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General O/T Chit Chat Thead II

So I saw Mary Poppins at the Lyric Theatre in Sydney the other other. It was genuinely delightful.
I saw it at the Capitol in 2011, I have a pretty poor memory so my recollection is scattered but I do remember being a little underwhelmed and at times even a little bored in 2011. I’m not sure how much they have tweaked the show. I’m pretty sure one number’s staging has undergone a big change, and I suspect they’ve added a little more humour throughout. Anyway highly recommend. Perhaps not for little children though, one scene in particular is frightening, there was even a child in the row in front of me who started crying and had to be shielded by his mothers embrace.

The cast are terrific. Jack who won the first season of So You Think You Can Dance is brilliant and the girl playing Mary Poppins was practically perfect ;). The ‘Holy Terror’ Miss Andrew played her part well enough to deserve a boo at curtain call by the children in the audience haha. Bravo and brava to all the cast 👏🏽

Moulin Rouge next in a couple of months unless the lottery works in my favour and I go to see it earlier, or Mary Poppins again 😆
 
timmy said:
I'd love to see Moulin Rouge on stage. Please post a full review when you go.
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Funny story….
I saw Hamilton in Sydney when it first opened. I had pretty decent seats, about 5th or 6th row, centre, in the stalls. I went with a group of friends. Sitting next to me was a sharply dressed young man who appeared to be there by himself. Anyway before the show started I was chatting away with my friends and looking through the programme. I can’t even remember what it was, but at one point I asked a question and the guy sitting next to me leant over and answered my question. The second was about swings in the play and the guy again answers me. I asked him if he knew anyone in the play, he says he knows one of the swings.
The play starts and let’s just say I was like a kid in a candy shop, I was so excited to finally be seeing Hamilton and this guys excitement was through the roof also. We were encouraging each other to cheer louder etc.
Interval time… something made me think he knew more than he was letting on so I ask what he does. He says he works at an autistic school. We got chatting as I am a disability support worker. It was still bugging me, so I ask him if he has worked in the industry. He says “in a kind of a way”
Anyway. After the show, standing ovation and we are chatting about how amazing everything was. I finally decide to come straight out with it. I say, what exactly do/did you do in the industry? He sheepishly replies that he’s kind of a stage actor. I say that’s really cool and he explains that covid shut everything down so that’s why he was working in an autistic school. So I ask him if he has any projects coming up as this was after the first lockdown and things were starting to open up. He goes “ahh yeah…..” and being the annoying nosey person I am I push further and ask what. So he finally tells me he is in Moulin Rouge.
At that stage I didn’t know a professional show was coming (at that stage to Melbourne first) and assumed he was probably in the ensemble of a local production.
So I tell him that’s really cool and we both thank each other for helping make the Hamilton experience more fun, he introduces himself as Des and we go on our merry way.

On the way home my housemate asks me about my conversation with the other guy sitting next to me. He then googled moulin rouge and Des and we discover that his name is Des Flanagan and he is playing Christian in the upcoming professional production of Moulin Rouge! Haha I was stoked.

I DMed him on Insta and say “woah dude you are CHRISTIAN in MOULIN ROUGE” haha. He replies yep that’s me.

I was planning to try to go to MR when it was in Melbourne but further lockdowns and border closure uncertainties made it difficult. So I’m happy it’s now in Sydney and I get to see Des and cast do their stuff!
 
bleachy_dude said:
On the way home my housemate asks me about my conversation with the other guy sitting next to me. He then googled moulin rouge and Des and we discover that his name is Des Flanagan and he is playing Christian in the upcoming professional production of Moulin Rouge! Haha I was stoked.
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Wow, great story. That's cool.
bleachy_dude said:
Yeah this looks sick! I wonder if it will come to Australia? Not that it helps you… do you get many/any shows or concerts there?
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Seriously if it came to Australia I would give serious consideration to making a trip back to see it. And no, we don't get any shows or tours of anything here.
 
timmy said:
Wow, great story. That's cool.

Seriously if it came to Australia I would give serious consideration to making a trip back to see it. And no, we don't get any shows or tours of anything here.
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You know I am inspired by you picking up and moving overseas. I went to Tonga to help at a small village school some years ago and at the time I thought I could live there.

Honestly though music and live shows are so important to me and a big part of my life, even if that sounds a little pathetic haha… I would be so sad and have massive FOMO if I couldn’t see my fave artists and shows.
 
rj90 said:
@bleachy_dude
Your positivity is so infectious haha. But I gotta ask, what pisses you off? What is it that really makes your lose your shit?
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Haha I actually don’t think I’m really that ‘positive’. I think I just look more positive on here as I have a different opinion to what seems to be the majority haha.

I will say that I do try to avoid being angry at things I can control. I have actually been trying to encourage my nephew similarly recently. He’s got a bit of an angry streak from my brother, his father.

Of course I get angry / grumpy at times, especially now that I’m getting older, if I have had a lack of sleep! But I do always try to tell myself not to dwell in anger if it’s something I can control.

I’m struggling to answer this in regards to BB as I really don’t want to come across as judgemental, I honestly do get why some people hate this format so much, and I sympathise, even can empathise with their desire to a return to the old glory days so the following is not a reflection on anyone else at all, just what I think and apply to my own life…

For relevant context. I’ve tried watching MAFS and I really can not stand it…. So I don’t watch it. it doesn’t bother me that it’s on air, especially these days when there’s literally almost unlimited choices of what to watch with all the streaming options. I know that other people love it, and good for them. I don’t really understand when people call for shows they don’t personally like to be axed. But that’s ok if that helps them process their feelings, just not how I operate.

