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.