| What did you think of "Children's Scientology Pageant"?
by Chelsea Keenan on 12/17/2009 07:39:00 PM
Our irreverent holiday musical starring eight of Chicagoland's most talented young performers is now playing through January 3. We've heard lot's of great things about this updated version of the OBIE Award winning hit! And in step with Next, we've heard great questions too. Add your thoughts, comments, review and questions as a comment below. Be a part of the conversation. "These kids are hysterically funny! The laughs are many and multifarious". - Chicago Tribune
"The success of the show depends upon the absolute sincerity of its performances. Director Kathryn Walsh understands that and, as a result, her guileless production strikes exactly the right tone." -Daily Herald "Children re-enacting with absolute earnestness the life of L. Ron Hubbard, the modern prophet of Scientology, is a premise with Wildean potential. But Next has pulled its punches and stayed closer to conventional home." - ChicagoTheatreBlog.com
"Any kids' pageant involves some kind of adult ideology -- yes, even the traditional nativity. And to its great credit, this show manages to simultaneously skewer Scientology and showcase the young performers in an upbeat, fun way." - Chicago Tribune
Labels: Children's Scientology Pageant, Critics
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The show was great. The kids all did outstanding work and the story made it clear that Scientology is at best a con and at worst a dangerous cult. But the bottom line is, the show was fun.
This is not a serious play. It is a high school or eighth grade quality performance and not something I would expect from a theater like NEXT. It wasn't particularly funny, the story was silly and thus not a believable critique of the cult of Scientology.
The Pageant was subversively hilarious. On one level, the costumes and scenery were old-school middle school pageants. Back when the kids did all the work. Loved the lamp shape hat for China headwear.
On another level, the enthusiastic presentation of a believe system calls into question other fundamentalist programs of more familiar faiths.
The performance by the young actors was professional but not slick. I believed that they were talented students in a pageant and not professional actors in a play. That made the show charming and engaging.
Well..it's a very clever premise
but sort of a one-joke idea.
Fifteen minutes would have been long enough. And it was, frankly, kind of mean-spirited.
The kids were talented and the
costumes were good.
Is it a good idea too make fun
of these folks? Who's next?
Could be us. It's discomfiting..
but not in a good way. And why involve kids in this?
They're impressionable as
history would tell us.
The show was "cute" - but not of the quality I expect from Next Theater. The hour drive from Arlington Heights was almost not worth the hour spent in the theater. Stick with the type of plays I have come to expect from Next - and leave the school plays in the schools. I honestly cannot say I would recommend it to any of my friends as a "must see" like I have done with other Next productions.
I brought my two boys aged nine and nearly thirteen along with my husband aged 46 1/2 to see the show. My husband was guffawing that it was the best performance by children that he'd ever seen. Even my two cycnical and Christmas theatre jaded kids managed an 'it was OK'... I loved the 'child made' costumes and props. They were hilariously apt for the premise of the show. Loved the exoncomy of the set and action. The casting of the kids was perfect, from the beautiful'angel' girl to the quirky pig tailed girl. The singing voice of the 'actress' who joined the cult brought tears to my eyes as I looked over at my two children and said a silent prayer that they would never join a cult and reject their old ma...Excellently done Next Theatre. A great antidote to the tired old wannabe English Nutcrackers and Christmas Carols out there. A real American classic in the making.
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