MAMA, I like the big one in PINK!
Dec. 8th, 2004 10:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mrdreamjeansThe companies of “Evita” and the ”Radio City Christmas Spectacular” did a ticket swap this week with RSSC cast members seeing our show last evening and 25 of us attending their show this afternoon. One of the companies of the Rockettes’ Christmas show is performing here at the historic Fox Theater in Detroit. For me, seeing the theater itself was the best part of attending the matinee.
The Fox interior is spectacular. The theatre holds 5,000 patrons and this particular Fox (the others being in St Louis and Atlanta) has been breathtakingly renovated. The members of the “Evita” cast who attended today took up two center rows, eleven and twelve rows back. The show lived up to its billing as a “Spectacular”, with elaborate sets and costumes, 18 beautiful Rockettes, a little girl and little boy soloists, a singing and dancing chorus of 18, Santa, Mrs. Santa, four Little People as Elves, five sheep and three immense camels. There were no cows in sight:)
The numbers were well-performed and the mix of Santa and a Live Nativity seemed to push the right buttons with the audience. I enjoyed the big production numbers, the precision tapping and high kicks and especially the Fox Theater’s resident organist who certainly put all of us in the Christmas mood. The downside is that all of the music was pre-recorded as were most of the ensemble vocals and the tap sounds of the dancers. Am I a Scrooge to want “live entertainment” to mean everything is being performed live? I would have been disappointed in the recorded elements of the performance if I had paid to attend. Only Santa and Mrs Claus actually peformed noticeably live vocals.
My favorite numbers in the show were: a "Nutcracker" sequence featuring “dancing bears” (my nick-name from college:); "Carol of the Bells", an ethereal silver, gold and white dance pastiche resplendent with sleighs. It contained a really nice classical solo by one of the male dancers; and the toy soldiers number where the Rockettes, as wooden soldiers, fall like dominoes. A four-year old boy seated three rows behind me yelled out as the bears were dancing around the stage...”Mama, I like the big one in Pink”. Later on when the Live Nativity scene sledge-hammered the “true message of Christmas” home, this same kid yelled, “I don’t like this. Make it stop!” I think there might be a “pink” team member in the making. He certainly had good taste in choosing the material he liked.
It was a fun afternoon out... a welcome respite from our show’s cynical political message... its dark history lesson. However, it did make me appreciate our show a lot more. I don't think I could smile through 14 shows a week, singing and dancing to a click track:) Interestingly enough, Santa ad-libbed “Christian Dior” me during one of his scenes, which had us hooting at the reference to our show. At the same time, it did hit home that Jesus and Eva Peron both died at the age of 33. A coincidence? I think not! HA!
The Fox interior is spectacular. The theatre holds 5,000 patrons and this particular Fox (the others being in St Louis and Atlanta) has been breathtakingly renovated. The members of the “Evita” cast who attended today took up two center rows, eleven and twelve rows back. The show lived up to its billing as a “Spectacular”, with elaborate sets and costumes, 18 beautiful Rockettes, a little girl and little boy soloists, a singing and dancing chorus of 18, Santa, Mrs. Santa, four Little People as Elves, five sheep and three immense camels. There were no cows in sight:)
The numbers were well-performed and the mix of Santa and a Live Nativity seemed to push the right buttons with the audience. I enjoyed the big production numbers, the precision tapping and high kicks and especially the Fox Theater’s resident organist who certainly put all of us in the Christmas mood. The downside is that all of the music was pre-recorded as were most of the ensemble vocals and the tap sounds of the dancers. Am I a Scrooge to want “live entertainment” to mean everything is being performed live? I would have been disappointed in the recorded elements of the performance if I had paid to attend. Only Santa and Mrs Claus actually peformed noticeably live vocals.
My favorite numbers in the show were: a "Nutcracker" sequence featuring “dancing bears” (my nick-name from college:); "Carol of the Bells", an ethereal silver, gold and white dance pastiche resplendent with sleighs. It contained a really nice classical solo by one of the male dancers; and the toy soldiers number where the Rockettes, as wooden soldiers, fall like dominoes. A four-year old boy seated three rows behind me yelled out as the bears were dancing around the stage...”Mama, I like the big one in Pink”. Later on when the Live Nativity scene sledge-hammered the “true message of Christmas” home, this same kid yelled, “I don’t like this. Make it stop!” I think there might be a “pink” team member in the making. He certainly had good taste in choosing the material he liked.
It was a fun afternoon out... a welcome respite from our show’s cynical political message... its dark history lesson. However, it did make me appreciate our show a lot more. I don't think I could smile through 14 shows a week, singing and dancing to a click track:) Interestingly enough, Santa ad-libbed “Christian Dior” me during one of his scenes, which had us hooting at the reference to our show. At the same time, it did hit home that Jesus and Eva Peron both died at the age of 33. A coincidence? I think not! HA!
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no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 09:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 08:57 pm (UTC)That show sucks.
no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 08:58 pm (UTC)Signed-
Still sad there were no kows
no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 09:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-08 09:20 pm (UTC)radio city specTACula-la-la-la-la
Date: 2004-12-08 09:49 pm (UTC)Re: radio city specTACula-la-la-la-la
Date: 2004-12-09 07:12 am (UTC)RE:Evita Tour
Date: 2004-12-09 05:19 pm (UTC)I read that youre in the National Tour of Evita..THATS AWESOME...please tell Badley Dean that WCU says Hey, and If You guys are still coming to knoxville, some of us will be there!
no subject
Date: 2004-12-12 09:36 am (UTC)I can't resist responding because the Radio City cast you saw is the very one whose rehearsals I accompanied in Columbus, Ohio. It's ironic to us musicians that they rehearse with live music but perform to tracks, though it is logical; rehearsal musicians can start and stop on a dime, slow things down as needed, etc.
The Santa who ad-libbed "Christian Dior" is, of course, "family." He and Mrs. Claus have a great rapport, having worked together in at least one other show before. He's a multi-year veteran of the touring RC show; she's new as of this year.
Loved the bit about the 4-year-old who liked the Sugar Plum Fairy bear but not the Living Nativity scene. We really often do exhibit our queer genes at an early age, don't we? At age 9 I wouldn't listen to anyone but Van Cliburn playing Chopin; at 12 I was screaming along with Ethel Merman on the radio... who knew!!
Anyway, have a great time with Evita... and say hi to Joel. I hope the fellas in the cast enjoy your recitations of "The Man Who Fell in Love with the Moon"!
xo
Chip