What constitutes a great show? That leaves you walking away, thinking that was incredible. As you may have guessed (whatever gave it away?), I have been to the movies to see The Greatest Showman. Twice. Because apparently once was not enough. Why did I enjoy this movie so much? Was it because if felt like somebody sat down with a sheet of butcher’s paper and brainstormed everything that is great about musicals and circuses and then crammed it all into the one movie? Maybe. Or was it the acting? The costumes? The stunts? The cinematography?

After I saw it for the first time, I went home, walked inside and ordered the soundtrack online (yes, I do still buy CDs. Because that is what plays in my car). That was New Years Eve. Thursday morning, I was singing my way to work. Sunday, I was back at the cinema, trying not to sing along. And there’s my answer. I really enjoyed this movie. But I love the soundtrack (and in case you’re interested, the dudes that wrote the songs for this also wrote for songs for La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen. The latter having spent a year on Broadway before cleaning up at the 71st Tony Awards). But the question still remains – why did I enjoy the music to this so much when other musical soundtracks I’m not particularly fussed about?

How do you answer a question about taste? Why one person will love something and another could hardly care less. In the world of music, for me, it’s jazz. I can appreciate the talent and skill but it’s all just a bit of a shoulder shrug. I don’t even hate it, I just feel nothing (to express this using modern vernacular, the correct terminology would be ‘meh’). And I think that’s the thing with music. You have to feel something. You have to love it or hate it. It can be technically correct and performed perfectly. But if you don’t feel anything, it hasn’t achieved what it set out to do. And the opposite can be true. A few things can be a bit off but if it’s still giving you all the feels, then that’s a success story.

That’s what makes a great show. When you are emotionally engaged. And if you add in a bit of fire and freedom, that’s when you’ve got the greatest.

Or a super blue blood moon, to be more precise. For those of you that are not astrologically minded, have an aversion to news and hide away from social media, this means a few things came into play all on the same night (pull out your notepad, things are going to start to resemble a lecture series while we break this down). A super moon is when the moon is closer to the Earth than usual, so it appears bigger. A blue moon refers to the second full moon in a month, which as you can imagine doesn’t happen very often – about once in a blue moon (See? This is why you’ve got to love language and how it evolves). A blood moon is when the moon lives up to the description on the package and does look a bit reddish (and eerie) due to a total lunar eclipse. For all these to occur on one night is pretty exciting. For them to occur on rehearsal night? Uncanny.

While definitely a once in 150 year event if you live in North America (they last saw a total lunar eclipse during a blue moon on March 31, 1866), the last time this occurred in Australia on December 30, 1982 (if you hang around until 2037, you can catch the next one). Since it has been 36 years since this happened here in Western Australia, we had to sneak outside for a peak. Before we could do that though, we had to play through an arrangement of Blue Moon (we’re not joking when we say we have music for every occasion). It was then time to down tools (or instruments, rather) a bit earlier than usual and head outside to look up at the night sky. There was a bit of an excursion vibe as the organised ones amongst us passed around binoculars. Weather wise it was very pleasant, so we stood around with our cups of tea, chatting away, checking in on the progress of eclipse.

Taking the time to look up at the moon, you can’t help but notice the stars and everything else that is hiding up in the night sky. You also can’t help but notice how often you don’t do this. Day or night, how often do you just stop and look up at the sky? Take the time to do it. Throw down a blanket, grab some cushions and get comfy. It’s very calming and puts everything into perspective. Like anything though, it is best done in moderation. Done for too long or too often, you’ll end up in the middle of an existential crisis.

Break over, it was back inside to rehearse a few more pieces heading home with only a couple of hours left until the end of January (I know. Already!). With our free, introductory, trail month over, 2018 is off to a good start. It’s time to take out a year’s subscription and really get stuck in. There’s plenty to work towards and to look forward to. Best of all, we get to share it all with you!

Now let’s see if we can turn this blue moon of ours to gold.

REad previous blogs here