Gestalt (late) | Wong

I absolutely love musicals. One of my favorites is Wicked, the one about the Wicked Witch of the West and the Good Witch from the Wizard of Oz. I have the entire soundtrack memorized and have probably seen the musical five times. And Idina Menzel and Kristin Chenoweth, two amazing Broadway stars, originated the roles. And the soundtrack just rocks. Anyway, the musical's poster uses the gestalt rules of figure/ground, closure and simplicity. The colors used in the poster to depict Elphaba make it obvious which figure she is - the one that's green and dark, implying that she's the "wicked witch." Whereas Galinda is in white and has a "normal" skin tone, showing that she's the "good witch." The entire poster is really simple - the figures are really depicted by closures of color - black, green and white, which makes the poster clean and easy to understand. The simplicity of the poster also shows that the musical will be mainly about these two characters, although there are many other important characters in the musical.

Another musical I adore, that really should be revived again on Broadway because 1999 was much too long ago, is You're A Good Man Charlie Brown. The song "My New Philosophy" is just adorable, and the musical helped amazingly talented Kristin Chenoweth win her first Tony. Of course, now I'm rambling so let's get to the gestalt part. The poster uses the gestalt principle of simplicity, and it works because everybody can recognize the silhouettes of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Also, if they couldn't, the color scheme should help - the yellow is a signature color for Charlie Brown. But if the color still couldn't recognize the two figures, then they need to go back in time and watch some Charlie Brown cartoons. Or watch the musical. There are still clips online, and Anthony Rapp, from RENT fame, plays the title character, and B.D. Wong, from Law and Order: SVU fame, plays Linus! Yeah, in case you couldn't tell, I'm a bit addicted to Broadway. It's the reason why I'm always broke.