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Archive for the ‘Theater’ Category

The Peking Acrobats (McCarter Theatre, Princeton NJ, February 28, 2014)

Posted in Acrobats, McCarter Theatre, Peking Acrobats, Princeton, NJ, Set in New Jersey! on February 28, 2014| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 28, 2014] The Peking Acrobats

peking7This was our third time seeing the Peking Acrobats.  Actually I stand corrected, last year we saw the “Golden Dragon Acrobats” who I believe are not the same as the Peking Acrobats.  Typically we see them at RVCC but this year we mixed it up and went to Princeton’s McCarter Theater instead. The location didn’t make much of a difference, although the stage may have been a little bigger.

There weren’t a ton of differences between this show and previous Chinese Acrobat shows.  But it’s always amazing to watch them.  Side note: our Cub Scout Troop went to the Big Apple Circus again this year but we opted not to go.  Clark was bummed that we weren’t going but when I said we were going to see the Peking Acrobats instead, he perked right up.  Turns out he wanted to hang out with his friends more than see the Circus.  I do enjoy the Big Apple Circus, but it seemed a lot more expensive this year (and our seats last year were really lousy anyhow).

This year’s show opened with drums, something that I had never really seen with the Acrobats. There were four women playing on large drums–they played a cool rhythm and did some interesting arms movements.  It was a good start to the show.  However, drums seems to be the theme this year and I felt like there were a few too many drumming interludes (four in total I believe).  Drums are neat, but honestly you can only listen to a drum solo for so long.

I’m quoting from my review from 2012 because it was pretty much exactly the same:

As the show opened, there were ropes hanging from the ceiling (not secured to the ground).  And then several men came out and climbed the ropes. Which would be no big deal, except that they climbed them like monkeys do–or more literally as if they were walking up the rope while holding on to the rope like a grappling hook line.  From there they proceeded to leap back and forth between the ropes.

These ropes were actually attached to the ground, I think–they seemed stiffer, which allowed for slightly different activities–it’s always fun to watch them hang upside down and somehow scoot their way yup the rope. The biggest surprise to us was that at least two of them men appeared to be no more than 10 or 11 years old.  No idea if that is true, but, wow, they looked young.  There were certainly some older acrobats too, but wow, their youth was shocking.

(more…)

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Krasnoyarsk National Dance Company [McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, February 21, 2014]

Posted in Krasnoyarsk National Dance Company, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Śląsk on February 22, 2014| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 21, 2014] Krasnoyarsk National Dance Company

krasnoyarskAlmost a year ago, Sarah and I went to see a Śląsk, the national Polish folk song and dance troupe at McCarter Theater.  It was fantastic.  Now, nearly a year later we went to see the  Krasnoyarsk National Dance Company of Siberian.  And it was also fantastic.  Although there were some similarities between the two shows, overall it was quite a different experience.

There were essentially three types of dance in the fourteen pieces.  The first type was a frenetic dance in which the men displayed amazing, amazing feats of jumping, and what most people think of as the typical Russian dance (squatting and kicking both legs out).  The second type was a slow romantic song in which women glided around the stage with giant smiles but otherwise virtually immobile.  The third was a sort of comic skit that told a story–these (and nearly all of the dances) were romantic posturing type of stories.  And they were each wonderful in their own way.

The dances did not follow the order of the program–which I can really only tell because there were some dances which were easily defined so it was easy to know if they were in order.  Other descriptions were quite vague, so it wasn’t always clear which dances these were.  But that’s okay because they were equally mesmerizing. (more…)

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Charles Dickens–A Christmas Carol (1843) [audiobook 1994–Patrick Stewart]

Posted in 19th Century, A Christmas Carol, Charity, Charles Dickens, Christmas, Death, Dreams, Ghosts, Marriage (Happy), Patrick Stewart, Short Books on December 31, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[LISTENED TO: December 29, 2013] A Christmas Carol

patAfter enjoying the play of A Christmas Carol, we decided that since we were on a longish trip for Christmas, that we’d listen to the audiobook and see what was different.  The kids were certainly less engaged than a more kid-friendly book, and that’s understandable—the language is pretty opaque from time to time.  But I was pleased at how they were able to tell where we were in the story (as compared to the place) most of the time.

