La Nouba – Cirque du Soleil at Downtown Disney

Posted on March 9, 2014 by borysSNORC

Absolute clusterfuck trying to get to La Nouba tonight. Between a time change in Central Florida that we weren’t expecting, and a misreading of the ticket times (I thought it was a civilised 7:30pm time like every other show, but it was at 6pm!), and the damn GPS taking us to the wrong end of Buena Vista Drive, we literally rocked up to collect our tickets at 5:57pm and I was panicking that we were going to get locked out! Well, we made it in by the skin of our teeth and discovered that our tickets were front row, which is weird because I don’t want to be pulled up onto the stage during the show and I usually book a few rows back, but oh well, front and centre it was – I must have booked ‘best available’ rather than chosen my own seats.

The building itself is quite beautiful, and as expected the place sets an entirely different atmosphere to what we experienced a few nights earlier at the Ford Arena when we saw Varekai. Gorgeous building, liveried staff, fancy decor in the lobby and a fantastical space created for the performance which leads to an air of excitement in the air for patrons so completely different to that of wandering into the Arena in sombre lines.

Most of the acts at La Nouba are obviously designed to cater for their younger patrons. Given the theatre is in Downtown Disney, there is a strong family atmosphere and far more children present than you normally see at a Cirque du Soleil show. As such, there were many apparatus incorporated into the show that would be very accessible to the younger audience. They had an act comprising of some very fancy people jumping rope in a wonderful display of coordination and skill, there was another with some guys doing tricks on bicycles, and another that was tightrope walking and a very accomplished juggler – all acts that children can appreciate how difficult they are to execute as they may have tried similar challenges themselves. Ditto for the guys on the trampoline, kids all familiar with trampolines would know how hard it is to do what these acrobats can do having played on trampolines themselves.

In addition to these seemingly commonplace items of skipping ropes, pushbikes and balance and juggling acts were a wonderful trapeze act and an amazing group of four girls using Diablos. Now if you’ve ever used a Diablo, you know they can be a little tricky to get hang of using them, they can be fun, but they get knotted up and it’s hard to get the rotation going well, but these girls were experts, they danced and ran about and used their Diablos expertly, tossing and throwing them to themselves and each other in an amazing display of coordination, gymnastics, dance and most of all dedication to practice! They were great, and definitely my favourite act of this show.

After La Nouba, we went for a stroll around Downtown Disney and took in the sights and did a little shopping. DisneyWorld is HUGE… and I am so glad we are not going to be visiting DisneyWorld this trip – I think I’m a bit Disney’d out after last years three days in Disneyland and California Park with The Small Child. 🙂

Cirque de Soleil – Varekai

Posted on March 7, 2014 by borysSNORC

Saw Varekai in Beaumont Texas tonight at the Ford Park Arena. I was a bit confused when they arrived there was no signage, no merchandise stand and no concession stand. We were being led into what looked like an empty arena by side doors. We go through some black curtains and find ourselves in the stands and looking for our seats which were flat on the floor about five rows from the front. I’ve been to quite a few Cirque shows by now and every one of them has had an atmosphere of surreal excitement going on outside… I recall the sets and props outside the tent at Ovo and how amazed The Small Child was at being able to get in amongst the oversized grasses and lit up flowers – this place had none of that. Not even a sign to let you know you were at the right show. The result being we felt like we could be getting let in to see a lecture or something and people were responding to the flat atmosphere accordingly.

We took our seats and had a good look around, the usual stage lighting, small amount of smoke and crickets and dripping noises made up the ambience inside. I was feeling a bit uneasy about it and my expectations lowered dramatically as I felt like this was budget Cirque somehow. Being in an arena just doesn’t have the same feel as the BIg Top or one of the dedicated theatres in Las Vegas. Had me a bit worried as I have Mr K lined up for about five shows and this was the first.

Unfortunately that feeling of slight disappointment lasted well through up until intermission. There was a lot of panto and time with the clowns on stage as well as quite a few dance scenes, but only four moderately impressive acts – two aerialists (the main character who falls from the heavens with wings and a lady in gold with a trapeze bar) and two acrobatic acts. They looked fabulous as per usual and the music was wonderful too, but there was none of the ‘OMG how the hell did they do that?’, gives you goosebumps, display of human ingenuity and physical endeavour that I tend to associate with the Cirque.

The second half however totally redeemed itself, some amazing balance and strength artists, some very accomplished aerialists and one of my favourites, a dozen guys on the Russian swings. They were fantastic, and I was so glad we came all the way to Texas to see them in the end. Mr K said he enjoyed it immensely as well, so now I am less worried about having lined him up to see so many shows, knowing that the others will have a vastly improved atmosphere over the arena setting too.

Going Ticket Crazy Lately

Posted on November 28, 2013 by borysSNORC

It started innocuously enough.. my friend picked us up some tickets available through a early private pre-sale thing, to go see Jimmy Carr on the 22nd January at Brisbane City Hall. She got on the phones as soon as they were available and we scored tickets in the second or third row if memory serves – which is a sort of dubious position to be in given the amount of audience participation at Jimmy Carr shows, but time will tell. I am really looking forward to it – he’s like a one man game of Cards Against Humanity! 🙂

Not long after that it was ‘hey, Opera Australia are doing Opera on the Beach next year’, so tickets were acquired for The Magic Flute next May… yah, Mozart under the stars with comfy chairs (somewhere in the red section), lots of wine, good company and gourmet hampers. Sounds like lots of fun. 🙂

Then I saw that the new Cirque show, Amaluna was going to be in New York City! And waited desperately for several weeks for dates to be released to see if they would coincide with our planned travels for next year. Eventually dates for NY were released and squeals of delight were heard all over the house and tickets were promptly booked to go even though we hadn’t booked flights or anything else yet! ‘Cos that’s just how I roll… book my Cirque tickets first and then plan the rest of my travel around that.

