I don’t know about you, but I love good theatre and shows…
And I’ve been really lucky lately to see some exceptional performances.
Last week my husband and I saw Jeff Goldblum (the actor) as a jazz musician.
Not acting as a musician, actually being a jazz pianist and singer.
Initially we weren’t quite sure about whether or not to go…
But I’m so pleased we did.
He came on stage ten minutes early, totally unannounced, because he wanted a chat…
The house lights were still up…
And many people just finding their seats.
But he wanted to chat.
If you’ve ever seen him in Jurassic Park as the mathematician who specialises in chaos theory…
He talks just like that…
Quickly.
His mind going from thought to thought.
If the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra (the jazz band he plays with) hadn’t walked on and started playing, I think he could have talked all night!
He was entertaining and engaging, and at the end stayed around to chat again.
Extraordinary.
Then on the weekend we saw The Last Ship in the new Glasshouse Theatre.
It’s a musical written by Sting…
We’ve had the CD for years… so know the music well.
But this was a full cast… with different characters singing the songs (although Sting was in it too).
We both shed a tear…
Not just because we were actually seeing the musical we’d been listening to for so long…
But because of the staging…
The power of the songs brought into real characters…
A complete narrative.
I love being swept up by theatre…
Absorbed into the story or show.
Able to just forget everything else for a while.
It’s not that dissimilar to meditation if you think about it.
Making that time and space for you.
Taking a break…
And being totally present with what’s happening in that moment.
A pleasant sort of escapism.
At the start I said I was lucky to see these shows…
And I mean that.
We committed ourselves to seeing The Last Ship… signed up for the pre-sale…
But bought the cheapest tickets available at that time.
The most expensive were $599!
It was obviously marketed around Sting and the opening of the new theatre…
But I really feel theatre should be accessible… and affordable.
As it happened the tickets didn’t sell that well…
A ‘rush’ (last minute) sale saw some of those really expensive seats go for just $65.
I’m not saying performers shouldn’t be paid well for their work…
But let’s keep it reasonable.
For many of us, live theatre is a treat…
So with the current cost of living crisis…
It’s sad to think theatre could potentially price itself away from audiences.
We’ve now become very mindful of when we go to see a show…
And the tickets we buy.
For example, some weeknights or Sundays can be cheaper.
Or preview nights…
We’ve just bought tickets for Death of a Salesman starring Anthony LaPaglia later this year…
Some of the tickets are $189…the cheapest are currently $119.
But preview seats start at $59… so it’s definitely worth checking…
So we can have this valuable time to allow ourselves to be immersed in something else.
When we can step away from our own stage in the world…
Our own dramas…
And lose ourselves in someone else’s story for a while.
We all need this from time to time.
Ann 🙏