Theatre Trip: Tim Minchin - Back Again Tour

Eventim Apollo

Date: 9 November (Tuesday), 7:30pm
Seats: Block 7, Row E 66-67 

(Seen with Richard!)

Even though it was a Tuesday night and we were already quiet tired (and with Richard due to fly to Spain early the next morning as well), but we had even more tickets booked! Tonight was a very exciting one, as we had been waiting a while for it. We had tickets to see Tim Minchin. Now he is probably best known for being the composer of both the Matilda and Groundhog Day musicals, but he has been a musical comedian for more than 15 years! He is an Aussie with a fab strong accent and a really irreverent and smart style.

We headed over to Hammersmith for this concert, to a new-to-us venue, the Eventim Apollo. It's very big but we were happy with our upstairs seats and a decent view. It did start a little late, I think they had people still coming in for a while after 7.30 so we didn't start until almost 7.50! This tour is just called Back (Again), but has the fun subline 'Old Songs, New Songs, F**k You Songs', so we knew we were going to get some fun songs we already knew!

He opened the concert alone at the piano with one of the songs from the new album, 'If This Plane Goes Down'. It was a more somber way to start the show but I liked it. In between each number Tim spoke a bit, a lot about what his life has been so far and his experiences and they were all really good interludes! I love his absurdist  but realist sense of humour and I feel as Aussies (and to a lesser extent, Brits) we really get his style.

After the first number he launched into one of my favourite really old songs, F Sharp. It's very musically clever and I enjoy the dissonance of it! I really love overall how Tim Minchin doesn't ever talk down to his audience, that every piece of humour is smart, even when it's crude or includes swearing (and in some other songs of his there is A LOT of swearing!). Tim even had us singing along with the F# at the end while he is playing in F, and of course Richard and I nailed it!

Then he included one of his beat poems - his first. Before it again he introduced a concept which came up a few times in the show: the 'Glossary of Terms'. This was partly to make sure everyone knew what he was on about, but also partly to point out how old we are and that THERE ARE ADULTS AT THAT SHOW WHO WERE BORN AFTER THE YEAR 2000. Crazy, right?! After the relevant terms, we heard Mitsubishi Colt. I really like that one, and Tim pointed out that it is also interesting because the backing to the beat poem is improvised every night. It was very cool!

Then he performed another of my old favourites - Thank You God. After that it was back to a new song 'Airport Piano' - and partway through the song, the curtains fell back to reveal the amazing band back there on stage! There was even a 3 person brass section! They were used really well throughout, I felt. They finished Airport Piano together, then followed it up with 15 Minutes and The Absence of You from the same album. Topping off the first half was another classic, If I Didn't Have You. It was an older song but in a completely reworked form, Latinising the song and giving it a super groovy vibe which had me grooving in my seat.

After interval we were back for just a few more songs. Starting with Leaving LA, which was accompanied by the projection of the video clip on the big screen (I liked it's stop motion vibe a lot!). And then he performed possibly my favourite Minchin song. He spelled out... C...H...E...E...S...E...! CHEESE! He even put in a break for a monologue right before the cheese puns, where he theorised that this might be one of the greatest songs ever written... Or complete crap. I'm going with genius though.

He finished up the second half with I'll Take Lonely Tonight and Talked Too Much, Stayed Too Long (which sounds like me to be honest!) We gave him a huge standing ovation, and after a minute he came back out for Carry You, a final song from his newest album.

It was such a fun evening. I laughed until I cried, enjoyed the new songs very much and absolutely loved seeing the old ones live. I wish that I could have seen it more than once!

Theatre Trip: Heathers

HEATHERS

New Wimbledon Theatre
Date: 5 November (Friday), 7:30pm
Seats: Stalls W10-12

(Seen with Jess and Linda!)

