With Glee, 10/5

So yeah, considering today is the last day of the festival and therefore, the last day where my blog entries will be relevant, I have an hour to post 4 more "reviews," so from here on out, they're gonna be briefer and much less formal.

Five 13-year old males are shipped off to a boarding school in Maine against their will. Rooming and having to deal with each other doesn't make the experience any easier. There is Nathaniel, who has burnt down his school in the past in an attempt to make friends; Sam, who steals cars; Scott, who is demeaning his high-societal Vanderberg name; Kip, who's father is fearing is acting too feminine, and Clay, whose best friend is a boat named Mortimer. The 5 heavily clash at first, but then realize they have more in common than they initially thought, and perhaps the boarding school isn't as bad as they thought it would be.

I know, it sounds really cliche, but it does work, particularly at the end. The music is as responsible as anything for making this show work. The music serves as a tribute to Broadway, integrating songs that reflect some of the most famous shows and composers: "If You Want to Be a Vanderberg" is a Gilbert & Sullivan song in every way, featuring tongue-in-cheek lyrics, an extremely fast pace, and a chorus repeating a soloist. Additionally, a dance break in "Normal" reminded me of similar music in A Chorus Line. But the songs stand well on their own, particularly "Normal," a song reflecting a wish for all the boys to be out of this school so they can be normal. Another great song is "Back to Mom's," where 3 of the boys debate between who has it worse: someone who's parents have been divorced for years, someone who's parents are currently getting divorced, or someone who's parents are staying together despite fighting all the time. And from a completely objective standpoint, a song about the perfect girl, titled "Amanda" is one of the best songs I ever heard. :-) (If anyone wants to send me some sort of demo/copy of it, I'd love to be able to listen to it at will).

Though the story is cliche, the close bonding of the boys at the end, the fact that they don't all immediately become best friends, and a particularly interesting twist make this show go further than a simple coming-of-age story. Work still could certainly be done, as, in many of these kinds of stories, the sudden bonding of the boys seems to come out of left field, and feels quite forced. The reasons they are sent to school are pretty much expected, and I wish the reasons could be more complicated, making them more complex characters.

Still, for the most part, With Glee is a well-constructed and entertaining musical, and i look forward to further productions of it.