Monday, November 28, 2011

Snow White in North Hollywood




Let the holidays begin!  Last night, Karen and I previewed our first Christmas event of the season: A Snow White Christmas, playing at the El Portal theater in North Hollywood.

More Snow White than Santa (I think Christmas was mentioned only twice!), this kid-friendly musical stuck pretty close to the Disney version of the fairy tale with a few contemporary songs (Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way,” Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” and Katy Perry’s “Firework”) thrown in.  The performance was staged as a panto, encouraging lots of interaction between the audience and the actors.  We sat in the first row, so plenty of opportunity to have our voices heard. 

An extremely talented Lindsay Pearce (contestant on last summer’s Glee Project) was the ever-optimistic Snow White.  The evil queen was played by Marina Sirtis (Deanna Troi from the still lamented Star Trek: The Next Generation).  But we were there, of course, for Neil Patrick Harris, who played the magic Mirror.  He was great, even though he was just a (pre-recorded) disembodied face in a frame.  Marina was terrific, too, appropriately over-reacting to audience boos every time she walked onstage.  Lots of allusions to Star Trek, which I just loved.

Performances are scheduled through December 18, so if you like Glee, Star Trek, Neil Patrick Harris, or even Snow White, I highly recommend taking a trip out to  North Hollywood.

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