Tuesday 3 November 2009

Mayhem & Murder At The Music Hall!


OK, so it's taken me a couple of days to get back with some photos of the theatre restaurant production that I was in, but it took me much longer than I thought it would to put the photos through PhotoShop. This was a necessity since the photos were taken by Tiff on my little point-and-shoot digital camera that has a piddly little flash that didn't cope at all well with a darkened room!! As a result, the photos are DEFINITELY not the best quality (and still have some REALLY peculiar colours!!) but they will give you a little bit of an idea of how it all looked.

So ... for those of you who tuned in a little late ... the production was called "Murder At The Music Hall" and was set - funnily enough - at an old-time Music Hall performance. It all started when act one was interrupted by a 'member of the audience' dying dramatically and noisily onto the lower part of the stage and the rest of the show alternated between the murder investigation and 'flashbacks' to the victim's previous 24 hours, which saw him attend two Music Hall performances. Got all that? I might add, I had to explain all of this to my Mum so she didn't spend the whole show driving Dad mad by asking, "Who's he?", "Is he a good guy or a bad guy?", " Why did he do that?" Tee! Hee! Hee! To get the ball rolling, here is our entire cast photographed after our last dress rehearsal.

There I am in the bottom right hand corner - the one with the bright pink feather boa! :0)


Here I am before the show got underway, chatting to Lynda and Deb. Lynda said she didn't think she'd EVER see me wearing anything pink! :0) Her daughter also loaned me the feathery thing in my hair - thanks Amy!


And here I am with Grandma - not sure what she thought of my new look! Tee! Hee! Hee!

Now, as the story started to unfold, it quickly became clear that the main character, James (the one who died dramatically and noisily!), was a bit of a ratbag. As his most-recent fiancee said, "He was always trying to 'find' himself. Every night he'd go out searching for himself and along the way he's find Gladys, Ruth & Amee!" Added to that, he was blackmailing a society dame, chatted up a waitress who realised he was four-timing her, dumped a vengeful dancing girl with a brother who was a heavy-weight boxing champion and, most importantly, borrowed money from the Music Hall owner, Big Lil ... That was ME!


Here I am with "My Boys" - my somewhat inept thugs who are SUPPOSED to take care of any problems ... but actually seemed to cause a few more! :0)


Here's "My Boys" questioning James' finance Sandra about why he didn't stick around for a 'chat' with Big Lil about his gambling debt.


The murder investigation was broken up by performances from the Music Hall show and this was a touching little tune called "Hang On The Bell Nellie".


Being a fairly small group, we often had several characters that we were playing and this was one of my alter-egos - a 'cute' little girl who, after a run-in with the Chairman, sang "Good Ship Lollipop". I might just say that the audience's sympathies in both performances were with me rather than the Chairman! Tee! Hee! Hee! Don't know if you can see very well, but my hair was in pigtails for this - an 'interesting' new look that I'm unlikely to adopt!!


This was the delightfully-dated look for "The Swimming Master".


The story was set in the 1920's and this group of energetic gals performed a Charleston-esque version of "When The Red Red Robin Comes Bob Bob Bobbin' Along". Hmmm ... I think it just took me longer to type that than it did for the girls to dance it! :0) They did a great job, actually!


Every good Music Hall show needs a potted pantomime - and ours sure was a 'potty' version of Cinderella!! Here I am in another of my guises as one of the best looking Ugly Sisters you've ever seen! :0) I had a bit of a giggle every time I looked at my 'sister's' wig - couldn't help but be reminded of the Bride Of Frankenstein ... or Madge Simpson ready for Halloween! Tee! Hee! Hee!


Here's Cinders getting ready for the ball, with her footman and coach ... er ... scooter ... and her hairy, fairy godmother - who was a bit of a cross between Dame Edna Everage and a footy player at the annual fundraiser concert!!! :0) Not a pretty sight, but he sure did get some laughs ... especially since it was HIS foot that fitted the slipper to run off with Prince Charming!!! As Cinders said, "I should have gone for Ginger Meggs, cos you just can't trust a fairy with hairy legs!!" Aaahh ... I'm sure the Brothers Grimm would be so proud of us! Tee! Hee! Hee!


And finally, after we found out that the Doctor dunnit ... the show ended to a rousing rendition of "Goodbyee!"

