and how they say they need enough to eat everyday. It could have just been about God in general. It was like a wanting dance. They wanted something and needed something. They were like begging a pleading by putting their hands like they were praying. At the end of the dance they put their hands like they were praying again and I think that the choreographer wanted you to think up what happened. The question was, did the dancers get what they wanted?
Tsuru was choreographed by Lucas Crandall. I thought that there was a guy that pretended to be in love with a girl but then it turned out he didn't actually like her and was being mean to her. I felt very uncomfortable seeing those women being treated like that. They were showing the women getting thrown to the ground and getting their heads moved around. I saw them trying to fight back but the men were always a little stronger. I think it was supposed to show us how women are sometimes unfairly treated by men and that we should try to help. I liked some of the moves in the dance; like I really liked how the two women were kind of helping each other to fight back. They showed that by waking each other up and after one of them had been thrown, helping the other one to get up. I think that it was a cool dance, but some of the moves bothered me like the one where they rolled her head around like she was a puppet.
There was this one piece about Helen Keller (Jessica Miller Tomlinson) and Annie Sullivan (Alissa Tollefson) called A Light in the Dark. It was choreographed by Ann Reinking and Melissa Thodos. It wasn't like any other dance that I've seen. I've never seen a dance where someone was pretending to be blind, and I've never seen people using sign language in dance. I like how it really showed Annie and Helen's relationship as teacher and student. I really liked how you could understand what was going on; it showed you what each of the phases of learning was. The dancing really explained the story. It made me think about what it would be like to be deaf, or hearing-impaired, or blind. It was a good way to tell the story because you wouldn't really think about Helen and Annie dancing, but you have to feel the dancing just like how Helen had to feel everyone to know who they were. Their relationship was based in feeling each other. Annie had to teach Helen how to control her body, and if you are doing dance you have to learn how to control your body. They still communicated with each other, but not in the way most people communicate; they felt each other literally and figuratively.
They did this one dance called Changes of Phase and this was probably my favorite dance. It was choreographed by Melissa Thodos and the set was by Studio Gang Architects. The set looked like bubble wrap. It was in different shapes, and people could arrange it into different shapes, so then they could make them into doorways, skirts, whatever they wanted. I liked it when the boys were carrying the girls and the girls were holding on to the bubble wrap shape that someone else was holding. I was thinking about architecture and how architecture is made by someone getting an idea and then that idea getting bigger and bigger. It turns into a sculpture or a house by that person getting other people to build on that idea. Architecture and dance are good to think about together because they both make artsy shapes.
People who would like this show are people who like Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller, seeing dance in a way you've never seen before, and awesome bubble wrap sculptures. I think this is a really awesome dance show and you can really understand everything. I think this show would be good for kids and adults who want to learn about Helen Keller and see architecture and dance put together.
Photos: Cheryl Mann
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In the first scene, Ethan has just watched the Oscars and has just realized, "oh my gosh, that movie is all about me." The first scene is big because it has a lot of stuff that you need to know in it about Ethan. Like you learn that Ethan was a bully in high school in that scene. He doesn't seem like a bad guy now, but he still shouldn't have done the stuff that he did. He has a friend named John (John Overton Lewis III) who is there and is asking him all these questions: "Did you really do that?" Ethan changes because he learns how to apologize, which he should have learned a long time ago. Apologizing isn't always easy.
I thought that Dennis and Gregory (Ben Burke) could have had a great relationship but that great relationship was kind of wrecked by Dennis being so uptight about getting revenge. The relationship was good because they loved each other and were trying to help each other, but sometimes they didn't want each other's help and that is what I think kind of ruined their relationship. On stage you saw that they loved each other because they were kissing. People don't just kiss romantically because they think they are nice people! I think that they could fix it because at the end, I didn't really understand it at first, but Gregory I think is talking to his parents about how he is gay, even though his dad doesn't like people who are gay. I think he is inviting them over so he can tell them he is gay because he is still in love with Dennis even though Dennis wasn't very nice to him. Dennis is a different person at the end because he kind of understood that Ethan didn't want to kill Mitchell. I think Gregory helped Dennis understand what Ethan meant, but at first Dennis didn't want his advice.
