KungFu Panda

Westfield Shopping Centre - Tea Tree Plaza (Modbury)

October 1 - 11am

Ok, so not really an event at the Festival Theatre, but I thought it was worth a quick mention on my blog. We were shopping at Modbury today and at 11am they showed a Kungfu Panda show to entertain the kiddies during the school holidays.

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It was very cute. Apart from a few audio problems, the show got the kids on their feet and had them exercising, dancing and doing KungFu moves. A much welcome relief to all the mums and dads who probably enjoyed the 30 minutes to stand back and have a little break and relax, while the kids used up some of their energy stores!

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I believe that this show is being showed daily at 11am and 1pm for the remainder of the week, and is completely free, so if you are bored with nothing to do to entertain the kiddies these school holidays, it is something that will entertain them at least for a little while - the hard part is dealing with the kids at the shops after the show!

The Imperial Ice Stars in:

Cinderella On Ice

Adelaide Festival Theatre

Friday 15 August 2008 - 7:30pm

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This is the first 'On Ice' show that I have been to see and was not sure what to expect. I took my husband along and explained it to him as a contemporary type dance routine but the dancers are on ice skates. Not sure if that won him over but neatherless he came and enjoyed!

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Well when we arrived at the Festival Theatre, I noticed the large amount of families present with their children (mostly daughters) and I must say I was glad to see parents getting their children involved in performing arts. I know I have harped on about it before, but Adelaide needs so many more people involved and supporting performing arts, that maybe the next generation will help pull us through - you never know!!!

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The performance started and notably absent was any talking in the production. The story was told purely through dance, music and a little imagination.

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The stage set up was amazing, and the ice skaters were absolutely brilliant. The gentleman that played the part of Cinderella's father, was lifting women probably around 50 kilos above his head and was spinning them around in the air like they were featherweights. I don't know if the skating movement made holding the women easier, but the strength and rhythm shown was truly exceptional.

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The story was very cleverly done, and without giving too much away because I know that the show is still touring this wonderful country, it starts with the emotional scene of Cinderella's mother dying. With no words spoken you could feel the heart break and emotion of the cast involved. Then going into the future 10 years, you saw an adult Cinderella trying out for the lead role in 'Swan Lake', she was of course a brilliant dancer, but then enter the evil step mother, the head of the dance school who wanted her daughter to take the lead.

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Of course fate have that the step sister was injured and Cinderella filled her spot only to grab the attention of the handsome prince in the audience.....the rest of course is history with the only exception to the story being that the glass slipper was replaced by a ice skate and of course fitted Cinderella perfectly.

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And what can I say they all lived happily ever after.......

BOOM BAH!

State Library of South Australia

Tuesday 8 July 2008 - 10:00am

This was a children's play performed by the team at 'Windmill Performing Arts' and was aged at children 1-3 years.

It was based on the book 'Boom Bah!' by Phil Cummings and Nina Rycroft.

If you have never read the book, it is a simple story of Animals making noises with items from around their farm. When they all join their sounds together then 'Boom Bah' you have a farm yard band!

The actors for the performance came out dressed as a Cat, a Goat, a Rooster and a pig and in a very clever way of slow movement and sounds from their instruments captured the attention of the under 3 years old crowd - an amazing feat if you ask me, since most mums know that to hold a 2 year old's attention for more than 5 minutes is a miracle!

After cleverly telling the story the actors allowed the children to interact and play and touch the instruments used in the performance. After half an hour of sitting and taking in what they had seen the kids all got to have a little run around and learn about the sounds they had just witnessed.

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This is the third 'Windmill' performance that I have taken my son too, and have once again not been disappointed. After seeing 'Cat' and 'Green Sheep' and thoroughly enjoying them all with my child, I will continue to support and attend these local productions to stimulate and enhance my child's educational advancement.

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For more information on upcoming 'Windmill' children's performances check out their website at http://www.windmill.org.au/index.htm

FREE SHOW AND THEATRE TICKETS

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The link to join is below:

http://www.ticketekrewards.com/reffriend.aspx?refid=29116

Dont worry the site is SPAM free, and I only receive emails when there is an available survey!

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Commonwealth Bank Police Tattoo

Adelaide Entertainment Centre

Sunday May 4th 2008 - 2pm

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Well yes a Tattoo is a show with lots of bands and in particular lots of 'bag pipes' but was very entertaining to the mixed young and old crowd.