It's another touring show at Wimbledon! These are my favourite on a work day, because no matter when I say I'm going leave (5pm) versus when I actually leave (just after 5:30!), I can still have time for dinner and a quick catch up before a show. Today Jess and I met at McDonalds at half 6 to grab some dinner before the show. I also had her birthday present to give to her, as I haven't seen her since her birthday last week! Linda ran late and had to sneak in after the opening number, but it was lovely to have her.

As it is Heathers, I have seen it before on the West End several times. This production was essentially the same in plot and staging as on the West End. It has, however, been several years since we saw it and of course the cast has completely changed. We also had several understudies in our performance.

We even got drinks at the interval - it has been a long week after all! Being Heathers, they have slushies for sale, and I got us each one with an added shot of vodka for interval! Unfortunately, my drink was so frozen that it got stuck in the straw and I couldn't actually drink it until it melted, which meant I didn't get it to actually drink until after the show!

I thought the Heathers in this show were quite good. Heather Chandler, Duke and MacNamara were played by U/S Daisy Twells, Merryl Ansah, and Lizzy Parker respectively. Heather Chandler was much funnier than I remember Jodie Sam Steele was, but her vocals weren't quite as strong, especially up in the higher register. Heather Duke, I actually preferred to T'Shan Williams from the West End cast. Her vocals were stronger and she didn't fade into the  background as much in this version, which I liked. Heather Mac I also really liked. She had a very different, less silly portrayal than Sophie Isaacs in the other cast and I liked her vocals a lot. 

Ram and Kurt (U/s Callum Connolly, Liam Doyle) I didn't like as much. They were good jocks, of course, but I didn't think they were actually handsome enough! If you're going to spend more than an hour every night wearing just your underpants you need to be looking good. JD (Simon Gordon) was quite good - a little shouty at times but good. He didn't really get as creepy as I expected, either, until the key moments when his psychopath side actually came out.

Veronica (U/S May Tether) I really liked. Her comedic timing and facial expressions were totally on point! I thought it made her much funnier. Her accent was VERY strong and meant a lot of the vowels changed shape (and therefore sound) and it made some of them a lot harsher, but her notes were very accurate and I felt like she balanced the character of Veronica really well. I have to admit I was more impressed than I would have been given that she is the understudy rather than the usual Veronica. Unusual to have an understudy on a Friday night, but oh well.

In summary, it was a very good show and I loved being able to see a show I really like again! It's just that the original West End cast was the only cast of this show most people have experienced, and being on the recording too means that their versions of the characters feel like they are set in stone for me. So they weren't bad, just very different versions. And I did still like them a lot! It's nice to see different versions of familiar characters.

Theatre Trip: HMS Pinafore

 H.M.S. PINAFORE

Coliseum Theatre
Date: 30 October (Saturday), 7:30pm
Seats: Upper Circle A 21-22

(Seen with Richard!)

We were excited to come back to the Coliseum for another ENO performance! We decided that rather than rushing a takeaway dinner after our old favourite Mod Pizza has shut up shop in the UK due to the pandemic, we'd head to one of the many pubs near the Coliseum and eat there. Looking at the pubs there was one serving Thai food which we wanted to try but by the time we got there it was full! It was half 6 at that point so we popped into a nice looking Thai place just a few doors down.

By 7 we had ordered, received and finished our entrees and we were waiting for our mains. But unfortunately it got to 7:15 and we still didn't have our food. By this time I was stressing, so I went to the bathroom in the restaurant, but I got back and we still didn't have any food! By that time Richard had asked for it to go instead, so at 7:25 we were literally running out the door of the restaurant with our food all boxed up (they did give us the noodles for free for the trouble, which was nice) the one minute to the theatre.

We arrived, had to run down to the cloakroom (of course we couldn't take our food to our seats!) which had already closed, so find someone who could open it for us, check our food, then run up 2 flights of steps to our seats. Luckily we actually made it just while the orchestra was tuning up!

