Gate Theatre: An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde by Belen Delgado

In order to keep records of the movies and plays that I go to , I'd like to remember An Ideal Husband that I went to see last month. I admire Oscar Wilde and i'm never tired of listening to his brilliant dialogues ahead of time and its witty and irony. I enjoyed the play very much, it took us back to another time with the beautiful dresses and changes in the stage. The main protagonist, Martin Rea, is so hilarious!! The theatre was packed, as it always is when there is an Oscar Wilde play on stage. What a mixture of romance, comedy and criticism of the society of that time. Class!

Highly recommended: "Singing in the Rain - The Musical", Board Gais Theatre Dublin by Belén Delgado

1952's movie musical "Singing in the Rain" is superbly performed in a production direct from the West End at the Board Gais theatre in Dublin  from the 20th to the 31st of May. I actually didn't have plan to go and see this musical, even though i knew the musical that I watched several times during my teen times when I used to watch classic movies with my parents. Last Friday night was raining not-stop and on Saturday morning i woke up needing to disconnect from the routine , what do i usually do in these situations? Going to a good concert or to the theatre, so I did my research online and when I saw "Singing in the Rain" , I did not hesitate and I was lucky enough to find 2 tickets in the circle, row c, seat 37 & 38. They were the last 2 seats left together in a good location, the theater was packed!. Andres was happy to go with me and i think he was very surprised to see how good it was. I personally have always admired Gene Kelly, his energy, lively personality and charm and I thought it was going to be very difficult to portray that on stage, how wrong i was!

 (Photo taken from their Facebook page)

Happiness, love, positive energy, full of color, vibrant dancing with 12.000 litres of water live with the famous "singing in the rain performance", which is portrayed twice. The audience was smiling all the way through and we were personally dancing along in our seats, so emotional, even my husband cried out of joy in one of the songs. For us, this has been the best musical we have seen so far, after the one from Queen that we saw in London. It just made me feel what i needed, this is the magic of performances when they are well done. I would have loved to bring my mum to this musical, too, she would have loved it.

There are also celebrities in the cast, screen star Maxwell Caulfield plays the studio boss R F Simpson, i was actually saying to myself all the time, his face is so familiar.. i knew him from somewhere! From Dynasty, the tv series!! Gee, he still has the same face!!, Actress Vicky Binns from Coronation street soap opera, is so hilarious.. her voice is terrible!! Amy Ellen, blew us away with her fabulous voice and dance style. The main singer portraying Gene Kelly is also very elegant and professional and his funny colleague , Stephanie Annelli,was excellent. No need to say that at the end of the show, everyone stood up to clap and everyone had a huge smile in their faces. And of course, when we left the theater, it was raining cats and dogs , so we were dancing along on the way home !

Some of the highlights for me:

Good morning song; singing in the rain (both performances), specially seeing the people in the first rows trying not to get wet (lol); performance with the 3 male dancers doing tap dance in a very funny way and all the scenes with the mute movies being shown like the old times.

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/SITRMusical/reviews

Their official page:

http://www.singinintherain.co.uk/cast/

Looking back: Last Cultural events of 2013

Just a quick post to remember the last cultural events we went to in 2013:

I bought tickets to see the three penny Opera (Die dreigroschenoper) by Bertol Brecht, we forgot that we had tickets and a quick flashback came on a Saturday on our way to the cinema and we managed to get there on time. My husband enjoyed it very much, I'm still  not very convinced by the genre of the opera but just seeing my husband so happy, it made my day. I'm also glad I went to see an early example of modern musical comedy :-).

We also saw in the Board Gais Theater the musical of Priscilla Queen of the Dessert, a very colorful and happy-go-lucky musical protagonized by the 80ies pop singer, Jason Donovan. Wow he can really walk and dance in high heels! Chapeau! I really enjoyed it but to be honest I expected more of it.

I'm trying to remember now the last 2 movies we saw in 2013, the very last one was the second part of Hunger Games "Catching Fire", we really liked it, although I would not say that it's better than the first one, it is not. Based on the ending there will be another movie and I'll be there! I can't have enough of the Hunger games, I love the idea, I find it so original.

The other movie we saw was "Don Jon", I went to see it because I love Joseph Gordon-Levitt but I had no idea about the plot. We actually went to see if with a friend of ours and I think she thinks now that I'm a pervert or something because the movie is about a guy who is obsesses with the gym and porn and it's also a womanizer. Lol. It's actually a comedy, we enjoyed it but it was not the movie of our lives. To be perfectly honest with you, I cannot even remember the end now.. so another forgettable movie that I won't see twice. And yeah my husband enjoyed seeing Scarlett Johansson ..