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This show started with a traditional blessing from the Kaurna Aboriginal people who originally occupied the land that the show was held on. It was a dance from the Paula Tonkin school of dance where, one man played the didgeridoo, then 1 girl placed an offering while the boys seemed to be acting out a Kangaroo, a Kookaburra, an Emu and a Snake. It was one of the more entertaining blessings I have been privy to witness.

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The show then commenced and everything about it had a wonderful Adelaide feel to it. There were performances by the Adelaide Harmony Choir, while the band played drums in the dark with glowing drum sticks - this was very clever and well harmonised.
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There were local dance studios performing such as Calisthenics, Highland Dancers. With the calisthenics performing a great 'Blues Brothers' rendition (of course to keep with the Police theme).

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A highlight for me was a wonderful performance from 'Todd McKenney' who is the original performer from the stage show 'Boy From Oz' (He did it before Hugh Jackman and of course after Peter Allen).

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Todd performed his favourites from the stage show, and started with 'Tenterfield Saddler' and as he come out during certain segments of the show he sang 'I Go To Rio', 'Don't Cry Outloud', 'I Still Call Australia Home' and amazingly he sang 'I honestly love you' while also using Auslan sign language to sign the words along with the help of students from the 'Klemzig Primary School' - it was wonderful and very moving to watch.

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As interesting and wonderful as the Tattoo was, it definately would not have been a complete show if factors in Todd's personal life had kept him performing. I personally are very glad he made it and was able to perform.

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Another highlight of the day was a dance performance by the 'Polish Folklaw and Tatery', there were axes, jumping, wonderful costumes, fight scenes that were all very entertaining.

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With all the pipes, drums, trumpets, bag pipes, dancers, singers, and band members, the Adelaide Police Tattoo was a wonderful demonstration of the wonderful talent that we have in South Australia, and in particular showed how multi talented our police force here is.

Paradise City

Adelaide Festival Theatre

23 April 2008 - 7pm

Tonight was the opening night of the Festival Theatre’s inSPACE season 08, and it was opened by a show titled ‘Paradise City’.

This was quite a contemporary piece and was a little strange. If you are not used to modern performances you could be excused for not getting your head around this piece. In fact some people seated next to me left part way through the show, which to be honest I found extremely rude – It was only a one hour performance for goodness sake.

This performance was rather unique, in that the performers were generally street wise performers consisting of a skater boy, a b boy, a BMX rider, an acrobat, a contemporary dancer and a singer (or diva as listed on the program).

Each one of these performers was extremely talented in their own right. The B Boy name Anthony Lawang was a stand out with break-dance moves that were amazing.

Simon O’Brien who was the BMX rider showed why he was one of Australia’s number one Flatland riders. His moves and manoeuvres on his bike were well received by the audience and received extra cheers.

The singer (Diva) Inga Liljestrom had a wonderful unique yet raw voice as she sang haunting songs to create the atmosphere of the show.

The three remaining performers Peter Hona (skateboarder), Alexandra Harrison (Acrobat), and Kathryn Puie (dancer) each equally showed their talent in their field and contributed to create a different yet sensual performance.

As for the story line of the performance, well it was a little hard to nail it down to one particular story line. At first I thought it was a story about the Diva, she appeared to be conflicted and seemingly troubled with reality. I thought the other performers were highlighting the conflict in her head, demonstrating on different occasions the battle of the sexes, challenges in sexuality and general confusion.

However I spoke to the Director ‘Lee Wilson’ after the performance during Q & A, and told him my interpretation to see if I was on the correct track. He said that there was not really a set story line to the performance, and that it was a piece to outline the street awareness of performing arts. To highlight the beauty in skateboarding, BMX and b boxing etc.

I think with a ‘busy’ performance such is this one, that maybe one should not over analyse what the point of it is, that maybe one should just sit back and watch something not normally watched, and soak in the unique street culture that has engulfed our generations X, Y and Z.

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To view a clip for this performance, check out youtube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=drAQiLA3Y04

Because this performance opened the inSPACE program for 2008, patrons were treated to free drinks and nibbles in the foyer of the Space Theatre after the show. The advertiser was there taking photos for the Adelaide social pages, and the performers from the show made their self’s available for questions and comments.

Hughesy Goes Bananas
Thebarton Theatre
29 February 2008 - 7:30pm

Well for around $40 I got the opportunity to see one of the more well known acts of the Fringe Festival, comedian Dave Hughes. When buying these tickets I wasn't quite sure what to expect, I mean I have seen his work on television on 'The Glass House' and 'Before the Game', but I really had no idea how his stand up comedy would go in front of a usually harsh Adelaide crowd.

