I guess we attended a fair number of shows at Centre in the Square last season, because this summer they offered us a free StarCentre membership, whose main benefit is the opportunity to buy tickets in advance. And the first pre-sale opportunity was tickets for The Book of Mormon in December.
I really wanted to see Book of Mormon even though I really knew nothing about this musical, other than:
It was supposed to be really good.
It was supposed to be really funny.
It was written by the same guys who did South Park.
It somehow did involve characters who were Mormons.
The mood for the evening was set early, as we greeted on the corner by an actual Mormon (or so he said, but why would he lie? And he definitely had the outfit) who gave us a free copy of the actual Book of Mormon. (And thus I learned there was an actual Book of Mormon.)
In a bid to find parking at this sold-out performance, we had arrived early, and so decided to take advantage of another membership benefit: The opportunity to use the exclusive Member’s Lounge downstairs, before the show.
That was quite lovely. The room is beautiful and you’re definitely treated like an all-star: Take your coat, show you to a seat, take your drink order, bring it to you with free popcorn. A large-screen TV counts down the time until show start, so you don’t miss anything. Use the washroom without having to line up first.
(The drink prices were rather high, mind you. Luxury has its price, and here it’s $12 for a glass of Pinot.)
Our pre-sale purchase had garnered us seats in row A, which has extra leg room—a bit wasted on us, but pleasant nonetheless.
Sometimes Kitchener gets “discount” versions of Broadway show, but this one was a proper production, with the full, A-list cast and elaborate sets. And it was everything I expected it to be: good, funny, South Park-y, Mormon-y. But it was full of surprises, too.
It is, to some extent, mocking religion in general, and the modern, American religion of Mormonism in particular. It definitely highlighted some of the odder aspects of that faith’s dogma, which I hadn’t previously been familiar with. (It does not, by the way, touch on the issue of bigamy at all.) It reminded me of the infamous South Park episode where they took on the even more modern, American religion of Scientology.
But it isn’t simple-minded or mean in its mocking. By setting most of the piece in the troubled country of Uganda, it also ends up showing how religion can be helpful, and comforting, and empowering—as long as its allowed to be flexible.
And now I’ve made the musical sound somewhat serious, when it’s not at all—it’s hilarious, in ways obvious and subtle (like coffee being the big temptation for a Mormon!). I think that’s the genius of it. At the time, you’re just being shocked and surprised and thoroughly entertained. But later on, you’re giving it deeper thought (or I am, anyway).
If you get a chance to see this production, I encourage you to do so. Even if you think you don’t like musicals.
(As long as you’re not offended by coarse language. Viewer discretion is advised. 🙂 )
What I remember of Footloose the movie is that a preacher in a small town has banned dancing. Kevin Bacon moves to that town, takes up with the minister’s daughter, and dances his way into convincing the town to lift the ban.
Footloose the Musical, which we saw at the St. Jacob’s Playhouse, was very well-done, but the sadness running through the whole piece was a surprise to me. If also in the movie, I had forgotten about the abandoning father, the dead son and brother, the silenced women. Those people really needed to dance!
Jean was mostly sad that a piece that we first saw as contemporary is now an item of nostalgia.
A 100-mile feast with 7000 km theme
It’s somewhat confusing that 100-mile dinner of local food has a theme of A Tour of Italy, a country 7169 km away (says Google). But that’s what the Waterloo Inn had an offer, as sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce and in benefit of local physician recruitment.
It was the place to be if you wanted to network. We were there for the food, but gathered up various business cards nonetheless. We were encouraged to Tweet during dinner, and so I did, and as a real rarity, also acted as food “photographer.” (I did all five courses, but will stick to three here.)
The Importance of Being Earnest: Reliably entertaining
I’ve seen the play before, I’ve seen the movie, yet I didn’t hesitate when invited to the University of Waterloo production of this Oscar Wilde play—and not only because the tickets were free (for me, because I’m special :-). I never remember the story that well; just that I really enjoyed watching it play out! This production, in the newly renovated Humanities Theatre, was no exception.
More people need to go to Marisol
We dined there before the Swing concert, and it was lovely as always, but alarmingly quiet for a Friday night. More people need to find this place! We can’t keep losing the area’s best restaurants.
Christmas parties
Some companies still have these. If yours doesn’t, I recommend marrying into one that does. It’s worked out for me.
Writers on music: Like dancing about architecture?
That’s the saying, eh, that writing is about music is like dancing about architecture. Well, the KW Symphony begs to differ, and recently had a concert featuring novelists Miriam Toews and Wayne Grady, whose recent books (All My Puny Sorrows and Emancipation Day) have musicians as main characters.
