As many people are aware, I threw a pretty fun barbecue and bought a ton of beer for my birthday as a going-away party for myself. It was also kind of for charity, as I donated $1 to the Walk to End Women's Cancers for each hug or Christian side-hug that I gave out (link below if you don't know what a Christian side-hug is). I also had huggers sign my t-shirt. My favourite quote on the t-shirt is "YOU'RE HAMMERED" in giant capital letters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_Oj0-splZw
Anyway, after about eight hours of refreshing beverages, I didn't remember going to Jim Bob Rae's (the skankiest 16-year old bar in London) and certainly didn't remember losing my keys until it was way too late.
I'm still looking for them, but at least I raised $32 for charity.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Musical Review - Stratford - Evita
Evita was always one of those musicals that I was going to see before I turned 25. As it happens, I beat the mark by exactly 8 days. In 1976, collaborators Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice put together a rock opera that would eventually turn into a stage show and made Patti Lupone a gay icon.
Plot synopsis:
Bitch had it coming.
Musical review:
I went into this musical with only one expectation: the chick singing Evita would sing Don't Cry for Me Argentina, and she'd sing the sh** out of it. That's actually all I asked for out of the $100 I shelled out for two seats & gas. I did not expect to get a history lesson, nor to find the lead male dirty-hot.
I felt kind of stupid when this guy dressed as Che Guevara came onstage about 5 minutes in, sang the hell out of some song, then was carted offstage by the military authorities. To be honest, I had no idea who he was supposed to be - even after they started calling him Che. There were three reasons for this:
1) I thought Che Guevara was Cuban, not Argentinian
2) I didn't really know who Che was, other than that face on t-shirts worn by upper-middle class suburban American teenagers trying to be subversive.
3) I didn't expect a poor, dirty revolutionary would be related in any way to the social climber that was Eva Peron.
Anyway, it turns out that Che was upper class, the child of doctors, and spent an entire year (paid for by daddy) motorcycling across Latin America. See Wikipedia for everything else I learned about Che.
Anyway, the music was good, costuming was good, all performers were talented. Especially this couple who did a 10-minute tango routine towards the end, dressed in red and with a red spotlight on stage. I'm not really one for dance, but it was pretty cool.
Rating: 2.5/4 for the music (good, not inspiring), 3/4 for the staging and production, 3.5/4 for the dirty hot Che.
Plot synopsis:
Bitch had it coming.
Musical review:
I went into this musical with only one expectation: the chick singing Evita would sing Don't Cry for Me Argentina, and she'd sing the sh** out of it. That's actually all I asked for out of the $100 I shelled out for two seats & gas. I did not expect to get a history lesson, nor to find the lead male dirty-hot.
I felt kind of stupid when this guy dressed as Che Guevara came onstage about 5 minutes in, sang the hell out of some song, then was carted offstage by the military authorities. To be honest, I had no idea who he was supposed to be - even after they started calling him Che. There were three reasons for this:
1) I thought Che Guevara was Cuban, not Argentinian
2) I didn't really know who Che was, other than that face on t-shirts worn by upper-middle class suburban American teenagers trying to be subversive.
3) I didn't expect a poor, dirty revolutionary would be related in any way to the social climber that was Eva Peron.
Anyway, it turns out that Che was upper class, the child of doctors, and spent an entire year (paid for by daddy) motorcycling across Latin America. See Wikipedia for everything else I learned about Che.
Anyway, the music was good, costuming was good, all performers were talented. Especially this couple who did a 10-minute tango routine towards the end, dressed in red and with a red spotlight on stage. I'm not really one for dance, but it was pretty cool.
Rating: 2.5/4 for the music (good, not inspiring), 3/4 for the staging and production, 3.5/4 for the dirty hot Che.
Musical Review - Toronto - Mamma Mia!
