Musical Weekends

Been so busy lately, there has been no time for blogging!

Thursday night I went to see the new production of Annie with Mum and Vanessa. I saw it years ago when they did it with Anthony Warlow and Amanda Muggleton. This time Anthony was back as Daddy Warbucks, with Nancye Hayes as Miss Hannigan.

It was a good show. The little girls were cute. The girl that played Annie was good, but you could tell she was nervous and not a pro, but that might change with time.

The funniest thing of the night was that Bert and Patty Newton sat down right in front of us....I couldn't stop laughing at the irony...Wicked's theatre, with the guy we hate in it...but the people lining up for pics and stuff was cute - lots of little girls.


Sunday I was back in the city -after a long detour due to traffic and road blocks- to see Moonshadow the Cat Stevens musical with Ness. It was very pretty, the music was pretty good and the cast was great! Marnie from Hairspray, Rodney from Wicked, and Blake who won the rob guest endowment last year were all fantastic! But I'm still not sure if I actually liked it or not...the story was lacking something. But I definitely didn't hate it.
It was still previews, so maybe they will make some changes for the good.
Not sure if I'll see it again...time will tell.

Looking forward to the many musicals coming up in the months ahead!

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Carlie

Rob Guest Endowment Concert 2011

Last night the newly returned Ness and I went to see this years Rob Guest Endowment concert at Her Majesty's Theatre in the city. I did a quick after work dinner/change/drive into the city and met Ness before the show.
Funnily enough since I was hanging out with her on Sunday, I spent more time with her, than I did at home in last 2 days.

The new kids were awesome and and some of our theatre faves were there to give AWESOME performances.  I'd really missed Lucy Durack!!!!!
I had 3 faves to win, but then the other girl Ashlea Pyke knocked Don't Rain on My Parade out of the park!  I really liked the guy who won - Blake Bowden. He did two great songs. Overall there were SO many good songs. Oh and we had the best seats! 3rd row on the aisle just to the right - right in front of the podium. So we got to be right in front of ALL the action! They gave us goodie bags with water and malteasers too!
The live action was a lot of fun. I would have LOVED to have Lucy's Glinda wand from Wicked....but unfortunately I didn't have a spare $3000. Everyone got so excited when it got over 2 grand.... and these 2 just kept pushing it higher! It was a long night - didn't get home till 11:30pm. But it was totally worth it. Got to see some great performances by my theatre faves - Lucy Durack, Francine Cain, Esther Hannaford, Rob Mills, and the cast of Rock of Ages...sans a few of the guys. But I was glad Samantha Hagen got to do some belting, as did Lincoln Hall!

Its totally a tradition, I'll keep going every year now!


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Carlie

Week 2

So I had a good first week at Monash. There has been lots of info to remember and things to figure out. I have notes, but its hard to keep those updated. I guess it is just going to take a while to make things CLICK.
Friday was a good day. We had free dress with fundraising for Jeans for Genes day. So I got to wear my jeans and donate a dollar...like in high school. hah.
We also had a big morning tea for 2 birthdays. People made stuff and it was quite a spread! However, I'm not into sandwiches and cheese platters. But the sweeter stuff was nice. Next time I'll try and make something nice, I ran out of time by going out Thursday night. Jacinta and I went to La Porchetta for dinner. I went over after work since she's just down the road from there. It was fun, but I can't seem to finish a meal anymore. Which is good, but also annoying.

Saturday night was group night at Ness'. We had chicken and chips for tea, which again was too much! Plus there was excellent sweets...I just wish I had time to digest my dinner before being forced to eat Vicky's lemon meringue pie. The plate turned up while I was still eating my tea.
We did unofficial Queen Latifah musical night...we had unknowingly picked the 2 musicals she's in to watch - Chicago and Hairspray. -I swear that was nobody's intention. But everything else got vetoed, by at least 1 person.
I stayed over and Ness and I browsed the Helpman Awards -which were sucky in my opinion. Sunday we watched some high quality Bones.
I got home mid afternoon, had some tea while I listened to an old Alias commentary, and organised myself for work. I had some quality music time, listening to Book of Mormon and Stephanie J Block's album. SOOO different, but both SOOO good.

