Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Birds of Paradise

On Friday night, I took my sister to see one of the last performances of La Cage Aux Folles at Neptune Theatre. I had been hearing rave reviews, plus The Birdcage is one of my favourite movies (seriously, Nathan Lane is like my hero in this movie), so I was really looking forward to it.

Source
It can be dangerous to go into something with high expectations like that but in this case we were safe because the show was wonderful! I can't say enough about the talent of the main actor, who played Albin, Steven Gallagher. He is a great singer and has great comic timing - I just about bawled with laughter during the scene where Georges (played by Ian Simpson) tried to teach Albin how to 'act like a man' (also one of my fav scenes from The Birdcage, funnily enough).

I also couldn't get enough of David Lopez as "the maid" Jacob - his facial expressions and body language were just hilarious. I was quite amused by one tiny detail - that the Spanish 'chorus girl' was from Cadiz (my boyfriend's grandmother was from there - AND to my delight, Georges pronounced it the Spanish way, i.e. "Cad-eeth" - silly, I know but my boyfriend and his Spanish-fluency have trained me to pick up on such things).

Plus, these queens looked 10 times better in a dress and heels than I do (not that it takes much)! Speaking of dresses, the costumes were gorgeous - the six main dancers kept coming out in the most beautiful gowns covered in fun prints, sequins and sparkles. The makeup and hair were also great, as well as the sets - the entire styling of the show was very impressive, in fact.

This number was awesome. Source.
I honestly don't get out to the theatre much, but anytime I make it a point to take in a Neptune show, I never leave disappointed. I have said it a million times and I'll say it again - one of the things I love most about living in Halifax is the vibrant arts scene. You can literally be out every night of the week enjoying a concert, play, dance performance or art exhibit - it lends such an exciting and mind-expanding pulse to the city (and gives me things to do, which is an absolute necessity)!

Next season is Neptune's 50th and they have some really fun, surprisingly commercial offerings - I am looking forward to Elf: The Musical and Sweeney Todd. Eighteen sounds intriguing as well - sort of a cross between Big, Groundhog Day and Tin Cup? - although I'm not a golf fan (I mean who can resist the tagline "What if you had a mulligan for your whole life?").

The only downside to this play is that ever since I have had the opening song "We Are What We Are" running through my head non-stop...ok so that's not really a complaint (although any song gets annoying after a dozen repeats). 

Aren't musicals just the best?

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you so much for reading!