My favorite scene was the train scene. It featured Gregory and John. They were on a train and they were trying to pretend that they didn't know the people in the newspaper even though they knew them personally. That scene was important because that showed that Ethan's friend John wasn't as bad as Ethan and those two could actually become friends. John is I think one of the most interesting characters because he loves to be friends with Ethan but sometimes he doesn't like it at all because of how Ethan treats him and gay people. He was bullied and he didn't know his friend was a bully. He is not seeking revenge because he decides, "I just want to have a nice life. I don't want to get revenge." I thought it would be cool if we got to see his fiancee because then you would be able to see how John and Emily really loved each other. And after he gets off the train, Gregory is inspired to do something big in order to make Dennis happy.
People who would like this show are people who like getting good advice about how to handle being bullied and having a game in your mind tying to figure out the personality of each character. I was never bored during this show because I was always on the edge of my seat to see what would happen next and it gave me a lot to think about. I think that all the actors were great and people should definitely go see this show.
Photos: Charlie Ray Bressler
Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Ramona Quimby. It was written by Len Jenkin adapted from the novels by Beverly Cleary and directed by Jacqueline Stone. It was about a girl named Ramona (Rachel Van Marter) who had a sister named Beezus (Molly Parchment) and their Aunt Bea (Giselle Vaughn) was getting married but Ramona doesn't really like the guy she is getting married to, and his name was Hobart (Aaron Lawson). There was another problem, her dad (Lawson) has lost his job at a frozen food company. What they are trying to do in the play is to get their dad to stop smoking and get their dad to get a new job. And they want Hobart and their Aunt Bea to not not have a wedding. Ramona learns to like him at the end. I think this was a really awesome show. It was less happy-happy-funtime than a lot of plays for kids. They talked about actual life experiences. And they also talked about how to fix the bad life experiences by getting other people to help you help that other person get rid of that bad habit.
I really liked the set. It was designed by Michelle Lilly. There were these three dollhouses that they would turn to show you the inside of the house. That was good because it didn't take up too much of the stage and it was very clever. And it only took a few seconds to change locations. I really liked Mrs. Kemp's (Marsha Harman) house because it was tall and when you turned it around it was every little small thing you could imagine in an old lady's house. The first time they were changing the set, I was like, "why are they turning that house around?" And then I was like, "Oh! That's why! There's an awesome little dollhouse."
There were these dates that Hobart and Aunt Bea were on and they would go to amusement parks and stuff like that. I thought it was really cool how Ramona and Beezus made all the different things. Like I thought it was really cool when Ramona and Beezus made their arms into circles and put them above their heads and then they would put them over their aunt and uncle so it would seem like a roller coaster. Each date was kind of like miming; it was really cool.
There is this place that Ramona's family likes to go to called Whopper Burger. Whopper Burger is like the dream place for their family because it is a lot of money to go there. And Ramona's dad says he will quit smoking there, and that is significant. I didn't really understand why the audience paid for their dinner. It seemed kind of strange to me. I didn't understand really why they wanted us to engage in that particular thing. My idea is that they wanted us to feel like part of their family. I thought it was really funny when the waitress (Vaughn) came out and started tap dancing and singing a song. When the dad said, "We'll skip the song today" I thought it was really funny because it seemed like something you would imagine a fast food place being like in a movie or something. And I thought it was really funny how she was happy happy all the time.
I think that the mom (Harman) was a great character. She seemed like she was a good mom even if they weren't in such great shape with money. I knew that she was a great mom because of how she acted with her kids. She wasn't trying to hide that they were out of money from them. She doesn't want them to be upset about it; she just wants their support and help. Ramona and Beezus weren't always the best of friends, and I think that is realistic and I liked how they performed that. The mom did understand because she used to go through being angry with each other with her sister. I think that their sister relationship showed that when Ramona and Beezus grew up they would love each other and wouldn't get into so many fights.
