I LOVE going to see plays. It is one of my favorite things, and I wish I had the money to get season tickets to every theater in Seattle. But that's not going to happen any time soon, so right now, I just have to content myself by picking the very best play for the year to go and see.
Because I love theater so much, in my rhetoric class, we had the assignment to write editorials on anything! Such a fun assignment! So, I decided to write about the theater (plays and ballet included in that).
So here is my editorial for today. My column is entitled "All Things Theater."
All Things
Theater
This year’s theater is beginning to
wind down. There are two more plays
going on at the 5th Avenue Theater, Jersey Boys and Pirates of
Penzanse. Director’s Choice has yet to play at the Pacific Northwest Ballet,
but there aren’t many other shows happening.
This is the time that everyone is gearing up for the next year, which
promises to be exciting. So let me give
you a brief preview of what is to come in the world of Seattle Theater next
year, specifically, all of the Broadway shows that are going on at Paramount
Theater. These are the plays that will compose Paramount Theater’s 2013 to 2014
season: Lion King, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, the Wizard of Oz, the Book of
Mormon, Evita, and Once. Today I am going
to give you a snapshot at my two picks from this season as
must-see-musicals. They are child and
adult friendly, creative, and imaginative in nature. These are my favorites, The Wizard of Oz and the Lion
King.
The Wizard of Oz
To begin the next season with a bang, the
Wizard of Oz is coming to the Paramount from October 9-13. The tale of Dorothy, the Wizard, and the Wicked
Witch of the West has been known to children since the book was written in
1900. This classic story has only recently been remade into a
musical in 2011. With the advent of
modern technology, the theater is able to use projections to recreate the
tornado scene on stage masterfully. Dorothy’s house moves across the stage
while the witch is seen flying across the stage on her broomstick attached to
wires. Pieces of debris are seen flying
passed and images of the inside of a tornado are projected moving on the
stage. All of these aspects together
give a very real feeling of movement on the stage. With this classic beginning, the theater sets
itself up for success, appealing to adults and children alike in one
musical.
The Lion King
Lion King was my favorite movie growing
up. So when I got my American Girl magazine in the mail and
saw that there was an entire section devoted to NicKayla T., the girl who plays
the young Nala on Broadway’s musical creation of The Lion King, I was awestruck.
The costumes, characters, and way of portraying the animals were
incredible. Ever since that day when I
was six years old, I have wanted to see the play. To my delight, it is coming
to the Paramount Theater this year, and I am greatly looking forward to the
opportunity of seeing the play for my first time.
But just because I have never
seen the play, doesn’t mean that I don’t know anything about it. I have my American
Girl magazine to thank for that (I’ve still got that magazine, by the way).
The Lion King is currently Broadway’s
fifth longest running musical of all time (beat out by the Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Chicago, and Les Miserables). The play
has six Tony Awards (best musical among them), eight Drama Desk Awards, and the
Grammy for the Best Musical Show Album of 1999. Basically, it is really cool.
The costumes are exquisite. They are among the most complicated costumes
for a musical or play. The creators
found a unique way of creating the animals on stage that precursored the resent
creation of the War Horse. Each of
the animals is a puppet that the people are a part of. Some people leap across the stage, carrying puppets
of antelope leaping so that the people just blend in with the animals that they are carrying (as seen in the picture).
And then there is the score. Music written by Hans Zimmer and lyrics by
Elton John, what is there not to love? That moment the first note is hit by the
lead singer as the sun rises in the background is magical. Even the animated Disney movie gives me Goosebumps;
I can only imagine what the actual musical will feel like.
So there you go, my two picks of
Paramount Theater next season. Next week
I will give you a preview of the best 5th Avenue plays to come. These are some plays that are definitely worth
seeing.
