Judge 1:
The energy in the space before the show, with the Gold cheer and song, was not just exciting, but also unique. This was my first College Night experience, and I was thrilled to witness a show that was entirely a product of the students’ creativity and talent.
The show opened with a strong stage picture, levels were used well in the set design, and I noticed the mood of the well-defined color palette used in the costumes, set, and lighting. The show’s first song was full of bold choices, strong choreography, and commitment to character. The scenic transitions were well executed throughout this quickly paced show. The song “Hot on the Case” used character introduction and relationship development well. The ensemble work in “The Golden Ratio” was memorable. The show moved rapidly, and at times, I really wanted the actors to connect further with the lines spoken and the lyrics of the song—things felt rushed in this fast-paced show. The diction of the songs and lines was often rushed, which could be an area for improvement in future performances. However, this also presents an opportunity for growth and enhancement in future shows. Taking a moment to connect actively with fellow actors when the stakes are high will only make things more powerful for the audience.
The score, style of music, and lyrics fit the mood and themes of the show well. The orchestra sounded beautiful and overpowered the voices singing at high-energy moments; this could be an effective adjustment for future performances. Dancing was high energy and well done in this production. The storyline could have been more direct at times. The actors had a strong sense of their character’s actions and moved with a purpose. The show’s staging and blocking were well-directed, the scenery was used effectively, and the transitions were precise. Club scenery in the “Luck of the Draw” number set the mood well. The singing trio of Jess, Nick, and Farrah in the song “Better on My Own” was clear, connected, and a strong song. Energy of the entire ensemble in the Finale was excellent. This quick-paced mystery with high energy and twists and turns throughout the show. Style and look of the show were well accented with hair and make-up, props, and scenic painting. The music and sound of the show all fit well; however, at times, the connections between the story and characters were a bit lost as moments, actions, and lines all needed to land with more clarity. To improve this, consider emphasizing key moments, actions, and lines, and ensuring they are clearly communicated to the audience. With these observations, I am still quite impressed with the artistry, collaboration, and the time and energy put into bringing this show to life.
Congratulations on this creative theatrical accomplishment.
Judge 2:
Overall, the script was good. The top five characters were strong and well established. Also, there were a number of clever and funny lines in the dialogue. In the end, and if I were to be picky, perhaps I would have liked “to see” more “breadcrumbs” to be gradually revealed. The audience likes to try to discover the unveiling of the action, and guess who the perpetrators are indeed.
I was able to make out all of the lyrics in the solo and duet portions of the show. Unfortunately, in the large ensemble sections, I lost almost all of the lyrics. Because of which, I had trouble following along and recognizing how the plot was furthered during the ensemble sections.
The musical setting (tessitura) for the individual voices overall was very good. Most of the songs fit the character’s voices very well and allowed the singers to show off their individual abilities – which were significant! Just one spot didn’t fit a lead character, as it was set a little too low. I understood what the arranger was trying to accomplish with the low setting (sexy, sultry quality), but it was just a little too low to execute.
The Direction in the scenes with two to five people were well handled. In the large group scenes, there was a bit too much extraneous motion. At times that motion interfered with the audience’s focus, which was needed to be placed on the characters who were driving the plot forward. I understand the need for active individual characters on stage (it helps with the overall energy), but in large group scenes, when important information is being given to the audience, more stillness is needed to allow the characters to drive the plot forward.
Overall, the choreography was fitting and energetic. The Tango section was very well done. However, the opening steps may have been a little too challenging; however, the rest was fun and energetic. Group clump scenes were also fun and full of specific energy. At times, though the action was well executed, I wondered what the focus of the motion was trying to convey. The last piece had good energy, but I wondered, “Where were the characters going, and why did they keep leaving and re-entering the stage?” Again… good energy, which keeps the action on stage interesting, but I didn’t recognize how it helped the plot.
The four lead characters were well defined, made strong decisive actions, and had unique and important characterizations that furthered the plot. This part of the script/direction/acting was well executed.
The singing was excellent – very well done! I loved that each lead/person was allowed the opportunity to showcase what they did best.