So I actually genuinely enjoy current BB in its own right. Yes it’s heavily edited with at times excessive producer manipulation… but even in the midst of all that I enjoy it. If I didn’t, I wouldn’t watch it. I can’t / don’t watch shows that I don’t like or that annoy or anger me, I think it’s unhealthy for my mental health.

MAFS is probably a bad analogy as I never used to like to either. But anyway, point is, if I really didn’t like it, I wouldn’t watch.

I don’t think I am universally positive about it, if I trawled through my posts i can be critical at times, but overall I watch to enjoy, not to criticise.

I also do have to say that my faith helps me to be positive. Hope is a powerful antidote to anger :)
 
@bleachy_dude
I know nothing about musical theatre so this is a genuine question.
What is a Swing?
Is someone playing 'a swing in Hamilton' unique to that production, or is it a general theatre term?

Also, given your love for musical theatre, do you ever participate yourself?
I used to be in all the plays at school but avoided musicals as I most definitely cannot sing.
 
Meglos said:
@bleachy_dude
I know nothing about musical theatre so this is a genuine question.
What is a Swing?
Is someone playing 'a swing in Hamilton' unique to that production, or is it a general theatre term?

Also, given your love for musical theatre, do you ever participate yourself?
I used to be in all the plays at school but avoided musicals as I most definitely cannot sing.
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Haha I was in a few musicals in high school but it’s not something I pursued post school, sometimes I think sadly.

So this is what the conversation was about that Des filled me in on, I love musicals but don’t know much about the mechanics of backstage. From my understanding now a swing is like an understudy for ensemble cast members. So an understudy might be ready to take on one or a couple of the main characters, while a swing has to be ready to take one of the numerous ensemble (background characters / dancers) cast roles.
 
Aw bleachy you are the best.

I would consider myself to be more positive than negative, I try to find the good in situations and people and try not to hold onto anger. Unfortunately some members of my family are not good at this, and as much as I don’t like overly negative people I don’t hold it against them.

In saying that, I think I am guilty of toxic positivity. So now I need to find the balance.
 
Kingston said:
I’m from western Canada which tends to sound more American. You can hear my voice at about 3:30 on this podcast episode.

https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/F2zwPij5JeVFfcFq7

You also can’t classify everyone on the North American continent American. Considering Spanish is a majority language in the southern countries of the continent. There isn’t a single North American identity.
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Cool, we have a legendary race car driver here called Allan Moffat who was originally from Canada who then made Australia his home. I was lucky enough to meet him on a few occasions as I was also into the cars that he used to race and I used to visit a race car workshop where Allan used to visit quite a few times. When I hear your accent it sort of reminds me of talking to Allan Moffat all those years ago.

Sadly now he is battling dementia and is in a care home in Melbourne. Absolute legend this race car driver was back in his day, he won so many races here in the 1970's racing those old Ford beasts around Australia.

I know it's not much but you can hear my voice in the background of this video clip at 22 seconds into this video. You can hear me saying "Can't get much closer than that for footage". Then you can hear my mate saying after me "Other than driving it". lol

Also yep that first car in this video clip is the actual Bathurst winning 1977 Ford Falcon XC Coupe which was of course driven by legendary Allan Moffat to victory that year. Me and my mate were invited to Bathurst in 2006 to assist as pit crew members for a race team. This classic race car was brought out of the museum while we were there.

Cheers! :)

 
Converse said:
Cool, we have a legendary race car driver here called Allan Moffat who was originally from Canada who then made Australia his home. I was lucky enough to meet him on a few occasions as I was also into the cars that he used to race and I used to visit a race car workshop where Allan used to visit quite a few times. When I hear your accent it sort of reminds me of talking to Allan Moffat all those years ago.

Sadly now he is battling dementia and is in a care home in Melbourne. Absolute legend this race car driver was back in his day, he won so many races here in the 1970's racing those old Ford beasts around Australia.

I know it's not much but you can hear my voice in the background of this video clip at 22 seconds into this video. You can hear me saying "Can't get much closer than that for footage". Then you can hear my mate saying after me "Other than driving it". lol

Also yep that first car in this video clip is the actual Bathurst winning 1977 Ford Falcon XC Coupe which was of course driven by legendary Allan Moffat to victory that year. Me and my mate were invited to Bathurst in 2006 to assist as pit crew members for a race team. This classic race car was brought out of the museum while we were there.

Cheers! :)

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Interesting. According to Wikipedia Allan is from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (say that three times fast 🤣) which explains the similarities in our accents. I’m from Alberta which is the next province over. Saskatchewan is essentially Alberta’s little brother.
 
Bleach is great. But we ALL have our yin and yang. Some express it more than others.
What I appreciate about him is that he is never unnecessarily acerbic or bitchy towards other posters for the reason of a lofted "holier than thou" angle or whilst being cheaply potshotted by some.
I love a bit of bit of argy bargy in an intelligent fun sense. But ultimately sharing without resorting to cheap insults and ad hominem.
What separates good forums from toxic poisoned tongues whose whole existence is to "triumph" or have the last word.
By and large , I think we have that here for the most part..
But bleach. Its ok to get your hands dirty in a fun sense. Its not that your hands are foreign to filth in engaging with kfc.:p
 
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