Roar - Rockwell

New thing today, watched the Roar performance at Rockwell. We enjoyed the Jagged Little Pill performance earlier and when we saw this on the list of shows we decided to give it a shot. Had dinner early and we were only able to get "partial view" seating tickets, but we still saw a lot. 

Overall the show was good. The performances ranged from just ok to excellent. I liked Kyra Selman's voice the most and although some of her scenes she didn't have a ton of dramatic opportunities, in the end she rocked it insanely well and hers was my favorite voice! EVERYONE else also did incredibly well and we enjoyed it. I think overall we still really preferred the Jagged Little Pill performance, but I think this was highly enjoyable as we liked a ton of songs and grew to love and enjoy other new ones as well. I will be recommending this show to many people.

On a weird note, the non-performance night at the Rockwell was a little weird. Our waiter didn't know what he was doing and the service was pretty bad. The place was packed crowded so it was a  little hard to get good attention and service. I also sat next to a weird guy who also bought a "partial view" ticket, yet felt the need to move his head and stick his body/head in front of me to get a good look at the performance when it was in another part of the room... weird rude. Also he made a giant crouching noise eating his nachos during one of the performances that was pretty hilarious and inappropriate. Also he liked to text, take photos and video during the show as well... ya. Oh and we sat in front of a grandpa and grandma taking their young grandkids to the show. There were quite a few adult parts, and I heard regular commentary in the background of the play by play "drama" that was happening, such as "they're on a date" and other obvious chatter. Thanks for the play by play gramps, I had no idea what was going on from the context....

I thought overall though the weirdness was funny because... I had a mega celebrity sighting! I won't say who it was because I value people's privacy, but it was pretty huge. Probably the most significant celebrity sighting I will ever have. And there were two of them! I walked by this couple quite a few times, and I could tell they were trying to keep it low key. Honestly it looked like they were just an in love couple trying to have a nice date night out on the town. They looked really down to earth and normal. I didn't stare or make a fuss, but after awhile a few people were bugging them asking for autographs and photos. I felt bad for them, and afterwards they left, I think because people couldn't just leave them alone? Hello? They are normal people, just a nice couple having a night out, and they weren't trying to bring any attention to themselves - actually sitting somewhere inconspicuous and keeping to themselves. Poor celebrities right? Well these two seemed like nice people taking a stab at normalcy, although they're probably used to all of it I guess? I thought they were pretty classy overall and I am more a fan now even though I was a pretty big fan before. Anyway they left at intermission before the second half of the show, which honestly was a pretty great half and I preferred the second half because it had better drama and song storytelling.

Anyway, so that was our evening :) Pretty awesome firsts!

Most importantly - go support theater and great performances! You may enjoy yourselves in the process!

Description of Show on Website

ROAR

She's a hero. 

She just doesn't know it yet.

Three young women discover what it means to be truly human when they must battle for survival in their messy, private world as it crumbles. Lover. Husband. Partner. Friend. No one is left unscathed as these women face the strangers they thought they knew when their ideas about love, relationships and health are suddenly turned upside down. A sexy, edgy and kinetic cast delivers gut-wrenching vocals with a dazzling display of songs from superstars like Katy Perry, Demi Lovato, Taylor Swift, P!nk, Shakira, Rihanna, Miley Cyrus, Lorde, Sia, Lady Gaga, Sara Bareilles and many more. 

Produced by Kate Pazakis

Choreography by Ambrose Respicio

Music Direction by Brian Kennedy

Conceived & Directed by VP Boyle

We Will Rock You - Queen Musical

New thing today, saw We Will Rock You - a Queen Tribute Musical. We like Queen music, we loved the Rock of Ages musical and movie, so we were excited to see this show. A coworker had free tickets and couldn't go so we picked them up and went on a weeknight - Wednesday night! Look at us crazy people. 

Anyway another new first - went to the Ahmanson theater in downtown LA. New venue to us and it was neat. Felt cozy. Husband noticed how tall the theater was and I noticed our angle of watching the show was pretty steep. We liked the theater and location. 

