As an aside...

My good friend Shaun recently shared this piece of golden knowledge regarding Paper - Sciscor - Rock.

I am a frequent psr-ee, using it as my primary tool when making signifigant life decisions, or to settle who has to get out of bed to turn off the TV at night.

I understand that scissors can beat paper, and I get how rock can beat scissors, but there's no fucking way paper can beat rock. Paper is supposed to magically "wrap around" rock, rendering it immobile? Why the hell can't paper do this to scissors? Screw scissors, why can't
paper do this to people? Why aren't sheets of notebook paper constantly suffocating students as they attempt to take notes in class?

I'll tell you why-- BECAUSE PAPER CAN'T BEAT ANYBODY! A rock would tear that shit up in 2 seconds.

When I play rock/paper/scissors, I always choose rock. Then when somebody claims to have beaten me with their paper, I punch them in the face with my already clenched fist and say, "Oh shit, I'm sorry. I thought that paper would protect you"

Pure gold.

The Age: "What Are We Coming To"

Front page of The Age newspaper here in Melbourne ran an article on stuff people melbournians would rather be doing than watching footie.

It shows people rolling around in the botanical gardens, enjoying a causal stroll and talks about how some people would "even rather go the library". Gasp! Shock Horror! Call your MP! SOMETHING MUST BE DONE!

Classic tag line: "What are we coming to??"

Is there hope for this footy crazed city? It's hillarious that editors are so alarmed at people actually enjoying things other than footie, that it's worthy of a front page article.

The dark side....it's so peppy.

Jersey Boys won the Tony award for best new musical this year, marking the even further decline of musical theatre into a mass-market, mass-produced, McDonalds style medium, where Jukebox musicals reign supreme.

I'll admit....it was slim pickings....Drowsy Chaperone (a musical which is a stylistic homage to the Cole Porter days of musical theatre), Wedding Singer....the movie had charm, the musical does not and Oprah's swaree into musical - The Colour Purple.

The Drowsy Chaperone was the closest thing to an original concept, and that made it's success by being a moderate parody of musical theatre, and though it wasn't strictly a jukebox musical (it had an original score, and even took the award for best new score), it's a stylistic parody of 30's and 40's musicals -- the Golden Era. So, it's as close as you can get to having a jukebox musical, without actually being one.

I must admit that these opinions are built on little more than stubbornness -- I haven't even listened to the Drowsy Chaperone yet -- more out of pricncple.

However, I gotta admit, that as Jukebox musicals go (and I still swear that I hate the bastards), Jersey Boys is pretty good. At least they haven't tried to cobble together some weak excuse of a storyline, ala We Will Rock You, Mamma Mia, Moving Out etc....

Jersey Boys tells the story of "The Four Seasons". The songs appear in the order they were churned out, and the story follows the trials and tribulations of selling 100 million records when you're a corner lightpost singer.

Maybe I'm just a sucker for the 50's music -- it's just so peppy! The cool grooves, and every song has a hook.

It's still shit.....it's still the darkside.....but it's nice to induldge from time to time.

Colour me excited

Miss Saigon is coming.

I lived in theatre-third-world (New Zealand) for years, so have missed the first round of Miss Saigon. It's been one of my staple shows for years, and is on my list of dream shows to MD.

As part of the open ended lead-up festival to it's opening here in Melbourne, I started re-obsessing about the soundtrack today. I forgot how much I love that score!

Wild Party auditions were great! A big thanks to anyone reading this blog who auditioned....the calibre was really high! I admit that I was a little worried going in, we only had about 50 auditonees (compared to about 150 for rent), but the calibre was so high!

What was particularly nice was the well thought out and chosen audition songs that people came with. Some real treats....nothing from the Tabu list, and a few unknown numbers that were just brilliant. One of our auditionees brought in an amazing number by a pair of Melbourne cabaret writers called something like "Falling out of love (There's so much to do)". It was brilliantly written, and the person who performed it hit it out the park.

(If you're reading, I'm soooo sorry we couldn't cast you in the show. Yours was the hardest casting decision I've ever had to make!!)

Rehearsals are going extremely well....albeit very rushed. We set the vocals for Gin & Wild, one of the most complex pieces of musical theatre written in modern times (makes Sondheim seem a doddle) in one rehearsal - 3 hours. It was a mammoth effort, and the cast pulled it off without even breaking a sweat.

Anyway....That's all for now, more later.