A Midsummer Night's Dream review!

I know, I haven't been on for months and I haven't reviewed any shows for more than a year, but this week I went to see this new interpretation of the classic Shakespeare play starring Little Britain comedian David Walliams and the lovely Sheridan Smith with my Sixth Form and I'm here to review it!
Starring: Sheridan Smith, David Walliams, Katherine Kingsley, Susannah Fielding, Stefano Braschi, Padraic Delaney, Sam Swainsbury
Rating: ****
This adaptation of the classic Shakespeare comedy is given interesting modern interpretations while keeping the original dialogue intact, something similar to Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet, and what director Michael Grandage does with it is very creative, imaginative and surprisingly erotic. Although some darker scenes are cut out for the sake of the comedic tone, it doesn't necessarily create any plot holes and nothing really feels underdeveloped with the plot still being cohesive about young lovers and how a bit of magic can create massive consequences.

Sheridan Smith (of Gavin and Stacey and Two Pints of Lager fame) was a joy to watch in the dual role of Titania and Hippolyta, but I enjoyed her more as Titania because she showcases her versatility and sensuality, as well as her fiesty side in contrast to Hippolyta, wearing pant suit a with her hair in a tight plait. Another actor in a dual role was as Oberon and who was good, but not as enjoyable as Sheridan/
David Walliams just shined as the comedy relief Bottom, with a notable stage presence which had me in tears of laughter with his flamboyant demeanour and hilarious breaking the fourth wall moments to the audience being perfectly timed. However, the only issue I had with him was I felt like I was watching another one of his Little Britain sketches rather than a Shakespearean play, but it didn't stop me from enjoying his performance, especially at the end as Pyramus in an amateur play opposite Alex Large as 'Thisbe', who also made me chuckle.

However, the actor who surprised me the most was Katherine Kingsley as Helena with how funny, touching and over the top she was, especially during the scenes involving her and Stefano Braschi as Demetrius spending most of his time showing off his six pack torso in white boxers. But whenever the mortal lovers were together onstage and quarrelling, that was when they shined both with the physical and adult comedy with how childish they can be.

The set designs were minimal, but effective, merely consisting of a painted background of the forest with the dominant moon shining on the action. The costumes designs were also creative and colourful to contrast the characters between the hippy-like fairies, and the 1940s influence on the human protagonists.
Despite the number of praises I have given, there are a few flaws, mostly involving whether the time setting was in the 40s because of the costumes worn by the mortals, or the 70s because of the hippy-style of the fairies (with the dances reminding me of the musical Hair). Moreover, I felt the pacing was way too rushed, especially during the first act which went by really quickly.

Overall despite those flaws, it's sexy, imaginative, engaging and very funny. It definitely felt like a dream with Grandage's faithfulness to the original manuscript, while putting in his own creative twists to make it a wonderful night.

RIP Cory Monteith

Just discovered Glee star Cory Monteith has passed away....I was intending to review the show because I really dislike it, but this really isn't the right time. As much as I don't like it, he was actually good in it & it's incredibly sad for any television show to lose such an amazing man. We shouldn't think of this as goodbye, but rather we should be celebrating his life. No one deserves the tragedy that has happened today, especially the love of his life Lea Michele & my condolences go out to her & I hope she'll stay strong. I strongly think they should cancel the show because 1) it wouldn't feel right continuing the show when one of the core characters has died 2) it wouldn't be right for Ryan Murphy to toss Finn aside like it was nothing 3) it would be insulting to Cory if Finn was written out 4) if they write Finn is dead, that would cause more tragedy for the actors 5) there wouldn't be a good enough excuse to write Finn out & would make it even more insulting!

My condolences go out to everyone from Glee, Lea, his family & friends who have lost an amazing man who has been through so much.

Cory Allan Michael Monteith

Born May 11th 1982. Died on June 13th 2013. You will forever be missed. <3

Hello this is the Theatre Loving Fairy...I'm back! Sorry for not posting for months, but now I'm actually gonna focus more on musical movies than stage shows for a while since I have other things to focus on. Also, I'm gonna revamp the blog so don't be surprised in the future! I might go and see Once and I intend on seeing Miss Saigon next year, but besides that, I have no other plans of seeing any other musicals! Well, on with what I'd like to call the worst attempt of a mixing pop and country into a movie for pre-teen girls, Hannah Montana the Movie! Yes, I consider this a musical so shut up and let's review this piece of shit!

