AaronFreedman.com

After seeing my friend write many movie reviews on his blog, I have now decided to do the same. But I will review not just movies, I will also do books and theater, amongst other things. Also, i will always give an explicit warning if I give away important plot details in the review, which I hope not to do that often. So here it is, my first review, The Light in the Piazza:
Plot:
The Light in the Piazza takes place in Florence, and briefly Rome, during 1953. It shows Margaret Johnson (Victoria Clark) taking her daughter, Clara (Katie Clarke) to Florence. There, Clara falls in love with young Florentine Fabrizio Naccarelli (Aaron Lazar). A love affair between the two ensures, but Margaret is always trying to stop them, due to Clara’s “problem.” Eventually, Margaret soon realizes that Clara can take control of her own destiny, and lets go of her control. In the beginning of the play, Clara appears as the protagonist and Margaret as the antagonist, but by the end of the performance you see that Margaret is really the protagonist, and the only antagonist was her own over-protection of Clara. The plot reminds me of Tennessee Willaims’ The Glass Menagerie, except with the twist that the overbearing mother learns to except her daughter as who she is. I’m not sure if this was added in on purpose, or was simply coincidental when the playwright adapted the musical from the original novella which appeared in The New Yorker. The plot moves nicely, and follows a good storyline, with twists and turns throughout.
8/10

Technorati Tags: aaron lazar, broadway, katie clarke, lincoln center, musical, new york, play, new york city, review, the light in the piazza, theater, vitoria clark

Scenery:
The setting was very nice. It showed the piazza in Florence very well,ma s well as the other scenes. The scenary was used very much to the advantage of the musical very well.
8/10

Music and Lyrics:
The music was just beautiful. The strings sounded wonderful, as did the rest of the instruments. The lyrics were great to as they sung of Clara’s passions, Margaret’s worries, and even Margaret’s passions. Even the songs sung in Italian were great. Piazza definitly deserved the Tony for best Original Score.
10/10

Acting:
The cast of Piazza was great. Victoria Clark was phenomenal as Margaret, who acted and sung wonderfully. Even Katie Clarke, who has had very minimal theater experience and was not in the original cast acted wonderfully, as did Aaron lazar who also did not appear in the original production. Overall, very good preformances by everyone.
9/10

Overall: 9/10

The Light in the Piazza is a great show and you really must see it. It plays at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center (in New York City, where all of the plays that I review will be), and tickets are available here.