This performance was quite fun. As with other G&S performances we have seen, I knew the show well because of the version with Jon English in Australia in the 90s. This is definitely one of the more comedic operettas and I really enjoy the twisting of the plot in this particular show. They definitely added some things in an attempt to make the show even more funny, although we did feel a bit like some made them feel more like a panto - and not always in a good way. The addition of the Midshipmite was a good call, but they also added a silly Boris Johnson gag, a repeating seagull joke which was quite silly, and the worst one - one of the aunts who never lifted her head, walked with a cane (like a old person stereotype) and kept walking across the show or into parts of the stage. The rest of the audience seemed to think it was funnier than we did, so maybe it is funnier if you're British?

The main casting draw for UK people is Les Dennis, who is a famous comedian and was playing the role of Sir Joseph. He was fine, although it was clear he was not a singer. I much preferred the ENO cast proper though. There were a pair of Harewood Artists in the cast. This means that they have a special programme of training to boost and support their new careers. In this case, both Ralph Rackstraw (Elgan Llyr Thomas) and Josephine (Alexandra Oomens) were these artists and I was very impressed with them vocally. Particularly Josephine - I thought that she had a gorgeous voice and surprisingly good comic timing!

The 2 best performances were definitely Captain Corcoran and the Midshipmite (a new character created for this version to be the cabin boy, and played by a child). Rufus Bateman was the Midshipmite at this performance and he was appropriately cheeky and I felt like he added quite a lot to the performance. Turns out he also is a killer tap dancer! So was the Captain, played by John Savournin to a tee. He was serious when he needed to be and silly when needed too. They added some tap dancing into the show which I thought was very well placed.

Despite the drama getting in (and the fact we had to eat out dinner after the show when we got home!), it was a very enjoyable evening. After lots of modern musicals, I do enjoy an operetta to get back to my childhood, it feels like.

Weekend Away: Paris Getaway!

 Over the half term break, we didn't have time to go away for very long (as the Husband didn't have much leave for taking off work), so we booked a long weekend break away to Paris! It was also dictated by the travelling procedures and how much testing we had to do, which made Paris an even better choice! Add in that our 5th wedding anniversary is only a few weeks away (but during school time - and on a parent teacher night no less!) so we decided to splash out a little on this trip.

So after I finished work for the half term on Friday night, we packed our stuff ready for Saturday morning. We had a train around 9 am so we headed to the station at 7 to St Pancras. The train journey was fine - I always forget how much I like travelling by train! We had things to do and naps we could take, so even when we were delayed an hour we were not that bothered by it.

We arrived in Paris around 2pm and headed straight to our hotel in the 7th Arrondissement, right near the Eiffel Tower. We stayed at a cute hotel called 7 Eiffel in a deluxe room. It had a living space and a small terrace (although it was too cold to use it really), and we had breakfast included. We couldn't actually check in yet though, so we dropped our luggage off and walked over to the Tower itself. We decided to go up it and had a little bit heated discussion about how we were getting up/down it. In the end the line for the lift was actually shorter, so we got that ticket for all the way to the top! We headed up to the 2nd floor on the lift then joined the queue for the summit, as that has a separate lift! The top was such a good view, and we bought a tin of macaroon and a glass of champagne to share while we admired the view!

We then took the lift back to the 2nd floor (that's the only option) and walked the rest of the way down. By the time we got to the bottom it was just after 5pm so we headed back to the hotel to check in and chill for a little bit before dinner. We wanted something 'properly French' for dinner, so we settled on a Brasserie only 5 minutes walk from the hotel, Le Recrutement Cafe. It was exactly what we had hoped for! Husband had french onion soup and I had hot goats cheese for entree, then we had a steak (he) and a salad (me - although mine was better because my salad included an egg, bacon, half an avocado and blue cheese!). We thought about going to a creperie for dessert, but He wanted to go for a walk, so we headed off towards the Louvre. It was a lovely walk along the river, even though I was super tired by that point, and it meant that as soon as we got back to the room we rolled straight into bed!

