Newsies: A Short Music Analysis

A character’s costume is much more than the clothes they wear to play a part. These clothes help us venture into the author’s world and help us connect with this new place and believe in its reality. They help us capture so much more than what the character looks like. We are able to see, feel, and experience the characters personality and purpose in the story. In a play or movie, we immediately make our fist connection with a character based on what they are wearing, this is the first step in drawing us in and making us believe in this new world. This first impression gives us the first glimpse at the characters style, background, and social class. All of these things are meant to immediately draw us in.

Whiskey Lullaby is a song sung by Brad Paisley (ft. Alison Krauss) which narrates the story of a soldier coming back from war to find his wife in bed with another man. After this, the man drinks away his life trying to escape the pain until he commits suicide. Then the song continues to talk about how the woman follows down the same path after hearing about his death. In the end of the song they both get buried next to each other which symbolizes how they are finally together. The audience for this country song is those who have served or who have had family members serve. The unexpectedness of how life will figure itself out when the soldiers return. Also, how hard it is for families when their loved ones are out fighting, and they are

Having looked at the emotional effect this music has on people, it is now worth looking at the specific churches within the Sydney diocese to get a greater understanding on a smaller level as to how the music is played and what effect it might have. To do this, there have been visits to said churches to see what goes on, this is like a large scale of the participant observation methodology. This was a very useful in developing an understanding for how different churches of the same denomination were going about music as part of the service. There is some clear information that has come out from attending these churches. Firstly, and worth noting, the churches run very similar services, across most of the churches the structure of songs is the

Also, shawls, moccasins, leggings, chokers, and traditional dancing items, such as paddles, clubs, and spears are used. Costumes are time consuming to make. All of the materials must be gathered, of similar quality, size, and color to make a costume attractive in design, appearance, and consistency.

“costume is often coordinated with setting. Since the filmmaker usually wants to emphasize the human figures, setting may provide more or less neutral background, while costume helps pick out the characters. Color design is particularly important here.”

I was particularly struck by the acting of Gracie Sartin. Her fearless approach to so many elements of the play – whether it was being hit on the head with an ironing board, hitting another costar with the ironing board, or giving one of her characters (Villian) an accent - was incredibly interesting to watch. Despite the fact that she portrayed six different people, she embodied them so well that I did not see Gracie in them. I saw only the characters she was portraying. The other actors were also successful in that ability. I think that achievement, combined with the success of the way the time constraints were embraced, added greatly to the success of the play.

The Music Man was written by Meredith Willson who was a Mason City native. According to Ellen Leslie, Meredith Willson began developing his first musical in 1948 and it would be almost another ten years before the show opened onto Broadway. The play was an instant favorite among fans and critics alike, since its debut in 1957 The Music Man has gone on to receive multiple revivals, international praise, and a few film adaptations. This play has become a favorite of professional, regional, amateur, and high school productions because of its interesting characters and catchy songs.

Guys and Dolls is an iconic musical that first opened almost sixty-five years ago. Not only has it endured the test of time, but it has thrived throughout the years, winning many awards and enjoying several revivals in numerous different theatres since its first run. It remains today a popular musical, often produced around the country in community and professional theatre alike. However, although having the capabilities necessary for this production, Signature Theatre is not likely to put on a production of Guys and Dolls at this time, due to their focus on contemporary or modern work rather than classical musicals.

The costumes, were just normal clothing but yet fit all of the characters extraordinarily well. Jean’s outfit was a little different and comfy, while Gordan was placed in a eye catching, obnoxious suit. Dwight, played by Eddie Castle, was dressed perfectly. Without even hearing him speak, you know his personality, Underappreciated and soft spoken, awkward. Obviously, all of the costumes were great and well suited for they characters but these are the outfits that stuck out to me the

From an audience’s perspective, a performer and their costume merge into one entity (Wilson, 2011). The costume that was the biggest eyesore was Froggy’s military attire. As everything in the show has a rural, old fashioned theme, he brought something totally different to the picture: camouflage fatigues. The costume that I was most impressed by, though, was Ellard’s. His outfit was a physical representation of what people thought of him. He had disheveled hair, dirty overalls half undone, and a messy shirt underneath. Ellard was perceived by those around him as mentally challenged, and his costume conveyed that through his lack of awareness towards his

The actors that I will be discussing is Jenna Taylor, who plays Savannah Honeycutt. Another actor that I will be discussing is Charlotte Malone, who plays Hayley Quinn. Last but not less Alexis Bryner, who plays Norleen Sprunt. Savannah Honeycutt is the daughter that is successful and don’t have a boyfriend because of her mother. Hayley Quinn is the daughter in law that is the braid to be. Norleen Sprunt is the mother that is always in your business. The three characters that I choose was great characters. I choose these three characters because they were the funniest out through the play. They stay in scene with ever change that made. Even though they were the main focus of the play, other characters was funny. In every scene something happened

My mom and I were seated on red felt wooden chairs in the opera box above downstage right; basking in the anticipation of the start of the musical. The smell of the theater was musty, almost like a library. It even had those rays of dust and light that you see in old libraries. Looking onward, I saw the monitor in which Alex Lacamoire, the conductor, directs the actors and musicians. Closer to the balcony, huge metal spotlights hung, all containing the magical power to change a minimalist wooden stage into a bar, then a field, then a closed room in a restaurant, and finally the Weehawken dueling grounds. The feeling of excitement and glee was palpable. I looked at my mother, whose eyes were glued to the stage. In that dim lit arena of instruments,

The play was also easy to follow because though there were only two actors portraying so many characters, the plot was relatively simple. The play was centered around a radio station and the individual character’s stories stemmed out from the station. This gave all the characters a common relation, which made the play easier to understand than if they all were connected in different ways. Additionally, the characters were extremely strong because of the actor’s ability to transition mannerisms, accents and costumes. For example, when Lauren Roos was playing the grandma she took tiny steps that made the audience laugh because it looked like she was moving slowly like an older person. Additionally, when Kevin Cavallaro was playing Didi Snavely, he completely changes his whole persona and transferred into her character extremely well. I thought that Lauren Roos and Kevin Cavallaro were both extremely comical and I cannot pick whom I liked more. I thought Lauren Roos proved that females can be successful in comedy because of her ability to make both male and female characters funny, despite the assumption that females cannot pull of

Have you ever heard of Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars? The Red Shoes by IU? Both of these songs sprout from a genre that everyone has heard of at least one time in some point of their lives: jazz. Jazz is a genre that started out in the early 20th century by communities of African Americans, which soon became the “pop music” of the time period. However, jazz has been declining in popularity as other genres (especially pop) started developing, and conservative efforts haven’t proved to be very effective. Jazz is a genre of art, influence, and variety, and actions need to be taken to preserve such a rich genre of music.

I watched this production on Thursday, March 9th, at 7:30 p.m. In this paper, I will address three topics of interest to me after seeing this play. My personal reaction to how seeing this play was different from watching movies, television, or videos, the major strengths and how this play is responding to life today.