It’s difficult for anyone outside Melbourne to truly understand the difficulties associated with the lockdowns of 2020/21.
Yes, as my late mum would say, “there are always those worse off than yourself”, but it was nothing short of gut wrenching to see the CBD devoid of life, in what normally is one of the most vibrant and multi-cultural cities in the world.
We took the train from our new home as of two months ago, Ballarat, to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago to see the play Death of a Salesman.
It was a matinee show and immediately noticeable for the first time in ages was that the CBD was coming back to life. Melbourne’s lunchtime traders were looking busy and prosperous again.
Getting city workers back to the office has been an enormous challenge. Less so has been attracting the ‘after five’ and entertainment starved masses back to patronising their favourite venues again.
Yesterday we took the train in for an overnighter in Melbourne to see Elvis the Musical. After checking in we walked the city and it was pumping like I haven’t seen for many years.
The restaurants and trams were bulging and hordes of people were crossing at intersections. I know that sounds strange but it’s something that’s been noticeably missing in the city for a few years. Not quite Shibuya, but a healthy sign none the less.
We ended up at the Ian Potter Centre in Federation Square which was also packed for an opening concert for the Melbourne Jazz Festival.
The centre is owned by the NGV and houses Australian art from the big house up St Kilda Rd. It’s beautifully designed and very spacious with classical pieces ranging from the masters such as Sidney Nolan, Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin to contemporary stuff such as Howard Arkley as well as an amazing array of photography. Below are some examples.
We will definitely be going back for seconds, but it was time to get a feed and prepare for the show. The Elvis show was at the beautiful Athenaeum in Collins St. right opposite The refurbished Regent Theatre which looked a treat with Moulin Rouge playing currently.
We grabbed a table at a tiny restaurant in Chinatown and I set about gorging into a plate of stir fried prawns doused in what can only be described as a heroic amount of chilli. As a result, both retinas in my eyes were on fire but fortunately a gelato shop two doors down came to the rescue and put a halt to the tears.
So why Elvis the Musical? Well, I was never a fan growing up as a kid because those cheesy films he made (over two dozen) were mostly rubbish and I had better things to do on a Saturday afternoon.
There was one film however that was the exception, Viva Las Vegas but it wasn’t because of Elvis. It was because of every prepubescent young boy’s fantasy, Ann Margaret. What a siren she was and the actress who played her in this show was uncannily similar.
Anyway the relationship between Elvis and the extraordinarily gifted Ann has been well documented but as a reminder of the obvious chemistry they had, check this out.
It was about five years ago my partner Lynda, tired of my ignorance of Elvis’s talent, played me the documentary The Searcher. As an iconic document it was as good as Ali’s When We Were Kings and gave me a whole new appreciation as to why he was known as The King.
The documentary and show both depict Elvis’s first love of the blues and gospel having grown up in the sadly segregated south of the US. It was his love of black music that was temporarily removed by his greedy manager Tom Parker but re-established in his superb 1968 comeback show.
To think he was only thirty three when he did the comeback show is hard to fathom. The show pretty much ends at that point except for a brief appearance from his Las Vegas days complete with the white jump suit.
The choreography and dancing were exceptional and the performance of the lead actor Rob Mallet is superb. He is a huge ‘triple threat’ but so were many of the cast who ‘doubled’ and ‘tripled’ up different roles in the show. Highly recommended.
https://elvisamusicalrevolution.com.au
There were a couple of ironies for me last night. Down at Marvel Stadium, Paul McCartney was playing in front of fifty thousand Beatles fans. All afternoon we saw an army of grey hair heading to the docklands, many with children and grandchildren in tow, no doubt taking them on a musical education.
I remember listening to a McCartney interview once when he talked about the Beatles meeting Elvis and being so star struck he was unable to talk. Funny how Elvis’s legacy was still being celebrated in a musical in the same city.
Being at The Athenaeum also brought back memories of seeing one of my heroes, the late Bill Hicks who performed there at the 1993 comedy festival.
Bill loved Elvis but despised the so called ‘Memphis Mafia’ who clung to Elvis like leaches, cashing in on Elvis’s fortune both during his career and post his death.
Charlie Hodge was one of those, a musician and close confidant, who like most of the ‘hangers on’ looked the other way when it came to Elvis’s barbiturate use.
Bill would often end a show in a white jump suit and satirise Charlie Hodge who even lived at Graceland for seventeen years. The ‘bit’ starts at the one minute mark and ends at the five minute mark. This clip comes with a language warning.
Back at the hotel I was provoked into remembering a piece of history not many people know.
Oskar Schindler, the brave businessman during the Holocaust in WW2, actually came to Australia after the war and set up a business designing and manufacturing elevators for Melbourne’s burgeoning high rise buildings.
When movie director Stephen Spielberg came to Australia to meet legendary author Tom Keneally and purchase the rights to his book Schindler’s Ark, Keneally only had one caveat, Spielberg couldn’t use the same title for his proposed movie.
A disappointed Spielberg returned to his hotel, stepped into the elevator and it happened to be made by the wonderful German philanthropist himself.
The name plate on the floor and above the floor selection buttons said it plain and clear, Schindler’s Lifts. “Of course” said the director to himself and without hesitation, “it will be Schindler’s List.” True story.
Back to Ballarat on the train this morning. It’s so exciting to see Melbourne back on track but now that we’ve settled in ‘The Rat’ it’s nice to get back to our little cottage.
Being five minutes to the city centre feels like we’re living in Brunswick only without the hipsters. A hipster in Ballarat is a bloke who feels the urge to put a flanny over his singlet. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
