I spent last night with Broadway star Bernadette Peters in concert. I saw her a few years ago at the Sydney Opera House and remember being a little disappointed. I put it down to the dodgy acoustics. When she came out and started with "Let me Entertain You" from the musical Gypsy, I wondered if it wasn't the hall that was the problem last time.
Before the show I struck up a conversation with a woman whose table I was sharing while I had a cup of coffee. She didn't really know who Bernadette Peters is and had won her ticket on the radio. I told her that she's 67 years old as the woman looked at her program. The woman told me that she hadn't looked as good as Bernadette when she was 25! I considered her now and believed this to be true.
Ms Peters looked fantastic wearing a spaghetti-strapped, soft lilac gown with just the right amount of sparkle and a split in the front of the skirt coupled with satin heels. She shimmied around the stage and wasn't always on the microphone.
Hamming it up during one of the best versions of "Fever" I've ever heard, the diva slinked her way up the stairs to lie on a black velvet pillow and strike a shapely drape on top of the piano, she sang the song with lust and wit accompanied by double bass and drums. Yes! This was great performance.
Charming conversation interspersed the evening. "Joanna" from Sweeney Todd started with a cracked note, but improved from there. I started to get a bit twitchy and then I realised what the problem was. Bernadette Peters is much more an actress who sings, than a singer who acts. She is at her best when there's an emotional or comic element to the song. Listening to her sing is not enough and will be a disappointing experience. If you can absorb yourself in the emotion of the performance, then the experience is sublime. Losing my Mind from Stephen Sondeheim's Follies was extraordinarily emotional and like watching someone have a break down driven by the grief of a broken relationship.
The show ended with the big Sondheim song, Being Alive from Company, full of hope (and a fluffed lyric or two).
For encore, Peter Allen's song "I Honestly Love You" left me with tears overflowing. She then shared "Kramer's Song" a song she wrote as part of a children's book written for an animal shelter charity. Kramer is her dog and it was lovely.
I'd love to see Bernadette Peters in a show, rather than just in concert. It must be incredible.
Were you there at Her Majesty's Theatre last night? Have you seen Bernadette Peters? What did you think?
Showing posts with label musical theatre. Show all posts
Showing posts with label musical theatre. Show all posts
Wednesday, 9 April 2014
Monday, 10 March 2014
Cultural intake - what I've been seeing and hearing lately
I've had a cultural kind of weekend.
Friday night, I went to the Melbourne Recital Centre to hear the Balanescu Quartet play. Well, it was quartet plus occasional drum kit and looped recorded sound. Visual interest was added with film, including projections on the back of the music stands. Perfect! This was always redundant space and it's great to see it used for something other than advertising!
Anytime I hear music played in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall it is magical. The sound is incredible, no matter what is being played.
On my daily walk past the Malthouse Theatre, and on my way to the Balanescu Quartet, I stopped in at the box office and bought a ticket to see Simon Stone's production, "The Government Inpsector". It was to be a production of "The Philadelphia Story", but rights were refused and this production cleverly turns this rejection into an opportunity. I needed to see it out of curiosity, if nothing else.
I had the best seat in the house (centre front) and laughed myself sick for the duration. It was a matinee though and I wondered how the "language" would go down with the audience. I walked out still laughing, but noticed the rest of the audience seemed quiet, reserved and then I overhead one woman say to another, "Well, it takes all types of people doesn't it?" The I noticed she had been sitting beside me. Was she talking about me or the play?
It's delightfully creative and refreshing. Who needs to see another production of "The Philadelphia Story" anyway? The Age has a review here.
Yesterday, it was off to the movies to see "Her", the film that won the Oscar for best original screenplay and has one of my favourite actors, Joaquin Phoenix. It's an interesting premise and I would suggest, is actually a science fiction film. It's set sometime in the not too distant future where technology is familiar but can do just a little more than what mine does for me right now. Phoenix plays Theodore, a man separated from his wife and living alone with only virtual reality "people", the receptionist at work and a woman who lives in the same building for company. He purchases the new OS1, a "smart" virtual assistant, customised with a female voice (played by Scarlett Johannson) and falls in love with her. There's a suggestion that she also falls for him.
Cut 30 minutes out and it would have been fantastic.
Oh, and get the two women sitting next me, chatting away as thought they were alone in their loungeroom, to SHUT UP!
Tomorrow night I'm off to see Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca at the Melbourne Recital Centre. I'll be selling CDs too, so if you're there, come and say hello.
What have been doing lately?
Friday night, I went to the Melbourne Recital Centre to hear the Balanescu Quartet play. Well, it was quartet plus occasional drum kit and looped recorded sound. Visual interest was added with film, including projections on the back of the music stands. Perfect! This was always redundant space and it's great to see it used for something other than advertising!
Anytime I hear music played in Elisabeth Murdoch Hall it is magical. The sound is incredible, no matter what is being played.
On my daily walk past the Malthouse Theatre, and on my way to the Balanescu Quartet, I stopped in at the box office and bought a ticket to see Simon Stone's production, "The Government Inpsector". It was to be a production of "The Philadelphia Story", but rights were refused and this production cleverly turns this rejection into an opportunity. I needed to see it out of curiosity, if nothing else.
