Funny Girl, Legally Blonde, and Anne Frank

Woo- I had an amazing weekend: I caught the dress rehearsal of a local community theatre's version of Funny Girl, followed by the national tour of Legally Blonde, and then tonight Anne Frank that Phillip wrote about in the last post.

Funny Girl: I've seen the movie and own the Broadway soundtrack (which is often on repeat in my CD player), but never seen the show live. Funny Girl follows the story of Fanny Brice, a famous commedian, singer, and actress from the 20's and 30's. Barbara Streisand starred in the movie and Broadway versions of the show. The show I saw was very well put together: the singing was great, and the coreography was awesome. There were a few kinks to iron out line-wise, but hey- it was dress rehearsal. The best part about the show (besides seeing all my buddies in it) was the music. If you don't own the soundtrack, at least buy "Don't Rain on my Parade" on itunes or somewhere.

Legally Blonde: Legally Blonde the musical was adapted from the movie of the same name. It just closed on Broadway, but is currently touring across America. The first act dragged a bit plot-wise, and all the over the top-hyperness got a bit annoying. Becky Gulsvig, who starred as Elle, didn't impress me much in the first act, either. However, everything got better in the second act. Becky's voice warmed up and sounded amazing. Once the show got down to the more emotional parts and the actors and actresses actually acted instead of hyperactively jumping around, it got a lot better. Afterwards, my friend and I headed to the stage door where all the actors and actresses were happy to sign our playbills (and one for Philip!) and we got a picture with Becky (who came prepared with her OWN pink sharpie.) Overall, it was a fun night out.

Anne Frank: Wow. First of all: the set. The set designer, Shannon Robert, has worked on a myriad of Broadway shows including *Legally Blonde*, Jersey Boys, Hairspray, and The Pirate Queen (we have not yet discussed my adoration for this show, but as the opening of 9 to 5 draws near, you'll understand.) The set was amazing. Philip described it mostly in his last post. Obviously, there were no scene changes, seeing as the Franks stayed in the annex throughout the entire show. The acting was incredible. Anne, Margot, and Peter were all played by high school students who did a wonderful job and took their parts extremely seriously. There were funny moments and scary moments, but, in my opinion, the best staged was when the Franks were discovered and the Nazis came to capture them. They had just been delivered strawberries, which the children were eating in the attic. Epic music started as the Nazis burst in and seized the adults. The most heart wrenching part, though, was seeing the children, unaware, playing happily above. They were taken and then at the end, Otto Frank (Anne's father) came out and summed up what happened to each member who had lived in the annex. They appeared on stage as he mentioned them. He was the only to survive. Of course, all of my friends (pretty sure we brought half the school to see our friend Emiley as Anne) were sobbing at the end. It took awhile afterwards for us to all calm down. When Emiley came out to see everyone, she laughed, "Everyone is always crying afterwards! Don't cry!"

Sooo- tech week for The Music Man, as Philip mentioned, is starting tomato, so there will probably not be any updates for awhile. Not quite sure how you will go on, but you must try.

Till latah,

Jess