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Review: Love Never Dies

17 Jan

Love Never Dies
Capitol Theatre, Sydney

Thursday 12 January 2012

Originally written for and published by Theatrepeople.com.au

Sequels are rarely easy. The temptation to recapture the success of a film, book, game, play or musical is understandable, and can be borne of many desires; financial, creative or benevolent. But regardless of the purpose, the risks are significant.

Unfortunately, sequels rarely reach the heights of their predecessors, failing by either staying too close to the formula of the original or deviating too far from it. It is a difficult line to walk.

For Andrew Lloyd Webber, the desire to create a sequel to not only his most popular musical, but to one of the most popular musicals of all time, is understandable. Up until opening night of Love Never Dies in Sydney, the previously prolific composer hadn’t had a new show open in the harbour city for 20 years.
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Take us home, dad…

31 May

I’ve mentioned again and again on this blog my upcoming trip to Germany, where I’ll be eagerly wandering alongside my father, retracing the considerable journeys of his childhood in the war-affected country.

I leave this week, and rather than inflict on you constant updates (as my Facebook friends have had to contend with), I have started a separate blog tracking this trip.

http://ourgermanfather.wordpress.com/

I’ll only be posting occasional, brief updates punctuated by the odd photo and video, since I need to save something for the ensuing project. Can’t show you everything at once!

If you’re interested in these little snippets, please subscribe to the new blog and you’ll get an email every time there’s something new uploaded.

And, friends, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks.

All aboard the future

2 May

The Japanese have long been acknowledged for their ability to innovate and develop. From automotives to game shows, electronics to vending machines, the inspired tinkerings of the Japanese have led to many of the day-to-day conveniences we daily take for granted.

And yet, there is one significant Japanese innovation which mystifyingly has not yet been adopted into the wider world’s operations. It’s one of those ideas so simple and so staggeringly effective that it’s difficult to believe we ever did things any other way.

The sushi train.

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Never quite over…

21 Apr

As I’ve mentioned here before, I’m taking my recently-turned-80 dad to Germany in June to revisit all the locations of significance from his childhood. One of my brothers and I are keen to learn (and to document) the full, incredible history of our father’s time as a young boy in a dramatically war-affected country.

Our flights are booked, audio/video equipment purchased and car (almost) hired. But while the trip may still be 7 weeks away, I’m already feeling its impact.

To properly plan our itinerary, and to have some concept of the way things fit together in my dad’s history before we go, I’ve been having a number of casual but structured conversations with him, taking notes on all the things he can remember from the first 25 years of his life. Already, after around 8 hours of talking, I have over 6000 words of notes covering an upbringing that stretched across all of Germany.

And while the trip begins to take shape, I’m already being regularly stunned by the experiences my dad is talking about.

To give some idea of the impact this trip is going to have on all of us, I wanted to share one story my dad told yesterday. He hadn’t mentioned to me before, and yet had it happened to any of us, it would easily be the most dramatic thing that had ever occurred in our lives.

This is one story. I could easily retell another dozen of them, each as unbelievable, as dramatic, as breathtaking.

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A (sort of) apology and a link

23 Nov

I don’t know what brought it on, I don’t know why it chose right now to show up, but the time and inspiration to declare the planning stage ‘complete’ and to finally start the nuts-and-bolts of novel writing finally struck me.

I’ve been writing more-or-less every day this month, which I’m enjoying immensely, and am on track to meet the goals I set myself at the start of the year.

But this means that this little blog is going hungry, and may continue to for a while.

So, in my absence, there are a couple of links I’ve been wanting to share. Seems as good a time as any…

Six Flags Amusement Park in New Orleans closed for Hurricane Katrina. When the levee broke, the amusement park was flooded and considered, from that moment, a write-off.

But it’s still there, down to the ‘Closed for Storm’ sign at the front gate.

The video on the other side of this link features images from the park as it is now. It’s post-apocalyptic, incredibly eery and absolutely real.

Prepare to be unsettled.

Here’s the link- right here! Six Flags, New Orleans

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