Tony Xu
Mrs. Guarino
Lit Performance
3/3/20
For the plot, the story basically talks about a girl called Sophie who is going to get married with Sky and tried to find her father from three men: Sam, Harry and Bill. Her mother, Donna, has two friends: Tanya and Rosie, and Sophie has two friends: Ali and Lisa. They all came to the wedding as guests, including two workers: Pepper and Eddie. Sophie invited her three dad. Finally, Sophie cancelled the wedding and Sam remarried Donna. Bill fell in love with Rosie. The whole musical doesn't give an exact answer about who Sophie's dad is, which left this blank space for the audience to imagine.
For the music, I would say all the songs in this musical are artistic masterpieces. The band, Abba, composed those songs with flexible key changes, unusual chord progression, and a lot of use of minor keys. For me, as a musician and songwriter, I truly appreciate all the music pieces in this musical and I should learn from them.
For the stage, the stage is basically depicted as a tropical hot island. With the chairs and small tables, it creates a more comfortable atmosphere for the audience and for the casts as well. The audience would easily feel the place where the story happens. The lights also played an important role. In “One of us”, when Donna cleaned the room with loneliness, one straight light fell upon her. We can easily feel the loneliness of the character. And another light fell upon Sam, which left a blank space for the audience to think what would happen next.
As a part of the ensemble, the point that we should go out and sing with soloists is well-designed. Like “Super Trouper”, we hid behind the wall and when the chorus came out, we popped our heads out and sang the chorus. This scene added some active feeling to the scene. And also at the end of Act 1, “Voulez Vous”, the “snake” part and the “window” part make the whole song become more fancy. Audience would truly see the great dance movements and the emotion the song wanted to express. Pitifully, I’m not a soloist, therefore I did not see some of the scenes where soloists sang their own parts, but as a proficient substitute for other actors, I somehow took part in some of the scenes that soloist sang their song. During the rehearsals, I played Sam, Sky and Harry. In the “Thank you for the music” scene, once, I played Harry. I played the guitar and at that time, Sophie came out and we sang the song together. Sam was unhappy at that time, and he had a lot of dialogue with Sophie at that time, so he stood in the middle and Sophie stood in the front. Everyone’s position has their own purpose, which makes me feel a little bit profound but amazing. And I could feel the purpose from the director when I truly took part in it.
The most memorable scene for me is “One of us”. Personally, this is one of my favorite songs in this musical. The whole stage created a lonely feeling and Donna swept the floor and sang the song. Sam was on the side and wrote something. When could easily feel the relationship between those two characters. Although they were that close, they could not reach each other at that time. Another scene I like is the beach scene, where I wore slippers and goggles. The costumes were pretty funny in that scene, which also created a happy atmosphere for that scene. The audience got the happiness of enjoying the sunlight and swimming. All the girls changed into summer clothes, which also added the feeling of summer.
My favorite actress is Elena, who played Donna in Mamma Mia. Her character is pretty emotional, which desires the actress to have a lot of expression changes and mood changes.Her customs have pretty fancy dance dress and normal worker’s customs, which also gave the character different status and showed the difference between a dream and reality. In “Our Last Summer”, she sang the song with her smile and her voice combined some laughter, which I can really feel the happiness when she recalled the time she spent with Harry. In “The Winner Takes It All”, her voice combined with crying, which makes the audience feel the sadness of her. The great switches of mood and sounds make the character alive. That’s why I think Elena did a really great job.
Overall, I love this musical so much. All the songs and the casts in the show are all fantastic. As my first time that truly joined the theatre, I have a better understanding of the movements, the blocking and the stage setting. I thought the audience enjoyed that because we could always hear the claps when we finished a song. I believe they are all submerged into the Taverna island and enjoyed the music. It totally changed my original feeling of a musical and I really hope I can continue to do that again. And hopefully, I can get a bigger character next year.
