On Wednesday, I went to see my second Broadway show called The Heiress which is based of the novel “Washington Square”. I noticed that the plot line was very similar but the ending was quite different and unexpected but I liked the concept very much. Catherine was still portrayed as being awkward and clumsy but only around her father. Jessica Chastain used a deeper voice to make her seem awkward. I expected her voice to be shrill actually because shes supposed to be overly sweet but Jessica’s version was definitely very effective in making Catherine seem naive and awkward. Throughout the play, Dan Stevens portrayed Morris as being genuinely in love with Catherine and it ended up making the audience find no flaws in the dynamic between the two but as the play neared to the end, the dialogue definitely showed that Morris was indeed as greedy as Dr.Sloper thought he was.

The ending was different from the book and it was much more fierce. Catherine’s voice was still low and monotone but it no longer seemed awkward but confident and blunt, as if she knew what she wanted for herself for the first time in her life. I enjoyed the twist because I wasn’t expecting Catherine to leave Morris under the false impression that she wanted to marry him when she actually just wanted to humiliate him. I think the ending make the show what its worth.

Even if we were in the balcony, I was still able to get a good view of the characters and I thought the scenery was beautiful. The lighting they used made morning seem like morning and night seem like night. It added to the effect of the whole story and I realized just how much of a role the lights play. For instance, Morris left Catherine the first time after he promised to marry her. And as the lights kept getting brighter, I realized how much time was passing and that Morris did indeed lie to her.

I like how on Broadway, you can hear the immediate response of the audience. When something was funny, the audience would laugh automatically and the experience is much more lively than watching it on screen. Even if the setting was only on stage, the drama of the story never made the scene boring no matter how long we had to look at Catherine’s living room. I noticed that the dialogue was slightly altered but some of it was the exact wording from the dialogue in the movie, The Heiress. I also noticed that the way the words are said are equally as important as the way the actors behave because the audience could be sitting very far away and not be able to completely see their facial expressions but would have to get the gist of the mood by listening to how the dialogue is communicated.

Overall, I enjoyed the experience of watching The Heiress and am looking forward to more Broadway plays.