I know, it's the favorite play of everyone and their cat right now, but I love this play. It's beautiful, it's moving, the songs stick in your head like cement... I love everything about it. I first fell in love with it when I saw it performed by a local high school. I have never been more impressed with a theatrical production (and I've seen shows on Broadway). It was incredible.
And I can't name another play that I would be willing to sit and watch if all the characters were standing still at microphones the entire time. (If you're confused, no, most presentations don't do that. But I have watched the one where they did that and it was still amazing.)
The book, on the other hand... let's just say my goal is to finish it before I die, and I don't think I'll make it. To be fair, I am trying to read it in French, which makes it a bit more difficult, but come on, M. Hugo... we really don't need that detailed a description of the layout of the home of the abbe. If you jump into that book expecting to hear about Jean Valjean and how he's inmate 24601 right off the bat, you will be disappointed. You have to get through endless pages about someone barely related to the story told in the play. Be ready for that.
There are just... so many plays that I like. Rent is unmistakably wonderful and the music is beautiful. I saw Hello, Dolly in High School and made me irrevocably fall in love with it and its wit and humor. But, in all the years I've been going to see plays, there is one that never ceases to capture my heart.
I first saw Proof when I was in college, and it was wonderfully done. They only had a one room set, but the actors were amazing and the play was right up in your face. It was a very intimate setting, enough that you felt like you were IN the play.
It's told in a series of flashbacks. The play starts with Catherine talking to her father, only to find that she's talking to his ghost. We continually see flash backs to her father's life. He was a mathematical genius, but one who eventually went crazy. She's afraid that she's inherited not only his genius but also his crazy.
There is this one, powerful, amazing moment when we think that her father has gotten his smarts back, his sanity, his life, only to see it come crashing down in an instant. It was that moment that made me love the play, that wonderful, heartbreaking moment.
If you get a chance to see it, I highly recommend it. Also, see the PLAY not the movie. The movie doesn't do it enough justice.
Oh man! How much space do I have? Where do I start? I ADORE musical theater, and I have so many favorites. I suppose my top three would be Rent, Aida, and Wicked (although I have yet to see this on stage, but I read the script and have the soundtrack) with Into the Woods coming in a close fourth. I also love Les Mis and Phantom, neither of which I have seen in person. I also enjoy Urinetown, and the more recent musical Next To Normal. But in reality, I think a better question would be which musicals do I NOT like. That list consists of South Pacific, and thats it. I have never disliked a musical except that one. I have really enjoyed every other one I have seen or heard.
ReplyDeleteNow, non musicals is a tougher category. I also enjoyed Proof, but I suppose my favorite would be A Midsummer Night's Dream. I also have a close connection to The Crucible, because that was the play that brought Travis and I together.
I would LOVE to go see Wicked. It would be freakin' awesome. Didn't it come to town recently? (and by recently, I mean like last year.)
DeleteI would really love to see Spring Awakening, but I'm not even sure if it's still running.
I saw Spring Awakening. It was pretty good. I think Wicked did come to town this past summer, but I couldn't afford to go.
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