Theatre Australia

your portal for australian theatre

WE WILL ROCK YOU

Sun, 2 Sept 2007, 11:59 am
jeffhansen33 posts in thread
Kwinana Arts Centre 1/9/07 The time is the future. Live music has been banned. Globalsoft Computers generate all authorised music and dance steps to go with them.... Actually, go here for the synopsis.. http://www.theatre.asn.au/billboard_bulletins/we_will_rock_you_opens_this_week_end No need for me to go through all that. A disclaimer before I start - My brother Scott is in the show. Firstly, it was a very enjoyable evening of escapism and a "Best of Queen" soundtrack. The band were excellent, and considering they worked from a Piano/Vocal score, with no instrument scoring, a very creditable performance. Congrats to the production team for what was a well put together show. A huge cast like that, multi venue performances - it must be a nightmare. Chorus were excellent. It was great to see the chorus members as individual characters, which they are able to carry throught the performance. I wonder what Russell Baxters reaction was when he saw his Madonna costume? Also liked Monique Ashby as Charlotte 'Friggin' Church, and Cail Bennetts Cliff Richard - "Don't worry about Cliff. He's indestructible". Great work from the chorus, both dramatically and vocally. A show like this stands or falls on the strength of it's leads. Jason Arrow as Gallileo was fantastic - great voice and could have carried the show on his own. Ali Hill showed off her vocal talent as Meat - a much different character from when I last saw her as Sandy in Grease. Scott Hansen as Pop was channeling Neil from 'The Young Ones' all night. A fun role which the audience appreciated. Sky Ogier as Scaramouche ia a great actor, has a strong voice, but did struggle with her upper register and was not always on key. I felt the other leads struggled vocally, and this did detract from an otherwise enjoyable evening. One more thing - MICROPHONES MICROPHONES MICROPHONES!!!! AAARRRGGGHHH! Mics not working, interference, actors having to use handhelds because their mics failed during the perfomance, It really detracted from the whole show. It must be soul destroying to put in all that work, and have it go up in smoke because of technical hitches. All in all, fifteen dollars well spent (and no booking agency fee!!) It's on next weekend in Mandurah.

Are you serious?

Fri, 21 Sept 2007, 08:03 pm
Walter Plinge
Bomber, I don’t know who you are but clearly you don’t really know that much about theatre, and if you are involved in theatre productions you maybe should do some research about it before criticizing other peoples work. One, although the set wasn’t the best it could have been, but seeing as though they needed to build something to withstand all 3 theatres, they didn’t do that badly, but the set nor costumes were old, they were all made for this production with what funds they did have. Maybe not up to your standards but this is community theatre, they have to work with what budget they have. Also as most would know with lighting like what they had, the best colour for the set was white for the beams from the lighting would not have shown with a black set or even may have been reflected with the silver. “The sex was just not needed, if your going to do it do it well”, I found it appropriate, sensual and intimate. what would you have preferred, the leads to get down and dirty? It wasn’t a scene to show two people having sex; it was to show the intimacy and feelings that they shared. I thought it was very well done, Bravo! All the leads were brilliant, Galileo, sacra, meat, they all did brilliant. As for you saying that Meat was the only one who could sing, I think you might not have actually heard Jason Arrow, but this comment might be made out of jealousy? Brittany (shem le Scelle) I feel during the MPAC shows on the sat, he did amazingly well. For someone who has never thought about singing before apart from chorus, he has come a long way. Though I do not know where you get the idea for Capt. Feather sword, Brit didn’t sound like a pirate and the only resemblance I could fathom would be they both have husky voices. I think in the area of singing, it was fantastic. “I thought the director should have seen the show, I feel they didn’t get some of the show i.e. the start of the show I felt the direction was wrong the comedy should have come from the dialogue…” Fair enough, the dialogue was funny, would you have preferred them to stand on stage and just say the dialogue? Have no character? Not act at all? Your not supposed to stand on stage and present the dialogue… its called acting, you do other stuff apart from talk! And with Madonna, I don’t think you get the fact that Madonna used to wear big breast cups, and even so, it just adds to it being funny. Which is funnier, a big mad called Madonna, or a big man with large cones as breasts? They were supposed to have gotten their clothing ideas from old scraps of magazines, it’s the irony! As for the Teen queens and the waxing scene, Get a grip! I don’t see what was wrong with it other than it was two males with some of the dialogue. I don’t get what your problem is with that. The waxing scene… I think you watch too much movies, if you didn’t notice, I think you may have been the only one in the audience not laughing at that! With your lighting remark, do you actually realize that it was the MPAC who did that? I’m sure troy and Shane would be very interested to know who you are! Actually… I think they are doing the lighting for the wizard of oz would they not? Good luck with that. “But I think with how long they had for rehearsals they should have been able to produce an more interesting show that wasn’t the same through out… it didn’t grow and keep the audience interested” I really don’t know which show you were watching coz I think that the whole 3 weeks… 4 standing ovations is pretty good! 2 of which at the MPAC funnily enough. “MLT shouldn’t have toured this show to 3 venues, all of them different sizes and with capabilities miles apart. If they couldn’t have handled it I feel they should have taken it on and focus on one venue and more shows” I don’t believe they had a problem with 3 different venues, don’t criticize what you have no idea about. Pretty much you obviously have no sense of entertainment, humor or back bone come to think of it. There were a lot of things that could have been slightly improved but over all it was a fantastic show and me and my family loved it. Maybe you should think about staying away from seeing productions if you’re going to buy a ticket, sit there and pick out every little think that isn’t up to your standards instead of watching the play. Coming to this show in particular with the expectations of seeing what you have seen in the professional show was just stupid; every good director knows not to watch the same show before working on it for you won’t put in your own vision, and who wants to do exactly what someone else has done. But yes take my advice and don’t criticize anyone till you actually know one or 2 things about theatre. For it being a community theatre production it was amazing. Well done guys!

Thread (33 posts)

← Back to Theatre Reviews