So the show itself was sorta lame. We still liked the music and the performances of the songs were good, but the overall story and characters were pretty weak. Spoilers! 

Plot - So there's this new future world called "iPlanet" where everything is controlled by the Killer Queen and no music or original thought is allowed. There are these "Bohemian" rebels that want to bring back original rock music and experience real life concerts instead of getting everything from the online iPlanet control. There's a strong baby boomer anti-establishment, preserve rock and roll and your own identity theme. They over-do it, and it's really old and sorta lame. I mean, it just seemed to really appeal to people who loved and lived in the 60s and 70s. Tiring and blah. 

Characters - Eh. They had funny names based on music characters and songs. The main character is Galileo Figuro and the girl is Scaramoosh. The other characters in the Bohemian gang are named after other pop and rock icons. 

Music - The music was well done. It didn't seem to fit into the plot and there were weird parts where they played the music but didn't seem to fit into the plot of the story. OK - so "Another one bites the dust" - they performed it in the 2nd act at a random place. The 1st act, the Killer Queen's minions took down a Bohemian rebel base, and they did NOT sing or use that song. So bizarre? Like, really? Here was a great place to perform that and you didn't?....

Also I wasn't so familiar with some of the songs so I didn't understand how it fit into the plot or what they were singing about, so it was lame. The performers were awesome and belted it out and did great! 

Props and scenery I thought were sorta lame. Eh? Unimpressed.

Jokes - some parts were funny, and they overplayed and some old jokes, but overall just ok. I laughed out loud at some parts, but lost interest in others. Some characters did the comedy part really well. 

Overall husband and I found it rather blah. We would prefer the music on its own than to watch the musical. Although it was sorta entertaining in parts and fun in parts, I got bored and annoyed enough not to give it an overall good rating. I'd say 4 out of 10 stars. 

I would not recommend this, unless you're over 40 or 45... then maybe you'll like it... maybe, or maybe you'd have to be older, donno? I'm glad the tickets were free. 

For The Record presents Tarantino

New thing today, watched For The Record presents Tarantino - songs and scenes inspired by the films of Mr. Tarantino. This was pretty amazing awesome and I highly highly recommend it. They have a live band and singers perform songs from Tarantino films, interspersed with actual performances recreating the most memorable scenes. It's a pretty great mash-up and mix of Tarantino music and theater. A huge kudos to the cast and crew of the performance we saw! They were absolutely fantastic!

We saw our show at the DBA in Hollywood - which is this really neat venue with great ambiance, and a roomy seating area which feels cozy for the showplace. The actual action of the show takes place all over the DBA, and not just on the main stage, which made it really really cool.

All the actors did a wonderful job singing and performing their pieces. I was especially impressed by Rumor Willis who played the Beatrix Kiddo (Kill Bill) and Mia Wallace (Pulp Fiction) characters. I was a bit hesitant she wouldn't be that good since she has the name and the Hollywood parent lineage, that perhaps they only recruited her for her star power. No - she absolutely rocked it out and performed just as high a caliber as all the other cast.

Oh and the entire ENTIRE cast was absolutely fantastic. They all rocked it out completely. They looked like they were having a great time too, and it just seemed like they all had incredible talent. I hope they have fantastic careers, and I'm not a theater person, but it seems like these people are already successful, or will be successful in their careers, from what I saw in the show.

There were a few hitches in the show and in my experience. They had to play late since their drummer didn't show up and they needed a last minute replacement, so we ended up getting impromptu random performances from the cast which was really entertaining. James Byous rocked out some incredible blues numbers and three lovely ladies sang Fever a cappella which was awesome. So that wasn't so terrible, but a waitress spilled a drink all over my back, sweater and purse, so I sat in damp clothes pissed off for the last half of the show and everything smelled like alcohol, so that was super annoying and frustrating. I tried not to let it bother me in the second half of the show, but honestly it did and it sort of ruined it for me.

But all that aside, I rave for the DBA in Hollywood and this show Tarantino! I would go watch it all over again and this was a really awesome highlight to the weekend!