The Play's the Thing

I truly LOVE the theater- especially musicals. It was THE BEST when I lived in London- I saw so many shows- everything from musicals to comedies to orchestra concerts. And the deals were so great since I was a student. I could get day of concession tickets, the best seats, for fairly cheap (like $35 sometimes) which is great compared to current Broadway prices. My family and I also went to a lot of theater in Utah, especially since Cynthia, my aspiring musical theater actress, was in some of them. Thus, we tend to watch theater with a critical eye and after a performance, we will spend time analyzing the staging, acting, choreography, and singing. William has been super great- as always- about going to shows with me, but I still know that he sometimes feels that the money to see some good quality shows isn't always worth it for him. But it is for me. Thus, he is ok with me going off on my own to see these shows. I would ask someone to go with me, but most of my friends here have jobs or kids and so it is more difficult for them to be spontaneous with me. And I really don't mind going by myself- I just love to see these shows.

I saw the musical, The Color Purple, which was on tour here in SF, and I thought that it was some of the best acting, singing, staging, and choreography I've seen in a long time. I had a WICKED awesome seat- on the third row, on the far left of the stage. I could see all of the facial expressions of the actors. Having great seats like this truly makes the experience better. The music was phenomenal- I'm definitely going to get the soundtrack. But before you see the show, there are some things about the book you should look into. I remember reading it for the honors program at BYU and was kind of shocked that they recommended it, but it did win a Pulitzer Prize, so I guess that's why. Anyways, they did a great job of toning down the book and placing it in the play. There is one suggestive song, but other than that, it was very powerful. This one song really touched me about how a little bit of God was in each individual person. So true! Anyways, talk to me before you chose to see it so that I can fill you in on the details.

I also just saw today the Reduced Shakespeare Company's Completely Hollywood (Abridged). I saw two of their shows while I was in London- the Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) and one on the Complete History of America (Abridged). Can you tell that they like to do abridged works :-) I went to the matinee and I was the youngest one in the crowd- by at least 20 years. I think it was Senior's Day Out because a big group of people who knew each other were there. The only problem was that the show focused on some more recent and current flicks, ones that some of them had never seen. For example, they did a slow motion spoof from the Matrix that was hysterical. But I was the only one laughing because no one else realized where it was coming from. They had some funny bits, like all Hollywood movies are now combinations of two previous ones- like Spy Kids as Home Alone meets James Bond. They had a new flick of "Darcy's Angels"- a mix of the ladies from Pride and Prejudice, in their period garb, trying to solve crime, like Charlie's Angels. I quite enjoyed my afternoon- there was one gentleman who didn't think that it was so funny, probably because he didn't go to movies- just watches them at home.

While I am no actor, I certainly love to appreciate the theater!