What was after that? I think it was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. A couple of friends reported going and said that it was fabulous. I was already toying with the idea of taking the Small Child – just to get a bit more culture stuffed into him… a bit of musical theatre can’t hurt! – and their recommendation sold the plan. Managed to get us two tickets to a Friday afternoon matinee session on the 20th of December and I’m really looking forward to it. We’re in the front row of the first balcony, so let’s hope he hasn’t inherited his father’s fear of heights!

Then I went and booked some tickets to go see La Nouba in Orlando while we are in the States… because, well if I have to go do all the space stuff in Cape Canaveral and Orlando isn’t that far away, we might as well get another Cirque show in, right?

Then just yesterday I decided I could take Mum and Great Gran to go see The King and I for Christmas (don’t worry – neither of them read this blog!), so I bought tickets for that which is… looking, looking… April 29th for next year! For the first time in years I bought tickets in the stalls – no opera which means no surtitles, no flying cars in the plot which means no potential aerobatics, and so in the stalls we are! About eighth or ninth row towards the centre. 🙂

So, what’s left? Well, I still need to book tickets for Ka in Las Vegas (Take Two!, hopefully we will get to see it this time). Tickets for Beatles Love in Las Vegas maybe, and potentially tickets for Varekai in Beaumont Texas… Keith is threatening me with tickets to ice hockey games *groan* but I am going to see what I can do to get out of that. Still, sooo many tickets! What’s a girl to do!

UPDATE:

I’ve been busy booking more tickets – this time for Vegas. We have got tickets booked for Penn and Teller, because I really think this is something that Mr K will enjoy. Personally I have no idea, though I do find it kinda odd that their seating plan is arse about and the stage is at the top of the picture. 😀

And… We also have tickets for Ka! Yep, second time is a charm, I am hoping. After missing out during my last trip to Las Vegas, I am really looking forward to going and seeing this. Fourth row, centre! Awesome.

And because I am in Las Vegas, and it is the best show in town, I decided to go see ‘O’ again. Mr K wasn’t interested… I know! What is wrong with this man?!? So I am going on my ownsome and leaving him to gamble. Could be dangerous – the gambling that is.

But wait! There’s more! While we are in New York and in a most fortuitous turn of events, it appears that one of my favourite operas is on – La Bohéme at running at the Metropolitan Opera. The Met Opera House at the Lincoln Centre is HUGE, and tickets are beyond ridiculously expensive so we are going to be sitting in the Dress Circle where you can nab a seat for around $150-$200 each, and unfortunately for Mr K, this is the third balcony… which might be a tad interesting given his severe aversion to heights! 😀

No doubt this means I am going to have to rethink my wardrobe choices for our trip. It’s going to be cold and for me that means casual because Brisbanites are not normally people who own lots of evening wear for cold weather! And, I’m not so sure the regular Met Opera patrons would appreciate a couple of random Australians rocking up in jeans and sneakers and hoodies!

UPDATE:

OMG… I knew this was going to cost me, only I thought it would just be money. Mr K is retaliating for all this culture and opera and theatre and stuff and it involves… (Oh the abject horror of it all!)… attending sporting events! I obviously didn’t think this through. O_o

First he’s booked tickets to go see the Washington Capitals play the Vancouver Canucks (which I think is ice-hockey, but I could be wrong) for March 16th at the Verizon Centre in Washington. From what I understand he’s got good seats (Section 121, Row E, Seats 1&2)… something to do with being towards the centre and his team aiming for that end twice?!? I can smell the beer swilling, nacho munching puck-heads from here!

He’s still at it though! Apparently his favourite team, the Toronto Maple Leafs (I hate them already… don’t they know it should be Leaves not Leafs!) are playing against the New Jersey Devils while we are in New York. Now ordinarily, I’d say ‘Newark isn’t in New York, hon.’ and hope he’d drop it. But apparently the trains are really good so it’s not that long to get out there and oh well, I am dragging him to Flushing to see Amaluna, so we are going. Seats this time determined by ‘getting as close to the boards’ as possible.

Also, he says the Leafs (*twitch twitch*) are playing quite well at the moment, so there is a good chance they will win this game, but we can’t gloat about it if they do or we will never make it out of New Jersey alive! Fuck me dead! Maybe I better get myself a HockeyRoos jersey or something.

Awww, shit. Apparently there’s more… the Boston Celtics are playing the Chicago Bulls while we are in Boston. Now, I am pretty sure that is basketball and if it gets me out of a baseball games that goes for god knows how many hours, then I am in. 🙂 Celtics are sitting 8th in their division (at the moment, this of course could change) and the Bulls are just outside that… so fighting to get into the play offs. This one I can get behind – at least I know the damn rules! 🙂 Unfortunately though, with two such well known teams, tickets are at absolute sandy lube, arse rape prices (up to $620pp)… so it’s up in the nose bleed section of the bleachers for us.

According to the all knowing Interwebs, the view will be something like this, (but a little more central), so not as bad as I thought and will definitely fun to just be there. Seeing we will be sitting in an entire house of Celtics fans, I think I’ll root for the Chicago Bulls. 😛

Fingers crossed, that is it for the Operation Opera Retaliation. :/