2013 has been a busy year, a year of changes and with not much time left to write in my blogs.

Musical Cats in Dublin by Belen Delgado

What can I say about the last musical we have seen " Cats" , directly from Broadway to Dublin. As cat lovers what better way to enjoy a Saturday evening than seeing a musical where the dancers look and move like cats at the Board Gais Theatre! Beautiful! So colorful, lively and sweet! Loved the outfits and professional make-up. They were even mingling with the audience in between songs. You feel like in a tale. There is not a specific complicated plot/story, it's all about describing different type of cats through music and dance ;real life is like that, every cat is different, they are full of personality: the cheeky one, the chubby one, the funny and lively one, the shy one .. ! IT's so cute the way they move their tail! I personally liked the performance of the song "memory":

The whole show goes so fast that you don't want it to end! A must see for cat lovers!

I leave you with the best moments of the musical, another cultural moment shared with my husband that will remain in our memories:



Next one on our list, Priscilla!

Opera Carmen (March, 2013 Board Gais theatre Dublin)

Last Thursday I took my mum and husband to see the famous opera "Carmen" by Georges Biset a Russian-Irish production performed by  the Moscow state Opera in the Board Gais Energy theatre. The theatre was packed, there were only a few single empty seats. I thought I didn't know many of the songs but once you see the Opera live you realize that most of them have been part of your life, probably because my mum loves opera and she used to play opera very loud when I was a teenager. It' so beautiful to see so many opera singers singing live for the audience surrounded by Picasso abstract paintings accompanied live orchestra. I'd say that the most touching moment was when they played the famous Prelude, it was great too to be able to read the English subtitles while they sang in French. There were 3 acts with 2 intervals of 20 mins, I liked specially the scenes on the stage in the third part where they were on the mountain and they sang in the dark.As many other known operas it ends up tragically, no surprises there. To me, the best singers were the one playing the bull-fighter and Carmen. Carmen made an effort to dance Flamenco but this is definitely one thing that only Spanish-blood dancers/singers can do. Well-known Irish singer Celine Byrne playing Michaela, also sang beautifully. In a nutshell, for all Opera lovers it's a must to see Carmen once in your life, personally I think that the best Opera I have seen so far, without being an expert myself , is the Madame Butterfly.

Theatre play review: "Picture of Dorian Gray" (2012)

Those who know me will not be surprised by my choice to see this remarkable novel of my favorite writer: Oscar Wilde at the old Abbey Theatre in Dublin city centre. It's not easy to represent this novel as a theatre play, so much to tell and to portray in only a couple of hours but they managed to do that in a superb way. The desire to be beautiful and young forever will become true. Only the painting of Dorian Gray will age and show all the sins of Gray's goal to leave only for pleasure at any cost under the influence of Lord Henry. Best performances for me , British actor Tom Canton playing Dorian Gray & Jasper's Britton magnificent interpretation of Lord Henry ( it's unbelievable how he portrays the different stages of aging). They said the most intelligent lines of the book, words of thoughts of the true way of thinking of  Oscar Wilde, a man ahead of his time who will be misunderstood. Some of the best quotes are in this novel, just to have the pleasure to see Dorian Gray becoming alive on stage expressing such wise timeless words, makes it all worth it! I don't want to give you many more details so that you go and see it , if you get the chance. What? You have not seen or read any of Oscar Wilde's work!!?!! It will change your life , a small representation of some of the remarkable lines of Dorian Gray:

"The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful." 

There's no shame in pleasure. Man just wants to be happy. But society wants him to be good. And when he's good, he's rarely happy. But when he's happy, he's always good. 

  

I always like to know everything about my new friends, and nothing about my old ones.

I never talk during music--at least, during good music. If one hears bad music, it is one's duty to drown it in conversation.

Nowadays people know the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Men marry because they are tired; women, because they are curious: both are disappointed.

We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities...

