Hood the Musical: A Review and My summer of travel
I finally found the Fulton County Playhouse! Tucked away in the woods. The address on the Google Maps was Cuba. But the zip code was linked to Canton. But according to the Daily Ledger review, it's in Bryant.
No matter. I figured out where it was.
On Thursday, June 20th, before heading off to Cedar Rapids, I had a delightful day trip to pay my rent in Lewistown, get notified that I had to pay two months' rent in July, and finally decompress with an evening of watching children and teenagers bring the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men in the Sherwood Forest to life.
As I sat watching the play, directed by Sue Lafary, with Aaron Olson filling the green costume and hat of Robin Hood, and slyly romancing the woman of his dreams, Maid Marian, played by Chloe Nelson, it occurred to me that Robin Hood is one corner of pop culture in which I'm pretty ignorant.
Missed the 2018 movie with Taron Egerton and Jaime Foxx.
I missed the 2010 movie with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
I think I saw some of Robin Hood Men in Tights on Basic Cable.
We watched about 13 minutes of Kevin Reynolds' 1991 adaptation with Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman in my 6th grade music class. Long enough to appreciate Costner's refined pan-American accent.
Never saw the Disney version from the 1970's with Phil Harris as the bear.
Never saw the Errol Flynn version from the 1930's.
Never read the book.
So where did that leave me? Scrambling to keep up, why of course.
I am glad I had the kids who presented Hood the Musical were courteous enough to have good diction, good projection, and good characterization. I was able to follow everything that was going on.
Larry Eskridge made a point of mentioning the tricky vocals. That's not a lie. The kid who plays the Sheriff of Nottingham, Brennan Grove, has a song that was titled either "It's nice to be king" or "It's good to be king." But he was malevolent. He was vicious. He was a villain. Brennan Grove is EXACTLY the type of actor I'd like to start using at Lewistown as soon as he comes up to the junior high. He pranced around stage doing some complicated dance moves while singing in a complicated tempo. Lucas Reith played Sir Guy. As the right hand man of the Sheriff of Nottingham, he carried out the nefarious orders of the Sheriff with relish. Sir Richard the Lionheart, the king, is the actual monarch. But he's away at war. The company of actors opened the show with a beautiful rendition of a song called "Lionheart."
Reith is an excellent actor. He's actually a bit stanislavskian in his approach, pushing and shoving the townspeople of nottingham so hard that they actually ate it and wiped out on a couple of occasions. (I heard a poor girl meekly say "you didn't have to push that hard!") Was it in the script? No matter, the remark worked!
Of course Brennan Grove, ever the Rapscallion, makes part and partial of his oily attempt at a coup de e'tat the seduction of Maid Marian. She wants no part of it, to be sure. But he feels as though he can get his way. He kind of reminds me of the president with his egoistic narcissism, the "when you're famous you can do anything" mindset... and Grove as Nottingham spares no effort to take specifically and exactly what he wants, when he wants.
It's just that he has to get through Robin Hood to get to Maid Marian.
Turns out, the Bandit, the Outlaw, the thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor; and the beautiful maiden made a promise to each other. Years earlier, they gave their hearts to each other.
So after the Sheriff of Nottingham has sacked, pillaged, maimed, and destroyed his own town, rounding up his detractors and exiling them to the woods, he sets up a wedding with Maid Marian. And it's Robin Hood with his band of Merry Men, including Little John (Ben Krock), Will (Victoria Cooper), Patrick (Thaiyla Harris) and Giant Jim (Bryan Parker), who show up at the royal court right as the Wedding Processional is about to begin.
Will Robin Hood be able to strong-arm the Sheriff of Nottingham into accepting the helpless maidens whom he discharged from the community? Just for being loyal to their king?
Will Maid Marian go through with the marriage to the Sheriff of Nottingham to avoid the fate that awaits her if she doesn't? Or will she follow her heart, no matter what the risk, to Robin Hood?
Bryan Adams' 1991 hit "Everything I Do (I Do it For You)" is the only thing that could have possibly been added to have made this better.
I absolutely loved Hood the Musical. Great work by Mrs. Lafary, as well as Jim Lafary with the set design and construction, Tammy Weaver on the musical direction, Elizabeth Reed as the assistant to both directors, Grant Kessler as the aide to Lafary, and everyone else on the crew.
Again, the singing, the choreography, and the acting were up to par with what I see in regularly community theatre, not merely childrens' theatre, up here in the Quad Cities. In fact, I'd love to see Quad City Music Guild take a stab at Hood the Musical! Now that I know that there's a musical out there based on the Robin Hood story, and that it's very good, I kind of want to see it done again already!
4 Stars.
Here is what my summer travel has consisted of for 2019:
Lewistown and Bryant, IL- for Hood the Musical and paying rent, June 20th, 2019
Cedar Rapids, Iowa- for Mason's state travel ball tournament, June 22-23rd, 2019
St. Louis, Missouri, with stops in Hannibal, Missouri, and Granite City, IL- to see the St. Louis Cardinals play the Chicago Cubs, and to watch the Lewistown band play, May 31- June 1, 2019
Des Moines, Iowa, to see Alaina run in the Iowa State High School Track Championships, May 12th, 2019
Iowa City, Iowa- to see The Avengers Endgame, May 13th
Coralville, Iowa- to see X-Men: Dark Phoenix, June 7th
Moline, Illinois- to see Spider-Man: Far from Home- July 5th (it was kind of a trip, haha- hey, I had to go all the way to the Menards at the edge of town for a dehumidifier as well)
Iowa City, Iowa- to see Yesterday, July 7th
Iowa City, Iowa- to go to a graduation party- June 29th
Day trips mostly, with two overnight trips.
