Updated VitaminWater Copy!

Dear Vitaminwater Rep:

I’m a huge fan of your “essential” orange-orange vitaminwater. I just can’t get enough of its refreshing, smooth taste. What I have had enough of is the clever copy* on the label. Don’t get me wrong: I love the idea. And I laughed when I first read it. I’m not sure when that was, though, because it was SO LONG AGO. If I have to read one more time about how morning and mourning are only one letter apart…well, probably nothing will happen. But I’ve decided to help you guys along in your updating process. Below please find my suggestion as to the replacement of said paragraph.

Newsies on Broadway – Better Than the Movie?

When you love something as much as I love the 1992 movie, Newsies, you don’t want a single, minute detail changed.

So naturally I was apprehensive for the Broadway adaptation.

I couldn’t decide if I wanted to see it or not (would I hate it? Love it? Hate that I loved it?). In the end, I entered my name in the Newsies ticket lottery and let the outcome decide.

I won. So I saw it.

Original Concerns

When I heard all the theatre buzz, my two main concerns were Jack’s transformation from cowboy to artist, and the reporter who’d followed the strike being a woman instead of a guy.

Actually sitting through the show, those weren’t the issues I had at all.

Although, if you’re going to make Jack an artist (a change which I don’t think was necessary, by the way), why make one of Pulitzer’s lines be:

“Time’s running out kid, so what do you say/Cowboy or convict, I win either way.”

Cowboy or convict.

Cowboy or convict.

Actors

I gotta say kudos to Jeremy Jordan (pictured below) for playing such a great Jack. He’s charismatic, cheeky, a natural leader, and quite sympathetic. As a huge fan of Christian Bale in this movie, I think Jeremy stepped into the role very well.

My friend and me with Jeremy Jordan aka Jack Kelly 🙂

The same can’t be said for Ben Fankhauser, playing David. I’d never even stopped

Killing is OK

This is a rant. I warned you there’d be some of these.

Picture this:

You and the girl you’re kinda into (except-let’s-keep-it-in-the-subtext) are running across the planet in a bid to find safety. The crazy, murderous preacher who’s tried to kill you both before is coming after you. In a climactic moment, he catches up with you and tries, yet again, to kill you. Somehow you get the upper hand. You don’t kill him. Instead you keep running.

Rinse and repeat three (or is it four?) times.

That’s pretty much the plot of Chaos Walking, a trilogy by Patrick Ness.

Chaos Walking actually has an interesting premise: In the future when Earth is inevitably ruined by careless, violent humans, other humans seek a new life on other planets. One group lands on New World, a planet where the natives (Spackle) communicate telepathically. Pretty soon, the newly-arrived men find that, like the Spackle, their thoughts are being transmitted aloud for all to hear. They call this “Noise.” Women, for some reason, aren’t affected.

Like I said, it’s an interesting and original idea. Leaves lots of room for discussion.

However. There were multiples times when I wanted to reach into those pages and shake the characters till their teeth rattled in their imbecilic heads.

Namely, whenever