"..but he can tap-dance something fierce"
Last Saturday, I was all set to spend the evening trying to get more work done when Oberon called to tell me Miranda scored us tickets to a play in Greenbelt Onstage at 7. Well, I wanted to meet my deadlines, so I should've said no, but as I love plays, I thought it, screw it, and told him I'd meet them there.
I haven't been out in goodness knows how long, so I thought it would be a good time to publicly debut a pair of yummy new shoes which have been languishing for two months, unused, in its box. They're green and strappy, and Miranda loved it on sight. Little did I know that they would be the best thing we would see that evening.
The ticket said the performers were the participants of Rep's summer acting workshop. So it's a cast of amateurs, then. "Does this mean that if this play sucks, it's not their fault?" I asked my my two companions. We braced ourselves.
"Guys and Dolls" wasn't completely horrible. The leads were quite good, and the two female leads were terrific (although it wouldn've been better if they made it so the girl who played Sarah didn't have to try to hit the high notes and spared me having to try to weld my ears shut). The singing was excellent, and a few of the actors were standouts. My biggest problem was the horrible dancing.
OK, so your workshoppers can sing. Fine, make a musical. But if they can't dance, then do a musical that, if not dance-less, at least you can delete the dance scenes from. It's not just that none of them could dance, it's that it looked like they didn't even try. What did the choreographer do, run them through their routines for the first time half an hour before the curtain opened? By the last night club number, I was practically on the floor, trying to scratch out of my eyes the horrible image of arms and legs flapping around.
It reminded me of the time I saw "Fame" in the same theater a while back. The cast were professionals, and they danced ok. The problem was, they looked like they first started practicing their dance numbers that morning. It's like they were dancing the same dance, but to different time. And music. We paid money for the play, was it too much to ask that they rehearse a bit? Aren't artists supposed to strive for excellence, if not perfection? Also, "Fame" is all about the dancing! Show us good dancing, for crying out loud.
I haven't been out in goodness knows how long, so I thought it would be a good time to publicly debut a pair of yummy new shoes which have been languishing for two months, unused, in its box. They're green and strappy, and Miranda loved it on sight. Little did I know that they would be the best thing we would see that evening.
The ticket said the performers were the participants of Rep's summer acting workshop. So it's a cast of amateurs, then. "Does this mean that if this play sucks, it's not their fault?" I asked my my two companions. We braced ourselves.
"Guys and Dolls" wasn't completely horrible. The leads were quite good, and the two female leads were terrific (although it wouldn've been better if they made it so the girl who played Sarah didn't have to try to hit the high notes and spared me having to try to weld my ears shut). The singing was excellent, and a few of the actors were standouts. My biggest problem was the horrible dancing.
OK, so your workshoppers can sing. Fine, make a musical. But if they can't dance, then do a musical that, if not dance-less, at least you can delete the dance scenes from. It's not just that none of them could dance, it's that it looked like they didn't even try. What did the choreographer do, run them through their routines for the first time half an hour before the curtain opened? By the last night club number, I was practically on the floor, trying to scratch out of my eyes the horrible image of arms and legs flapping around.
It reminded me of the time I saw "Fame" in the same theater a while back. The cast were professionals, and they danced ok. The problem was, they looked like they first started practicing their dance numbers that morning. It's like they were dancing the same dance, but to different time. And music. We paid money for the play, was it too much to ask that they rehearse a bit? Aren't artists supposed to strive for excellence, if not perfection? Also, "Fame" is all about the dancing! Show us good dancing, for crying out loud.
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