The Production Company's Hello Dolly!

The Production Company's Hello Dolly!

Friday 9th June

Five minutes till the train leaves? There's always time for a song!

'Put On Your Sunday Clothes' we're off to the theatre this evening! Hello, Dolly! "an ever-green crowd-pleaser. It opened on Broadway in 1964 and won 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical – a record it held for 37 years. " is the show of the week, yes I do realize I've been going out every night :P

Why Sunday? Traditionally it's the only day you close shop. Why? To go to church.


Bright, bold and easy to follow we loved it! 1890 is my year (well era), well one of them and we loved the fabulous costumes! From everyday bustles and full covered dresses with pantaloons and petticoats to Dolly's mermaid tailed sequin number! Though my favourite dress would be her heavily embroidered purple dress with that hat and all the feathers!

Is it just me or the restaurant scene, the hat shop girls are dresses as Cinderella? The blue final dress and pink mom's dress. 

The music was fantastic too, a fellow theatre goer inn my class says this is his favourite musical. I loved 'Put On Your Sunday Clothes' and was so glad to hear it in the end again! As well as the titular song. What an entrance! 


My favourite dance would have been the spectacular Waiters’ Gallop! It's amazing what could be achieved  with "sharp choreography onto an unnecessarily tight stage". We left the orchestra on stage took us away from 1890s NYC. As "The orchestra play in the centre of horseshoe-shaped stairs that split the stage into two levels." The stairs were also a huge feature and something The Production Company seems to love.

Oh and I also loved Before the Parade Passes By.

Basic sets fascinate me, as I go for the full detail while everyone prefers the focus on costumes and characters "Shaun Gurton’s set is otherwise limited to silhouetted architectural frames dropping in and out as hints of location, and basic props such as store counters and the restaurant’s potted palms. The cast’s colour and movement is what fills the stage." I too do feel like there was so much colour and vibrancy that the stage was a bit small rather than say, if it set at Her Majesty's. 

She wanted to marry for money, but didn't get it in the end??

I loved Mrs Molloy’s Hat Shop! My true passion is theatre (though no longer performing as I did in my youth, my peak was Lady Mb) and hats! If money were no object career wise I might have been a milliner. Alas an arts degree didn't help, career wise either.

There's three sets of characters, main girl Dolly and her guy she's after, the supporting hat shop lady, Cornelius (Glenn Hill) and Irene (Verity Hunt-Ballard), and then another couple that no one can be bothered caring about. Yep. I had a vague idea who they were, the guy's niece "weepy Ermengarde (who wouldn’t cry with a name like that?)" XD and a poor struggling artist. What were they about?

An amazing show that we really really liked (I'm very picky and have very few loves :P). 4/5. 

Favourite Quotes

Dolly Levi: Here, let me cut your wings!
Horace: I don't want my wings cut!
Dolly Levi: No man does, Horace, no man does.

Cornelius Hackl: Barnaby, you don't know anything about women.
Barnaby Tucker: Only that we can't afford them.

Cornelius Hackl: I've never touched a woman before.
Irene Molloy: You still haven't. That's my corset.

We'll heat them up and drop them cold.
Good practice for married life.

I never heard of 'Hello Dolly' till we saw part of it in WALLE. Like with 'Funny Girl' the movie musical stars Barbra Streisand. Looking forwards to seeing it and all those costumes!



Melbourne is amazing, perhaps even the theatre capital of the country, though it is easier to compete when there's only two main states in terms of keeping up with home/the Americans. Hamilton and Anastasia will be here perhaps in 5yrs+, we just got the mormans. We are behind on new works, but amazingly we sometimes have the same shows on at the same time. e.g. The Production Company might be a small group, but they're pretty spectacular (especially at $30 :P). 



Meanwhile "Bette Midler is currently slaying ‘em in New York in the role, almost certain to take out the Tony for her performance". Back home Elsa played Elphaba and Kristen Chewoworth played Glinda the Good, but only on Broadway. One day we shall make it there!

Having a Swinging Time with Pizza & Jazz in Our Sunday Clothes!

Having a Swinging Time with Pizza & Jazz in Our Sunday Clothes!

Monday 5th June

Every so often my heart adds an extra beat. Just like how I add an extra step in my dance. Most likely stress says the dr.

It must have been decades since I last forgot my umbrella and my hair was ruined. Perhaps this is why water proof makeup exists. That or photo shoots in the pool.

A couple days later I would forget my umbrella on the train, my favourite watermelon umbrella, never to be seen again. To loose something of mine that I'm attached to is to loose part of myself. 

