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[leisure/theatre] Pygmalion and Annie in one day

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 12:40:00

On Saturday I had been intending to go along to see the play Pygmalion at Canberra Rep (play link), I like Canberra rep, a friend (Jess) is playing Eliza, and the matinee at 2pm seemed like a good time to see it. So along I went, it was a good production, came off seeming rather professional and definitely got the story out well. The actor playing Freddy did a good job of appearing to be an annoying idiotic fop. I liked this, not as much as I enjoyed Arcadia, however mostly because I found that story fascinating and the presentation with the dual times acting at once really cool and I had never seen or read the play previously. Still a good play and I recommend it.

While at theatre 3 I saw the ad for Annie playing at the Erindale Theatre performed by the Canberra Philharmonic Society, however the last night of the season was Saturday, so if I wanted to see it that was the only night to do so. I have not seen Annie live before, and though I remember watching the movie when I was young I do not remember much about it. About all I remembered was it was about a red head orphan girl and adoption or something by someone rich. Oh and a scene with her on a bridge with cables and lights and stuff all around in the dark.

It was interesting to see both the shows in one day, the performance of Annie was good, even though it was a more expensive show it seemed less professional and practised than the Pygmalion play. Maybe I do not go to enough musicals to really get the feel for them. They also had to deal with kids and animals (yes they had a live dog on stage, happily sniffing crotches (its own and an actor's)) and a rather large cast. I still think both were worth seeing and both were indeed entertaining so fun was had.

[leisure/theatre] I am the leader of the land! Who da Man?

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 11:25:00

Anyone else who has seen Keating the Musical is possibly laughing right now after that title. The show is of course a musical based around the political life of Paul Keating until he lost power in 1996. The mere concept of a musical based on modern Australian politics sounds entertaining enough to me, however being a fan of Keating's style (G'Day Scumbags) it made this almost necessary viewing. Jane has seen it twice, as of last night Mum has now seen it twice also.

What can I say, it was a heck of a lot of fun. The band (guitars, drums, sax, etc) playing all the music was at times a bit too loud over powering the singers. The performers were really spot on with their characterisations and the songs all worked remarkably well. Jokes to be spotted in the lyrics all the way, some great political commentary (especially in the last slow song of the evening) and a highly entertaining evening out. I saw it last night and still have many of the songs ricocheting around in my head. Unfortunately the season here in Canberra is short this time (until Sunday) (this is the second visit) however it is touring regional centres and ending up in Sydney. If you get the chance I think it should be seen.

Interestingly your political leanings are unlikely to affect your enjoyment, Jane's boyfriend went along and has more right tendencies than the rest of us and yet he loved it and thought it poked fun at the ALP, however Jane, Mum and I all loved it and yet saw it poking fun at the Liberal Party.

[leisure/theatre] Arcadia

Mon, 08 May 2006 14:06:00

On Friday night I went with a friend to see the Tom Stoppard play Arcadia, performed by Canberra Repertory. On the whole a most enjoyable evening of theatre. The actors appeared too be enjoying themselves, once or twice being unable to maintain straight faces when something funny was happening on stage.

One aspect I thought was very cool was how the play switched back and forth in time periods, however at the end the cool part was when they performed both periods on stage at the same time. The play will be on for the rest of the week, I recommend seeing it if you are of the mind, interesting, contains all manner of maths and history references and is an amusing comedy to boot.

[leisure/theatre] The Young Tycoons

Mon, 12 Sep 2005 15:18:00

Last night I was still in Sydney after the 2005 WSMTB 12 Hour race I rode in on Saturday. I was visiting my sister, Jane, and we decided to go and see a play our cousin (Ashlie Pellow) had mentioned she was performing in. The play, "The Young Tycoons" (this may be a semi permanent link to a description of The Young Tycoons), being performed at the Darlinghurst Theatre Company was pretty damn good. For most of the play I was laughing a lot, it was a really funny and quite well executed play.

The Sydney Morning Herald reviewed the play in their weekend edition this weekend, they have the review and a photo online (the photo is of Ashlie and Nicholas Hammond (imdb link)). (if you do not wish to register to read the SMH pages Bugmenot can easily supply login details for you). The SMH review is on the whole pretty good, I can not say I blame them, I would recommend seeing this show if you are in Sydney in the next 3 weeks.

The show sort of critiques the Packer/Murdoch dynasties and influences, the fun poked at the rich and famous is really good to see here, though Ashlie did not have a huge presence in the play as the play really was focussed on the men, I am happy to see she came across as one of the two smartest most well balanced characters in the play, though considering what we learn about Nicholas Hammond's character through the play Ashlie's character could come out as the most sane and sensible seeming character of the play.

I loved the performance of the character Ted, especially when he fires his son, absolutely hilarious. Nicholas Hammond also plays his part really well. Interestingly, Ashlie pointed out how amazing it was to be working in a play with Nicholas Hammond, being the uncouth I am I had not heard of him so had to go look at the imdb link for Nicholas Hammond. As Ashlie pointed out he played "Friedrich von Trapp" in the original The Sound of Music movie, I (being the geek that I am) was interested to also see he played Peter Parker/Spiderman in the 1970's Spiderman tv series (though until today I did not even know there had been a Spiderman tv series, thus proving once more I am DC Comics geek and not much interested in anything Marvel generally).

Anyway a good night out was had, even though Jane was feeling too sick to hang around for drinks with Ashlie for long after the play was finished, I did not mind too much as I had to get up and drive back to Canberra around 5:15am this morning (okay so I get up around 5:30am most mornings, but going out for a ride is worth that, driving is not fun)

There is some information about "The Young Tycoons" on the Darlinghurst Theatre's Now Showing page at the moment if you want to see a bit more information too.