We had fairly full house for both the evening and matinee performances, though the matinee audience seemed to join in a little more and sing along more often. We decided that a greater percentage of that audience were ... er ... a little older, shall we say ... and so were more used to interactive stage shows and sing-alongs. The Saturday night audience were still pretty responsive, though in my role as owner of the Music Hall, Big Lil, I DID have to deal with a couple of hecklers ... which I did! :0)

So ... after three months of hard work, lot of learning lines, hours of rehearsals, many late nights and MANY bizarre dreams about various songs in the show ... it was all so very worth it! Not only did I rediscover my love of amateur theatrics and get involved in a great choral group, I met so many fabulous people who I look forward to getting to know better as we continue to sing together in "After Five" - that's the name of the choral group. In fact, last night was the first rehearsal for our NEXT 'gig' - a fund raising concert at a local Anglican church. After a week's break it was great to catch up with everyone as 'themselves' rather than characters - though there were quite a few lines from the show bandied about throughout the evening! :0)

There you have it ... the promised report of my theatrical adventures - hope you haven't dozed off! :0) Other than recovering from the show and its heavy rehearsal schedule and catching up on the HUGE mound of washing that had piled up over the last few busy weeks, I have also managed to spend some time in the sewing room this week - YAY! I actually hadn't done ANY sewing of ANY kind for about THREE WEEKS, so you'll appreciate how great it was to get my sewing mojo back!! I've even been able to add three finishes to my OPAM list on the sidebar ... but I can't show you, cos they're part of the package for my SSCS partner - Sorry! :0) I do hope to get a few more things finished in the next little while, though, so promise some stitchy photos soon. Hope you've all been keeping well and not TOO busy during my little hiatus (I haven't even been able to visit many of my usual blog haunts!!) and I'll try to get back here to chat again soon. Hope you're all having a great start to the week and ... til next time ...

BEAR HUGS!

CHEERS!
KRIS

14 comments:

Jo in TAS said...

Sounds like you enjoyed every single minute and it looks like a whole heap of fun too! Well Done Kris!!

Janice said...

What a lot of fun. Our local village does a biennial melodrama - written by a local lady. Very funny. Although we don't participate, we like to go along and enjoy the performance and meal. Music Hall Drama is terrific. I bet you are enjoying having a break now.

Sew Useful Designs said...

Congratulations Lil!!! I thoroughly enjoyed reading about your adventures and you look fantastic in all your roles! What fun you have had!!!!

On ya sweetie!

Hugs! Vikki xo

Unknown said...

What fun Kris , looks lot a lot of work but a lot of fun ! Lookout Broadway !

Debbie Lane said...

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh....how I miss musical theatre! Thanks for the report, hon, wish I coulda been there!

Carin said...

Oh Kris it sounds like so much fun! I wish we had something like that around here. You are adorable in your PINK boa ;O)
I will be thinking of you as your climb out from under MT Laundry.
HUGS and love Carin

pulcino said...

Congratulations Kris!
This Musical seems a really nice adventure .... and beautiful costumes!
I am very happy for you :-)
Hugs
Cristina

♥Frann♥ said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
simplestitches said...

Wow, that looked like loads of FUN!

Judy S. said...

Looks like a fun show, Kris. Now I can say, "I knew her when she designed stitching projects!" You are one talented gal.

Susan In Texas said...

Sounds like a really fun show and I'm sure you made a wonderful Big Lil. 8-)

I loved the "He was always finding himself" quote. There's a similar one in the "Cellblock Tango" from the musical "Chicago", though it has a bit of a twist, "He was always finding himself, and on the way he found Gladys, Ruth, Rosemary and IRVING!" It's sung by one of the "Merry Mistresses of Murderer's Row" and I always figured that "Irving" was the last straw! lol

Happy quilting,
Susan

PS Love love love the pink boa!

Peg - Happy In Quilting said...

Well now you are a star.....sounds like you all had a ball, you and looked gorgeous...congratulations Kris...

Unknown said...

Hi Kris,
sounds like you had heaps of fun, Rowing Man is a theatrical person like you, and has been involved in many productions, he has an absolute whale of a time, so I am sure that you have done so also!!

Kerryanne @ Shabby Art Boutique said...

I'm sorry I am a bit late catching up with blog adventures this week but thrilled to read your theatre review. I knew it would go well for you Kris and you look every bit the star as Big Lil [giggle]. Gotta love a pink feather boa... hhmm, and we thought you'd never wear pink!!
Hugs ~ Kerryanne

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