The Music of Motown

Every term, the group gets to attend one musical. It's sort of funny that I started my time in NYC with a musical (The Newsies) and now am sort of ending the term with Motown: The Musical. We saw it on Tuesday night.

Also, at the beginning of the term, I might have been a little disappointed about not seeing more musicals. I remember musicals being an important part of my high school experience. Our HUGE fall event in high school was a musical. I was a proud chorus member of Oklahoma (that's why I'm so good at spelling it [insert sarcasm here]) and then played clarinet in the pit for Bye, Bye Birdie, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and Beauty and the Beast. I also have a soft spot for The Music Man and Guys and Dolls.

Anywho, I'm getting WAY off topic. Where was I? Oh yes, musicals. Before becoming a semi-permanent New Yorker, I thought musicals were a big deal.

Not true.

Susan has taken us to some AMAZING theater and I've realized musicals are mainly just for tourists. Nothing wrong with musicals, I still love them, but I'm now craving theater much, much more.

But back to Motown. This musical was still in previews and was pretty high energy. It follows the story of the founder of Motown (the record company for those who don't know) Berry Gordy. The show is pushed forward by the music and these songs are ones everyone knows. There ended up being very little dialogue and more song and dance.

I also can't write this blog post without including some songs from the Motown era. Here are my two favorites....

First off, the Jackson's Five I Want You Back



And then Stevie Wonder's Signed, Sealed, Delivered



Guess who will be listening to Motown the next couple of weeks? This girl.

So a successful musical for the trip. Now just have to wrap that energy into a response!

Weekend Recap

A lot happened this weekend, so it seemed easiest to just write about it in one chunk.

On Friday, I had class, Admissions, and then gave blood.  It went very well; it only took 6 and a half minutes to fill the required amount.  The nurse that was helping me said that I was below average, most people take 7-10 minutes to give blood.

For dinner, my friends and I headed to Hacienda Las Glorias, a popular restaurant in Cedar Rapids to celebrate my friend, Kristine's, 21st birthday.  We had a great time and the food was fantastic.  My Friday night concluded with some homework and relaxation.

On Saturday, it was Alison W's birthday and her dad was in town.  The three of us went to Iowa City for the day.  It was a beautiful day out and we just wandered around downtown.  It was a lot of fun, especially since the weather was so nice.

We got back to campus just in time to head over to Dows to watch Drood, the musical that opened on Friday night.  I had several friends in it, including my friend Luke, who has a prominent role.  Our theater does three performances a year (two in the fall and one in spring) with every other spring, performing a musical.  It was a musical year and the department chose Drood.  This musical is based on the mystery story Charles Dickens started to write shortly before his death.  The story was published in sections but he died before he was able to reveal who the murderer of Edwin Drood was.  The musical is interactive through the entire performance, and in the end, the audience gets to decide who the murderer was.  Our decision keeps the cast on their toes, which is fun to watch.  The performance was fantastic!  It was a little weird for me to see a musical without taking some part in it (I was either a member of the cast or in the pit for my high school's musicals), but I still thoroughly enjoyed it.  I'm disappointed that I won't be able to see another showing of it next weekend since I'll be out of town (more to come on that soon!).

My Sunday consisted of laundry (an essential part of my Sunday), homework, soaking up a little sun, and starting the first Budget and Finance Informational Meeting in preparation for Budget and Finance Day later in April.  It was busy, but not too busy.  Have a busy week ahead, but what's new?