Cyrano de Bergerac– a Shakespearean play that I remember reading as a sophomore. I enjoyed following the story of a skilled swordsman and eloquent poet, Cyrano de Bergerac, who is in love with his cousin Roxane, but he has never expressed his love for her as his large nose undermines his self-confidence. When a handsome cadet named Christian falls in love with Roxane, he asks for Cyrano’s help in expressing his feelings to her. Cyrano writes love letters to Roxane signed by Christian, and Roxane does not realize that it’s Cyrano’s words she falls in love with. Cyrano was touching in itself as a play, but when I watched it turn into a musical in the movie theaters I was not impressed.

It started off as an extra credit assignment. The NDB students of English 2, AP Lang, and AP Lit were offered 10 points of extra credit if they bought a ticket to watch the premiere of “Cyrano” at their local theater. I went ahead and bought a ticket for the following day. My mom and I went to see the viewing on a Wednesday night, and were excited to see what all the hype was about.

While watching the movie, the romance was not as evident as I remember when reading the play. I also did not enjoy the music or the singing, and would have preferred if the play remained a play rather than becoming a musical. The lyrics were also repetitive. Roxane singing “I need more…. I need more….” while looking out of the window did not escalate the plot in any way. De Guiche’s song about how he would forcibly make his love complete with Roxane through consummation was also cringey and hard to watch. I feel like the movie only got worse beginning with Christian meeting Roxane for the first time after all of the love letters have been sent to her. Christian, the token Black man of the movie who is good-looking but lacking in intelligence, needs the white savior of Cyrano teaching him how to be.

This kind of story set-up was stereotypical and made me uncomfortable to watch. I stayed for the rest just for the ten points, but then it dawned on me… Was it really worth the ten points? I could not get back those two and a half hours.