Hannah Montana the Movie
Rating: * (this is me being nice, believe it or not!)
Cast: Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray Cyrus (both of whom can't act to save their lives), Haley Joel Osment's inferior sister, that guy from Metro Station's brother
Don't care about the rest of the cast (actually I care about none of them) moving on!
Here's the plot: Miley Stewart is struggling with her double life as Hannah Montana & her personal life as Miley which leads her to ruining best friend Lilly's My Super Sweet 16 style birthday party by upstaging her as Hannah, so her dad makes her do a 'Hannah detox' at her hometown Crowley Corners (what a creative name, huh?) full of bland & annoying people who for some reason have a hostility towards malls which could help their dwindling economy! There's a love angle with Miley & some cowboy guy which is contrived, bland & unnecessary like the entire movie!

Yes, this is an actual scene from the movie!

And there's another love angle with Billy Ray and Jan from The Office which Miley supports even though she wasn't happy when he dated a real estate agent in the show since she thought he was replacing her mother (yeah, I had a phase of liking it when I was 10 so my brain wasn't as prepared to realize it's a piece of shit)! And there's ANOTHER plot (see a theme?) involving some guy trying to find out Hannah's secret & follows her to Crowley Corners which contributes nothing to the main story! The ending is dumb & stupid, why?! BECAUSE EVERYONE REJECTS MILEY AND WANTS HANNAH AFTER SHE BEARS HER SOUL TO EVERYONE WITH A CRAPPY POP SONG!! Seriously, they want superficiality and lies, not Miley to be herself! WORST ENDING EVER!!

The chicken of the far left must've known this would be crap!

OK, the acting is atrocious & almost every character can't seem to tell that Miley is Hannah despite Hannah having a different hair colour & wear ugly Barbie clothes! It's what everyone notices, put the blonde wig on & you become Hannah Montana! OK, back to the acting! Like I said, Miley conveys no emotion whatsoever & she's just selfish throughout & doesn't change at all, making the whole movie entirely pointless! The cowboy boyfriend is just boring a love interest with no personality & the rest are just stereotypes with no personality & I do not care for!

Worst dance scene in a movie ever!

Now onto the songs...which are BAD! Worst one has got to be Hoedown Throwdown mixing country, pop, hip-hop & RnB together with an awful dance trying to be the Tim Warp! The Climb is just cliched & about nothing trying so hard to be like Britney Spears' I'm Not A Girl, But Not Yet a Woman which is equally as bad! The rest are forgettable, so I'm not gonna bother going over them!
Overall....HANNAH MONTANA THE MOVIE IS CRAP! I recommend avoiding it, it's a waste of 90 minutes with a washed down moral, an awful ending, atrocious songs & bland characters who can't act to save their lives!

Top 5 Worst Films Based on a Broadway Musical!

Hi and I'm sorry for not posting for so long, but I have exams coming up which I really have to focus on! However, I may see Singin In the Rain before it closes and to make up for it, I'm revealing my personal top 5 worst films based on a Broadway musical. Let's begin!

5) Mamma Mia! OK, I'll admit this is a guilty pleasure for me, but I'm being more analytical and there are some flaws with it. Firstly, the fact they got an all star cast really bothers me (before you say anything, I know Les Miz had an all star cast too, but the thing with Les Miz was most of the actors had a background in musical theatre) especially Pierce Brosnan as Sam! I just couldn't handle his singing, I had to mute it it was so bad, it sounded like he was drunk singing karaoke on a Saturday night! Also, I just feel like it was a fad to cram in every single ABBA song so the audience to sing along to instead of having a purpose to be there in the story. Most of them just come out of nowhere without warning and it really irritates me how they even reference them. Also, I feel like it's the perfect film to embarrass for parents to embarrass their kids with singing along to songs which are like 30 years old! However, not everything is bad. I do like the set, Meryl Streep and Dominic Cooper are really good as Donna and Sky and despite their bad singing, Christine baranski and Julie Walters are funny from time to time. Mamma Mia- sometimes, the winner doesn't take it all!