A lot of Dave Hughes material consisted about jokes about his marriage and things his wife has said and done - it was all very funny at her expense, hopefully she sees it all light heartedly.

He also joked about other celebrities and even bought up the media feud between himself and 'Kyle Sanderlands', he once again proclaimed that Kyle was a massive dick head and that the only thing he was sorry for was letting everyone else know that!

He outlined his TV Week Logie award for best comedy DVD, where he mentioned that he got up to make a speech and then realised that his award was presented during the advert break and that he didn't even get to do his speech on live TV. He said that after his speech he heard 'James Matherson' (presenter on Australian Idol) announce that he had won after the advert break was over. He amusingly went on to call him a "Google eyed, bug head freak". (hope that my quoting him does not create another media argument!)

Dave Hughes was amusing and often had to pause to stop him self from laughing, which kept the audience laughing with him. I did find that a few times he may have crossed the comedy line a few times, with references made to hot topics such as Heath Ledger, Christianity and the Muslim religions. When he started to make light of the death of Health Ledger, I wanted to somehow stop him and put the words back in his mouth because I think he may have lost a few of the audience members there.

Obviously when a comedy act comes to another state to perform, they research the state and areas to ensure that their material fits. In this instance, Hughesy made a lot of reference to what he perceived as the worse areas in Adelaide and made a lot of 'Elizabeth' and 'Salisbury' jokes. I kind of find all that a bit old and tiresome - I am not defending the Northern Suburbs of Adelaide, but I just find those kind of jokes a little boring.

In summary, besides those few jokes that didn't work for me, Dave Hughes was entertaining and funny and performed to what seemed a sell out crowd that all seemed to enjoy the evening.

Just to note also, warming up the crowd before Dave Hughes came on was 'Adam Rozenbachs', he is a writer for the ABC show 'Spicks and Specks'. I found him very funny and entertaining. His material consisted of jokes regarding the Olympics and general funny day to day activities.
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I did a search of the fringe guide to see if he had his own Fringe show and could not find one listed. He was very funny and I personally would definately go to see him perform.

From my point of view Adam could have easily stolen the limelight as the main act if he was given more time to perform.

The Adelaide Fringe
February to March 2008
All over Adelaide!!!!

Well just to be brief, I wish I had so much more money because there are so many Adelaide Fringe Shows that I want to see, but just don't have the cash (or babysitters!) to get there! Before I start on show reviews, I just wanted to point out how amazing it is to live in Adelaide this time of year. The atmosphere on every street corner in the city is electric.

As I make my way to all the events and free shows I will add some photos just to show how alive Adelaide can be. We seem to get a bit of a bad rap from the the eastern states, but the month of March shows the rest of Australia and the World just how fun us Adelaidians can be!

For you tourists that have decided to come to our lovely state - A very big welcome to you!

Powderfinger
Clipsal 500 After party - Adelaide

22 February 2008

Well alleluia Adelaide is Alive and buzzing with festivals and car racing! It is so good to be a part of the crazy time at this time of the year.

OK I admit I am not a car racing fan and I hold no allegiance to either Ford or Holden, but I do love the fact that a V8 car race can bring 4 nights of constant concerts to my lovely state! While there were shows on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday - Friday night was the one that grabbed my attention. Powderfinger, Kiss Chasey and Expatriate were the headline acts. I unfortunately missed Powderfinger when they did the 'Across the Great Divide' concerts with Silverchair so thought that the Clipsal 500 concert was the perfect way to rectify that!

The show started just after 7pm with an Adelaide Band named 'Special Patrol' I have not heard of them before, but they have apparently been doing the band scene around Adelaide for a few years. What a great opportunity for them to be a support band and to perform and get noticed by the people of Adelaide.

Next Expatriate came on, I have seen these guys around usually as a back up but admittedly not taken too much interest. They seemed to have a genuine fan base in the crowd and performed impressively. I did not know too many of their songs but nether less was entertained by their performance.

Kiss Chasey were next up, and were great performers. They kept the growing crowds attention and sang their songs with passion and and enthusiasm that you would expect at a live out door show. Kiss Chasey I guess had the advantage of coming on just before Powderfinger - most of the audience had arrived from their spots on the track, the alcohol had kicked in and people were there for a party atmosphere and everyone really wanted to see Powderfinger.

