I was pleasantly surprised by Murder Ballad. When I woke up Wednesday
morning, I was a bit annoyed that I had to go watch people sing for 2 hours. I didn’t
realize it would be so good. I felt so many emotions and I rarely had my usual blank
stare when viewing most media. I’ll have to rethink my opinion on musicals after this
because I have never seen one of this quality before. This was a big jump from the
middle school Disney plays that I used to have to watch.
I was amazed at the way things played out. The pacing was a bit unorthodox in
the beginning, but I appreciated how they skipped the boring lovey-dovey stuff and got
right into the action. I found it interesting that they found a way to make me not hate
Sara, as most characters in media that do what she did would irk me for the whole play.
Instead, they found a way to make her actions both believable and understandable.
Michael seemed like he was taking her for granted when she decided to see Tom again.
I also really liked how immersive the play was. The whole thing felt very intimate with
the characters sitting with the crowd for so many parts. I also appreciated how the
Narrator broke the fourth wall and became an actual part of the story at the end. I really
had no idea who was going to kill who until the Narrator kicked Michael and Sara out of
the bar. I thought that Frankie would end up either being an orphan or being killed
outright by a character going crazy.
Michael was the most believable character. While I didn’t like his character in the
beginning, he did an absolutely amazing job after the park scene. When he blew up on
Sara, the pop he got was incredible. He legitimately scared me in that scene. The facial
expressions and crying in that scene made everything so believable. He did a great job
with body language the whole time. When he looked tense in his scenes, I got tense.
When he looked happy, I felt happy. My experience was reflected by his actions more
than anyone else’s, which is surprising considering how boring I found him in the
beginning. Also, I don’t think this was intentional, but when Tom first started singing he
messed up a line. I thought this was pretty funny, as it seemed true to the character to
not fully memorize the script or forget when the chorus started.
The lighting definitely played a big role for me. Often, especially when the
narrator got onto the center stage, I would be blinded by this bright white light. This is
what originally got my attention on the rest of the lighting in the show. I appreciated the
color shifts that would come with tone shifts. Since they sang most of the time, it was
hard for me to always know what the actors were saying, but the lighting generally told
me the tone. In the scene where all the characters were confronting each other in the
park, the lighting seemed to intentionally light only one side of their faces. This made
Michael and Sara’s faces look especially grim. The costuming seemed fine to me, but I
didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to it. I liked the dichotomy between the bedroom and
the bar room. It definitely foreshadowed to me that Sara would go back to her old ways.
I could smell Tom walk by before I could see or hear him. I feel like he would wear a lot
of cologne, and he definitely did during the play.
One of the major themes in the play was the idea of domesticated vs. feral.
Michael represented domestication and Tom represented being feral. I think this rang
especially true in the intimate scenes. Michael was very respectful and Tom was more
lustful. I thought the final song was great. I appreciate the lucidness of it all after the
drama that had just played out in the scene before. “It’s entertainment until it happens to
you” was something that kept ringing in my head after leaving the theater. I think the
statement about the human condition is that we want to see these terrible things happen
to the characters, but we would be feeling very differently if something like that
happened to us. In a sense, they were recognizing and calling the crowd out for their
murder-lust and voyeurism.
Murder Ballad defied my expectations and made me rethink my opinion on
musicals. Its skillful storytelling, immersive performances, and profound themes have
made a lasting impression on me. I’m excited to see what else the theater department
has in store.