A busy day yesterday with Deb, ending with a theatre trip present to see Stranger Sings.
It was very 'American-Jazz-Hands'; a genre of musical characterised by strong East-Coast American accents, 'screamy' vocals, a sweet high-school sort of innocence, and ironic humour. It was a parody, but I thought that perhaps they called it this because it wasn't good enough to be a serious work. The jokes, if one could call them jokes, were oddly placed. It seemed to be pitched at older children and young teenagers, with the occasional F-word and sex reference for entirely comic effect, which perhaps made it an odd choice for a children's show. Everything was too superficial for adults. Parts were self-referencing and self-parody, which usually, as here, is a sign of desperation at the lack of meaningful content. Musically, the tunes had chords and melodies were subtle pastiches of 1980s pop-music, all done brilliantly. The connections were subtle, there were no deliberate links apart from a NeverEnding Story joke.
Ultimately, it wasn't my sort of script and can't recall a song I particularly liked either. The performers, however, were exceptionally good. The acting, singing, and dancing were the best I, in my limited way, have yet seen, and it was these performances which lifted the show. The cheers and audience reactions and participations were due to the prompting and élan of the actors, and never the limited material. The staging, sets, lighting, choreography (not merely in the dance parts, there were amazing sequences of prop movements and shifts of scene) and other qualities were first class.
The music performance was a mix of pre-recorded parts and live play, all by one musician on a synthesizer, on-stage at all time. It may have even been a MODX - it was certainly of the current generation of super-instruments. My eyes were transfixed on him for much of the show, partly as this represents the way I'll probably perform in future.
The day was long, ending two full days of celebration/break. Today was filled with jobs and I'm faced with a back-log.
I started the day by tidying up my props; hats, and shoes. I needed to reshape and re-dome my tricorn (a problem I'm sure all surrealists will be familiar with). A little steam and a stretch and it's fine. Then, created an arched wall hanger for it and my cavalier hat, and made a new hat box for my bowler hat and crown. Now the small hat cupboard is neat for the first time.
In the afternoon, more work on the Secret Electric Sorcery scores.
