Curtin Up

Curtin Up is my favourite show to sing out of all of them. It’s the one that sits the best in my range and really shows off my voice. We got some photos backstage after the show of some of our costumes. The premise of the show is similar that of another one I did on the PP ‘Words & Music’. It takes you through various broadway musicals but staged in such a way that we stay on stage for the entire show and do our costume changes on stage. The base of our costume is a leotard to which we add or take off items.

The very purple photos are all of us back stage before the show begins in our opening costumes. The feathery costume is for our Gershwin section, then there’s my Evita costume and my Oklahoma finale costume. In the show there is also a huge Cabaret section, & Phantom section.

Now as for the compromising photo of Erin… there is a funny story to that one! We were just about to go onstage for our very first performance of Curtin Up…. And when I say just about to … the stage manager had called places when the crutch to Erin’s leotard popped open. Tara straight away put her 4 years of textiles at school into action and had to literally sow the crutch to Erin’s costume up then and there while it was still on her before we could go on stage and begin. We went on five minutes late and you can only imagine the hysterics we were in backstage during that time. It was hilarious.

Next is the boys doing their Monkees number…. I love their facial expressions.

My lovely orange wig and costume and is me performing ‘Come Together’…. Some of you may remember photos of when I did this show on the Pacific Princess I had a hideous pink wig and pink costume.

Then where into our Beatles section and my red bob. Nearly all of the costume changes for me in this show are really fast and as the show goes on they get even faster!! The purple dress is when Dave & I sing ‘Aint No Mountain’ I then have a super super fast change into my Tina Turner ‘Proud Mary’ dress & wig… don’t I look pretty? NOT!

Dave & I do all the Elvis section (couldn't fit that photo in) before we finally arrive at the finale.

So that’s kind of that show in a nut shell. Jimmy didn’t get any photos of the opener or the finale, however they are really busy numbers on stage so hard to capture.

Shake Rattle & Roll

Erin met her boyfriend Jimmy on her previous contract on the Pacific Sun. Jimmy is one of the photogs on board and is a great guy. Last cruise he came and took some photos of Shake Rattle & Roll. I picked out some of the pics.

There’s John who is our male singer/dancer for this show and Country Roads in a leopard suit & a guitar singing Johnny Be Good and Brett with a guitar in the same number.

Then you’ll see John playing Austin Powers and singing Pretty Woman…. Don’t you love some of the girls costumes.

Then of course there’s Dave & I playing Sonny & Cher (check out my platforms)....

cont. next post

Hi Everyone!

Sorry it’s taken me so long to update my blog. As you know I was having trouble uploading photos and then on top of that I lost my last post ten days ago in San Juan and haven’t been on line with my laptop to try again since.

Today I am in Acapulco. It is Monday, November 27th and marks the end of our third cruise on board. I’m going to upload a heap of photo’s for you all today so that will hopefully make up for all the trouble I’ve been having with it. Check out my previous posts too as I plan to get the photo’s I attempted to get up before uploaded.

Our second cruise ended us back to where we begun in San Juan. The previous cast disembarked this day with the exception of their dance captain Alex. She stayed on one more cruise to assist us in getting Cest Magnifique blocked on stage and into costumes… we wont however be performing that show til our longer cruises in January. Anyway with the departure of the previous cast it meant we could all finally move into our proper cabins. As soon as I moved in I had my photo’s of Chris plastered all over my walls!

Lelani is the guest entertainer I have taken over from. There is a picture of myself and Dave with Lelani and Ricardo (male guest ent) in the Pizzeria. Lelani is 45 yrs old. Can you believe that? She looks so fantastic to still be doing this at that age with a bunch of 20 something year olds. She was just great for me during hand over. Very very helpful!!

Very sadly we had an injury in our cast at the beginning of our second cruise (did I tell you that already?). We were performing the finale of Pianoman and Jill (in the green top pictured with me) broke two bones in her foot coming down hard on the stage in a lift with one of the boys. She was medically disembarked a few days later in Costa Rica. Thankfully the previous cast were still on board and Aussie girl Jayne from Cairns offered to stay on for 2 more months which should hopefully see us through til Jill comes back.