Tuesday

Some day my prince will come. But I'll be asleep. I think I have narcolepsy. I have the ability to crash anyway anytime. I don't even need to sit down, I could be doing the waltz one minute and down the next. I crash while I'm having a good time, so it's not an escape from boredom. I crash at concerts I love and within 15mins of arriving for work. At work it's not only once, but multiple times. A few minutes at a time.

Jazz at the Recital Salon. Followed by dinner at Bangpop, it was an early night at the bar. 

Pad Thai  $10 & Milk Tea $5. I know you can't see the noodles but this dish was deep and delicious! There was lot of noodles, but we did it! We finished it! The milk tea was perfect, the secret being a sugar syrup.

Thursday

It has been a while since we went out for dinner it seems! Ok maybe only last week, though that was a decision made on the night as the night was young and it was too early to go home. 

Tonight we were delighted to attend Vapiano's Winter Warmers Tasting Night, not as a blogger by the way, we rarely ever get invited to blog events, and we know why, it's something that is not very nice to point out why. High school never ends, though for me it never mattered back then. 

The highlights? Well I always have loved pasta, though tonight it was the tomato soup and Nutella pizza. 

Friday

Five minutes till the train leaves? There's always time for a song!

'Put On Your Sunday Clothes' we're off to the theatre this evening! Hello, Dolly! "an ever-green crowd-pleaser. It opened on Broadway in 1964 and won 10 Tony Awards, including Best Musical – a record it held for 37 years. " is the show of the week, yes I do realize I've been going out every night :P

Why Sunday? Traditionally it's the only day you close shop. Why? To go to church. 

Bright, bold and easy to follow we loved it! 1890 is my year (well era), well one of them and we loved the fabulous costumes! From everyday bustles and full covered dresses with pantaloons and petticoats to Dolly's mermaid tailed sequin number! Though my favourite dress would be her heavily embroidered purple dress with that hat and all the feathers!

My biggest regret? Not wearing the red dress or something to suit the occasion! But it was cold outside... if you dress like that you need to drive/uber there and back, and not stop anywhere in between.

I wished we did this musical at school along with the music man and hairspray. Things we never did. 

Saturday

We traveled an hour and half up north to see 'The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)'. Yes it was funny but way too long!  The entire second act is the performance of Hamlet - but not a good serious one, funny but slow. At the end it is done in minutes, as fast as they ran through the plays in the first half. Disappointingly they also missed the hand washing scene from Macbeth.

There was popcorn and fairy bread! It was good but not worth more than $10 a ticket, and only recommended if you have an afternoon to kill.

The real reason we were in town was for the op shops, and cake! Beware there's a lot of vintage/opshop looking shops that aren't. At Savers I bought Julie Godwin's Family Table book which I have actually used once, and hope so to do again. These days we buy more reference books than read-once fiction.

Down to the Green Refectory we had three slices of cake, including one of my two true loves, the pavlova! Three was overkill, so next time we'll get one slice to share. 

Over to Hot Potatoes, a huge asian homeware & co shop. These places the best for things that require no quality e.g. pop sticks and other craft supplies as well as glassware and kitchen stuff. I bought some tulips, this is my go to place for cheap fake flowers. 

Back to the city we parted ways and we attended the annual Swing City dance, a couple dances but mainly enjoying the band and feeling an emptiness where he should be. 

Saturday night at town hall, a swing dance event. There is a slight fear as the last one was possibly the single worst event I've ever been to. Fortunately it was a different organization, but scary because they were both swing dance parties. Though the other promised things, this one did no such thing and so expectations aren't to fall short. There's a cash bar but there's no food. I'd love to attend a catered one, one where drinks and canapes are include.

Arriving a little after 6.30 there were a few seats left scattered around the round tables. Intimidating as it means you have to talk to others and those who come as a group have the advantage. Being single at events is a disadvantage, being single at a cafe during peaks will also get you a seat at the singles bar, though can make it go faster.

Dinner at Oppa, We've had bubogi, fried chicken x2, now a curry and next time udon.
Grilled chicken breast with curry and rice $13. The curry was a bit salty though pretty satisfying, though the chicken was a bit dry. I'd might try this again.

I don't actually recall the clock striking midnight but at midnight the magic of the 1940s faded away as the house lights turned on and the janitor started sweeping. Out on the streets it smelt like trash and junk food, the modern city *sigh*. Well at least we're not at risk being under attack due to war, though security is high in the city we've noticed as we traveled this past week. 

A tradition we have is to stop for crepes whenever going to an event at Town Hall, 

the lemon and sugar is a classic without being sticky. One of my favourites!