The Blue Plate Special consists of three sections each with a different director: Bed & Breakfast by RV Quijano, Heartaches by Corrie Milne, and Shake, Shake, Shake by Louise Jamieson.  The multi-talented cast are either Te Auaha students or graduates already working in the industry.

As we enter Tapere Nui in Te Auaha there is an atmosphere of someone’s home with two retro lounge suites situated centre-stage bathed in hazy, orange, warm tones.  The melancholic mood and fifties setting are established directly by lighting designer Michael Trigg for Bed & Breakfast with the performers dispersed over the set in stylish 50s fashion, and a smooth rendition of 1959 hit Lonesome Town by Monel Faifai.  Both Faifai and the chorus inhabit each lyric, delivered with strong intention and longing in their gazes.  Pure glee ensues as the classic retro ribbon microphone, distinctive of the era, gets its debut here for a spirited rendition of another 1959 hit Lipstick on your Collar. It is  performed with real pizazz and delightful theatricality by Lily Moore.  An absolutely fantastic musical introduction.  We are witnessing a complex and tumultuous relationship brewing through song and dance choreography, notably contemporary dance as we see the dancers running around the space using sweeping and reaching arm movements.  Two dancers in black and white night gowns make themselves known as they wrap and entangle their female bodies then kiss and reject each other simultaneously. This dance section has some great unrealized potential to move the audience more, as the dancers have the technical abilities, but it remains weak in comparison to the outstanding musical pieces that precede it.  Interestingly the theatricality and choreography of the dance distances us from the usual commercial dance style that we are accustomed to seeing in musical theatre. It is an important opportunity for Quijano to tie the style of contemporary dance to the theatricality of musical theatre.

Quijano performs a heart-wrenching song I Tried Solo under a spotlight – is this what it felt like to watch Roy Orbison or Ricky Nelson before they hit the big time? The piece ends with a chorus of glorious layered harmonies and a lasting image of the performers walking with their hands on their heavy hearts – the theme of heartbreak coming across loud and clear.

The entire cast assists in the scene change to Corrie Milne’s Heartbreaks and we are left with one lounge suite and a gorgeous retro record player playing some timeless oldies. This scene change has all of a sudden got us feeling so nostalgic and now images of war-time America come to mind, time stands still. Evelyn, a housewife and widow, is played by Rachel McSweeney, a highly talented performer.  She convinces us that she is grieving by just gazing out into nothingness.  We enter into Evelyn`s memories and we get to re-live the most intimate, touching moments with her husband, played by the director of Heartbreaks Corrie Milne.  Sweeney and Milne both individually and together are outstanding in their tender and loving interactions.  There is a wonderful rapport between the two.  It becomes difficult to discern whether they are miming the words of a pre-recorded song because their voices are angelic, an absolute delight to experience.  Christopher Horne from up in the rafters of Tapere Nui demands Evelyn`s attention and here we are made to understand that she agrees to play a guinea pig in a scheme called `Project Recall` where she gets to re-live a selected memory.  Anyone that has experienced grief will really be feeling this piece, knowing first hand about grief’s stages (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) with the relevant key words for Milne’s piece being acceptance and moving on.  Evelyn/McSweeney wrenches our hearts by desperately reliving one glorious memory with her husband and with clever use of flashing strobe light effects. The scene is abruptly cut by performer Horne up in the rafters,  Evelyn/McSweeney begs him to let her return to the memory and despite the fact there could be faults she is willing to risk it.  Much to our delight, we see them replay out the scene once again, and cleverly we notice little nuances and changes in the dialogue.  The scene is even more powerful the second time around as we are aware of what is at stake which McSweeney plays out with small side glances and nervous body language.  Inevitably there are malfunctions shown through Milne`s inability to speak and through the distorted music, as though the vinyl record is warped, as the needle keeps sliding over the same hump.  Evelyn/McSweeney yells for it to stop.  Milne is still frozen, eyes are lifeless and still, dead to the world, the imagery is so powerful, so painful.  McSweeney’s marvellous portrayal of Evelyn presents to us a fiercely loving, caring, resilient and spirited woman and her tale of letting go.  Milne’s Heartbreaks is a masterpiece that grabs us all off our seats and shakes life into us, to linger on the audience’s minds for years to come.

And now for something completely different folks.  Shake, Shake Shake! by Louise Jamieson is set in the heart of a 1950`s diner called Shake Haven where it`s all about youth, style, dancing and milkshakes.  The first two musical influences that come to mind for the costumes and choreography are Grease and Hairspray.  When Mackenzie Htay struts on stage with his bad boy attitude he strongly resembles Johnny Depp from the film Cry Baby, or John Travolta in Grease.  Htay throws his cigarette butt like he just don`t care and it is picked up by a girl working at the diner who blatantly keeps puffing away on it which creates a lot of laughter amongst the audience.  There are several comedic moments like this that Jamieson has added in for cheap crowd pleasers; for example, Monel Faifai pops up behind the bar as though he just arrived in an elevator, then later in the piece he runs down the diagonal as all the dancers turn and smile, and however cheap, these moments are gold.

The stage is busy and bustling with movement and colour, at times we`re not sure who we should be watching.  Dance styles here include jazz, jive and a bit of swing.  Great selection of songs including the glorious toe-tapping track Little Biddy Pretty one.  It`s all about energy and colours like pink and orange that beam down onto the jiving bodies.  Some rather ambitious choreographic moves like side split-leaps for some of the cast but they perform it with a wink and a grin which is what counts the most. Partner work needs a bit more trust, and that can definitely come with future performances.  The ever so charismatic Faifai returns to the spotlight with a bittersweet rendition of the 1957 hit Magic Moments and the dancers do their best shakes while performing some rather technical leg moves.  Htay returns to the stage and from here on the level turns up a notch. We`ve switched to rocking rebel surf sounds and the stage is flooded with a menacing red for the arrival of the very bad boy gang.
Htay and his female dance partner are a great match and technically brilliant which is doubly impressive when you see the height of her heels.  On stage action turns up a notch with a 1967 hit Beggin and a dynamic trio dance uses jazz, hip hop and breakdance moves then ending in a slow-motion dance fight scene which elicits  excitable outbursts and squeals from the crowd. 
Some clever choreographic combinations and duet work will surely gain more confidence and trust with more shows.  The dancers are having fun interacting with their own stage persona`s which keeps the performance energy sustained and alive.  Jamieson makes it virtually impossible for the audience to keep still when the entire cast yells out `Bossanova`.  Lets think of all those physical reactions from musical theatre finales such as Hairspray or Chorus Line which are sometimes the compulsion to drag run, spin, finger-click, and jeté down the street, or maybe just stand on your seat with your hands and arms spread and hit that final note `all that jaaaazzzzz’.  Whatever the reaction inspired, it’s about capturing the dreamer inside us all so thank you to Jamieson for reminding us how wonderful it is to be alive.

The Blue Plate Special is a memorable piece of musical theatre directed by RV Quijano, Corrie Milne and Louise Jamieson, created alongside an incredible multi-talented cast of dancers, singers and actors. The show fills us with strong emotions strong storytelling of love and loss through dance, song and theatre. Ultimately leaving us feeling uplifted and ready to take on the world.

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