3. A review

Curiosidad

Broadway and the West End

Broadway theatre,commonly known as Broadway, refers to the theatrical performances presented in the 41 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theater District and Lincoln Center along Broadway, in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Along with London's West End theatres, Broadway theatres are widely considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English-speaking world.teatro
The great majority of Broadway shows are musicals, according to historian Martin Shefter in his book "'Broadway musicals,' culminating in the productions of Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein, which became enormously influential forms of American popular culture and helped make New York City the cultural capital of the nation.
The longest-running musical in West End history is Les Misérables. It overtook Andrew Lloyd Webber's Cats, which closed in 2002 after running for 8,949 performances and 21 years, as the longest-running West End musical of all time on 8 October 2006. Other long-runners include Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera and Willy Russell's Blood Brothers which have also subsequently overtaken Cats. However the non-musical Agatha Christie play The Mousetrap is the longest-running production in the world, and has been performed continuously since 1952.

Imagen de Andy Roberts en Flickr . Dominio público. 

Rellenar huecos

You are going to read a review of a musical, School of Rock. The first time you read it through, decide if, according to the review, the musical is better than the original dilm.

The second time you read , choose the correct word from each space from the ones in the box. There are two extra words.

focuses       performers     gag     adapted     lyrics   fable   voice-over  show    voice    chord   score                    wit      screenplay     performances    directed       book   band     numbers   chants

School Of Rock- a lesson for all!

The kids are more than alright  – in fact, they’re an absolute joy in this entertaining new show with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, 1 by Glenn Slater and book by Julian Fellowes. 2 from the 2003 movie starring Jack Black, it 3 on Dewey Finn, a slacker wannabe rocker who is dropped by his band and ends up masquerading as a supply teacher at a posh primary school, where he tries to unleash the inner rock gods from his class of pre-teens as he prepares them in secret to compete in a Battle of the Bands. The show, 4 by Laurence Connor, is a laugh with a heart, a 5 about the empowering force of music that sparkles with mischief and sly irreverence – and it’s clear that the material strikes some deep 6 within Lloyd Webber who has here composed his happiest and most confident 7 in a long while.  

A couple of 8 gently satirise the over-regimented, grade-fixated ethos of Horace Green Prep School. The place is as alien as Mars to Dewey who has stolen his flat-mate’s identity in order to earn some rent money. “My parents don’t pay $15,000 a year for recess,” objects the class know-all, Summer (Eva Trodd), when the hung-over Dewey declares that he’s leaving them, more or less permanently, to their own devices . It’s only when he comes across them in music class and hears the kids’ skilled musicianship that he hatches his scheme to turn these classical geeks into a rebel rock  9 .  

David Fynn is fantastic as Dewey. In a performance of explosive energy and charm, he shows you a lazy slob who turns into a man possessed when spreading the gospel of rock. While it wouldn’t be true to say that there’s no end to Dewey’s talent, his passion for heavy metal is endless and his initially reluctant pupils pick up on this and are enthused.  Lloyd Webber is heard in a pre-recorded 10 at the start assuring us that the kids are playing all their instruments live. Since they are aged between 9 and 13, the guitars are nearly as big as some of them are. It’s an undeniable point of superiority over the film that the stage show puts us in the same room as these talented 11 whose infectious delight in their skills gets the joint jumping with joy. And the score contains two rollicking rock songs that chart their transformation with particular 12 and punch.

The 13 by Julian Fellowes sticks pretty closely to Mike White’s droll 14 (adding in the odd new 15 and contemporary reference to, say, the Kardashians). Unlike Matilda, where the saviour is a child with mental powers, in School of Rock, the kids’ liberator is an overgrown man-child who’s in some respects less mature than they are. This show never lets you forget this winning absurdity. The 16 were universally knock-out – from Toby Lee as the  guitar genius Zack to Amma Ris as Tomika who emerges from her shell with a shockingly good “Amazing Grace”; to Logan Walmsley as the flamboyant, design-mad Billy who, to fool his father, reads Vogue wrapped inside the cover of Sports Illustrated. There are too many to mention all by name. Along with David Fynn, they  deserve their gold stars.

You can see a video of one of the songs here. it's a 360º film so use the arrow keys to follow the singers around the stage.

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Can you think of a play or musical that you have seen? What did (didn't) you like about it? Tell your partners.

Curiosidad

The Pantomime

Pantomime (informally panto) is a type of musical comedy stage production, designed for family entertainment. It was developed in England and is still performed throughout the United Kingdom, generally during the Christmas and New Year season and, to a lesser extent, in other English-speaking countries. Modern pantomime includes songs, gags, slapstick comedy and dancing, employs gender-crossing actors, and combines topical humour with a story loosely based on a well-known fairy tale, fable or folk tale.Popular ones include aladdin, Mother Goose and Jack and the Beanstalk. It is a participatory form of theatre, in which the audience is expected to sing along with certain parts of the music and shout out phrases to the performers. For example, when the villain of the pantomime appears, the audience should hiss its disapproval. At some point the villain will be standing behind the hero, and the audience shouts "He's behind you" - but as the hero  turns to look, the baddie again moves behind them so the audience must repeat themselves until the hero "discovers" the threat. Another catchphrase is saying the opposite of a character's affirmation. For example, if the hero says "I'm not going to get into trouble" the audience shouts "Oh yes you are!"