BWW Reviews: XANADU JR. At RMHS Makes for a Fun Night
Rocky Mountain High School has taken a page from Idaho Shakespeare Festival and started their production of XANADU JR. with a "green show". A "green show" is a pre-show that allows those who show up late to be able to find seats and to get the audience in mood for the show they are about to watch. The theme of this "green show" was the 1980's and the Battle of the Sexes. Needless to say, the women won.
Once the game was over, the curtains closed and they set up for the show. There was only about 5 more minutes to wait and the show officially started. I did not realize at the time, but the "green show" show was like an "act 1" with a short intermission and the show itself was "act 2". This production is a one-act show. Which was kind of nice.
The production is based off the movie starring Olivia Newton John as Kira (Clio), the mistress of the muses. She comes to Earth to inspire a mortal and falls in love with him, which is against the rules for demigods. But she will need to face her punishment, and you will have to see the show to find out what it is.
Kudos to the cast and crew. The costumes for the muses were inspired with tiaras depicting what they represented making it easier to tell them apart. There was an absolute greek flair to all the costumes, except for the "mortals". And those costumes were very much from the 1980's.
Erin Davidson and Rhandi Aber are such subtle directors, I do not know if half of the "bits" that were in the show came from the students ideas or theirs, either way - they were inspired! At one point there is a phone booth on stage and a stage hand dressed in black walks across the stage spotlighted and right as he reaches the booth, removes his glasses and opens his shirt to expose a red and yellow 's'. Which is perfect for the 1980's since a few of the movies were produced then. Another bit was when the business man, Danny was laughing at Sonny's suggestion that he be allowed to rent the run down theatre (owned by Danny) for free and he opened the intercom to continue his laughing. This is the kind of subtlety that sometimes gets missed or overlooked. The show is filled with those and many productions at RMHS are.
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