Each novelist got half of the program, in which they read from their work, had the symphony play a piece related to what they read, discussed music and writing with the conductor, then listened to a modern work by the symphony and read a response to that.
it was a fascinating evening. The symphony were “forced” into genres they don’t typically tackle—jazz and piano concertos (featuring a lovely soloist from Wilfrid Laurier), and I’m sure the novelists hadn’t been previously familiar with the work they commented on.
It’s a historic, downtown Toronto performing arts theatre, seating about 3000, beloved by many Canadian artists, such as Gordon Lightfoot and Lowest of the Low. I’ve seen some fine performances there, by Ray Davies, Jon Stewart, and Classic Albums Live performing Queen’s A Night at the Opera.
But I’ve always found it amusing that the cheaper seats—the ones higher and further back from the stage—are literally worse seats: they don’t have any cushions. That is, in the orchestra area, the chairs themselves are actually better, as though improved sightlines were not sufficient motivation for charging more for tickets. One also gains added comfort.
I could find that an amusing quirk, because I’d personally always managed to get seats in the center orchestra area.
Until this weekend.
Though I didn’t dawdle in getting tickets for Classic Albums Live: Who’s Next, I had to wait until after the subscribers and members were done until I could get my own. At that point, only Left and not Centre Orchestra was offered up as Best Available.
Now, left orchestra seats do have cushions. What they lack, however, is width. Seriously. They are super-narrow seats. You might think economy airline seats are bad, but these are worse.
This was a bit of a problem for my broad-shouldered husband, who had to spend the whole show sitting awkwardly askew, yet still spilling over into my seat and feeling he had to apologize to the woman on his other side.
But he was still better off than men in some other rows, where several large guys were seated next to each other. I’m not even sure how they managed.
So if ever wondering why the people in side orchestra seats at Massey Hall are so quick and frequent in providing standing ovations: It’s not they are particularly appreciative of the performance. It’s because they need to stretch!
Now hey, on with the show…
I was very excited that the Classic Albums Live group was tacking Who’s Next, my favorite Who album, even if it required a trip to Toronto. Only 10 songs long, Who’s Next contains no filler. It starts with “Baba O’Riley” (Teenage Wasteland) and contains both the song erroneously considered to be their best, “We Won’t Get Fooled Again”, and the one that actually is, “Behind Blue Eyes”.
Live, “Baba” was a stunning opener (just as it is for The Who), with the insane ending rendered amazingly by a cellist and the Moon-like drummer. This cellist was to demonstrate her musical chops all evening, as she moved between trumpet, keyboards, and vocals. That’s range, folks!
On “Bargain”, I was especially struck by the three guys who came out to do a clapping sequence, because:
a) I’d never noticed the clapping sequence in the original
b) I thought it was cool you could get a job in music just clapping
On point b), however, I was soon disavowed of that notion, as the three guys joined the cellist on horns for “My Wife”.
Clearly, the band size varied based on needs, but were always larger in number than the four members of The Who. Apart from the musicians already mentioned, we had another keyboardist (who just stuck to that instrument, covering all the synthesizer bits), an acoustic guitarist, an electric guitarist, a bass player, another background vocalist, and a lead singer. He was the same person who did The Queen show, and while he doesn’t sound like Freddie Mercury or Roger Daltrey, he has the range and power to do both justice, and that’s what matters—even though he does tend to mess up the lyrics at times.
And, we got one more special guest on “Won’t Get Fooled Again”: A second lead vocalist—the guy who sings at their Led Zeppelin shows—was brought out to make The Scream as epic as it needed to be.
A compilation of Roger Daltrey screams for YGFA
(And that is the sort of special extra thing you get in the Toronto performances of Classic Albums Live that you usually don’t in the touring productions.)
So overall, it was a superlative job by the band. The only problem had nothing to do with them, but with the guy beside me (not Jean), who insisted on singing along—really badly—with a number of the songs. This completely ruined for me what should have been the highlight of the whole show, the lovely vocal harmonies at the beginning of “Behind Blue Eyes”.
Honestly. I now kind of understand why The Who themselves played so loud!
The second half featured a variety of other Who songs—including 5:15, The Real Me, The Seeker, Pinball Wizard, You Better You Bet, Love Reign O’er Me (and thank God, with no overdubbed vocals from my tone-deaf seat-mate) and Who Are You.
And for the true Who geeks in the audience, they also did the extended, 10-minute version of “My Generation” from Live at Leeds, (which segues into various bits of Tommy, etc.), performing it very honestly, with only the same number of musicians as the original: Just four. It was really very cool, the faithful reproduction of something originally completely improvised. I have to wonder how many in the audience knew what that was?
