"Take The Lead" @ Arq.. and a catch up..

Things have been so busy lately! (Which is great!)

As mentioned in my last entry, my girls Ru Bella, Charisma and I, are performing at Mr Mary's - now on a Saturday night. It's such a fun place to perform and such a great atmosphere..

We are currently doing the "A Dummer Shade of Blonde" and "Rough Trade Hers" shows there while the new shows are produced.

Our opening night will be Saturday 14th October. It will be big, glamorous and sexy - I promise you! I'm very much looking forward to producing my first regular 5 cast member drag show.. I'm very excited about it!!

My bad news has been that the "Grease" show finished up last week. It was a hoot performing with some amazingly talented people, and sad for those of us to be leaving Thursday nights at the Imperial.

Sandy Toggs has stayed on, assisting Penny Tration with "Musical Madness". I hope to get along to the night in the next few weeks to see how it's going. Will tell you all about it.

I didn't get to see the new night at the Imperial last night, as it was the Grand Final of "Take the Lead" at ARQ. Feminem, Beyonce G. Spot and Miss Tiffany battled it out for a spot in the regular production show on a Thursday night with the girls, Charisma, Vanity and Minnie.

The standard was very high and it was good to see such amazing talent coming up the ranks.

Beyonce performed "Frozen", Feminem a montage of "Bodyguard/Whitney" music and dialogue, while Miss Tiffany bought the roof down with her performance of "All That Jazz".

In the second act, the girls were able to use dancers, to show their dancing skills as well as how well they work in a group.

Feminem commenced with the best dancing and choreography of the night, performing to an original mix of anthems from pop divas such as Madonna and Deborah Cox. She had won the "Kraving An Idol" talent quest on the central coast when she started drag only 6 months ago, and she has improved INCREDIBLY since then! I was blown away - well done girl! (And that long blonde looks FAB on you!)

Next was Miss Tiffany with an amazing dramatic show. Pulled onto stage by two boy dancers, she struggles with them as the music builds. Then tied to the back wall, Miss Tiffany is "beaten" with soft fake poles. The boys disappear after a while and she captured everyone's attention with her intense and passionate performance of the song. (Sorry - I have never heard the song before, so can't tell you what it was!) She breaks free of the wall where the retraints hold her and thrashed the chains, still attached to her, on the stage. Finally she pulls the two boys back onto stage, and gets into a somewhat S&M/Bondage styled scene with them, giving back what she received at the start...

A hot, sexy and intense show - the audience loved it..

Well so you would think!

The "judges", seemed to think it was a show that stepped OVER the line of acceptable performance drag. Accusations that the performers did not respect the safety of themselves or the audience were dished out. Regardless of the cheers at the end, and the boos when they critised the show, some judges still told the audience how they felt. (One of my pet hates!) "The audience was terrified" was echoed a number of times.. I'm here to tell you, no one was terrified, and even though the show was not "typical bubble-gum drag", nearly everyone there enjoyed it.

Moving on from the controversy, Beyonce ended the night with a Dallas Della Force inspired show. With Dallas' now infamous DIVA outfit - or lack thereof, Beyonce performed "Crazy In Love" by her namesake. With boy dancers and drag backups, it was a fun show. Unfortunately her multimedia didn't work, but it by no means ruined the show. It was a fun production, and typically exciting, like the performer herself.

In the end, the crowd favourite - Miss Tiffany, won.

I'm very excited to see what she will come up with week after week at ARQ in the spot shows, let alone how she will fair with the experienced drag cast she will join in the main production.

Keep an eye out for those 3 girls though.. they are all HOT STUFF!

Off to see the FIRST EVER performance of "PRISCILLA" at a preview tonight.. will tell you about it tomorrow!

NEWSFLASH!!! Mr Marys - Tonight!

I'm excited to say that, Ru Bella, Charisma Belle and myself will be performing at Mr Marys regularly on Friday evenings.

We will be bring my shows, "A Dummer Shade of Blonde" & the 2006 DIVA award winning show, "Rough Trade (Hers)", to the stage each Friday night.

Come by, have a few drinks, and even dine at the restaurant!

Shows are at 9:15pm, 11pm and 12am.

Hope to see you there!

Luv Shelley

xxx

Shows Galore!

Well its been a busy few weeks for me going out to more shows..

I've attended EUROBEAT (Almost Eurovision) at the State Theatre. It's an absolute hoot! You get to cheer, wave flags and be as loud as you like, just like at a real Eurovision! It's a inexpensive show to attend, so you won't be braking the bank to go along! Apart from watching the individual countries perform, the second half is the voting, with "live" satellite links to each country - it's my favourite part - look out for the lady presenting the "Greek Tele-vote"... One word for her, "Hilarious!"

On Tuesday night I went to TURANDOT at the Sydney Opera House. It was a nice night out. The first act was staged in a tacky way in my opinion, but the second and third acts (yes it is a long opera - 3 hours all up!) were brilliant.

There is, as always, a fat lady singing - so no one was disappointed! Beautiful music, with a fantastic lead playing Turandot, it is a fabulous show.

An added bonus is that there are so many cute gay boys (in between the blue rinse crowd) there, so even if the opera itself isn't eye catching, some of the audience will be!

My partner and I have decided to take out a small subscription to Opera Australia this year, so I will be telling you about the shows: "La Traviata", "Sweeney Todd" and "The Gondaliers" when the new season commences in Jan 2007... Or possibly about the boys attending - should the opera be boring! Hehehe

Wednesday night I then went to Slide, on Oxford St to watch my good friend, Trevor Ashley (Cleo Coupe), perform his cabaret show. I had dinner and show with Sandy Toggs (from Grease, Imperial Hotel, Thursday Nights) and my partner.

Trevor was funny and brilliant as always! If you want to see him perform, Priscilla opens in a few weeks at Star City, and you can see him there in his own role on stage at the Lyric.

Until next time, take care...

Luv Shelley