UR’s Off Broadway On Campus (OBOC) hosted its spring revue Friday, putting on what I heard multiple audience members describe as the best show from the group that they’d ever seen.
I had never been to an OBOC performance before, so I tried to go in without expectations. It was immediately evident that I had failed to prepare myself, however, as what I had expected would be an evening of just singing was actually two hours of fully realized scenes, featuring singing, acting, and dancing, all underscored by the live musicians behind the stage.
The show featured 16 distinct scenes that each found a way to pop and keep the audience entertained and engaged. My personal favorites were “Dancing Through Life” from “Wicked” and “Noel’s Lament” from “Ride The Cyclone,” both of which nailed the harmonies, and the latter of which absolutely stuck the landing on the humor. With that said, the singing, acting, and dancing were strong throughout the revue – who knew UR had so many triple threats?
Separating the orchestra from the stage was a screen onto which the club projected colored backgrounds, which were a very effective way of setting the scene without requiring the transition times associated with traditional scene changes, which would have killed the show’s momentum. The colors helped give further insights into the characters’ feelings and made the space feel more open or closed depending on what the directors wanted from their specific scene. Beyond the background coloring, scenes exclusively used chairs or handheld objects (including wine bottles, wooden swords, and Rockette-style fans), which also helped to draw the audience in without lengthy transitions from scene to scene.
The most effective scene setter, for me at least, was the costuming in each number. I don’t know how all the actors managed to change into and out of everything so quickly, but the costumes, particularly the matching waistcoats for “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” from “Hamilton” and realistic Halloween costumes for “Halloween” from “Be More Chill,” also worked to pull the audience into the worlds that OBOC was bringing to life.
However enthralling those worlds were, the show eventually had to come to a close, which OBOC executed with a rendition of “A Musical” from “Something Rotten.” The song is a walkthrough of the reasons why people love musicals and was a fitting end for this sampling of some of the greats. The song ended with the entire cast singing the chorus which then flowed smoothly into bows.
Overall, despite some mic difficulties and occasional shaky harmonies, it was clear throughout the show that the cast put their hearts into their performances, or at least were good enough actors to convince me that they had. This year’s spring revue earned a good review from me.