Sunday we woke up in time for our room service breakfast, which was actually 40 minutes late! He was planning on going for a run, so once it arrived we had a bite to eat together and then I was able to get ready while He went for his run. Then we headed out (around 11ish) to Les Invalides and the Musee d'Armes. We did about half of the museums floors before deciding we needed our lunch. Rather than having an overpriced and not great baguette in the cafe there, we actually left the museum and headed a few blocks away to a local boulangerie (one of the only ones open on a Sunday, apparently) for fresh rolls and sat outside to eat it picnic-style. We had a lovely sunny spot so it was great! Then we headed back in for Napoleon's Tomb and the other bits of the museum we hadn't done yet. By the time we finished we headed back to the hotel to change and get ready for the highlight of our trip - the Moulin Rouge! 

We were headed for dinner and the show and after arriving and queuing were shown to our seats. As we ate and shared a bottle of champagne, there were a pair of jazz singers who serenaded us, even inviting people on to the dancefloor at one point! There was a family with 3 girls there who basically took over the dancefloor after a while... I'm not sure why you'd bring your young kids (one was like 8!) to the Moulin Rouge, but oh well. After dinner it was time for the show! Unfortunately the dinner didn't fully agree with me and I had to duck out at one point (there isn't an interval so I couldn't wait for that to come around), but oh well. The dancing was pretty awesome, especially when everyone on stage is doing a unison jump split!

I do think that the highlight of the performance was the can can, although there wasn't actually as much high kicking as we thought there would be! And some of the side acts were incredible. There was a couple on roller skates who did tricks where the girl went up in the air and that one amazed me the most - I think I gasped 3 separate times!

After the show we picked up a souvenir, then headed back to the hotel - via a crepe stand for dessert!

Monday morning He had another run to do, but given how slow the breakfast was we ordered it for earlier - and then it showed up 5 minutes before the allotted time! We couldn't time it exactly right, but oh well. I got ready and packed up most of the room then He got ready too and we checked out, leaving our bags at the hotel. We didn't have the return train until 6 or 7pm, so we headed up to Montmatre. We pottered through some fabric shops (the main reason for going to that part of town in the first place!), I bought some double gauze, poly viscose and some sweatshirting which I am very excited to sew with. We had lunch at a cafe at the foot of the hill looking up, and after we ate we walked up and then back down to look at the view. Then we headed back to the hotel to grab our stuff and head to the train!

We got back to London around 8.30pm local time, and were home with dinner by half 9! Not a bad way to start a half term break.

Theatre Trip: ALW's Cinderella

ANDREW LLOYD WEBBER'S CINDERELLA

Gillian Lynne Theatre
Date: 13 October (Wednesday), 7:30pm
Seats: Circle, E51-52

(Seen with Richard!)

Another week, another weekday show! I bet this looks very exciting, but actually I'm going to need a break soon as my sleeping habits and caffeine consumption are not working super well together! In the, we were running late and we arrived at the theatre at 7, and through the doors at 7:15. They've recently redone the theatre though, so it was easy to get around, there were lots of places to buy drinks, and plenty of bathrooms (even for the ladies we never waited more than a few minutes) We were lucky enough to win lottery tickets with the chance to purchase tickets for £25. It turns out our seats were much better than I expected - they were up in the Circle, but the theatre has been resigned very well and all the seats in the house would have had a good view. Because we were further back we could easily see all the action and there was only a small amount of action that we missed.

The music of this new show - his most recent since School of Rock - is very good. At one point Richard and I turned to each other and said, 'This music feels very Gilbert and Sullivan', and it definitely does, but in all the best ways. There are 4-5 main themes which keep coming back being reused in different ways and it has a little bit of a pantomime vibe; but again, in a good way! We really enjoyed the music side of it.

The book for this was also quite good. Emerald Fennell has written the book for this and she got great fame for her recent movie Promising Young Woman, which I loved, and she has made this plot more modern. I felt like all the changes worked well and it definitely felt more modern than Cinderella usually is.

