Take Me to the Theatre
- Emily Richardson
- Aug 19, 2016
- 2 min read
This summer, Henry and I were fortunate to be able to attend opening night shows at the Golden Gate Theatre and The Orpheum in downtown San Francisco. The three shows were able to see were Cabaret, Beauty & The Beast, and Beautiful: The Carol King Musical. After long days of work, going to these shows were the perfect way to relax and enjoy the night!
Cabaret
I had never seen Cabaret before, or even heard of the plot, so you can imagine my surprise with how the show ended! I loved every bit of it, from the music, to the dynamic characters, to the underlying theme that the play is trying to convey.
After the show was over, we got to stick around for a Q&A with a few of the main actors. People in the audience got to ask questions such as, "How do you mentally get into character before the show?" and "What is the most difficult scene to perform on stage?"
It was very cool to see the actors out of character, in pants and sweatshirts, standing 10 feet in front of us.
Beauty & The Beast
I have seen the movie dozens of times, but this was my first experience watching the show performed in theatre. The cast did a great job portraying every character exactly the way I remembered from the movie. My favorite scene by far was Be Our Guest. Dancing dishes performing in a kick line, forks and knives twirling around, flashing lights and colorful streamers shooting out into the audience -- what's not to love? At the end of the song, the dancing ladies threw flowers into the audience and Henry caught one!
By the end of the night, I realized my favorite character was surprisingly Gaston. The actor added a spunky, eccentric twist to his personality and made all of the humor even more slap stick than normal. He provided great comedic relief and had the audience cracking up every time he was on stage.
Beautiful: The Carole King Musical
The final musical of the summer that Henry and I attended was Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. I didn't know much about who Carole King was before the show started, but all it took was the music to start playing for me to realize that I had heard her songs all the time when I was growing up – Some Kind of Wonderful, Will You Love Me Tomorrow, I Feel the Earth Move, and (You Make Me Feel Like ) A Natural Woman were just a few that I recognized.
The show is Tony award winning and for good reason. The show had amazing character dialogue and jokes embedded into serious topics. At the same time, I learned so much about who Carole was and what it was like for her growing up and building her career in the music industry while simultaneous managing a relationship with the man who was also her work partner. Overall, this was my favorite show out of all 3 performances for the summer!
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