A live theatre experience in Sydney

 

Ahead of my travel date, I told my cousin and his wife that one thing I would like to do while in Sydney was to catch a live theatre show, preferably a musical.

 

Theatre seats were filling up at The Riverside

I have had the privilege to enjoy live theatre in London as well as in Singapore and Malaysia, so I looked forward to have a similar experience in Sydney.

 

While Sydney is renowned for its iconic Opera House, I wished to enjoy a musical and it did not matter where it was presented as long as it was somewhere in Sydney.

 

Very soon a list of theatres in Sydney, along with their schedule of shows was shared with me to study and select a show of my choice. Upon my selection, Yeen will help to make the reservations.

 

Info counter in the foyer

When I made my pick of a musical, Dancing in the Shadows of Motown, playing at the Riverside theatre in Paramatta, I asked Yeen to share the info with Auntie Polly so that she may also join us for the show.

 

Auntie is familiar with Motown music even though during her time, it was then not yet known as Motown (the record label), but I know that she enjoys music by artistes like The Supremes, The Temptations and The Four Tops.

 

So with the help of Yeen and cousin Gillian, tickets were secured for Auntie, Yeen and me to go for the live show.

 

The day for our much-anticipated theatre show was drawing close. The tickets were booked in advance and now, all we needed to do was to get to the theatre on time.

 

Auntie could not resist popcorn!

Once again, Yeen and Gillian coordinated an arrangement for Uncle and Auntie to come over for a weekend stay so that it will be convenient for us to go to the theatre together. And while we were at the theatre, Malcolm will take care of Uncle.

 

The theatre was located in Paramatta, at the corner where Church Street meets Market Street, so we left the house for a drive that brought us there comfortably on time. On arrival, we joined others who were walking towards the entrance of the Riverside theatre.

 

At the entrance, I spotted a sign with the words: Welcome/Warami. In the foyer, I saw yet another sign with the same word and was curious to find out more about it as I guessed, it was more than just a word for “welcome.”

 

Then I learnt that, warami is a word that comes from the Dharug dhalang language which is the traditional language of the Aboriginal people of the Dharug nation in the Sydney area. It was interesting to know that warami means, “it’s good to see you” or “hello,” commonly used as a greeting.

 

A section of the audience in the theatre

In fact, the Aboriginal name for Paramatta is, Baramada or Burramatta, commonly translated as, “the place where the eels lie down” or “head of waters.”

 

The theatre foyer opened out to a dining area with tables and chairs, and where food and drinks were sold. Auntie, who is a fan of popcorn, could not resist getting a portion to enjoy during the show.

 

When it was time to enter the theatre, we followed a queue to get our tickets’ QR code scanned before entry. Once inside, a glance around the theatre gave me an idea of its seating capacity, which I estimated to be about 700-plus seats.

 

The family with young kids needed extra
cushions to sit higher up for a better view

The architectural design with seats on upper levels and perfect sight-lines for most seats on the ground level, was inspired by the common European Opera House concept that I have experienced elsewhere, creates an intimate live performance space.

 

When we found our three seats on Row “P,” the seats around us were also fast filling up. I observed that the theatre-goers were mostly senior people with the exception of a young family with two kids. The seats were too low for them so we watched as their father went to get extra seat cushions for them to sit higher up for a better view.

 

The duration for the show was two hours with a break in between so we sat back, ready to enjoy the live music entertainment performed by a tribute band.

 

All set for an entertaining evening together

The band was made up of 10 people, four vocalists – two male and two female – lead guitar, bass guitar, keyboardist, drummer, with a brass section of trumpet and horn.

 

The show opened with male vocalists taking turns to perform songs individually with the female voices as backup singers. Later, when the female vocalists took the lead to sing, the male vocalists were their backup singers.

 

Their rendition of popular songs by The Temptations included familiar tunes like, Ain’t Too Proud to Beg, Papa Was a Rolling Stone, Just My Imagination and My Girl.

 

Then one the female vocalists sang The Supremes’ signature song, Stop in the Name of Love, while the group sang Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell’s, Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.

 

The audience was moving and grooving along
to the familiar Motown tunes during the show

As the male vocalists performed songs like Marvin Gaye’s, Heard it Through the Grapevine and Stevie Wonder’s, Superstition, it got the audience to move with the groove and clap along.

 

One of the female vocalists performed a Jackson Five favourite, I’ll Be There, while the four vocalists combined to sing, I Want You Back, and closed the show with, Can You Feel It.

 

These were just some of the songs the vocalists took turns to perform in the show peppered by solo performances by each one of the musicians. I also noticed that the lead guitarist took his turn to sing one or two songs in the show.

 

While the show was entertaining, I thought that the show title, Dancing in the Shadows of Motown, was somewhat misleading as their performance was mainly singing and not dancing.

 

The audience were on their feet,
rocking to the tunes at the encore performance

The show was in fact, a concert by a tribute band performing familiar Motown songs but they fell short, in my opinion, as I expected the vocals to be better and the Motown vibe to be stronger.

 

In the second part of the show, the audience were invited to get on their feet to dance to their singing. And some did move to the front and side of the hall, where there was some space, to groove to the music.

 

One man seated in front of me was so inspired by the music and he clapped along so vigorously that his elbows almost knocked the lady (not his partner!) seated next to him. We watched with amusement, how that (poor!) lady was shrinking away just to avoid being hit by him.

 

At the close of the show, we decided that we did have an entertaining evening of live music in my first live theatre experience in Sydney.

 

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