Backstage with Melanie

i love neil patrick harris.  he is a talented singer, actor and doctor.  (ok, so he just played a doctor on tv, but he was soooo believable!)

whenever he is on a show, i check it out.  he’s so funny!  on saturday night live they did a skit all about saving broadway and i laughed my butt off!  i’ve watched it several times and laugh harder each time.

miss taylor swift plays annie in the scene and does a great job too!

for all my friends who love broadway, i felt this was a MUST SHARE!  the phantom “chandelier” part had me laughing so hard the second time i watched it i actually SNORTED!

huge thanks to SNL and neil patrick for their brilliantly funny skit!  it made my night!  i hope it makes yours.

just got back from opening night at walking with dinosaurs and i have one word……BIG!   big teeth, big stage, big roars, big fun!  the “wow” factor on this show is off the charts!   when they say this show is BIG they mean it!   from nose to tail the biggest of the big is 36 feet high and 56 feet long!

my favorite part of watching this show was the audience.  every time a new creature would enter the arena everyone would “ooh” and “aah”.  (including the adults)   the kids responses were absolutely classic! here are some of the best quotes i heard:   “mama!  is that one gonna eat that other one?”, “can they come up here and get US?” and finally,  the little boy sitting next to my daughter said, “t-rexes are only boys!”   my daughter’s response to him, “no they aren’t!  else how could they have a BABY t-rex in the show?  only girls have babies!”  (that’s my girl!  settin’ things straight wherever she goes)

back to the review: a paleontologist introduces you to 15 different dinos throughout the night.  some are “nice plant eaters” and others are “mean meat eaters”  (that’s how a 7yr old described dinos to me)    they are all life size and look uh-may-zing!   the shows look, feel, sound and size guarantees you a RRRRROARING good time!

even the PLANTS were impressive!  coming from someone who makes props, i loved the plants.  they were inflatable!   whenever they added to the storyline, beautiful plants would inflate around the stages edge.  from palm trees to flowers, they filled the stage with color.  MAN! i wish i could plant those in MY yard!  company drops in for a bbq? no worries.  just flip the switch and you’ve got a landscaped backyard with no weeds!

back to the review (2nd attempt):  the show was educational, eye catching and great for all ages. very young children might cover their ears during the MAMA T-Rex roars but they’ll be smiling the entire time!  i wanted to share all of my families favorite parts, but i don’t want to spoil anything for you.   i will tell you the baby t-rex steals the show!  love him!

final review………GO SEE THIS SHOW BEFORE IT’S EXTINCT!!!!!

tickets are available at the energy solutions arena box office.  it’s here jan. 15-18th.

i hope you all survived the holidays!  i took a blogging break but now i’m back in full swing so get ready to read!

after my time off, i couldn’t think of a better group of characters to share the stage with than 15 life-size DINOSAURS!  that’s right!  THEY’RE BAAAACK!!!!

walking with dinosaurs the live experience is on tour and has WALKED it’s way into salt lake city.  after 65 million years they’re making a comeback.  the show is truly a theatrical event of mammoth proportions.

the show runs jan. 14th-18th at the energy solutions arena.  tickets are still available.

here’s your backstage pass to the BIGGEST show on earth!  (literally!)

as i was going through emails making sure i got everyone on my list for WICKED group tickets, i came across this email i sent out after my trip to denver to see wicked several years ago.  if you LIKE wicked and know the soundtrack really well, you’ll enjoy the read.

dear old shiz,  (i mean friends),

just thought you’d like an update of my WICKED trip to denver.  it felt like ONE SHORT DAY, but it was filled with a LIFETIME OF FUN.

for those of you who don’t know, my WICKED little friends and i went to denver this past weekend.  it was WONDERFUL.

we flew out friday afternoon.  suzy was practically strip searched at the airport.  (head’s up: avoid taking fingernail scissors in purse, wearing tons of silver jewelry and silver accessories)   while they searched through everything of suzy’s, kelly and i stood off to the side laughing and saying, “glad I’M NOT THAT GIRL”

we arrived in denver, rented our car, (afterall, not everyone can travel in a BUBBLE!) and found the hotel without problems.  then…..SOMETHING BAD was happening in OZ. (i mean our room)  we were just talking when suzy opened her mouth and screamed, “OH”  she just sat their frozen with her mouth gaping open and her hands in the air.  after what seemed like forever, she said, “i locked my suitcases and left my key to open them on my key ring at home!”   once again, kelly and i started laughing and said, “glad I’M NOT THAT GIRL” (reprise)

the hotel couldn’t help us so we set out on a MARCH OF THE WITCH HUNTERS (i mean bolt cutters).  in the parking lot we met a guy that worked at the hotel, named chris.  he was WONDERFUL, we called him WONDERFUL.

