For my final performance in Basics of Singing, I will be performing the song “Ireland” from Legally Blonde the Musical. This musical first opened February 2nd, 2007 at the Palace Theatre in New York City. Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin brought Amanda Brown’s novel and the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer motion picture to a new life of song and dance. “Ireland” is a piece that presents a different side to a character, Paulette, that is not seen or noted in the film nor the book. This different side of Paulette is the reason I chose the song.
“Ireland” is present about half way through the play, towards the end of act one. Up until this point, Elle Woods, student of fashion merchandising and sorority president of Delta-Nu at UCLA, is met by a huge shock. Her boyfriend, Warner Huntington the Third, who she expects to propose to her tells her that he wants to break up with her because she is “not serious enough.” Elle, outraged, decides that love knows no bounds and must follow Warner to his post-graduate program at Harvard Law School. She ruins the rest of her party-style second semester senior year by studying to ace the L-SATs and getting accepted to Harvard as well. Upon arrival, she discovers that Warner has already proposed to a former childhood sweetheart who is also accepted into the same law program as them. Furious, Elle decides that if it is this boring, unfashionable brunette that Warner wants, then she must change her appearance, just to win him back. (“…The Movie or the Book…”) She goes to a salon not too far away from school, where Paulette, a hair dresser, convinces her that brunette is not the way to go. Paulette sings “Ireland” to Elle to convince her that she is beautiful as she is and does not need to chang...
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...ront of everyone before performing it at Cabaret on the second.
Works Cited
“American Theatre Wing - Biography - Laurence O’Keefe." American Theatre Wing - Biography - Laurence O'Keefe. American Theatre Wing, 2014. Web. Apr. 2014. .
“Legally Blonde - Which Is Better: The Movie or the Book?” Review. Web log post. Cinebrary. Wordpress, 23 Oct. 2012. Web. Apr. 2014. .
“Legally Blonde the Musical.” Legally Blonde Tour. N.p., 2012. Web. Apr. 2014. .
“The Dynamic Duo: Nell Benjamin and Larry O’Keefe." Berklee Blogs. Berklee College of Music, 16 May 2013. Web. Apr. 2014. .
In conclusion, details involving the characters and symbolic meanings to objects are the factors that make the novel better than the movie. Leaving out aspects of the novel limits the viewer’s appreciation for the story. One may favor the film over the novel or vice versa, but that person will not overlook the intense work that went into the making of both. The film and novel have their similarities and differences, but both effectively communicate their meaning to the public.
Although the book shows the individual people, the movie shows the relationships in action more than the book. The movie shows Cal and the children in action. It shows how they act around each other, the looks and the tones of voices that are being used, that can chang...
The book and the movie were both very good. The book took time to explain things like setting, people’s emotions, people’s traits, and important background information. There was no time for these explanations the movie. The book, however, had parts in the beginning where some readers could become flustered.
First of all, the movie is concise and more meaningful than the original book. Take an easy example of Macbeth, the movie
For my solo performance, I sang a piece named ‘I remember’ in the Musical Theatre genre. My piece was written by composer and lyricist, Stephen Sondheim who wrote both the musical score and the lyrics of the song. This song was written, along with several others, for the show ‘Evening Primrose’, a musical based on a short story, written by John Collier, which was published in the 1951 collection ‘Fancies and Goodnights’. It tells the story of a poet, Charles Snell, who takes refuge from the world by hiding out in a department store after closing. Once there, he meets a community of night people who live in the store and falls in love with a beautiful young girl named Ella. In this particular song, character Ella Harkins – originally played by Charmain Carr – reminisces about the outside world and all the memories she has from when she was younger and out in the open. It was written specifically for the television anthology series ABC Stage 67 and first aired in the US on November 16th 1966. It was later adapted into a stage show. I chose this song as it was requested by my
The movie I will be evaluating is a comedy film titled The Intern. It includes well-known actors like Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway. This film is about a 70-year-old widower named Ben Whittaker. He takes the chance to become a senior intern at an online fashion site after being a retired marketing executive for quite some time, Ben is looking for something to keep him busy. Whittaker doesn’t hit it off right away but he soon becomes popular amongst his younger co-workers as well as his boss Jules Ostin. His friendliness and wisdom help him develop a close friendship with Jules and her family. Modern comedy movies are somewhat predictable now a days, the criteria they usually follow have relatable humor, dirty humor, acting ability, unrealistic situations, exaggerated plot, conflicts and happy endings. Throughout this essay I will
The film is portrayed in the past and present scenario setting. It is based on a young couple’s love and passion for one another, but are unexpectedly separated due to the disapproval of the teen girl parents and the social differences in their life. At the start of the movie, it displays a nursing home style setting with an elderly man named Duke (James Garner), reading to an elderly woman named Mrs. Hamilton (Gena Rowlands), whose memory is inevitably deteriorating. The story he reads to her is a love story about two teenagers named Allie (Rachel McAdams) and Noah (Ryan Gosling), that met in the 1940’s at a carnival in Seabrook Island, South Carolina. The two teens are from different cultural lifestyles,
The play Beauty has an outward conflict because each character is envious of the other. Carla is an attractive but unsuccessful model and Bethany is an intelligent accountant who succeeds in writing short stories but is unsatisfied with her appearance. Carla wishes she was intelligent and Bethany wants to be attractive, so the boys will notice her. It’s funny because neither girl appreciates what she already has, but both want what the other has. Carla, who is beautiful, has frequent dates that she cannot even remember the names of:
Why is it that some movies fail to create a ``faithful adaptation of books? The same question can be asked for the book and the movie of The Perks of Being a Wallflower, written and directed by Stephen Chbosky. The book was a New York times bestseller and USA today calls it, “a coming-of-age tale.” The movie was nominated for Best Motion Picture, Best Actor in a Leading Role, and Best Adapted Screenplay. As the book was adapted for the movie, and despite being directed be the same person that wrote the book, there were changes that were made to the story of the movie. Three differences between the book and the movies that negatively affected the story was the lack of Helen’s backstory, the removal if Charlie’s smoking addiction, and the near removal of “Bill” because it reduces the character development of key characters.