Overall, the dancing was good and performed with great enthusiasm.
The orchestrations were good. I enjoyed the stylistic variety used throughout the piece. One criticism I had was, at times, the volume of the orchestra was not in balance with the singers.
The costumes were good. What I enjoyed the most was the choices made to have the costumes match each character’s unique personality traits – well done.
The set worked. I liked that you had the ability to create different places via the raised platforms, which made the stage flexible, and could be used in all the scenes without extraneous motion. The rolling desk was a great choice – I would have liked to have seen even more use of it.
The hair and make-up choices were good and fit the characters.
The props that were used were good. Not a lot were needed here.
The lighting was very good. I loved the silhouettes, especially the colored ones.
Overall, the show was fun! I think I would have liked a little more acceleration of the action into the end of the piece – then hit with a big “Ah-ha” reveal moment. There was a lot of big energetic moves and dancing in the show, but at times, I would have liked to see that energy focused into the story telling a bit more. Good work Gold!!! I enjoyed your work!
Judge 3:
Script: I thought this was a very ambitious script for a one-act, and it was very entertaining. I enjoyed meeting each of the characters and they were portrayed well with their own distinctive quirks, but they were basically archetypes. As a parody piece, that’s totally expected and it worked for me. The over-the-top choices made them fresh, like having the “femme fatale,” Farrah, be sort of unnecessarily sexy all the time even when it seemed inappropriate. There were some hilarious moments, like the joke about “the government investing money in the arts,” to the absurd point of having its own spy agency dedicated to the industry. Although you did throw me off the trail for a little while with Farrah acting sus, I still saw the twist of the Director masterminding the theft coming a mile away, which may or may not have been intentional. I think with a piece that is a spoof of thrillers, you should be very intentional about whether the surprise is an important element. If you were hoping that people would immediately assume she was the bad guy, then either I missed it because I was often confused about who was who, or maybe it just needed to be bigger and more obvious. If you wanted it to be a surprise, that reveal fell a little flat for me since it was kind of like, ok that’s a trope (although I did enjoy her villain song and the donning of the Evil Purple Jacket).
Lyrics: From what I could hear, the lyrics were well-crafted from a technical standpoint. They were well-set to the music and the scansion was mostly good. Unfortunately, I could not understand most of them. What I did understand was for the most part fairly expository and surface-level, just explaining What Is Happening To These People Right Now. I would encourage you to dig a bit deeper with your lyrics. What else can we learn about characters’ inner lives apart from what is going on right now, about their feelings, their psyche? What journey does the character go on within each song? Do they change? How does their character develop through this moment? Why do they have to sing, rather than simply speak? The song moments felt earned (apart from “Luck of the Draw”), but I kept wanting a little more introspection. Many of the songs felt a little wordy, which can be perfectly appropriate for characters who are smart and thinking quickly, as many of your characters are, but it made it hard to understand a lot and harder to convey the emotion as well. I wished there was a little more breathing room for the singers both literally and figuratively, and for the audience it was hard to keep up. Finally, there was one line that really jumped out at me: “Every bishop needs a queen.” My immediate thought was, “that should have been a lyric.” It’s a great example of some wordplay that you’ve set up excellently by virtue of the characters names and the plot. Super clever writing, and makes the character that says the line sound clever. In a musical, I think it makes sense to have your cleverest lines happen in songs because that’s where we’re trying to infuse the most emotion. Though I didn’t write them down, I think there were some other very clever banter-y lines in the dialogue that made me think that, for these same intelligent characters to be singing, there should be more lyrics like that. Lyricist: steal those lines from your bookwriter and put them in the songs! Maybe not ALL of your clever lines, don’t take all the fun away from the book. But at least at this moment it felt like a pretty big linguistic payoff/punchline and I was disappointed it wasn’t musicalized. Just something to consider!