I had the best seat in the house (centre front) and laughed myself sick for the duration. It was a matinee though and I wondered how the "language" would go down with the audience. I walked out still laughing, but noticed the rest of the audience seemed quiet, reserved and then I overhead one woman say to another, "Well, it takes all types of people doesn't it?" The I noticed she had been sitting beside me. Was she talking about me or the play?
It's delightfully creative and refreshing. Who needs to see another production of "The Philadelphia Story" anyway? The Age has a review here.
Yesterday, it was off to the movies to see "Her", the film that won the Oscar for best original screenplay and has one of my favourite actors, Joaquin Phoenix. It's an interesting premise and I would suggest, is actually a science fiction film. It's set sometime in the not too distant future where technology is familiar but can do just a little more than what mine does for me right now. Phoenix plays Theodore, a man separated from his wife and living alone with only virtual reality "people", the receptionist at work and a woman who lives in the same building for company. He purchases the new OS1, a "smart" virtual assistant, customised with a female voice (played by Scarlett Johannson) and falls in love with her. There's a suggestion that she also falls for him.
Cut 30 minutes out and it would have been fantastic.
Oh, and get the two women sitting next me, chatting away as thought they were alone in their loungeroom, to SHUT UP!
Tomorrow night I'm off to see Cuban jazz pianist Roberto Fonseca at the Melbourne Recital Centre. I'll be selling CDs too, so if you're there, come and say hello.
What have been doing lately?
Tuesday, 11 June 2013
King Kong - you've got to see it to believe it
My long weekend was very cultural - "King Kong" on Saturday, Cassandra Wilson at the closing night of the Melbourne International Jazz Festival and "Gatsby" yesterday afternoon.
Phew!
I enjoyed all of them in different ways and will start with "King Kong".
"King Kong" is still in preview and it will be interesting to see whether changes are made before the actual opening. It is visually and technically spectacular and to echo one of the characters in the show, it has to be seen to be believed! King Kong himself is amazing. I felt that I was actually looking at this enormous monster, such is the detail of his movements - including facial expressions - and the accompanying sounds. When he roars and stamps his feet, I could feel the vibrations right up the back of the balcony.
Act one was excellent. The story clips along and the singing was terrific. Sometimes I yearned for a united musical identity, rather than the different voices which are inevitable when there are several composers, but I loved the music for itself.
Act two was not as good. I felt that the story slowed right down and the whole thing became messy. It was almost resting on the laurels of the spectacle of King Kong, but lacked a real sense of the destruction of King Kong on the rampage through New York.
There is a character called "High Priestess/Cassandra". I have no idea what this character is doing there. The actress did a fantastic job, but it slowed the whole story down. I think the Cassandra name must echo Greek mythology where Cassandra was cursed to know the truth and to have no one ever believe her or listen to her. She seemed to play a Greek chorus function. Perhaps. But really, this is musical theatre and I don't want to think too hard.
In the end, the lack of a hero was a knife in the heart of King Kong the beast and King Kong the show. Having said that, I'd like to go again later in the season once it has settled in and see what it's like. It IS thrilling, despite its flaws.
I have a confession to make too...I haven't seen any film version. I'll remedy that and see what perspective that adds.
Have you seen the show? What did you think?
Tomorrow, Cassandra Wilson closes the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
Phew!
I enjoyed all of them in different ways and will start with "King Kong".
"King Kong" is still in preview and it will be interesting to see whether changes are made before the actual opening. It is visually and technically spectacular and to echo one of the characters in the show, it has to be seen to be believed! King Kong himself is amazing. I felt that I was actually looking at this enormous monster, such is the detail of his movements - including facial expressions - and the accompanying sounds. When he roars and stamps his feet, I could feel the vibrations right up the back of the balcony.
Act one was excellent. The story clips along and the singing was terrific. Sometimes I yearned for a united musical identity, rather than the different voices which are inevitable when there are several composers, but I loved the music for itself.
Act two was not as good. I felt that the story slowed right down and the whole thing became messy. It was almost resting on the laurels of the spectacle of King Kong, but lacked a real sense of the destruction of King Kong on the rampage through New York.
There is a character called "High Priestess/Cassandra". I have no idea what this character is doing there. The actress did a fantastic job, but it slowed the whole story down. I think the Cassandra name must echo Greek mythology where Cassandra was cursed to know the truth and to have no one ever believe her or listen to her. She seemed to play a Greek chorus function. Perhaps. But really, this is musical theatre and I don't want to think too hard.
In the end, the lack of a hero was a knife in the heart of King Kong the beast and King Kong the show. Having said that, I'd like to go again later in the season once it has settled in and see what it's like. It IS thrilling, despite its flaws.
I have a confession to make too...I haven't seen any film version. I'll remedy that and see what perspective that adds.
Have you seen the show? What did you think?
Tomorrow, Cassandra Wilson closes the Melbourne International Jazz Festival.
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