All of the actors in the chorus seemed great. There were some very hunky guys who did an excellent number with pretend weights and other such 'strong' showing off. The stepsisters (Georgina Castle as Mari, Laura Baldwin as Adele) were really funny and totally vapid. Laura I knew could pull off a role like this as she was Dawn in Waitress and while she was not vapid in that, she was quite a caricature and that works for her as an actress.

The older ladies were not my favourites in the show. The Queen (Rebecca Trehearn) was more genuine and she definitely had amazing costumes! Her voice was also very lovely and she was the right balance of silly and fun. The Stepmother I didn't actually like all that much. Victoria Hamilton-Barritt did a fine job of acting in the role, but the character she chose (as it said in the program) was a cross between David Bowie and Joanna Lumley, which I felt was way over the top and just too pantomime. It didn't really feel like it fit with the rest of the acting choices the other characters made.

The main prince in this Cinderella isn't actually Prince Charming but Prince Sebastian, Charming's younger brother. He was played by Ivano Turco, a new graduate in his first West End role. I feel like you could tell how new he was to being on stage, and his voice was more on the pop end of things rather than musical theatre. His voice was lovely though, if a little overpowered by the band at times. And boy, I'm trying not to spoil anything, but THE BOY CAN DANCE! I'd like to see him again in the role in a few months once he's had time to settle into things.

The biggest draw in this show for me was Carrie Hope Fletcher, playing the titular role. She seemed really at home in this show! The singing parts seemed to be written exactly in the best parts of her voice (maybe they were, as she has been Cinderella since the original workshop) and it meant that she could put everything she had into the big numbers. Her costume is very cool and she is witty and funny, which is refreshing for what is normally a Disney princess! I really enjoyed her in the role and am looking forward to seeing her again. I will be continuing to enter the lottery - Jess is too because she wants to see it with me next!

Theatre Trip: &Juliet (finally!)

 &JULIET

Shaftesbury Theatre
Date: 7 October (Thursday), 7:30pm
Seats: Stalls, P3-4
(Seen with Jess!)

Understudies: Anne Hathaway (Kirstie Skivington)

Finally, I get to see &Juliet! I had had tickets to this show twice already... But the first time I had a migraine and the second we were due to see it at the end of March 2020, and that got cancelled by the pandemic. But finally, our time has come!

We got great Stalls seats in row P. The Shaftesbury is smaller than I expected and so row P is actually quite close! Seats 3-4 are right on the right hand side, so there was a tiny bit on stage that we couldn't see but that didn't matter for anything important in the show.

The staging of this show is very simple. The stage isn’t big, and is framed as a musical within a play so the staff is kept pretty simple. It all looks great and it definitely doesn’t need big set pieces to hit home. The main feature is, of course, the music! This show is a jukebox musical, but rather than by an artist it’s about the composer/producer. Max Martin wrote and produced a huge amount of music since the 90s, so there is a lot of options to choose from. This means that it doesn’t feel at all like a jukebox musical, because the music fits so well with the plot of the show. But people my age who grew up in the 90s and 00s, you would recognise all the songs! So it’s such a trip hearing these songs in a new context.

I know a few actors in this show. Grace Mouat was in the chorus (with a leading role and a few mini solos tonight), and I remember her really well from being one of the backup Queens in Six. I really enjoyed watching her perform! Juliet’s father was played by a guy who I recognised instantly as Ivan de Freitas. The last time I saw him perform was in Jesus Christ Superstar at the Barbican, and he was very good. Mel la Barrie I remember from even further back, having seen her as Madame Morrible in Wicked, back in 2008 on my gap year. She was absolutely phenomenal in her role here and I was nowhere near prepared for her to be so amazing, or to be able to sing so well with a thick Jamaican accent! And David Bedella played opposite her, with a deep voice that instantly took me back to 2008. He was in the production of Chess then that I went to in the Albert Hall, playing Molokov, but in this he was so different! His deep voice and fake French accent were so good and he was really really awesome.