we all loaded up in his car with suzy’s luggage in tow and headed to ace hardware.  chris gave us a tour of the city on the way which was really fun.  the guy at ace was NOT wonderful.  he refused to cut the locks unless suzy bought the bolt cutters!  $20.00 later we were on our way back to the hotel with open luggage and a really pissed off gay guy driving us.  (did i mention chris was gay?  that’s why we all hopped in the car with him.  cute.  dressed amazing and knows how to accessorize! not to mention he was so fun to chat with)

anyway, chris is a big wig at the hotel and was furious at the way the ace guy treated us, so he said he would get him fired.  he talked about customer service and how NO GOOD DEED goes unpunished.  he swore the entire way back to the hotel and couldn’t believe what a jerk the ace guy was.   it was quite the colorful car ride.

we raced back to the hotel, got dressed to the nines and made it to WICKED before the dragon clock struck 8:00pm.   THANK GOODNESS!!!!!!!

my review of WICKED?   better than i expected and i expected A LOT!  everyone had said it was awesome, good, best show, yada, yada, yada.  no one told me how FUNNY it was.  we laughed, we cried, we loved it!  for those of you who HAVE seen the show, how come you never mentioned how funny it was?  that was the biggest surprise for me.  maybe that’s why you didn’t tell me, so i’d have some surprises.  galinda (the GUH is silent) was sooooooo funny.   elphaba delivered her lines with perfect comedic timing.  pause, pause……wait for it……….BLONDE!!!!!   so great!

going into it i THOUGHT i knew every spoiler, song, storyline, etc.  the dialogue in between the songs was brilliant.  it was all new material to me and i loved every minute of it.

the next day was just as fun.  we went shopping all day long.  i bought my first pair of knee high leather boots!  after shopping we went back to the hotel and got dressed up to go out to dinner.  (like i’d ever do that at home!)

as we walked down the street to dinner all dressed up, i kept thinking…..WHAT IS THIS FEELING, so sudden and new?  then it dawned on me…..CONFIDENT.  whey you are dressed like that and look good on the outside, you feel good on the inside.  i felt like i could have done anything at that moment without failing.  including DEFYING GRAVITY (i think i floated down the street instead of walked.)  i was DANCING THROUGH LIFE (or at least on the way to dinner) and loving it!

i felt beautiful, classy, rich and POPULAR!  i think i’ll start wearing that outfit more often.  grocery shopping, soccer games, pta meetings.

we went to dinner at the CHEESECAKE FACTORY-duh!  yes, it was delicious and yes we went twice.  we went for dinner and then brunch the next morning.  double-duh!

we raced to the airport and missed our flight because our check in agent was a jerk.  if he would have been a SENTIMENTAL MAN at all he would have checked us in quickly and we could have made our flight, but he said we didn’t have a chance of making it and he refused to even try.  RUDE!  guess he doesn’t realize NO ONE MOURNS THE WICKED.   get nice=receive nice.

FINALE:  after two days of happiness, we spent the entire day on standby at the airport.  let’s say we were SUPPOSED to be on stand by but they forgot to roll us over from full flight to full flight.  so everyone else kept getting on the flights before us.  when we realized this, customer service took over and we ended up on a different carrier to come home.  we didn’t get home until 8pm!

the hardest part of the day was dragging $150.00 worth of cheesecake from gate to gate all day long.  we each bought a cheesecake to bring home and they are frozen and heavy!  we even had several offers to buy them from us!

even with the little bump in the end of our fun, it was all FOR GOOD and i’ll never forget it.

DRAW CURTAINS (end of story)…….THE WIZARD AND I have some shopping to do!

yes, it’s official.  the final TWIGHLIGHT movie trailer is out!  i would have posted this the day it came out, but i figured the website would be soooo overloaded it wouldn’t be worth even trying to watch the trailer.

so if you HAVEN’T checked out the lastest and final movie trailer,

BITE INTO THIS!

it takes a bit to download, but is worth the wait.

as with any movie i see, it’s all about the soundtrack!  when i heard the same lady that chooses the music for grey’s anatomy was in charge of picking the music for twilight the movie, i was ecstatic!  i LOVE grey’s soundtracks and the songs are always perfect, so this was exciting news.

when i saw the official songlist for twilight the movie, i couldn’t believe my eyes!  back in the summer, waaaay before the movie soundtrack information was out,  me and a friend spent hours putting together a cd of OUR favorite songs that work with the edward/bella story.  one of those songs was by collective soul “tremble my beloved”

if you look at the official twilight soundtrack below, please notice what song number 7 is……….

1. Muse-Supermassive Black Hole

2. Paramore-Decode

3. The Black Ghosts-Full Moon

4. Linkin Park-Leave Out All The Rest

5. MuteMath-Spotlight (Twighlight Mix)

6. Perry Farrell-Go All The Way (Into the Twilight)

7. Collective Soul-Tremble My Beloved (HOW COOL IS THIS?  I THINK A PRIZE IS IN ORDER)

8. Paramore-I Caught Myself

9. Blue Foundation-Eyes On Fire

10. Rob Pattinson-Never Think (Yes! this is the guy who plays edward)

11. Iron & Wine-Flightless Bird, American Mouth

12. Carter Burwell-Bella’s Lullaby

can’t wait to hear the movie soundtrack! but for now i personally think the list of songs that melissa and i put together are incredible, so if you want to hear some great music, check out our breaking dawn blog.

