Did I mention this was a rant? Sense really has no place in it!

 
Seussical - 3 weeks to go!!!



Swanny says... as long as my brain keeps going, it'll be fine!

posted by LAMPS at 00:51

 
Seussical Blog 3



Swanny says... "all the things you can think..."

posted by LAMPS at 22:29

 
Seussical Video Blog 2



Swanny says... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

posted by LAMPS at 00:30

 
Seussical Video Blog



Swanny says... Embrace new technology - even if it's not all that new!

posted by LAMPS at 00:11

 
Seussical Part 2

Well, I’ve just finished reading the script in my lunch break at work and I’m incredibly excited by this project!!! That’s not to say I wasn’t before – but it’s difficult to get passionate about something to which you have little knowledge of. Plus there’s the whole fear factor going on. Am-Dram shows are, by their very nature, tricky beasts – and musicals especially so. The large casts – the long and complicated rehearsal period, the totally whacky nature of this particular show. And that’s before I’ve even thought about casting it!

Right at this moment I have *one* person in mind who I’d like to see audition for Gertrude – that’s quite a bizarre feeling. This has probably been influenced by listening to the Broadway cast recording – but I guess that’s always going to be the case until you start meeting actors at the help nights and auditions. I’ve got a couple of thoughts on production design – I’d like to use different palettes of colour to designate the ‘real’ world as opposed to Whoville. That way the audience may have a chance of understanding what the hell is going on!

Interestingly the script states that The Cat in the Hat can be played by a man or a woman. I have to say I’ve always considered this character a male one – but I’m going to have to think long and hard about a) whether I want to even open the position up for females to audition and b) what I’d want to do with the character if I did decide to cast a woman. Decisions decisions!

Swanny says... If I make one decision, the rest will start falling in to place!

posted by LAMPS at 15:00

 
Seussical

After having the Seussical script sitting unread on my coffee table for the last two months – I finally sat down to listen to the soundtrack and read the script – to get a real feel for the production. Typically, as is often my luck, the tracks on the CD I’ve got are completely out of order – so I’ve just spent the last couple of hours trying to re-order the songs to musical I don’t know using a script I’ve never read!!!

Swanny says.... "All the things you can think, when you think about Seuss!"
posted by LAMPS at 02:30

 
Curious, most curious...

Well, Blogs are curious things aren't they? They either get updated with such frequency that unless you read them every day you soon lose track of what's going on - or else (and in my case) they get updated so infrequently, that this is my first post in over a year (and reading back over my older posts I made a similar admission around 18 months ago!

To be honest I'm surprised that the Blog is even still here - You know what these free website things are like - if you don't access them for a certain period of time they disappear into the ether (or the webther) - So I thought I ought to post in case I've just caught it before it disappears! :-D

Went and saw "Wallace and Gromit - The Curse of the Were-Rabbit" at the flicks last night (with Phil, Denise, Chris, Jane and two of Denise's friends) - GREAT movie - Good ol' Ardman Animation maintaining and improving on their already fantastically high standards. Beautiful animation, lighting, set and prop design - great voice cast and script - all round a huge success, which is a real tribute to them, and something for the British Film Industry to be proud of!!!

Swanny says...."Oooh, I do like a nice bit of Gorgonzola!"
posted by LAMPS at 15:30

 
THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

Or are they? I went to see the new Thunderbirds movie at the cinema yesterday and whilst the film is certainly called Thunderbirds, can it really be "Thunderbirds"?

Over the last few months I've tried to remain as impartial about this movie as possible. I've heard plenty of awful things about it - to quote:

- "Fermat - son of Brains" - (that would imply Brains had had sex as some point in his life!)
- Alan Tracy being 14 - (Sure, he was always a spoilt brat in the original series - but 14?!?!)
- FAB1 being redesigned, and worse still, branded a Ford!!! ("Parker, get out the Ford, doesn't have the same ring to it, does it!)

But on the flip side I've seen some good things...

The Thunderbird craft themselves have been pretty much left alone, TB2 perhaps suffering the most from unnecessary re-design - but they look fairly snazzy. Lady Penelope and Parker (aka Sophia Myles and Ron Cook) look to fit their respective parts extremely well, and the sets and models all look reasonably nice.

Fast-forward on a few months and the film has premiered, had it's first run of reviews and has been critically panned. Why? Well, as I said at the beginning, it says it's Thunderbirds, but it's clearly not.

Does that make it a bad movie? Well in my opinion, no, or maybe it does.
I have to state here for the record that I'm not clinically insane or demented - just a tad off balance ;-)

I like the film
'I' like the film
I 'like' the film
"I LIKE THE FILM!?!?"

Surely that can't be right, can it? As I've said to many people on many occasions, I'm the kind of movie-goer who normally finds *something* worthwhile in every film I go and see. And in this case I think there are a lot of good "elements", it's simply the whole that lets it down.

Sophia Myles (who is only 3 months older than me) was absolutely superb as Lady Penelope, she's a bit like Mrs Peel in pink! Her tone and delivery are quite different to Sylvia Anderson, but in this case, not "wrong-different", just different, and more often than not bought a smile to my face.

Whereas Bill "Jeff Tracy" Paxton is utterly awful. He says "Thunderbirds are Go!" several times during the movie, but I think they must have removed all exclamation marks from his script, because there is no sense of urgency or excitement anywhere to be found in his performance. And then there's the scene at the end when he is watching his youngest son perform brave deeds with a tear in his eye, GAGH!!!!! awful! Absolutely terrible, the man should be shot!

So they are just two examples of how I can go from loving a film, to absolutely hating it.

Rather like a trauma victim, I think I must have already supressed the naff elements of the film into the back of my mind, and a pyschotherapist will uncover them in thirty years time. But I don't really care what anyone else says about the film, or about me - I'm stupid enough not to notice and/or care ;-)

Swanny says .... "F...F...F... no way"



posted by LAMPS at 08:37