It’s been a truly musical weekend! Yesterday, my sister and I went to see a small musical at our former high school called “Elementary My Dear.” As the name suggests, it’s a mystery. The premise, in short, is Sherlock Holmes meets Clue. Many of the characters’ names are even references to famous detectives in pop culture such as Nancy Drew and Hercule Poirot. Among all of the singing and dancing and the silly antics is a message about our tendencies to fall into patterns of selfishness.
Obviously, I wasn’t expecting a masterpiece since it was written by a high school drama teacher and performed by actors up to age eighteen. I will admit that it has its fair share of weaknesses. The pace was a bit slow in parts, the mystery portion of the story was difficult to understand, and the songs definitely weren’t the most memorable. Still, the actors gave some pretty strong and sincere performances that brought their quirky characters to life. I was also impressed with how the crew was able to take the audience from the auditorium to a small, London inn with just a few props. This is just one example of a very magical element of theater: the suspension of disbelief.
Today, I saw the movie adaptation of In the Heights for the second time with my dad and sister. The first time around, I loved it. The second time around: I adored it! The catchy tunes, lovable characters, and amazingly talented actors all make Washington Heights look like such a magical place to live. Of course, the story takes time to address some very important issues among the Hispanic and Latino community but makes sure to leave room for the fun stuff too. When I first saw it I had little knowledge of the original musical because I hadn’t seen it or listened to the soundtrack. That was intentional because I wanted to approach it with an unbiased perspective. Now that I’ve seen the movie, I’d like to see what the original source material has in store for me.
Honestly, this is only a small portion of the many things I have to say about the movie. Maybe in the future I’ll discuss how it resonated with me on an artistic level and on a personal level. I might also make a post about some other musicals that I hold near to my heart. There’s so much I love about musicals and theater that I could go on all day.
Life with Anne 