Good Morning Baltimore

Good Morning Baltimore!

Or good afternoon, evening or night to wherever you are!

A little while back I saw Hairspray on stage. Much to people's shock in the office I have never actually seen the film. I have nothing against the film (I will very likely give it a watch now) but I always sort of felt like if I was going to see it, I wanted to see the stage show first. I don't know why. I've seen Billy Elliot live but I haven't seen that film either. But the amount of films I haven't seen that people I think I should is a whole other blog post. Titanic anyone?

Back to the subject at hand. Hairspray. First of all, AWESOME production from LSOS. I loved it. The sets were cool and the costumes were ace. Good work on the girls for wearing big knickers though with those skirts flying up!

Even though I try and write reviews of everything I go see, I still find them blooming tricky to do. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't seen it so I struggle to know what to talk about. I mostly end up off topic and talking about the feeling from the show, but I'll try and do a quick summary for a change.

• Hairspray is set in 1960s America in Baltimore.
• There is some sort of telly show with a lot of school kids dancing and singing.
• They are your typical 'popular cool kids'.
• The main character Tracey is not. But boy does she love to dance and she dances well!
• Tracey dances so well she makes it onto the show, much to the annoyance of Amber who, because she is popular, feels a sense of entitlement to be the star, have the cool boyfriend and shun those who don't fit in.

The story covers many issues such as popularity, fitting in, being happy with your size, appearance and following your dreams. The main topic though is racial segregation. There are no black stars on the telly show, except on Negro Day.

Why does there need to be a day set aside Tracey wonders, when they could all just dance together?

I'm not going to get into the history and all that because frankly, I feel it is too heavy a subject for my small lighthearted blog and I wouldn't dare pretend I have enough knowledge on the subject to do it justice. I shall just say that it makes no sense to me whatsoever.

In terms of what you'll get from the show, expect romance, parental interventions, riots and stints in the big house. And songs. So many fantastic songs. The actors in our performance were amazing and really brought the characters to life. I especially fell in love with Tracey's parents who were simply fabulous.

I just want to add one quick thing that isn't actually about the show itself but about our seating. We were in the front row! I have never been in the front row before and it was really quite cool to be that close to the action. Having said this... I might not plump for front row tickets again (not that I bought these ones, thank you Boy) simply because we were so close to the orchestra that I found it hard to hear some of the singing. Live music is brilliant and I very much enjoyed a sneaky peak into the pit every now and then to see what the musicians were up to but I think in a musical the lyrics are pretty important and I did miss out on a fair few of these.

The only other thing I will say is that if you are a chap trying to maintain an air of bloke-ish-ness this maybe isn't the show for you. But if you don't give a monkeys then definitely go and see it! It is such a feel good time!

Love Charlotte x

The Perfect First Date

 

Fear not dear reader. This is not a top tips for a successful first date post. Nor is it me showing off about a successful date I may or may not have had recently. It is in actual fact, a theatre review!

The other week I saw Avenue Q but I have let myself become so disorganised that I am only just getting round to writing this up!

For anyone that doesn't know Avenue Q is a musical. But it's not just any musical.

 

Think puppets.

No, think muppets.

Now imagine muppets having sex on stage.

There you go.

 

All I can say is it was absolutley amazing! Much like my recent trip to see The Threepenny Opera, I don't know what I was expecting but it wasn't this. And nothing I could've imagined would have been half as spectacular.

The songs are catchy. The characters are varied and they suck you in so that you care about their lives. Even the puppeteers were incredible. Some were voicing two puppets at once. Holding conversations with themselves. These actors had serious skill. The entire thing was hilarious. Hilarious barely even covers it. I'm not sure the last time that I laughed so much.

I'm not going to go into the plot as I think that would be wrong. I went into this not knowing what it was about and if you haven't seen it before then I don't want to ruin the surprise. You can google it if you really want to know. Rest assured though it has everything. Romance, betrayal, ambition, personal struggles, pop culture references, cartoon clips, and of course comedy. I will (and there is no question about this) be going to see it again.