i can’t even tell you how excited my family is that ironman is finally released on dvd!   i guess i CAN tell you how excited they are because my children woke up at 5am to watch it before they went to school this morning!!!!

i KNOW!

i bought it last night and by the time they got homework done it was bedtime so i wouldn’t let them stay up and watch it.  yes! “grown up” melanie shows up every now and again.  i told them we’d have the movie forever and they could watch it whenever they wanted, so go to bed and you can watch it “tomorrow.”

as they “murmured” their way to bed i heard something about “i’ll put toast in on the way downstairs, then you can come as soon as you’re hair is done”   what?!

they decided 5AM would be “tomorrow” and they could wake up, get ready for school and still have time to watch it before they left.  they had figured out who could make breakfast, do hair and how long it would take them to get completely ready, so they’d still have enough time to watch the entire movie before school.

i was impressed with their creativty and goal setting skills, so “cool fun mom” kicked into gear and said they could get up at whatever time they pleased as long as they were ready for school ON TIME!   really thinking when the alarms went off reality would set in and they’d just sleep until i woke them at a decent hour.

when i came downstairs, at a decent hour, there they were all lined up on the couch! completely ready for school WATCHING IRONMAN!!!!    how’s this for a movie review?  “ironman is so great it got my kids out of bed and to school on time!  it’s a must see!”

honestly , we really love this movie and if you haven’t seen it, go get it!  it’s what movies are supposed to be.  fun, action packed, humorous, touch of romance and a really great ride!   oh! and robert downey jr. is perfection!

after seeing shrek the musical twice in seattle, i still can’t get enough!  i sing the songs in my head and i’m holding tight to any of the funny scenes i can.  they really brought the best of the movie to the stage and i hope it’s a huge success on broadway!  the soundtrack won’t come out until spring, so it’s going to be a long UGLY winter for me.

i came across this video footage of opening night in seattle and had to share.  it’s a mixture of song clips and interviews with the cast.  i wish they showed OGRE-sized clips, but this is all we get.  at least you can see lord farquaad’s tiny legs in action.    when shrek breaks on the scene in the outhouse, i get chills.  if any of you have the chance to check out this show in new york, i’ll be GREEN with envy!  enjoy the show!

shrek the musical

tonight scott and i had the opportunity to attend the premier of forever strong (the rugby movie).

i don’t know anything about rugby but you don’t have to and you’ll still enjoy this show.  i always get excited when i see a movie that ALL my family will enjoy!

the story is based on the highland rams, an amazing rugby team from utah.  their coach is larry gelwix and his team standards and rules are known worldwide.  larry believes being a coach is more than just asking his players to be their best while playing the game.  he teaches them to be forever strong on the field, so they can be forever strong off the field.  larry (real life coach) is in the suit and gary cole (in the striped shirt) plays larry gelwix in the movie.

the highland rugby team has an unbelievable record of 361 wins and 9 losses!  that is NOT a typo!  their story is one that is worth being shared. what they accomplished as a team is truly inspiring.

if you want a great date night, go see this movie!  i’d love for it to have a killer opening weekend so hollywood takes notice.   as a mother of four, i am dying for more family friendly movies that don’t involve bright colors and cute voices.  don’t get me wrong, i love the “kiddie” movies but it’s nice to go to the theater with my entire family and see a movie that has real people in it and no talking animals.

i’d love to hear what you guys think of the movie. i totally left wanting to yell the chant and slap my thighs!

huge thanks to randy hunt from columbus travel.  he’s my buddy who got us the tickets to the premier.  (larry gelwix and randy hunt are business partners at columbus travel)   i know, lots of names.  don’t worry, i won’t quiz you on it later!  just sit back and enjoy the show!  thanks again guys!  it was a great night!

so after several days in a row of eating, sleeping, dreaming, watching, singing, blogging and prowling around with cats we’ve sadly reached the end of our tail.

we saw the show again tonight and it was so great!  huge thanks to all my friends who joined me tonight!  i hope you enjoyed the show as much as my family did.

when you see a show the first time, you are trying so hard not to miss anything, the second time is WAY more enjoyable!  i think every ticket should come with a two-for-one deal!

this time i noticed all the “personalities” of the cats, really come out.  not while they were in the spotlight, but while they were on the back of the stage or off to the side.  they NEVER break character and react to everything going on around them.  people think cats is just a bunch of people dressed up like cats, but it’s so much more than that.  if you get the chance to see cats a second time don’t watch what’s going on at center stage, but what’s going on in the shadows.

notice the cats poking fun at one another or lounging on the side, just flipping their tail slowly up and down like cats do.  pay attention to the playful kittens in the corner or the hopeful cat watching from behind the car.  there’s an entire other show going on around the the edge of the stage and i think it’s just as enjoyable as the main storyline.

i wish the entire cast huge success in all they do.  they seem to be a young cast, so i look forward to following their careers and catch them in future shows.  they are welcome to comment on the blog whenever they can, so this cats tale isn’t officially over.  make sure you check out the video i added to the last post.  it shows a bit more of what we got to see on opening night!

cats national tour 2008-09