to see WICKED

On January 17th me and mommy went to go see WICKED at the Oriental Theatre in downtown Chicago. The musical is by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman and its a story about a girl named Elphaba and how she becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, but it is also a story about how a girl named Glinda becomes Glinda the Good. I know these characters from the Wizard of Oz.

The shows starts with the ensemble singing NO ONE MOURNS THE WICKED because the Wicked Witch of the West is dead and Glinda (played by Ginna Claire Mason) comes down from the sky in a bubble and tells the story of how Glinda and Elphaba became friends at school. Glinda has so many bags and all of the friends when she gets to school and Elphaba has just one bag, green skin and a sister in a wheelchair named, Nessarose when she gets to school.

We know Elphaba (played by Mary Kate Morrissey) has magic powers when she tries to protect her sister.  Madame Morrible (played by Tregoney Shepherd) tells Elphaba she's going to meet the Wizard.  Elphaba and Glinda share a room with a blue bed and a pink bed and they don't like each other.  Glinda gave Elphaba an ugly hat as a joke and Elphaba thought it was a gift, so in return she gave Glinda a training wand and a chance to train with Madame Morrible. When Glinda found this out she felt happy but sad that she was mean to Elphaba so when Elphaba gets laughed at for wearing an ugly hat to the ball, Glinda teaches Elphaba how to dance and they become friends.

Dr. Dillamond (played by Harry Bouvy), the goat professor, was losing his voice and when Elphaba and Glinda got to the Emerald City to see the wizard of Oz they found out that he was the one taking away his voice. The wizard had asked her to give his monkeys wings which was when she learned that he had no real powers so Elphaba took his book and decided to fly away, Glinda wanted to fly with her but she decided not to because she was maybe scared. And from then on Elphaba was known as the Wicked Witch of the West.

I loved ALL of the costumes, designed by Susan Hilferty,  because they were all so fancy and princess and prince-like. My favorite costume was the blue and silver Cinderella-like one that Glinda wears in the beginning and the end because she looks like a beautiful beautiful princess.

The songs by Stephen Schwartz were so good. I really liked "One Short Day," "What is this feeling," "Dancing through Life," "For Good," but my favorite song was "Popular" because Glinda was so funny especially when she taught Elphaba how to toss-toss her hair and she screamed with glee, this was my favorite part of the whole show.

If there was something I didn't like it was the dragon on the set because I thought he might blow fire and he moved and his eyes were red. I also didn't like the mist on the stage because it made me a little scared.

This show taught me that you can learn to be anyone's friend no matter what if you just show kindness to them.

I think that everyone in the whole world should see this show because its so cool and fun, well everyone expect babies, because babies would be really scared of the dragon (and their babysitters should stay home with them).

 I give this show 200-ZILLION POINTS because it is so AWESOME!

Love,
Gunnar

It was so cool meeting everybody after the show thanks to my friend Greg!

to see School of Rock the Musical

On Saturday I went to see School of Rock the Musical at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in downtown Chicago with mommy. The musical by Julian Fellows, Glenn Slater and Andrew Lloyd Webber and directed by Laurence Connor was a play about a man named Dewey who taught kids in school to become the School of Rock.

Dewey (played by Merritt David Janes at our performance) loved to play his guitar but he got kicked out of his band so he pretended to be his friend Ned (played by Hernando Umana) by becoming a substitute teacher at Horace Green school. But Dewey had never been a teacher so he wasn't good at it. Dewey was late to school and asked for food and sent the kids to recess right away. But the next day he heard them playing music and he thought he could teach them how to play rock. Like the cymbals is like playing the drums and the cello is like playing the bass and the piano is like playing the keyboard. So he decided they could be a rock back and he could finally go to the battle of the bands.  Some of the kids didn't play music but helped like they were back up singers or Summer (played by Ava Brigilia) was the manager and another kid was the costume designer.

