Bad: The Michael Jackson Musical

Thriller?  See, that doesn't really work for me.  In my opinion, Bad would have been a far better song choice for the title of the Michael Jackson musical.  It pains me to say this, but this musical was so Bad that, if I hadn't been having such a great time making fun of it, I would have walked out and saved myself the pain of actually having to endure it.
Sarah, Britny and I got Kari tickets to see the show for her birthday (if you haven't noticed, tickets to a show has kind of become our standard birthday gift).  We were all super excited.  I mean, who wouldn't want to spend two hours on a Sunday afternoon rocking out to Michael Jackson songs being sung by a Michael Jackson impersonator!?  Answer: you.  Trust me.
First of all, the songs weren't all sung by a Michael Jackson impersonator.  In fact, an impersonator didn't come out until the last twenty minutes of the show.  The songs before that were sung by random people; some were bald, some were white, one was a woman.  Some might argue that this was all very cleverly planned, and that the white guys and the woman were meant to symbolize the androgynous nature of and the skin colour altering choices made by Michael Jackson.  What it looked like to me, though, was just a bunch of fairly talentless people singing Michael Jackson songs really poorly.  And this is, of course, where the making fun part comes in. 
We nicknamed one guy Passion Douche Bag.  He was a pretty good singer actually, but he was super weird.  He would bend completely over throughout his performances, he would stand in one place and sing to the wall for long periods of time, stuff like that.  He was passionate, we gave him that (hence the name); but really, who sings at the wall?  A douche bag, that's who.
Then there was the woman.  We called her Madusa Rat's Nest because her hair looked like, can you guess it?  A rat's nest.  It was actually disgusting.  Want to know what else was disgusting about her?  The fact that she would spontaneously grab her boobs (and hoist them up and hold them for quite some time) throughout the show.  It was ridiculous.  Especially considering a large part of the audience were children.  Poor taste.
And the dancing!  Horrible choreography, not to mention the fact that the dancers weren't in sync at all...ever.
Now, there were a few good performances, I will give them that.  Man in the Mirror and Heal the World were well done.  But I honestly have nothing great to say about the show, as you can obviously tell.  I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.  I can't believe it's on broadway, and I can't imagine it will be on for long.  At least I hope not.

Dave: Too Much to Handle

I really don't know what to write in this blog.  I've been trying to think of something clever to say for the last ten minutes; something other than, "wow, Dave was freaking fantastic," which you have heard from me before about various other things...but I can't think of anything even remotely creative right now, so I guess I will just stick with that.  Yup.  Dave was FANTASTIC. 

As a relatively new Dave Matthews fan I can't really get too detailed about the life and times of everyone in the band, not that you would want to read about that anyways.  I can tell you, though, that if you ever get the opportunity to see them live it would be a sin not to go.  They are just awesome.  I mean, they have music wars; the bassist, the saxophonist, the drummer, the violinist (who, might I add, is absolutely incredible) just battle it out with their instruments for like twenty minutes and Dave just stands back and lets them give'r.  It's pretty sweet.  And Dave?  Just, love.  He was hilariously drunk ("I hope they get the lights right because I don't know what I'm doing up here"), but, more importantly, he was absolutely brilliant on stage.  The sounds that come out of his body are unbelievable.

They played a great set, including Funny The Way It Is, Time Bomb, So Much To Say, Alligator Pie, Jimi Thing, Don't Drink The Water, and an acoustic version of Baby Blue which was the first of his encore.  All in all it was a great night.  OH!  One more thing: if and when you go to a Dave concert you have to remember to bring along your Sarah Goodine - she is absolutely insane when it comes to DM and will guarantee a good time. 

Billy El(ton John was obviously involved in this musical)liot

For my 25th birthday my friends Sarah and Kari bought me a ticket to see Billy Elliot, the broadway musical based on the 2000 film of the same name.  Sadly I had to wait until March 4th, but oh, was it worth the wait.  This musical was, put simply, wonderful.

The story revolves around a motherless boy named Billy who trades boxing gloves for ballet shoes. The fear he has of telling his father and the loving relationship he develops with his chain-smoking, yet adoring, dance teacher, shape the story of his personal struggle and fulfillment, which is balanced against a counter-story of family and community strife caused by the UK miners' strike. 

Billy Elliot won so many awards I can't even name them all (including several Best Musical awards), but the most noteworthy award, in my opinion, occured at the 2006 Laurence Olivier Awards: thirteen year old Liam Mower, who played Billy Elliot, won Best Actor in a Musical; he was the youngest actor to ever win that award.  And honestly, if the boy I saw in the role was anything like this Liam Mower, it was well deserved.  I was just in awe when I watched him dance.  In my wildest dreams I couldn't even come close to that kind of dancing...and this kid is barely a teenager!  It brought tears to my eyes watching him move so beautifully across the stage.  People like him give true meaning to the phrase "born to dance."

The only thing that I could criticise about the show was that sometimes the accents of the actors were so thick that I couldn't understand what they were saying.  But, let's be honest: I am a dancer at heart; who needs to understand words when you have dance to tell a story?  This musical is by far one of my favorites.  I really want to see it again. Two thumbs way up...

Oh, one more thing: Elton John wrote the music to the show. 'Nuff said.