Arts & Culture

Someone Please Save the Movie Musical: On ‘Wicked’

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Some critics are calling Jon M. Chu’s Wicked adaptation “the best movie-to-musical adaptation since Chicago and Mamma Mia.” This may be an indictment of the movie musicals of the last 15 years rather than an endorsement of the film. Chu’s Wicked (2024) is a big swing and a miss, capturing the content of the stage musical but failing to hit on all of the beats that make it so great. Wicked had to follow in the huge footsteps of its Broadway predecessor, which starred two of Broadway’s most iconic actresses, paid back its production budget in a year and became one of the longest-running Broadway shows in history. Not only that, but the film also acts as the prequel to one of the most important movies of all time, The Wizard of Oz. It is often falsely said that The Wizard of Oz was the first color movie, and while this is not true, it utilized the vibrant Technicolor film process in an era where black and white was still dominant.

Arts & Culture

From Laughter to Reflection: How ‘Yellow Face’ Confronts Representation

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David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face is a masterpiece that masterfully combines sharp humor with profound introspection. The play’s revival at the Todd Haimes Theatre is a powerful reminder of the importance of spotlighting diverse narratives over the allure of formulaic theater that Peter Brooke would call “deadly.”

Upon entering the theater, I was immediately struck by the sight of a predominantly Asian audience, a testament to the production’s resonance. The thematic core of Yellow Face lies in its “unreliable memoir” format that blurs the lines between autobiography and fiction, allowing Hwang to critique cultural appropriation, racial identity and the media’s role in mongering fear towards immigrant communities. To cement the distance between truth and fiction, Hwang names the character meant to represent himself as DHH. The satire opens with the notorious Miss Saigon casting controversy of 1990, when British actor Jonathan Pryce, a white man, was cast as the Eurasian Engineer in the musical’s Broadway transfer.

Arts & Culture

Girlboss or Gimmick: A Feminist Reboot of Shakespeare’s Classic

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It’s a primal rite of passage for virtually every ninth-grader: ogling at the projector screen in English class while watching the 1996 adaptation of Romeo and Juliet, starring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio. What else would you expect when you put a bunch of angsty, chatty teenagers in front of a steamy film about two lovers who marry the day after they first meet? As you’d guess, the back of the classroom was alive with snarky remarks from witty students eager to comment on the dramatic entanglement between the Montagues and Capulets. But what if those remarks were spun into an alternate plot where Juliet finds Romeo dead and chooses not to follow him in death, but instead breathes a sigh of relief, ready to run off to Paris and live the life she’s always dreamed of? A feminist ending crafted by none other than Anne Hathaway — Shakespeare’s wife?

Arts & Culture

Charli D’Amelio and Broadway: Disaster or Earned?

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Whenever I buy Broadway tickets, I always look at the cast before I go. Normally, I wouldn’t know many of the names of those performing with the exception of a few big Broadway stars — like when I saw Ben Platt in Parade (my friend won a contest and I saw him for $40) or when I saw Jordan Fisher in Hadestown (my favorite Broadway musical to this day). Still, I don’t go to Broadway for the celebrities, but to watch a show with a hardworking and passionate cast. So you can imagine my slight discomfort and shock when I heard that TikTok star Charli D’Amelio was joining the cast of & Juliet on Broadway. 

For those of you who have not heard of this musical, & Juliet is a continuation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet except that Juliet doesn’t die in the end; instead, she wakes up and continues living her life. The show capitalizes on Juliet making her own decisions while using popular songs like “Since U Been Gone” by Kelly Clarkson and “I Want It That Way” by NSYNC.

Arts & Culture

Wait For Me: Hadestown, A Show You Should Not Wait to See 

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These days, being a proud theater kid is not for the weak-egoed. I’ve learned that there is a certain kind of pride you must set aside to embrace the wonderful world of musical theater. Over winter break, my friend and I purchased two orchestra seats to Hadestown on a whim in order to take advantage of Broadway’s two for one deal which promptly rolled out after the holiday tourist rush. Though I had most certainly heard of the show, I went into Hadestown mostly blind. The one thing I was not blind to was the fact that To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before actor, “Elsa please I know you’re in there” singer and all-around icon Jordan Fisher is in it, and just for him, I was excited enough.

Arts & Culture

Smart People: What We Talk About When We Talk About Race

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“Maybe it’s a fact we all should face / everyone makes judgments based on race”. This lyric, from the musical Avenue Q, was one of the first things that popped into my mind as I walked out of Smart People at the Kitchen Theatre — a play that delves unreservedly into the difficult, yet ever so relevant conversation of race, prejudice and, most importantly, our fear of that conversation itself. Written by the award-winning playwright Lydia R. Diamond and directed by the talented Summer L. Williams from Company One Theatre in Boston, Smart People is wildly funny, gripping and remarkably thought-provoking at its core. It dares us into the daunting task of thoroughly reevaluating ourselves and the world around us. With an innovative opening sequence involving projections of various news headlines and the voice recording of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign announcement, the play unfolds around four main characters: Brian, a white neuroscience professor at Harvard who has dedicated himself to finding a neurological explanation for racism and prejudice; Ginny, Brian’s fellow psychology professor at Harvard who studies and counsels Asian American women suffering from anxiety and depression; Jackson, Brian’s best friend, a black surgeon in residency; And Valerie, a young black actress who participates in Brian’s study and later works for him as a research assistant.

Arts & Culture

TEST SPIN: Various Artists — The Hamilton Mixtpe

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Hamilton… a mere mention of its name opens a bevy of conversation. But really, what more can be said about ten-dollar founding father, that has not already been said? Lin Manuel-Miranda’s Broadway behemoth already has a Grammy Award-Winning soundtrack that reached #1 on the Rap Albums chart (apparently the first cast album to ever do so), and its shows have been consistently sold out, with some re-sale tickets going upwards of $2,000. Yet Miranda’s involvement with recent films like Star Wars The Force Awakens and Moana, seemed to signal his departure from the musical.

Arts & Culture

DOOLITTLE | History Has Its Eyes on You: Revisionism on Stage

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By SEAN DOOLITTLE

On the eve of the Battle of Yorktown, George Washington sang a few words of advice to the newly promoted Alexander Hamilton: “You have no control, who lives, who dies, who tells your story.” Or, at least, that’s what Hamilton composer-star Lin-Manuel Miranda thought George Washington should have said, because it’s a really great thematic through line for a musical about their lives. The scene itself is an introspective, even self-referential moment for a show that literally tells a story about people who have no control over the narrative. Yes, I’m talking about Hamilton in another column. Get over it. Ponder the phrase “historical fiction.” It sounds like an oxymoron, an innate paradox at first glance.

Arts & Culture

DOOLITTLE | I Hope I Get It: The Accessibility of Broadway

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By SEAN DOOLITTLE

At the beginning of the 65th Tony Awards ceremony, Neil Patrick Harris sang “Broadway has never been broader, it’s not just for gays anymore!” and a wave of heterosexuals suddenly flooded Manhattan, from 40th all the way up to 54th. It was a lovely little song for “those who’ve never seen theatre before,” but who have somehow found themselves spending a Sunday evening watching the most niche awards show on broadcast television, next to the CMAs; A signal of inclusivity to come for one of the most exclusive spheres of the arts. Of course, straight folks never really need to worry about being included in anything, anyway. Broadway has never had an issue with sexual orientation to begin with, save the relative invisibility of lesbian women on and off stage (which warrants a future column at some point). No, the real divide between theatregoers and non-theatregoers has always been one of status and class.