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Of Cambridge Queens and bondage gear
Nov. 17th, 2003 05:28 pmIn other words, a sort of review of Camelot.
Wonderful production. Absolutely terrific. The flaws are in the piece, not in the production, and mostly consist of throwaway songs like "What Do the Simple Folk Do?". The best songs, IMO, are near the end, with "Fie on Goodness" and "Guinevere", though the latter brought to mind Martin Guerre. I mean, threatening to burn a woman for destroying society certainly feels rather similar, doesn't it? *g*
As for the production itself. In an effort to show that knights came from all over to join the Round Table, Molly has included a black lord/lady pair, dressed in african-inspired armour and clothing, and an asian lord/lady pair, dressed in mongol-inspired armour and clothing. In other words, hot black guy, beautiful black girl, gorgeous asian girl, and tiny little asian guy (his lady is the same height he is *g*). The one flaw in this is that at one point, one of the ladies appears with the bottom half of her face covered in what may be intended to be islamic fashion, but she only appears that way in one scene. Maybe it's a preview problem -- the rest is so well done that it's a very strange flaw.
Hot celtic man, yum. Ok, so his name is Kevin Burrows, he went to Northwestern, and he's hot, and he plays Sir Lionel, who for this production is costumed as a celt -- short hair gelled up, random long braids, what appears to be a sporran tied around his waist. Really hot guy.
Merlin is a druid. Scary wig, the hair sticking up makes it look as if he has bat ears under there or something, and his face is "tattooed" with a blue spiraling design, rather Maori-ish and yet not. He has a really cool, moth eaten cape that he makes look like wings, like he's really a hawk or something. Damned scary if you're a little kid, I'm sure, but very cool. Not so cool is when Nimue is calling and he strips down to a loincloth. I never wanted to see that much of Merlin.
Stephen Skybell at times reminds me of Tom Hollander. This does not exactly make for a serious show, and yet about halfway through, I found this vocal resemblance endearing. Because everything about Guy is endearing (well, ok, he sounds like guy does on lines like "It's a handbag!" and "I smell sex!" and "You know me, queen and country"). It's a sort of British nasal snark, but not quite snark. Really quite endearing. Watching him grow into a true king by the end is wonderful, and I was sobbing at the final scene with Tom of Warwick. Sobbing.
Kate Suber is adorable. She tries a little too hard at first, but then she calms down and is really quite lovely. She's better five years on than she is as younger Guinevere, though during "Simple Joys of Maidenhood", I was reminded of Jo Riding as Eliza Doolittle during "Just You Wait". I adored Jo as Eliza, and Kate is definite Eliza material.
For the whole of "C'est Moi", I was just rather in shock, staring at Matt Bogart, thinking "Oh my god, this is Danny's brother?" trying not to laugh. I was determined not to get fangirly, but phwoar, Matt be hot. He's so good at looking pathetic. He's so cute when he's pathetic and heartbroken. His French accent was pretty good -- he actually had accurate R sounds, which ain't the easiest thing in the world, though he tended to slip on the TH sounds which all have to be changed because the sound doesn't exist in French. He said "Arthur" rather than "Artur" or "Arsur" too much. But he's so fucking hot. Lovely voice, as we already knew. Really, that was the most humble I shall perhaps ever hear "C'est Moi" -- he really does sound as if he hates to admit it, that it pains him that he is, in fact, the best.
Now you're wondering about the bondage gear. I'm serious about its existence. For the joust, they make a horse out of the rider and another guy, who is half naked, has an armoured horse's head over his head, to which is attached a bridle, then is wearing bondage gear like in Cindy Song and has his hands clasped behind his back. Oh yeah, and tight suede trousers. Yummy yummy. I should shut up now.
Feyest Mordred I will perhaps ever see. Not at all convincing when he's trying to kiss Guinevere -- well, not entirely true, it looks more as if he's trying to scare her than exhibit lustful feelings towards her. Big eyes, scary nasty little boy. (Marc Warren would be a perfect Mordred, btw, and not fey like ours.) And if he's one of the horses, then ewww ewwww ewwwwww, I take back everything I said about the horsies.
Lovely lovely lovely production. The only thing missing is actual torches when they're about to burn Guinevere, though that would just add to the Martin Guerre feeling of that scene :)
Thursday shall be fun, even if I don't have my own personal baritone. I'll have Monica, and we shall talk to Matt Bogart. Yes, we shall.
