Friday, February 04, 2005

I Paid Eight Bucks For This Movie And I'm Not Leaving Until I See A Midget Pop Out Of A Windmill

Jeff, Sarah, and I went to see The Rich Weirdoes take on Baz Luhrman's Moulin Rouge last night. And I've got to say that it was pretty damn good.

The costumes, the staging, the casting were all sharp. And fun - it was interesting to see how they handled shadowing some of the scenes. The stand out moments: 'Roxanne' (wth Logan - such a nice guy - as The Narcoleptic Argentinean), 'Like A Virgin' (Ofir as Zidler was spot on and the guy shadowing The Duke was funny as hell), the Can Can and The Diamond Dogs sequence was wonderfully done, the girl playing The Little Green Fairy was good, and of course, my Rocky Horror cast mate, Tammy, playing Satine was a stand out - she was the best shadow up there, syncing up with the movie effortlessly - and had about 50 costume changes to boot.


The overall atmosphere was just fun. My only problems with the shadow cast was a few of the dialogue scenes not being shadowed - but in their defense, they only had three weeks and I think that the original idea was to just perform the musical sequences - oh, and the guy shadowing the Ewan McGregor track - sometimes I wanted to scream, "Have you never lip synced in the car, come on!"

And since the crowd was a Rocky type crowd, there were a few proto-callbacks thrown at the movie. Most of them didn't really work (and, oddly enough, a lot of them didn't happen until the end of the movie - where were these people during those long dialogue scenes?). The title of this post is by far the funniest one of the night - to me - it was perfectly timed and the crowd ate it up.

Some others:

Ewan McGregor sings 'Come What May' and a girl in the back of the audience sings 'I'm Not Gay' over him.

In one of the few callbacks to happen at the begining of the movie, when the title card came up: Paris 1900 - somebody yelled out: 'Paris? What the fuck happened to Denton?'

When Satine dies at the end - someone starting singing - 'Consumption Junction, What's Your Function?...'

When Ewan McGregor throws the money at Satine for 'curing him of love' - someone yelled out - 'You're not getting any change!'

My second favorite - and one that seemed really organic and funny - whenever Satine coughs - the whole audience would start coughing really dramatically.

And even though we were all turning into pumpkins - we stuck around to tell everybody what good jobs they did - and to check out the 'backstage - staging area' (which was much bigger and cooler than I thought it would be). It was cool to see Tammy and Jay again. And Tyler was there (with a story that made me glad I didn't have to go to rehearsal Wednesday) and Seth and Kim and Matt Majors (okay that one - not so cool to see again - I did a great job of not shaking hands or hugging with him).

I almost wish I was involved with the show - cause I have about a hundred little ideas about small additions that could be made that would be fun for the audience. Pinwheels. The prop bags should have pinwheels in them. That's all I'm saying.

They are performing the show this weekend and next weekend, all shows at midnight. If you get a chance to check it out, you'll have a good time. www.richweirdoes.com

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Before the show, Jeff and I went down to Taste for a little preshow snack. Goatcheese. Olives. Tucher. Riesling. You know, the basics. Had a great conversation - played this game Jeff came up with on the spot, I'll call it the Sensory Game for lack of a better name - You come up with a Sight, Smell, Sound, Taste, or Tactile Sensation that immediately comes to your mind when thinking of a particular memory. We did a whole lists worth of Rocky Horror Sensory Game. Let me say once again: I love College Park. Besides the fact that it's a tad expensive - why don't I go to Taste more often - every time I go there, I have a nice time. It's such a cool little place.


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As much as I'm not jumping for joy about ITW - Sarah's stories about Everyman put it in perspective.

How much does this suck - she has rehearsal Monday through Thursday, not on Friday - me - nothing all week except Friday. Sucks.

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Still feel that buzz about that story (if it's a story). Got some nice, 'go get 'em, champ' comments from Amber and David - so, for those I say thanks. I'll keep you posted. In person, or blog form.

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I was so tired this moring - I had promised Sarah coffee - (staying up late, almost meaningless to me, I have this whole day to stretch out, if I wanted) - my alarm clock doesn't work anymore (it's like me, I suppose) - I think the first sentence I made this morning was - "Two White Chocolate Mochas, please." to which I was asked, "What size?" by the militant bald guy behind the counter - not that he was being a dick - he was just in morning rush/let's make this quick mode - And I seriously thought - "Fuck. They have different names for their sizes. What the fuck are they?" Now, he would have accepted me saying, "Medium.", I'm sure - but in my frozen state I felt myself slowly flipping through my mental vocabulary rolodex, trying to find the fucking word I needed - feeling myself holding up the line - until finally my mouth (all on it's own - it does this more than I care to admit) said, "Grande." - Thank you crocodile brain, coffee for all, you are my hero.

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I have received two phonecalls on my cell this morning - from a number that doesn't come up as someone's name - and I'm sorry - but whoever the fuck they are - they haven't left a message - so, fuck 'em, as we say in the industry - Sometimes I don't pick up my cell even when I can read the name coming up - that's usually the case - leave a message, you know - Why do I feel like its bad news, trying to catch up with me? - if it's important, leave a message - although, sometimes, I'm a little freaked out to check voicemails - one day the shoe is gonna drop and it's going to be this horrible news - it's like hiding from this event - excuse me, Event - that hasn't happened yet - but whoever this person is - they can call from now to the end of time and I will never answer a random number that calls - a voicemail will eventually get checked - it's the Pandora in me - random number, never. Leave a message, you evil, cruel, baby killing bastard, you heathen pervert, you cockteasing, tormenting fucking sadist, you fuckface, evil son of a bitch, calling me, grinning like a cat shitting in pure delight - who the fuck do you think you are?

I love caller ID.

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Well, my blood is up. Let's go do some yoga, shall we?




2 comments:

Schmacko said...

I called last night about Trapezium & left a message - was it me????

Melina said...

I feel like you and I are one in the same! I hate phone numbers that I don't know and the sheer mystery of who these people are because they don't leave a message? How hard is it? I love caller ID too, but...I always get that close-up-the throat feeling as I call the number waiting to find out who's on the other end of the line...dum, dum, dum...
PS. the show you described sounds awesome