Ship life has been good. This cruise we had a black and white disco in the crew bar where we all had to were black and white (there’s a picture of Erin & I that night). Erin is the baby of our cast. She is 19 and from Queensland and a brilliant dancer. Her energy of stage is amazing.

Now we are in our cabins we are settling in more and now that hand over is finished we can now enjoy the ports. Today we were in Huatulco, Mexico. We had a fun beach day. I took the photo of the ship whilst lying on my beach towel (stop your moaning I can just hear you all now!).

Last night we went and saw one of the other Guest Ent’s on board perform his show. His name is Johnny Thunder… does the name ring any bells with any of you? The picture of him with Hayley, Dave & I was after his show. He used to be in the band ‘The Drifters’. A lovely lovely man. Can you believe his is 75 yrs old!!!!!

Acapulco & Country Roads

Fingers crossed the photos have worked this time!!

Our premier of Piano Man went well. The first show we did that night went well and by the second show I was really enjoying it. More rehearsing and two days later our first cruise finishes in Acapulco and for the first time in 10 days we all get to set foot on land when we have the day off in Acapulco, Mexico. First stop is Walmart to stock up on supplies such as washing detergent, hairspray and various odds and ends. Everything is quite cheap here. I bought a bottle of Baileys for $12 (US Dollars)… that’s like $16 (Aussie Dollars) half the price we would normally pay. Dave bought a six pack of Corona (beer) for $1.70 (US)… how cheap is that!!!

After Walmart Deb, Dave, Nate, Tara and Myself went to a place called Tacos & Beer, an outdoor venue overlooking the harbour. The food was great and they make the best and biggest Pina Colada’s and Margarita’s. We then found a Woolworths… not as we know it.. before Dave, Deb and I headed off to Starbucks. At Starbucks there is free wireless which is GREAT!!!! I sat and talked to Chris on Skype for ages. For those of you who don’t know what Skype is, it’s a program that with the use of my inbuilt webcam on my laptop and on Chris’ we can sit and look at each other and talk to each other. It’s great!

A day off on land made us all feel refreshed and ready to take on another cruise of performing and rehearsing. This cruise the old cast are only performing the Welcome Aboard routine. We opened the cruise with Piano Man and sadly in the finale of our second show that night Jill came down hard from a lift with Nate and broke two bones in her foot. She is being disembarked today to go home for a couple of months to recover. We are all upset about it, we are a good team together and are sad we are losing Jill. Thankfully an Aussie girl from the old cast as offered to stay on board til the end of January to fill in. Hopefully Jill will be better to come back on board by then.

Last night we performed Country Roads again. The photo with me in the black cowboy hat and boots it’s my opening number outfit. The black top hat photo is my Shania Twain “Man I feel Like a Woman” outfit… I call it my undertaker outfit.

Do you like the photo of my monkey? My cabin steward did it for me, it’s made out of a towel.

Tomorrow night we perform Shake Rattle and Roll for the first time. We have been rehearsing that for the last few days. Today we are starting to rehearse on stage Curtin Up (my favourite)!!

Less than 8 weeks till Chris comes on board!!!!!!!!

Lots of love to everyone!

Jess xx

Country Roads

Two nights ago we performed our first show! It was so good and such a relief to get that out of the way! The second show we did that night we all felt so relaxed on stage it was great as we could just perform and enjoy it.

In Country Roads there are lots of cowboy boots and hats. I’m having trouble putting photos up on my blog at the moment from on board so will solve that one when I can (sorry).

For the last two days we have been flat out rehearsing our second show Piano Man. We perform that tonight. It’s a big show. There are no wigs for me or many costume changes but there are lots of songs and lots of choreography to remember. I will be much happier when tonight is over and with any luck I can hopefully be happy with my performance. I have a real love hate relationship with this show.

Today we are in Guatemala. Again we have not been able to get off due to rehearsal but will have time off from rehearsals soon to set foot on land again. I’m looking forward to exploring the ports when once we have all the shows under our belts.

Not much else to report just yet. Less that nine weeks til Chris comes onboard!!!

Lots of love
J x