Regardless. We in the side aisles were all happy to give it a standing ovation! 🙂
Le Groupe Swing is a franco-Ontarian band that we first discovered at a Canada Day concert in the Ottawa region about seven years ago. As soon as they came on and started playing, the whole crowd was on their feet, and pretty much stayed there. (Whereas they sat for the headliner.) And I became an instant fan of their music, a fusion of traditional folk with elements of hip-hop and techno: Technotrad, they call it.
I’d been wanting to see them in concert again ever since, but what the singing mostly in French, Southern Ontario is not a regular destination for them. So I was very excited to see, up on the ad screen at the Princess Cinema, that Swing would be performing at Victoria Pavillon on November 14, courtesy of L’association francophone de Kitchener-Waterloo.
I was wondering how the KW crowd would respond to them compared with the Gatineau one. I’ve found KW audiences to be rather staid and quite reluctant to get up and dance—to a frustrating degree, at times. So I wasn’t too optimistic on that front.
I did predict that part of the crowd might be drawn from Swing’s occasional appearances at local French high schools, and that age group was represented, along with older association members (one assumes). I wasn’t expecting quite so many little kids as there were, however. (Let’s hope those kids aren’t too, too familiar with French Canadian slang, as some of their lyrics are a bit—edgy.)
And did the crowd all jump to their feet at the first note Swing played? No! Absolutely not.
But to be fair, they started with cover—all in English—of “Born to Be Wild”. It was a serviceable version, and I like the song, but I didn’t want watered-down, anglicized Swing.
I needn’t have worried. The rest of the set was almost entirely their music, and when singer Michel Bénac pointed out the big dance space in front of the stage, a stalwart four headed right up there to dance, and stayed pretty much the whole evening.
Furthermore, to my surprise, they were joined by more and more people as the evening went on. I was up there by about song 4, Jean resisted until about song 10, and the other couple we went with finally made their way up there as well, for the final set of songs. The band’s music is just irresistible, the singer determined that we are all going to have a good time!
“C’est un party avec Swing!” And it was.
They definitely included most of my favorite songs of theirs—La tête me tourne encore (“You make my head spin—in a good way”), Au nom du père et du fils et du set carré (“In the name of the father, the son, and the square dance”), Belle débousollée (“Beautiful distraught woman”), La vie comme ca (“Life as it is”), and “One Day” (the song wherein they rib anglophones).
The crowd’s favorites (which I also like) were La Goutte (“The Drip”)—“You know this one!” commented Bénac appreciatively (in French)—and the encore, “CB Buddy”.
But we were also treated to some of their very latest songs, such as the single released just last week, “C’Okay” (it got to number 6 on iTunes, by the way), and songs from their recent EP, such as “One Thought”, and even a song that won’t be released for a few months yet. So at least at two live premieres of their music.
And, when we all needed a rest from dancing and hopping—including Michel Bénac (who appears to me to be in amazing shape)—we partook of a camp sing-a-long of eighties classics such as “Billy Jean”, “Every Breath You Take“, “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun“ (for the girls), and for the guys—“Baby” by Bieber! Psych!
The between-song patter fun and friendly and all in franglais, except for one shout-out to the anglos in the audience, who were thanked for coming and “being the minority for once. Feels weird, eh?”
Apart from Bénac, the band has a DJ who also does some hip-hop dancing, a violinist, a guitarist, a bass player, and a drummer. Unfortunately, the acoustics (or the sound system?) in that room were not very good. Nevertheless, we could tell they had a high degree of musicianship.
Swing is really one of the best live bands I’ve ever seen.
“So good they can even get Kitchener-ites and Waterloo-vians to their feet.”
Most of my favorite musical acts are Serious Artists who come out with Concept Albums (Arcade Fire) or Rock Operas (The Who), who tackle serious issues (U2, Sting) and write deeply intelligent, complex lyrics (Elvis Costello), who explore deep emotion (Alanis Morissette, Tori Amos) or at least serious anger (Nirvana).
But my very favorite band, Queen, does none of that (or least, not very much). Though a bunch of seriously intelligent guys, they chose to write about love and lust and bicycle races and seasides and “having a good time, having a good time.”
So it’s fitting that their live show is basically an over-the-top, entertaining, fun fest.
Complete with lasers and disco balls.
“I didn’t know you were a fan of Adam Lambert” — someone at work, to me
So let me ask you. What do you think about the new guy? — Brian May, to Toronto crowd
I thought Adam Lambert was great. I’m not that surprised that I did, though. I first saw him perform with Queen on this iHeartRadio YouTube concert, and I was seriously impressed. Sunday night, he did not disappoint.