´thriller Live , The Musical 2011- Yes we were there!(Docklands ,theatre dublin)

Many things have been said about Michael Jackson but one thing no-one can deny is that he was the biggest icon of pop and there is and there will not be anyone so talented like him. I have always admired him as an artist since my oldest sister played over and over again the vinilo record of "thriller" when i was a kid. Unfortunately I could not see Michael live in concert , so i took the chance to go and see the musical which gives tribute to Michael´s life " Thriller Live". We attended the 2.30 pm show because it was the one where i found the better seat. Paradoxically, the audience from the show was full of kids dressed like Michael Jackson. The show started with small Michael singing. There were 3 men and one female singer singing Michael´s songs and one talented little kid playing little Michael in the Jackson five. In general i have to say that i had very high expectations and although I had a very good time and I enjoyed specially the second part of the show, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of originality of the plot of the musical, they were reading stages of Michael´s life and then singing his songs. I could not avoid compare this musical to the one i saw a couple of years ago "we will rock you", where the originality of the plot ,the vocals of the singers and the effects blew us away. Well, the musical thriller was very simple, dancers were very good and out of the 5 singers that portraied Michael, only 1 was not good enough and none of them could dance and sing at the same time like Michael did, fair enough ,Michael is not easy to imitate and you can see this in this show where the dancers do the moves and the singers sing! There was one dancer who did very well the moonwalk! We were all so excited!! As I explained above i enjoyed more the second part ,maybe because i knew better Michael Jackson´s song that Jackson´s five ones. Some of the best moments where we could not sit down and stood up at the theater: Thriller; Moonwalk; Boogie; Billy Jean;beat it; we are the world and bad and form the Jackson five: a,b,c and i´ll be there! Last but not least, i´d like to mention that the female singer was the best imitating Michael´s voice, she was amazing and she looked fab. So no big effects, no big changes of stages and lights, just Michael´s music and dance! i felt Michael´s alive again and i´m sure he´ll always be alive in his songs. So if you are a Michael fan, go and see this musical!

Video promotion of the musical:

http://youtu.be/sHfZu0kRyGQ

"Coppelia" classical ballet performed by the Birmingham Royal Ballet in Dublin

I can define this brilliant piece of comic ballet in some words: aesthetic, magical, melodious music in perfect synch with quick and delicate ballet moves from all dancers. This performance really touched us, we enjoyed all three acts of it and couldn't stop applauding like the rest of the audience at the end of it at the Docklands Theater. What a marvelous feeling to be able to enjoy ballet with no words, only music played by a live orchestra, dance and gestures surrounded by 3 different beautiful settings. I have to say that after having seeing the Russian ballet 2 years ago i thought that the Birmingham ballet could not do it any better. Well i was wrong, it was a totally different experience seeing Coppelia, for me it was the first time that i have seen comedy mixed with ballet, a comedy without words which i find even better and more enjoyable. All the bailarinas were so delicate, specially the main dancer ,her moves in the second act when she plays the doll Coppelia, she really looked like a doll!! and the sweet old inventor,Doctor Coppelius, even though he didn't dance, he was fab making all of us laugh, he was very excited when he saw the whole audience standing in ovation only when he was alone on the stage. I'd say that my favorite act would be the second one when all the bailarinas go into the inventor's house and they find the doll Coppelia, the setting was very well done, with attention to detail and all the dancers playing different dolls really seemed like real dolls!

Last but not least, once again i wondered what is the story with the male dancers "attributes", what do they all wear under the tights??!!! Sorry not a very cultural comment but i couldn't help mentioning it. So yeah one thing appart from music, ballet and feeling joy is seeing a group of males in tights jumping in the air!! They looked like birds!! So delicate and light!! Where are those men on the planet???

If you have the chance of seeing Coppelia around the world, don't miss it, you will have a smile on your face all the way!! and the music is beautifullllll!!!

Here you can see a small piece of my favorite act that i have found on you tube:

Blow up the Liffey Bridges - Theatre (review)

To be honest i was not in the mood to write a about this comedy just after it finished last Wednesday at the Docklands theatre in Dublin. I needed some time to think about it, Was it that bad? why i didn't laugh all the way as promised? Well after 4 days i haven't changed my mind. They even wrote that Ronan Keating may show up for a performance, he could have.. honestly to save the day..at least someone who could sing could have come up on stage! We were very disappointed due to different reasons, let me start. Firstly, they could have exploited much more the differences between North and South Dublin , instead this "comedy" had a very poor plot with no so clever dialogues and very poor singing. Secondly, i didn't know it was supposed to be a musical , too was their bad singing supposed to be funny?? because it was annoying!!. To be fair out of the 8 actors only 2 were kind of o.k., the rest specially the girl who pretended to be a Northsider and her mum , gee somebody should have thrown them a bucket of water! When I wrote "pretended to be" was exactly because of that these 2 could not imitate well the Northside accent and it was replaced by annoying shouting and swearing, you could tell that they were from the South side,no doubt about that. I think that out of the 2 hours we were at the theater i only laughed once when the Southsider guy playing the assistant of the exaggerated posh Southsider actress told her to "fuck off" lol i actually wanted to tell her the same because she was fking annoying!!

