Alice Cooper
Sporting Club
Monte Carlo, Monaco
August 1, 2005

Special disclaimers for any Alice Cooper fans – please read the following...

I have a reputation in the Cheap Trick fan community for my VERY long (and as of late, tardy) reviews. This write up will also include verbiage about Mundial du Theatre (an international community theatre fest) soooooo… if you just wanna read about the show, by all means click here.

Please also be warned that there are spoilers a plenty.

And finally, please understand that I’m by no means an AC expert, so if some of my observations/comments seem obvious or trite, I’m sorry. Prior to the Monaco show, I was only familiar with the most famous of his songs. I was just so taken with the performance that I felt inspired to write down my thoughts.

So there. Here’s another chance to skip to the show… ;)

There are many days when I can’t stand the fact that we live in Midland, TX. However, while it may not be the first place we’d pick to reside, there have been many benefits to living way out in West Tejas (and the theatre where Tim works); chief among them are the trips we’ve taken over the years to cities around the US, Guyana, Ireland, the UK... and this year – Monaco!

This will sound like BS, but I swear we were there on business! ;) Mondial du Theatre is an international community theatre fest that’s taken place there every 4 years since the late 50’s: sorta like Olympics for theatre people... This was our chance to network to promote a fest Midland Community Theatre will host in July 2006.

Otherwise, there’s NO WAY we could have afforded to visit the adopted home of Princess Grace (and other places in Côte d’Azur). Just a glimpse at the yachts in the harbors that dot the French Riviera are enough to make your head spin. What the hell is it like to be that rich?!

As we flew in to the Nice Airport, I dislocated my jaw. The water (like the background color of this page) really IS that impossibly blue!

We had enough time to see some sights around the French Riviera. Antibes and the old town section of Nice were my faves... Don't get me started or this review will take 2 days to read... ;)

The festival itself is quite the event. Two weeks of workshops, meetings and performances in venues around the lovely principality. Tim was an official US delegate for the congress and the opening ceremony was fascinating. Think UN for theatre people: translators had to be on hand for a dozen languages - all of which were piped into headsets.

On performance nights, we saw 3 one-hour performances by groups from places like Iceland, South Africa, Finland, Sweden, Japan, Belgium, Slovenia, Russia, Italy, Mexico, Tunisia – and many others… It was really fascinating. Slovakia’s show, Malka, was my favorite – absolutely brilliant theatre.

ANYWAY (see – I can babble about more things than just CT) on August 1 was the "Red and White Friendship Ball" - a ritzy dinner for which we were encouraged to wear – you guessed it – red and white.

And, oh, yeah – the tickets cost a LOT! (80 Euros - with our delegate discount – I think it was 120 otherwise...) We weren't sure if it would be worth it, but we’d heard a rumor that Prince Albert and Alice Cooper would be on hand, so we knew we had to go.  (FWIW: Albert’s mom and dad are famous for their support of the arts and had been a part of festivals in the past, so we knew a royal presence was a definite possibility.)

There was a theatre performance before dinner and indeed, the Prince was in attendance!!!! The secret service types I spied in the lobby were a big tip off. ;)

We decided to sit in the last row of the 1500 seat auditorium, next to one of the doors.  Not too long after finding our seats, Tim saw Prince Albert step into the doorway. We leapt to our feet – seemingly the only two who knew he was in the room at that point. As he made his way down to his reserved seat, he looked over at us and waved and smiled.
 
After the show, he made his way towards the same door, so we stayed put, "letting" him go first. (We weren’t sure if this is what one is supposed to do for royalty, but it seemed the proper thing to do.)

My moved quickly up the aisle, flanked by at least 4 guards, to our shock though, he stopped at our row to say, "I hear English being spoken over here!" and proceeded to chat with us for a few moments first asking where we were from, etc. Greg (a fellow Midlander) was closest to the Prince and he just stood there like a deer caught in the headlights. Bwahahaha! Finally I said (a bit too loudly, I’m afraid LOL) "TEXAS!"

Perhaps I could’ve been a bit more uncouth if I’d followed up with tip of my cowboy hat, fired of a round from my 6 shooter while yelling "YEE HAW!". :P

Anyway, one of our group told him hi from University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He jokingly commented that he went to Amherst (not that branch of U of MA) and they never spoke to the students on that campus.  Bwaha!
 
He shook our hands and was gone, leaving us completely dorked out. This was SO COOL!! I’ve never met royalty before! (Well, I’ve met rock royalty before, but you know what I mean….) Who knew as we planned this trip that we’d get to shake hands with a member of the oldest royal blood line still in power?!

 Still buzzing from that bit of excitement, we headed to dinner at the Sporting Club. The whole thing was very posh - several courses, plus wines and champagne: one of those oh-my-god-what-the-hell-fork-am-I-supposed-to-use-for-this type meals. There was a fairly decent sized stage with a large dance floor, flanked by table seating – including a back section which was up a few steps. The audience was covered by a retractable ceiling, which was opened for us when it wasn’t raining. DOH!

The US delegation had a pretty good table – just one behind the front row, house left. Our waiter spoke excellent English and had us laughing our asses off on more than one occasion.