Score: As you’ll see in my song-by-song commentary, I thought the score was very strong. You made a stylistic choice right off the bat of what genre to use that was very appropriate for the vibe of the show and immediately telegraphed what kind of show we were in for. Props! Then, you stuck with that sound world throughout, without letting it get dull. You changed up the grooves and used pastiche styles within that overarching genre, which gave each character a distinct flavor and kept it fresh. Melodically, I did feel that a lot of the songs were somewhat similar, and that might have been due to a lot of the lyrics just being on the wordy side. Letting the melodies soar more and giving the words more space would have been nice.
Direction: The director did a nice job of highlighting the actors’ individual strengths within a show that was very large and complex. A lot of entertaining blocking, moving large groups of people around in a way that was funny and had a lot of personality. Sometimes, the large number of people on stage doing different things would pull focus a bit, but that was fairly minor. My main issue with the direction was that everything was Just. Too. Fast. The actors needed to pick up their cues, but speak more slowly and clearly. A lot of exposition also happened within songs, with music underscoring, which made it even harder to parse. Apart from the actors and music, I think there were some missed opportunities for a little more creativity in storytelling using the other tools available to you, like props, set, lighting, and sound design.
Choreography: Some very engaging dancing moments. I enjoyed the way all the large groups of people wove about the space during the large and chaotic numbers. The tango dancing seemed a bit forced and unnatural, and that may have been due to the music being a little too fast for the choreography to keep up. Either the choreography needed to change or the music needed to change to make that jell more. But overall, I enjoyed it!
Acting: There were many delightful acting choices and bits from the performers. Standouts were Michelle’s overbearing pomposity when she first entered and one of the Agents, whose name I unfortunately didn’t catch, who always said her lines in an over-the-top ridiculous way, and ran really funny. Lots of large entertaining choices of line delivery and physicality from much of the cast. Go big or go home, I say! I very much enjoyed how both shows had delightfully mustache-twirling (metaphorically of course) female villains. The main issue I had with the acting was they were all talking way too fast all the time, and sadly I missed most of the dialog.
Singing: Great great singing performances overall. Harmonies were mostly in tune, and there were some really wonderful solo vocalists, with standouts for me being Shelby, Libby, and Hannah.
Dancing: Some strong dancers, especially in “Luck of the Draw,” although some of the formations were a little sloppy in that one.
Orchestra: The execution by the orchestra and conductor was tight and showcased excellent musicianship. It sounded well-rehearsed and the grooves were really locked-in. Well done! There were a few times when I thought the instrumental balance was off—i.e., I got a little tired of the piano usually being very hot and other instruments not taking over enough.
Costumes: I wrote down, “Mona Lisa necktie was on point.” Later: “Not really sure about the overalls.” The costumes were well-color-coordinated and looked like they fit the actors well, and had a decent amount of variety. But there were a couple things I didn’t totally understand, like why agents working for a government spy agency would be wearing overalls. They seemed almost minimalistic like the set, where it was suggestions of a costume rather than a full costume, but I didn’t really feel like that matched the vibe of the show as a whole, which felt maximalist with its bombastic music, complex cinematic plot, and large cast. Maybe the thinking was that if there was too much going on with the costumes it would be too distracting? But I think you could have gone further with them and made them more interesting. But I did love that tie.
Set: At first I thought the set was cool, making good use of levels and stairs to create visual interest. But after a while I started to be distracted by it and wondering, what are those dots for? Are they rivets? Is it supposed to be an industrial vibe? Ok but does that really work for every location? Additionally, there were times where it was unclear where they were, because I couldn’t understand the dialogue. Certain things should have been much clearer, like the van and the auction area. Like the costumes, it felt a bit spare or minimalist sometimes, compared to the scale and ambition of the production. And crucially, sometimes, those levels which I initially liked were not well-lit, so it was not always obvious where the important action was taking place.
Hair and makeup: I’m no expert, but everything looked good to me! I only docked a point because maybe there was a missed opportunity to use them more creatively or take it further.
Props: The props were pretty minimal and in some cases I thought there should have been more for the actors to play with. A potential missed opportunity. It crossed my mind that this and the lighting design may have been given less attention because they are worth fewer points? Which is definitely a valid strategy in this sort of competition, but it did cost you a bit.