To be fair the Southsiders played a better role maybe because they were just playing them selves on stage lol not sure. I'm just glad we went with a city deal offer because tickets were not cheap and i felt sorry for the guys who actually paid the exact fare and the theater was almost full.

If you ask me if the rest of the audience liked it, well it's simple to see if a theatre play is successful or not, just check the way people applaude when the play is over. In this case , i felt like people were clapping just for the sake of it and of course for a very short amount of time and with low intensity and only once! They didn't go back to stage and believe me Irish audience is an enthusiastic one ,if they like something they shout , applaude heavily ,anything! It was even embarrasing when some of the actors/actresses ended up singing a song sometimes people clapped sometimes only one person clapped and when it was awful nobody clapped lol. I'm still confuse of the message whoever did the script of this comedy was and yeah the producers were supposed to be good because they had a smash hit with a play called "one night in Istanbul", well maybe next time these producers should choose better with more imagination to write the scripts and better actors!!!

A Musical to remember: Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde (March 2011)

I went to see this musical for 2 reasons> 1. "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde" is a novel my husband likes very much and 2. I went to see the lead singer of the 80ies band"wet,wet,wet" in a musical (being a musical lover!no wonder here!).I was also curious to see how a dramatic, thrilling and a philosophical novel could be shown in a musical. I was nicely surprised by the quality of it: Modern settings and quick changes of stages (no idea how they did it, things were moving on their own!), big cast of singers who also could act very well! My favorite was of course, the Scottish "wet,wet,wet" lead singer: Marti Pellow playing Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde! What a lively guy and what a strong voice, i got goose pimple when he hit some high notes!! And what acting skills he has,too! Geee he was scary when he drank the potion and became Mr Hyde (We thought it may have been a powerful redbull lol,he is in a good shape to be 45 years old)! His hair went loose and his look and way of talking changed dramatically! Of course he was much more appealing being Mr Hyde than boring moral Mr Jekyll! Definitely "bad" people are more attractive! The prostitute "Lucy"was the best female singer for me and for most of the audience ,i'd say since she got the most applauses, along with Marti. MR Jekyll fiancee's had also a sweet voice but maybe as she played the moral and boring woman of the Victorian society, i wasn't impressed by her. I have to say that the musical has been adapted and it was more a soap opera style and even funny sometimes but it respected the original plot of duality in the personalities and the distinction between the good side and bad side of people. I specially like the scene when he sang along with his bad side being reflected in the screen! If you have a chance to see this broadway hit, do not miss it,it's a nice mixture of classical British 19th century theatre and excellent music accompanied by a live orchestra. You could feel that they love what they do and at the end when the whole Docklands audience stand up applauding loudly, you could see happiness in Marti's face and the whole cast! It was worth it the 61 euros I paid! I finish this humble review with a sentence that says a lot: If someone banishes all evil to the unconscious mind in an attempt to be wholly and completely good, it can result in the development of a Mr Hyde-type aspect to that person's character (taken from Sanford, John A. Evil The Shadow Side of Reality. Crossroad (1981))"

Jane Eyre (Gate Theatre, Dublin)

Andrea Corr, the lead singer of the Irish group "The Corrs" is the main protagonist of this 19th century Charlotte's Bronte novel "Jane Eyre". Before going to see this play , I was a bit sceptical, knowing only Andrea from her singer's career but she proved me wrong, her acting skills are at the same level that her singing ones! You really got into the tough stages of life of Jane Eyre, which was respected in the play. I personally liked the way , the character of the old Jane Eyre was in the corner of the stage narrating the story while the rest of the actors were ont he stage. The little kid who played Jane as a child was also remarkable along with Sir Rochester, of course.

