This weekend I attended the Iowa Thespian Festival. At the festival I saw three main stage shows. These next couple of blogs will be my review on them. The first show that I saw was Moon Over Buffalo, by Ken Ludwig, performed by Tipton High School. Moon Over Buffalo centers on George and Charlotte Hay, fading stars of the 1950's. At the moment, they’re playing Private Lives and Cyrano De Bergerac in rep in Buffalo, New York with 5 actors. On the verge of a disastrous split-up caused by George’s affair with one of the younger actresses that resulted in a pregnancy, they receive word that they might just have one last shot at stardom: Frank Capra, a huge name in the acting world, is coming to town to see their matinee, and if likes what he sees, he might cast them in his movie remake of The Scarlet Pimpernel. Unfortunately for George and Charlotte, everything that could go wrong does go wrong, partially caused by a visit from their daughter’s clueless fiancé and hilarious uncertainty about which play they’re actually performing, caused by Charlotte’s deaf old stage-manager mother who hates every bone in George’s body.
Tipton did an amazing job with this show. It was more than worthy of the standing ovation received after the first act and at the end of the show. All of the cast deserves a round of applause. A more than admirable applause goes to Kyle Rekemeyer, a senior at Tipton, who played the role of George Hay. I have seen Kyle before as Otto Frank in Tipton's performance of The Diary of Anne Frank, a more serious role. I thought that this role fit Kyle perfectly. His over the top personality made this character so fun to watch. His mannerisms seemed so natural and it made watching this show a very fun experience. Another admirable character was Paul, played by Adam Jedlicka, senior. Paul is the stage manager for George's company, and Rosalind Hay's ex-fiancé. He brings George down to earth and back to reality when his crazy personality get the better if him. Adam played this part perfectly adding his quirkiness to the role.
Brad Goetz and the rest of the Set Crew did a phenomenal job with the set. It was simple, but intricate. My favorite part of the set was the plethora of stills of George and Charlotte from past performances scattered on the walls. The cast's use of the stage and set was also amazing. Tipton always does a great job with their sets.
I speak on behalf of the entire audience when I say that this performance was the best of the performances at the festival. I didn't want the show to end and found myself saddened after it was over. I once again applaud Tipton for their great interpretation of this show.
No comments:
Post a Comment