No matter. I figured out where it was.
On Thursday, June 20th, before heading off to Cedar Rapids, I had a delightful day trip to pay my rent in Lewistown, get notified that I had to pay two months' rent in July, and finally decompress with an evening of watching children and teenagers bring the story of Robin Hood and his Merry Men in the Sherwood Forest to life.
As I sat watching the play, directed by Sue Lafary, with Aaron Olson filling the green costume and hat of Robin Hood, and slyly romancing the woman of his dreams, Maid Marian, played by Chloe Nelson, it occurred to me that Robin Hood is one corner of pop culture in which I'm pretty ignorant.
Missed the 2018 movie with Taron Egerton and Jaime Foxx.
I missed the 2010 movie with Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett.
I think I saw some of Robin Hood Men in Tights on Basic Cable.
We watched about 13 minutes of Kevin Reynolds' 1991 adaptation with Kevin Costner and Morgan Freeman in my 6th grade music class. Long enough to appreciate Costner's refined pan-American accent.
Never saw the Disney version from the 1970's with Phil Harris as the bear.
Never saw the Errol Flynn version from the 1930's.
Never read the book.
So where did that leave me? Scrambling to keep up, why of course.
I am glad I had the kids who presented Hood the Musical were courteous enough to have good diction, good projection, and good characterization. I was able to follow everything that was going on.
Larry Eskridge made a point of mentioning the tricky vocals. That's not a lie. The kid who plays the Sheriff of Nottingham, Brennan Grove, has a song that was titled either "It's nice to be king" or "It's good to be king." But he was malevolent. He was vicious. He was a villain. Brennan Grove is EXACTLY the type of actor I'd like to start using at Lewistown as soon as he comes up to the junior high. He pranced around stage doing some complicated dance moves while singing in a complicated tempo. Lucas Reith played Sir Guy. As the right hand man of the Sheriff of Nottingham, he carried out the nefarious orders of the Sheriff with relish. Sir Richard the Lionheart, the king, is the actual monarch. But he's away at war. The company of actors opened the show with a beautiful rendition of a song called "Lionheart."
Reith is an excellent actor. He's actually a bit stanislavskian in his approach, pushing and shoving the townspeople of nottingham so hard that they actually ate it and wiped out on a couple of occasions. (I heard a poor girl meekly say "you didn't have to push that hard!") Was it in the script? No matter, the remark worked!
Of course Brennan Grove, ever the Rapscallion, makes part and partial of his oily attempt at a coup de e'tat the seduction of Maid Marian. She wants no part of it, to be sure. But he feels as though he can get his way. He kind of reminds me of the president with his egoistic narcissism, the "when you're famous you can do anything" mindset... and Grove as Nottingham spares no effort to take specifically and exactly what he wants, when he wants.
It's just that he has to get through Robin Hood to get to Maid Marian.
Turns out, the Bandit, the Outlaw, the thief who steals from the rich and gives to the poor; and the beautiful maiden made a promise to each other. Years earlier, they gave their hearts to each other.
So after the Sheriff of Nottingham has sacked, pillaged, maimed, and destroyed his own town, rounding up his detractors and exiling them to the woods, he sets up a wedding with Maid Marian. And it's Robin Hood with his band of Merry Men, including Little John (Ben Krock), Will (Victoria Cooper), Patrick (Thaiyla Harris) and Giant Jim (Bryan Parker), who show up at the royal court right as the Wedding Processional is about to begin.
Will Robin Hood be able to strong-arm the Sheriff of Nottingham into accepting the helpless maidens whom he discharged from the community? Just for being loyal to their king?
Will Maid Marian go through with the marriage to the Sheriff of Nottingham to avoid the fate that awaits her if she doesn't? Or will she follow her heart, no matter what the risk, to Robin Hood?
Bryan Adams' 1991 hit "Everything I Do (I Do it For You)" is the only thing that could have possibly been added to have made this better.
I absolutely loved Hood the Musical. Great work by Mrs. Lafary, as well as Jim Lafary with the set design and construction, Tammy Weaver on the musical direction, Elizabeth Reed as the assistant to both directors, Grant Kessler as the aide to Lafary, and everyone else on the crew.
Again, the singing, the choreography, and the acting were up to par with what I see in regularly community theatre, not merely childrens' theatre, up here in the Quad Cities. In fact, I'd love to see Quad City Music Guild take a stab at Hood the Musical! Now that I know that there's a musical out there based on the Robin Hood story, and that it's very good, I kind of want to see it done again already!
4 Stars.
Here is what my summer travel has consisted of for 2019:
Lewistown and Bryant, IL- for Hood the Musical and paying rent, June 20th, 2019
Cedar Rapids, Iowa- for Mason's state travel ball tournament, June 22-23rd, 2019
St. Louis, Missouri, with stops in Hannibal, Missouri, and Granite City, IL- to see the St. Louis Cardinals play the Chicago Cubs, and to watch the Lewistown band play, May 31- June 1, 2019
Des Moines, Iowa, to see Alaina run in the Iowa State High School Track Championships, May 12th, 2019
Iowa City, Iowa- to see The Avengers Endgame, May 13th
Coralville, Iowa- to see X-Men: Dark Phoenix, June 7th
Moline, Illinois- to see Spider-Man: Far from Home- July 5th (it was kind of a trip, haha- hey, I had to go all the way to the Menards at the edge of town for a dehumidifier as well)
Iowa City, Iowa- to see Yesterday, July 7th
Iowa City, Iowa- to go to a graduation party- June 29th
Day trips mostly, with two overnight trips.