Lighting Design: The various looks of the show were good. I enjoyed the use of different distinctive color pallets, like the gold scrim in the opening stage picture. Sometimes, though, characters on platforms were not well-lit and the lighting did not always help me focus on the right part of the action. It also didn’t really do anything outside the box to help immerse me in the world or tell the story.
Running: Everything with transitions, musical underscoring, set moving, etc., was super tight. No dead time, no mistakes that I could see. Well done!
Overall Effect of Production: All in all, this was an incredibly ambitious production, for which I applaud you. It was a massive scale undertaking with a large cast, an intricate plot, and a twist-filled, cinematic premise. I gave figurative (and literal) points for ambition and going for the gold, no pun intended, with a project this large and narratively complex within your time and budget constraints. Big choices from the actors and director complemented the plot spoofing spy thrillers like Slow Horses (to name the one I’ve seen most recently). It kept the show campy and fun, while at the same time not undercutting the more sincere and emotional moments like “Crack the Case” and “Better (On My Own).” I think the scale of the show script- and cast-wise may have made certain things fall a bit by the wayside, like incorporating more storytelling elements like lighting, sound, props and set in a way that was more than just backdrop. But the show’s major downfall for me was that most of it was unintelligible, generally because it was too fast. The mics were plenty loud and while some of my difficulty can be attributed to acoustics, that is something that actors and director need to be aware of and actively work to counteract, through their delivery. Both the scenes and songs were extremely information-dense, and about eighty percent of the time I could not understand what was being said. And because I was focusing so hard on trying to figure out what was happening, sometimes I missed a few lines because I was distracted thinking about the previous scene. I am sure I missed out on a lot of great material that way. For example, I had no idea what was going on in the opening number and it took me until halfway through the next scene to realize that there was a painting involved, that it was the one hanging in the back, and that it had been stolen. I still don’t know how they found the painting again before it disappeared the second time. The middle points of the plot are a bit hazy, as are the relationships and roles of some of the characters. There was no hope of me gleaning anything deeper about each of the characters’ arcs because I was so busy just trying to figure out what was going on. The actors needed to slow down a lot, especially when delivering essential exposition. This wouldn’t have made the show much longer because they also needed to pick up their cues. So there would be gaps in between lines, and then the lines were said too fast. With the songs, the tempos needed to be slowed down a bit to make the lyrics more intelligible, especially when they contained was important exposition. Alternatively, the lyrics could be made less wordy to help with that density. All in all, it was a funny, clever show with some very strong singing performances from the cast and the pit, and all the intricacies of the staging were well-executed. I think it might have just been a little too big and we lost a lot of the nuance trying to fit everything in.
Song-by-song notes:
“Like We Were Never Even There:” Exciting and bold opening stage picture with the silhouettes against the gold backdrop. The fight choreography was fun and entertaining. The opening music was strong as too, gave a good sense of excitement and action right off the bat. It was catchy and I enjoyed the secret agent James Bond-y vibe of the score. I was immediately very confused about what was going on and who was who because I could understand very few of the words, and at the same time there were lots of groups of people running around and I couldn’t tell who the good guys were. Either the tempo should have been slower, or else the lyrics needed to be less dense, for the sake of intelligibility. In the underscored dialog moments, the actors were also talking much too fast to be understood. With everything that needs to be set up in an opening scene, being able to understand the dialog is crucial. I wrote down, “oh a painting,” at one point because it took me a while to realize that’s what was being stolen. The following scene helped clarify the broad strokes of the plot but I was still playing catch up and I missed a lot of the nuance. I enjoyed the incorporation of the “G.O.L.D.” backronym and “Greater Vantage” business names.
“Hot on the Case:” Another strong musical choice to lean into the jazzy, femme-fatale, film noir genre. The moment was a good one for a song because there’s a writing concept that every song should be a kind of seduction, and this song felt like that in more than one sense. I did feel the melody was a tad repetitive and could have had more variation. There was also one moment where the scansion of the lyrics was odd, where the emphasis was on the wrong syllable. I also noted that the harmonies were a little out of tune.
