Kids/Teens Book Club discussion

I don't think I'm the only one around here who loves plays. Being in them, watching them, and certainly talking about them... It's all so much fun!

So, my fellow drama kids and play fans, which plays have you seen or been in? Which are your favorites? What do you think of their movie editions (if they have one)? Which would you like to see someday?

I love Suessical Jr! It played at my school. I wasn't in it though. And I love plays! I just don't get to see them often.

Well, my favorite musical is WICKED which I was lucky enough to see in London's West End last October. It was AMAZING!

Other then that, I haven't seen a lot of plays. I would love to see a Shakespeare play in Delacorte Theatre (In central park, NY) one day.
Also, I'd love to see the stage adaption of 'Priscilla, Queen of the desert' which is a hilarious Aussie movie about three drag queens and their adventures in the desert.

Oh, and I wouldnt mind seeing the Australian play 'Morning Sacrifice', since we did a brief study on it, and my group preformed an extract in drama last week.

I love plays- I'm just not the type of person who'd be in one. :)

Lucky! I hate you now, Jess. ;) I've wanted to see Wicked for a while now, but I don't live close to wherever its showing- AND going to a NY show would be pretty dang expensive. :)

At my school some people get to see Wicked in London! It's for a field trip. I can't go 'cuz I can't afford it! It wouldn't be such a big deal if my math teacher would stop bragging that she's going.

Oh, that sucks.

I went in Boston for my sister's B-day. I just auditioned for Alice in Wonderland. My two Best friends got callbacks for Alice, but I didn't. I requested a non singing part.

Rae*Gnomey* wrote: "I love plays- I'm just not the type of person who'd be in one. :)"

Me too. Except for the Senior Musical; my school does one a year, and it's supposedly so much fun.

RENT! And The Phantom Of The Opera :) I'm seeing Wicked for the first time on the 27th... Super excited!

I haven't seen many plays, but I absolutely love musicals. I started out doing a choir/theatre group with my church when I was maybe six or seven. In fourth grade, I was in the fourth and fifth grade musical: The Fiddler on the Roof. In fifth grade, we did The Music Man and when I was in sixth grade, they changed it to the fifth and sixth grade musical, so we had another year. That year, we did Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (the show is fun, and the music is perfect to annoy people with. :D). In seventh grade, I did Fiddler again with a different group. I'd hoped to do Annie this year, but with back surgery...yeah, not going to happen.
As of now, I've seen the following (I think I might be forgetting some):

Wicked
Godspell
Annie
Les Miserables
Oklahoma
Cinderella
Aladdin (Disneyland has a production that I've seen a million times. It's kind of cheesy, but hey, it's still a musical.)
Beauty and the Beast

I've also seen my fair share of movie musicals:
Phantom of the Opera
Cats
The Sound of Music
Into The Woods
Hairspray
Kiss Me Kate
Singing in the Rain
Gigi
My Fair Lady
West Side Story
Dreamgirls
Mary Poppins (the movie, not the Broadway show)
The Producers
AVPM and AVPS :D

Musicals (when on stage) count as plays.

I've seen quite a few, since I live about an hour from NYC, and my grandparents really like the theater, so a lot of the ones I've been to have been with them. I also go with my mom and sister sometimes, though, so yeah.

I've been to: Wicked, the 25th annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, South Pacific, Mary Poppins, Billy Elliot, Hairspray, Sister Act (in London), the 39 steps (in London), Shrek the Musical, and the Lion King (but I was too young to remember more than a dead tree).

Minus school plays (of which I have been to a lot), I think that's it. All but the 39 Steps were musicals.

Musicals in movie form, I probably couldn't even count. Professional productions, musical-wise, I've seen Phantom of the Opera and Beauty and the Beast, both of which were WONDERFUL. Oh, and then the Southwest Shakespeare Co.'s production of Julius Caesar. Which, of course, wasn't a musical.

As for non-professional productions? I've seen Into The Woods, The Importance of Being Earnest, and Bang Bang You're Dead.

Plays I've been in, I was in Comedy of Errors as the Abbess and I am currently an assistant to the director for A Tale of Two Cities.

I've seen like...none. Beauty and the Beast is about it.

I've read a few plays, though, if that counts for anything.

Sure! But seeing them live is about a million times better. :)

Kate wrote: "Rae*Gnomey* wrote: "I love plays- I'm just not the type of person who'd be in one. :)"

Me too. Except for the Senior Musical; my school does one a year, and it's supposedly so much fun."

that sounds sweet.

Rose: cool! the public high school i could've gone to this year (but i decided to go to the private on where my dad works) is putting on Alice right now. they just had auditions.

And well, I HAVE seen two plays-
Romeo and Juliet (it was set in the 1950s and the freshman and seniors at my school went to see it together)
Monday Always Leads To Murder (my current school put it on last year)
and then another one that i can't remember that my older sister's college put on last year

Next year, I think I'm going to see the movie version of that Romeo and Juliet. What I want to know is, besides the language, doesn't that turn it into West Side Story?

I've gone to the Senior Musical every year since at least second grade, and then all the school plays at my middle school while I was there. I've been to some of the other high school plays, including this year's musical, which is the fall play, and was the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee (it was as good as the original, I think). More or less as we speak, they are putting on the Last Days of Judas Iscariot, the comedy/winter play, and in the spring they'll have the drama. And then, of course, they'll have the senior musical.