People who would like this show are people who like great moms, cool dollhouses, and tap-dancing waitresses. People should go see this show because is is funny and is great to take your family to. Once the show starts, you feel happy because you feel like a part of the play and not just an audience member. They achieve that by direct address but also by helping the audience get to know the characters so then you feel closer to the characters. This is a really great show and a lot of people should go see it.
Photos: Tom McGrath
At the beginning almost everybody was kids. There was Baby June (Emily Leahy) and Louise as a kid (Caroline Heffernan) and there were a bunch of newsboys (Killian Hughes, Nate Becker, Benedict Santos Schwegel). I think that all of the kids did a really good job. They were so much like when they became adults: Louise was shy and June was happy-happy-funtime. At the beginning it was June and her Newsboys and they went, "Extra! Extra!" at the beginning of each song. But then they did that exact same routine even when they were farmers, and then they switched it out with some girls (Landree Fleming, Betsy Farrar, Dana Parker, and Kelly Anne Krauter), who were being Spanish, and they still said "Extra! Extra!" even though they were ladies who were not newsboys. I thought that was kind of hilarious but also showed that Rose didn't like any changes.
There was a man named Mr. Goldstone (John Reeger) from the Orpheum Circuit who came to see Rose and June (Erin Burniston) and Louise (Jessica Rush) when they were teenagers. And then Rose sings this song about having an egg roll, Mr. Goldstone, and she gets very nervous. So then she just starts putting egg rolls and noodles and soy sauce in Mr. Goldstone's hat. I thought that that was hilarious. I loved how Mr. Goldstone was happy for some of it and after a little bit of time that he'd been talked to about "have an egg roll, Mr. Goldstone" he started getting into it, like "I will have an egg roll." And then Rose started talking about how she didn't like any other kind of stone but a goldstone. I was laughing for the entire time!
There was a song that Rose and Herbie (Keith Kupferer) and Louise sing and it was called "Together Wherever We Go." Louise and Rose and Herbie were all just talking and then they went into this dance number that was really cool. I think that the choreography (by Mitzi Hamilton) was really awesome overall. There was this part where they tried to throw plates and catch them across, but then they all just fell to the ground and just clattered. That was funny because they were all ready and they just threw them and they were singing and then suddenly the plates just clattered to the ground. And then they started doing a tap dance number with them instead. It is there to show that they still loved each other even if they weren't always like, "Oh! May I pass the tea for you, sir?" June had just run away with Tulsa (Rhett Guter) so that means that they don't have an act anymore. But this song shows that they won't give up.
I liked the song, "You Gotta Get a Gimmick." It was hilarious even though it was about stripping. It was really really funny when Mazeppa (Molly Callinan) was playing the trumpet while she was doing a bunch of hilarious sexy moves because usually you don't think of strippers playing a trumpet. I also really liked when Electra (Rengin Altay), the Eiffel Tower Girl, turned on all her lights and the stage lights went off and then you could see all her lights twirling everywhere. There was a girl named Tessie Tura (Barbara E. Robertson) who was on pointe shoes and then she would do a bunch of beautiful movements and then--boom! She would make a jerky movement with her behind. That was funny because you wouldn't expect a ballerina to go boom at any moment.
People who would like this show are people who like newsboys, sexy trumpet girls, and egg rolls. People should definitely go see this show. It is really funny and I love it.
Photos: Michael Brosilow
Once upon a time I went to a show and it was called Into the Woods directed by Geoff Button and it was written by James Lapine and the music and lyrics were by Stephen Sondheim. It was about a Baker (Joel Ewing) and his wife (Allison Hendrix) and how they wanted to have a child, but they had been cursed by a witch (Hillary Marren). They have to get a bunch of different items to put in the antidote. In doing that they meet Cinderella (Sarah Bockel), Jack (Aubrey McGrath) from Jack and the Beanstalk, a mysterious man (Blake Montgomery), Little Red Riding Hood (Hannah Dawe), and Rapunzel (Bockel). It is trying to say, this is what real life in a fairy tale would be like: not very good. I think this show is a really cool show; it is funny, scary, and sad too.
