Aida: Another great addition to Metea’s theater history
The Metea Valley music and theater departments debuted the spring musical ‘Aida’ on May 4, 5, and 6. The musical is based on an opera of the same name, and it tells the story of an Egyptian captain and a Nubian slave that end up falling in love despite the pressures surrounding the two kingdoms. Elton John wrote the score for the musical, with renowned lyricist Tim Rice providing the lyrics.
The show, overall, was a good time and a strong showing of the talents within our theater program. The acting was very strong, with each of the leading actors providing engrossing performances.
Personally, my favorite was Jason Zerafa as the maniacal and campy Zoser, whose delivery and timing made sure that every time he appeared on stage, all eyes were on him. This was hard to do, since the other leads provided a similar level of prowess that made sure they were not forgotten, whether it be Ashley Hollis as the evolving character of Princess Amneris or Dylan Maciejewski as the stoic yet regretful Captain Radames.
The musical aspect of this musical was also incredibly on point. Elton John’s rousing score was performed excellently by the pit orchestra, which helped elevate the musical to a seemingly more professional level. This excellent pit work was also the foundation to the beautiful voices of the lead cast as they sing their parts. Some of my favorite songs of the night were ‘Fortune Favors the Brave’ and ‘Easy as Life,’ the latter of which had a beautiful and heart wrenching performance by Ariyana White, who played Aida.
Overall, the Metea theater program did a phenomenal job adapting this musical. However, as amazing as the performances were, they do not fix the inherent flaws in the story of ‘Aida’
However, I have to note that the story was incredibly cliche. There was an obvious villain who looked so unbelievably evil that someone who had never seen or heard a story with a villain could tell he was the villain without him spilling an ounce of his diabolical plan. It also follows the good old fashioned cliche of star crossed lovers that were never meant to be fall in love.
While, yes, in other mediums this kind of thing can be pulled off well, an example being the movie ‘La La Land.’ But here, it just comes off as something to roll your eyes at. This by no means is the fault of the cast or any of the other parties involved in the school adaptation. It’s just something that is a problem with ‘Aida’ itself, no matter how you adapt it.
In the end, despite the cliche and campiness and eye rolls of the base story, the Metea adaptation was a wonderful experience. With strong performances in both the music and the acting, the Metea theater program managed to save this boring story and made it into not only something worth watching, but a great addition to Metea theater history. ‘Aida’ gets 3.5 out of 5 stars.
shook.tm • May 21, 2017 at 9:36 pm
this whole ordeal irks me because the theater kids expect to always have praise and be the best. news flash! sometimes things aren’t always going to make you seem wonderful and may even bring you down. grow a thick skin and move on.
James Sefton • May 16, 2017 at 1:44 pm
How dare you praise the entire theater department only to give them a score of 3.5/5. This is absolutely unacceptable and you should be ashamed of yourself as a journalist. By judging your score by the content of the musical and not the performance of the actors and actresses, you are literally saying that “The entire theater department sucks and this is a personal attack on each and every person in the department”, and you saying that they all did a great job makes no difference to this sentiment. It’s obvious that the performance can only be assessed by a number, and that the people in the musical are incapable of understanding any other form of praise of criticism. As a “journalist”, you should be aware of this and give them a 4.5 or higher in order to not hurt their feelings. I’m appalled by the quality of Metea Media these days….