To sum up, the play is a soap-opera of the nineteenth century where you can find: emotional and physical child abuse by Janes' Auntie, Jane's life at Lowood school with other poor orphans, her life as a governess when she fall in love with MrRochester not knowing of Mr Rochester's lunatic wife, who, by the way, scared all us on the stage ( she had a small role but gee ,it was believable! at one point some people from the audience even screamed!), an interrupted wedding, a surprising inheritance from an unknown relative and in the end a happy ending. All along, performed with an exquisite and elegante English language where any words of latin origin were used and Andrea is delicate and beautiful (i could not find er any fault, only a bit short ! and i was on the 4th row so..pretty close!). The changes of scenarios were done by the same actors in low light ,it was simple but it was good because you could use your imagination as well to picture the whole scene, i liked that simplicity and the movement of furniture. No huge budget on the clothing or effects but the 15 actors who performed made us all, feel like in another time. The audience was very respectful and no mobile sound went off or any weird noises (this is really appreciated!)! To put it in a nutshell, I'm very glad we went to see this play, a novel i never had time to read when i was at the university and that it was on the back of my mind!

If you have a chance to see this adaptation by Alan Stanford, don't miss it!!! You will laugh, suffer and even feel fear of MR Rochester lunatic's wife (we thought she was going to jump out of stage or something lol)

IF you don't believe me you can read Irish times review ,like they say this adaptation can inspire a new generation of readers!

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2010/1111/1224283081027.html

Lido Show Paris ,January 2011

English version coming soon, in case you want to see this show in Paris one day.For now only in Spanish sorry:

>Quer'iamos ir a un show t'ipico de Paris donde salieran las t'ipicas bedettes con sus trajes de plumas. Estuvimos un buen rato decidiendo que show era mejor si el Lido o el Moulin Rouge.Al final nos decidimos por el Lido al estar situado en los Campos El'iseos (m'as centro y seguro que en Pigall con el Moulin Rouge) y al haber una oferta con la agencia de internet "Tourisme de France".

Consejos : Ir con tiempo (una hora antes si se puede),Los de la cena est'an en primera linea, comprar cena y show, porque si coges una oferta como nosotros con una copa de Champagne solamente, estar'as en lo m'as alto del teatro con poca visibilidad. Merece la pena pagar un poco m'as para verlo m'as de cerca. Importante cuanto antes llegues al show, mejor puesto coger'as.

Evitar a las agencias de internet como France Tourism : Por 90 euros: Tour d lights y oferta y recogida en bus ,en el mismo precio cuando el final del tour s'olo haces una m'inima parte (45 mins), el tour continua pero a t'i te hacen bajarte en el Lido, nuestro asiento era lo m'as atr'as del teatro (de esto no te avisan en la p'agina, si me hubiesen avisado habr'ia pagado m'as). Al salir el conductor de la agencia no sabia nada y no nos queria llevar al hotel. Acabamos con 'el como v'eis en la foto JAJA aunque fue una experiencia m'as en Francia. Si pod'eis contratar directamente con el teatro, se pueden hacer reservas por tel'efeno normalmente y hablan ingl'es. Si comprabas s'olo el show sin todo lo anterior costaba 70 euros.

Lo que m'as nos gust'o del show (el que recomiendo si se quiere vivir en directo un show de variedades con mujeres gigantes llevando trajes suntuosos de Plumas y mamotretos gigantes y con poca tela en el pecho y en la parte de atr'as): Vestuarios,escenarios,Variedad: Caballo, un mimo bastante gracioso (de lo que m'as me gust'o) que sac'o a dos voluntarios del p'ublico,un hombre colgado de dos bandas blancas haciendo trapecismo, un elegante show egipcio que sal'ia de debajo del escenario, patinaje sobre hielo de una pareja (la pista de hielo sali'o tambi'en de la nada, del escenario!), cante en honor a Edit Piaff de la bedette principal rodeada de los/as bailarines etc .

C'omo v'eis el show tiene una variedad que al menos yo no esperaba (incluso sale un caballo blanco hermoso con un jinete muy elegante bailando entre las bailarinas!), no debes esperar grandes actuaciones de baile porque no son grandes bailarines, entre otras cosas ellas no puede casi moverse con los trajes tan aparatoso que les ponen pero en general el show es muy est'etico y elegante, no es para nada vulgar. Yo habria quitado del show la parte en la que las chicas , todas con un cuerpo impresionante ,salieron diciendo "im gorgeous" en todos los idiomas (en espa~nol "soy linda"), cosa evidente que s'olo nos hacia sentir m'as peque~nas y barrigonas al resto del p'ublico (esta parte del show consistia s'olo en esto, desfilaban como modelos y dec'ian eso durante 10 minutos).

