The Midnight Train Crossing

Back once again to the Youth Theatre that I'd seen Cats and Peter Pan at. These shows are kind of fun to go to because usually I go to see plays with my mom, but these ones I go to with my dad. And once again we went because one of the kids at the school where my dad works was in it, playing Zach.

I knew nothing about this show until about two hours before hand when I looked it up on wikipedia. Basically it's a group of dancers auditioning for a chorus line, and the director, Zach (AJ Shine), has them dance but he also has them tell about their lives, their history, why they decided to become dancers, that sort of thing.

So anyway, starting with the set as always, it was pretty bare, except for some rectangles on the back "wall" of the stage. It took me a little while, about half-way through the opening spiel of the director to realize that they were actually mirrors.

As is always the hazard with theatre (Especially amateur theatre, although professional theatre doesn't escape it either..) they had sound problems. The first act went pretty well though, it was only in the second that they started having problems. During a big dramatic scene towards the end though, one with a lot of dialogue, the microphones kept cutting out, so I couldn't hear some of what was being said.
The other slight complaint I had was during a few of the parts... well I don't think that I've ever thought that a tambourine was too loud before... But it was totally drowning out the singers during one of the songs near the beginning.

Anyway, onto the good stuff...
I'm not completely familiar with the show so I don't know the names of all of the characters and there were a lot of them so I shall do the best I can.

Highlights vocally were Cassie (Izabela Gasparri) and Diana (Stephanie Blasini). Both of which were presented as important characters from the start because they were the only ones wearing red.

I liked Diana's attitude from the start, she was bold and brassy and well played. I liked her song "Nothing." It amused me, particularly the part about her in acting class not being able to *feel* anything from pretending to be on a bobsled... "They don't have bobsleds in San Juan." I also liked her description of pretending to be an ice cream cone... and trying to melt... and feeling nothing. Stephanie Blasini had an excellent voice and it really suited the character.

Cassie I was a bit unsure of at first during one of the songs where the various characters had their own lines. She had a high-note and... well... it wasn't pretty. It wasn't that she couldn't reach the note, it was just the "I'm singing impressively high but you can't understand a word I'm singing" sort of high note.
However, then during her song, "The Music and the Mirror" she definitely sang well. I think that it was more in her range as a singer.
Cassie was a dancer - a good one - but then she left Broadway to pursue bigger and better things... which didn't pan out. So now she's back doing what she loves to do, even if it means starting over. This is something that rather confuses Zach, who repeatedly tells her that she's too good to be in chorus.

Speaking of Cassie and Zach, now would be a good time to talk about Zach. For most of the show, he's just a voice from the back of the theatre, calling out directions or "interviewing" the dancers that are trying out for the roles, but when he talks to Cassie privately, he comes forward to better argue with her. I thought that was a nice touch, staging wise, because with all of the rest of the people, he has no real attachment to them, he's just a voice.
But Cassie knew him beforehand, they were once a couple. And since she had a closer relationship with him, she was the only one that got to see him personally.

Zach also talks to one of the other characters, Paul, privately, and seems to get to know him a little bit better and then later, when Paul gets hurt, Zach rushes back onstage to help him. Again, it seemed like that created a closer relationship between the two characters, once again Zach was "seen"

For most of the rest of the show, he's off-stage, just a voice, and I was sort of impressed by how expressive he was being for being just a voice.

I also liked the characters of Kristine (Hollis Kaye) and Al (Mitchell Randall), husband and wife in their song "Sing!" Kristine is rather ditzy character and Al sort of enables her by prompting her with what to say, and finishing her sentences for her.
This became funny during her song, when he would take the last word of every sentence (and towards the end of the song, the last syllable of the sentence). Kristine is a good dancer, her main problem is that she cannot sing. And she did a great job of demonstrating that she couldn't sing. I don't know if the actress can sing or not, but either way she did a great job at not singing well. I guess that sounds kind of funny, but if you can sing, it's impressive to be able to sing that badly.
One thing that I wondered... Kristine had her arm in a sling through the whole entire show, and I'm not sure if that was scripted into the show, or if the girl had broken her arm, and they worked around it.

There was another character I liked who's name I don't remember... but she wore her hair in double French braids and her bit was that she was five-foot-one. She always wished she could be taller and she's tired of playing kids roles, but at least she can always get a job since she looks like she's so young. When asked her age, she said that she was born in the year of the chicken... then later admitted that she was in her thirties. So I can't remember her character name, so I certainly can't give the actress's name, so that's not useful.

There were other random parts that I liked too of course, but when it's not a show that I'm completely familiar with, I forget things that I know I wanted to write about at the time when I was watching the show...

Once again the Modjeska theatre company did not fail to disappoint (aside from the fact that the seats were rather uncomfortable...). I wouldn't say that this show as the Best Thing I've Ever Seen (There isn't really too much of a plot) but it was, overall, a pretty fun show.