I felt that the play was different, so i was listening for them.  I don’t know anything about the adaptor of the play and his choices to change things—I don’t even know if the version we saw is a standardized version of the play (I feel like next year we should see it somewhere else for comparison).  But there were more than a few things that were changed. (more…)

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A Christmas Carol [McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, December 20, 2013]

Posted in 19th Century, A Christmas Carol, Acting, C., Charity, Charles Dickens, Funny (ha ha), Ghosts, Greed, McCarter Theatre, Play (Drama), Princeton, NJ, Short Story on December 24, 2013| 1 Comment »

[ATTENDED: December 20, 2013] A Christmas Carol

headerI had never seen A Christmas Carol performed.  I was, of course, familiar with the story–from the original (the Patrick Stewart audiobook is amazing) and from the many, many versions of it that have been performed in cartoon and live action formats.

We took the kids as this is a holiday classic and we thought it would be fun for all of us.  And we were right.  Except–this version is at times quite scary and (as my son pointed out) quite loud.  I didn’t find it terribly loud, although the scary bits were considerably louder than other bits.  And yes, the ghosts were certainly scary.  (I had actually warned him that the ghost of Christmas Future would be very scary, but it proved to not be the case, although it was really frikkin cool).

And I must say I was charmed immediately–as soon as the kids ran out on stage in period costume, singing songs and being very Christmassy, I was hooked.  (more…)

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Much Ado About Nothing (Berlind Theatre, Princeton, NJ, November 14, 2013)

Posted in Beer, Berlind Theatre, Funny (ha ha), Funny (strange), Gender, Joss Whedon, Kanye West, Much Ado About Nothing, Play (Drama), Princeton, NJ, Revenge, Sex, Sexism, William Shakespeare on November 16, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 14, 2013] Much Ado About Nothing

much adoDespite all of my reading, I am fairly ignorant of Shakespeare. I’ve read or seen most of the big ones, but I don’t know a lot of his works first hand.  As a young reader I realized that reading Shakespeare was hard—as, really, any play with dozens of characters tends to be.  It’s not easy to keep character straight when there are no descriptors about them.  So I more or less gave up on reading Shakespeare and decided I would watch him when I could.

When the Princeton University theater offered us tickets to see Much Ado About Nothing, it seemed a great opportunity to brush up.

This was a student production, and I have to complement all of the students on their wonderful performances.  They never broke characters, and their Shakespearean dialogue was flawless (as far as I know).  What I found interesting was that it took about fifteen minutes before I was absorbed in the dialogue and understood, well, about 45% of it.  Well, maybe 60%.  They did speak a little fast sometimes.

What was incredibly helpful about the dialogue was…the actors.  Duh.  But really, the language comes to life when you see people actually performing the lines (making Shakespeare’s bawdy jokes that much more bawdy).  And while some of the performances seemed almost over the top, I have little doubt that that is how it was performed back in the day—why would they go for subtle when there’s jokes about sex? (more…)

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She Loves Me (Hamilton Murray Theater, Murray Dodge Hall, Princeton, NJ, June 20, 2013)

Posted in Acting, Dance, In the Good Old Summertime, Jerry Bock, Joe Masteroff, Marriage Trouble, Miklos Laszlo, Play (Drama), Romance, Sheldon Harnick, The Shop Around the Corner, Theater on July 4, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: June 20, 2013] She Loves Me

SheLovesMeI won free tickets to this show in Murray Dodge Hall, and olde theater in the heart of the Princeton University campus.  Sarah and I were delighted to discover that the theater held only 190 people and that our seats were in the fifth row!

This is student theater, but, as I said to Sarah, these are seriously good acting students (better than most of the students that I went to school with, anyhow).