The actors were really amazing I loved Dewey the best because he was just the funniest guy I ever saw. And the kid actors were super cool because they actually played the instruments really well. My favorite kid was Phoenix Schuman who played Zach because he was amazing at playing the electric guitar.

The lighting design by Natasha Katz was excellent because during the battle of the bands the lights they were all colors around the stage and in "If Only You Would Listen" the lights would shift on each kid as they sang. The costumes by Anna Louizos looked a lot like parents and teachers and kids. The songs by Andrew Lloyd Webber stuck in our heads, mommy and I were whistling them as we are writing this.

My favorite part of the show was when Rosalie (played by Lexie Dorsett Sharp) came in to check on Dewey's class and he made up a song about Math that is called "Math is Great and a Wonderful thing." And when the battle of the bands guy, Jeff (played by Patrick Clanton) said "Okay okay stop throwing water bottles at me." And when Dewey wrote Mr. Schne...and then scribbled the rest and then made a y that was funny.  And another time they covered up the instruments with teepees and pretended they were learning about Thanksgiving and turkeys.

This show taught me that you should never stop doing the thing you love and when you teach what you love to others it spreads all over the world.

I would give this show 1 billion thousand points because I loved this show so much because it is so awesome. I would tell everyone in the entire whole seriously entire giant world to go see this because if everyone saw shows like this they might want to be a blogger just like me.

Love,
Gunnar

to see 'Annie' at the Cadillac Palace Theatre

Mommy's friend Micah gave us tickets to see the Broadway in Chicago production of 'Annie' at the Cadillac Palace Theatre in downtown Chicago, directed by Martin Charnin. Micah gave the tickets to us because he knew that we were sad that Trump won the election. It made my family happy because I love to see plays. I went with mommy, Margot and Daddy and I got to meet Micah at the theatre.

Tori Bates (as Annie) and Macy (as Sandy)

The play was about a little red head girl named Annie (Tori Bates) who is an orphan. An orphan is someone who does not have any parents. Annie lived with other orphans at an orphanage. Ms. Hannigan (Erin Fish) lived with the orphans and she was mean to them. One day Grace Ferrell (Casie Prins) came to the orphanage and took Annie to Oliver Warbucks' house. Oliver Warbucks (Gilgamesh Taggett) is a rich man who has a lot of money and people who work for him. When she got to his house Annie really liked his chair because she kept touching it. Then she met Mr. Warbucks and he told her to sit and then he took her to the movies. Mr. Warbucks loved Annie and wanted to be her daddy but Annie wanted to find her parents. So Mr. Warbucks tried to help her find them.

I loved all the funny dancing choreographed by Liza Gennaro. One of the funny dancing parts was in the song "EASY STREET" when Lily (Mallory King) did the Chicken dance. Another part I thought was funny was  in "YOU'RE NEVER FULLY DRESSED WITHOUT A SMILE (Reprise)" and the orphans kicked their legs up really high.

The one thing I didn't understand was what they were doing when they were singing "EASY STREET". But mommy told me they were trying to come up with a way to take Mr. Warbucks $50,000.

I thought the set designed by Beowulf Boritt was really cool because it could change into other scenes really fast. There was an orphanage, the Bert Healy Radio show, Oliver Warbucks' office, The President's office, streets of New York City, a New York shanty and the big staircase in Oliver Warbucks' house with the Christmas tree. My favorite settings were the ones at Oliver Warbucks' house because the Christmas tree and the giant staircase looked really cool and his office was super big.

My favorite parts of the show were 'EASY STREET' and whenever Sandy (Macy/Sunny) the dog came on stage. My favorite song was 'THE SUN WILL COME OUT TOMORROW" because it made me happy and hopeful after a sad day. It made me hopeful that our next president after Trump will be good like Roosevelt!

I had a lot of fun. People who should see this show are Johanna, and everybody in the whole wide world because everyone should have some HOPE!

