cultured even
I think making Billy Elliot my first official theater visit set the bar pretty high.
I went to see Book of Mormon since it's in its current Chicago run and the university thought they could (not end up) subsidize tickets for us. We had these seats way up in the balconies so that we were basically touching the ceiling and I had to contort my body to look around people to see the stage.
I thought it was okay; it certainly didn't really live up to the huge hype it has. The set was amazing and the choreography was stellar, but I feel like I only really notice these things because I have a background in backstage and theater tech. The storyline was interesting and the songs were catchy and original and the characters were cute and sort of relatable but the dialogue seemed to rely on cheap laughs and cutesy gimmicks that didn't strike me as "theater". Granted, I know BoM was written by the producers of South Park and Ave Q, and I did laugh at some parts and found some parts amusing, but I just didn't find it sitting very well with me. I love crude humor, don't get me wrong, I revel in crude humor and sometimes I'm considered crude, but when I dress up and go to a theater to watch something, I sort of want something substantial and meaningful and something that moves me. BoM was something I enjoyed watching but not something that really moved me to the point that I'd want to see it again. The sound quality was not super great up in the alcoves. I read a synopsis of the plot and found that it had the kind of symbolism I was looking for but on first glance it seems like a sometimes crash and rough play, like someone who is inherently smart and witty but hides behind stupid insults and immature behavior.
Overall, if you can get a chance to see it, great! Do it. The dances were wonderfully put together, nothing too campy but organized and thought-out. The set was decent. The singing was pretty well cast: Chicago's Price had an interesting accent to his character that I enjoyed and Cunningham apparently was in Pitch Perfect, which I felt fit? His stage presence was very filmy, very screenplay-esque. The musical numbers were always amusing, either by subject material or by dance numbers. But it certainly is not something you should bend over backwards, exert too much effort to see. Perhaps I'm being too critical, but I'm certain if they didn't keep at the pace they were going at for the story, I would be bored. When I go fancy to the theater I want to moved to tears or feel different when I leave. I've paid money for that kind of emotional simulation!
tl;dr: Book of Mormon: 6.5/10, may or may not see again
I went to see Book of Mormon since it's in its current Chicago run and the university thought they could (not end up) subsidize tickets for us. We had these seats way up in the balconies so that we were basically touching the ceiling and I had to contort my body to look around people to see the stage.
I thought it was okay; it certainly didn't really live up to the huge hype it has. The set was amazing and the choreography was stellar, but I feel like I only really notice these things because I have a background in backstage and theater tech. The storyline was interesting and the songs were catchy and original and the characters were cute and sort of relatable but the dialogue seemed to rely on cheap laughs and cutesy gimmicks that didn't strike me as "theater". Granted, I know BoM was written by the producers of South Park and Ave Q, and I did laugh at some parts and found some parts amusing, but I just didn't find it sitting very well with me. I love crude humor, don't get me wrong, I revel in crude humor and sometimes I'm considered crude, but when I dress up and go to a theater to watch something, I sort of want something substantial and meaningful and something that moves me. BoM was something I enjoyed watching but not something that really moved me to the point that I'd want to see it again. The sound quality was not super great up in the alcoves. I read a synopsis of the plot and found that it had the kind of symbolism I was looking for but on first glance it seems like a sometimes crash and rough play, like someone who is inherently smart and witty but hides behind stupid insults and immature behavior.
Overall, if you can get a chance to see it, great! Do it. The dances were wonderfully put together, nothing too campy but organized and thought-out. The set was decent. The singing was pretty well cast: Chicago's Price had an interesting accent to his character that I enjoyed and Cunningham apparently was in Pitch Perfect, which I felt fit? His stage presence was very filmy, very screenplay-esque. The musical numbers were always amusing, either by subject material or by dance numbers. But it certainly is not something you should bend over backwards, exert too much effort to see. Perhaps I'm being too critical, but I'm certain if they didn't keep at the pace they were going at for the story, I would be bored. When I go fancy to the theater I want to moved to tears or feel different when I leave. I've paid money for that kind of emotional simulation!
tl;dr: Book of Mormon: 6.5/10, may or may not see again