Red Curtain - the first album!
Red Curtain had narrative, satire, surreal moments and Jessica James’ unique costuming themes and creations.
The show was based upon the Baz Luhram Red Curtain Trilogy: Strictly Ballroom, Romeo +Juliet and Moulin Rouge. Luhrman said he was trying to make rambunctious films that filled the audiences senses and minds with spectacle and story.
The cast was extensive for a Wednesday night production. Boy roles were GuyDj and Chris Beer, with girls Kitten Kaboodle, Amanda and Jessica.
The storyline was Boy and Girl meet (Romeo +Juliet), have a wild night out, fall in love (Moulin Rouge) and ultimately get together in the finale (Strictly Ballroom). There was an unsubtle gay subtext of course, and it was one of the most fun shows we’d done.
We had created a show that was all the things I hoped drag could be. Our cast was fantastic and the company was professional and ready to go from show one.
The Soundtrack was not as complicated as the Sound of Music soundtrack would turn out to be, but a lot of cut and pasting was done to create recorded dialogue to fill in the story. Some of the sound grabs are below.
Ordered off stage
Always been a problem.
When we moved to the Xchange, Red Curtain followed. We had costume changes to do and had used our usual musical backdrops to cover the time for changes. In Red Curtain these audio segments followed through and expanded the story. The Xchange didn’t want ‘dead time’ on stage, and so Skye Brooks from New Wigs on the Block stepped in and turned our audio breaks, into video breaks.
There was a plus and minus to this, in that watching video fills in the imagination, rather than allowing the audience to fill in the sound breaks with their own imagination. The show went well, but the Greyhound version was definitely superior (in my own opinion).
Some of Skye’s work is below.
Green Fairy
Postscript:
One member of our cast, Kitten Kaboodle, unfortunately died about 3 months after her run with Red Curtain.
It was so sad that someone so talented died at such an early age. She was a lovely person, she worked hard, had a great sense of humour and was ‘star quality’. We were all saddened when we heard the news.
A video section from Red Curtain at the Xchange.
This is the part where Scott and his boyfriend come out at the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship. The music was Tequila and Chris and Guy’s “Scott and Boyfriend” are finally interrupted by Barry White.