The 2012 Summer Olympic Games kick off on Friday and first up on the agenda is the opening ceremony. It won’t be just any opening ceremony though, organizers insist it’s going to be the most British Britting Brit-Brit-Brit thing to hit London since Beatlemania. The opening performance is a pivotal moment that will define London’s tenure as hosts and they have a show planned to show the world their UK pride and knock the world’s knickers clean off.
The opening ceremony has traditionally been a bit over the top but the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games raised the level of sophistication to a whole new place. London refuses to be shown up and is pulling out all the stops. Enter visionary and mastermind Danny Boyle, whom we know as director of such films as Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, and Slumdog Millionare. Probably not the choice for show producer I would have expected, but hey it’s a good year for wacky decisions.
Lisa, I don’t think you should do that to Bart in public.
Only select details have been released but one feature Boyle and his team are hoping to incorporate into the show is “the big Saturday night out,” which I assume is a UK phenomenon because I spend my Saturdays watching Netflix in my jammies. Telegraph Sports reports that, “…a key device of the ceremony tells the story of two girls defying their parents to head out on the town, aided and abetted in meeting their friends by social media. Their journey takes them through nightclubs playing music from the great decades of British popular music, from the 60s to the Noughties”
“…And right here is the club where they lose their dignity.”
(-10 points for using the phrase “Noughties.”)
UK Labour Foreign Secretary David Miliband said after seeing a rehearsal of the show, “Danny Boyle is a genius, with a wicked sense of humour!” Those who have attended the rehearsals have given the show glowing reviews and the excitement is running at fever-pitch. The world should prepare for something “splendidly British,” “magnificently bonkers,” and “madcap.”
Hopefully not that madcap.
The goal is more end-scene of Slumdog Millionaire than bathroom-scene Trainspotting, and Boyle is busy coping with the enormity of a production with more than 10,000 participants. After the intense scrutiny and stern atmosphere of Beijing the concept of a “funny” opening ceremony sounds like a cool refreshing breeze on a hot day, and all the days, they are so hot. Bring it on, quirky British humor. I’m ready.
It will be absolutely fabulous.
Details of the show are being kept extremely hush-hush, so until Friday evening this is all mostly hearsay. During rehearsals screens throughout the Olympic Village even admonished excited viewers to #savethesurprise. Other than the details released specifically by organizers and a flurry of wild rumors most of what will welcome Olympians to the 2012 Summer Games should be an extremely unique surprise.
Do you think David Beckham will kick a flaming soccer ball into a giant replica of the Triwzard Cup? Will you be tuning in to kick off the games?
(They’re also promising a more snappy Parade of Nations, but I’ll believe that when I see it. EYEROLL.)
source, source, source, source
About Jamie Jamerson
