There are only a few performances left so boogie on down!
Graeme Braidwood took some amazing photos at the Boogie Nights tech yesterday. There are more on the Facebook event and on the Crescent main website but here are a few I particularly liked.
Check out the new huge Boogie Nights poster spandangling itself outside the theatre!!
Looking very funky!
Full of economic doom and gloom, mass job cuts and blundering MPs claiming back money for their eyeliner, pizzas from Asda and under-floor heating, the start to 2009 has been a bit tough. So what better way to cheer yourself up, stir those seventies senses and quite frankly get your groove on? Well come and get down on the action with Boogie Nights!!
With Deano your supersonic DJ Machine, you can be guaranteed to sing long to at least 50% of the songs throughout the performance! The dance routines will get you ‘boogieing’ in the aisles with the person sitting next to you or just on your own. The smiles will stretch for miles!! With eye-catching colours but eye-watering heights, the platforms will have you hooked, the flares will have you wistfully retuning to the 1970s and the dodgy moustaches will make you want one!!
With so many wonderful and daring costumes taking an airing, the rehearsals are proving to be quite interesting. With some of the characters having up to ten different costume changes, working out how much time they have to actually get into them is imperative!!
Sunday rehearsal provided the opportunity to sing with live music – drums, guitar, bass and the keyboard – as opposed to Gary trying to bash out a big 70s disco classic on an electric piano!! It made the atmosphere feel really alive with vibrancy and vigor!
The early stages of the set are coming along nicely too. The cast has been pretty lucky having been able to have two run-throughs on the main stage already. With the band coming in again on Thursday, there will be the chance to rehearse with live music again with mics and some of the set changes.
It’s fabulous, flare-fuelled fun and simply not to be missed. Get involved, sing along and relive the seventies!!!
Boogie Nights is in the last couple of weeks before it opens on 22nd May with a Friday night preview so here are some rehearsal clips to give you an idea of what the cast have been working on for the last couple of months.
Here’s the whole cast (plus, briefly, the director and PAs!) rehearsing the Act 1 finale; if you think the cast look good in jeans and T-shirts, wait until you see the frocks!
And this video was shot over several days showing how a number progresses from early note-bashing to setting the movement. Now multiply that by 20 and you’ve got some idea how much work goes into making a show like this look easy!
Where were you in 1977? I was 21, in my final year at university and out dancing every weekend to disco.
Like all trends, disco suffered a backlash; the clothes were ridiculous and the music was repetitive but that was the point. History may have decided the only cool thing to come out of the 1970s was punk but disco was more radical than people give it credit for. The skinny-white-guys-with-guitars rock band format remained unchanged through 50s skiffle, 60s Beat, 70s punk, 80s new wave, 90s grunge to contemporary rock but disco was something new. You didn’t have to be able to play live, disco was about records so if you could programme that thud-thud-thud on a drum machine and mix some swirly synths over the top you might have a hit on your hands. Without disco there would have been no rave, no hip hop, no house, no trance and no techno.
And disco was diverse; it included the jazz-funk of Earth Wind and Fire, Philly soul and Motown. It embraced white pop acts like The Bees Gees and Georgio Moroder’s weird German electronica experiments with Donna Summer. It indulged the outrageously camp Sylvester, old-school soul singers like Edwin Starr, the gospel roots of Gladys Knight and the manufactured Euro-pop of Boney M.
By 1979 everyone was doing it and it was time for a change; The Beach Boys had a disco hit and even Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones had a go but in 1977 disco was the still best party in town. We couldn’t all hang out with Bianca Jagger and Andy Warhol at Studio 54 but we could dance to the same records and that’s exactly what we did!
Whilst the dress rehearsal for The Rivals was underway last night, Graeme and the cast of Boogie Nights headed to Flares to have some promo shots taken for the forthcoming 70s musical.
Flares has recently become our favourite nightclub in the world since they pledged their support to the show.
As well as helping out with the backdrop for the wonderful pics - which will be popping up on Facebook and the official site soon - they are also offering the following in what promises to be a great team-up…
- Ticket-holders get free entry to Flares after the show
- Use of the VIP Room on Friday & Saturday night performances
- A chance to win a bottle of Flares bubbly at every show
The show offers a great marketing potential for the theatre, and other promotions already announced include group booking discounts for parties of 10+ and 20+, and a special dress up party night on Saturday 23rd.
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