Scenes from Melbourne Friday


Scenes from..., originally uploaded by Paul-in-London.

Not that I would like to admit it normally, but on Friday I did see Miss Saigon as it was either that or Menopause the musical (making its third return to Melbourne)... Miss Saigon is a show that takes itself a little too seriously and does go on forever (especially during the prancing er marching soldier sequences)... The cast seemed a little tired as well as if they were over the show before it closed... Although when lead David Harris appears in a floating bed in his boxer shorts in the first act (don't ask) I was hitting Adrian for his binoculars so I could get a closer look at the production...

I was disappointed that the little brat in the show (who yawned at least once) didn't get his own song too... I think he could have done with a number like "There is a rice paddy in a field"... But I guess we can't have everything...

Finally I think the message for the show is that if you are going to give your girlfriend a gun, make sure it only has one bullet in it... It is in Brisbane for a few weeks from Sunday but like Miss Saigon, I think the production needs a bullet...

It wasn't the only show I caught in Melbourne. I caught an amateur production of Cabaret while I was there. It was fascinating for the fact that the average age of the cast was 12, and that the woman playing Sally Bowles in her black wig looked like Jackie Macdonald. When she appeared later in the first act in a pink feather boa... It looked as if she was wearing Ozzie Osterich...

I also caught a rather depressing show Saturday evening about a woman who was throwing away the ashes of her dead son over the South Pole. It is off to play the Edinburgh Fringe and the cast were asking about what they should do to fix the show. I suggested lose the raffle for a balloon over Melbourne (although that may not have been part of the production). Afterall, when something is this dire there isn't much else to do... Mind you I was told it was better than their previous production "Macbeth on Ice" which was not about crystal meth (although I did ask as it seems to be the nation's favourite recreational activity)...

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