“The Golden Ratio:” Clever idea for the song given your team. Another good song within the same jazzy, film noir world but with a more boppy groove. Well done with the variation while maintaining your sonic palette. The choreo was funny and evoked a (more or less) well-oiled office machine. The blackout transition and playoff music was especially tight; props for that. Next, I wrote down, “Fielding is def the spy,” so props to you for throwing me off the trail initially!
“Crack the Case:” If my count is right (it was dark so my notes are pretty messy lol), this is the one that Jess starts off singing after receiving the job offer. I wrote down, “Ooh she good.” Beautiful singing from Shelby. I also wrote, “it’s giving Wizard and I.” If you are writing an “I Want” song, that is 100% the one to emulate, so well done. But maybe find a way to make it slightly less on the nose? Or, if homage is your intent, than go further with it. It was lovely though. I did feel it could have used a little more groove though, a little more momentum, in the accompaniment. The piano was a tad loud which unfortunately made it hard to understand, but from the lyrics that I did hear I felt it could have gone a little bit deeper and her character could have taken more of a journey, more of an evolution from start to finish. Develop her character a bit more. In the following scene I wrote, “SLOW DOWN PEOPLE.” I did not know where they were for a while.
“The Turncoat Tango:” Again, the tango genre brought some good variety while staying within your stylistic world. It seemed like your idea was to take the tango and do your own more upbeat spin on it, which was a solid idea, but unfortunately I felt that it made it too fast for the traditional tango choreography, so the dancing came off as pretty awkward. It looked stilted, not natural, like they were doing moves they had been told to do and trying to keep up with the music, rather than the dancing springing forth organically. In the following scene, I enjoyed the sense of the “ticking clock” for Michelle, which raised the stakes for her. This is where I wrote down, “Ambitious plot! Maybe too much.” Because I was starting to realize that she was actually the villain but I was not totally sure, because there was just so much dialogue I kept missing due to the actors speaking so fast.
“Whodunnit?”: I wrote down, “Bishop can sang!” Although the harmonies were nicely tuned in this one, I thought they were a little shrill, and that maybe the key should have been lowered for the ensemble sections.
“Red-Handed:” I believe this was Michelle’s villain reveal song if I have it right? Regardless, I enjoyed her distinctive voice. It had some fun piano riffs, but I thought it needed some guitar in there and maybe a little less piano, for some balance.
“Luck of the Draw:” I did not understand that this was supposed to be in a casino. I thought it was a nightclub of some sort. Either way, as in many of the scenes, I did not understand where they were or why they were there until partway through the scene, due to the too-fast dialogue. The song was fun! It can definitely be great to have diegetic or semi-diegetic songs like this (i.e., performed for the characters by other characters within the world of the show) in a show, and/or songs that don’t necessarily advance the plot. In fact, both GV and PV had fun songs like this that happened in a club or bar. In this case, I wasn’t sure that this song was really warranted. It did feel a little like it was a bit out of left field, delaying the actual action of the plot. If you cut it from the show, would it feel like something was missing? Would the show not work? Always good to consider that while writing. However, take that with a grain of salt because as I wrote down, “couldn’t understand a word,” so there might have been a good reason for including it that I simply missed. I enjoyed the sparkly costumes and though some of the choreography formations were loose, there were some strong dancers in the group with some great show-off moments.
“Better on my own:” This was a good song moment and a great moment for a reprise of your “tricky situation” music and lyric from the earlier song. That was satisfying. Since I could in fact understand most of the lyrics here, I thought they were a little bit on the nose/telly about “what is happening right now.” I again thought the melody was slightly too repetitive and could have varied a little more. Mostly, I thought that the music didn’t totally match the back-and-forth, conversational-style lyrics. The music was fighting the lyrics a bit instead of serving or elevating them. As always though, great pianist noodling in there!
“Lockdown:” I wrote, “all the running-around-ography is delightful.” Which applied to several of the earlier songs as well. 
