Review of the Movie Rob Marshall´s Chicago Essay

The film consists of many cliché western characters. There is a banker, an outlaw, a prostitute, a doctor, a gambler, and a pregnant woman. These characters are categorized by social class. The banker, the pregnant

In the novel “The Scarlet Letter” and the musical “Chicago”, we are able to see many ideas and events that are similar, but there are also occasions where the actions that the characters take, differentiate. Both the novel and the musical’s main storyline is about a woman that committed adultery and have to face the consequences and criticism for what they did.

balanced, realistic depictions of blacks in America The film is about a Chicago family who

Even though the lack of an elaborate set design focused the audience’s attention solely on the performers, it also detracted from the performance as it created no connection of the audience with the setting or, at least, with the important themes. The set designers could have created some sort of background that resembled the emotions expressed throughout the various individual acts or could have even contributed with better props that enhanced the audience’s connection to the performances. Despite the dynamic colorful projections, there was little relationship between the lighting design with the entire performance. It attempted to evoke complementing emotions to the dancer’s movements and the music by using a variety of colors and shapes and it was also used to mark the beginning and ending of each act. Nonetheless, the message remained very abstract and hard to grasp, which did not help to enhance the vicarious experience. Given that this was more of a dance performance rather than a theatrical one, there was not a lot of room for character transitions on and off the stage, yet the lighting would have contributed effectively to the performance if it had been more integrated with the characters’ movements and not just projected on a screen as a separate act. Finally, the costume design attempted to create the same effect as the lighting and stage design by using colors and patterns that reflected the emotions of the performance on-stage. The costumes of some performances showed more elaboration, such as in the ones in “Belinha,” while others were less sophisticated and around plain clothes. Nonetheless, as was the case in “9:35, 11:10, 12:45, 2:20, 4:10,” using plain clothes did not necessarily detract from the performance as it created a connection with the setting and important

The Roaring Twenties was a time of jazz, dance, liquor, and crime. The broadway musical Chicago was originated on a fictional background of the 1920s, including actual reports on various female induced criminals and crimes. The origin for the structure of the production derived from Maurine Dallas Watkins, a reporter and playwright. In 1924, Maurine was assigned a case on the accused murderers Beulah Annan and Belva Gaertner for the Chicago Tribune. During the twenties, the city spurred for news on Chicago’s finest female manslaughters.

The production, The Drowsy Chaperone, is a jovially musical full of bright fun colors and a comical parody of the American Musical Theatre circa the ‘20s. The production had managed to place me in the appropriate era through the use of costume and sound design. The works of Kayla Lopez, as the Costume Designer and Josh Azoulay, as the Lighting Designer, all, respectfully, contributed to my overall “willing suspension of disbelief”, as an audience member. Both the lighting and sound design, worked together in order to differentiate between the two worlds that were present on stage, the one the older man was in as well as the one the main story was placed.

“Chicago” is a Musical with music by John Kander, Lyrics by Fred Ebb, and a book by Ebb and Bob Fosse. This Broadway production holds the longest running American musical in history of Broadway. Bob Fosse choreographed the protection with his style of jazz hand, side ways shoulder rolls, and bowler hats. Fosse won Tony Awards and Emmy awards for staging, direction, and choreography. The Broadway production opened in 1975 and reopened in 1993, due to its high popularity. The first production, Chicago: A Musical Vaudeville opened June 3, at the 46th Street theatre between Broadway and 8th Avenue, in New York City. The play was set in the prohibition era in Chicago in the 1920s, and the musical was based on a reporter named Maurine Dallas Watkins

The film Dallas Buyers Club is a biographical drama whose plot is based around the HIV/AIDS epidemic of the 1980s. Early in the history of the illness, cases of a rare lung infection were found in five previously healthy young men. In addition to that, the young men all suffered from various other infections which indicated that their immune systems were not functioning properly. The new illness was so aggressive that before a report by the CDC could be published, two of the five men had succumbed to the illness. Besides the similar rare cases of lung infection amongst the five, there was one other shared characteristic; they were all gay men. By years’ end, there were 270 reported cases in gay men with the same disease; of that 270 however, 121 of those individuals had passed (Timeline of HIV/AIDS,2011). It was now clear that there was a new threat to gay men besides social ostracizing; HIV/AIDS had made its presence known.

Since 1968, there have been at least 25 films made that portray the events of the Vietnam War. Historians have to ask themselves when watching these films, "Did the fictional character represent historical figures accurately? Is this how a soldier would react in this situation?" The point of view of the director of the film can change with simple alterations in camera angles. For example, a view from the ground of a battle seen can show how the innocent people had the war in their own backyards. The view from a helicopter can show Viet Cong firing rounds at American troops and the troops can't tell the difference between the innocent and the enemy. The audience feels empathy and sympathy for the person from whose point of view the

Student Yahtzeni Gonzales presented her own poem “ Dear Chicago”. It was very sad, powerful, and personal act. About Chicago’s gun violence. She accused the Chicago of being the city of violence, that took her brother’s life. On the end she asked three of the students to hold lighted candles in honor of the victims of gun violence, and in memory of her brother. She shared her experience to deeply move the audience.

     Chicago is as poem that captures how the cities of America are in that time period. He addresses the city as "you", as if it were a living person and all of the people that make things happen in the city are the organs of that person. The poem has a positive outlook on the city of Chicago. It details the flaws and shortcomings of the city. He talks of painted women on the streets luring the farm boys, which would be women with make-up applied heavily working the streets. He says that they tell him the city is brutal, crooked, and wicked

Since this was a modern-day play, they woe modern day clothing. Cindy dressed up as a school girl in uniform, and her mother dressed like working women. These costumes are typical for this type of play. In terms of lighting, this play had many spotlights. The spotlights were only positioned towards the actors. There were spotlights at the top corner of the stage, back of the audience, and at the back f the audience shining on the stage. The actors were properly lit and their faces were clear. The lighting for the play was not as meaningful and did not make it better to understand the moral of the story or the details of the play. The lights changes were slow. when transitioning from scene to the next, the lights dimmed then shut off. When the characters were talking, the lights shined o the entire stage the entire time. therefore, emphasis was not given to the

There were gigantic moving parts as well as complicated pieces that all came together to make one beautiful background scenery. Moreover as this was a grander scale Broadway production, I still came to appreciate how precise everything was assembled, resulting in an eye-catching backdrop at almost all times. From the layout of the shop, to the setup of the tables at the restaurant, everything I saw was set up gorgeously and helped to detail what was going on with the characters. As I shifted my focus to the characters, I noticed how well the costumes complemented each and every member of the production. Whether it was Ilona dressed in more of a flirtatious dress to highlight her earlier affairs, or deeper into the story when she was seen wearing more of a thoughtful outfit with glasses as she began to get serious with the optometrist, the costumes accentuated the characters superbly. The lighting on stage also reflected the mood during the pivotal moments of the story. The red lights that were displayed just moments after the shop owner shot himself were an attention grabbing

Everyone is trying to keep up with The Joneses. Steve, Kate, Jenn and Mick Jones are the perfect family in the eyes of their neighbors but when the truth comes out as to why they’re living there comes out, none of them are prepared for who they really are.

One way a technical element that worked to enhance the production is lights, especially during the “Fly, Fly Away” sung by Brenda. In a predicament to help her love, Frank, run away, the background lights in the start of the song had a negative connotation which portrays her worry. But towards the middle of the song when she gains the resolve to never tell Hanratty where Frank is, the background light shone a reddish-orange color. The bright color, red, symbolizes energy, strength, and etc. The lights throughout the musical really help illustrate the mood and the tone of the characters.