She Loves Me is a musical based on the drama Parfumerie by Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo.  Before being adapted in 1963 as She Loves Me, (Music by Jerry Bock, Lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, Book by Joe Masteroff) it was previously adapted as the 1940 film The Shop Around the Corner and the 1949 musical In the Good Old Summertime.   It was also revisited in 1998 as You’ve Got Mail.

If you’ve seen any of these adaptations, yo know the story.  And if you haven’t, it is this: two shop workers who dislike each other are secretly each others’ pen pals.  In this version, they each write to a lonely hearts column, and plan to meet for the first time very soon.  It’s a simple enough story.  But what sold me in this version was the music—which was simple and catchy and very very funny. (more…)

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One Hot Summer (J.P. Case Middle School, Flemington, NJ, May 18, 2012)

Posted in Alice Cooper, Bowling for Soup, Dance, Frank Mills, One Hot Summer, Phineas and Ferb, T. on May 19, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED May 18, 2012] One Hot Summer

My five-year old daughter T. was in her second recital last night.  Last year she performed in one routine and this year she moved up to two–a ballet routine and a tap routine.

And my little girl got to lead the group out on stage!

She performed in two routines, “Ice Cream Ballet” (to the tune of Frank Mills’ “Music Box Dancer”) and “Hot Dog!” (the closing theme from the Mickey Mouse Show).

As with last year, I have no intention of critiquing any performances on the stage tonight.  Every girl and boy tried his or her best and they all did better than I could do.  However, I want to make some general observations about the performance.

This year’s theme was all about summer, so imagine my surprise when the first act was a dance routine set to “School’s Out” by Alice Cooper!  I feel like one of the big things that the dancers need to learn is to really exaggerate your excitement on stage–really get into it.  I know it is very hard to let loose in this way (although I noticed some of the boys really got into it), but if you just think about the sentiment of “Schools Out” you’d expect these kids to be wildly excited–exaggeratedly so. (more…)

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Cirque Zuma Zuma (RVCC Arts, Branchburg NJ, May 3, 2013)

Posted in Acrobats, Big Apple Circus, Branchburg, NJ, C., Cirque Zuma Zuma, Futurama, Peking Acrobats, RVCC Arts, Set in New Jersey!, T. on May 5, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 3, 2013] Cirque Zuma Zuma

zumaCirque Zuma Zuma was the final theater show of our 2012-2013 season.  When I bought tickets for this I didn’t realize that it was designed as an all ages show (hint, shows that start at 7PM are for families, shows that start at 7:30 are for adults only).  So I felt a little bad that the kids didn’t come as there were so many kids there.  And they would have enjoyed this, although it’s probably just as well that they had a nice night with their grandma.

So Cirque Zuma Zuma is an African-based show of dance and acrobatics.  There was a large banner that said that Cirque Zuma Zuma had been on America’s Got Talent.  Now, I don’t quite understand this as the announcer of the show seemed to say that the performers were from countries in Africa.  How could they be on America’s Got Talent if they are not American?  I don’t get it.

zuma2Anyway, the show got off to a rousing start with drumming.  Lots of drumming.  There was a man with two drums (big bass drum sounding drums) and then two drummers who were playing what I thought of as an African bongo but which I believe is called a Djembe.  And, man, they pounded the hell out of these things.  It was amazing how musical three (or four) drums can sound.  They played lead drum parts while the bass drum kept a steady rhythm.  And then the dancers came out.  Two women and a man dressed in what I assume is a traditional outfit.  And they danced.  Ecstatically.  Nonstop.  For about eight minutes.  And what frenetic and crazy dances they were.  They moved with such force and power.  It was really amazing and it looked exhausting.

Then came the acrobatics.  And was surprised at just how many of the acrobatic pieces were the same as ones done by the Chinese acrobats.  It strikes me as odd that two very distinct cultures would do the same kinds of things.  Are these just standard feats that contemporary performers learn?

The first was the climbing of and doing handstands on a stack of chairs.  The big difference here was that these chairs were very large (as opposed to the many tiny ones the Chinese acrobats use).  It was still impressive, and the chairs looked quite wobbly, but it was weird to open with a show stopper from another Cirque.

