What I’m overexcited about this week…

BALLET

Royal New Zealand Ballet’s NYC opened on Wednesday night at The Civic – this is a triple bill of three short ballets inspired by the Big Apple. This is the first season programmed by the companies new artistic director Ethan Stiefel – someone who is considered one of the most advanced dancers in the world – since he took over the creative reins late last year. He’s involved some impressive names from the American ballet world including hotshot choreographers Larry Keigwin and Mr Natalie Portman Benjamin Millipied of Black Swan fame. His fiancée Gillian Murphy, principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre is making a guest appearance – after this season she’s performing at the MET in New York. Plus you get to see the stars of The Secret Lives of Dancers in real life, not just on TV.

I was lucky enough to go to opening night and it was brilliant. The second ballet Final Dress was particularly breathtaking – fresh, energetic and beautifully performed. This work is brand new and really could be performed anywhere in the world – and I hope it is!

 NYC is on for three more nights at The Civic before touring to Takapuna, Hamilton, Ashburton, Dunedin, Wellington and Napier. Info at www.NZBallet.org.nz.

COMEDY  

The NZ International Comedy Festival is turning 20 this year. Comedy is on the up and up in NZ with the success of shows like 7 Days, and it’s no longer just the international comedians drawing the crowds. The festival kicks off every year with the Comedy Gala – a tasting plate of many of the top comedians performing in the festival. This year it will be hosted by American Greg Behrendt who is known just as much for his books as he is for his stand up – he wrote that famous relationship book He’s Just Not That Into You’. I’ve checked him out on YouTube and this is one funny guy.

 

The gala is still a few months away, but it sells out really fast, so if you don’t want to miss out on big shows like this you should definitely head to www.comedyfestival.co.nz to sign up to the ‘comedy family’ so you can get all the pre-sales.

Radiohead

One of the biggest bands of my generation confirmed the rumours that they are heading this way – Radiohead’s Vector Arena concert for 6 November was announced on Monday and the concert was on general sale on Thursday morning at 9am via www.ticketmaster.co.nz - I was lucky enough to get a ticket before it sold out – apparently in 20 minutes!

I’m doing a weekly radio spot on Pat Brittenden Mornings – here are the notes and links for my three entertainment stories for this week.

  

Mayer Hawthorne

Soul sensation Mayer Hawthorne is in town with gigs in Wellington last night and Auckland’s Powerstation tonight promoting his new album How Do You Do. I saw him last year at Auckland Town Hall and it was an absolute riot! Some would say that Soul music never died, but whatever your stance it’s certainly making a comeback, and Hawthorne is leading the charge. The Detroit bred white boy was first known as DJ Haircut and started recording soul originals a couple of years ago because he thought that the samples of old school soul were being overused. He played some of the songs to Peanut Butter Wolf (the head of his label) who at first refused to believe they were anything other than unknown recordings from the 60s, and it all happened from there.

 I’m heading along to see him on tonight at the Powerstation and fully expect the infamously ‘too cool to dance’ Auckland crowd to dance the night away.

 

 

Reality Television – X Factor Australia winner Reese Mastin

Thanks to X Factor Australia being screened in New Zealand several months after it was recorded in Australia, New Zealand gets to see 16 year old winner Reese Mastin straight after the final. I received the pre-sale email for his Vector Arena concert 20 minutes after the show finished. It’s not every 16 year old who can book huge venues like Vector Arena in Auckland and TSB Arena in Wellington – but anyone who watched the show has to recognize that he’s seriously talented. He has the teenage girls seriously on side – he brought traffic in Ponsonby to a standstill when he made a radio station appearance.

Now X Factor Australia is over, my picks for best reality TV shows are American Idol for the music lovers, Sir David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet and my favourite The Secret Lives of Dancers. I’m going to the opening night of Royal New Zealand Ballet’s new show NYC next Wednesday so can report back!

 

JERSEY BOYS – The Story of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons

There’ll be much more on this later, but the four leads of Jersey Boys arrived in New Zealand this week to start rehearsing for the Auckland Season that gets underway on 10 April. This is the biggest musical to come to New Zealand in a very long time and has already been seen by a million Australians. These guys play the Four Seasons – one of the most successful bands of all time – so it’s crucial that they’re right for the roles! Frankie Valli signs off the voice of the guy that plays him!

The four guys announced for the NZ season have pretty impressive backgrounds:

·         DION BILIOS is Frankie Valli – Dion has been seen in many Australian musicals, as well as TV and film and has most recently been in the huge hit Mary Poppins 

·         DECLAN EGAN is Bob Gaudio – Declan continues as Bob after taking over the role in the Sydney season

·         ANTHONY HARKIN is Tommy De Vito – Anthony has just joined the cast, straight from Rock of Ages in Australia and he’s been in everything from Shane Warne the Musical to TV’s Hospital programme All Saints.

·         GLASTON TOFT is Nick Massi – Glaston has been with the show right from the beginning and has a brilliant bass!

I’m really excited about seeing the show. From the snippets I’ve seen, it’s going to be spectacular, both with the famous songs like “Sherry”, “Big Girls Don’t Cry”, “Rag Doll”, “Oh What a Night” and “Can’t Take My Eyes Off You” and the gritty storyline about the boys from the wrong side of the tracks making good.

 

I just had a long weekend in Wellington. By weekend, I mean it included Saturday and Sunday – it definitely wasn’t a vacation, more of a geekcation.I was super lucky and got to go to Webstock and then talked Social Media related stuff to a few comedians down there and up here in Auckland. I had a blast though – it’s always fascinating hearing from industry experience (in any industry) and talking to people about their projects. Webstock highlights included hearing from flash people from Google, Microsoft, Pixar, almost hearing from the guy from Twitter but accidentally going to Wilson Miners thought provoking and beautifully presented session and local overachiever Derek Handley. But my super favourite favourites were when usability guru (an actual guru, not a wannabe) Jared Spool bounced across the stage in time with a bouncing car on the Lings Cars website, the gorgeously creative Jessica Hische explaining why calling hand-created typefaces a font is hurtful and getting to hear the story of how my favourite website on all of the interwebs The Oatmeal came to be. Seriously, if you’re in need of a laugh, this is the place. I recommend the grammar section, or What it’s like to own an Apple product. 

This table is amusing, but insightful too and reminds me of something my poor friends and workmates often get to hear me ranting about - the polite lie.

I understand that people feel more comfortable not making decisions, putting things off and telling people “oh no, it’s fine”. I get that that often it’s really awkward to say “actually, that’s not okay” or “no, I don’t want to”. But imagine, just for a minute, how much would get done (and how much less complaining we’d all have to endure) if people actually said what they really thought.

It’s not easy and I’m not great at it – but I’m practising. So far, people seem to be responding well. There’s got to be somewhere between ’the polite lie’ and ‘brutal honesty’ that works. What do you think?