Review- The Rainbow Connection- Pink Season
13-11-15
By: Haddie Nguyen
On Tuesday I had the pleasure of attending and reviewing The Rainbow Connection for Pink Season. Co-Produced by HKELD's own maestro, Meaghan McGurgan, I was going into the production with my harshest critical eye. She told me to hold nothing back because even though her performers were volunteers, they could take a note.
Despite my efforts to be the evil critic who finds fault in everything, I found little to nothing to nit-pick on this stunning night at Orange Peel. I laughed, I cried, I sang along with the cast of Xanadu. It was beautiful and perfect, I can't really fault it. (Minus a hilarious technical glitch from the Stage Manager, Adam, that was one of the highlights of the evening for me.) He carried it off beautifully and it became one of the most memorable and funny parts of the night. Can he please stage manage all future shows for Ms. M? They're a great team!
The Rainbow Connection was simple in its concept and didn't try to be anything but entertaining. I think that's why the evening was so successful. It didn't try to be anything it wasn't. It wasn't pretentious. The artists were honest, kind, truthful and fun to watch! The Rainbow Connection was a night of LGBT centric songs, dances, poems, theatre and performance art to raise money for a HIV based charity called AIDS Concern. They had a huge number of performers- ALMOST 50!!!- and tried to shove them all in just 90 minutes. If there is any criticism of this event, it's that there was too much in the evening and the ticket prices should have been higher for the value of the talent on stage. The production team undercharged but left the audience free to donate more, if they wished, and spend freely at the bar. I really hope they reached their funding goal.
The night had funny pieces, poignant pieces and ended with wonderful music from a fantastic local band, The Anello. There was something for everyone. My favorites of the evening were the heartbreaking scenes from The Children's Hour performed by Jennie Davies and Alexandra Jacobs and the performance art piece by Rye Bautista. These pieces were layered between inspiring/funny moments in the show. The contrast between the pieces gave great shock value to the audience, allowing them to resonate, like a punch to the gut. I saw many a misty eye during Bautista's dance piece about breakups and lost love.
The musical theatre in the evening was also quite enjoyable. Upcoming shows like, Into the Woods, gave previews to their productions. I'll be rushing down the box office to buy a ticket for this show, the princes were great. David Tobin's parody on The Little Mermaid was hilarious and wrong all at the same time. Who knew that he could turn Ariel's ballad into a trope about fisting and enemas???
Another shout out should be given to the Tom Seal Band from the UK. They were the jazz band that flew in from the UK that was performing at Orange Peel after The Rainbow Connection. They were awesome and allowed the charity show to run a little later, so we could see all the performers. AND they also allowed the RC audience to stay and see their performance for free! They were amazing and incredibly talented. This was an unexpected surprise for both the audience and the producer of the event. We ended up getting to see an award-winning jazz band at the end of the evening, and they capped off the evening with perfection.
I hope that more shows will happen like this in the future. Cabarets are a great way to showcase Hong Kong's talent pool and raise money for charities. The performer's should be proud of their efforts on Tuesday. It was an absolutely fantastic show that was one of the most pleasurable nights out I've had in a long time. When you see a show to critique and don't write a single note because you're having such a wonderful time, it's an easy show to give 5 stars.
The Rainbow Connection has now closed. For more information, click here.
Comments
Laurie Tsui
Absolutely fantastic show. Great job to all involved!
13 November 2015Matt
When the hostess came out, talked about serious stats and then told everyone to "bag it up" I knew we were in for a good night. Fun night out for a great cause! Bag it up everyone!!!! :p
13 November 2015