Theater Reviews + Features | Pittsburgh City Paper: With that in mind, Cousin has cast knock-out performers who fling these numbers into the rafters. Dorothy is double-cast and, on the night I saw it, Annie Yokom sang with a powerfully rich and expressive voice. Philippe Arroyo, Harron Atkins and Jean G. Floradin get individual chances to shine as Scarecrow, the Tin Man and the Lion, and land their numbers like consummate professionals. Veladya Chapman and Joell Weil, as bad and good witch respectively, are terrific singers and play their comedy scenes with tremendous humor. And Erron Crawford, as The Wiz, is huge fun when he's "preachifying" to his subjects.
4 comments:
I always love reading about the shows that my school has done, and seeing what outside sources think about them. One comment they made was spot on in my opinion. And that was the disconnect between the designs. I noticed something about the show seemed a bit off, but I could not figure out what it was. After that was pointed out to me, it makes a lot more sense. This, however, is not necessarily a bad thing. A part of me actually thinks the disconnect works with the world of oz. The idea that the lack of connection gives the audience the feeling that it just doesn't make sense. Which is definitely an interpretation that could be made for Oz. I just hope that it was at least slightly intentional
I saw the Wiz twice, although after the first time I wasn’t sure if I would go back (I wanted to watch it with both leads though, so I did). I didn’t think it was a bad production, but I’m not a big fan of the musical itself. The acting and singing were great, and a lot of the design aspects were pretty good, although there were some interesting choices that I don’t quite understand. My main issue with the production, besides the choice of show, is that it wasn’t a very cohesive design. Reading the article, I was wondering how they would address that. How critical would they be? The author was actually really nice they, and he did a good job addressing this lack of cohesion without being offensive: “I will say that Cousin and his design team have come up with an intensely curious look where nothing feels connected.” I’m not sure if that’s actually what happened, but either way it was weird the way that nothing really worked. The designs by themselves are interesting, but I wish they came together a bit more clearly.
I completely agree with everything that was said in this article. The performance was amazing. My only complaint about that is it didn't feel as professional as I thought it would. That might have something to do with the intimate space on the chosky or the fact that I knew pretty much everyone on stage from seeing them everyday. Just as the article states there was some disconnect between the design elements. The white set with the colorful costumes, the highly technical and computerized projections with the otherwise natural edged set. As a whole the design aspects just didn't come together as well as I thought they were going to. However, I spoke with a lot of people outside school of drama who loved it and didn't see any of the separations I saw. But that is a good thing since later in life I am going to be the one who needs to see that so the audience can enjoy.
I love hearing what others think about the shows here. Likewise, I was blown away by the performers, and I think they were absolutely fantastic. I saw the preview performance, and then another show in the second week of the run, and though some aspects of the show were rough at first I was pleased to see it ironed out in the second week. Both Alexis and Annie were fantastic, and I loved their two different methods of bringing Dorothy to the stage. I agree with what the article said about the design to an extent; though the designs weren’t completely cohesive, the dissonance between them didn’t detract from the performance and instead almost forced the audience to notice the elements more. Each of the individual design areas were well executed, but a more cohesive design may have brought the whole show to a higher place. Overall, it was fun to work on and to experience—I wonder what would change if given the chance to do it again.
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