4) Rent. The main problem I have is that it shoves the whole 'misunderstood Bohemian' theme in your face unlike the show and it was just badly directed, which made it very boring. Also, the theme of homosexuality and AIDS is pretty outdated for the time of its release (which was 2005) since times have changed and we're more accepting. However, I do give them credit for getting a majority of the original cast back like Taye Diggs and Idina Menzel. The downside to it though is their ages. I refuse to believe that they're in their early 20s and I found most of the characters this time round annoying, especially Rosario Dawson as Mimi. Also, what happened to the Christmas Bells are Ringing song?! Rent- I won't be living La Vie Boheme any time soon!





3) Phantom of the Opera. Poor Andrew Lloyd-Webber, his chance to make his masterpiece onto the big screen, and it ends up as a total mess! Where do I begin with it? First off, the casting. I hated Emmy Rossum as Christine, she turned this strong and three dimensional character into an annoying bitchy damsel in distress. Also, her singing was much too weak and her vocal range doesn't fit the requirements. Gerard Butler was TERRIBLE, from his over the top acting to his shouting singing voice. I was not buying his performance one it and Patrick Wilson was just wimpy as Raoul. Also, the story is a complete mess and not coherent enough. It doesn't help that the changes made it even weaker, showing scenes which were unnecessary and cutting ones out which were relevant to the plot! Also, another thing is that the accents didn't match at all, which made it very confusing. I'm talking about British, Italian, Scottish and even American! The only person who attempted to do a French accent was Miranda Richardson as Madame Giry. I do give it credit that the visuals are spectacular with the costumes and the set, but it doesn't stop this train wreck of a film from being good. Phantom of the Opera the movie- Don't listen to this music of the night!

OK, I know this is too low on the list and it should be a number one, but there are films that are much worse than this!

2) The Wiz! No, I'm not racist if it's about the fact the entire cast is African American! I love Diana Ross and  Michael Jackson (rest in peace for always) but this film does not do any justice to them whatsoever. First off, Diana is much too old for Dorothy and is too weak as a protagonist and I swear she never looks invested in the film! Also, in the show she's a little girl and living in Kansas, not New York! Also, while has Nipsey Russell 4 musical numbers, Michael Jackson only has ONE and his dancing is just terrible (this was before the Moonwalk)! Yes, the King of Pop has ONE SONG out of over 20! The set of Oz is just crap and look like they were done in ten minutes. I've seen local plays which look better than this! Speaking of the songs, they are either too depressing or just stop the story from carrying on and just come out of nowhere up to the point the film barely has a minute for to rest. May I add that the camera angles are just terrible, especially during the Ease On Down the Road scene where the camera is 300 feet away and focusing on their backs! Yeah, I hate this movie and I was actually liking the Witch of the West cos her song was pretty much the only good one, but her death was much too stupid since ANYONE COULD'VE TURNED THE FIRE ALARM and her death was just so underwhelming with her throne being a giant toilet! I'll take it back- some of the songs are good, but none of them can help this botched up story and the large number of them just stop the film for nothing. The Wiz- This isn't a ease on down the road!

1) Now before we get to number one, I just want to say, I was going to put High School Musical as number one, but then I came across something much much worse! This travesty is so insulting to the original and I don't know why this existed in the first place! Ladies and gentlemen, the number one worst film based on a Broadway musical is...........................................................................................................................................................................................................THE KING AND I ANIMATED REMAKE!
First of all, I want to say that I absolutely love Rogers and Hammerstein. They have been beloved for years and even now I like to watch their classics like Sound of Music and Carousel. At the same time, it still confuses me why this animated version of the King and I was approved and made in the first place! I feel like categorising this as a parody because nothing in  it can ever function with the original. The story is so stupid and so confusing that it looks nothing like the original, with only the premise being the same. As for the songs, there are barely any at all and are so poorly executed and the singers were terrible, especially the singer for Anna! Also, the characters are either annoying, one dimensional, stupid or ripping off Disney, including one of the most racist things I've seen since Skids and Mudflap! Actually, it looks like the writers focused on it's sidekicks and side characters than the protagonists up to the point that we barely get to know any of them! Weeks after watching this, the pain and anger in watching it has just made me have trouble seeing the original! Also, the changes made are beyond jumping the shark, I'm talking about dragons, baby elephants, high fiving panthers and the Kralahome being an incompetent rip off of Jafar who changes his plans every five minutes! I love reviewing musicals and musical films, but sometimes, shit like this comes along and proves this isn't as glamorous as it seems!