The Broadway Musical By David Berrenbaum And Directed By Sam Scalamoni

A feel-good Christmas story for older kids and their parents, Elf trades heavily on Will Ferrell's physical comedy skill set. The film offers good and awkward moments in equal measure in the tale of an out-of-place "elf" searching for his real father and trying to reignite the Christmas spirit. There’s been a lot of hatred and prejudice clogging the news outlets during winter, even during a time of year when a large percentage of the world is supposed to be celebrating the arrival of Christmas and flurries of warm, fuzzy thoughts. Even if you’re not celebrating Christmas, there are still plenty of reasons to have warm, fuzzy thoughts. And the warm fuzzes, you know, can cross cultures, languages, climates, and skin colors. They can be profound, too, or silly. In the midst of so much intolerance and confusion, of bitterness and cynicism, I feel, once again, that a little bit of a good movie can do a lot to bring to mind the silliness of war and the healing power of peace and understanding, even under the most ridiculous of circumstances. Which is why, today, I recommend—seriously—the movie Elf.

Elf revolves around a premature human named Buddy, played by Will Ferrell, who was misplaced in Santa’s sack on a Christmas night many years ago. As he grows up Buddy starts to ask more and more questions about his real family. His adopted father then sends him to New York City, where his real family lives. As Buddy arrives to the Big Apple, he encounters multiple challenges such as his father, his new job, and his love life. When Buddy arrives his biological father is constantly a scrooge because it’s Christmas time and he is having trouble writing a children’s book. Buddy doesn’t help his situation because all he wants to do is have quality time, but to his father he is being an annoying child. Buddy also has to find a way to cope with a job. As he wanders into a mall, Buddy is mistaken by

This show can be seen on TV every Christmas season. Then Ron Howard takes this short film and draws it out to be a two and a half-hour long movie. The worst aspect of the movie is that it makes a mockery of Seuss's main message: “Christmas doesn't come from a store.” This movie is all about selling, from those furry talking Grinch dolls to endless fast-food tie-ins.

More then exceeding my expectations, Seussical the Musical opened on Broadway in 2000 and has since been preformed in off-Broadway settings around the country. Intricately weaving The Cat in the Hat with the various chronicles of Horton the elephant such as Horton Hears a Who and Horton Hatches an Egg, this performance exceeded my expectations. Considering it was a dinner theater in Jacksonville, Florida and that the play’s namesake came from a book my parents read to me as a toddler, my expectations were relatively low; however, the performance greatly exceeded my preconceived expectations. From the high quality of the actors to the surprisingly sophisticated plot, this play proved to be a real treat.

As well as the movie adding the songs, it also added the kids getting a special ticket. Each child had a certain a letter at the beginning of their train ride, punched by the conductor. When the kids were done experiencing the North Pole, the conductor punched out a word pertaining to each kid. The main kid got the word believe punched into his ticket because he did not believe in Santa at the beginning of the movie. The African American girl got leader punched into her ticket because she was the one that always knew what to do. The poor boy, Billy, also got believe because he didn’t think Santa was real either.

For many young theatre lovers, Stephen Sondheim is their introduction the the musical theatre world. Whether it be from Into the Woods to West Side Story, Sondheim has been a great inspiration to those wanting to be introduced to the musical theatre world. People praise Sondheim on his ability to create compelling characters and expanded worlds that the characters live in. What Sonheim is credited for most, however, is his creation of the plotless musical. He created a bunch of characters and then proceeded to round out their stories into one song. He took seven one act plays and created one musical. Company was created in the 1970s and reflected the values of the time while being able to still reflect the values of today.

One of the main magic’s of the theatre is for the audience to go into it unaware of what they will see, and exit with a whole new view in mind. This is still possible in jukebox musicals even if the audience member is familiar with some of the songs. Songs, text, and all literature can be interpreted in different ways based on the individual. Theatre is meant for all different people to enjoy. Some may like going to a show featuring songs that their favorite artists wrote or that speak to a memorable time of their life. It becomes a discussion about how the audience can relate to the characters.

