Sideshow the musical

Musicals are a popular form of play nowadays (transitioned from the Opera of earlier Europe for a middle class audience most likely). Though they tend to have somewhat radically different stories, the actual plot stays the same. Based heavily on the gender of the main character, the story tends to revolve around the life of the main character as they fall in love with someone (typically someone they meet out of the blue, and will later both break up with, and then join back up with again). On April 8-10 and 15-17, Sideshow the musical will be performed in the University Theatre (this post based upon the performance done on the 9th). Done in two acts, it depicts the antics of two Siamese twins trying to fit in the world (based on the real events of two similar people).

The songs tended to blend together throughout the entire musical due to their constant state. There would only be a few seconds while someone might be talking, quickly having them switching to singing their lines. Though each of the pieces were distinct, they followed a very similar trend of staccato notes throughout the pieces, with a few held notes to spice up specific lines. Notably, almost every instrument played drone, as well as spend time accenting the vocalists throughout the entirety of the piece (a couple of the brass instruments were the only ones to not do so). The singers did very little repitition of lines throughout the pieces, and only when the actual lines of the "play" would involve two groups trying to contest against one another (in an argument or otherwise).

The actors were in a constant state of motion for almost the entire duration of being on the stage. Only when a piece was done, or when another actor had some form of importance (and demanded the audience's attention) did the actors stop moving. Though they were in constant motion, there were no noticable ques between the actors for the music (several were done for the dance motions however), relying completely on the memorization of the piece (and the offstage director should they get stuck). In complete and sharp contrast, the instrumentalists in the back did almost no movement past raising their instrument when their time to play arose. Though they didn't directly que within one another, a director cued each of them for each of the movements done in the music.

Despite not being free, there was a rather sizable audiance throughout the theatre (though not a full house). Many of the viewers were parents to the performers on stage, as well as a large number of students that came for the performance. Many of the students came in larger groups of three and higher, though there were a couple that were there solo (only two couples that I saw throughout the crowd). There were also several previous members of the Art and Humanities department that showed up to support the new members.

The theatre was most likely picked for its ability to reverberate, and then quickly remove the reverberation. There were many edges along the walls, as well as along the back of the theatre, allowing for a large amount of reverberation through the theatre. The ceiling, however, had multitudes of sound traps to keep the sound from lasting for a large amount of time. The effect was that there was a large amount of reverberation when each note was done, but was quickly gone for the next note to start reverberating.

The flow of piece into another piece was the most notable aspect overall. While the pieces tended to be different entities onto themselves, they would get transitioned into one another to keep the general flow of the musical together. There were almost no times when there wasn't some form of music being played (desregarding the constant drone that almost always being played). This allowed the musical to keep flowing, and never have to spend time trying to set up for the next piece outside of the musical key.