Cosas que me decepcionaron:

No te dejan hacer fotos ,ni videos (aunque nosotros hicimos en plan pirata jaja upps!).

No bailan can-can!!

Los bailarines hombres eran bastante malos y los vestuarios bastante gays pero exagerado, sin clase.

S'olo canta la Bedette principal pero ella cantaba muy bien era espectacular.

Del resto me encant'o todo!!! No me arrepiento! En dos d'ias voy al Moulin Rouge as'i que podr'e deciros cual es mejor.

C'omo ir vestido:

De Etiqueta: ir de chaqueta al menos y las mujeres con un traje arreglado de media pierna - pueden no dejarte entrar si vas d zapatillas y vaqueros (aunque alguno se col'o..).

Tener en cuenta que:

Que hay grandes colas, sobre todo para el show de las 23.30 (recomiendo ir al show de las 21.30 si se puede ), reservarlo con mucho tiempo por adelantado y llegar al menos 30 o 45 mins antes.

Conclusi'on: Me llev'e una grata sorpresa porque es un show hecho con mucho gusto para todos los p'ublicos y no es para nada vulgar a pesar de que salgan en topless , es de una gran belleza visual y con variedad de actos. Otra conclusi'on que saqu'e es que esas mujeres tan gigantes y con esos cuerpos tan perfectos no pueden ser de verdad! Ser'an robots?? Qu'e comen?C'omo son sus padres? Menos mal que Andresillo no llevaba las gafas y no podia ver bien!!!

Xmas Flamenco Spectacular at the Smock Abbey on the 11th December 2010

Xmas Flamenco Spectacular at the Smock Abbey theater on the 11th December 2010 in Dublin Ireland. Thanx to the Pe~na Flamenca "El Indalo" , i feel closer to my roots being able to enjoy some flamenco dancing and singing.

I personally enjoyed the original, full of energy,rhythm and passion , Arancha Romero , from Algeciras. After seeing her, we all wanted to dance, she knew how to move her flamenco skirt and feet! The guitarrist "el cuco" played very well, his fingers were so quick and smooth touching the guitar's strings to the rhythm of the percussionist " El Chuster",that it was unbeliavable! By the way,it seemed to easy to play the acoustic box like the Chuster did, it was so natural!! but for sure ,it's not easy! and last but not least, i had the pleasure to see again the delicate and artistic dancer, Felipe, this time i could feel that he was more inspired,may be due to the company or to the gorgeous red suit and boots he was wearing! HE delighted us dancing with a stick and then with Arancha. The only one that didn't impress me much was the other singer Rosa Angeles, nothing against you, Rosa, it just didn't impress me much, as Olayo did the first time i saw him, this time he also sang with a strong voice and he even danced! Olayo you rock,man! where do you get all the voice from that small body??!! One thing that I like about flamenco shows is the wat they cheer up each other with compliments when they sing or dance well "guapa,que arte, vamos all'a" etc

Fame (musical) Dublin, Docklands theatre 21.08.2010

Para mí es díficil no comparar después de haber visto grandes producciones de musicales como " We will Rock you" en Londres con cantantes con gran experiencia y profesionalidad y con un gran preosupuesto para la puesta en escena : Decorados, efectos, música y vestuario (sobre todo porque la entrada nos costó casi igual.!). Cuando entramos al teatro, lo primero que me fijé era que entre el público habia muchos niños con sus padres, lo cual me recordó cuando fuimos al musical de Annie que no me entusiasmó mucho (fue una intución inicial..). He de decir, que la versión irlandesa que vimos ayer de la famosa serie de los 80 " Fame " me entretuvo, es la mejor manera de describirlo, lo pasé bien ,sobre todo cuando cantaron la banda sonora de Fame en un par de ocasiones("remember,remember"), a mi memoria volvieron las caras de los personajes originales, a los que me era difícil identificar porque les cambiaron los nombres en el musical aunque respetaron el estilo individual de cada personaje: El talentosos bailarín y no tan brillante estudiante: Leroy, la latina con tremenda voz: Coco, el profesor tradicional de música,Benjamin y el alumno tímido que tocaba muy bien el piano: Bruno. Para aquellos que se criaron con la serie, si váis al teatro a ver esta misma versión ,id preparados a que va a ser una versión adaptada y hecha al estilo : "High school musical" o "Glee" ,de alguna manera la esencia de la serie original se pierde. A mí, al ser fan de Glee no me molestó, pero puede que a fervientes seguidores de Fame,no les guste este cambio. En relación a los cantantes, en general, todos cantan bien, sólo la que hace de profesora de baile , nos pareció un poco gritona y no era tan exigente como la profesora original de la serie. Destacan la que hace de Coco, llamada Carmen, el chico que hace de Leroy y la chica de color gordita, el chico divertido moreno y la que tiene el papel principal también morena: Jessica Cervi y la orquesta que acompañaba al musical era muy buena, también la gran acústica del nuevo teatro de Docklands ayudaba. Mi parte favorita fue el final cuando todos acompañábamos al cast con palmas (yo no podia evitar cantar..).

