Unloved
Unloved Coordinated by Mark Brotherton, Amanda Wansa, Mark Koenig
Musical Direction by Amanda Wansa
UCF Conservatory Theater, Orlando FL
In the dog days of summer, it’s a great idea to put on a show and let the whole department take a shot at doing something, anything, on stage. This Summer Showcase themes itself around the “Seven Stages of Love” with songs, scenes and dance numbers from the past 70 years. While you might remember the 7 Deadly Sins or Shakespeare’s 7 Stages of Life, the passage of Love is marked are Alone, Looking, Fulfilled, Complicated, Alternative, Family, and At Long Last Love. Of these Fulfilled (marriage) is the shortest and Alone is the longest. There must be some symbolism there.
With 50 plus short numbers, this is like a punk rock show – if you don’t like something, its over pretty fast. “Taylor, the Latte Boy” sung by Natalie Finkelstein and Brock Yurich sounds like it ought to be from a musical, but isn’t, tells the sweet love story of a stalker and her victim sung with a creepy tension. “Always the Bridesmaid” (Stephanie Lloyd, Ashley Fischer, and Amanda Wansa) hops with a country beat while it whines about a closet full of matching ugly shoes and unwearable dresses. Andrew Clateman does a wonderful spoken word piece “Cheesecake Truck” and James Rinaldi and Emily Bramblett dash off a great “Masochism Tango” from famed math professor and novelty song writer Tom Lehrer. The strongest number wrapped up the first act as Khristy Chamberlin and “Santi” Reyes launched into Queen’s “Somebody to Love” backed by the full cast. All that was missing was the monster hair and white jump suits.
While the spirit of the Summer Showcase is “Hey, lets put on a show”, the result is no “awe, aren’t they cute?” production. There’s really not a bad number anywhere, the music is well arranged and when actors aren’t performing, they sit perfectly still on those comfy rehearsal cubes all theater keep around for times when they need to look stagey.
For more information on UCF Conservatory Theatre, visit
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