The Blogtastic Blogfest That Is Getmeoutofthis.net!

The #souppro hashtag will catch on, I swear!
Anyway, inside jokes you probably don’t get aside, I got to see a performance of Into the Woods on Saturday.

Mom had mentioned that her and Dad and Jonathan and Shauna all had tickets, and I had learned I was off, so I figured, why not? I grabbed a ticket, and we all went to the show. I have always been a big fan of Into the Woods, but this was going to be the first time I was going to see a live performance. I wasn’t sure how professional it would be, being put on by the collage and all, but I was willing to give it a go.

Besides one thing, it was a really good performance.

First off, I was just really impressed with the set. I mean, I know we’re talking about skilled people here who want to do this kind of thing for a living, and I shouldn’t underestimate them, but goodness, I did, and I was blown away. It was a complicated and really nice looking forest. Trees moved around on set. The mossy steps of the background looked really nice. The limbs in the trees shook and shed leaves when the giant was walking around. A top quality act.

Similarly, I thought the actors all did a great job. Some of them seemed to be doing their best to replicate the style of the original actors from that original version I watched on DVD all those years ago, such as the Witch, but she did a good job at it. Others had their own takes, like the Narrator, and did a really solid job at that, too. They even had a slight technical hitch, where Milky White’s legs went out a bit before the cue for that, and they ad libbed to cover for it extremely well, to the point where I’m sure anyone in the audience who didn’t know the show probably didn’t know their was a problem. Quality stuff.

Now the sound…
The sound crew was just not doing a good job at all. Granted, anyone who knows the show knows it wouldn’t be an easy one to mike and run: people are moving in and out of song all the time. There’s lots going on. But goodness, it really takes you out of the show when, say, the final “I Wish!” in the finale isn’t miked and so you can’t hear it because someone forgot to turn it on. Or where you can’t hear parts of lines because their mike is only one for the end bit. Or when someone forgets to turn down someone’s mike a bit before a scream or screech. It really hurt what was otherwise a really great performance, and that’s really a bummer.

Still, it was a really great night. We went out and ate a bunch of appetizers at Applebee’s after and had a very nice time. I’d do it again, most definitely. Then again, who knows when they’ll put on a show like Into the Woods I actually care about again. Heh.