dwayne blogged

Remember how I said despite having interviewed Beyonce, I respected her but still wasn’t a fan? Well, that’s changed. If Hollywood or the music industry were like school, Beyonce would be like one of the top straight A student types. She excels at what she does - interviews, dance, singing, acting, composing and she’s pretty! She totally blew me away performing the heck out of "Listen" in Dreamgirls. The movie itself didn’t know how to handle the acting/singing bits without ending up looking cheezy. Pity. Jennifer Hudson was good but in terms of acting the song "And I Am Telling You", she couldn’t hold a candle to the original Jennifer Holliday.

Remember my bonsai? Well it’s really a money plant. I transferred it into a new pot with new soil. Now it has the space and potential to grow some more. I also finally got my music up online for sale. Check out MY STORE. Please support by sharing it with your friends. It seems to be only for purchase from within the US but if anyone has luck outside, do let me know! I’m trying to find a way round it. Have a great New Year.

There are many new shows to see now that I’m back. And shows to catch up on. Top on my list are The Coast of Utopia (a trilogy by Tom Stoppard - starring Ethan Hawke!) and Spring Awakening (a pop rock musical about teens exploring sexuality). Also coming up is The Pirate Queen (Boublil and Schonberg’s newest musical) starring Stephanie J Block.  Of all the Elphabas I’ve seen in Wicked (on Youtube), she is my favourite because of her acting choices. By the way, I caught Wicked again when I returned. Thank you Daniel for your surprise ticket!

I also saw Eragon which I absolutely loved despite so many bad reviews. The scriptwriters did a fantastic job weaving so many things together and even adding meaningful new touches (those who’ve read the book would’ve noticed). One movie I wanna catch next year would be Happily N’ever After. Looks quite exciting and Susan Sarandon plays another evil domineering character. That’s two animated "queen-types" for her in 2007, with Disney’s Enchanted to be released in Nov. 

No prizes for guessing what this post is about. Even though Christmas hasn’t happened yet (at the time of writing), I am happy to announce that, for the first time in my life, I’ve experienced Christmas on both sides of the globe… already! Before I got into New York, I made sure to visit the much talked about S$1.55 million tree at Bugis Junction, Singapore. It is a splendour, especially at night. The topmost star is made of 21,798 diamonds worth 900 carats. It took 3 months to make. I also was at the famous Raffles Hotel, Singapore which I had to take a picture of when I was there to perform for an event that the President was going to be at… in my Gingerbread Man costume. Heh.

By the way, the politically correct term is now Gingerbread Person. I saw them selling at Columbus Circle, New York. Pretty red and white tents were set up and were selling all kinds of lovely trinkets and handcrafted items. There was even a puppet tent. I also spent time in New Haven at a friend’s party. We exchanged gifts, sang Christmas Carols and played SET (which I just discovered). It’s a brainy game that the folks at MENSA play. How about that? Merry Christmas!!

I actually broke a personal record. 7 movies within 24 hours on the flight to New York! And mostly great movies. I started with ‘Singapore Dreaming’ not wanting to let go of Singapore just yet. Really great by local standards. ‘Barnyard’ was next. I liked it more than the other newly released animal type animated movies like ‘Open Season’ & ‘The Wild’. I expected Brandon Routh to be nothing but a pretty boy, but he surprised me with his subtle but extremely communicative acting in ‘Superman Returns’. I also liked how he captured a bit of Christopher Reeves in both Superman and Clark Kent but yet made them his own. I didn’t enjoy ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 2′ as much. Let’s say I expected more. It ended up a little too slapstick and the plot was disorganised.

Thank goodness ‘The Illisionist’ picked things up. It was quite brilliant in the same ironic way ‘Primal Fear’ was. You’ll have to watch both movies to understand why. ‘Monster House’ was a little too creepy for kids and the story opened up too many questions that it couldn’t answer which made things start to feel illogical. What a brilliant happy end to my flight that ‘My Super Ex-Girlfriend’ was set in New York. A trashy movie but it validated itself with a great story flow, witty script and sense of humor. And that also sets a record for reviewing a total of 7 movies in a row within an hour!

Ginger is such a funny word when you repeat it over and over again. And that’s what I’ve been doing for the past few weeks during the run of the Gingerbread Man. I’m having a ball doing this show playing a little excitable and bouncy British biscuit. I love my cast mates. Ironically, I’ve been ill for longer than a week and haven’t been able to meet up with as many friends as I would like before I fly back to New York. Eat, sleep, show. That’s my life.

Who knows what will happen back in the U.S. Am I ready for uncertainty again? It doesn’t matter I guess ‘cos it’s already starting to knock on my door. Here goes…