Una escena que quedará para el recuerdo es cuando salieron todos como vestidos de flamenco y empezaron a bailar mezclando el estilo de salsa, con ritmo mejicano y flamenco a lo irlandés. Uy madre, no sabian ni mover las manos y zapateaban como si fuera flamenco cuando la música era como salsa, en cierto modo me hicieron reir jaja

Pues eso si quieres pasar un buen rato viendo un musical estilo high-school, te la recomiendo pero si no te va las canciones estilo "cheesy" (pastelosas),yo me quedaría con el recuerdo de la serie y me ahorraria la entrada! Yo, como dije al principio me lo pasé muy bien y no me arrepiento ,ya que sabia que era una versión irlandesa sin un gran preosupuesto, con gente muy joven sacados de un casting, con talento pero no con amplia experiencia como pueda ser un gran musical de Londres o Nueva York.

ah! en una de las fotos veréis las palomitas que me comí ya que en Dublín en los teatros se puede comer palomitas como en los cines o helados! me encanta esa parte, por cierto :-)

Russian Ballet "the Swan Lake" at the Grand Canal Theater Dublin// lago de los Cisnes en el Teatro del Gran Canal (Dublín)

English version Abajo en Español

This evening I have witnessed from 7,30 pm to 22.20 "Swan Lake" by the genius composer Tchaikovsky. A mixture of armony , precission of body movements and beauty perfomed by the Russian ballet along with the music of the live orchestra surrounded by the magnificient acoustic of the new Grand Canal theater. It was magical to see the 20 female dancers pretending to be swans surrounding the main female"Swan" dancing along with the prince in an elegant and delicate manner. They really looked like swans to me! Apart from the numerous and aesthetic dances of the prince with the swan, there was a surprising act of 2 female Russian dancers and 2 male ones dancing with “abanicos” with a touch of flamenco Spanish music in fine-looking black flamenco style dresses. I also adored the act with 4 female swans dancing holding their hands all the time and moving their feet in such a quick,clean and sharp way. (see picture)

I loved the different theater sets (in the palace or in the forest), the original and coloufoul costumes and the softness of the arm and leg movements of every single dancer! The prince and the jester spinned around in circles in the air and jumped like birds! it looked as if they could fly! beautiful! Regarding the new theater, I have only compliments about the modern architecture of it, quality of sound and its premises, very well organized and with plenty of staff taking care of the audience.

To me it has been the most gratifying and satisfactory experiences i have had watching a ballet at a theater. Wherever you are, if you have the chance to see them,don´t hesitate, at the end of the show you will feel like dancing ballet yourself!

En Español:

Esta noche he sido testigo desde las 7,30 horas a 22,20 de"El Lago de los Cisnes" del genial compositor Tchaikovsky. Una mezcla de bella armonía, precision de los movimientos del cuerpo llevada a cabo por el ballet ruso, junto con la música de la orquesta en vivo acompañada por la magnífica acústica del nuevo teatro Gran Canal. Fue mágico ver a las 20 bailarinas pretendiendo ser cisnes cuando rodeaban a la bailarina principal que hacia de cisne, mientras bailaba con el enamorado príncipe de una manera elegante y delicada. Realmente parecían cisnes! Aparte de los numerosos delicados bailes del príncipe con el cisne, hubo un acto sorprendente de 2 bailarinas de Rusia y 2 bailarines bailando con "abanicos" al son de una música con un toque de flamenco español vestidas con unos preciosos trajes negros aflamencados. También disfruté el acto con 4 cisnes bailarinas cogidas de las manos todo el tiempo , moviendo sus pies de manera rápida, limpia y precisa. (ver foto)

ME fascinaron los diferentes escenarios (en el palacio o en el bosque), el original y colorido vestuario y la suavidad de los movimientos de brazos y piernas de cada bailarín único! El príncipe y el bufón dando vueltas en círculos en el aire y saltando como un pájaro! Parecía como si pudieran volar! En cuanto al nuevo teatro, sólo tengo elogios acerca de la arquitectura moderna del mismo, la calidad del sonido y de sus instalaciones, muy bien organizado y con abudante personal atendiendo las necesidades del público.

