Xanadu 25th Anniversary

Such a brilliant Friday night! I had the crappiest week with work and then Steve and I attended the Xanadu 25th Anniversary celebration. It was so fun, and Kira truly delivered an evening that was like a dream...




Held at the beautiful Alex Theater in Glendale.





The audience was packed with friends of author Dennis Hensley (on right). Thank God, because they're all fun folk who know this movie as well as we do, so when the muse Top Knot comes on screen they scream, when the lezzie muses appear they hoot, and when Olivia peeks through her eyes it was like the world ended and had been reborn. Good times.



Here I am with my friend, Alonso. He has a new pop culture/film book coming out soon that I will be madly plugging in my blog. (Don't be dirty!)




Here is David Morton (director of Testosterone) and Bion Kirk, former owner of The Athletic Club in West Hollywood and now a wild cat trainer (or something like that).




Here is the line of our friends, watching from the balcony.



So picture the evening. They started with a costume contest, then a talk by one of the dancers who dished some great inside dirt. For example, in the "All Over The World" number, the person who opens the car door for Gene Kelly was a tranny. Fun! Does that mean Gene got into a Gender Bender?

Then the movie started and it was just magical, and like one of those crooks they warn you about before movies who say buying an illegal DVD is wrong, I snapped a couple photos of the screening. But if you're enjoying this blog, then I think you're just as guilty as me. Hah!

Now on the advertisements they mentioned dancers, but nothing materialized at the beginning of the film. As we all sat there thinking, "Dreams die!" the movie gets to the big "Dancin'" number with the '80s and '40s singers/dancers. Out comes about 20 different people onto the stage performing, and they were totally synched up with the movie.



It was like watching Rocky Horror but with actual talent (and I say that as someone who lost years of his life performing the role of Brad Majors). These people were ON and I just wish I had been able to get better photos. Steve's friend Jamie took some pics so maybe I'll have some more later, but for now here are pics of those guys. (In this pic, you can see the two groups coming together for a brilliant moment of ELO cinematic history.)




And the big finale. If anyone out there got the dancers in focus send me pics because I want to give these kids their props. ("Props", ya see, if hip youth lingo.)




Finally, here's Olivia singing "Suspended in Time". Tony, Dennis' roommate, dubbed Olivia "One-Take Newton-John" because this entire segment was completed in one take. No cuts. Honest. Would you doubt a big freak like me?

Anyway, it was one of the best times I've had in ages and I only wish we weren't so exhausted from the move and a hellish work week that we could have gone for drinks after. But no, and anyway, we spent the rest of the weekend prepping the house for our upcoming move and buying Ikea furniture. We couldn't paint yet, so that will come next weekend. But now we're really getting excited. I can't wait to make the house our own.

We have some pics of those adventures and will fill them in as this progresses. I need to get to work. --R