We watched it in class, well one of the versions (the Leonardo diCaprio one), and it was Romeo and Juliet with a few changes obviously. but no, i don't think so. since West Side Story ends differently then R&J.

Okay, yeah. adding AVPM to my list of plays. :)

Rae*Gnomey* wrote: "We watched it in class, well one of the versions (the Leonardo diCaprio one), and it was Romeo and Juliet with a few changes obviously. but no, i don't think so. since West Side Story ends differen..."

I know, I was joking. I think that's the same version that we'll be watching. Unless I get the one teacher who reads completely different books from all the others.

What's MAMD, Amber?

Haahahah, okay. :)

It's like Gnomeo and Juliet. I think you can imagine how the ending wasn't.

Yeah. :) Not like the original at all. ahaha

I didn't actually see it, but my older sister did, and she was saying that the whole time she was wondering how they were going to end it. It's supposed to be Romeo and Juliet, but obviously they're not going to commit suicide, so....

Yeah. It was great.

Kate wrote: "What's MAMD, Amber?"

I'm not Amber. :P But MAMD is Starkidpotter's other YouTube musical, and it stands for (I'm hiding this as a spoiler since it's sort of inappropriate) (view spoiler)[Me and My Dick (hide spoiler)].

Hahah, wow. I remember seeing that on their youtube channel while i was watching AVPM

It's kind of an awkward thing to see... Like, you're singing along with "Going Back" and all of a sudden you see that on the sidebar and think, "What on earth am I really watching?" :P

Hahah, I bet. So you've seen it?

No, I haven't watched it. But I was keeping a close eye on the Starkid channel for a while because they were announcing stuff about AVPS, and before that they were announcing stuff about changing the name to AVPM and editing the show...

....didn't they already edit it? I dunno how much more they can edit out. :)

Yes, but this was waaaay back when (okay, two summers ago)... They released it as "Harry Potter: The Musical". And then they took it off the web for like a month to do the edits. But I watched it for the first time before they edited it.

Hahah, oh, okay. Still need to watch AVPS.....i'll get there eventually

I've only seen Rent on stage(twice), but I own the movie or Rent and The Phantom of the Opera, which I adore.

Since I seem to have started a discussion about Starkid...who's excited for Starship?

Rae*Gnomey* wrote: "Hahah, oh, okay. Still need to watch AVPS.....i'll get there eventually"

That's like me and the rest of AVPM. I've seen part of the first act, and intend to see more, but so far haven't. Then, once that eventually is done, I will eventually see AVPS.

Thanks for the explanation, Taylor. What's it about?

I love the movie Phantom of the Opera. I've never seen a stage production of it.

Yeah, me too. I can't believe in the movie she is only 16! I wish I could have that voice... >.<

Jordan wrote: "Since I seem to have started a discussion about Starkid...who's excited for Starship?"

Starship?

I've never seen Phantom, in any form, but I want to. Everyone I know (including my sister, who is my source of reviews) who's seen it loved it.

After you see Phantom on stage, the movie just isn't as good. I watched it earlier this week for the first time since I've seen the live version, and it's just not the same... The special effects give it a different feel, but nothing compares to seeing the chandelier rise from the stage to above the audience and then come crashing down later on... Or hearing the live orchestra play the Phantom's music. I'd go see the live production 10 more times, but I don't really care if I see the movie as much.

That sounds great. And that makes sense. :)

Oh, it's so amazing. I LOVE seeing live shows. LOVE LOVE LOVE. My aunt is in this Italian opera right now, and I really hope I can go see it before it's over. All my uncle can do is talk about how amazing it is.

I am so jealous, Taylor. But you have to admit that the actress that plays (crap, I forgot her name! There's Raeul, or whatever and.... christine! Christine, Christine. Where in the world have you been hiding? Really, you were perfect. I know more, but whatever) Christine is amazing.

^^^^ Natalie

Karlee wrote: "I am so jealous, Taylor. But you have to admit that the actress that plays (crap, I forgot her name! There's Raeul, or whatever and.... christine! Christine, Christine. Where in the world have you ..."

Oh, I give her tons of credit! She's great! And I still enjoy the movie, it's just not the same after you've seen the live production.

I want to see it ive so badly, you don't even know. And it was just at Pantages (a theater near me) and I asked my mom and she sad, "We'll see!" Guess what? We never went :/ - Natalie

I got lucky, that I got to see it. My mom got discounted tickets through work (they were balcony seats, but still), but she only got two. She was going to take my stepdad, which was the plan for about a month up til like two days before the show. She asked him if he wanted to go, and he was like, "If you want me to go, I'll go, but Taylor will enjoy it more than I will." So Mom turned to me and said, "Do you want to go see Phantom of the Opera?" And OF COURSE I said "YES" right away.

Well, that worked out pretty well for you.

Definitely! :)

My camp goes on trips during the weekends, normally one day trip Saturday, and one on Sunday, but for incoming 9th graders, there's a weekend-long NYC trip where you do a lot of tourist stuff: take a tour of the NBC studio, go to a Broadway show, etc. Since I live so close I wasn't sure whether or not it would be worth a three-four hour bus ride to go to a place that's pretty much home. The deciding factor ended up being the show: they were seeing Mamma Mia, which I had no burning desire to see. If I had gone second session, I could have seen Phantom, and I probably would have gone.