There was a little combo playing while we ate. They were good and all – just a little muzak-y. When they finished the curtains closed and when they re-opened an extension of the stage rolled out, revealing the full AC set up.

However, at this point, I was still convinced that we’d only hear a couple songs. Surely the man wasn’t gonna do a concert just for us?! Yeah – it cost a lot but why wouldn’t our tickets say something about a show?!

THE SHOW

The set is pretty basic – with two side entrances, plus the drum kit up on a platform. Down the stage right side of that platform are some steps. Of course this is where The Coop would make his entrance – to the strains of the Phantom of the Opera theme. Bwahaha! Just right for the theatre types in the house.

Unless you hate the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical. Like me. ;)

Anyway – although I’d rather hear Sondheim, a riff from Sunday in the Park with George or A Little Night Music wouldn’t be right for Alice. LOL (Oooo – brainstorm! What about the screeching whistle and an organ riff from Sweeny Todd?! :D )

Props are scattered about the stage – various body parts, a coffin, the guillotine draped in black cloth (the golden angel is a give-away), a trash can with a blonde mannequin, a crutch… Upstage is a huge backdrop with the famous AC eyes. Various moving lights are used to great effect on that scrim, helping to set the mood, depending on the song. Simple yet very effective.

So anyway, here he comes, in all his glory, launching into a kick ass show.

SET LIST (thank you sickthingsuk.co.uk ! )

MISC. MUSINGS

The whole concert was quite surreal. Many of the older guests at the dinner were not prepared for a concert - and certainly not for one as loud and wild as Alice’s. The best description I’ve found is that it was like being in an 80’s rock video (oops – I’m showing my age…) with the snooty, disapproving (and generally older) types looking pissed while the kids all just wanted to rock. Bwahahahaha!

Given the make up of the crowd, it is also entirely possible that some of these folks had never heard of AC.

The audience was divided into three camps:

GROUP ONE – loved the show and went wild, throwing roses from the center piece and just freaking out in general (that would be the group Tim and I were in).

GROUP TWO – mildly amused and/or simply enduring the show – they were bewildered by the whole thing. The event had not been billed as a dinner/rock show.

GROUP THREE – PISSED OFF. Gawd they hated the show. Afterwards, we saw several of them complaining loud and long to the event’s coordinators. Made me wish I spoke French. ;)

More than once, I didn’t know which to laugh at more: Alice’s onstage antics or the shocked and horrified faces of the disapproving ones in the crowd.

The only down side was the stick in the mud who made Tim sit down.  Like that asshole cared about seeing the show. *sigh*

At one point, I could see the lead actor from the Finland production standing by the stage, with a huge, awestruck grin plastered on his face. And then there were the kids from Japan.

We’d seen their show a few nights ago and they’d utilized several hard rock songs to underscore fight scenes so I just *knew* they’d love the show. It didn’t take long before they were all pressed up as close to the stage as they could get.

By the end of the show, roses from the center pieces were strewn all over the stage - they mixed well with the confetti and stage blood. ;)

Now, as mentioned earlier, I must come clean and confess that before Monaco I didn’t own an Alice Cooper album.

However none of this matters if you like rock-n-roll and if you enjoy watching a great performance by someone who so clearly enjoys what he does. That, my friends, is Alice Cooper.

Now forgive me if I sound like I’m giving an Acting 101 lecture, but if you want to see a performer who knows how to keep it fresh, you gots to see AC. As an actor, I can tell when someone on stage is just going through the motions. A "paycheck show" is what we call it in the theatre world. (I’m looking at you Gene Simons!) Although everything is very "staged" Alice is so good at making it look like he’s doing it for the first time.

The same can be said for his daughter Calico. I loved watching her – she’s really engaging. Love the facial expressions and I love the fact that she looks like she could kick your ass. LOL! What a stage presence!

And oh yeah – how bout that band!??!?

Chuck Garric - bass
Damon Johnson - guitar
Ryan Roxie - guitar
Eric Singer - drums

As I've said elsewhere, Chuck was my favorite. ;) However, they all sounded so great – they looked like they were having a blast, too. It was a pleasure to hear and watch them all tear the roof off the place.

POST SHOW RAMBLINGS

In another bit of surreal-ness, we were served champagne and dessert afterwards. This time provided a chance to finallly meet the group from Japan, They were all very sweet - after a gift exchange (we had a zillion Texas pins and they had a zillion cell phone leashes) there was the obligatory photo op. The kimono-clad young lady and I made quite a pair: blood spatters across my shirt matched the red in her garment quite nicely. LOL

Walking back to the fest after party was hilarious, too. My shirt got more than one perplexed look from passers by.

What a trip... Wouldn't trade any of it for the world.... Well, OK there were some shows at the fest I could've done without... ;) Nevertheless, we got back to the states safe 'n sound and I was looking forward to the CT/AC tour more than ever.

Thanks for reading.

Peace,
Lisa J.

© Lisa Jebsen, 2005

*Lisa’s Album Rule – if you’re old enough to have owned an album while they were still be mass produced you’re allowed to call CD’s albums.