When you are first introduced to the Baker and his wife, you don't think they are going to be very big characters, but they end up being very big characters. Well, not as big as the giant. Ba dump shh! These characters are very fun characters and you get to know them more than anybody else. You get to learn about what they were feeling, They acted like husband and wife: they weren't always nice to each other and they had fights. They loved each other, but they still had fights. They are in this play to make it more realistic; they want to show what a fairy tale would be like if it was real. They start with them because they don't want to start with a fairy godmother, a evil witch, or a talking rabbit because you will never see those things but you have seen a man and his wife having fights.
There was this song called "Giants in the Sky" and I memorized it by heart; that is how much I like it. I really liked this performance because he really told the story like it was his story, not just about some guy named Jack. I think this is a very catchy song. When I am walking down the street or in the car, I just sing it. It is about how he likes visiting Giants and he likes what he gets out of it. Even though he feels smaller, he feels adventurous. But his mom (Kate Harris) doesn't like him being adventurous so he gets angry at his mom even though he loves her. And that is something that happens in real life.
The princes (Will Skrip and Michael Brown) had a song together called "Agony" and they stepped like ballerinas in this song. I thought it was really funny. And the princes were just singing "Agony! Oh it is so much pain!" I believed that they were faking being in pain so that they would lure Cinderella and Rapunzel. They sang the song again after they were married, but this time about Sleeping Beauty and Snow White. And that showed me that they were not very good husbands because they liked too many women. I liked how they sung it so big-ly, like an opera.
I thought it was really sad when people got stepped on. They made it so moving because they made the sound so loud and terrifying. It sounded like bones cracking because they had been stepped on. It was so horrible, even though I knew it was not real. When Rapunzel got stepped on, you felt so sad because you liked that character but also her mom the Witch was so sad. I felt like I would feel the same way if my daughter had died. She felt very sad and she didn't think anything could ever fix it and she just held the remains of her hair and just looked at it and sang a song about how she was trying to be a good mother even though she wasn't really succeeding. She wasn't succeeding because she locked her in a tower and Rapunzel couldn't see the outside world.
They had a lot of funny things as well. I thought it was hilarious when Cinderella was talking to the birds and Red Riding Hood was like, "You talk to birds?!" Cinderella said, "They're my friends" and everybody just looked at her very weirded out. I thought it was very funny when the mysterious man pretended to disappear by putting 3 balloons in front of his face. And then the Baker was like, "O my gosh, he's disappeared!" even though he was standing right there with a balloon in front of his face. I thought it was really funny when the Witch started listing off all of the vegetables. And the Witch just kept getting closer to the Baker and the Baker's Wife and by the end the Baker's Wife was just hiding behind the Baker. Cinderella's Prince (Skrip) fell in love with the Baker's Wife and then a few seconds later he was like, "I have to go." I thought that was really funny because usually people aren't like "I have to go now; I'm sorry but I have to go" if they are really serious about being in love like he pretended he was.
I thought it was really cool how they double cast. Cinderella and Rapunzel were the same person. That is significant because they are sisters-in-law and they never get to meet each other. Jack and the Steward were the same person. Jack, because of a reason I can't tell you, wants to kill the steward, so that means that he wants to kill himself. And Cinderella's Prince is also the Wolf. They are both jerks. You expect that the big bad wolf will be mean, but you don't expect that the prince will be mean. Because the narrator and the mysterious man were the same person, I kind of even thought the mysterious man was the narrator. That would be appropriate because the mysterious man comes back from the dead and the narrator also comes back from the dead. I thought it was really cool how everybody played the cow. It was the opposite of double casting because it was one character, Milky White, played by almost every actor.
People who would like this show are people who like catchy songs about Giants, feeling a lot of different feelings at the same time, and people disappearing behind balloons. People should go see the show because the acting is great and so it the set (by William Boles). It is funny and it makes you feel like you are part of a fairy tale that has gone wrong, but you know that you won't actually get hurt.
Photos: Evan Hanover
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+and+Gregory+(Ben+Burke)++Photo+by+Charlie+Ray+Bressler.jpg)
