Looking forward - Olympic closing ceremony

The Olympic closing ceremony is tomorrow at 21.00 UK time (countdown starts at 19.30 on BBC1 for people in the UK) and I have to say I'm really excited to see it. I'm most looking forward to it all being a surprise this time as opposed to knowing exactly what was going on at the opening! I'll be looking out for all my fellow volunteers and friends still working on it. Don't forget to watch it and enjoy! :)

Dress circle closing :(

I've just heard the news that dress circle, the theatre shop is closing. It's really sad to hear this especially since they obviously have a lot of support from theatre fans and professionals from the industry which was shown at the high turnout to the gala they had last time they thought they would have to close. They will still be trading from their website which is now in the links at the side of this blog so please support them. When you buy from them you know you are getting a good quality product from the shows.

That's that over!

I hope you all enjoyed the opening ceremony of the Olympics, I have to say I's a lot better when you actually get to watch it! I'm very glad it's over, I haven't had the best time there and I'm very excited to go home for a few weeks. But I got to watch the end (after the parade) and took a few good photo's, some of which are below! I'm proud to have had a small part in it but am looking forward to watching the other ceremonies on the TV where I can just relax and enjoy the show without worrying whether I am doing something right or if I'm just getting in the way and hoping that everything goes to plan. My favourite part of the show was the industrial revolution. That was the first rehearsal I attended at the stadium and it was that point where everything seemed to fit together and make sense. I know there was a lot of sceptical people out there saying that the ceremony will be rubbish because it's just sheep and fields but I hope we proved them wrong and the world enjoyed it all!

Olympics

So... tomorrow is the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics! We had our last dress rehearsal yesterday and had some amazing comments from people so you should watch it. I know a lot of people are moaning about it but you shouldn't not watch it just to make a point! One day someone will ask me where I was and I can say I was there. So that's it! I will be relieved on Saturday when I have got through it (evil stage managers and all) and I can have a bit of a break.
So don't miss it!!

Yet again...

I haven't posted in a long time! I've been quite busy volunteering on the Olympics! Sounds exciting eh?  As a volunteer I have been given quite easy jobs which is okay but I love learning new things, however it's great being part of something so big that the world will see. We start dress rehearsals tomorrow and it will be my first day back for a couple of weeks as I've been ill. I'm sure it is all going to be a bit overwhelming seeing the whole thing put together at last! I'm quite excited for it now! However, at the moment I am sitting and home with a cup of tea trying to get my energy back for a very busy week and wondering if I handed all the paperwork I was supposed to for my assessments (oh well, it's too late now anyway!)

In June I did my first sound role on a show! It was actually two shows in rep, 'Promises Promises' and 'The Pajama Game' at the Royal Academy of Music. I really enjoyed it and learnt so much! I was allowed the day off for my birthday and I went to see West End Live at Trafalgar Square with my family. It was a good day out even though it got a bit rainy towards the end and I got to see all my favourite shows perform and also saw a few others that I haven't yet seen which I now want to!

One show I have been to see is the Mountview postgraduate musical theatre students 'The Match Girls' at the Bernie Grant Arts Centre in Seven Sisters. I really enjoyed it although the songs were a bit samey, but there were some funny bits to lighten the mood of what would otherwise be a very serious story. It finishes tomorrow (Saturday 21st) with a performance tonight at 7.30pm and one tomorrow matinee at 3pm so go and see it!

The Woman in Black

I went to see the Woman in Black at the Fortune theatre London yesterday. I have to say I didn't want to see it because it's jumpy and I don't like jumpy things. However I didn't think it was that scary although two people left o be honest I thought the begining was really boring and I really needed to cough but as it was quiet I couldn't (i've actually got a chest infection at the moment :/ ) It started to get good when the woman first came out and walked up the isle. I don't really have much more to say about it. It was an okay show but not really my cup of tea and the best bits were when the little boy infront of me fell off his chair and when someone from my group whispered over to another group (who were quite excitable) that 'It's not a pantomime!'
xx

