Blimey - its about 48 hours since I last slept.

I am writing a review of last night and I know all the americans are not going to have a clue who I am talking about - but can you just pretend for me (cos they are famous here !!) !!!!!!

OK lemme just get this outa my system first

OMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGODOMIGOD !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  :o  :o   :o

Ok - I have had the BEST night and STILL havent even been to the show itself - I have fron row tiks tonight !!!!

The show - which I flew over here (Melbourne) for is called We Will Rock You. It features 32 songs by Queen and the talented writing of Ben Elton. Last night was the premier.

I thought I would go and watch the red carpet arrivals (names are going to mean nothing to the overseas gang but at least aussies will know who I am gabbling on about - i hope !!!!).

Anyway - timing was all off and I got there as they were rolling up the red carpet and I only caught the latecomers Wilbur Wilde and Andrew Denton (with his sister).

So I was fair to middling disapointed having flown all the way over and then to have timed it so badly

So we go to the Crown Casino for dinner and when we come out I look at the time and its like 10 to 11. So I said lets go and see if we can watch people leaving.

So we get there and gradually over the next hour people came and went. I couldnt understand why people were "arriving" !!

Anyway we were considering leaving (coz it was freezing and we had lost feeling in our legs) when out comes actor Stephen Curry (star of Nugget, Changi, The Castle) and he just walks up to me and says "here I am going home - take this and go in and have a ball" - and hands me his backstage pass !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then his mate pulls his pass out and gives it to my friend. So I said "but isnt everyone leaving ?" and he says "the party is just getting started - go in and enjoy it".

So as we put our passes around our neck up walks BEN (now you have to realise I have admired Ben and his writing of TV, Movie, Books , and plays for decades ! and I got drunk with him once in 1986!) I am not sure if he recognised me from years gone by but when I said I flew over from Perth he did a double take at me and was pleased. We asked how the show went and he said it was awesome. I asked if he was bringing it to Perth and he said he would try his hardest.

Anyway - so we kinda wandered in behind Ben (actually I damn near accidently pushed him down a flight of stairs in my nervousness!!).

We walk down a few flights and into a huge room. I couldnt work out if it was the theatre with all the seats removed - or if it was another ball room or something below the theatre. It had a stage and bars had been set up everyhere - with huge signs saying "Killer Queen Cocktails" !! Huge buffett of food, waiters walking round with hor dourves etc etc.

Then I start noticing people - god there were like 2 or 300 there. I collect a wine from the bar and realise I am standing next to Rick from Status Quo ! So I turn and say "Hi Rick from Status Quo" ! He grins at me. I bumped into him about 30 more times thru the night !!

Then I walk over to the dance floor and see Molly Meldrum DJing - playing stuff like Eye of the Tiger and making the crowd sing the chorus etc. I turn to my right and Robert Grubb is standing beside me - I turn to my left and Mark Holden is standing there. So I have a Flying Doctor on one side and a Young Doctor on the other - bwhahahahahaha!!!!!

The entire cast were there - unfortunately not having yet seen the show - I had no idea who they were !!!! So I am saying "how did you enjoy the show" and they are replying "great cept my voice was a bit flat!" !! So thats how I worked out who was cast and who wasnt !!

Ok - so the various faces I saw around me - Barry Humphries, Jeff Kennett (who I later saw drive off without his headlights on !!!! nice from the leader of the state), Gary Sweet and a blonde bit of fluff, Ben Elton, Brian May (searched for Roger Taylor everywhere but didnt find him), Vanessa Amorosi (who did about 8 songs), Gina Riley, Jane Turner, Glenn Robins, Christine Anu, Laurence Mooney, Lillian Frank, Jodi from Mcleods Daughters, Peter Hellier and Belvedere from GMA !

The ones who were also there but I didnt spot personally - Steve Vizard, Rhonda Burchmore, Bert Newton, Red Symons, Tracy Bartram and Tim Fergusson.

So we drank the free wine and ate the free food and danced to Vanessa's numbers and Mollys tunes.

Then the cast got up and started belting out some numbers, Bowies Rebel rebel, Cockers Leave Your Hat On and more. I took a load of photos and they came out better than my paparazzi snaps of celebs - Barry Humphries is all a blur but at least he smiled at me !!

Anyway - it got to about 3.30am and we could barely stand up any longer - the party was still in full swing but our stamina was waning and we were sweating like pigs !.

So we crawled back to the hotel and tried to sleep - NOT ! Way too hyper. We had to check out of our room at 10 - which we have now done - and we are sooooooooooooooo tired - can check in to our new room in an hour. Sleep all arvo and then start getting ready to actually see the show !!!!

I hope the cast still have voices cos they sang them raw last night !!!

