INTO THE WOODS, WA

Hi Danniskye, and apologies for the overwrought (and lain rude) response below, which I feel personally was a little over the top perhaps?! Re getting in the big names. Unfortunately, that, too, doesn't work in this town. Last year we had Rent, apparently a popular and well known show. It was Yellowglass (and Eventainment who stuck in a bunch of the cash I thinnk), and the quality was exceptional- especially the locals. They brought in (I suspect against the wishes of the creative team) a former olympic games singing 'star', a platinum award winning recording artist, and a home and away star. Did the audiences come? Nope! and my understanding on rumours about town is that it lost a LOT of money...like times what you think by 20 or 30 times. More money than I could fathom. Whilst $45 for ITW is on the high side for me as a 'sturggling' musician with a baby 4 weeks away, it will be I am certain completely worth it. I paid more than $70 to see Saigon earlier this year on cheapie Easter w/e. Did I enjoy this show? Not really. The cast were great, the band exceptional, and everyone paid properly, but I just found that on my 2nd watching of this box office smash hit (the first time the original West End show) that it was just an ordinary show. Really ordinary. However, Burswood was packed... Don't get me started on my opinion of Cats either... However, the 4 big Cam Mac shows (Saigon, Cats, Phantom and Les Mis) have made well over 7 billion in box office. Does that make them good? No. It does make some people very rich though. So I don't have an answer. Maybe Yellowglass could look at the issue of presenting shows around uni exams (I know this was mentioned around Rent last year as a prob), but I maintain that Perth is yet to 'grow up' as a theatre audience. It doesn't matter how many millions of dollars we're making in the mines, it will take decades for us to change the theatre culture of WA. I am in for the long haul myself, and I hope that groups like Yellowglass will still be with me as well. OK, my wife wants me to leave the computer now! :-) Ciao Nev It's the simple things stupid...