Barsam, R. M., Monahan, D., & Gocsik, K. M. (2012). Looking at movies: an introduction to film (4th ed.). New York: W.W. Norton & Co..
As soon as the movie begins “Perfect Day” by Hoku, begins playing as Elle is getting ready, and a girl is riding her bike across campus to deliver a letter to Elle, in the sunny weather. The lyrics match up perfectly, making the viewer more connected with the scene since there is no talking during the intro. Another song that goes perfectly with the scene without having to use dialogue to get the point across is, when Elle decides to start studying super hard to get good grades on all her exams and make the list of students that get to work on a real case. The song they decided to use in this scene was “Watch Me Shine” by Joanna Pacitti as the lyrics perfectly sum up her previous line about “I’ll show you how valuable Elle Woods can
In her novel Fool’s Sanctuary, Jennifer Johnston reflects on the Irish psyche and gives an insight into some of the factors that appear to create such a unique culture. This aspect of the novel is explored particularly through the novel’s protagonist, Miranda. She acts like a symbol, the embodiment of the typical Irish person. Miranda’s characteristics, attitudes and values are shaped by the influences of her country, therefore reflecting possibilities that typically set the Irish people apart. These characteristics include a symbolic and surreal outlook on life, a love of poetry and music, the importance placed on memories, a sense of humour, the way they love and an inability to accept happiness as reality.
The musical is set in working-class Dublin, and the songs are credited to the unnamed Irish male lead, credited as Guy. This serves as the reason for the Irish influence in his songs. Though the characters make many references to the bustling city in which the musical is set, Guy’s lilting Irish accent and the use of certain instruments help to set the atmosphere in an understated way. The distinct bright and hollow timbres of fiddles and accordions (respectively), two instruments used in the production reminds the listener of an Irish sound. The classification of the musical’s soundtrack under the contemporary folk genre is an important distinction because it is unlike traditional urban folk music: used to comment on political and social issues (Starr and Waterman 342).¬¬ The songs in Once predominantly deal with love and relationships but remain “folksy” by maintaining meaningful and significant lyrics. The weight of these lyrics is highlighted in the acapella reprise of “Gold” in the second act. A folk singer, Bob Lewis, describes the positive qualities of performing unaccompanied and has said that he prefers “to sing unaccompanied as [it] enables [him] to concentrate on the words of the song or ballad with the tune being the means of emphasizing and decorating the lyrics”
...have the same emotional and interesting results to me as the novel. A reason for this may have been because if the director followed every minor detail of the novel the film would be too long to be shown. I believed that the novel conveyed the background information in a better manner giving the reader insight to setting, history and the nature of characters and their relationships clearer. A reason why I liked the novel better is that there were missing events in the film, therefore when viewing the film I was confused as it skipped events. Another reason why I believe the novel was better is that my imagination was a core aspect whereas when I viewed the film the surroundings, characters and everything overall was already presented. I quite enjoy the aspect of imagination and the details of events in the novel therefore to me I believe that the novel was better.
“It's 6:30 on a Saturday morning at the Southfork Hotel in Plano, TX, just north of Dallas, and in Room 326, 6-year-old Eden Wood is perched on a stool, quietly staring at herself in a lighted mirror, waiting for the transformation to begin. First, a stylist applies layers of foundation, blush, eye shadow, mascara, lip liner, and hot-pink lipstick. Then,” according to Skip Hollandsworth in Good Housekeeping, “she turns to Eden's hair — except it's not Eden's hair. A long blond fall, full of curly ringlets, is attached to the back of the little girl's head, and using a brush and curling iron, the stylist teases all the hair, real and synthetic, until it looks as if it's going to float away. Finally, she runs a cloth over Eden's already manicured