West End Live has fast become one of my favourite events to attend and as a result is now on my must do list every year! The reason why, well that would be two reasons! Firstly, it is FREE! Yes, I said free! Secondly, it is an opportunity to be able to see a snapshot of every musical currently playing in the West End, plus more! We discovered last year, but sadly, we could only stay a couple of years, but it made enough of impression for us to return this year and stay for the whole day!
We had made the decision to go on the Sunday as we felt it would be less busy, plus a couple of West End Stars we were fans of, were going to be performing their solo material that day. So early that Sunday morning (here comes the recurring theme), we shot up London to Trafalgar Square, so we could in the queue to get a good place to watch from. I was very happy to see they had change the queuing system and introduced a snaking barrier system to prevent a free for all that they had the year before. It was a long wait before we could go in but we were able to hear and see the sound checks for The Lion King and Matilda, which pleased Rachael (as you can probably guess) as she was getting bored of waiting!
Finally, we were let in and we headed over to one of the fountains, where we had stood the year before. But no, Rachael wanted to have a look around before the first act took to the stage! I am glad she did, as we were able to go and see some well known cars from the movies! They had a great variety from the Kit car from Knightrider to the Flintstones Car! I was ecstatic at seeing the Herbie Car from Herbie Fully Loaded! The Flintstones car was available for people to get into to have a photo, though the crew member next to it was trying to encourage people to throw their arms up for the photos, which scared Rachael a little! She just wanted to pretend to drive instead!
Then we finally went over to watch the performances. I won't go through each one, I will be here all day otherwise. So I will give you a rundown of our top 5 faves of the day!
First pick has to be Rock of Ages. We missed their performance at West End Live 2011 and I have still not been to see it, so was highly excited for the performance. The cast is such an amazing, talented bunch that you can't help but rock on with them! They performed three songs: "Here I go again"; "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Don't Stop Believing" - all three big crowd pleasers! I have to throw my hands and say that Shayne Ward really is suited to role of Stacee Jaxx and is much performer now than he was on X Factor and it does help a little with amazing arm muscles he has! We happened to also be stood in front three major Rock of Ages fans who were singing very loudly, one of them had seen the show 20 times! I can understand why though, it is obviously an amazing show! A must see for those old enough and a great one for the men!
Second pick has got to be Horrible Histories: Barmy Britain. We booked tickets to see this a few months ago as both Rachael and Jon (my husband) are huge fans of the TV series. We were also very lucky to meet one of the cast members before they went on stage, who informed us that the cast who would performing in August are a great cast! Well the two performing that day were fantastic and gave the audience a great taste as what to expect! Not only was it hilarious but a great educational show. Using a song with actions to remember the order of what happened to Henry VIII's wives was a genius move! It had Rachael joining in and looking forward to seeing the full show!
The final three picks are Matilda, Shrek and Angelina Ballerina. Matilda only performed one song but the little girl playing the title role was amazing and I can understand why it is already impossible to get tickets to the show! Shrek was an obvious pick, we are already in love with the show despite not having seen it yet (that is happening in August for us!) but it gave us a chance to see Carly Stenson in the role for the first time and I was thoroughly impressed by her and the entire cast! The final pick, Angelina Ballerina is Rachael's choice, though I was impressed it was not people in full animal suits but actual people! And top of that, it did actually work as show! Sadly, we already have too much on during the summer to be able go and see it! Hopefully it return to the West End next year!
Finally on to the celeb encounter. Louise Dearman, Mark Evans and Alex Gaumond were all performing songs from the debut albums and all were fantastic. After all three had performed they did a signing for the fans and we immediately got in the queue. Once we got up there, we told Louise and Mark that we had met them the previous summer after a performance of Wicked and they remembered us once we told the dress Rachael was wearing!
All in all, it was amazing and cheap day out. Besides the performances, there were lots of exhibitors showing the best of what London had to offer. Definitely a must do for all Londoners!
First pick has to be Rock of Ages. We missed their performance at West End Live 2011 and I have still not been to see it, so was highly excited for the performance. The cast is such an amazing, talented bunch that you can't help but rock on with them! They performed three songs: "Here I go again"; "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Don't Stop Believing" - all three big crowd pleasers! I have to throw my hands and say that Shayne Ward really is suited to role of Stacee Jaxx and is much performer now than he was on X Factor and it does help a little with amazing arm muscles he has! We happened to also be stood in front three major Rock of Ages fans who were singing very loudly, one of them had seen the show 20 times! I can understand why though, it is obviously an amazing show! A must see for those old enough and a great one for the men!
The final three picks are Matilda, Shrek and Angelina Ballerina. Matilda only performed one song but the little girl playing the title role was amazing and I can understand why it is already impossible to get tickets to the show! Shrek was an obvious pick, we are already in love with the show despite not having seen it yet (that is happening in August for us!) but it gave us a chance to see Carly Stenson in the role for the first time and I was thoroughly impressed by her and the entire cast! The final pick, Angelina Ballerina is Rachael's choice, though I was impressed it was not people in full animal suits but actual people! And top of that, it did actually work as show! Sadly, we already have too much on during the summer to be able go and see it! Hopefully it return to the West End next year!
Finally on to the celeb encounter. Louise Dearman, Mark Evans and Alex Gaumond were all performing songs from the debut albums and all were fantastic. After all three had performed they did a signing for the fans and we immediately got in the queue. Once we got up there, we told Louise and Mark that we had met them the previous summer after a performance of Wicked and they remembered us once we told the dress Rachael was wearing!
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