Monday, July 20, 2009

One Singular Sensation . . .

Hi All!

On Saturday, Hubby and I celebrated our 12th anniversary by heading to the Music Hall at Fair Park to see a musical. If you didn't guess from the title of today's post, we saw A Chorus Line.

This musical is one of my favorites. I have had the soundtrack forever (it seems like it anyway!) and know all of the songs by heart. The dancing is also a big draw for me. Seeing all of those people dance like that. It is impressive!

The entire musical revolves around a day of auditions for musical chorus line on Broadway. The hopeful auditioners sing and dance and then are faced with the very unusual request to "talk about themselves."

Most of the people talk about the reason they decided to become dancers and song such as "At the Ballet" and "I Can Do That" naturally weave their way into the plot. Other people talk about more personal things . . . such as the contents of "Dance 10, Looks 3" which tells of one dancer's efforts to "improve herself" in order to get better roles.

In addition to personal stories, you hear the love all of these people have for dancing and about their desire to be "in the business." When asked repeatedly what they would do after they were too old to dance any more, the group launches into "What I did For Love" led by Diana. In this production, Diana was played by a woman named Rebecca Riker. She did a good job of singing "Nothing" but it was her hauntingly lovely performance on "What I Did For Love" which sent goosebumps up my arms.

Sadly, that one song was pretty much the only goosebump causing moment in the show for me. I enjoyed the entire show, of course, but, it was basically just "okay." The dancing of all the performers was very good and fun to watch but the lack of really exceptional vocals just made the show a bit lack luster for me.

Of course, as I say that, I remember that "The Music and the Mirror" was done well and came very close to goosebumps. The actress who played Cassie, Robyn Hurder, did a very nice job.

Hubby's favorite part of the entire production was the scenery. The only real scenery was a wall of mirrors which rotated so that at times they were hidden and at times they were exposed to reflect all of the dancers. The decisions as to when the mirrors would show and when they wouldn't did enhance the production but, I think Hubby just liked seeing them rotate. He also liked the fact that there was no intermission - so the show went faster!

All in all, I really don't think you can go wrong with A Chorus Line. It is a good, solid story with enjoyable songs and some outstanding choreography. If it heads your way, go!

Trisha

Voice Update: Doing well but still a bit tired. Susan will be back at work this week - it will be interesting to see what she thinks.

2 comments:

Flea said...

At least your favorite part wasn't the curtain at the end. :)

Chris H said...

Well at least you had ONE goosebump moment of your anniversary!