Man oh man - wot a night ! I am still wearing my back stage party pass !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! who knows - it may get me somewhere tonight !!!!

I am soooooooooooooooooo asleep on my feet. I think I will grab some subway and go sleep away the day.

Anyway - sorry this is a ramble - but I just had to share !

WOW! What an incredable story. I didn't know half the names you mentioned but it sounded like a fabulous time. That is just way too cool.


Now, go get some sleep.  ;D




Cat

Wow you go girl ! One of my friends went to the show in London and loved it.ENJOY !!!!!

I went to the show in April - it's brilliant.  ...guess I'm kind of envious, though ;-)

hehehehe re-reading it I did sound rather hyper didnt I !!!!!

Goreripper - good breakdown of my namedropping !!  

Well when I came down from my high of the premier party - I actually went to see the show last night !

I wasnt sure where my seats would be - the seat numbers were 30-33 so I had worked out they would be on the edge.  And I had bought a fan package which guaranteed me a seat in the front three rows.  So imagine my face when I first discover that those rows start in the 20s and not at 1 !  Then imagine my face when I realise what I am holding in my hand is CENTRE FRONT ROW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God I was stoked !

The show was quite simply - AWESOME.  No other word for it.  Having been a Queen fan since the mid 70's and a Ben Elton fan since early 80's - the combination of the two was a brilliant masterstroke.

The first thing I noticed was from the premier the night before - before Stephen Curry gave me his back stage pass - another guy had come out for a smoke and wandered over for a chat.  He asked me if I wanted to use his pass for 10 minutes while he smoked - to go in and see what was going on in the party - AND I TURNED HIM DOWN !!!!!!!!!!  Yes a moment of insanity there !.  Anyway during the show I realised he was one of the cast !!!  He spotted me in front row and winked and grinned !

Next observation - the person who kindly took my photo of myself and Ben Elton - was the lead actor !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Everyone was really well cast and the sound quality was brilliant.  The musicians are the best australia has to offer and the guitarists were so well chosen by Brian May.

The set design and costumes were fantastic.  The storyline was pure Ben Elton-isms at their best.

Robert Grubb was gorgeous in his ancient hippy role.  He usually plays the straight man - doctors and bankers and upper class soldiers so this is so far removed from his usual typecasting.  I knew he could sing tho as he was wonderful in MammaMia last year as one of the fathers (funnily enough the bank manager !!!).  He looked down and recognised me from the party and gave me a wink !!  And later when I was the loudest laugher during a naughty oneliner of his - he gave me another wink !!

Philbo - having seen it you know what I mean when I say there was a tear running down my face when Freddie rose from the waters.  I also teared up at the end during Bo Rap.

There was a standing ovation at least 10 minutes long and my arms and shoulders are sore from clapping and punching the air and I have no voice whatsoever today !!

Anyway - I was on such a high all day today that I killed the credit card !  I rang and scored myself the last remaining seat for Sundays 5pm show - its up in the gods somewhere but who cares - I have had the luxury of the centre front row so I can sit back and enjoy the music, singing and lighting, sets, and Bens awesome script from afar tomorrow.

Then its back to Perth on Monday to pack up my house and move next week!!!!!!

when i was doing study abroad last semester in spain we read a book by ben elton for a literature class. It's called "popcorn"  and it was based on natural born killers and the case when that movie was blamed for a killing spree committed by people who watched NBK repeatedly and took a ridiculous amount of lsd. It was probably the best book i was ever assigned to read in a class.

I have everything Ben has ever written and consider him in my top 5 fave authors of all time.

I love Stark and This Other Eden the best.  Popcorn and Dead Famous next.  Just finished High Society not too long ago.

I saw Popcorn on stage and thought it translated to stage well.

I love Bens ability to be just one step ahead of topical.  Popcorn came out literally just as the first lawsuit against Oliver Stone was happening.  Dead Famous was being written while Big Brother was happening round the world.

We Will rock You is equally topical in that its dealing with the murder of decent music by computer driven pop crap !!!!

Saw the show again on Sunday and totally loved it.  Had to fly home yesterday and back to the real world - no huge celeb partys happening here :(

Hi BMG

You're a lucky, lucky girl!!!!  Can't wait for the show to get to Queensland.

Cheers :)

Hey Jaytee - make the most of the cheeeeep flights and git on down to Melb to see it - trust me - its worth it !!!

They just put another 30,000 seats on sale and I am seriously seriously seriously contemplating another weekend trip !!!

if any Aussies or Kiwis are interested - there is a guy organising a group booking to see the show again over the Australia Day Long Weekend.  He is flying in from NZ and I am flying back again and there are a few others who sound like they want to help us make a weekend of it.

If it sounds like your kinda thing PM me.