Book of Mormon – Musical – Paramount Theatre
Month: January 2018
Crime and Punishment – Play – West of Lenin (Akroplois Performance Lab)
Type: Play with Music
Recommendation: I recommend this for people who like serious, deep plays. Please come early to sit in the first row!
Rating (Out of 5 Stars): 3 Stars
Negatives: It was too serious, deep, and confusing. When I go to theatre, I want to be entertained. I actually left at intermission.
Story, Script, and Lyrics: Stage adaptation of the novel Crime and Punishment. Some Russian guy down on his luck tries to justify murdering someone and goes crazy.
Cast and Theater Company: Very well acted. This is the first time I’ve seen anything by Akroplois Performance Lab and despite me leaving during intermission, I was pretty impressed. However, I wasn’t a fan of Matt Sherrill’s interpretation of Dmitri Prokofych Razumikhin. It was a bit too gay for this piece (and I’m gay). But he was really cute!
Venue and Set: Set was minimalist but wasn’t bad for a community theatre production. However, there was a distracting door malfunction a couple of times.
Music and Audio: Easy to hear the performers. Accompaniment was via hurdy-gurdy (a communist sounding instrument), which was really nifty. Sometimes the cast sang acapella and they weren’t off key.
Price: $ (Low Priced at $30)
Dates: January 5-13, 2018
Seating: Tickets are General Admission so come early to get a good seat on the first row. All other seats kind of suck the way the chairs are configured.
Link: http://www.akropolisperformancelab.com/activities/plays/crime/
How to Break – Dance Musical – Village Theatre
Type: Dance Musical
Recommendation: It’s worth seeing. But watch out, this isn’t your gay grandpa’s musical.
Rating (Out of 5 Stars): 3.5 Stars
Negatives: For a dance musical, I didn’t consider it to have enough flashy dance routines. Not a fan of stereotypical inner-city teen characters with nobody-understands-me rude attitude. It’s a tired old annoying role.
Story, Script, and Lyrics: Urban teen who like break dancing (or “hip hop dancing?”) gets leukemia. Surprisingly, writers got a lot of the medical portion accurate (I’m an oncology pharmacist). Note that this is a Beta Series production, which means it’s a developing musical that will change everyday based on the audience feedback.
Cast and Theater Company: Not much to say. Typical Village Theatre quality theatrical production.
Venue and Set: Minimalist set that’s mostly in a children’s hospital. Had to be minimalist since this is a Beta Series musical in development.
Music and Audio: Music was mostly via guitar, beatboxing (vocal percussion), and synthesizer. While not a fan of beatboxing, I was pretty impressed by the dude’s talent.
Price: $ (Low-priced at $30)
Dates: January 5, 2018 – January 14, 2018
Seating: Assigned Seating
Link: http://villagetheatre.org/issaquah/beta-series-how-to-break.php