Curtains!

So, remember how I didn't think it was going to work? I was only mostly wrong about that.

Not going to lie, I was kind of worried during this past week or tech rehearsals that the show wasn't going to go off without a hitch or three, but barring the scenery getting their last coat of paint, it's all ready. The actors are memorized - well, memorized enough to pull of a show - the changes are teched, the scenes are blocked and the major issues are dealt with. Anything else that will come up should only be temporary.

The problem comes in the level of talent the cast is bringing in, which - in my humble and outspoken opinion - is insufficient. Some of the cast can actually pull of the roles they are playing, but a couple of the others simply aren't up to snuff.

My biggest issue is the music. It's too...blunt? sometimes. The word is hard to find for it. It's like it wants so very hard to be incredible, but instead of making that leap to being incredible, it kind of laughs incredible off and is acceptable instead. That's just the music for the show itself, I'm not going to get into the performances yet. There's a song that a friend described to me as heart-wrenching and deeply emotional, but when I heard the music, all I thought was, "Was that it?". Don't get me wrong, there were some great phrases in it, but then the tone of the song changes and it's completely different than before. In the end, I was left with a feeling of bland disappointment. It doesn't help that the actor singing the number isn't as good as he might be thinking he is.

Now, for a community show, it's pretty good. The sets are cheap, but under Light they look okay. The sound is mediocre, but the actors shouldn't rely on the mercurial devices anyway. The costumes are about what you would expect for a decent high school performance. The actors are a little hit or miss, but on the whole they do well enough that I think people will keep coming, because they're at the standard for what the local crowd has come to expect I think.

So, if you're in the East Brunswick area of New Jersey any weekend in Febuary, I'd take a little time and see if you can drop by the show. It'll be entertaining certainly. I mean, how many hangings do you get to witness nowadays, right?

One last thing: There's more than one killer. Cheers!

-S.