*Warning: there is semi-nudity and a lot of mimed fellatio in this musical. And I mean the good kind of semi-nudity, not the weird kind where a guy runs offstage in his boxers for 2 seconds as the lights are dim*.* And the mimed fellatio was awkward given the fact that only about 10 audience members were inside the 18-49 demographic.*
Note that characters are referenced in terms of the movie-actors who played the
roles.
First half:
It became very clear that Meryl Streep couldn't sing her lower register. So the first half was largely a version of Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia where the only thing you hear is the lead mumbling some low notes. Clearly you should only cast someone after menopause in this role. It also became clear that the lead boy Dominic Cooper was not super-cute. He was pretty tall, kind of looked like a rugby player, not really fat but not something I'd want to hit. Meryl Streep's best friends, played by Rosie Perez and Christine Baranski, could sing and were hilarious.
Rating: 1.5/4 stars for the singing, 3/4 stars for the comedy
Second half:
The singing got way better when Meryl Streep starting singing ballads in her higher register. Unlike the movie, Colin Firth, Pearce Brosnan and the other guy could actually sing. While the main boy wasn't very cute, the guy that played Colin Firth was SUPER HOT. Because of this, I'm pretty sure they added an awesomely gratuitous scene where he "comes up from the beach" in his short bathing-shorts as he has some conversation with Christine Baranski. I don't remember the conversation, but this was one SEXY 38 year old:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004138/
If you're creepy like me and scroll through the screen credits, you'll notice that he played "Prince Darian" on Sailor Moon. That's right, the best part of the Mamma Mia production was a voice in Sailor Moon.
Rating: 3/4 stars for the singing, 3/4 stars for the comedy, 4/4 stars for the gratuitous semi-nude scene
Good job, Mamma Mia, for capturing what disco music was really about. Bad singing, funky costumes, and doing anything to make the gays appreciate you. And if you're going to get tickets, you should sit on the RIGHT side of the theatre, since a lot of scenes happen on the left hand corner of the stage and it can be hard to see.
It also helps if you prepare for this by watching the BRILLIANT movie Muriel's Wedding instead of the much worse movie Mamma Mia!
Captain Awesome
Note that characters are referenced in terms of the movie-actors who played the
roles.
First half:
It became very clear that Meryl Streep couldn't sing her lower register. So the first half was largely a version of Dancing Queen and Mamma Mia where the only thing you hear is the lead mumbling some low notes. Clearly you should only cast someone after menopause in this role. It also became clear that the lead boy Dominic Cooper was not super-cute. He was pretty tall, kind of looked like a rugby player, not really fat but not something I'd want to hit. Meryl Streep's best friends, played by Rosie Perez and Christine Baranski, could sing and were hilarious.
Rating: 1.5/4 stars for the singing, 3/4 stars for the comedy
Second half:
The singing got way better when Meryl Streep starting singing ballads in her higher register. Unlike the movie, Colin Firth, Pearce Brosnan and the other guy could actually sing. While the main boy wasn't very cute, the guy that played Colin Firth was SUPER HOT. Because of this, I'm pretty sure they added an awesomely gratuitous scene where he "comes up from the beach" in his short bathing-shorts as he has some conversation with Christine Baranski. I don't remember the conversation, but this was one SEXY 38 year old:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004138/
If you're creepy like me and scroll through the screen credits, you'll notice that he played "Prince Darian" on Sailor Moon. That's right, the best part of the Mamma Mia production was a voice in Sailor Moon.
Rating: 3/4 stars for the singing, 3/4 stars for the comedy, 4/4 stars for the gratuitous semi-nude scene
Good job, Mamma Mia, for capturing what disco music was really about. Bad singing, funky costumes, and doing anything to make the gays appreciate you. And if you're going to get tickets, you should sit on the RIGHT side of the theatre, since a lot of scenes happen on the left hand corner of the stage and it can be hard to see.
It also helps if you prepare for this by watching the BRILLIANT movie Muriel's Wedding instead of the much worse movie Mamma Mia!
Captain Awesome
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