"...humans also have pubic lice (Pthirus pubis). Pubic lice--a k a crabs--usually spread from person to person through sexual contact. ... And they only live on us. You can't get crabs from any animal."
Oh, yeah?! We'll see about that!
Also, I saw "Keating!" the musical today. It was awesome. The lyrics are some of the smartest I have ever seen and the music is inspired. The cast are obviously having a lot of fun and this powers the show further.
"Keating!" also has the best Howard charicature and most disturbing Downer charicature I have ever seen.
Glorious theatre.
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Ya reckon? I saw Keating on Sunday. Most of the lyrics were just recycled Keating insults (clever enough to put them together in different musical forms, but the effect is a little limited). The Downer caricature was just as a drag queen - we've seen THAT before! And the Howard caricature seemed silly. (You can only get so much mileage out of a 'Howard/Coward' rhyme, and the main theme - 'I WANT POWER' - totally missed the point about Howard's election strategy. I saw it with a left-leaning friend, and she agreed with this assessment.)
I suspect it was a musical written by inner-city Melbourne lefties for inner-city Melbourne lefties. A cliche, I know, but that seems the most likely explanation for the continuous stream of political references and the odd tone of Keating nostalgia in the lyrics.
Coming to the blog meet up this Saturday?
Um, timt, I think you're taking it a bit seriously. You will recall, after all, the last song which is called "Historical Revisionism" has Keating winning the 96 election.
"The Downer caricature was just as a drag queen - we've seen THAT before!"
# I evidently frequent drag bars less often than yourself.
I think you'll find it was Inner-Sydney lefties writing for political junkies and true believers with senses of humour.
"A cliche, I know, but that seems the most likely explanation for the continuous stream of political references and the odd tone of Keating nostalgia in the lyrics."
# Really? I would have thought that all that was because it was a MUSICAL about KEATING.
Yes, I'm coming to the blog meet up. I'll bring food I can throw at you.
Yeah, well you'll notice I did say it was 'clever enough'. Just because I don't like the jokes mean I am taking it seriously!
I think there was a dramatic inconsistency in the second act centring around Howard - he's given an incredibly long song following which the Keating character has a short, introspective song about learning to recognise a change in the political mood. And THEN it segues into wish fulfilment. At which point I wondered:
- Why devote so much time to John Howard if the musical if the ending is just going to be wish fulfilment?
- If it's not simple wish fulfilment, then the concluding song was a huge mistake (it doesn't really work as irony, because in order to do that, it would have to be backed up by some sort of plot)
- Also, I return to my point about the Howard song being entirely out of character with Howard's actions in the 1996 election.
Hey, I know dissecting comedy like this can only result in making good jokes seem unfunny. But that's just the thing. For me, there weren't really many good jokes in the production. Sorry.
Bring a couple of cherry pies along, I'm quite happy for you to 'throw' them 'at' me (if by that you mean 'give them to me to eat').
If you're going to be in town tomorrow evening, give us an email - timhtrain at yahoo.com.au. Love to have a drink or two.
My flatmate saw Keating tonight and enjoyed it. I am in a minority, it seems.
"Keating!" was originally a much shorter show (about half the length). The second act certainly has a change of pace and focus to the first and I'd suggest that this is a relict of the development done after CompanyB picked up the show.
The second act has the gleeful Liberal bashing and the first act is far more plot based.
As you know I totally piked on Sunday.
Beers next time.
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