Heaven is a place on Earth

Whadd'ya gonna do? I had a fun day yesterday that took in trips to heaven on Earth, and a New Jersey strip joint. Maybe they are the same place?


Let me start with the Garden State, the place where New York City dumps its rubbish, the home of the Statue of Liberty, Francis Albert Sinatra, Broooce and Tony, Carmela, Silvio, Chrissi and Paulie Walnuts! Yes, as you might have guessed, I went on The Sopranos tour!

At the start, on boarding our coach in midtown Manhattan, we were told that we could meet someone from the series just 2 cars back down the street...

Sure enough there was Vito Spatafore (actor Joe Gannascoli) selling autographed photos and t-shirts out of the trunk of his car - it was cool to see him and kind of appropriate that he was flogging dodgy looking gear.

The tour proper lasted 4 hours, driving around industrial north New Jersey, checking out some of the locations featured the series. The guide, who had been an extra/stand-in in 13 episodes, was very good and kept everyone entertained with filming anecdotes and Sopranos trivia. Did you know that over the 6 seasons of the show that 66 people and 6 animals had been whacked?!



After visiting Holsten's, the diner in which the last scene of the last episode was shot, we stopped at the legendary Gentlemen's club the 'Bada Bing' ('Satin Dolls' in real life) to sit at the bar, have a beer and appreciate the skills of a couple of the pole dancers. Sadly, unlike in the series, a State law means that the girls aren't allowed to perform topless in an establishment that sells alcohol! Boo!


So from an afternoon in the swamps of New Jersey to a night of heaven on Earth - XANADU on Broadway! Xanadu, starring Olivia Newton John and an aging Gene Kelly is of course considered to be one of the worst films of all time. ONJ plays a Greek muse who comes down from Mount Olympus to help a young LA dude achieve his ultimate artistic dream by setting up a roller disco and calling it Xanadu! A classy 80's concept. The film quite rightly tanked, but it had a saving grace - a great soundtrack featuring ONJ, ELO and The Tubes.

Xanadu has now been magically reborn as a comedy musical. It plays up the ridiculousness and camp cheesiness of the original fim, adding a couple more ELO songs (Evil Woman and Strange Magic), more glitter balls and legwarmers! The result is great fun, and for a brief few minutes at the end, the audience realises that heaven could really be a roller disco.

Roller Skating Child

Whilst in New York I took a look to see if there was anything worth catching on (or off) Broadway. To my pleasant surprise I saw an advert for a stage musical version of Xanadu! Yes, that awful ONJ roller disco movie... whose only saving grace was its brilliant soundtrack. This deliberately cheesy and funny revamp has been getting rave reviews. If I'd had more time I would have tried to get a ticket. Hey, wait a minute didn't I suggest back in December 2005 that Xanadu should be turned into a stage musical? Yes I did!


Another show that sounds like it'll be worth seeing is Mel Brooks' musical version of his classic movie Young Frankenstein! It's currently previewing. Something to remember to look out for the next time I'm in the Big Apple. "It's Alive... It's Alive!"

"Now we are here, in..."

Guilty Pleasures #2

Xanandu - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

"A place, where nobody dared to go"!

Forget the dodgy movie, I really love this collection of songs. The first five tracks written by John Farrar, feature Olivia Newton John with Cliff Richard, Gene Kelly and The Tubes chipping in, and the second five, written by Jeff Lynne, are performed by the Electric Light Orchestra, Olivia hitting the high notes on the title track.

When it came out in 1980 I was a big ELO fan so I was naturally drawn to it. However, I didn't buy it at the time due to my dislike of the sugar sweet pairing of ONJ and Cliff. Earlier this year I finally succumbed to temptation and bought the damn thing. Wow! What a feel good album! There were at least six singles taken off it surrounding the film's release and that's an indication of how good it is. I'm thinking that now perhaps the time is right for Xanadu to be resurrected as a West End musical. I'm sure that the mixture of Big Band and Rock music, dancing and 80's cheese factor would make it a smash hit - "All Over The World" (groan).