Thursday, May 03, 2007

Love those showtunes

You're getting a warped sense of my social life with these posts, but here goes.

On Tuesday I saw the Canadian production of "We Will Rock You" with a girlfriend, actually the mother of Liam's best pal. It's wonderful what kids can do for you, in addition to bringing joy to your life, they can expand your social horizon tenfold. It was a great girls' night out. No kids, no husbands, just girl talk, a nice drink and dinner and then a musical. Husbands don't generally like musicals, (at least in my experience) so it worked out well that I didn't have to drag hubster to this show. He's not a huge fan of Queen's music, but he wouldn't have gone even if he were.

Notes about the show... it started out with probably my least favourite of Queen's huge array of hits - Radio Ga Ga. And they changed the lyric a bit too. It is also a tad surrealistic to hear a chorus sing Queen - it's not quite the same as listening to Freddie Mercury's distinctive and fantastic voice, bad song notwithstanding. There was a lot for me to get past in the first few minutes of the show, but the martini I had before helped a little.

After the first song, and the realization that I was actually out in downtown Toronto on a weeknight, I let myself go and in the end really enjoyed the production. It helps if you're a Queen fan, but even if not, the singing was absolutely amazing. The storyline was cute, nothing to write home about, but then I wasn't there expecting Death of a Salesman, or any of its associated acting. Choreography was pretty lame, although the dancers were good. We both noticed that a couple of the male dancers, wearing midriff-baring skin tight white shirts, were HAIRY - ugh, what a turnoff. That was the kind of distraction we didn't really need.

However, the rock band was out of this world - I actually thought it was pre-recorded until they showed them later in the performance. Unbelievable. So although there was plenty of cheese (bad puns, local references that were funny at the time but somehow lame when you think about them later), it was really a great experience. If someone got me another ticket, sure I'd see it again. The biggest disappointment was the Suzie McNeil, a finalist on Rockstar INXS who usually plays the character Oz, was not on that night. I'd heard awesome reviews about her performance, so even though the understudy was quite good, she wasn't Suzie.

The second spectacle of the week - the primary spring concert starring the one and only beloved firstborn child. The performers were from the Junior Kindergarten to the Grade 2 classes. Cute does not do this show justice! My boy did a great job singing "The world is a rainbow" and "This little light". I'm so glad we captured it on video. This was followed by some dancing by six grade- three girls, all in matching skirts and headbands. I took one look at them and said to Ian "Uh-oh, it looks like I'll have to learn to sew" to which he replied, "We'll make a good mother of you yet". Ha ha.

Just before the finale, there was major rustling in the audience, lots of jockeying for camera position ... it looked like the paparazzi at the Oscars. Then it hit me ... it was time for the kindergarteners to come on! Oh, I remember those days. Too funny! Gotta admit though, those little tykes were absolutely adorable!

Two great shows in one week. What more could a girl ask for?

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Sounds like a blast, Karen!!! :) It's always great to catch a good show! When I was a kid, I was in love with Freddie Mercury!!! I just adored him! I loved every Queen song and thought he was just dreamy...Until my cousin said, "Uhhh...He's gay. Did you know that?" I was devastated and argued with her for hours that he wasn't! LOL!

Liam's show sounds like it was great too! That must have been really cute!

What adorable kiddies you have, Karen!

Karen MEG said...

Thanks Chrissy. So funny about Freddie - I was like that when I was younger too, always so pissed off when I found out my heroes were gay. Oh well, at least they're good to look at!
Liam's concert was really sweet - and there's one spot where there's just musical accompaniment and you hear Giselle saying "hey, there's Ben". He's Liam's best friend - and my 2 year old is SOOOO crushing on him LOL! Can't wait till she's 12!

Heidi said...

Dinner, shows, and shoes.

I'll definitely ask for more shoes.

I'm actually a fan of Queen... there are a couple of musicals I'm hoping to hit this summer. So much to do, so little time.

Karen MEG said...

I'm working on the shoes department myself ... gulp.
Hey CK, they've extended We Will Rock you until July - no doubt it will be extended again, it's getting a lot of word of mouth. So you might be able to catch it when you're here.

BeachMama said...

Funny I was thinking of that musical last week. I really enjoy Queen and I was wondering if the musical would do them justice. You post a good review.

As for the kids, how adorable. That is one thing I cannot wait for!

Heidi said...

Cool! They extended it so I can catch them... thanks for the heads up!

By the way, you're tagged!

Dee said...

Gav and I saw WWRY in London about 2 years ago. It was FANTASTIC!!! We were thinking about going here but decided against it as the productions are never quite the same when they're redone somewhere else...
I've yet to meet Liam..can't wait till I do. He sounds like a great kid!!!

Karen MEG said...

So Dina, did you see Mig as Galileo? That's so neat!! He was my favourite on Rockstar INXS.
Yup, Liam's quite the character. They keep me busy, my munchkins.

DaniGirl said...

So jealous! I am dying to see that Queen spectacle... might be worth the trip to TO this summer to catch it!

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