We Will Rock You!!!!

I went to see the musical We Will Rock You recently, and posted about what I was wearing, and how excited I was to see it FINALLY!! (I’ll get to the FO once I get pictures. It is the Christmas season so I’m sure you’ll see plenty of others.)

I was also visiting a friend that I haven’t seen in over a year.

This of course meant that the fates were against me.

I live an hour or so away from Toronto, but traffic on the 401 can be… slow… parking lot like… I could walk faster. Sometimes you can get a good day, and get to Toronto within the hour time limit… some days ended up like this day.

The plan was to meet my fiancé at 5:30, and head up to Toronto, getting there by about 6:30 - 7:00 giving us an hour to meet up with my friend, and head to the theatre.

First off.. there was a crash right by where we were supposed to meet. This meant that we didn’t get out of town until 5:45, but all was still good. We had time, and could get there within our planned meeting time.

Then one of the cross highways, and a major route from North to South, was closed on the Northbound lanes.

We were sitting in traffic for ages. It took us close to an hour to travel 16 miles.

We managed to get to our subway station and prayed we would just get to the theatre on time, because there was no way we were meeting up with my friend (who was at the show too but in a different section of seats).

On the subway, a woman who was obviously drunk, got on the subway and chatted with me because she loved my hair (I had more than one person think it was my real colour). We got off the subway one station early, because a different helpful rider overheard us talking about which stop to get off of and thought we were talking about a different theatre, luckily the theatres in Toronto are relatively close.

We got off the subway and practically ran to the theatre (or rather, I fell, my fiancé was just moving forward enough that I never hit the ground as I was holding on to him). We got into the theatre and down the stairs just in time to catch the doors as they closed.

I was quite upset over not getting some time with my friend.. but all things considered, we were lucky to make the show at all.

Now, to get on with a review of the show (I’ll make it short and quick), I already mentioned the style of the show, well, it’s also quite a bit like a concert in some ways. They were selling glowsticks that you can wave around at certain points through the show. The lighting was amazing, and the lit up the house quite a few times. The whole show was really fantastic.

After the show, my friend and I went to Stage Door to see if we could meet any of the actors.

They were all really impressed with my costume, and said that they could see me from the stage (well… see my hair, they didn’t realize I was in costume until after the show).

Lindsay Owen Pierre, a member of the ensemble.

Please pardon my insane smile, I get a little crazy when I’m excited.

This lovely lady is Jewelle Blackman, who plays the character who wears the costume I’m in (only she has blue hair). It was really funny because she kind of walked right past me at first. Then stopped, turned around and said “you’re totally in my costume!!!” and had to get a picture. Hers was on her cellphone and was kind of dark, so I’m hoping to get her a copy of this one.

Erica Peck, who played Scaramouche, the leading lady. She’s got an absolutely amazing voice!

Sterling Jarvis who played the character Britney Spears, I had to get a pic because one of my friends is a HUGE fan of the singer.

After meeting Sterling Jarvis, I asked Erica Peck if she knew if Valerie Stanois, who played Oz, was still in the theatre or had come out. Erica said she was probably still in the theatre. I explained that I had seen Valerie in CATS when they did the show in Hamilton and had made a kitty litter cake.

At which point I heard “AUGH!” from behind me, turned around and there was Valerie going “I remember you now!” She then went on to explain how the cast of CATS had gotten this cake that looked like kitty litter, and was absolutely delicious and how I was “NEVER TO MAKE IT AGAIN!” because they all ate way to much of it and could hardly make it through second act.

So I chatted with her a bit, and she said she was surprised I showed in costume… to which I replied “I went to CATS as a cat! How could I not come to We Will Rock You as a Bohemian!”.

This is me, Yvan Pedneault who played Galileo, the male lead, my friend Jouley, and her girlfriend Sam. For height reference, I’m naturally about as tall as Jouley. That’s how high those boots are.

It was a fantastic night, unfortunately my feet were killing me because the boots have no padding. Amazingly, I wasn’t cold! It was a chilly night out, but I’ve done this so many times I don’t even notice the cold for the first half hour or so.

Anyway, if you liked Queen and can deal with the costumes, some swearing and some innuendo, go see this show.

However, as I stated in this post, don’t take your young children.

Till next time.

Off Topic

Ok, so here’s the scoop. I have the post about seeing the show and the FO pretty well written… except that when I got the pictures I realized that I forgot to take the picture of the FO!

So while I wait for my friend who now owns the FO to take pics, I figured I would tell you about one of the best knitting birthday gifts that I got.

On October 12 it was my birthday, and while most of my family gives me boring normal items, my step mother gets me knitting stuff. (my gramma is pretty good at getting knitting stuff too, but most of my family don’t).

I usually get a bunch of knitting books from my Step mom (and my Dad by rote), and maybe some yarn, or something like that.

This birthday, they totally scored.

This is a wicked cool knitting bag! This thing is huge, and can either be used for a number of projects, or for very detailed fairisle. See the plastic stuff at the front? Those are 6 sections that will hold 1 ball of yarn each, then the little dots at the top are holes to allow the yarn to go through without tangling!

See those rectangles by the holes? That’s velcro to hold onto the yarn when you’re not using it. There’s also a section up at the top, seen here, for needles, pins, small notions and do-hickies.