Para mí ha sido una de las experiencias más gratificantes y satisfactorias que he vivido viendo un ballet en un teatro. Dondequiera que esté, si usted tiene la oportunidad de verlos, no lo dude, al final del espectáculo sentirá como uno de los bailarines del ballet flotando en el aire!

Annie, musical

Ayer tuve el placer de ver el musical de annie que me trajo muchos recuerdos de niña cuando veia el musical original de 1977 en la tele. Una de mis partes favoritas era cuando todas las huerfánas cantaban "what a hardknock life (no aguanto más ) " mientras limpiaban el suelo del orfanato.

La historia de la huerfána peliroja annie se desarolla en la depresión de los 70 en Nueva York,incluso ella llega a conocer al presdiente Rusbell.

El teatro estaba lleno de niños y familias y la verdad es que habia veces que se oía más al público que el musical en sí. Del reparto he de destacar la profesionalidad y calidad de voz de las 7 niñas que protagonizaban el musical y la simpatía de la cuidadora del horfanato "Miss Hannigan". La alegría y musicalidad de las canciones hace que una vez más la magía del espectáculo le haga a uno relajarse y pasar un buen rato. El argumento de la historia original está adapatado para un público infantil ya que modificaron la parte donde los padres impostores consiguen llevarse a Annie.

Me quedo con el buen sabor de boca de la canción "tomorrow" (mañana) que cantamos todos junto con el reparto del musical.

Aquí os dejo con un video de mi parte favorita como comentaba antes:

We will rock you Musical

The most modern,entertaining and best developed musical I have seen so far, where around 32 Queen hits are featured by very professional singers. "We will rock you" has been the musical that has stayed longer in the Dominion theatre in London (over 3 years now!), we were lucky to get tickets to enjoy such a wonderful show. It portrays a view of the future in 2300 where instruments will be forbidden and the music will become computerized and controlled by a single online company. A gaga planet full of boy and girl bands with user ids instead of names. Those called the bohemians are the ones who tried to get back the rock through Queen hits and they are chased by the gaga police since they are considered a threat to the computerized tunes. The musical has a great show behind with lights, computer effects in the background and very well designed scenarios with a big budget. There was a live band that played all hits which could be heard in all theatre with great quality. Freddy Mercury gets back to life at the night of the show, specially the female singers paid him a well-deserved tribute with their strong voices. I can´t stop singing 'Bohemian Rhapsody' song that gave me the goose gimples when I heard it and when they all sang "we are the champions" and the whole theater rose their hands in the air and sang along. I truly recommend you to go and see this musical before it´s too late, even if you are not a fan of the fantastic Queen, you will enjoy it! it´s full of surprises!

My ideal husband by OSCAR WILDE

Last week I went to see in the Abbey theater in Dublin an ingenious play by Oscar Wilde "my ideal husband". To show you some of Wilde´s wit full of irony and paradox, I´m going to write some of his timeless quotes from this play:

"To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance"

"Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear. Other people are quite dreadful. "

Lord Caversham: "I don't know how you stand society. A lot of damned nobodies talking about nothing.

Lord Arthur Goring: I love talking about nothing, Father. It's the only thing I know anything about. "

Lord Arthur Goring: "My dear Mrs. Cheveley, I should make you a very bad husband.

Laura : I don't mind bad husbands. I've had two. They amused me immensely. "

Lord Caversham: "What are you doing here, sir? Wasting your time, as usual?

Lord Arthur Goring: My dear father, when one pays a visit, it is for the purpose of wasting other people's time and not one's own.

The moral of this play is that no woman shoud put her husband on a pedestal,there is no "ideal husband" as such, we are all human and a husband doesnt need to be perfect to make it work. Faults also give some excitement to the relationship!

No place is better than the Oscar Wilde´s hometown, Dublin to see one of his plays. If you are bored of contemporary theater and want to listen to some intelligent and remarkable quotes ,go and see any Wilde´s play or try to read one of his books!