Amadeus (Wilma Theatre)
Meg and I went to opening night of AMADEUS at the Wilma theatre last night. Let me tell you, this is one heavy-duty play, and believe it or not, it’s the second time I’ve seen it in the last three months (saw it at the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Society up in Allentown this past summer) Word of caution : This is one of those plays that is much more enjoyable if you know the story-line before you go. Trust me, don’t worry about ruining the plot. Just spend 20 minutes and read up before you go. My suggestion is to read the first couple paragraphs on Wikipedia :http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amadeus
The story is about Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his contempory rival, Antonio Salieri. Salieri is an established composer with the royal court, and Mozart is the upstart, brilliant, young whipper-snapper composer. Mozart, of course, challenges Salieri’s established ways. Salieri thinks Mozart is absolutely brilliant, but of course, feels threatened by that very brilliance. The majority of the plot is about this rivarly.
A fun play, but I must admit, but does feel a bit long at times. The Wilma’s set design for the show is pretty unique. It actually tries to envelope the audience in the show. Really neat idea, but I wasn’t crazy about the execution (it’s very non-traditional).
All in all, I would reccomend seeing the show : Probably not something that I do for a large-group outing, but it’s fun and kind of educational.
Assassins (Arden Theatre)
I saw “Assassins” at the Arden Theatre last night. First of all, it’s a musical. Yeah, I know, not everyone likes a musical, but give this one a chance. The gist of the story is this : When you kill someone, you’re a murderer, but when you kill a president, you’re an ASSASSIN !The cast of characters is all the Presidential Assassins and would-be Presidential Assassins from our nation’s history. Funny and educational all at the same time. One of the highlights is an ideological argument between Lee Harvey Oswald and John Wilkes Booth (why do these guys always have three names ?). I won’t spoil any more of the store… go see it….
This was my first time seeing a play in the Arden’s main stage. Up until now, I’ve always seen shows up on the 2nd floor. The main stage is apparently just a big empty room. They rebuild not only the stage for each show, but also the audience configuration too. In the case of Assassins, you actually enter the room back-stage, and then walk through into the main house. Pretty cool. I couldn’t figure it out, but here’s Meg’s take : She think’s that Assassin’s is a reversal of viewpoints : You see everything backwards, from the point-of-view of the Assassin. To emphasize that, they spun the whole theatre around backwards. Pretty neat !
My summary : It’s a great production, a really fun stage, and the acting is outstanding. Admittedly, I think I missed some of the jokes because I’m a little slim on the political history, but I still had a great time.
The run goes through Oct 21st. Get out there and see it, it’s worth your time.