So why did I start out this post talking about the perfect first date if all I wanted to do was rave on about a stage show?

I think this would be the perfect icebreaker to a relationship. First of all, you find out if you're both theatre type people. Very important to know in my opinion. Even more importantly you will find out if you're going to get on. If one of you isn't laughing then it's probably safest to call it quits before you get too invested. You obviously don't have the same sense if humour and as we all know from various polls that are wheeled out on slow news days: sense of humour is very important when looking for a spouse.

It gets all the awkward topics out in the open and dances them naked (not literally... Oh wait there is that one bit...) in front of you. Communication is surely the most important thing in a relationship. Even more so when it comes to difficult, awkward, controvsial and embarrassing topics. Now, dear fledgling couple, you don't have to worry about bringing them up. And if you still can't talk about what the internet is really for then go your separate ways now before you find yourself crying into a bottle after chatting to the bad idea bears.

 

A Night Less Ordinary

It's easy to stay in your comfort zone. The phrase itself is self explanatory. It's comfy. It's familiar. It's safe. But that can also lead to it being boring.

Earlier this week I went to the theatre. This in itself isn't that unusual for me. I don't go as often as I'd like but I do enjoy a show. What was different is that we went to see something without really bothering to find out what it was. It just happened to be what was showing the day we wanted to go.

It was excellent! An anarchic, beautiful, mad, crime-doesn't-pay, political, don't-judge-those-different-from-you musical called Three Penny Opera which was all kicked of with an amazing rendition of Mack The Knife. If you want to know more about it, watch this:

I don't know what I was was expecting but it wasn't that.

It started before it had even started, with the cast milling out onto the stage, chatting with the audience, introducing each other, explaining how the whole thing was going to work. In character of course. There was a petition going round the audience. One woman has spent her day doing mainly medium level anarchy. There were cheers and chants and live music.

Someone else who hadn't bothered to find out what the show was, was the couple sitting next to me. I don't wish to stereotype but in order to paint the scene they were a slightly older couple, smartly dressed and rather well spoken indeed.

Within 2 minutes of sitting down (the play hasn't started at this point but the preshow interaction is well underway) the woman announced 'I don't think this is the sort of this I am going to enjoy'. She wasn't going into this with a positive attitude from the start.

About 3/4 of the way through she was trying to see her watch.

At the interval, they got their coats and left. They didn't come back.

I was appalled. How rude! How narrow minded! How rich are they to not feel the need to stick out a show they've paid good money for?

Okay, that last point might just be my being a bit skint. I know how much their tickets must've cost because they were right next to ours. And I would've stuck it out just for the for fact that I'd paid.

But really, it probably wasn't what they were expecting. I know it wasn't what they were expecting because before it started she said so. She thought they were coming to the original German Opera that this show was adapted from.

So yes, German Opera vs Jazzy Punk Musical aren't really the same thing. But does that really mean you should just abandon one because it's not what you were expecting?

The more I think about this the more I confuse myself.

My gut reaction was that they were narrow-minded. That they should've stuck it out. The second half was better than the first because there was a problem with the projection system in the first half. The second half had subtitles and videos. Also, during the second half we were now getting into the meaty part of the story. They missed out.

But... They weren't enjoying it, and why waste your time doing something you don't enjoy. Especially if you can make that choice. We all have to do lots of things we don't enjoy. Getting up in the dark in winter, bleeding radiators, speaking to rude people on the phone at work but they have to be done. You do them because you have to, not because you enjoy them.

But what were they going to do instead? Go home and have a cocoa? They can do that any day.

I told this story to a colleague the next day who couldn't understand it. Her theory was that it was one evening out of their lives. It wasn't like it would've been the end of the world to stay and see it through.

The person I went to the show with, took a somewhat harsher view and decided that they had gone home to their separate bedrooms to either listen to The Archers or surf the less savoury part of the internet.

The only thing I am sure of, is that I wish I had realised they weren't coming back sooner so we could've taken their (dead centre of the row) seats!

Happy Saturday,

Charlotte x