Anything Goes

Let me first start this off by saying that I can't believe they only do musicals once every four years here. I think that is absurd.

Now, I thought Anything Goes had a lot of very positive aspects, but a lot of negative as well. First and foremost, I want to get this out there: they should never have a 30-piece band playing at the same time one person is singing without a mic. who thought that was okay? The band was phenomenal, but we come to see a musical for the singing, and when almost all of the singers are blatantly competing with the orchestra, and still being drowned out 90% of the time, there is a problem.

The singers were just lovely, and really had a presence on stage. Although they were not really musical theatre singers, they did a fabulous job of making it their own, and the result was a more classy, slightly operatic interpretation.

The costumes were great, and the chorus was very strong, which is nice to see. All the people and characters themselves were very strong, and very animated. However, I thought there were a lot of unnecessary times where all the chorus and extras would be shepherded onstage for about ten seconds (for about 2 lines), then shoved off again. This looked ridiculous, and would get the audience excited for a big number, only to be left wanting more.

Ultimately, I thought it was a meak performance with many flaws, but it involved very talented people, so those logistics didn't seem to matter much.

Fences hits the stage!

I must admit, watching Fences was an entirely different experience than reading it. Many of the aspects that frustrated and bothered me from the script were the things that intrigued and absorbed me while I was watching it. For example, just the dialogue of the script was, to me, most of the time cliche, and stereotypical. It annoyed me, and even offended me a little bit. However, seeing it performed, I thought it was authentic, and really set the scene. I think the reason behind this was that Troy seemed uneducated and angry in the script, while on stage, yes he was both those things, but he had much more depth to him, and that allowed the stereotype to melt away.

Rose was stronger on stage than reading her as well. I thought this was a story of an overbearing husband, and a passive wife, and I did not really think it was in Rose's character to throw Troy out the way she did. However, in the play, she was strong, and smart. Rather than a pushover, she was simply in love and invested in her husband, which did not come across in the written version.

The technicalities of the play alone were wonderful. The stage was very realistic, and elaborate, The lighting was very advanced. They had the lights on a timer so as to have the sun slowly setting behind them, which gave an accurate feeling of the passage of time, and really involved you in their lives and story. From the scenes that occurred where one person was outside, and another was inside, it was strategically placed so you could see the actor's expression through the window, and I thought that was just phenomenal staging. It was moving, and realistic. It was the perfect way to open up the usage of the stage. I thought just having them out on the lawn was getting a bit tired, and then they added this, which added literal and emotional depth to their surroundings, and really made you feel the isolation of each of the characters. Just like the fence, the house divided them as well.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by how much I liked the Seattle Rep's rendition, and I thought it really highlighted the good aspects of Wilson's writing, and illuminated characteristics and depth that I did not really see the potential for in the original script.