When Powderfinger finally walked on stage you could feel the electricity in the air. These guys have a number of hit songs and they treated the audience to all of them. They encouraged the audience to participate in singing 'My Happiness' and the noise from the audience was amazing. I was near the front of the stage but wonder how far away the crowd could be heard.

The show was threatened by the rain that decided it could not hold out any longer, and seriously I did not see a single person move - a few umbrellas went up (which is a crazy thing to do with people jammed in so tight at a concert) but Bernard Fanning and his boys just kept on singing and performing as if they were playing on a summers day.

They sang all of their hits such as 'Lost and running', 'These Days', 'Love Your Way' and the climax was the encore with '(Baby Ive got you) On My Mind'. I was truly entertained by Powderfinger as was the thousands of others that got to witness a truly fantastic all Australian act. I walked away from the concert with a husky voice from too much singing and screaming but continued on till the wee hours with the fringe opening party which was also being held in the cities east end!

The Other Woman
Adelaide Town Hall
Sunday 3 February 2008 - 7:30pm


Well Jazz Jazz Jazz give me lots of lovely Jazz!

Set in the back drop of the beautiful pipe organ of Adelaide Town Hall, we were presented with Deni Hines, James Morrison and their wonderfully talented big brass band.

When I heard that Deni Hines was performing Jazz, I kind of thought ok, she might also pipe out some of her pop as well, you remember hits like '(That word) L.O.V.E', I really couldnt picture her being able to pull off some Jazz songs. Not that I am much of a Jazz critic, because this was probably my first official Jazz gig.

Combined Deni and James Morrison performed songs such as 'Only Have Eyes For You', 'The Very Thought Of You', 'Its Just Too Damn Hot' and 'Someone to Watch Over Me'. All performed lovely and with such enthusiastic facial expressions from Deni.

One song that Deni and James performed that touched me was called 'Strange Fruit' by Billie Holliday. James introduced the song by proclaiming that it was a poem originally written by a Jewish teacher, who was so emotinally affected by a photo of linching of black man, penned the words to this haunting but captuvating song. Billie Holliday independantly recorded the song because no record company would allow it on their label, mostly due to the controversial nature of the lyrics. I have never heard the original version of this song, but was definatly moved by the words and emotion that Deni put into it.

This was my first performance seeing James Morrison live - I have seen him plenty of times on television, but have never really witnessed his personality. On stage he seemed like a very fun and down to earth person, he did tell a few shocker jokes but in all was very entertaining. He is obviously well known for his brilliant trumpet playing, but he proved that he is so much more than a man behind a brass instrument! He wrote the song for the show "Tired of Being the Other Woman" which was an entertaining piece, but he also gave the audience an insight into some of the technoligical advances in music. He performed on a digital trumpet, which was played like a trumpet but could make the sound of any other instrument, and he showed a keyboard that was voice activated (sorry I dont remember the technical names for these gadgets!)

James told the audience that he was an ambassador for a foundation named 'Hear the World' which was an organisation set up to raise awareness of hearing. I guess too often our senses are ignored and it is great when a celebrity gets behind these initiatives. I did what James suggested to the audience and I 'Googled' to find out more information and found the following website: http://www.hear-the-world.com/ it outlines that artists like Bryan Adams, Joss Stone, Moby and many others are also Ambassadors.
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Taken from the website is this quote:
"Hear the World is an initiative by Phonak that aims to raise awareness of the topic of hearing and hearing loss and to promote good hearing all over the world. The goal of the Hear the World Initiative is to educate the general public about the importance of hearing, the social and emotional impacts and the benefits of available solutions for those with hearing loss."
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Anyway to summarise the performance of "The Other Woman" it was very entertaining, and was great to see the performers all relaxed and on stage just enjoying them selves in doing what they do best. It was a lovely entertaining way to spend a Sunday evening.

Miss Saigon

Adelaide Festival Theatre

5 January 2008

Well firstly I would like to point out that it is fantastic that one of the big shows has come to Adelaide. I know it is a big deal for production to decided to make the trip south, particularly when the Adelaide audience is always going to be an unpredictable audience number.

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I believe that the show is still running, and I just hope that it is filling a decent number of seats for each show so that more 'big budget' shows make the decision to come to South Australia.

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For this show, I bought my tickets early in the hope of securing good seats, I normally sit in the stalls at the Festival Theatre for shows, but this time I thought I would take a risk and sit in the front row of the grand circle seats, thinking that a higher position would make the effects better. This risk did not pay off, I found looking down onto the stage a little distracting, I wanted to see the expressions on the faces of the actors but really could not make it out - granted my eyesight is not perfect, but I thought B reserve tickets might be a little better. Next time I will stick to the A reserve because you certainly do get what you pay for.

