There's been bugger all Faux Chef work for me this week so I've been saying yes to everything Drum has been asking me to write.
"Can you go to Underbelly Arts Festival and review it for us please?"
"Yes." (review to come out next week. Feature to the side came out a couple of weeks ago).
"Can you interview the guy from Kino Short Film Festival please?"
"Yes."
"Can you interview someone from Legs On The Wall about their new show Bubble please?"
"Yes."
"Can you write something about Reefer Madness - "
"Yes!" (This one is going to be a blast).
"What about doing a review of Assass - "
"YES! Okay? Yes. Whatever you've got, I'll do it."
Made me feel a little bit of a writing whore, but what the hell.
Then I'm in the shower and I start to think about the show I'm getting ready to go and see, and I'm thinking, wait on - why does Stephen Sondheim ring a bell, but not a very big or nice one. I think harder. I stop mid-lather... Noooooooooooo... doesn't Stephen Sondheim do musicals? YES! Don't I really really hate musicals? YES!
Fuck.
8 comments:
Writing whore? Is that a bad thing? I think NOT.
Also, musical shmusical. You're in print. I envy you. ;-)
I like it all. I like writing about things I know about as well as things I don't know about but have to find out about.
Funny thing - when I realised it was a musical I didn't really care that I missed the bus and wasn't going to make it to the theatre. I've got both Drum reviews to write and I thought I'd just use up all the space writing about theUnderbelly Festival. But the next day I felt guilty and decided I'd go along to the matinee by myself while The Dreaded One was getting her hair done.
I really enjoyed my afternoon. It's a quirky old theatre down in Bondi Pavilion, the cast was about double the size of the audience (eight audience members, about 15 cast), the acting was occasionally shaky, occasionally bloody good, singing was also uneven, but overall I just loved it. I admired them for putting so much into it and I really got into the play.
At intermission I wandered outside and watched a big tango performance and looked out over Bondi Beach. Cold day but strangely beautiful and kind of strange.
Later that night we went to a party and someone who organises parties asked us if Black Rainbow and Pink Faery want to do a set at her next party. Neither of us have ever mixed but I said yes. We said we couldn't make the November party so she said what about January? I said totally, book it in. She booked it in and as she walked away, Ann said, "What did you just get us into?"
Bloody fun weekend, really. Got to take up DJing now...
Without getting too carried away with semantics, I would argue that Stephen Sondheim, in fact, does NOT do "Musicals", but rather Music Theatre ... of which "Assassins" is a near-perfect example. This may go some way to explaining why you came around to enjoying it ... and found yourself going there on your own time, as it were. When I saw it, many years ago at the Melbourne Theatre Company, I had owned the CD for a number of years. I loved its complexity and the score. I also really enjoyed how the songs were entrenched within the story-telling and added so many more motifs and layers to the narrative than a music-less version might have. I mean, imagine it as a play? Dreary. That, for me, is always the teller - and the key to the distinction between musicals and music theatre. Anyway, is there somewhere I can read you review?
Ah. Point taken, Geoffrey. Thank you. And yes you are right - without the music it would be a dry piece.
The review will be out in Drum Media tomorrow so I'll post it here in the next couple of days.
You're totally missing out on a whole genre of fun. I loooove musicals, especially the old-school ones. I once had a relationship based entirely on the lyrics from the Sound of Music.
There are an awful lot of genres of fun, Y, and we can't have them all. That would just be too much fun.
You have reminded me, Lee. I need to go see Company. And I've got a horrible feeling it's finished.
Geoff is right - music theatre is another country. Go visit more often.
Hello Genevieve. You are right. Geoffrey is right. Y is right. Music theatre is good. So is ballet and the symphony. So are outdoor psytrance dance festivals. I visit lots of countries :)
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