Sideshow Performance Report

Scott Easum

MUSI 1306

M. Young

4/27/2010

Sideshow: The Musical

Sideshow is a musical dealing with the themes of social alienation and acceptance, focusing on the main characters Daisy and Violet Hilton, who are two Siamese twins from a circus troupe. Throughout their lives they leave the troupe meeting future managers and love interests Terry Connor and Buddy Foster, and bring along their friend Jake. The musical was shown at the college in the University Theatre, an average sized venue larger than the Jonsson Performance Hall, but smaller than the auditorium found in the Conference Center. I saw the play on closing night at 8pm on Saturday, April 17, 2010.

Many things, including a gigantic variety in the styles of music, can characterize the music of Sideshow. The musical seems to be split into two kinds of songs. There is the music sung by the performers to develop the story, and then there is the music sung by the performers as they are performing within the play. These two different reasons for musical numbers add to the variety, with the silly numbers poking fun at Vaudeville, and the more serious songs adding depth and emotion to the characters of the play. Not to mention, the type of music of the more serious songs varied as well, with a song even having the lyrics and sound of a song about Voodoo. The style of the singing was also extremely different from a formal choral performance like Shakespeare in Song. The change in tone and timbre of the vocals adds to the intelligibility of lyrics, which is extremely important since the musical was comprised of over twenty-five different songs. Another interesting and important note about the music was the repetition of different motives and themes throughout the musical. These themes are both themes in the musical and literary sense, with songs like “Look at the Freaks!” being repeated in both lyric and music. (Sideshow: The Musical). The twins also have a couple of their own themes that show up multiple times throughout the musical such as the melody and lyrics “I’m Daisy, and I’m Violet” (Sideshow: The Musical).

The performers were all varied in both costume and role. The musical certainly required a large budget for costumes with some characters having 4 or 5 costumes, while other performers played multiple characters that required several costume changes. Outside of the actors, the band played in a very circus themed box, still in the background, with black outfits to not distract from the performance. The actors on the other hand, had much more movement to do. Characters like Jake, the Cannibal King, had to fill extremely athletic roles. The twins also had a very interesting challenge, since they had to try and replicate being Siamese twins. Creating different costumes that helped hold the two together must have been a huge challenge as well. The performers also had to deal with complex audio equipment, since there were a huge amount of soloists using microphones to help their voices combat the larger ensemble sound of the group, while the group had to combat the amplified soloists. The lead characters also had to have a great amount of vocal and mental stamina, with the show clocking in at around two and a half hours.

The audience of the musical was very receptive to things like jokes and respectful towards the performers, giving them standing ovation at the end of the musical. It was made up mostly of students supporting their friends that were performing. There was little audience participation in the musical outside of the introduction of the freaks, where some of those in those in the front row were shown the different skills of the characters at a very close range. An extremely important thing to note about the near full house play, is that the musical has brought in the most of any production ever put on at UTD. The time and space also had an effect on the showing of the musical. The obvious popularity of the play, along with the fact that it was closing night definitely contributed to the amount of people in the theatre.

All of these elements went into the work it took to put on the UTD production of Sideshow. The music, performers, audience, time, and space played an integral part in putting the complex show on. Using complex musical themes and a large cast, the school showed Daisy and Violet Hilton’s story.

Sideshow: The Musical. Russel, Bill. Dir. Evans, Kathryn. Cond. Stone, Winston. University Theatre, Richardson, TX. 4/26/2010.