On either side is a good sized, zippered pocket. Perfect for small patterns, or folded print outs. Bigger notions, or even a quick grab extra ball of yarn.

The best part tho is the fact that, this bag looks mostly empty… it’s sagging, it’s unhappy… and yet…

There are 12 balls of Phentex Mohair Mist filling the bag up. This bag can hold a TON of yarn! When I got it, it had 2 jumbo balls of acrylic baby yarn, these 12 balls of mohair, a bunch of crochet cotton, and another 10 balls or so of yarn that they found at a garage sale.

This bag is huge! And it’s wonderful for holding travel projects and the like.

I’ll have to ask her where she got it because it totally rocks.

Till next time.. hopefully with that FO

A Theatre Rant

Before I get to the show, the FO and other good things (still need to get my Stage Door pictures online) I have a rant to do with parents and theatre.

My big issue is involved with bringing children to inappropriate shows and either shrugging off what they’ve seen or being angry about what was on stage!

While I was at the show last night, from my seat, turning around, I could see no less than 10 children that were 8 or younger. Now, 2 things sprang to mind. First… it was a school night. The show wasn’t over until 10:30-11pm. Also, there was no real discount for going on a Tuesday versus a Friday. It wasn’t like they were saving money. Second, there were some VERY mature themes in this show. There was multiple sexualities displayed on stage, there was groping, revealing costumes (including one number that had a group of girls in rather sexy undergarments, not that anything was shown mind you but still).

Now, I’m all for exposing your children to theatre, heck I’ve been going to the theatre since I was 6 and got to see the Nutcracker the first of 9 times. However, I think it is the responsibility of the parent to research the show and see if it is appropriate for the child.  Even if it means going onto a theatre forum, like say Musicals.net, finding the show you’re going to buy tickets to, and putting a little post there that reads “Hi, I’m planing to go see this show and I’m thinking of taking my kids with me, is this a show for kids under x age”. By doing this, you will be given opinions and reasons for or against taking your child to the show from fans who have seen the show, not once, but probably multiple times, and who know the show well enough to say “yes” or “no”.

For example, there is a show called Avenue Q. From the posters and such, you see that it is a show involving puppets.. and in a way it has a Sesame Street kind of feel to it. HOWEVER! This is an adult parody of Sesame Street and were it a movie, the show would have at LEAST an R rating, if not NC18. I was in New York a couple of years ago, and watched a woman yell at the box office people because they wouldn’t sell tickets to her. She had 2 children with her under the age of 6. The box office person said that this show was not appropriate for children and she was just focused on the puppets and that her children loved puppets.

Well, in one scene, these puppets have sex, loud rambunctious sex, and there’s a song all about it! Plus the profanity, the topics, all sorts of things that she might not have wanted her children to know about.

I’m getting to the point that I’m almost thinking that if the parents aren’t going to check out the shows, even do a little research themselves, these shows need a rating system like movies. Parents wouldn’t take their children to see a movie rated A, or sometimes even PG-13 depending on the age, but they’ll take their children to see theatre where there’s burlesque, profanity, sexual innuendos and all sorts of adult topics that the kids aren’t really ready to deal with.

All in the name of exposing their children to culture.

I personally think that theatre isn’t really any different than movies, you just have the bodies and sweat and everything right there in front of you, making it that much more real.

There are plenty of child appropriate shows, you just have to find them, or research them and use your better judgment. I think that’s pretty much all I have to rant about or I’ll begin to repeat myself even more. This is just something I’ve been noticing on increasing occasions and I think that it needs to come to people, or society’s, attention.

Till next time.

Preshow

Wow, can you tell I’ve been really busy lately? I even missed my favourite event day (Hallowe’en) due to the fact that I’ve been working my first month at a new waitressing job and it’s quite busy.

Let me tell you though, I did go into work dressed in one of my costumes on Hallowe’en! How could I not?!

Now today I have an evening off, and I’m off to Toronto to go see a show!

This show is We Will Rock You, and is one that I have been really looking forward to. I first found out about this show back in 2003 I believe, when it opened up in London England. I have some friends that I know through the internet who showed me some images of the characters and let me hear some of the music.

Of course I’d already heard the music, and you probably have as well. This is a musical based around music by Queen. This is essentially Queen’s version of “Mama Mia”. However, rather than a fun love story, you will get a futuristic adventure tale.

If you aren’t really into new theatre this might not be the show for you. Want an example why? Here’s a picture of my costume (which I’m currently wearing and will wear to the show) based on one of the chorus characters.

Apologies for the blurriness, I had a heck of a time getting even that one shot.

Now I’m sure you’ll notice some things. First.. I have no bottoms (I’m essentially in a bodysuit and that’s it), second, there’s not much to the bodysuit. I’m wearing my trench coat for modesty and it is NOT actually a part of the costume.

You’ll see a lot of this in the show. I personally think they’re really cool takes on what a futuristic punk style would be, but… it’s not for everyone.

And just because I LOVE my wig…

Argh again with the blur… sorry.

And yes, I did in fact move my full length mirror all over the apartment trying to find an area where I could take a couple of pictures without the flash doing this:

I’ll be back tomorrow to gush about the show, and show an FO!

Till then!