Leah's super cynical theatre II review!

Okay...so everybody in the world will hate me when they read this.
So since Kyra and Amelia are both my super insane editors...or i guess not, whatever!
Read it. Tell me if it's too mean to turn in.

On April 30^th, 2009, I attended Sweet Charity, written by Neil Simon, with music by Cy Coleman and lyrics by Dorothy Fields. It was directed by Kylene Hurley and performed in the ThunderRidge High School Theater, including actors such as Mary Nepi, Nathaniel Dolquist, Andrea Wojcik, Emily Clarke, Katie Drinkard, Katie Pierce, Zack Rothey, and Cameron Babcock. The crew consisted of 20 members, while the entire cast contained 33. This play was performed for entertainment, of course!

To briefly summarize this musical, Charity Hope Valentine (Mary Nepi), works with Nickie (Katie Drinkard) and Helene (Andrea Wojcik) in a NY dance hall, under the strict supervision of Herman (Chris Chambers), the dance hall manager. Outside the dance hall, Charity’s innocence is repeatedly taken advantage of various people, such as her boyfriend, who pushes her into a lake and steals her life savings. After this misfortune, she spends the night in the closet of the famous Italian actor, Vittorio Vidal (Zack Rothey). While trying to reorganize her life, the next day she somehow becomes trapped in a blacked out elevator with the claustrophobic tax accountant, Oscar Lindquist (Nathaniel Dolquist), who is also looking for “something”. They attend the Rhythm of Life Church, led by Daddy Brubeck (Cameron Babcock), and romance ensues. They both optimistically face their futures, which is where the play ends.

The talent in this musical production was endless—all of the major roles were played extremely well, the songs were sung with perfect pitch, and the acting was entirely convincing. With this overly talented cast came the lacking crew. The makeup on the taxi dancer girls varied in intensity, considering they all did it themselves and had a theatre mom helping. Their costume crew consisted of two people, which did NOT help the quick costume changes and wig usage. During the song “Rich Man’s Frug”, where the chorus girls wore bright, bob wigs, a few of the girls’ wigs came off, making them stick out like a sore thumb. One of these dancers didn’t realize her wig even came off, leaving a bright pink wig in the middle of the stage and a dancer wearing a wig cap. The run crew then realized this, sending another kid running frantically to center stage, grabbing the wig, and running off. It might not have been so bad if this run crew member was wearing all black, instead of black and white shorts and a black and white shirt. During every transition, run crew was visible. It made the entire production extremely unprofessional and unbelievable. To be even more cynical and whiny, the program pages were out of order, unorganized, and littered with misspellings. The quotes from the cast members sounded unedited and unprofessional. They tried to sound funny, but ended up falling flat on their faces in bad humor.

With all that talent and a brilliant script by the renowned Neil Simon, they were put in a good position for the spring musical. The most known song in this musical, “Big Spender”, was sung with power and choreographed with precision; however, the short dresses worn in this number were just a little too short! A lot of the choreography was suggestive, or actually suggesting they were hookers instead of “taxi dancers”. One really tall dancer literally had lowered herself so low on the dancing bar that the end of her dress came up to her waist, exposing her pantyhose. Their precision in “Rich Man’s Frug” and various other songs was off, always having a few dancers with completely lost expressions while trying to catch up to the rest of the group. Somehow, during “The Rhythm of Life”, the dancers seem to turn it around—the complexity of this dance wasn’t very great, but the group was completely together in movement and stayed in character perfectly. During intermission, the dancers came into the audience, costume and all, handing out flowers and “spreading the love”.

Overall, the technical aspect of everything was lacking. The talent helped me overcome this disappointment, but only for a few seconds. I was entertained with the dialogue and amused with the hilarious one liners, but hung out to dry during most of the musical numbers. The #1 thing that REALLY pushed my buttons was the one featured dancer that didn’t take off his plastic bracelets while playing a hippie, a doorman, AND a grumpy old man. The un-professionalism of this play really ruined it for me, and left a bad taste in my mouth. The vocals and pit made me want to go and buy the broadway soundtrack, which somehow made it remotely worthwhile. As you can see, I really didn’t enjoy this mediocre performance of a well-known play.

If you read this and give me feedback, I think I just might give you candy.