Once upon a time there was an ensemble of students at Rockville High School. They went to a beautiful school in a land not too far away, and they put on a wonderful performance of “Once upon a Mattress”!
The musical is a take on the classic fairytale “The Princess and the Pea”. Prince Dauntless (played by Junior Eric Alexander) is of marrying age but his mother; Queen Aggravaine (Tory Schreffler) does not want her baby boy. Every time a princess comes to marry Dauntless she creates a “test” to see if the princess is worthy of her son. The tests are unfair and no princess is able to pass them. But when a new princess named Winnifred the Woebegone (Paris Ford) comes to the kingdom everything gets turned upside-down!
One of the many standout performance included David Forgy who played the mute King Sextimus. King Sextimus had a curse put on him so now he can only communicate via pantomime and for not being able to speak Forgy communicated wonderfully with the audience and the other characters.
Another highlight of the show was the dynamic duo of Rebecca Claborn and Amy Broadbent who played a Minstrel and a Jester respectively played perfectly off of each other throughout the performance as well as during their solo performances making the audience roar with laughter every time they went onto the stage.
The music during the performance was provided by a wonderful pit orchestra (conducted by Mr. Phil Barnes) with instruments ranging from bass clarinet to electric guitar. Although they were inside a cramped pit their wonderful sound filled the auditorium.
From curtain to curtain the show was a delight to watch. All the actors and actresses were smiling the whole time and the audience was no different.
-Joel Guttman
Magruder High School
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment