


Dancers are a dime a dozen out there, even good ones.”ĭe Freitas got herself back in shape and moved on, wiser for what happened. I had a good connection with a choreographer and I went to New York for an audition, sure I would get the part. But, I’ve always loved working regardless.” “I’ve been in some cheap shows with so-so costumes. You watch her move across the stage in the big Razzle Dazzle number and her smile is bigger than anyone’s on that stage.ĭe Freitas admits her career hasn’t all been roses. De Freitas may be almost twice as old as others on stage, but she stands out. You dance with your whole being and it conjures spiritual aspects.” It’s disciplined but it’s also passionate. When you dance you release energy stored within. “I am a dancer first and last, even though I like to sing and act as well. A good role in “The Lion King” in Toronto followed. Dance was the one thing I thought I was good at.”Īt 18, De Freitas got a small role in “West Side Story” at Stratford. And Laxton was a mentor and friend who gave her the confidence to see it as more than just a hobby. I was encouraged to take dancing purely as a hobby, to help me stay out of trouble.”īut, De Freitas found dance lessons opened new worlds to her. “My parents were born in Trinidad and Tobago and I don’t think they even knew what musical theatre was. Then, too, when I was little, girls were supposed to be seen and not heard,” De Freitas remembers. I was always the baby taking someone’s hand. I was the youngest in my family and I just sort of tagged along. She pushed her pupils gently, always encouraging them to do their best. Laxton was something of a genius at bringing shy girls out of their shells. “When I got there, I knew I was home,” she laughs. It’s hard to believe she was shy growing up.īorn in Hamilton, De Freitas discovered dance when she was eight years old at Lois Laxton’s Dance Studio in Stoney Creek. Watching her in the musical’s second act, in the featured role of Go-to-Hell Kitty, is a scorcher. Watching Amanda De Freitas in the opening number of the red-hot musical “Chicago” at Stratford’s Festival Theatre is a revelation. Remember him this way.Whoever thought she could shimmy and shake like that? Finer live Glitter recordings than this do exist - his farewell concert from 1976, televised but never commercially released, is probably the best, if only for the incredible version of "You Belong to Me." But still, Remember Me This Way remains the perfect document of Gary Glitter's peak period, vividly capturing the extravaganza in all its glittering excitement, and preserving the frenzy of both his live show and his audience. Only the absence from the shelves of the accompanying live footage mars the moment - watching Glitter emote his way through "I Love You Love Me Love," for one, was akin to seeing Judy Garland sing "Over the Rainbow." You knew she'd done it a million times, but the tears still looked real. Glitter seemingly lived for the live performance, involving the audience in every gesture, every nuance, every bellowed "hey." The sense of excitement that builds around the opening "Leader of the Gang," before Glitter himself takes the stage, is still palpable, while the massed singalongs which erupt every time he opens his mouth testify to the sheer majesty of the event. The music is only part of the experience, however. The hit studio version of the movingly melancholic title track notwithstanding, Remember Me This Way was loaded down with hits - seven of the album's ten tracks were Top Five smashes the remainders were crowd-pleasing album tracks which might as well have been hits.
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Of course the movie spun off a soundtrack album, which in turn would become Glitter's finest record yet, an all but nonstop live recording from those same Rainbow shows. The kung-fu sequence alone is worth the price of admission. Filmed for a planned documentary on the Glitter phenomenon, the shows eventually became the dynamic backdrop and sweat-soaked climax of Remember Me This Way, a full-blown feature film in which a deliciously ludicrous plot allowed its hero to indulge in his wildest rock star fantasies. In November 1973, Gary Glitter played his biggest shows yet, a pair of gigs at the London Rainbow.
