The Merchant of Venice

Last Friday, I went to see the Shakespeare comedy, The Merchant of Venice, with my dad. It was preformed by the Seattle Shakespeare Company, and they did a TERRIFIC job! This was the first Shakespeare play I've ever seen, and I loved it. (Picture, from left: Lorenzo, Salario (I think), Antonio, and, uhh, I forgot his name.)

****Spoilers****

There were a lot of funny moments, and Gratiano, one of the comic relief characters, did a very good job, but I wouln't call it a comedy. It was funny, but, and this is a lot more visible if you're Jewish, it was a really sad and cruel story. My dad and I had a discussion about this in the car on the way home. Shylock was made into the terrible person he was by the protagonists of the play. They pushed him around his whole life, spat on him and called him a dog, all because of his Judeaism. All he had was his money, his religion, and his daughter. He had no friends or kindness. Then, when Jessica, his daughter, ran away to be with a Christian, Lorenzo, and stealing a large sum of money from him in the process, Shylock went nearly mad. He had lost nearly everything. Now all he had left was his religion and his chance for revenge. When Antonio's ships did not come back, and he could not pay back Shylock, Shylock was ready to take his life after he Antonio was proven guilty. Shylock wanted his revenge so badly, that he refused twice what he'd given Antonio from Bassanio. That's when Shylock literally lost everything. P0rtia came in disguised as a lawyer and lost Shylock his money, his home, and his religion even. They forced him to convert to a Christian. He could either take Antonio's life, and lose his own, or he lost everything. He'd even have to give half of it to his run away daughter and her husband. Shylock really is a sad story.

*****Spoilers over*****

Even through the sad story, I still loved the play. Great acting, especially by Shylock, Antonio, and Bassanio. Oh, and by Jessica. She was played by an intern even.

The Lion King

As I said yesterday, one of the best parts of our trip was going to see The Lion King on Broadway. It had amazing sets and costumes. They did the songs perfectly, and they even included a new song and a song that was only in the special edition DVD. The story was nearly identical to the movie and had a lot of the same dialogue.

The thing that impressed me the most was definitely the sets. They had a very good way of showing the tall grass. They gave actors dirt colored costumes and hats with long, plastic (or rubber?) strands of grass on top. They moved around to make it seem like the lions were walking through it. The best set was the elephant graveyard. They made two separate parts that could spin around and made it look like one part connected by a bridge at the top. In the middle of the hyena scene, both of the parts disconnect and begin to spin away from each other.

The costumes were good too, but the best were the hyena costumes. The costumes for the lions were ok, and Timon and Pumba's costumes weren't original at all. Rafiki was probably the best character in the show, though. He/she (actor was a girl) was really funny in the show.

They also had a lot of good singing in the show. The song they took from the special edition DVD was called, "The Morning Report" and was sung by the character of Zazu, near the begining. It was ok. The song they created for the show, "He Lives in You," was probably my favorite. It took place right after Rafiki helped Simba see Mufasa in the water, getting him to go fight scar.

The whole play was amazing, and I would highly recomend it to anyone with the chance to see a Broadway show!