Friday, April 25, 2008

Chicago Schmago

I went to see the musical Chicago at the theatre royal in Christchurch last night. All I can say is thank god I didn't pay for the ticket!



I would have done a runner at half time had I not been sat in front of my boss and next to the lady that organised it for us all!



I managed to keep myself amused with my colleagues binoculars - yes we were in the gods so you could discover many interesting things through the lens of the binoculars!!

So here are a few binocular observations:



On close inspection Velma was played by a lady who was let's say, not a spring chicken!! Her dancing was stilted - I was unsure whether it was the onset of arthritis or whether she was just a crap dancer!! Said woman also was either wearing dentures or had had her teeth fixed not so long ago!! You could hear the lisp thing when she sang!



Roxy - although a young and fairly good singer/dancer was almost as annoying as Renee Zellweger in the film version. Although she did get better towards the end of the musical. (And didn't look like the pasty white, anorexic box that Renee did in the film!!)



Amos (Roxy's husband) was in fact almost old enough to be her father!! He was an excellent actor though and I think was possibly the best out of all of them - great comedy timing. However I was still a little disturbed about the thought of them being husband and wife!



Billy Flynn (Roxy & Velma's attorney) was way too nicey nice!! He didn't have a hard enough edge to him to be taken seriously. More dapper friendly neighbour next door than dapper hard nosed attorney at law!!



Mary Sunshine was fantastic (the news reporter) - was actually a guy though (this is the point when the binoculars first came out cos I was trying to see if it was a guy or not!!) The operatic singing was good though and his comedy timing was fab!! Most amusing character!!



The guy that played Fred Casely was hot!! He was also a dancer for the rest of the production and was generally looking at him when whatever else was happening was invariably boring me - although the binoculars weren't out in time for the first scene when he got his butt out!! However, in one of the final scenes he did come out in a one piece leotard so he instantly lost his sex appeal - and although in the final scene was in a suit - I couldn't forget the image of the all in one white and red stripped leotard!!



So I don't know the names of the actual actors because I was not about to shell out $20 on a programme to find out!!

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