Romeo was played by Jordan Luke Gage, freshly returned from Heathers on the West End. He was so poppy and I felt like he really fit the character super well. His characterisation was really good (although Romeo is a terrible character - predictably, given the 'girl power' theme of the show) and of course, his voice is phenomenal! Miriam Teak-Lee played the lead role of Juliet and she was also amazing. Her voice at times, had too many riffs and felt a little out of place on a musical stage, but she was very very good. I would like to see her again so that I can hear if she does the same performance night after night, or if the riffs change!

The actors I was most excited about, are actually two who I have seen since 2008 when I first saw them as Fiyero and Elphaba in Wicked! Oliver Tompsett plays William Shakespeare and he was so amazing. His voice is like butter, even with a Cockney accent and they gave him a lot of great puns, on Shakespeares name and works, which I appreciated a lot. Sadly, the other person I was very excited about was out for the show. Cassidy Janson (who I have seen as Elphaba as well as many more!) is cast as Anne Hathaway, arguably the most important character in the show - as she is the one who interferes with Shakespeare's original plot and leads it astray. Sadly she wasn't in on this evening and so the role was played by Kirtie Skivington. I felt that she was very good, but especially during the big number I was thinking about how phenomenal CJ would be in that role. Also I would like to see the chemistry between CJ and Oli as they have history together!

I will definitely be going again though, as I messaged my colleague as I was walking out and told her that she would love it. In response, I have booked 3 front row tickets for myself and 2 colleagues for just before the end of the school year - and in the same week as Hamilton! It will be such fun to experience this on the front row.

Theatre Trip: Hairspray

 HAIRSPRAY

Coliseum Theatre
Date: 23 September (Thursday), 7:30pm
Seats: Dress Circle, B1-2
(Seen with Jess!)

Understudies: Wilbur Turnblad (Dermot Canavan), Motormouth Maybelle (Sharlene Hector), Male Authority Figure (Christopher Howell), Lorraine (Tinovimbanashe Sibanda), Tammy (Annie Guy)

I was very excited for this show! I love the movie of Hairspray but I have never seen it live. I thought I might miss it given it was on over the summer, but luckily we have refund vouchers and it was on for just another few weeks. So Jess used the voucher from one of our other shows and we booked it!

We picked the seats in Row B which were supposedly restricted view but when we got there ended up being pretty amazing! I enjoy seeing a little bit off the side of the stage so it was good for that and the only thing we couldn't see was the scoreboard at the dance competition, which was totally fine.

We were a little disappointed about the understudies when we arrived. Les Dennis plays Wilbur, Tracy's father, and he is a pretty famous comedian here in the UK. He was off, which wasn't what I really was annoyed about. I was most excited to see Motormouth Maybelle, who was being played by Marisha Wallace. We had recently seen her in Waitress and she had been great, so I was very sad to see that she was actually out this evening.

I needn't have worried though, the cast was amazing. A lot of the young people were starting their careers on the West End with this show, including Link (Jonny Amies) and Tracey (Lizzie Bea), and every single one was incredible!!! Tracey was flawless and Link was swoon-worthy but I think my favourite was Amber (Georgia Anderson) and Penny (Mari McGinlay). Amber was such a toddler, throwing tantrums and being very over the top which was lots and lots of fun! Penny was also over the top, but she was such a nerd. Twitching and being deliberately dorky which really made everyone laugh, and she had such a great transformation as a result!

The Motomouth Maybelle was incredible - you would never have guessed that she was the understudy! She was so amazing vocally and had such an incredible power. And the understudy for Wilbur was also super, although he did corpse at one point. Edna made him laugh so much that it put them both off in 'You're Timeless To Me'! He had embraced her form behind and had hidden his face because he was laughing, but Edna could feel his shaking and made an on stage comment about it which had the audience cackling!

The main draw in the casting was Michael Ball playing Edna! He was so fantastic, sang gorgeously and of course, did it all in heels! Super star. The curtain call had everyone up on their feet dancing along and Jess and I did our best to keep up with the choreography! Even though it was a Thursday night after working and we were both tired, this show had us back on our feet jumping up and down! It was so fun.