catching up

I've got so many new stories to tell and I never even finished Vegas!



So La Reve - beautiful but not as good as Love, and then DH told me that it wasn't a Cirque show, but a copy, and somehow you could tell - the edges weren't as crisp... However the high dives and some of the visuals were breathtaking, it just wasn't as cohesive as Love.

In the meantime we also went and saw West Side Story (back in Manhattan now) DH loves it and I'm very familiar with the music but realized I'd never seen it on stage, I'd only ever seen the movie.



It was a very weird experience, because it is a piece I love, but I thought it was such a bad interpretation, the lovers were unbelivable, I didn't care about them at all (even though Maria had pipes, no question there) and the all the male parts were uniformly dreadful. No energy, no bite, no sense of them being 3 dimensional people with back story, just flat. The women were better and the dance numbers better still but I was frankly bored.

I sat and wriggled and looked at the audience - and the audience - loved it! Clapped and whistled and cheered. I felt so out of sync. And yet, as we walked out, no one was talking about the show. It was like they focused on it for 2 hours and then forgot it as they walked out the door, already on to the next thing. But they applauded and stood (I refused. Really, I didn't enjoy it at all.) But I don't get it when I'm so not with the audience. What were they cheering? What did they connect to that I couldn't see? So odd experience on all counts.

DH and DS are still listening daily to the CD of Love that we bought at the Vegas show and DH is raving about the orchestrations etc... so that show is definitely lingering.

This week I've been suffering terribly from hayfever and both prescription medication and over the counter stuff is not helping, and then I remembered that I have an air filter that I use every year, sitting and waiting for this season - sometimes it's so hard to be an adult and remember how to look after yourself!

Vegas dreaming...

DH has been to Vegas many times, he reckons he spent nearly 2 months in a one year period for work. It's my first time. People say it's like Disney for grown ups and I think they are right. Even as you leave the air port, the streamlined efficiency of the cab service makes you relax, as their competent smiling efficiency takes hold. I thought about how to catch a cab from JFK is all chance and chaos, and wondered why they couldn't set up this smooth system (20 cabs fill up at once, drive off, 20 more cabs swoop in, the line jumps forward, you're in your cab within minutes.)



But you don't want to read about me nattering about cabs. We're staying at the Venetian, a huge, huge hotel thousands of rooms in this faux roman decadence complete with canal and a mock St Martin's Square in perpetual twilight (pictured above.) All very glam and clever. The only problem is that the hotel is so big, each individual guest is small potatoes and their service is appalling - everything takes for ever, and even to complain takes 10 mins on hold before you can talk to a human. To our amusement the music from Phantom plays endlessly in the elevators, as the 90 min version of the Phantom of the Opera is playing here. The elevators are very luxe, there are paintings on the ceilings in true baroque fashion, and the faux canal is fun, but I don't like it here and we won't return.

Vegas itself, on the other hand, has been a blast. So far we've seen 2 shows - a preview of Peep Show (which opened tonight) and Love, by Cirque de Soleil, music by the Beatles.



I've not seen much burlesque, so I can't judge Peepshow against other shows of it's kind, but it was kind of... unerotic. The woman whose body I liked best was Mel B. (pictured above) ex Spice girl (Scary Spice) the rest were just too skinny or Barbie doll for me, not quite real enough. The skits that were more classic porn - girls bending provocatively over cars, girls in cheerleader uniforms stripping down to g-strings - they worked least for me. The scenes where there was some emotional content (even if that emotion was laughter) worked better. The girl flirting with her salacious stuffed bear, the girl falling in love with the amazing guy in the bath (great acrobatic scene) but even there, the emotion was all veneer. As a piece it didn't work for me, though I imagine as it beds in it will get better.



But then I hadn't seen any other Vegas shows, so didn't really have anything to compare it to. Tonight we went and saw Love at the Mirage. My goodness - dreams made flesh. Just so many beautiful, beautiful images, set against such classic music. To listen to the music, so wonderfully produced, to see those images, to be in that moment. I just loved it. I can't rave enough. I've seen about 4 Cirque shows, but they were all travelling shows in tents. This is the first one I've seen in a theatre that was purpose built for the show. Oh the things they could do with light and movement. It was both graceful and evocative, and very moving. As we walked out, I wanted to go straight back in and see it again.

And tomorrow we go to La Reve ... many things to look forward to!