Today was a quiet day at work, I'm still figuring things out with the work, its a bit confusing, but I think I'm starting to get it.
I think the novelty of having a job has already worn off...but I haven't been paid yet, so that might come back! The only prob is trying to find to go shopping for new work clothes. I have enough to make do with for now, but I'm gonna get really sick of wearing the same thing every week.


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-Carlie

Hairspray Weekend

So I’m a little behind on my blogging. I’ll do last weekend first, and try and get this weekend’s activities up soon.

Last weekend (May 1st) was the big final performance of Hairspray in Melbourne. Saturday arvo I went over to Vanessa’s and we did our thing. We watched Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice, watched the 30Rock 100^th episode, watched more Bones, and started our new dinner show Rizzoli and Isles. That was Saturday night. Sunday we got up, walked the pooches, dressed smartly and headed into the city. We popped into the Ian Potter Arts gallery to see the VCE arts exhibition in which Ness’ brother Nick was featured. There were lots of cool stuff – like creepy costume, destroyed wedding dress and pretty photos. There was also some weird stuff that I just didn’t get – but that’s art for you. Not everything is for everyone. Nick’s work was very original especially compared to some of the other stuff. Creepy/Weird but in a cool Tim Burton way! I liked all the detail, but my golly he must use a ton of ink!

After that we headed up to the theatre district. We got lunch in this little café next to The Comedy Theatre. It looked nice, but they took forever with some of our orders, and I had to go ask about my milkshake and I wasn’t the only one reminding them about stuff. –So I definitely wouldn’t recommend it if you were in a hurry! I mean they took the orders on Post-its!

After that we headed up to The Princess Theatre. I went to join the line for the toilets while Ness waited to meet her friend outside. My friend Laura from high school was working there again, and I chatted to her for a while, while I waited to move through the line. We had seats right near the end, at the first door, so we had a ton of people climbing over us cause they were not early getting into the theatre, but the seats were pretty good once things got started. Even though we were only 1 seat from the end, you can see just about everything from there.

Now I love Hairspray more than the next person probably…but its not MY show. This one belongs to Ness. It is her obsession, and I accept that. It’s hard to be obsessed when you only see things for the 2^nd time at the final show. The last show was a blast. Everyone was extra excited and cheering which was fun! It didn’t have quite the same ‘rock star’ vibe that the final Wicked had, but Wicked is a very different show altogether vibe-wise. Hairspray had a lot more kids in the audience…some who were very annoying and had annoying parents!

At intermission I ran into Laura again, and chatted to her about the shows I saw in NY and about what I’d been up to. It was really good talking to her. I don’t really see anyone from school anymore and always end up running into Laura at the theatre, but we never really have a chance to talk.

After the show, and the tons of cheers and applause we gave the cast, Ness and I raced straight out the doors and to the front of the line for the stage door – we planned our seats especially for that!

It was my first Hairspray stage door experience and my first since New York. I brought along the program and decided on having the cast sign the front cover, because it would have taken too long to find the pages – cause it was crazy busy…but I probably would have had time, but I know who they all are! Oh well. Everyone was really lovely and that made it really fun!

After it was all over…Ness went looking for her missing cardigan, and ended up having to go through the stage door to get it…which I thought was really cool! – She crossed through to the other side! Nobody does that!

We headed  home…well back to Ness’ place, after picking up the puppies from her parent’s house. We ate some toast – having not had any dinner, and watched some more Bones to cheer us up.

It was a very full on weekend, but it was a lot of fun. Unfortunately there are no good future musical prospects! I have no interest in ‘Dr Zhivago’ or the Phantom of the Opera sequel ‘Love Never Dies’.  I don’t know what the next big show to come to Melbourne will be, but hopefully it will be something awesome! –Maybe I should start saving in advance, always keep a little musical savings fund going!
I’m surprised Hairspray didn’t stay very long…it seems like a short run in Melbourne to me, same for Mary Poppins. But maybe I’ve lost perspective after Wicked was going for over a year in Melbourne!

But I guess really when it comes down to it, I just need a job – regular income. That would make musicals easier.

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Carlie