Babies Proms - Adelaide Youth Sinfonia

Grainger Studio - Hindley Street

Sunday 28 October 2007

On Sunday I took my son to the city to see the Adelaide Youth Sinfonia perform in a children's concert called "Babies Proms!". It was a concert aimed at 0-5 year olds and performed at the Grainger Studio on Hindley Street.

The orchestra performed music such as 'Row Row Your Boat', 'Mission Impossible', 'Wild', 'March' from Carmen, 'Slavonic Dance No.8', 'The Music for the Royal Fireworks 4&5' and 'Night on Bald Mountain'.

I am not sure of the ages of the youth orchestra, they seemed to range any where from 10 to 18, and these guys really did a wonderful job. It was great to see that they were able to keep their composure and perform with so many toddlers running around to distract them!

The conductor 'Joanne Drimatis' allowed the children time to interact with the band and actually allowed the children and parents to wander around the orchestra while they were performing - the only rule was to look but don't touch!

The performance was hosted by 'Bronwen James', she encouraged all the children to stomp, crawl, and dance to the music, and they all followed her around copying the actions.

This performance lasted really only for about 40 minutes which was a little disappointing, because just as the kids were really getting into it, it seemed to end - I guess considering the age group it was aimed at, the kids generally loose concentration not long after. (I think for selfish reasons I would have liked an extra 15 minutes added!)

For about $10 a ticket this was a lovely experience for the whole family, it was definitely something different to do, and no child at the performance looked disappointed.

The winner for my child was that each child walked away with a helium balloon which was a big bonus as well after the show!

It's A Kind of Magic - Festival Theatre

21 October 2007 - 6:00pm

What do you get when you get 4 guys dressed to look and play instruments like one of the world’s best rock bands?

You get a damn good tribute show that is what you get!

Last night, I went to the Adelaide Festival Theatre to see “It’s a kind of Magic” which is a tribute to the band that was QUEEN. Ever since seeing the fantastic show “We Will Rock You” at Star City in Sydney, I have been a major Queen fan. I have all the albums (including ‘We Will Rock You’ sound track), and relish in the geniuses that was Freddy Mercury, Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon.

The first thing that I am going to say is that it is weird to see a ‘Rock’ performance at the Festival Theatre, because well firstly from my experiences people usually prefer to sit and bop in this theatre, they don’t get off their butts, and last night was no exception. Craig Pesco who did a wonderful performance as Freddy Mercury did his best to continually try to get the audience to their feet, but it seemed everyone that sat central to the stage did not want to move, I don’t know why, even the people in the disabled seats behind me made more of an effort - and they had an excuse. Towards the end of the show most of the patrons got up and danced and clapped, but there was still a heap of people not budging from their seats. Is this an Adelaide thing??? Are we that conservative here, because I honestly have no idea how you can go to a Queen show and not dance!

Unfortunately I was not old enough and probably on the wrong continent to ever have got the opportunity see QUEEN live, but from the footage and film clips that I have seen, I really feel that this tribute performance was almost near enough to the real thing. They performed all of the classics such as ‘We Will Rock You’, ‘It’s a Kind of Magic’, ‘Fat Bottom Girls’, ‘We Are the Champions’, and my personal favourite ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

Craig Pesco even did Freddy to a tee and put on the maid out fit to do a rendition of ‘I Want To Break Free’, he had the leather pants, the feather duster to thrust into and the fake boobs to flash at the audience – (may I say a very perky set as well!!!)

The cast consisted of Craig Pesco who was obviously the star as Freddy Mercury, (and was brilliant might I add), but could not have pulled off the performance without the support from the other members who where:
‘Travis Hair’ as Brian May – who looked the part and played the guitar with precision
‘Brett Milliken’ as Roger Taylor – who apart from a really bad blonde wig, did an amazing solo drum performance, and almost got a full standing ovation from the audience on his own!
‘Mitch Cairns’ as John Deacon – who played Bass in a way that John Deacon himself would have been proud.

Apart from the lack of support from the audience the only thing that I thought the show lacked was perhaps a little more footage to celebrate Queen. There was some footage of Freddy Mercury, but maybe leading in from the interval some footage of the entire band doing shows such as Live 8, interviews etc. would have been an added bonus. It is one thing to sing their songs in tribute, but I would have been nice to celebrate their lives and their achievements a little more.

Apparently next week these guys are doing an encore performance again at the Festival Theatre, and I would urge any Queen fan to get a ticket and go, you will not be disappointed. All of the seating on the plan for this performance would be great, so if the only tickets you can get is up in the bleachers don’t worry – you will still enjoy this show!

.

For more information about this show check out the official website http://queen.itsakindamagic.com/ and tickets can be brought through BASS.

x