No, he doesn’t sound like Freddie. So he wisely doesn’t sing the songs as Freddie did. With May and Taylor (and Spike Edney, long-time tour keyboardist) providing the musical backbone, they’re recognizably the Queen songs we all know and love, but he gives them his own phrasing and pitch and emphasis. For example, even when he does a Freddie-like call and response, he doesn’t play on day-o sounds as Freddie did. Instead he gives an increasingly a funky play on the “need your loving” line from “Tie Your Mother Down”.
It was a variations on a theme like that, all night.
And doesn’t hurt that the boy’s voice is truly amazing in its own right. “Show Must Go On” is supposed to be his major showcase, and I have no complaints about his singing on that, but I was particularly blown away by his take on the gorgeous “Who Wants to Live Forever?” And unlike the old coots I usually go see, he’s only 31. He could and did confidently hit and hold every note he went for.
I also didn’t mind that he’s gorgeous, and that he changed his costume five times during the show. I think my favorite was this one, with the Daltry-esque fringes:
If one thing did surprise me, it was just how camp his performance was. Note the chaise lounge above, used during the performance of “Killer Queen”. He spent most of the song reclining on that, batting his eyes, and even fanning himself. It was hilarious and fantastic and so gay.
Image from Montreal concert, courtesy @Grrrr_girl
(I wondered briefly if this is more how Freddie would have performed had not felt inclined to be discrete about his personal life. Then I realized that was a stupid thing to think about man who wore ballet tights as a stage costume, and refused to shave his “gay” mustache no matter how many razors fans threw on-stage. Freddie clearly performed exactly how he wanted to perform.)
Edited to add this amazing video of “Somebody to Love” from this concert, by someone with way better seats than me.
Tell me you don’t love Adam Lambert after watching this…
On Roger Taylor
Isn’t that fantastic? He’s singing and playing the drums! — Adam Lambert, on Roger Taylor
The first part of the show definitely highlighted Lambert and Brian May, as they of course are down front and can play off each other and run down the ramps whose design confused us at first, but when lit revealed themselves to be a giant Q.
The top of the Q is cut off here, but hopefully you get the idea
But the other original member of Queen on hand was, of course, drummer Roger Taylor. Roger is not one of the rare, flashy drummers (like Tommy Lee or Keith Moon) who draw your attention away from the musicians in front of him.
However, he’s also more than just the drummer. He wrote many of Queen’s best songs and biggest hits. He sang all the highest notes in those layered harmonies, and often took lead vocal duties as well. His solo oeuvre is the best of any of the band members, and on those albums, he plays guitar. He also bore the burden of being the best-looking member of Queen.
So I was pleased that that Roger also got some time in the spotlight, heading down front to play tambourine when Brian sang “39”, then taking his own lead vocal on “Days of Our Lives”, sung over a backdrop of Queen photos and videos from the past. Then back on drum kit (miraculously moved out front) he took over the David Bowie part of “Under Pressure” while Adam Lambert did Freddie’s. (And Adam’s correct; I’ve always been impressed at Roger’s ability to drum and sing.)
The drum parts during Roger’s solo turns were covered by his son Rufus, who can now compete with Adam for “best-looking member of Queen”. Father and son also did a bit of drum-off, revealing that Roger had passed along musical skill along with the blonde hair.
Rufus (left) may need a haircut to *really* compete with Adam on looks… Photo by @Glam4Mama, from New York show
I don’t like to go on too long on drum solos. I don’t want the audience to get bored.
It never seems to bother Brian, though. —Roger Taylor, on Brian (Not to the Toronto crowd)
Dr. Brian May
Brian May definitely seemed to have the greatest affection from the crowd, though. He earned a standing ovation merely for walking to the front of the stage to introduce the more acoustic part of the evening, the “Love of My Life” singalong. I became rather choked up during that part, I must admit, which surprised me, especially as it occurred well before Freddie appeared on the big monitor to sing the final verse.
But Mr. Brian May also teared up during that last part of the song, so I was in good company.
Brian then went on to explain the astrophysics behind 39 (he does have a doctorate in physics, after all), commenting, “I used to think it would be a great idea to go and explore other planets. Now I’m not so sure, since we’ve fucked up this one so badly.” And that anger also surprised, though it probably shouldn’t either, given that I follow him on Twitter…
And a little later in the evening, he indeed did a long guitar solo.
Now, thank God the effects during that thing were really pretty incredible. The photo below is just a tiny taste; they used the screens and the lighting and the lasers and that was pretty riveting.
Unlike the solo, which was just too long, at least for me (and every Toronto critic I read, though they didn’t agree on much else). Of course, I still joined the standing ovation after, but that was just to maintain my sight lines. Really, I was thinking, “Don’t! You’ll just encourage him!”
