A ROCKIN’ MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM: Shakespeare’s Concert

From left to right, Zoah Hirano as Peaseblossom, Jillian Vogedes as Mustardseed, Finley Brown as Orchid, Saum Seyed as Nick Bottom, Stephanie Staszak as Titania, Alexus Coleman as Cobweb, and Averi Lauren Grier as Moth in A ROCKIN’ Midsummer Night’s Dream at Skylight Music Theatre. Photo credit: Mark Frohna.

A review of A ROCKIN' Midsummer Night's Dream

by Benjamin Earnest, age 13

Lots of people know of William Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but what happens when you put the genre of rock in the mix? You get A ROCKIN’ Midsummer Night’s Dream! Skylight Music Theatre’s production of this Shakespearean tale tells the original story but adds some more fun with rock music. The show is about the three groups of people: the Rustics, the Athenian Court, and the Fairy Council. The fairies Oberon and Puck are putting love spells on the four main Athenians (Lysander, Helena, Hermia, and Demetrius), so that when they wake up, they fall in love with the first person they see. While all that chaos is happening, the Rustics find that Bottom has been turned into a donkey, so they are scared and can’t put on their show. This cast demonstrated amazing character physicality and great vocals, with the backdrop of an eye-capturing set and costumes.

A way that the actors in the fairy ensemble really embodied their characters was by moving very mysteriously like fairies or mystical creatures. And it wasn’t only the fairies who did this—sometimes the Athenians would also move this way when they were physically under a spell from the fairies. This helped me understand how the actors wanted to interpret their characters rather than them just walking around like normal people from the modern time would.

Moving on, this whole cast’s vocals and acting were amazing throughout the whole show. One voice that I found very strong was Lainey Techtmann, who played Puck. Her voice during the song “Merry Wanderer” was so powerful and supported, while she also sang with the humor of her character. The onstage duo of Serena Vasquez and Lucas Drube as Hermia and Lysander was very interesting to see, as these actors turned these Shakespearean characters into rock stars with incredible acting and harmonies.

Taking a step away from music and into general acting, the Rustics had very silly humor, portraying a knock-off version of Romeo and Juliet as Athenian performers. The actor who had the most hilarious performance was Saum Seyed, who played Nick Bottom. He was such a fun person to watch play around with this weird but funny character. His portrayal was so comedic that the whole show didn’t feel like it could be sad because of how funny he was. 

The scenic design for this show (by Jonathan Berg-Einhorn) was amazing in the way it set the scene of both Athens, Greece and the mystical world of fairies. It was amazing to see how they could change the scenes quickly with just little movements. The costumes for this production (designed by Josephine Everett) were also major standouts, with their very identifiable differences between the groups of characters. The fairies had very distinct colors and styles (like bright yellow or pink) for their costumes, while the humans had outfits that were appropriate for the time period. The show also had vibrant lights (designed by Smooch Medina) for that rock aspect and smoke with the special effects. Now, when you have special effects like smoke in the show, you should be aware of the possibility that things might not go the way that you planned them to. For example, at the showing I saw, the fire alarm went off because of the smoke. While the audience had to go outside for safety protocols, the actors had to evacuate with their costumes on in the pouring rain. The thing that truly showed their talent was the fact that they were able to get back into the show after the fire alarm (and tornado warning), then make it the best that they could.

As I usually talk about in past reviews, I always like to point out the orchestra whenever a theatre has one, since as a band person it is really cool to see them and hear the fun orchestrations. In this show the music is mostly rock, so that changes how the orchestra approaches music. For this show, Skylight’s pit had one woodwind, two keyboards, one percussionist, and two strings (guitar and bass). Skylight’s theatre has a small TV where the actors can look at the conductor for the tempo. Altogether, the entire orchestra had an awesome sound for the whole show.

Overall, Skylight Music Theatre’s portrayal of a show that combines rock and a Shakespeare classic was a really fun experience. See more like this at Skylight Music Theatre!