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As for Miss Saigon I walked into the show not having any expectations because I did not know what the story was about. I knew it was a war love story, but did not know it was about a soldier that falls in love with a Vietnam prostitute during the war. It was a lovely story, and the actors did a wonderful job at making the audience feel the pain and emotion.

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Laurie Cadevida who played the lead female role of Kim had a wonderful voice and sang with true emotion that towards the end made you want to cry (in fact I did have some tears!).

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Also worth a mention was Leo Tavarro Valdez - playing The Engineer, he was so entertaining - his character was funny, energetic, and enabled the audience to laugh through sections of what was a rather serious and sad story line.

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David Harris who played the lead male of Chris was equally very good - and excuse me for making a comment about his looks, but how buff and handsome did he look in that army uniform!

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In this production there was no skimping on set design, it was amazing how it jumped from the war scenes to bar dancing scenes in no time at all. My highlight - The helicopter, wow it really looked like the soldiers were being picked up and taken away, and with the surround sound, you could almost feel the wind of the propellers as it appeared to fly over the top of the audience.
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The stage is one thing I think most people would have walked away and commented on almost immediately.

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Miss Saigon was a highlight to my new year, and if I had the dollars I would go again in an instant, sit closer and see if from a new perspective. As mentioned this show is playing until 10 February 2008 and I would urge all South Australians to embrace this wonderful performance.

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It is not too late to buy tickets and lots of good seats are still available (go for the Stalls or the Dress Circle - avoid the Grand Circle seats) go to http://www.bass.net.au/events/database/MISSSAIGON2007/ for more information.

Fireworks New Years Eve
9pm - Elder Park - South Australia

I thought it was worth it to do a brief mention of the fireworks put on by the Adelaide City Council for New Years Eve 2007.

As a parent who could not find a baby sitter for New Years it was great to be able to attend a family event with fireworks and children's entertainment on at 9pm instead of having to wait until midnight.

It was also great to see that despite the 40 degrees Celsius that it seemed that quite a few thousand people attended.

The first performance was by Peter Combe and the News Paper mama band, they were fairly good and did manage to keep the kids at bay - I guess my problem was that my children had no idea who Peter Combe was or what he sung, I grew up with 'Newspaper Mama' and thought that the idea of brushing your teeth with bubble gum was fantastic, but the kids under 12 really could not get into because they didn't know the words - maybe more support needs to be given to these Aussie guys who I think (don't quote me if I am wrong) have been around since before the Wiggles and other children's bands.

At 9pm about 15 minutes of fireworks erupted from pinky flat, these were really great and considering we don't seem to be getting a 'Sky Show' this year were about as entertaining as the kids are going to get for firework shows.

I do have one dig - did the rather pathetic pretend 'Kath and Kym' really have to talk the whole way through the fireworks. Yes "look at me Kym" is pretty much now apart of the Aussie lingo these days, but please next year just shut up and let everyone enjoy the fireworks.

I did not hang around for the midnight fireworks or the remaining performances which I believe was the party bands 'Chill' and 'Jam'. I did read in the paper that the fireworks were 10 minutes late - I guess I find that amusing, but very Adelaidian!!!!!

Lets hope that the Adelaide City Council continues these free family events for all of South Australia to enjoy!

Pop goes the Wiggles
Adelaide Entertainment Centre

9 December 2007

Well I have to say that there is nothing more rewarding to see the delight of a child when their idols appear from behind stage, and appear in a whirl of lights and boppy music - and even more exciting when those idols are the phenomenon that is the Wiggles!

Pop Goes the Wiggles, was bright and happy performance performed by Murray, Jeff, Anthony, Sam and their entourage of regular supporting members such as Captain Feather Sword, Dorothy, Wags and Henry.

If you have seen the DVD 'Wiggles Live' this performance was very similar with not too much of the Wiggles material changing - for an adult that may cause a problem, but for our toddlers, they don't want new material, they want to hear the songs that are echoed out from their televisions across the world.

The Wiggles were energetic and enthusiastic about every part of the show, they interacted with the children and moved through the audience, which is something rarely done by other performers.

I believe the Wiggles performed three shows over the course of the day, so I am grateful to them for keeping the enthusiasm to keep going after a long day. I hope that these guys continue to come back every year and perform a wonderful children's Christmas show.