Book by James Lapine was a great story overall. I truly enjoyed watching the show especially when the Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim played perfectly during the show. Director Eve Himmelheber was able to put out a such an amazing show. I really enjoyed watching Into The Woods because it was colorful, every character was really great with their role, and so much more. I could not be more amazed of how beautiful the production came out. Musical Director Mitchell Hanlon was really great with every musical that played throughout the show. He was always in time of making the sound when a character would kick the floor or any action that was necessary during the play. Scenic Designer Mauri Anne Smith and Ashley Strain created such an amazing setting for the production. The scene looked very realistic, which is really great because it gave me a different feel of the show. Costume Designer Michelle Kincaid created such beautiful costumes for every single character. Whether the costumes were bought, hand made, or both it still came out pretty good. The costume definitely matched the theme of having several characters from different show. Lighting Designer Ben Hawkins made the interior and

Oftentimes people have a difficult time connecting with history. They do not see the relevance between something hundreds of years ago and today’s issues. The Broadway musical Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda does a great job of bridging that gap. Many of the issues that were faced in the time period of Alexander Hamilton are also faced in the world today. An example of this is politicians riding the fence on important issues. A main character in the play is criticized greatly for doing this just as people are currently. In Miranda’s Hamilton, characters are faced with issues and are asked to take a stand just as political leaders are today.

Musicals were originally developed in the 20th century with the purpose to entertain, however, they have surpassed this and have accomplished to entwine with the emotions of an audience group through the manipulation of certain musical elements. One of the musicals that correspond to an unadulterated musical is The Wicked. The wicked is based on a book by Winnie Holzman with the Music and Lyrics written by Stephen Schwartz. The musical focuses on the basis of an unlikely friendship and who struggle with opposing viewpoints, personalities and rivalry. This friendship is shown through the pop melodies with an addition of sophisticated musical theatre song construction.

Elf Today we have watched the movie “Elf.” And movie this is about a human whose name is buddy, and he was raised by elves and trying to find his family in New York. The main charter’s name is buddy, he was an orphan from an orphanage, who stowed away in Santa's sack and ended up at the North Pole. After, the Santa found him, the Santa did not send him back to where he was from, and instead the Santa and an older elf treat him as “son.”

has been recognized as a new kind of musical play that denied its Broadway audiences many of their most treasured traditions, says David Ewen in American Musical Theatre. There was no opening chorus line, no chorus until midway through the first act, in fact. There was rather a serious ballet and other serious overtones, including a killing in act two. The story, which was so simple, seemed to engage the audience in more than mere evening diversion. (248) These changes, far from disappointing to viewers, were upheld by a success that had never been seen in the history of musical theatre.

Hamilton: An American Musical retells the story of Alexander Hamilton, the first United States Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. With the aid of hip-hop and rap, Lin-Manuel Miranda dramatises Hamilton’s struggles and contributions during the American Revolution and the formative years of the United States. It is praised for its breaking of Broadway conventions, compelling characters and their interactions, beautiful musicality, and the progression of its plot. There are many that see this musical masterpiece as Hamilton’s true autobiography. However, it is not an accurate telling of historical events. Hamilton: An American Musical intentionally alters the truth of Hamilton’s tale as it misrepresents the historical figures of America’s birth, falsifies a romantic interest between Angelica Schuyler and Alexander Hamilton, alters details of certain distressing events, and paints the main antagonist, Aaron Burr, as a villain.

When I heard we were going to the The Nightmare Before Christmas at the El Capitan Theatre, I was ecstatic. This was one of my favorite childhood movies and I had not seen it in maybe 10 years. The night started with us boarding the coach bus which was playing the movie Kidnap starring Halle Berry. This was most of us on the bus seeing the movie for the first time so we were very into it. Since we are a bunch of film/TV students we easily all became instant critics of the film. Not Ms. Halle, Ms. Halle is amazing as always. It was the writing and the scenarios that she was placed in that didn’t seem plausible. This made the ride over very entertaining, a bunch of students reacting and laughing to situations that are dire in the movie. We were very invested. Once we arrived at the theater, I was taken a back from how visually loud it was. All the lights and colors, it was so “Hollywood.” I loved it.

Overall, I thought that the production was magnificent. In the opening number the Genie, despite him being the understudy, sang beautifully and set up the show very nicely. He started off with comedy right away by holding up a Golden State Warriors hat after saying “the home of the…” he then procede to put the hat back and pull out the magic lamp. I enjoyed this production because it was funny, musical, stunning, and spectacular. The storyline was very interesting. The producers did not use humans as animals in the show. They did however replace the animal characters with people characters to distinguish the play from the movie. I was seated in the balcony near stage left and could hear and see everything wonderfully. The actors were loud and the stage had very bright and colorful props, set pieces, and costumes so it as easy to see. The sets and props were very big and the actors used big gestures when using them so the audience could tell what each individual person was doing. The sets also spun to form new set pieces so the actors could change the scenes quickly. The costumes, as I said, were very bright, colorful, and sparkly so the audience could see every actor’s movements and gestures, even if they were not a main role. The