How to Break – Dance Musical – Village Theatre

Watched a developing hip hop dance musical "How to Break." Urban teen gets leukemia. Very promising piece. But not a fan of stereotypical inner-city teen characters with nobody-understands-me rude attitude.
Watched a developing hip hop dance musical “How to Break.” Urban teen gets leukemia. Very promising piece. But not a fan of stereotypical inner-city teen characters with nobody-understands-me rude attitude.

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

Howl’s Moving Castle – Musical – Book-it Repertory Theatre

After waiting 2 hrs for standby tickets (for the 2nd time), I finally got matinee seats to the sold out musical stage adaptation of Howl's Moving Castle. So worth it! Such an intricate story. I'll excuse the fire evacuation interruption in the middle and the liberal use of triple-role casting. — attending Howl's Moving Castle, a new musical at Book-It Repertory Theatre.
After waiting 2 hrs for standby tickets (for the 2nd time), I finally got matinee seats to the sold out musical stage adaptation of Howl’s Moving Castle. So worth it! Such an intricate story. I’ll excuse the fire evacuation interruption in the middle and the liberal use of triple-role casting. — attending Howl’s Moving Castle, a new musical at Book-It Repertory Theatre.