Theatre Trip: Legally Blonde

LEGALLY BLONDE

New Wimbledon Theatre
Date: 21st June (Thursday), 7:30pm
Seats: Upper Circle A 4-5

(With Jess!)

Understudies: Rebecca Stenhouse (Elle Woods), Alexandra Wright (Margot)

This week sees Legally Blonde in the New Wimbledon Theatre, and with Richard away in Iceland on a solo hiking trip, it's perfect timing for a girls night out! Jess and I met in Wimbledon after work, and pretty much headed straight to dinner (best burgers at Five Guys). Jess even stayed the night after the show, which was really cool. Haven't had a girls only sleepover in ages!

I have seen Legally Blonde before, just never live. There was an MTV broadcast of the original production which I've watched multiple times, but this show is definitely worth seeing live instead.

They had updated many of the references and lyrics to be not only more relevant, but less American. They also changed almost an entire song (Ireland), to be funnier given the relationship between England and Ireland. All the changes really worked and I found them great.

We had a few understudies for this show. Lucie Jones has been cast as Elle Woods (she represented Britain last year in Eurovision), but she was out. Instead, Rebecca Stenhouse played Elle Woods, and then Alexandra Wright played Margot, one of the main sorority sisters.

In terms of casting, some were really great. I think my favourites were Paulette (Rita Simons), along with Kyle the UPS guy. Paulette's voice was husky and rough, and so vibrant, she was absolutely show-stopping in her solo numbers. I was disappointed in Professor Callahan (Bill Ward) - I think he was the token 'famous' person in the cast, but he barely sang at all and didn't have the right 'sinister' vibe for my taste. Sad, because his song "Blood in the Water" is a great song. I also enjoyed the girl who played Enid (Nancy Hill), she was really fun to watch on stage. The guy who played Emmett (David Barrett) wasn't quite what I had hoped for in terms of looks, but he was great vocally.

Elle Woods (Rebecca Stenhouse, the understudy) was absolutely brilliant! She got every laugh line, sang beautifully and blasted the roof off when she needed to. A brilliant substitution for the part!

There was even a megamix on the end of the show, with most major number redone on stage, and they were so great. We got a lot of eye contact from Emmett because we were in the front row of the upper circle, and we were the only ones standing through the megamix. In fact, we danced and clapped our way through it, having a great old time!

West End Live 2018: Day One

Hi all (well, probably just my family)! This blog has changed it's name, and that's because we've moved! We no longer live in Lambeth, but moved to Wimbledon. We now have a much bigger 2 bedroom flat, with space for my sewing room, a bike storage room, a beautiful kitchen, and soon to be a kitten!!!

Today was my favourite free event in London - West End Live. Almost all the theatre shows on the West End put on shows for free on a massive stage in Trafalgar Square. It's madly popular and I've now been 3 times - 2008, 2017 and 2018!

We got in later than we intended (I went with my friends Jess and Michelle!), and actually missed the first show, which was Everybody's Talking About Jamie, but we didn't mind missing that one. We got to a decent spot in time for the second show. All in all, we stayed until about 2:30, and saw Aladdin, Motown the Musical, Wicked, Kinky Boots, Matilda, Bat Out of Hell, Phantom, Les Mis, Tina, Strictly Ballroom, Dreamgirls, Chicago, Mamma Mia, Little Shop of Horrors and Thriller Live.

I think my favourites were either shows I love, or shows I really want to see but haven't yet: Wicked and Matilda in particular for the former, and Strictly Ballroom, Chicago and Little Shop for the latter. I guess I now have my plans for the summer to line up and get cheap seats!!! The new Elphaba (Alice Fearn - it's changed since I saw it last) was absolutely brilliant, I adore Matilda. Strictly Ballroom I think I need to see because it's so Australian and their accents definitely were, but not in a good way. Chicago I've loved for years and it's never been on in a place where I live, and Little Shop I don't know much about, but it's on at the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre which is supposed to be a really cool and innovative venue. Oh, the plans!

It was such an exciting atmosphere - for ones with pop songs like Mamma Mia there's a bit of singing along and lots of dancing! There were some annoying tall people, but I guess they can't help that.

I'm headed back tomorrow, to catch Matilda (again) and Heathers which I'm really excited for... Carrie Hope Fletcher is in it!