(no subject)
Hello all,
I've been having a few problems with motivation lately. I've mostly managed to do all the things I've needed to before deadlines (or if not before deadlines then before ACTUAL disaster) but a lot of my life seems to have turned into a rather elaborate game of chicken (how late can I leave making this phonecall...) and I've realised that whilst I'm doing that I feel HORRIBLY guilty posting here because it's a fun thing I guess?
Twitter & Facebook don't seem to have the same effect but the moment I open LJ for anything other than a theatre review (oh god SO BEHIND) or a book post (actually up-to-date) I feel vaguely sick & guilty which is stupid.
Anyway I spent today catching up on quite a lot of things I've been putting off so here I am :D And in an endeavour to aid my slightly fragile sense of competency (that word isn't right, I started with self esteem but that was even less correct) a review!
Sunset Boulevard @ ENO
You know as uncomfortable as the balcony at the ENO might be it has to be said it is a very well designed building from a view, well, point of view :-P We were a long way back but everything was visible which was lucky given the way Michael Xavier's clothes kept falling off *coughs*
I realise Glenn Close was meant to be the draw and she really was a brilliant Norma Desmond- fragile and monstrous in equal parts and when her voice cracked it felt right not just that it's weakening.
BUT
Mostly I was in seventh heaven listening to that score played by a full orchestra on stage ♥ I know it's ALW and I know in a lot of ways it's very typical of his output- Mum didn't know the score but felt like she knew even the songs she'd never heard- but for whatever reason it's one of my favourite ALW scores and it's one I love to play (badly) on the piano and one that gets stuck in my head regularly and the moment the overture started my heart wanted to burst.
(and then I wanted to stab the woman behind me who wouldn't stop talking THE OVERTURE MEANS SHUT UP TIME NOW)
The sweep of that huge sound in With One Look and the tenderness they managed in We Taught the World... it was all just beautiful.
And it wasn't semi-staged. Just because the orchestra was on stage the rest of the staging wasn't "semi" anything- there was an actual car for goodness sake. Though also the lights used as cars racing down the hills were so clever and the scaffolding and the flickering lights suggesting a pool. The only bit we were less than convinced by was the weird falling man that appeared at the start of the second half and we all expected to fall slowly as the act developed but, oh no, he was only lowered AFTER Joe died :-/
As I've said Glenn was very good and Michael Xavier more than matched her. Much as I hate to complain about more chances to ogle him I felt the swimming costume and then dressing gown on, swim suit off, nod & wink was utterly unnecessary during Sunset Boulevard itsled. It's such a great song, it's Joe's defining moment, why didn't they trust it? (I enjoyed seeing him stripped for his new suit in Act one though :-P)
And everyone else was great too, some lovely dance numbers, Fred Johanson's voice stunning everyone and I though Siobhan Dillon made a perfect Betty (even if I'll never understand how she's with Artie in the first place).
If you like the show at all, or like silent films I'd definitely recommend picking up a ticket and it turns out all the ticketing panic way back when they were released did not result in a sell out (yet)
I've been having a few problems with motivation lately. I've mostly managed to do all the things I've needed to before deadlines (or if not before deadlines then before ACTUAL disaster) but a lot of my life seems to have turned into a rather elaborate game of chicken (how late can I leave making this phonecall...) and I've realised that whilst I'm doing that I feel HORRIBLY guilty posting here because it's a fun thing I guess?
Twitter & Facebook don't seem to have the same effect but the moment I open LJ for anything other than a theatre review (oh god SO BEHIND) or a book post (actually up-to-date) I feel vaguely sick & guilty which is stupid.
Anyway I spent today catching up on quite a lot of things I've been putting off so here I am :D And in an endeavour to aid my slightly fragile sense of competency (that word isn't right, I started with self esteem but that was even less correct) a review!
Sunset Boulevard @ ENO
You know as uncomfortable as the balcony at the ENO might be it has to be said it is a very well designed building from a view, well, point of view :-P We were a long way back but everything was visible which was lucky given the way Michael Xavier's clothes kept falling off *coughs*
I realise Glenn Close was meant to be the draw and she really was a brilliant Norma Desmond- fragile and monstrous in equal parts and when her voice cracked it felt right not just that it's weakening.
BUT
Mostly I was in seventh heaven listening to that score played by a full orchestra on stage ♥ I know it's ALW and I know in a lot of ways it's very typical of his output- Mum didn't know the score but felt like she knew even the songs she'd never heard- but for whatever reason it's one of my favourite ALW scores and it's one I love to play (badly) on the piano and one that gets stuck in my head regularly and the moment the overture started my heart wanted to burst.
(and then I wanted to stab the woman behind me who wouldn't stop talking THE OVERTURE MEANS SHUT UP TIME NOW)
The sweep of that huge sound in With One Look and the tenderness they managed in We Taught the World... it was all just beautiful.
And it wasn't semi-staged. Just because the orchestra was on stage the rest of the staging wasn't "semi" anything- there was an actual car for goodness sake. Though also the lights used as cars racing down the hills were so clever and the scaffolding and the flickering lights suggesting a pool. The only bit we were less than convinced by was the weird falling man that appeared at the start of the second half and we all expected to fall slowly as the act developed but, oh no, he was only lowered AFTER Joe died :-/
As I've said Glenn was very good and Michael Xavier more than matched her. Much as I hate to complain about more chances to ogle him I felt the swimming costume and then dressing gown on, swim suit off, nod & wink was utterly unnecessary during Sunset Boulevard itsled. It's such a great song, it's Joe's defining moment, why didn't they trust it? (I enjoyed seeing him stripped for his new suit in Act one though :-P)
And everyone else was great too, some lovely dance numbers, Fred Johanson's voice stunning everyone and I though Siobhan Dillon made a perfect Betty (even if I'll never understand how she's with Artie in the first place).
If you like the show at all, or like silent films I'd definitely recommend picking up a ticket and it turns out all the ticketing panic way back when they were released did not result in a sell out (yet)