Singing in the Rain

The cultural event I decided to go to this week was the play at Hale Center Theatre in Orem called Singing in the Rain. I fairly certain almost everyone has seen this play before, but just to keep all the bases covered I'll give a short summary of the play, which is one of my favorites. It begins with an announcer gushing into her microphone about the actor and actress and their magnificent abilities as the crowd waits excitedly for the Lamont and Lockwood acting team to arrive on the red carpet. They do a good job of acting, and no one can guess that the actor, Don Lockwood, of the famous duo actually has no love for his companion. She, being a somewhat dumb blond can't tell either, and believes that they two will be married in short order. As the play goes on, Don falls in love with a girl named Cathy Seldon, the only girl who didn't fall at his feet since he was four. Lena dislikes Cathy strongly because Cathy hit her in the face with a pie that was actually meant for Don. The play is set right on the brink of talkies. Warner Brothers Studios comes out with the musical, The Jazz Singer, and the studio that Lamont and Lockwood work for, Monumental Pictures, has to come up with something to top it. As talking in film is a relatively new concept they have all sorts of trouble getting started and their biggest problem is Lena. She has a terrible voice and almost no common sense so the studio sneakily has Cathy sing for her becuase she has an amazing voice. In the end the show is a hit and Lena, who tries to ruin Cathy's career gets her just desserts. I'm not really comfortable with criticizing the script or the play itself, just becuase I love it and would continue to watch again and again even if someone with authority said it wasn't that good.
I've seen the movie with Gene Kelly and Debbie Renolds dozens of times, so my expectations were pretty high. I wasn't disappointed. They did a fantastic job of improvising in parts that could have been a flop and they even added some hilarious parts that weren't in the movie. I was almost late, I was by myself, and I had the threat of having to write about my experience hanging over my head, so I was a little bit stressed when I went into the theater, but the atmosphere was really calming. I had an excellent view because Hale Center Theatre is set up in a circle stage and is small enough that there are no bad views. The people that helped everyone to sit down were very accomadating.
One of the things that impressed me the most about this production was the way the audience was included in it. "Of course what makes it better than a movie is that interaction with the audience" is a direct quote from someone sitting near me and I completely agree with him. The audience was very involved. We acted as the applause when the stars were walking down the read carpet or when black and white clips were shown as if we with the ones at the movie preview. The most exciting part was when Don Lockwood did his Singing in the Rain. In the movie he splashes all over the streets dancing and singing with his umbrella used for anything but the purpose of keeping him dry. They actually had rain coming from the ceiling in the theatre and on the tickets it warned that the first rows would get wet. All of the people in those rows were given ponchos, but I doubt that was enough. The sprinklers didn't get them wet, and I'm sure they were starting to relax when Don started kicking water all over them and spinning his soaked umbrella at them. It was no longer just the front row who was getting wet, but all the way to the forth or fifth rows. I was so funny to see the actor totally trying to soak people while still remaining in character.
Another amazing part was Cathy Seldon's singing voice. She really did a great job. Lena Lamont also attempted to sing. This wasn't a song I was familiar with because it doesn't occur in the movie, but it was very funny to see her try to sing. The actress did a very good job of missing the notes and keeping up her very disharmonious voice. The dancing was also pretty good. Anyone who knows who Gene Kelly was would know it would be impossible to be up to his standards, but they did a good job.
The only thing I was a little disappointed with was some of the singing. I can't really criticize because I don't know very much about singing, but it just wasn't as good as I hoped it would be but on the whole I was very happy to have attended.