Parkland College has produced a new musical for the 2013-2014 season called Spamalot. The original of this play, Monty Python’s Spamalot is a musical comedy adapted form the film Monty Python and the Holy Grail. The plot of the show is a parody of Arthurian Legend and retails the legend of King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. The original 2005 broadway production, directed by Mike Nichols was a huge success. It won three Tony Awards, including the Best Musical for the season and received 14 Tony Award nominations. Moreover, during its initial run of over 1,500 performances, it grossed over $175 million with more than two million audience. The production in Parkland College was also very successful with the tickets being sold out for most of the shows.
Being a successful playwrite, comedian and comedic composer, Eric Idle had the idea of turning Monty Python And The Holy Grail into a musical – Spamalot – it was with the intention of creating something new. According to the interview in an article by scotsman, The thing that has persuaded the other Pythons to give him the go-ahead was The Song That Goes Like This, a number written with John Du Prez that, in time-honoured Python fashion, sets out to puncture pomposity. Idle explains that the song was one of the earliest things that Python has wrote and it was completely improvised. The song is also in the Parkland production of Spamalot at the scene where the Lady of the Lake appears, after the song ‘Come with me’. The song's melody is intentionally treacly and insipid, and is essentially a parody of the love songs written by composers such as Andrew Webber.
The musical Spamalot produced at Parkland College overall was pleasent to watch with the actors who ...
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... compared to the Broadway Musicals. This was my first time to see a play at Parkland Theatre and I didn’t know what to expect before the show, but I gained a lot more after the pleasent show. I think the Spamalot had opened be an opportunity to get involved and interested in the theatre productions more and before taking the class, I didn’t consider anyother aspects other than the plot of a show but learning about it really had opened my eyes to focus on various aspects of a theatre production. I am very excited to see other plays that is coming up and Spamalot has was one of the most interesting plays that I have seen. By thinking about all the music, acting, setting, and the lighting in mind, I think Spamalot was very successful in every aspect and it didn’t miss to grasp laughter from the audience that made the show both high in cinematic quality and amusements.
Overall, I enjoyed this play. Even with the dull ending, I found it to be entertaining and a good use of my time. The cast was great and they made good use of a decent
Theater is acting, and each actor that was involved in this production was fantastic. Page Ogle who played Dolly did a very good job being a sweet talking, yet manipulative woman in the 1890s. I would have critiqued her on just one thing, slow down!
After watching March of the Penguins I was browsing the internet while I was trying to figure out which direction to take the essay in, because there were too many possibilities for the topic. Soon I found myself watching Monty Python, when the perfect sketch to start this paper on comes on. A newspaper reporter comes on saying "Penguins, yes penguins what relevance do penguins have with the furtherance of medical science? Well strangely enough quite a lot" He moves into a joke about research not being accidental. Then he picks up of the penguins "Nevertheless scientists believe that these penguins, these comic flightless web-footed little b@$#ards are un-wittingly helping man to fathom the uncharted depths of the human mind." The news cast flips to the scientist who introduces himself then states "...having been working on the theory postulated by the late Dr. Kramer that the penguin in intrinsically more intelligent than the human being." From there a multitude of science spoofs lead to the confirmation of this theory of penguins being smarter, even though it is clearly pointed out that the penguin's brain is smaller than of a human being. This causes the penguins to rise up and take over the roles of humans. After careful consideration I decided to discuss this clip as there really is no better way to introduce how animals are used in film as entertainment. Whether it is a crazy Monty Python sketch or the heartwarming love story that is March of the Penguins both were created for many reasons, but the most influential was the desire to earn money. For now just keep Monty Python on the back burner it will have significance later, lets shift to dealing with the questions being posed about March of the Penguins. How did March o...
The live theatrical production I chose to see was 9 to 5 The Musical. The production was performed by Fayetteville Technical Community College’s very own Fine Arts Department. The musical is based on the film released by Fox in 1980. Collin Higgins adapted the film from the book 9 to 5 written by Patricia Resnick. It wasn’t until 2008 that the film was adapted to a theatrical production. The production was originally brought to broadway by Robert Greenbait and Dolly Parton wrote the lyrics and the music for the Musical. The run on broadway was very short but the production later toured in other countries around the around the world.