Mrs. Guarino
Lit Performance
3/3/20
Mamma Mia
Mamma Mia is the first Musical I watched and also the first Musical I took part in. I was not that familiar with this type of drama before, because when I saw a drama combined with music and plot, I felt a little bit weird, but this time, I changed my perspective.For the plot, the story basically talks about a girl called Sophie who is going to get married with Sky and tried to find her father from three men: Sam, Harry and Bill. Her mother, Donna, has two friends: Tanya and Rosie, and Sophie has two friends: Ali and Lisa. They all came to the wedding as guests, including two workers: Pepper and Eddie. Sophie invited her three dad. Finally, Sophie cancelled the wedding and Sam remarried Donna. Bill fell in love with Rosie. The whole musical doesn't give an exact answer about who Sophie's dad is, which left this blank space for the audience to imagine.
For the music, I would say all the songs in this musical are artistic masterpieces. The band, Abba, composed those songs with flexible key changes, unusual chord progression, and a lot of use of minor keys. For me, as a musician and songwriter, I truly appreciate all the music pieces in this musical and I should learn from them.
For the stage, the stage is basically depicted as a tropical hot island. With the chairs and small tables, it creates a more comfortable atmosphere for the audience and for the casts as well. The audience would easily feel the place where the story happens. The lights also played an important role. In “One of us”, when Donna cleaned the room with loneliness, one straight light fell upon her. We can easily feel the loneliness of the character. And another light fell upon Sam, which left a blank space for the audience to think what would happen next.
As a part of the ensemble, the point that we should go out and sing with soloists is well-designed. Like “Super Trouper”, we hid behind the wall and when the chorus came out, we popped our heads out and sang the chorus. This scene added some active feeling to the scene. And also at the end of Act 1, “Voulez Vous”, the “snake” part and the “window” part make the whole song become more fancy. Audience would truly see the great dance movements and the emotion the song wanted to express. Pitifully, I’m not a soloist, therefore I did not see some of the scenes where soloists sang their own parts, but as a proficient substitute for other actors, I somehow took part in some of the scenes that soloist sang their song. During the rehearsals, I played Sam, Sky and Harry. In the “Thank you for the music” scene, once, I played Harry. I played the guitar and at that time, Sophie came out and we sang the song together. Sam was unhappy at that time, and he had a lot of dialogue with Sophie at that time, so he stood in the middle and Sophie stood in the front. Everyone’s position has their own purpose, which makes me feel a little bit profound but amazing. And I could feel the purpose from the director when I truly took part in it.
The most memorable scene for me is “One of us”. Personally, this is one of my favorite songs in this musical. The whole stage created a lonely feeling and Donna swept the floor and sang the song. Sam was on the side and wrote something. When could easily feel the relationship between those two characters. Although they were that close, they could not reach each other at that time. Another scene I like is the beach scene, where I wore slippers and goggles. The costumes were pretty funny in that scene, which also created a happy atmosphere for that scene. The audience got the happiness of enjoying the sunlight and swimming. All the girls changed into summer clothes, which also added the feeling of summer.
My favorite actress is Elena, who played Donna in Mamma Mia. Her character is pretty emotional, which desires the actress to have a lot of expression changes and mood changes.Her customs have pretty fancy dance dress and normal worker’s customs, which also gave the character different status and showed the difference between a dream and reality. In “Our Last Summer”, she sang the song with her smile and her voice combined some laughter, which I can really feel the happiness when she recalled the time she spent with Harry. In “The Winner Takes It All”, her voice combined with crying, which makes the audience feel the sadness of her. The great switches of mood and sounds make the character alive. That’s why I think Elena did a really great job.
Overall, I love this musical so much. All the songs and the casts in the show are all fantastic. As my first time that truly joined the theatre, I have a better understanding of the movements, the blocking and the stage setting. I thought the audience enjoyed that because we could always hear the claps when we finished a song. I believe they are all submerged into the Taverna island and enjoyed the music. It totally changed my original feeling of a musical and I really hope I can continue to do that again. And hopefully, I can get a bigger character next year.
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