ALLEGIANCE Reviews Dec 8 2015, 01:28:32 AM
I'd hate to continue the "I really wanted to love the show, but it just fell flat" theme of the reviews, but that's exactly how I felt after watching it for the first time last week. I thought it was "GOOD". But not that good for me to sing praises and tell my family and friends to fly to New York to go see it. Also, after seeing Spring Awakening the day after, I just felt bad for the Allegiance production as a whole. It just felt.. extremely low-budget. Pros: Lea Salonga is radiant as always. Lots of humor (perhaps too many). Lea Salonga and George Takei both succeeded in putting me to tears (yes, this is a good thing). Was not a fan of the song Higher, but when sung in context of the show, it turned out to be a very emotional and heartfelt moment. Cons: Felt like a high school production, seemed like the lights were just on the whole time. No creative stage lighting, props, stage design, etc. Too much humor. I honestly did not feel like they were mistreated in any way. I was expecting a song about, "what have u done to me, America?" kind of gritty song, but nope, they just played baseball and went to the dance. Everything was sugar coated. The show didn't show them suffering. AT ALL. I think it suffered a Pearl Harbor the Movie kind of dilemma, where as the Internment camp alone should have been enough of a tragedy, yet they added other tearjerkers (father/son drama), which I felt was unnecessary. SPOILER ALERT. Granted, I did cry when old Sammy was talking about his father and how he never said he loved him, but it felt like a cheap trick to get the emotions riled up to end the show on a high note. WITH THAT SAID, Go see Allegiance since the tickets are super cheap now. ?format=auto&width=600
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