Other things that they did which we had already seen were jumping through hoops, spinning hula hoops, foot juggling and hat juggling.  It was very strange to see these same things.  The big difference was the music, which was African as opposed to Asian. (more…)

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MOMIX: Botanica (McCartre Theater, Princeton, NJ, April 25, 2013)

Posted in Dance, McCarter Theatre, Momix, Moses Pendelton, Princeton, NJ, Set in New Jersey! on April 27, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: April 25, 2013] MOMIX Botancia

momixb

I didn’t realize that we attended a Momix show almost exactly one year ago.  But that’s when it was.  That show was called Remix, and it was a collection of great bits from Momix shows.  This year’s show, Botanica, is an older show and there were bits of it in Remix.  This gave me the most unique (for me) experience of seeing a dance troupe perform things that I had already seen!  What was fun was that the dancers were (I believe) different and, it felt like perhaps the pieces were performed a little bit differently too.

One of the fun things about the show was how the pieces segued into one another–most routines didn’t end so much as meld into the next one (and you can see how picking pieces out for a Greatest Hits might require some restructuring).

We saw this show at the McCarter Theatre, where, once again we had the $20 seats (knocked down to $18 with a AAA discount!).  For this show the seats were a bit of a hindrance because Momix is definitely about spectacle, and there were a few pieces where the spectacle was lost from our angle (which was a little below the stage and off to the right).  On the plus side, being able to see the dancers up close (we were literally three rows from the stage) brought a new level of experience to the show that you don’t get when the performers are interchangeable (hey, that’s the sweaty guy, that’s the blonde lady, that’s the guy with the amazing muscles).

The show opened with a waving sheet which looked like snow.  As the sheet began rippling dancers revealed themselves underneath and starting popping up, like flowers or dolphins or gravity defying skiers.  It was very cool.   Then a giant flower-like item came out on stage and women danced around it.  There followed a wonderful sequence with black light paint as three performers with neon arms and legs made wonderful shapes–animals, faces, bodies–using their limbs.  Our cheap seats hindered this piece somewhat. (more…)

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Śląsk [McCartre Theater, Princeton, NJ, March 21, 2013]

Posted in Le Mysterè des Voix Bulgares, McCarter Theatre, Princeton, NJ, Translation, Śląsk on March 24, 2013| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 21, 2013] Śląsk

slask1Pronounced “shlahnsk” according the announcer, Śląsk is the national Polish folk song and dance troupe.  They are named after the Silesia (“Śląsk”) region. Śląsk originally focused on the folk traditions of Upper Silesia and has since expanded to include all Polish regions.

When I saw the listing at McCarter I was really curious.  I had literally no idea what to expect from the show.  In theory I was celebrating my heritage, but it was completely alien to me and could have easily just been a bunch of guys on stage with accordions.  Thankfully that proved to not be the case.

The ensemble consists of 80 members, including a choir and dancers dressed in stunning and intricately decorated traditional costumes.  And boy, were the costumes spectacular.  Pictures could never do justice to the beauty of these clothes.  slask2I can honestly say I have never seen blues as rich as these or violets as powerful as these.  And the intricacy of the design work (all hand-made) was stunning.  Most of the dancing consisted of the women spinning (a lot).  And their dresses were designed in such a way that the final six inches or so would face down while the rest billowed out.  Even Sarah, no slouch in the seamstress department, couldn’t understand how it worked.

We had cheap seats (really cheap–$20–and these two were the only $20 seats to be had I don’t quite understand why).  We were on the left side of the stage, practically below the stage and right in front of the minimal orchestra (about six people on stage, although I couldn’t see them all).  The crazy thing is that people just one row ahead or even two seats over paid a much higher price, so I guess our seats couldn’t have been that bad.  The major downside to sitting where we did is that you couldn’t see the overall patterns of ten or twelve women spinning around as well as you could from the balcony.  Indeed, center balcony seats would be amazing.  The advantage to our seats was that we were very close to the stage (six rows away) and could see the clothes very closely, and I believe the colors may have even been more vibrant. (more…)

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