The hits keep coming
I think this every time I see a Queen-related show: Man, they’ve had a lot of hits. But they fortunately do include some less well-known numbers also, like “Stone Cold Crazy” (made more famous by Metallica than Queen), “Lap of the Gods,” and “Love Kills”, which is actually a Freddie solo track that the band will be re-releasing with new instrumental backing.
The song I was happiest to hear was “I Want It All”, not only because I love it, but also because it was made for the stage, and is one they were unfortunately never able to perform with Freddie, as he was too ill at that point.
The song I was most surprised to enjoy was “Fat Bottomed Girls”, because I don’t love it, normally, but damn it was so much fun live!
This was the set list:
Now I’m Here ♦ Stone Cold Crazy ♦ Another One Bites the Dust ♦ Fat Bottomed Girls ♦ Lap of the Gods ♦ Seven Seas of Rhye ♦ Killer Queen ♦ Somebody to Love ♦ I Want It All ♦ Love of My Life ♦ 39 ♦ Days of Our Lives ♦ Under Pressure ♦ Love Kills ♦ Who Wants to Live Forever ♦ Guitar solo ♦ Tie Your Mother Down ♦ Radio Gaga ♦ Crazy Little Thing Called Love ♦ The Show Must Go On ♦ Bohemian Rhapsody ♦ We Will Rock You ♦ We Are the Champions
That’s amazing, right? And it still leaves out so many great songs (Keep Yourself Alive, You’re My Best Friend, I Want to Break Free, One Vision, A Kind of Magic, Dragon Attack…)
Someone still loves you
This press said this show was sold out, and certainly the Air Canada Centre looked very full. (Though the two people next to us didn’t show up, so we had extra elbow room!)
And it was lovely to be in a room full of Queen fans. This was a first for me.
I’ve been to a lot of Queen tribute-y things, but the people there never seem to know anything beyond the chorus of We Will Rock You.
This crowd knew the verses to We Will Rock You. And all the lyrics to “Love of My Life” and “39”, which were never singles. And they knew exactly how to clap during “Radio Gaga”. And when their matches (or cell phones) needed to “still light up the sky”.
Among the devoted
And unlike the Globe and Mail reporter who reviewed this show, I’m sure they knew that Queen always just leaves the stags plays the video during the operatic part of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. That it wasn’t just getting excessive on the Freddie tribute.
Of course, that video Freddie and live Adam traded off the final lines of “Bohemian Rhapsody” was a new addition, but who can complain of that? It was lovely. (And made for only the third Freddie appearance all evening. Hardly excessive.)
Jean and I have been taking ballroom dance lessons for quite a few years. But beyond class and practice sessions, it’s not a skill we get to use that often.
One of our signature moves. (Or not.)
Our instructors periodically organize dances that we attend, and there is a local Rainbow Rhythm ballroom dance group that puts on monthly events. We’ve been to a couple of those. At these evenings, everyone knows how to ballroom dance—albeit at different skill levels—so everyone dances in twos, in dance hold, and we all move around the floor in the same direction. The main challenge is that the floor tends to be more crowded than we’re used to in dance class.
Then sometimes we get invited to weddings, anniversaries, or work functions at which there is a DJ and dance floor. At these, of course, most people have no dance training and don’t follow any rules. They just move to the music, on their own, with one other person, or with a group of other people. Of course, that’s fun, and we do a some of that also, but we will also try to find a corner to actually dance steps together. Latin dances and jive, usually done in one spot, are usually manageable. But trying to waltz, fox trot, or quick step around the room is generally impossible.
Other people in our class expend a great deal more effort than we do trying to find places to dance. One spot they return to regularly is the Blue Moon, in the small nearby town of Petersburg. They especially like it when Dianne & the Cavaliers are playing there.
I’d been reluctant to go because their music has been described as Country Western, which—gotta say—is not my favorite! But when the whole rest of the class agreed to go last Saturday, we figured we should give it a try.
And damn, it was fun.
Country western it was, but good. Johnny Cash tunes, a whole medley of great 50s rock (starting with “Rock Around the Clock”), waltzes (mostly Viennese) like the Waltz of Texas, slow foxes, quick steps—just all with a twang. Talented band.
Now, it wasn’t always clear which dance to do. And looking around the floor didn’t necessarily help much. Although everyone was in dance hold, they weren’t necessarily doing the dances we learn in class. And they certainly weren’t respecting the line of dance. So even when we figured out the rhythm and what dance that implied (occasionally after trying out several), we still had to adapt. Rumbas (normally a stationary dance) that had to move around the room. Waltzes that had to weave in lines instead of circulate. And we kept getting stuck in the middle (“stuck in the middle with you,” Jean sang to me, at one point).
