Shoshana Bean and Stuff

Let me work backwards here. So much has happened over the last 24 hours, it’s the only way.

The amazing Scott Alan is heading this way in September, as Harvest Rain Theatre Company‘s second guest in their inspiring Broadway to Brisvegas series. I’m hoping he’ll bring with him the incomparable Natalie Weiss, who has already made many of his songs her own.

How AMAZING is she?! So it’s even more amazing (and terrifying and inspiring) that Australian singers are also being given the opportunity to audition for a coveted spot on The Brisbane Powerhouse stage with Scott. CAN YOU IMAGINE??? If you can’t, at least be supportive of your friends who are terrified and inspired and brave enough to be frantically downloading sheet music and rehearsing and recording their favourite Scott Alan song in order to be in the running for this genius competition. Can I say it (again)? GOTTA HAVE A GIMMICK. I mean that in the kindest way. I am almost ready to state that I am in awe of this theatre company’s awesome power of attraction. This is probably the most generous gimmick the company (and their guest artist) could possibly offer to young performers! Is it not? Am I just a musical theatre freak or is this not super exciting for this poor-country-cousin city of Brisvegas?

Speaking of gimmicks and of competitions and of Ms Natalie Weiss, it seems only fair to mention that she was one of four winners, in a similar competition devised by Jason Robert Brown (who is also rumoured to be appearing as part of the Broadway to Brisvegas series – but I didn’t tell you that).

You should just stop doing anything else for a moment and listen to this.

I was going to work completely chronologically backwards but I’m drained and now it seems I must mention Shoshana Bean.

Shoshana Bean‘s name is synonymous with the hit Broadway shows, Hairspray and Wicked (yes, I have given you the Australian production links. Cheeky, I know. Go see them). She was the second ever Elphie (after Stephanie J Block). For musical theatre freaks, like myself, this is just one of those things that you know, like those obscure questions in Trivial Pursuit that you kick yourself for not knowing in the heat of the moment.

For the musical theatre freaks, like myself, this was an event not to be missed! Actually, there appeared to be a few notables who missed it…where were you???

We wanted Shoshana to sing Home

We wanted her to sing Defying Gravity…like THIS

Or like THIS

And she did sing it. Sort of. A new, never-before-performed jazzy version. At the end, over the slightly hesitant applause, she told us it was “shit” and as we protested politely and loudly, though it was shit, she assured us that it WAS “shit” and that we, the forgiving and ever-loving audience, may elect the last number.

Well! What we really wanted her to sing was The Wizard and I.

And she did! Really! Now THAT’S what the Brisbane peeps wanted to hear!

There was an almost imperceptible sudden realisation from Shoshana herself that that was all the Brisbane peeps wanted to hear. I wanted to tell her after the show that she MUST keep doin’ her own thing (not that anybody could ever keep her from doin’ it)! Her own thing is pretty darn good, after all! But I didn’t tell her this because I already had the album and we had run into some long-lost friends and then we ran away back to the coast, as we so often do after a show these days. Sometimes it’s about getting the balance right; the balance between sustaining some sort of real life at home as well as keeping up with seeing the shows and making the appearances…more about that another time.

Shoshana’s roles-I’ll-never-play medley was priceless. I loved the power and pure joy and optimism of Goodbye Until Tomorrow, from JRB’s The Last Five Years and the great, jazzy opening numbers, including Down With Love…cute arrangement. In fact, I should mention that Shoshana’s musical director, James Sampliner, was also a pretty incredible performer (as well as a crazy-talented musician) . Without actually becoming part of the patter, as Billy Stritch, Todd Schroeder and others do (probably can’t resist, I suspect), Mr Sampliner was well and truly half of that show, with an abundance of high octane energy to feed off!

So this was going to be a short post, to give you a quick run down of the onslaught of momentous things that have happened in the last 24 hours…but too late. Ok, briefly, like, bullet points even:

• Shoshana Bean shared with Brisbane peeps just a little of what we knew of her already and a lot of what we didn’t. My guess is that there is a lot more to come.
• While Shoshana was onstage, Kevin Rudd politely offered to step out of the spotlight that has shone so briefly upon him and out of Julia Gillard’s way, as she was basically shoved in front of the country, in a role that, quite possibly, she hadn’t realised she would get to play quite so soon. I know. Sometimes it’s best not to question these things but the whole fiasco made me think of

1. They Both Reached for the Gun
2. Showgirls

YES the puppet master and NO, not really much of it but just the bit in Showgirls where the dancer is pushed down the stairs by the up and coming dancer (“There’s always somebody younger and thinner coming down the stairs behind you”) and another dancer defends her and says she saw it, it was an accident, it just happened, she FELL…and the dancer is crumpled at the bottom of the stairs until she is carried away…aaaaand back to the bullet points:

• Queensland Theatre Company announced (well, Anna Bligh announced it actually, but nobody noticed while the puppet masters were at work) that QTC had appointed as their new Artistic Director, Wesley Enoch; a brilliant, kinda brave and kinda obvious choice for the top job in Queensland theatre.
• And remember, we gained our first female prime minister without even having to elect her. How lucky are we?
• And I won tickets to see Luke Kennedy in Jesus Christ Superstar in August.
• And I won tickets to see Katie Noonan and the Captains at Joe’s Waterhole on Saturday night.

Ok. I think that’s all. Now I just have The Sunshine Coast Show and The Noosa Longweekend to catch up on…..guest bloggers? Anyone?