Wonderful production. Absolutely terrific. The flaws are in the piece, not in the production, and mostly consist of throwaway songs like "What Do the Simple Folk Do?". The best songs, IMO, are near the end, with "Fie on Goodness" and "Guinevere", though the latter brought to mind Martin Guerre. I mean, threatening to burn a woman for destroying society certainly feels rather similar, doesn't it? *g*
As for the production itself. In an effort to show that knights came from all over to join the Round Table, Molly has included a black lord/lady pair, dressed in african-inspired armour and clothing, and an asian lord/lady pair, dressed in mongol-inspired armour and clothing. In other words, hot black guy, beautiful black girl, gorgeous asian girl, and tiny little asian guy (his lady is the same height he is *g*). The one flaw in this is that at one point, one of the ladies appears with the bottom half of her face covered in what may be intended to be islamic fashion, but she only appears that way in one scene. Maybe it's a preview problem -- the rest is so well done that it's a very strange flaw.
Hot celtic man, yum. Ok, so his name is Kevin Burrows, he went to Northwestern, and he's hot, and he plays Sir Lionel, who for this production is costumed as a celt -- short hair gelled up, random long braids, what appears to be a sporran tied around his waist. Really hot guy.
Merlin is a druid. Scary wig, the hair sticking up makes it look as if he has bat ears under there or something, and his face is "tattooed" with a blue spiraling design, rather Maori-ish and yet not. He has a really cool, moth eaten cape that he makes look like wings, like he's really a hawk or something. Damned scary if you're a little kid, I'm sure, but very cool. Not so cool is when Nimue is calling and he strips down to a loincloth. I never wanted to see that much of Merlin.
Stephen Skybell at times reminds me of Tom Hollander. This does not exactly make for a serious show, and yet about halfway through, I found this vocal resemblance endearing. Because everything about Guy is endearing (well, ok, he sounds like guy does on lines like "It's a handbag!" and "I smell sex!" and "You know me, queen and country"). It's a sort of British nasal snark, but not quite snark. Really quite endearing. Watching him grow into a true king by the end is wonderful, and I was sobbing at the final scene with Tom of Warwick. Sobbing.
Kate Suber is adorable. She tries a little too hard at first, but then she calms down and is really quite lovely. She's better five years on than she is as younger Guinevere, though during "Simple Joys of Maidenhood", I was reminded of Jo Riding as Eliza Doolittle during "Just You Wait". I adored Jo as Eliza, and Kate is definite Eliza material.
For the whole of "C'est Moi", I was just rather in shock, staring at Matt Bogart, thinking "Oh my god, this is Danny's brother?" trying not to laugh. I was determined not to get fangirly, but phwoar, Matt be hot. He's so good at looking pathetic. He's so cute when he's pathetic and heartbroken. His French accent was pretty good -- he actually had accurate R sounds, which ain't the easiest thing in the world, though he tended to slip on the TH sounds which all have to be changed because the sound doesn't exist in French. He said "Arthur" rather than "Artur" or "Arsur" too much. But he's so fucking hot. Lovely voice, as we already knew. Really, that was the most humble I shall perhaps ever hear "C'est Moi" -- he really does sound as if he hates to admit it, that it pains him that he is, in fact, the best.
Now you're wondering about the bondage gear. I'm serious about its existence. For the joust, they make a horse out of the rider and another guy, who is half naked, has an armoured horse's head over his head, to which is attached a bridle, then is wearing bondage gear like in Cindy Song and has his hands clasped behind his back. Oh yeah, and tight suede trousers. Yummy yummy. I should shut up now.
Feyest Mordred I will perhaps ever see. Not at all convincing when he's trying to kiss Guinevere -- well, not entirely true, it looks more as if he's trying to scare her than exhibit lustful feelings towards her. Big eyes, scary nasty little boy. (Marc Warren would be a perfect Mordred, btw, and not fey like ours.) And if he's one of the horses, then ewww ewwww ewwwwww, I take back everything I said about the horsies.
Lovely lovely lovely production. The only thing missing is actual torches when they're about to burn Guinevere, though that would just add to the Martin Guerre feeling of that scene :)
Thursday shall be fun, even if I don't have my own personal baritone. I'll have Monica, and we shall talk to Matt Bogart. Yes, we shall.