But figuring all that out was also rather fun. And the evening was great exercise, because they don’t play too many slow songs!
Not what the crowd at the Blue Moon looked like
Jean marveled at the novelty of a room full of people all dancing as couples, doing steps, yet those not being “strictly ballroom”. And that it was a probably a generational thing—as we were leaving, he pointed out that we definitely appeared to be the youngest people there.
That hadn’t particularly noticed that til then is perhaps proof that dancing keeps you young. (Or, that I’m just not that observant. Could go either way.)
As previously mentioned, May was a big concert month for us. Unusually for us, we went out to eat before three of these outings.
1. Food trucks and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy
Big Bad Voodoo Daddy are a band who play retro, swinging jazz music. Before their concert at Centre in the Square, the Waterloo Hep Cat Hoppers were offering a dance lesson in the lobby. We wanted to take part in that, but it was at 6:30 pm on a work night, which seemed a bit tight.
So when Centre in the Square announced they’d have a couple food trucks there that night starting at 6:00, that seemed like a good option.
Seemed. But while food trucks are a whole big thing right now, they have a few problems.
Weather. At least the rain held off until we’d gotten our food and eaten it, but it was windy and cool, making it less than fabulous for eating outdoors.
Eating standing up. I’m a big fan of working standing up, but eating a meal is best enjoyed sitting down. Using metal and not plastic cutlery.
Standing in line. Just not my favorite activity. Made worst by the fact that while we were there promptly at 6:00, the trucks were not really ready until 6:15, allowing other people to get ahead of us in line, and making us a bit late for the dance lesson.
As for food quality… Meh… Jean didn’t particularly enjoy his Tandoori grilled cheese. I thought my Mediterranean crepe wasn’t bad, but not really worth braving weather / eating standing up / standing in line for again, unless I was stuck.
The dance lesson, though, was fine. What we were taught was very similar to the jive that Jean and I know well, only instead of backstep / step / step (or triple step), it was back-step / kick / kick. It was really hard to remember to do the kick / kick when we were so used to the step / step. Occasionally we just rebelled and reverted to jive dancing. But a good time.
As for the Big Bad Voodoo Daddy performance, that was hard not to enjoy also, as the music is so lively and fun. I hadn’t known that the band, the same group of people, had been together since 1995. Jean wasn’t in the greatest mood that night (and I’m sure the grilled cheese didn’t help), but he could still recognize that they gave a really good show. (Should point out that this concert was his idea for a change, rather than mine.)
Three Kretans is a Greek restaurant very close to Centre in the Square. For the past year or two, Centre in the Square’s parking lot has been under construction, making it a challenge to find a spot to leave your car before shows. So Three Kretans has come up with a pretty smart offer: Have dinner there, leave your car in their parking lot (for free), and walk to theatre. They have a pre-theatre menu that gets you to the show on time. With the ballroom concert at 7:00 on a week night, we decided to go that right.
The food isn’t bad. It is a casual Greek restaurnt, so you get your lamb, chicken, or pork skewers with potatoes and rice and Greek salad. And baklava-type dessert, if you want.
But Jean was underwhelmed. “I get better food than this at home,” he pointed out. [Ah, the perils of being such a fantastic home cook! 🙂 ]
The show, fortunately was in no way disappointing. Music was all provided by the KW Symphony, and the evening was hosted by Kym Johnson and Tristan MacManus of Dancing with the Stars, and also featured other dancers that show. That fact probably would have been more exciting if I watched Dancing with the Stars. (By the way, everyone in our ballroom dance class thinks it’s highly peculiar that we don’t watch that show.) And there were a couple singers from American Idol, which, again, I don’t watch, so I didn’t know who they were. But while the woman certainly had a nice voice, I will admit to being particularly impressed by the dude, one Von Smith, who had most impressive range and control.
Mainly, though, this was about dancing. It featured group numbers, solos, duets, mostly in the Latin and ballroom genres (though in that showy TV style with all the lifts and whatnot), but the twist was the inclusion of some modern and hip hop dancing as well. This was largely due to the inclusion of a couple dancers I had heard of: Legacy and Randi Lynn Strong, from So You Think You Can Dance. Their numbers were definitely my favorites. Very cool how the So You Think… training allows them to join the ballroom dancers in that genre, but also shine in their own.
At one point, the hosts even got the audience up dancing! All very fun.
Afterward we got to attend a reception with the performers, though I continued my tradition of never knowing what to say when in these situations. Still, what we learned from other people’s question were:
This was their only Canadian performance.
