Kay sent me the pictures so thanks to her I uploaded them to my server since yahoo seems to be having problems.
www.kittenboard.com/kitte...lay03.htmlSo I went to the 3 pm show yesterday. It was really good.
First up was "Women are the Weaker Sex." This was the one directed by Amber. I don't know much about theater or how direction affects a play, so I can't say much about how she did. Things seemed fine though. This was a good first play type of effort. It's about a meeting of women from Shakespeare's plays. This idea reminded me of a short movie I read, in which women from fairy tales gather to have a meeting. Anyway, this play kind of fell short for me because the most time was devoted to Shakespeare himself and I would have loved to have heard more from the women. It tried to make the point that women were not treated fairly in these plays, but the presentation to simplistic to be really interesting. I noticed the woman Katherine was Johanna Mckay and she was also in Albert Hall. She's fun to watch. The play overall had a nice pace and was enjoyable to watch.
The next play was "Something Good." A nice boy meets girl story and both of the young people seemed to be intelligent and that made things intersting. Largely though this was pretty straight forward and without much humor. I might have found it more interesting if this related to my life in any way shape or form.
Last was "Fortune Cookie Man." All props go to the writer of this play. It isn't flawless no , but for a 16 year old, this was fantastic. Also we must credit the director and choreographer, Daniel Henning, who is in charge of the whole Young Playwrights festival. I am fairly possitive he brought his "sensibilities" to the play.
Anyway, it's a musical. This kid even performed the music used in the play. It's very silly, the story of a fired Fortune Cookie writer and his quest to get it back. In the process he meets and falls for Fortune (Amber Benson), who is a failed writer who works cleaning trains. The only good thing about her writing is that she writes good lines but it never comes together quite right. Stack, the writer, gets in trouble with the mob, the Welsh mob. He goes on a quest to find The Lotus to get his mojo back.
There are many good songs , some that will make you laugh out loud. Highlights included Dr. Zheng's song where he fires Stack from the Chinese restaurant. Dr Zheng is played by
Gedde Watanabe who has been in countless things, including Gung Ho. He was very funny and the song was just great. Also good was Amber's solo about finding her Knight in Shining Armor. Great use of the mop prop. Amber's voice was very strong especially in her normal range. It was a pleasure to hear her sing so close up and live and it was very exciting. It really made me want to just have the opportunity to hear more and more of her singing. The higher notes were there, but I think Amber isn't used to singing and dancing especially while wearing a short slip
That's all I am saying abou that, yeah...
Another highlight was "The Lotus," played by Sherri Shepherd, who appears on Less Than Perfect on Tuesdays at 9:30 on ABC (so told me her friend who was at the play). She was very funny in all her scenes.
And the Welsh Mobster, Jingle, was a revelation at the end when he sang his song. Extremely funny, nothing like seeing a mobster dancing and singing.
Some of the songs were eh, and the plot kind of died a bit after the lotus, but it was extremely enjoyable that kid is very talented.
Amber was great in it, but I kinda felt her character was dropped towards the middle of the play. She started out as this complex character who had aspirations of being a writer and dreams of escaping her job, but then was reduced to "love interest" and shoulder ornament for Stack. I think if the play was normal length perhaps she would get to have something more to do in the second half. Her performance was great though, I feel everyone should be able to see Amber take on different characters and sing and dance!
I am very glad to have had the opportunity to go!
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blonk, blink, blong
i am from germany and this is too far away....i hope to get to england in august, but hollywood....
It sounds like something I would go to see on its own right... 
And is that Joel back there? I do believe it is. 
But what really caught my eye were her boots!
And mmm..yummy stockings. I wish I could've been there!
at: 6/28/03 10:46 pm
