Monthly Mash-up October, 2016 - Halloween Costumes and Understudies

Me- My topic for this month is Halloween costumes. I like all the Halloween costumes I have ever had. They were all my favorites. Here are some of the costumes I've had.  For my first Halloween, I was a butterfly. I was only two month old so it looked really cute. For another Halloween I was Snow White. My sister and I were both Snow White that year. Another year, we were both Dorothy. That year we had a bad storm, and we didn't get to go trick or treating on Halloween. We went later at the mall. Another year, I was Fancy Nancy. I had a dress exactly like she has in one of the books, but hardly anybody knew who I was anyway. Once I was Madeline. I also had a dress exactly like hers but that year everybody knew who I was. Another year, I was an Angel but the halo hurt my head. My Mom was a bride for Halloween when she was 5, I was a bride one year too, but I was older. One year, I was Tinkerbell. I got that costume from my sister, and it had originally been my cousin's. Another year, I was a cat. Last year, I was a 50's girl. This year I am going to be Katie from the Broadway show School of Rock because it is my favorite show ever. Also, I think it's unique I don't think anybody else in my neighborhood or my school will have the same costume.I love Halloween costumes.

We were given At This Performance concert tickets for free for review purposes. Any opinions here are completely my own based on my experience.

Mom - My topic for this month is understudies. Understudies are some of the unsung heroes of the theater. Imagine learning a whole part in a show, and then maybe never even getting to perform it. Other times, an understudy  might have to go on at a moment's notice. One person might also have to understudy more than one role in a show and still keep all  the different roles they are understudying straight.  Most people are not happy when they go to a show and find out an understudy is performing in  the show. I admit I was the same way. However, I have seen some understudies who are very good, and the shows they were in were equally as good when they were in the role as when the star was in the role. I have also seen shows where the understudy playing a part was not particularly good in the role and the show was not as good when the star was not in it.  I have even seen some shows where a part was not being played by an understudy but the actor in the part did not do a particularly good job playing a role. In those case, maybe I would have been better off seeing an understudy play the role. I guess it just depends on the actor and the part and whether the two of them are a good fit together. When the fit is right whether you are seeing an understudy or a star, magic happens. That's what makes the theater so special.  Even just hearing the right performer sing the right song can be special.  I recently had the opportunity to attend one of  a series of  concerts called At This Performance. These  are concerts which are performed several times a year at the Lion's Theater, which is also the home of Musical's Tonight. The concerts are performed entirely by Broadway understudies. Some of the performers we saw at the concert we attended  included understudies from recent Broadway shows including Tuck Everlasting, Shuffle Along and Disaster. All the performers amazingly talented, and many of them had never even gotten to perform the role they had understudied including this adorable 12 year old girl named Elizabeth Margaret Crawford who understudied the role of Winnie Foster in Tuck Everlasting. I, for one, gained a new appreciation for understudies through attending the At This Performance concert. If I ever go to a show and see one of those little white slips in the playbill telling me that one of them is standing in for another performer in the show at that performance instead of being disappointed, I will be excited to see them getting their chance to shine, and that I am there to see it. I hope to attend more At This Performance concerts in the future and get to know more of these talented performers and to share more about them in future posts. The next At This Performance Concert will be held on Monday November 7 at 7:00 PM for more information or to order tickets go to http://www.musicalstonight.org/concerts.html.

And that's our view. What's on your mind?

Tune in tomorrow for Tips for Tuesday.