I give this show100 POINTS because it will give everybody Hope when they need it!!!!

LOVE,
Gunnar

to see the SpongeBob Musical

Yesterday I went with mommy to go see Nickelodean presents The SpongeBob Musical at the Oriental Theatre in downtown Chicago, directed by Tina Landau.

SpongeBob is a sponge who has a tv show and a movie he lives in a pineapple under the sea. He hangs out with his friends Patrick Star and Squidward Tentacles in their town Bikini Bottom. On this day there was a volcano that was trying to destroy the world. Sheldon Plankton was trying to hypnotize everybody and wasn't helping and Mr. Krabs just wanted to make more money. But Patrick Star, Sandy Cheeks (the squirrel) and SpongeBob decided to help the world and save the day and be heroes and be brave.

All the actors were very talented and they sounded and looked and walked just like their characters on TV.  Ethan Slater played Spongebob and he was so funny and cool because because he was a really good singer and gymnast because he could climb on ladders while he was singing and he could talk really loud. Patrick Star was played by Danny Skinner and he was cool and he could fly with Sandy's jetpack. The person who played Squidward Tentacles was Gavin Lee and he looked like him because he had four legs like Squidward and he could tap dance with all four legs he was really good at being grumpy like Squidward. The person who play Sandy Cheeks (the squirrel) was Lilli Cooper and she could talk really fast and she kinda sounded like Sandy too. Pearl Krabs was played by Emmy Raver-Lampman she had a really really good singing voice and I think its really cool that she was in Hamilton (I recognized her from pictures in our Hamilton book.) I also LOVED Jason Michael Snow who played Patchy the Pirate because he was so funny and he made jokes about Chicago and my favorite was when he slid down a rope and said "See I told you I'd be back!"

The music was great. We sat close to the conductor and music director Julie McBride who was so funny, she wore a pirates hat to help Patchy hide, conducted with a spatula and she played fighting with mini characters in a doll house size version of Bikini Bottom. My favorite songs were "BFF" (by Plain White Tees), "No Control" (by David Bowie and Brian Eno) "(Just A) Simple Sponge" (by Panic! At the Disco), "Hero is my Middle Name" (by Cyndi Lauper), "Chop to the Top" (by Lady Antebellum) "(I Guess I) Miss you" (by John Legend) and "Best Day Ever" (by Andy Paley and Tom Kenny).  And the dancing was cool my favorite dance was "I am not a loser" when Squidward tap danced with four legs (choreography by Christopher Gattelli).  I also loved the foley design by Mike Dobson who made squishy sounds when Squidward and Spongebob walked.

 The lighting design by Kevin Adams was awesome especially during "(Just A) Simple Sponge" because the sponges were glowing. The set designed by David Zinn was HUGE there were blue bubbles and giant boulders and tv screens and the houses that SpongeBob, Squidward and Patrick live in. The giant volcano was made out of boxes and ladders. But my favorite part of the set were the Rube Goldberg Machines that shot the giant boulders onto the stage, one of them used a bike that flipped upside down! (Note: A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine that has a lot of silly steps to do a simple task...mommy showed me some cool videos on You Tube) The costumes (also designed by David Zinn) were really fun! I loved the costume for Mr Krabs because he had huge red boxing gloves for claws and it looked cool. Squidward had four legs and Pearl had a P on her shirt and I liked SpongeBob's costume because he looked like SpongeBob without the sponge part. Sandy the Squirrel didn't have a tail but I didn't care. Everybody just looked like human characters and I liked that.

My favorite part of the whole show was when Patrick Star was flying in on Sandy's jetpack and the confetti streamers and beachballs that landed on us at the end of the show.


Everyone in the whole world should see this show because I think everyone would love it as much as I did.
I give it 100 Points because WOAH!!!

LOVE, Gunnar

Me by Patchy's #1 Fan Seat

Me with all of the streamers I caught at the end of the show.