Review: West Side Story the Musical

I promised (and wrote!) this a really really long time ago, and I thought I ought to post it before I started posting the other in-progress stuff ^^;;;

My sister had been hearing alot of good things about West Side Story, so when they came to Malaysia, she was understandably excited. And so, as the story goes, my family and I went to watch the musical on Saturday, 15th May 2010.

My review:


Location: Um, my knowledge of Malaysian geography is really awful (I only know how to get to Mid Valley and my office and maybe Jalan Sultan Ismail from my house LOL) so I can't comment much here ^^;; It was held at Istana Budaya, if that helps at all.


Music: The music was so-so. There were a few good songs that I quite liked, but some other songs weren't really to my liking while others were just lackluster and not very memorable. My sister, her friends and I all agree that the singing really wasn't up to our expectations. I felt that the only one who had a particularly striking voice was the female lead, Maria. On the other hand, if you took away all the lyrics and the singing, the instrumental music was gorgeous!

(On a random note - the song "I feel pretty" sounds much much nicer in Spanish than it does in English!)

Storyline: Well, the storyline is meant to be a modern-day Romeo and Juliet. I will admit that it is probably a favourite basis for many stories, and I can see so many ways in which this basic idea could be an emotional and touching story. However, the way in which the script was written made West Side Story absolutely corny and lame to the core (and not in a good way), not to mention that it sounded like something a hormonal 14 year old would write for fanfiction - and I would definitely be able to recognise that sort of story, having been one of those hormonal fanfiction-writing 14 year olds myself. (:P)

As time goes on and I think back more on the musical, I begin to see more clearly that some parts that I had hated did tie in with the story and give an appropriate background for the setting, but it still doesn't change that they were badly done. Alot of the characters don't have any background story, so I feel like I don't know the character well enough to emphatize with/hate them or understand their side of the story. I also rather felt that the American side of the story was more developed than the Puerto Rican side, which made it seem rather lopsided.

Other comments: The pace of the story is quite odd. It starts off at a slow pace, with alot of contemporary dancing and dialogue, and seems to get even slower as the musical goes on, until it suddenly climaxes and spins to a stop within ten minutes of the end of the musical. Rather too abrupt an ending to be enjoyable. (But there was this very amusing moment where Maria screams like she's that girl in the Exorcist. It was meant to be a solemn and serious moment, but the instant I heard it, I just had to giggle!)

Speaking of Maria, my sister and I found her accent very annoying. Once again, we understand that it's meant to reflect her non-American roots, but still.... we really could do without it! Maria was quite a whiny character too. Maybe it was the whining rather than the accent that got on my nerves!

On another note, there were too many contemporary dances for my liking. Don't get me wrong - they were very beautifully choreographed dances, but my sister and I didn't quite see the point in alot of it. I felt like they were just there to bulk out the performance. As my sister said, it feels more like we're watching So You Think You Can Dance? rather than a musical.

Recommendation: I honestly wouldn't recommend this to anyone. A friend has told me that the movie was really good, so perhaps that would be a better alternative. But at least I can now say I've watched it, and will avoid this musical for the rest of my life.

Sister Act the Musical

On Saturday June 20th, the day after my brother arrived in London before our flight home, we went to watch Sister Act the Musical because our whole family had loved the movies so much when we were young.

Here's my review of the thing!

Location: London Palladium , where Sound of Music the Musical used to be. It's an alright location, being right off Oxford Circus. I don't go that way often because I absolutely hate the crowds around there, but on that particular day, my brother and I were at the Apple store checking out the new iPhone 3GS. The theatre was across the road from the Apple store, so that was great! :D

Storyline: Same old, same old. They'd changed a few things around, added some characters and abit more plot, but it was about the same basic plotline from the movie: lounge singer saw gangster boyfriend kill someone, goes to police, gets put in hiding with nuns, helps nuns via singing, bad guy gets caught, etc etc. I can't say I really loved the whole plot, but whatever I hated in the musical, I hated in the movie too. The new additions didn't take away or add anything to the whole plot, really, so I'm neutral about most of them.

Music: The songs are really good! Not at all the same songs from the movie, so don't expect to hear anything familiar, but it's all really nice. I loved the song that Mother Superior sang (Here Within These Walls) to the point where I can still remember parts of the song now - and considering how bad my memory is, that is incredible. There are some songs that are very obviously filler songs to bulk out the musical a little, but if you ignore that little fact, they're actually rather nice songs. Some of them have incredibly catchy sticks-in-your-mind-for-weeks tunes :D

Comparison: Well.... Compared to the movie... There are parts that are better and parts that are worse, but like I said before, all the parts I hated in the musical, I hated in the movie too. OH! Except for one part - they had this part with a disco ball and flashing lights that gave me this immense headache right there and then on the spot. Yeah, I hated that. They were lucky the song during that scene was nice, otherwise I would've just left.

My Rating: Hmmm..... As a production, I would give this maybe a 3.5/5. That 1.5 I took off was only because of the parts of the plot that I'd always hated in the movie anyway! :P

Recommendation: If you think you can keep your views fairly free of tainted expectations from the movie, then you should go ahead and watch it! Even if you don't like it (I've read many reviews, both bad and good), it's still a good experience. After all, it is very amusing! My brother and I had a good laugh at many parts, and we really LOVE Sister Mary Lazarus! :D However, just a bit of a warning: if you haven't watched the movie in a long time and can barely remember what goes on, I recommend that you do NOT watch the movie again to "refresh your memory". Just go in blind, and I think you'll enjoy it more :D


Okay, that's it for my review! If anyone else does go watch it, please review it too ^_^

Lord of the Rings

Rating: 3.5/5

Well, I don't really want to do a section by section review, so I'll just rant abit..

Well, the story was as we all know it, but really really.... short. Very condensed, no real detail, but that's cos it was only 2.5 hours, so I can't really blame them.

The props were BRILLANT!! Best props I've ever seen for a play or musical! The floor MOVES! And not just rotation.. It rises and lowers too!! Coolness.

The music.. Well, there were some songs which were alright, some which were so-so, and some which are soooo terribly addictive that you'll never stop listening to them. Well, at least in my case that's true, cos I love sweet, sad songs! *heart*

What I really didn't like about the whole thing is that it just isn't... 'wow'. There isn't anything that takes my breath away, nothing that moves me to tears, nothing that makes me laugh hysterically. I don't think it was loud enough either. But I must say, watching it makes me reaaaaaally want to read the book and watch the movies! Hehehe..

Well, all in all, I'll have to say that I wish I hadn't watched the movies before watching this. This kind of feels more like a preview of the movies instead.

I'm really having mixed feelings over this! At times I'll think it isn't worth the money, but the suddenly I'll think that parts of it were absolutely beautiful. It just doesn't stick in my head or 'wow' me as much as say, LesMis or Wicked does.

Watch it and see for yourself!