Ghost the Musical

On Wednesday we went to see Ghost at the Piccadilly theatre! I thought it would be a good opportunity to use my theatre tokens but to cut a long story short the £10 and £5 didn't work :( Anyway.... we got £25 tickets which was really good and we were sitting second row from the back in the stalls. We had 4 hours to kill so we went to Ripley's Believe it or Not which was really cool, especially the mirror maze (it took us a very long time to get out of there!) Back at the theatre we sat in our seats and were a bit worried we wouldn't be able to see because the tabs have Sam and Molly's face on them (the two main characters) and we could only see up to their noses because the bottom of the dress circle was in the way but when the show started it was actually fine. My view of the show was that some of it was really good but other bits were not good. The technical aspects of the show were amazing but the AV was quite distracting and at times I found myself watching that and not the actors. When people died it was very clever but I'll say no more because I don't want to ruin it. Sharon D Clarke was the star for me, every scene with her was so funny! In my opinion some of the songs were a bit random and if I had listened to them and not know they were from Ghost I would have thought they were from different musicals.
Because we were right at the back we were sitting next to the head of sound so we were talking to him and he is going to send us the sound spec for our essays. So obviously I'm doing my essay on Ghost now (which means I was writing notes all the way through The Wizard of Oz for nothing, but oh well!)
xx

The 39 Steps

I went to see The 39 Steps on 27th October at the Criterion Theatre. First of all, I just want to say how nice the theatre is! It's quite small so our seats in the front row of the circle were quite close to the stage and we had a really good view. There was lots of room and the seats were more comfy than usual theatre seats (they did make farting noises everytime you moved though, which caused a lot of giggles between me and my mum!) The 39 Steps was awesome! It was so funny I don't think I stopped laughing all the way through and the actors were all really talented! It's kind of a spy story with hundreds of characters played by only 4 people, but I won't tell you anymore because everytime I try to explain it I make it sound rubbish (which it's not!) It's a very basic set, infact it's just black walls with a few props thrown in every now and then but it really works! I especially liked where they used ladders as the bridge for example.

I got to see Dianne Pilkington at the stage door and she was so lovely and signed my programme! It was also great to meet some of the girls from Dianne's forum who were at the stage door too! It was such a fantastic evening! So yeah, go see it because it's great!!!! xx

p.s. Just thought i'd mention that my sister went to see Oliver! the night I went to see The 39 Steps and she really enjoyed it and hasn't stopped talking about it. She also said Kerry Ellis was a fantastic Nancy (which made my day!)

Lion King Broadway/West End

This was my first ever show on Broadway and I'm probably being biased but I think the West End is much more friendly. My first impression of Broadway was having my bag checked by security to make sure I was not 'smuggling' and food or dring into the theatre. I know you're not supposed to even in the West End but they just go with it. I also found out the hard way that you are not allowed to take photos before the performance when an usher threatened to take my camera off me! I wasn't even thaking photo's of the set or anything, just me and my friends! Anyway, now rant is over i will get on with the review...
The Circle Of Life is always amazing with the animals on stage especially the elephant! The Morning Report always annoys me and I don't know why, it's just one of those songs! The boy who played young Simba was a better actor than the one I saw in the West End (but this may be because he had an American accent like Simba in the film which i'm used to watching). The children in it always seem to be amazingly talented which showed in I Just Can't Wait To Be king. I love Chow Down just because I think Shenzi is always hilarious! I couldn't decide which Shenzi was better (US or UK) because they were both quite different although at first I thought UK. both my friends were trying so hard not to sing along with Hakuna Matata which was rther amusing! I always forget about Shadow Land which is really bad because I love that song! I also love Endless Night and He Lives In You (which was in my head all day before the show and all of the day after the show!) and Simba was better than in the UK although it was weird at first because in the UK he had an African accent and this time he had an American accent. In King Of Pride Rock/The Circle Of Life Reprise I was sad because I knew it was nearly finished! All the people I was with really enjoyed the show although only a few of us stood up at the end so I looked like a right plonker XD

Wicked!

Wicked is my favourite show ever and I love it to bits so it might get talked about a bit too much here so sorry in advance XD
Wicked is the story of Oz before Dorothy gets there and follows two girls, the popular Galinda, who will later become Glinda the good, and the green Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West.
It's on all around the world including, London, New York, an American tour and Australia.
The London cast change is coming up and it's just been announced that Louise Dearman (http://www.castaway.org.uk/clients/singers/lode.htm << listen here) will be our new Glinda and Rachel Tucker from I'd do anything will be thaking over Elphaba. It will be nice to see some new faces but that means we have to say goodbye to the old cast including Dianne Pilkington (Glinda) and Alexia Khadime (Elphaba). I don't know if it will be the same without them (of course it won't be the same!) but we will just have to wait and see the new cast! I will keep up to date with new cast announcements as we know lots of the current cast are leaving and also what the old cast get up to when they have left.

Thats all for now
Bye bye xx