Monday ha HA!
So, I went to The Mystery of Edwin Drood the musical on Saturday night. I enjoyed it quite a lot. The production obviously had problems, but it was so fun it made up for it. Now I suppose I have to read the book. (Dickens, here I come! Let's try again!)
I have undoubtedly experienced a complete turn around as far as musicals are concerned. Why, oh why, did I dislike them when I was younger? Musicals make life wonderful! I shudder to think of the boring existence we would have without them. So, as you probably gathered from my reactions, the singing was good. The costumes were very victorian, which made me very happy. And I liked the way most of the main characters where portrayed. Edwin Drood, however, was played by a woman. (Surely this is not normal?) I'm not prejudice against doing that, but it did NOTHING for the role or the play. There was simply no point. And I wasn't really able to think of Edwin on the same level as the other leads because of this. (And in general Edwin was just annoying.) Jasper I liked a lot though. He was tall and dark and brooding. I wanted him to be happy.
The audience voted for Rosa to be the murderer. (!?!) That ending had it that she killed Edwin because it was dark and Edwin had borrowed Jasper's cloak, so she meant to kill Jasper but got Edwin by mistake. It was...an interesting ending, and it worked alright, but I thought Rosa a bit of a fiend for wanting to actually KILL Jasper, who was so in love with her and Iwantedhimtobehappy.
So, this post might make no sense to anyone who hasn't read the book for seen the musical, but there it goes.
I have undoubtedly experienced a complete turn around as far as musicals are concerned. Why, oh why, did I dislike them when I was younger? Musicals make life wonderful! I shudder to think of the boring existence we would have without them. So, as you probably gathered from my reactions, the singing was good. The costumes were very victorian, which made me very happy. And I liked the way most of the main characters where portrayed. Edwin Drood, however, was played by a woman. (Surely this is not normal?) I'm not prejudice against doing that, but it did NOTHING for the role or the play. There was simply no point. And I wasn't really able to think of Edwin on the same level as the other leads because of this. (And in general Edwin was just annoying.) Jasper I liked a lot though. He was tall and dark and brooding. I wanted him to be happy.
The audience voted for Rosa to be the murderer. (!?!) That ending had it that she killed Edwin because it was dark and Edwin had borrowed Jasper's cloak, so she meant to kill Jasper but got Edwin by mistake. It was...an interesting ending, and it worked alright, but I thought Rosa a bit of a fiend for wanting to actually KILL Jasper, who was so in love with her and Iwantedhimtobehappy.
So, this post might make no sense to anyone who hasn't read the book for seen the musical, but there it goes.