While attendingBookExpo America last week, Kat and I got some crazy good deals on Broadway shows (TodayTix and Tkts are amazing !) . Both of which happened to fit the theme of the week. We saw the play adaptation of the novel A Curious Incident of The Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and Chicago. . . which is appropriate because BEA is going to be in Chicago next year.
A Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night-Time
This play is all about dynamic sets and eye-catching visuals. The set features mix media and you won’t have any idea what will happen next visually. It takes a rather contemporary story and transforms it into a surreal performance.
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I remember picking up the book this play is based on when I was 15 or 16. The school librarian had come in and pitched new books to us. I really wanted another book but this was the only one left.
Since then this novel has become apart of the YA canon–despite being released as a adult fiction in the U.S.
Having read the novel helped me follow the narrative in the play. It takes a while to understand and make sense of the visual cues so it can be jarring to try putting together the story.I’m curious to see how Lelia Sale’s This Song Will Save Your life with be adapted into a play.
*We saw the Taylor Trensch production.
Chicago
Going into the this show it seemed like everyone had either come in having already seen the film or to see Brandy Norwood as Roxie Hart. The musical was high energy, sexy and funny. The story and characters clicked for me here much better than they did in the movie. I actually understood the motivation and plot devices much better.
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I never really understood what kind of character Hart was supposed to be. In the movie Zellweger plays her as an innocent and lost character and that didn’t match up with the way she acts. Norwood made her silly, selfish and at the end of the day a con-woman. Velma was portrayed as more spastic and humorous and less deadpan than in the film. Sure the production value is great in the film, but the play made a story about murder and adultery… humorous.
1/2 of the blogging duo at Books and Sensibility, I have been blogging about and reviewing books since 2011. I read any and every genre, here on the blog I mostly review Fantasy, Adult Fiction, and Young Adult with a focus on audiobooks.