Happy (belated) New Year!

We have so much almost-announce-able news that I’ve been holding off blogging til I can share it all. But time waits for no blog, so I’ll write a little update now and a bigger one later!

Firstly, we welcomed the BBC into our rehearsals last week for BBC World’s Fast Track special on the lead up to Mardi Gras! We sang a few of our new songs and I chatted to the interviewer about blackcat lounge and my views on last year’s Mardi Gras name change.

We are super excited about our Mardi Gras season with Maxine Kauter Band AND Brendan Maclean both launching new work! We love these kids (as I’m sure you know), so book tickets to their shows asap, before the VERY exciting billboard with our faces on it goes up at The Factory. No one will be able to resist our sexy gay faces, so get to it!

Soon, you’ll be hearing all about blackcat productions’ participation in Marrickville Council’s Open Marrickville Festival, which we were thrilled to receive a grant for. We’ve got exciting cabaret plans in the pipeline, so stay tuned!

Oh, and sales for our Lady Sings it Better Adelaide season are coming along nicely. Book for it, ok?

If you need any incentive, check out our new youtube montage, complete with Edinburgh footage…

oh hello there

We’re back! We’re all back (well, except Chandra who is roaming about Europe til January and still hasn’t sent us postcards). The hot pink has faded from our cheeks, our cobblestone injuries have healed, we’ve all stopped getting an eye twitch when we hear the word ‘flyer’ and none of us have worn a tutu in weeks!

So what’s up next for blackcat productions and Lady Sings it Better?

We’re jumping back in the cabaret saddle with a short set at Twenty10‘s thirtieth birthday shindig this Saturday night. Twenty10 is a wonderful organisation, supporting LGBTQI youth and their families and we’re thrilled to be involved. The Sydney Gay & Lesbian Choir will also be performing and we can’t wait to catch up with them. Speaking of which, here we are singing Whitney Houston with them (I know, I know, she isn’t a man, but we decided to branch out because this is one of the Best Songs Ever):

After Twenty10, Lady will be in rehearsal lock down to ensure we have a fabulous new show for you in time for Sydney Mardi Gras and Adelaide Fringe 2013! Stay tuned for dates and details… You’ll also meet our shiny new MD in the new year (if you are interested in auditioning to be Lady Sings it Better’s Musical Director, please get in touch).

blackcat are also looking to expand our portfolio of acts and events. We’ll be hunting young and emerging cabaret stars in Adelaide (hunting them in a nice way, not a stalky way; I save my stalking for large-bottomed lesbian comedians). We’re also planning a bunch of fabulousness for Sydney Fringe 2013 and we’re hoping to start a monthly cabaret night in the second half of the year.

So, not too much on… Ha.

What’ve you been up to?

x Maeve

Lady Sings it Better Farewell Gig SOLD OUT

Two weeks out and both of our farewell gigs are completely sold out! If you missed out, you can hang around the door hoping someone doesn’t show up, but we won’t be releasing any more tickets!

We’re so appreciative of the wonderful support of our community and are thrilled that The Factory Floor will be packed to send us off in style.

The show’s general admission and doors open at 7.30pm with the amazing Maxine Kauter Band performing first and Lady Sings it Better hitting the stage around 9pm for a 1 hour jampacked preview of the show we’ll be taking to Edinburgh Fringe!

We’ll also be raffling some great prizes (wine, massage vouchers, chocolates, meal vouchers etc) to help fundraise final tour costs, so bring spare change…

Finally, please remember to tell any friends you have in the UK about our Edinburgh season. Details here.

See you then!

xxx the blackcat team

So busy we forgot to blog… On the road to Edinburgh #2

Wow, what a big 6 weeks we have ahead of us! Not long now before we set off. The Ladies behind the scenes (Phoebe and our amazing production assistants, Karly and Erin) have been busy booking accommodation, paying all our bills, booking epic bus trips (trains are for schmucks! schmucks who can afford them…), hiring microphones, weighing boxes of CDs to work out excess baggage, purchasing a drum kit (hoping we can sell it afterwards!), and debating the merits of various badge sizes so the Edinburgh streets can be filled with people proudly sporting Lady Sings it Better badges on their happy little chests! It’s a glamourous life we lead…

We’ve got some really exciting gigs coming up. First up, we can’t wait to sing with the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir on June 30 at their SGLC Pops Out! concert. Apart from the obvious draw card, namely Sydney’s 21 yr old stalwart of the GLBTQI community, the choir itself, here are a few more reasons to come:

• Maeve’s mum, Louise, is in the choir. Two Marsdens: one stage. Bring it!
• For those of you who have been listening to our rendition of You Shook Me All Night Long for the past 3 years, you must come see our seriously pimped version, completely with choral chorus amazingness.
• We get to sing a song by a woman! It’s a song from the choir’s repertoire and, let’s just say, it’s fabulous *cough* Whitney *cough cough*
• It’s Jenni and Monique’s Lady debut! Fabulous!

Book tickets to SGLC Pops Out! here.

In mid-July, we’re road trippin’ to Mittagong to sing at a conference. You can’t come as it’s a private party, but we just love that we’re considered appropriate for government conferences. The public sector is all grown up and sexy now!

Finally, if you’ve even glanced at our facebook page in recent weeks, you know our exciting farewell gig sold out its Friday 20th July show in a mere 5 days. We were so excited we scheduled a Thursday gig as well; it’s about 40% sold, but you can still book tickets here, on the Factory website.

Last but not least, we ain’t to proud to beg! We could really do with a little cash injection as the end of financial year approaches… As we’ve mentioned before we are currently eligible for TAX DEDUCTIBLE donations. A small (or not-so-small) donation via ABaF’s Australian Cultural Fund will make a huge difference to our fundraising and help send us on our way. You can read more about the process here, or simply head to our ABaF profile and donate!

Thank you SO MUCH to those who have donated so far. We can’t tell you how much we appreciate the support we get from our friends and fans.

So that’s the latest from blackcat HQ… What’s been happening with you?

xxx

Lady at The Factory Floor: second show on sale!

Well, the masses have spoken and tickets have flown out the door for our farewell gig at The Factory Floor in July…so we put a second night on sale!

You can now buy tickets to see our Edinburgh Fringe show, supported by the excellent Maxine Kauter Band, on either Thursday July 19 OR Thursday July 20 (25 tickets left!)

BOOK TICKETS HERE

Don’t forget to RSVP on facebook and invite all your friends.

See you there! xxx