If you don't think this is romantic, consider that Jonathan Larson's sensational musical is inspired by Puccini's opera "La Boheme," in which the lovers Mimi and Rodolfo are tragically separated by her death from tuberculosis. Different age, different plague. Larson has updated Puccini's end-of-19th-century Left Bank bohemians to end-of-20th-century struggling artists in New York's East Village. His rousing, moving, scathingly funny show, performed by a cast of youthful unknowns with explosive talent and staggering energy, has brought a shocking jolt of creative juice to Broadway.
Kenrick, John. Musical Theatre A History. New York: The Continuum International Publishing Group, 2008. Print.
“Monty Python and the Holy Grail” is a satiric comedy about the quest of King Arthur. The movie starts out with Arthur, King of the Britons, looking for knights to sit with him at Camelot. He finds many knights including Sir Galahad the pure, Sir Lancelot the brave, the quiet Sir Bedevere, and Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-as-Sir Lancelot. Through satire and parody of certain events in history (witch trials, the black plague) they find Camelot, but after literally a quick song and dance they decide that they do not want to go there. While walking away, God (who seems to be grumpy) come to them from a cloud and tells them to find the Holy Grail. They agree and begin their search. While they search for the Grail, scenes of the knight's tales appear and the reasons behind their names. Throughout their search, they meet interesting people and knights along the way. Most of the characters die; some through a killer rabbit (which they defeat with the holy hand grenade), others from not answering a question right from the bridge of Death, or die some other ridiculous way. In the end, King Arthur and Sir Bedevere are left and find the Castle Arrrghhh where the Holy Grail is. They are met by some French soldiers who taunted them earlier in the film and were not able to get into the castle. The movie ends with both King Arthur and Sir Bedevere being arrested for killing a real-life man who was a historian.
Stempel, Larry. Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theater. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2010.
As in all genres, the musicals have had its share of failures. Some worthy dramas have been pressed into service and musicalized and sometimes butchered in the process, and audiences have had to watch a fine play diluted into a mediocre musical. But the successes have been many and spectacular and they have left a long lasting effect on the American art and culture.
thesis of how the musical brought our inner child out to realize our true struggles in life.
In conclusion, everyone who enjoys the magic of Broadway and the fantasy world of Hollywood must watch Chicago. Although it is at most difficult to translate a stage musical to an Award-winning film, the vision of director was carefully carried making Chicago a very enjoyable film for the whole family.
...the audience and parents that tragedy that could come to them. I think it is not only a lesson for teenagers, but a lesson for parents as well. Time, effort, and energy put into this play were definitely worthwhile, in my opinion. I believe all their practice, rehearsal, and hard work paid off.
the play was good. The first act was a little slow and tedious but the
The 2000s/ 2010s brought in a wave of movie musicals- adapted from the stage shows. These brought new audiences into the theatre world, and for the first time in 20 years, brought a love to some of the timeless musicals. With slightly altered songs to appeal to a newer audience, these films brought in much needed money into the industry, with films including: Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, Rent, Hairspray, Mamma Mia, Fame- and many more. Together with this, musicals began to push the concept of the songs in them, with a wave of new styles being written. Rap musicals such as ‘Hamilton’ and ‘In The Heights’, Pop musicals including ‘Waitress’ and ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ and Rock musicals of ‘American Idiot’ and ‘Spring Awakening’. Together they pushed boundaries of a ‘traditional’ musical theatre sound, and brought in something never before seen. Due to the influence of ‘Rent’, controversial issues and themes began to be explored more, such as Teen suicide, Murder, Ethnic barriers and everything else, which brought with them, a world of opportunities. It was clear that musical theatre was once again showing for a promising
Neher, Erick. "Movie Music At The Philharmonic." Hudson Review 64.4 (2012): 668-674. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Dec. 2013.