Drama critical review sally

End of Show (Grease) Critical Review Sally Kwon Grade 8 Drama class The performance of Grease was performed at the annexe in BISS. The storyis about high school life and teenage love. The scene I chose was “end of show”,where Sandy plans a make-over and gets Danny’s attention back. In this essay, Iam going to write about the two main characters, symbol, tempo/pace, lighting,sound effects, costume, space and set design. The first character I am going to talk about is Sandy, the female lead ofGrease. She used to be bullied and made fun of, but after Frenchy’s miraclemake-over, she turned strong and attractive. The actor who played was Monique.She had good performance skills because she projected her voice well and couldbe heard at all times but furthermore, she uses the tone and pitch of her voice. Anexample of this was when she lowers her voice when being accused and bullied.Her voice gets high when she is defending herself. She speaks softly andpleadingly when talking to Frenchy. Her voice comes out more confident and loudwhen singing with Danny to fit her new bad-girl look. The actor was also able touse her moves efficiently such as swaying while enjoying the music or crossingher arms when sad or shy. Also, when she gets annoyed with Patty she holds herhead high and slaps her to show her annoyance. Also, when she does a duet withDanny, she holds Danny’s shirt to show that she likes him. The second character is Danny, the male lead / Sandy’s boyfriend. Alexplayed this role and he also had good performance skills. His voice was high andconfident, and used the tone to convey emotion. For instance, he first stutterswhen his friends question him about his new look and when he invites Sandy tohis house his voice gets slick and gangster like to appeal himself. Also, his voiceis loud, confident, and goes well with the scene. He shows that he is a gangster bythe way he flails his jacket, and places himself in between his friends. He likes

them and wants to fit in. Lastly, he puts his arm around Sandy around the end ofthe scene to show his affection towards Sandy. Grease used various symbols.Different gestures were used to representdifferent meaning. Dancing and jiving to the song meant that people liked thesong, and the fist bump represents their special friendship and strong bonding.Sandy’s make up and metamorphosis meant that she became a strong and toughperson instead of a feeble and weak newbie. The duet with Danny and Sandy atthe end of the scene allowed the audience to understand that now the two aretogether and they like each other. Clothes was used as the most important andeffective symbol in this scene, and I’ll talk about it later on in the essay. There was some variety of pace in this scene. While Sandy was doingFrenchy’s make over, the song was calm and slow because Sandy realizes whatshe has done and what she has to do next. In contrast, the song “you’re the one Iwant” has a fast pace because both the main characters want to express theirfeelings for each other in an exciting way. The main tempo change happened inthe song and in the dialogues, the tempo variation was very small. The costume played an important role of telling the time period where theperformance set in, affected the movement of the characters, and also played itsrole as a symbol. As an example, Five male characters were wearing black leatherjacket, jeans, and white t-shirt and had their hair greased. The pink ladies hadtheir special jumper and black pants. Sandy however, was the only person whohad her own unique clothes - white cardigan and skirts. After metamorphosis, shechanged her clothes into a hard and strong looking leather jacket and pants. Heroverall impression changed from girly to tough. Other students were wearingrandom clothes such as lab coat or hawaiian gown and others because theydidn’t’ belong to any group. The rest of the features used in this scene weren’t as significant as otherssuch as the light music or space setting. General lighting was used (flood lights)and in the solo scene with Sandy and Frenchy, the light starts with a blur andfades int, then a single spot light shines at Frenchy and sets the solemn andserious mood. The music helped telling the setting and time because all the musicwas from the 70/80s. Also, in Frenchy’s repertoire, the music was ballad and the

lyric carried on the plot. Since this is a musical, music plays an important role ofreplacing lines and telling the story. Lastly, the set design used blocks andnothing else. The blocks represented benches and allowed actors to use differentlevels, for instance in the last duet, the chorus stands on the blocks so they don’tblock the main character. This musical was interesting and enjoyable. The actors played the rolepretty well and the music was fantastic. Costume, space design, lighting, andmany other items, even if there was the technical limit of performing in theannexe, complimented and helped understanding the musical. I especially likedthe solo of Frenchy and duet of Danny and Sandy. Their voices were amazing. Ithink it could be improved with better acting skills, even if they were able tomemorize all the lines and looked like they knew what they were doing, there wassomething -I’m not sure what exactly- missing that made the difference betweenamateur and professional. But except that, it was a nice and bright musical and I’dlike to recommend it to my friends because it’s about high school romance -which is one of my favorite genre- and it’s well made! (and I was played part ofproduction :) )

Drama critical review sally

by C Rankin on Jan 25, 2011

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