Pajama Empress

Work is fabulous.. it makes me so happy being there. I want to buy everything in the whole store, so ultimately it may not be terribly profitable! Even though I am required to wear a full face of their make-up (not a fan of having “stuff on my face”), I am also ‘encouraged’ to wear their scents and try their products throughout the day.. I end up waltzing out of there smelling like Neroli Jasmine, Monoi Butter, Fuzzy Peach, Pink Grapefruit and Aqua Lilly all at the same time. Also, the fact that I don’t have to do it all day, every day is something nice – I have time to regroup and get excited about it before I go again. At this point, the fact that I get paid to go there is a bonus.

After working all day (!), Sebastian and I attended a ’special’ meeting about the future of one of our local theatre companies. I imagined that we would all get together and come up with a plan for future greatness and be able to move forward, but it seems some people are just stuck in the past. The strongest sentiments came from two or three people, along the lines of “We can’t do it that way, we have to do it this way because we always have!”. Somebody actually referred to the other theatre companies in the town as “the opposition” – how absolutely archaic, and just when we thought that there was going to be some cooperation between companies! Things are not working at GMCC, change is in order; I understand that it is hard to acknowledge the faults in something you have worked on for such a long time, but honestly – our town is different, the venue is different, the people who want to be involved are different, and the people who are willing to buy tickets are a different breed to those of forty years ago. Change is simply necessary.

And it’s off my chest – I was practically yelling at Sebastian all the way home about it. It’s frustrating when you have a lot of opinions but cannot bring yourself to be forceful in expressing them, even when everybody else has no problem with it.

So I ate a McChicken. In the car. Everything felt a bit better after that.

Oh, I found something that is quite a laugh. Bradford was in the car with me when he told me about a rogue review of Mikado that managed to escape my attention for more than six months! My visitor stats tell me that almost everybody googles themselves; I had forgotten to do it myself. So I did. And this is what I found:

The only letdown was Rose Campbell who played Yum Yum. It pains me to say that as some elements of her performance were great. She tried to sing opera and just failed, bringing down the overall tone.

Name changed, of course, to prevent retaliatory google sleuthing! I didn’t include the whole review, but what a laugh; especially with how gushingly she praised everybody else. I did a little fieldwork and found a review that she had written for Romeo and Juliet, which followed a similar formula – she loved everybody except Juliet, who she had intense scorn for. Question though: how exactly does one sing “opera” when one is performing in a musical? If I were to sing opera, I would be singing a specific opera, would I not? I imagine she means “tried to sing operatically”. It’s actually quite funny, because I asked the musical director during production whether I should operatically, and he said no, that I should just sing it as I had in the audition – I sang in my normal voice, with good annunciation, opening up on the higher notes so that they didn’t come out of my nose. I wonder if Jade would have preferred me screeching out a pop belt?

Ah well, at least it is a source of amusement. I’ll have to stay tuned for her review of The Producers…
apparently she’s a veritable ‘brand’ and aspiring professional blogger. Maybe I’ll have to pay subscription to read her reviews? Ha.

Speaking of reviews, I guess I should say my little piece on The Wedding Singer. I saw Sebastian’s show on Saturday – I told him I was going to The Producers instead and snuck down to Williamstown by myself, via public transport. Scary! Especially on a football night.

Anyway, walking into the theatre, I was a little disappointed before it had even begun. It was a drab hall. There were some very pretty chandeliers, but I was actually a bit scared to stand under one of them (there were so many cracks running through the ceiling). The venue seemed to be a letdown, but now I’m realizing how much I have been spoiled by using professional theatres. I was quite harsh on the show as I was watching it, but eventually, it grabbed me and pulled me in. Without a huge fussy set or over-the-top lighting, the focus was on the performers and the band, which was great – especially after seeing blockbuster musical after blockbuster musical, where individual performances end up getting lost in the razzle-dazzle of it all. Alexandra Clover and Turanga Merito were fabulous as Julia and Robbie; both of them have amazing voices and were a pleasure to watch. Sebastian played the sleazy, lovable Sammy – I want to apologize in advance for anybody who has to witness his mullet, gold medallion glinting in his chest hair, adidas tracksuit and ‘beautiful’ dancing! Mark Spencer and Bianca Giorgetti are hysterical as George and Linda; but be warned, do not sit in the front row. Linda has an very raunchy extended dance; her gyrating fishnet and panty-clad behind was probably a metre from my face. A definite case of “where do you look?”, however I do want to borrow her wedding dress, and boots. Generally, it looked like a really fun show to be a part of; the ensemble, in particular Ezra Tepania, Lisa Pilkington, Narelle Bonnici and Samantha Symons – these guys really shone. I can’t be bothered writing a full, proper review, so just trust me and go see it! – there are good bits, there are bad bits, but it’s a lot of fun – book tickets online, and hurry because only 10% are left.

Must dash – no time to write when there are mermaids, matryoshkas and birds with fantastical plumage to be drawn.