They don’t always get to perform with a live symphony, but like it when they do
… except when the symphony can’t keep the beat. But apparently, that was not a problem with the KW Symphony.
Randi Lynn Strong at Centre in the Square reception
After taking a few crappy phone photos, we headed home.
3. Marisol and KW Symphony Superheroes
Jean pointed out that Marisol restaurant is also close to Centre in the Square, but offers better food than Three Kretans. So though I hadn’t planned to go out to eat again this month, as we hadn’t been there in a while, I made a reservation before the final month’s concert.
It was a very enjoyable dinner. As an appetizer, we shared six small but delicious raspberry point oysters (they actually gave us seven, probably due to the size) and marinated sardines, served with a salad. There’s no beating fresh sardines from Portugal, but marinating them proved a rather good choice for those of us farther from the sea. We were so excited about these, we forgot to get a picture until almost done:
The remnants of our appetizers
As the wine, the waiter suggested a Portuguese Viognier-Sauvignon Blanc blend that was lemony and well-suited to the food.
I continued the seafood theme through dinner, having the fish of the day, which was sea bream. Served whole, it was really easy to fillet, and had been cooked very nicely. The side was a pasta made in-house, dressed simply with lemon, olive oil, and parsley.
Jean went with the lemon-tomato gnocchi. The texture of the pasta was perfect, and the flavor was more subtle than one usually gets with gnocchi. Not a bad thing.
For dessert, we share a creme caramel and forgot to take pictures, again.
We were in plenty of time to walk over for our concert, which the KW Symphony performing music from Superhero movies. This was conducted by John Morris Phillips, Cincinnati Pops conductor, who is always a lot of fun.
The only themes I knew in advance was Darth Vadar’s from Star Wars, but I found most quite engaging. The themes from Dark Knight, Supergirl, and X–Men were particularly striking. A lot were almost hilariously short, though; just the length of the opening credits, I guess! In some cases they put a few scores together to make a somewhat longer “theme” piece. Nothing that ever really taxed the attention span, though.
It was a great way to showcase the symphony’s skill, and it was nice to see a very full house in attendance.
We somehow ended up with quite a few cultural activities booked in May, the most recent of which was an outing to see the Drayton Festival production of Legally Blonde: The Musical.
And it was heck-a enjoyable. Sure, as in the movie, the perky cheeriness of Elle and her sorority sisters can be a little too much at times, but overall it was really funny, the story moved along well, it still had that satisfying arc of female strength and friendship, all with catchy songs and great choreography mixed in. Not too mention two very cute dogs (one of whom nearly stole the show). What’s not to love?
(Jean quote: “I enjoyed that way more than I thought I would. I’m shocked how much I enjoyed that.”)
But it reminded me just how bad I am at remembering plots of movies (books, too). All I could remember about the movie (apart from the fact that I’d liked it, and that it wasn’t a musical) was that it was about a blonde sorority girl who gets into Harvard Law to try to win her boyfriend back, but who then discovers she’s way more intellectually capable than anyone had given her credit for.
All of which happens in the musical as well, only with more songs. But the hairdresser character? The internship program? The exercise video queen on trial for murder? I had no recollection whatsoever of any of those plot details.
So yesterday I watched the movie again, courtesy iTunes. (By the way, it’s not on Netflix, not available on redbox rental, nor at zip.ca. And iTunes / Google Play / Rogers on Demand all charge the same $5 to stream it, which seems a bit expensive, given you can buy the DVD for the same price. Anyway…) I quite liked it, again. And it turns out that an awful lot of the movie did make it into the musical. But the differences were interesting.
The hairdresser, Paulette, is a more major character
In the movie, her part is pretty small and a bit sad. In the musical she’s one of the best characters, the center point of a couple very fun numbers. And it’s clearer that Elle helping her get custody of her dog back is motivation for Elle to become sincerely interested in the law.
The new love interest, Emmett, is a more major character
This one is a bit more of a hmm. In the movie Emmett’s part is really quite small, and their entire relationship takes place in the dying seconds of the movie, via “Where are they now?” captions. So I can see why they wanted more of a budding romance within the musical. Emmett is definitely fleshed out into an appealing and interesting character. Their subtextual shopping expedition is another highlight of the musical, one that wasn’t in the film at all.
The troublesome part, to me, is that in the musical Emmett is the one who coaches and encourages Elle to buckle down once at Harvard. In the movie, she’s completely self-motivated to do so at the same point: already suspecting it will never be enough to win back Warner, her ex, but wanting to prove herself capable anyway.
So it’s a bit of a dilution of her empowerment, I think.
Though I did like that, in the musical, she’s the one who proposes to him, at the end.
