Berlin’s been
pretty grey through June. Looking at the figures, it has been warmer in
Grafton, NSW, in the middle of the night than in Germany at midday. So our 2
July departure date to fly south seemed to have been well-chosen.
It was. The day
after we left, Berlin got a heat wave …!
The day after we
left? That was Thursday. And Monday has just dawned here at Grafton. Is it
really four days only? One of which was spent in a plane! Well, two planes. Air
Berlin to Abu Dhabi and then Etihad to Brisbane. It was a good flight, made
better by the wonderfully efficient wheelchair staffs everywhere, who trundled
me from (a) to (b) …
I think my airline
dilemma is solved after this trip. It’ll be Etihad (etc) next time. The planes
and lounges are less glamorous than those of Emirates, but the route and
timetabling are so much better. And the icing on the coffebun? Air Berlin
served us up what I reckon was the best airline food I’ve tasted in decades! A
delicious shrimp in curry sauce and an amazing piece of stewed beef which
seemed straight out of a restaurant kitchen. Air Berlin business-class chef,
take a bow.
On the 13-hour
haul from Abu Dhabi all went well. First dinner, then a film. I’ve never
watched a film on a plane before, but there was Into the Woods. Well, I wouldn’t have bothered to GO to it, but
since it had come to me … why not? I was interested to see the players too. One
hears so much about Meryl Streep, for example, and I’d never seen her perform.
So, what did I think? Not a huge amount. The story falls apart latterly in a
welter of aphorisms, some of the amusing songs were fun (‘Agony’, ‘On the steps
of the palace’) but the ensembles were strangely awkward …
It looked pretty,
but I was disappointed in the cast. Only Emily Blunt, as the Baker’s Wife, was
anything like a standout for me. Ms Streep, as the Witch, under the makeup and
special effects, veered between vaudeville (‘don’t mess with my greens’) and
domestic tragedy skilfully and sang her ‘Last Midnight’ in a voice I didn’t
know she had, and of the rest … I liked Red Riding Hood, the Baker and Tracy
Ullman’s Julie Walters impression as Jack’s Mum, but Cinderella’s edgy voice
got on my nerves, the beefcake boys weren’t funny enough, and I could have happily
strangled the pudding-basin haired Jack, who was simply a carbon copy of the
frightful Gavroche from Les Misérables. Even
worse was Johnny Depp as the Wolf. And the mixture of accents was Babelonic. I
nearly switched off half-way through, but I stuck it out. And then pushed the
button and made my bed. Paul was already asleep.
I still haven’t
quite got these beds worked out (and I do wish they would supply a proper
pillow) but I eventually got mechanism and arms and legs sorted out, and dozed
off for a few hours. I don’t know how folk sleep all the way, as Paul did,
those wretched tinkling call-buttons jerked my from my doze time and again.
Surely there’s a more modern system they could use. But soon it was daytime,
and we rolled into Brisbane on time, only to be told we were parked in the
wrong place and no, one couldn’t use the toilets until … well, there’s always
something on a world-crossing flight! But most of it was good, and we got to
the end not feeling wrecked, to be met by Rod and Veronica, Paul’s parents, and
whisked off South, via little sister Nat and family, to lovely Bilambil
Heights, and the home of big sister, Michelle, husband Jason and daughter Abby
for the night. Of course, jetlag rolled in and I was brightly awake at 4.15,
but it is so good to arrive to ‘family’!
We lunched down at
Coolangatta, on good old Aussie fish and chips, with the rest of the family,
strolled along the foreshore in the nicely medium-heat sun … it was hard to
comprehend that just a day and a bit before we had been among the Baustelle of
Berlin!
And as the day
turned to evening, and my biorhythms and Paul’s were starting to protest
sleepily, we loaded up again and took off for Grafton. And damn him, he slept
the whole way again, while I counted minutes, gazed at the abnormally bright
Evening star, the burning cane stubble fields, and thought: I’m in Australia.
Hooray!
A question related to the London production of On The Twentieth Century (saw your comment on another blog).
ReplyDeleteRecently listened to an online audio of the ensemble number "Sign it Lily" from the London production and noticed that both Oscar & Lily sing a portion of that number which only Lily sings on the recordings of the NY productions.
Are there other musical differences between the original NY and original London productions?
Yes, indeed there were. But wait a minute: there WAS no recording made of our production.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThere is a streaming audio of the number "Sign It Lily" labelled as being from the original London production posted to the blog located at jacksonupperco.com
ReplyDeleteSee Entry dated 3/25/15 "In Honor of On the Twentieth Century."