Weekend round-up

I'm back from my trip and managed to catch several productions over the weekend. I conked out by Sunday, though. My son and I were in the car and halfway to the Happendance concert when I realized I was just too tired to take in anything else. We turned around and he enjoyed an afternoon outdoors and I took a nap. It looked like a really good concert too, but sometimes it's just necessary to slow down a little.

She Loves Me

On Thursday night, Cheryl and I went to see She Loves Me at MSU. If you go, make sure you go to the Fairchild and not to the Wharton Arena theater like we did at first.

What's fascinating about this production is that there are two casts filling out the lead roles. So depending on the night you go, you might see an entirely different production. Cheryl went the again the next night and said the show's whole feel was different with very different chemistry.

Overall, I really enjoyed the show. It is a light musical and one that is simply sweet and entertaining. The technical aspects of the show were outstanding and there was a great deal of enjoyable character acting. In fact, each actor fully committed to creating characters with their own unique personalities.

There wasn't a whole lot in the way of choreography, but that's been true for almost every musical I've seen this season with the exception of the productions at The Gate.

Blue Light Players

The Blue Light Players put on their spring concert this past weekend. It was a Broadway revue with children performing several White Way favorites in order to raise money for the families of fallen police officers.

Performed on a stage in the basement of a church, it's an intimate setting that eschews the glitz of Broadway in favor of the warmth of a cause-driven group motivated by love. I took my son to this show and he loved it.

Turandot

Saturday our family split ways for a while. Richard was off to perform in If the Shoe Fits at BoarsHead while Dominic went to stay with friends and I went to Cheryl's wedding shower. That evening, Dominic rejoined me and we went to the Wharton to see the MSU School of Music's production of Puccinni's Turandot.

What an impressive production!

There were 400 musicians performing--100 instrumentalists arrayed in the pit at the front of the stage and 300 singers in risers on the stage. The opera's drama was then acted out in a small area sandwiched between the two groups of musicians.

Powerful, powerful stuff. In each of the three acts, the performers overwhelmed the packed Great Hall with waves and waves of sound.

It was a pity that the children's ensemble that paraded across the stage several times never got to sing, but that is a minor complaint in an evening of beauty.