The musical is more gay-positive
Maybe that’s just the difference 13 years makes? Certainly the lesbian law student is much more likable in the musical, no longer seeming as militant and angry as she does in the movie. And the stereotypical gay pool boy earns an entire, completely hilarious, song about those stereotypes: Gay, or European?
The musical has only the one law professor character, Callahan—the one whose sexual harassment makes Elle doubt anyone will ever see her as more than a “piece of ass”. But the movie has another professor character, a woman, who meets Elle after this incident and motivates her to fight back with: “If you’re going to let one stupid prick ruin your life, you’re not the girl I thought you were.”
In the musical, Vivian, Warner’s fiancee is the one who talks her into fighting back. In both movie and musical, it’s great that the two rivals for Warner’s affection become friends, though this is given more time in the movie. And, it’s not that it doesn’t work for Vivian to be the motivator here; it’s just that Professor Stromwell was a great character also (albeit in another very small part).
In conclusion
Basically, Legally Blonde, musical and movie, is just meant to be fun, and it is. But behind that is a decent message about female power and independence. It’s not perfect feminism, but it’s feminism nonetheless. (Notably, original novel, film script, and musical book were all written by women.)
A guilty pleasure, only without the guilt. Oh, my God, oh my God, you guys!
I bought Wonderful Tonight, Pattie Boyd.s autobiography, very much on a whim, from a used bookstore. I was just curious about the woman who married George Harrison (of The Beatles), inspiring him to write “Something”, then left him for Eric Clapton, after he was inspired by her to write “Layla”. That George and Eric remained friends through all this was just one of the things that seemed odd.
When you hear that Pattie Boyd was a model when she met George Harrison, that gives you the impression (based on today) that she was already leading a glamorous life, but modeling wasn’t the same back then. She talks of having to do her own makeup and hair, and running around to various appointments on public transit. She enjoyed it, but it didn’t make her especially rich or famous.
Her childhood was even more austere. She grew up in Kenya, her father a damaged, injured war veteran who eventually abandoned the family. Her mother then remarried to an abusive, unfaithful man. Pattie and her siblings were shuffled off to boarding schools, and eventually were literally abandoned, left in Kenya while her parents moved to England.
Hence, the lack of life model for what a good marriage is.
Because, in case you were wondering, this book gave me the impression that it wasn’t much fun being married to rock stars.
Of course, the relationships started out well. With George, the biggest problem in the early days were the insane Beatles fans. But over time, as The Beatles dissolved, their relationship grew more rocky as well. I found myself rather disappointed to find out that George cheated on Pattie constantly. Yes, I know he’s a rock star, but this is after The Beatles stopped touring, and after George has taken up religion and meditation and is trying to be this very spiritual person.
And one of the people he had an affair with was Maureen Star, Ringo’s wife! I mean, seriously dude, that’s just not right.
But it wasn’t just the infidelity that challenged the relationship, but also George’s mood swings and self-absorption and disregard for what made Pattie happy, such as being able to cook for him.
So yes, she was susceptible when Eric Clapton took an interest, and starting writing her passionate love letters—and one really great song. But it was a long, slow build-up before she was finally ready to leave George. At one of these junctures, Eric threatened to take heroin if she didn’t leave with him then. She didn’t, and he did.
Talk about alarm bells, eh?
Though she’s discreet in terms of details, it’s clear that the Pattie / Eric relationship was a very passionate one once it ignited. If “Layla” was a kind of foreplay for them, “Wonderful Tonight”—which I hadn’t realized was also inspired by her—is indicative of their happy early days together.
But it doesn’t last. Though I think he was off heroin by this point (?), Eric was still an alcoholic. And a slob. And unfaithful. And self-absorbed. Though here I’m making it sound as if Pattie does nothing but complain about her husbands, which isn’t the case. She’s pretty fair. I think I’m the judgmental one.
Pattie also tackles subjects like her infertility (she has no children, despite attempts at in vitro), her failed attempts to help her drug-addicted younger sister, and the challenges of building a life as an ex-wife who didn’t necessarily get a big financial settlements from her rich ex-husbands. Throughout, the writing style is very conversational. I suspect that, in fact, it was actually written by named coauthor Penny Junor, based on interviews with Pattie.
You also, inevitably, get a bit of rock history from an unusual perspective: the Beatles trip to India, drug busts, Live Aid, the murder of John Lennon. She was also friends with members of the Rolling Stones, The Who, Queen, Rod Stewart, and others; her sister has long-term relationship with Mick Fleetwood.
I wouldn’t say this is a book of general interest, but for for those wondering about the lives of rock stars, it certainly provides some insight.
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