An American In Paris
Christopher Fisher, Staff Reporter
On Friday, November 5 the NESA auditorium was filled with music, dancing, and applause. An American in Paris, a musical performed by NESA ran on Fridays-Sundays for the first two weekends of the month.
An American in Paris follows Jerry Mulligan, a retired WW2 veteran, hoping to make a name for himself, using his artistic abilities and his charm to sell art. Along the way, a certain girl by the name of Lise, steals his heart. Mulligan finds himself pursuing not only art, but love as well.
I arrived early in the auditorium and found myself a seat. The preparation for the performance was thorough and you could see the care the staff had for their show. From moving bags out of where people walk, to testing both audio and equipment ensuring it works as it should. Pre-performance was great, I appreciated the effort they put in giving me high hopes for the performance.
It was a slow start into the show because there wasn’t much going on at first. That is to be expected of most stories and films in the beginning, I hoped after the first scene or two that the pace would start to pick up.
What I had hoped for came true, they picked up the pace and got my full attention. I couldn’t take my eyes off the stage. That scene where the lights in the cafe go out, they light up candles, and start singing and dancing. It happened to be one of my favorite scenes in the entire musical.
Once the first beginning of the musical passed, the rest of the show never ceased to amaze me, getting better and better as it went on. I was disappointed when the curtains closed, I wanted more. The performance encapsulated me, they had me hooked.
The vocal cords on the performers were outstanding. The dancing was well choreographed and made it fun to watch. The lights were colorful, and were successful to set the mood for the scene and display the proper emotion. The graphics which established the setting such as the cafe and the city of Paris, made for a good touch.
There weren’t many errors made in the performance from what I noticed. Although I went to one of the first performances they had, meaning they hadn’t performed as much and didn’t have as much experience running the show.
As the show went on, I noticed a few things that could’ve been improved. The transitions between each scene could’ve been a bit faster, as they were a bit slow and bumped into each other sometimes. I only noticed two occasions where the microphone messed up, cutting out the audio. Other than that, the NESA crew did amazing.
“I don’t think we could have done any better than what we already did,” said Yaniya Lujan (12), a member of the orchestra during the performance. “Everyone can agree that each of us put our whole heart into each rehearsal. Personally I could not have asked for a better outcome.”
Dylan Aleman (12) who played the role of Jerry Mulligan said, “I honestly couldn’t tell you what we could have been done better. To us, we put on an amazing show.”
I couldn’t agree more with both Lujan and Aleman. You could tell through the music and performance that everyone put all they had into the show.
With the conclusion of An American in Paris, I can’t help but want more. I would love to see more performances by the talented NESA students. Fortunately, their next orchestra concert will be on January 9th. Following that in February, the musical Legally Blonde will be performed.
