Kids Week: Top Hat - August 2013

For Kids Week, we always see Wicked and at least one new show. Our choice this year was the Oliver Award winning, Top Hat. I have been wanting to see this show since it debuted on the West End last year. Having already seen the movie, I knew we were in for an amazing performance!

Having never been to the Aldwych Theatre before, I was surprised by small it was, but also by the gorgeous decor, which Rachael described as "posh". We had got seats near the back of the stalls, which were the only seats I could find for the date I wanted, but the view was generally quite good due to the size of the theatre. However, I was disappointed that I had no warning of the overhang of the dress circle partially obscuring our view. Luckily it only prevented us from seeing one very short section of the show, luckily nothing too essential. The theatre also does not provide booster seats for children like other theatres do, so Rachael had to move seats to be able to see properly, but luckily for us the seats next to us were not filled! If we ever return to this theatre, I will probably book for the dress circle instead.

The show itself was fantastic. The movie translates extremely well to the stage. The musical numbers are expanded due to the fact the original movie only has five songs, so the selection of other songs were taken from the back catalogue of Irving Berlin, specifically music that fits with the 1930's. Each choice fitted well within the show and added to the already fantastic musical score. The sets and costumes were fantastic, even causing me to gasp at points by just what an amazing job they have done to bring the essence of the 1930's to the stage! It was bright and colourful, elegant and stylish!

The cast were absolutely phenomenal, performing brilliantly choreographed complicated dances, particularly the tap numbers. Gavin Lee, who played the lead character, Jerry Travers, was fantastic and they could not have chosen a better person to play a character made famous the legendary Fred Astaire. Kristen Beth Williams played the lead female, Dale Tramont and was fabulous! She looked stunning in every outfit she wore, most specifically a replica of the famous "Cheek to Cheek" dress. I am not surprised she was chosen to take over the role from Summer Strallen, just looking at her past theatre credits was enough to convince me before the show that she would be amazing.

After the show, we headed straight for the stage door. Turned out we were the only people waiting to meet the cast! We met Kristen, Gavin and also Russell-Leighton Dixon (Alberto Beddini). Russell surprised me when he came out as it turns out that while he plays an Italian, he is actually a Kiwi! His change in accent completely threw me as did Kristen with her natural hair colour, she really looks great as a blonde, despite be a natural brunette!

Sadly, the show is closing this October, so if you can GO SEE IT!

Kids Week: Wicked - August 2013

It's Kids Week again! Well, more like Kids Month now! It has become popular now, that I was lucky to get tickets to two different shows! One of which is mine and Rachael's all time favourite musical, Wicked! This year, I booked slightly different seats. Still in the circle, but more towards the centre and slightly back a bit more. It gave us a much better view of the entire stage than we have had in previous years.

We had been really excited about coming this year as we got to see Louise Dearman in the role of Elphaba after seeing her two years ago in the role of Glinda, making her the first ever actress to having played both of the leading roles in the musical's history.

Luckily for us, thanks to my checking cast holidays, we only had one cast change for the performance, which was Marc McBride stepping in for Sam Lupton in the role of Boq. Otherwise the main line up remained the same: Louise Dearman as Elphaba, Gina Beck as Glinda and Ben Freeman as Fiyero. I was particular excited though to see Harriet Thorpe back as Madame Morrible, who I had been fortunate to see on my first visit to see the show a few years ago.

The show as always was phenomenal! Louise Dearman was absolutely blinding as Elphaba and smashed Defying Gravity! As she went into big part at the end of the song, she gave me chills, she was that good! Gina, as last year, had me in fits of giggles as Glinda and I have to say I was quite impressed by Ben Freeman. He actually does have a good singing voice! This year was the first year that I had given the cast a standing ovation and deservedly so as they were all outstanding!

As always, after the show, we immediately made our way to stage door to meet the cast! We met the main eight cast members: Louise Dearman, Gina Beck, Ben Freeman, Harriet Thorpe, Keith Bartlett, Christopher Howell, Marc McBride and Katie Rowley Jones. I have to say I was impressed by how quick Louise came out especially as she has to get the green make up off! I was also really happy that Gina remembered us from the Oliviers Red Carpet earlier this year! The biggest surprise though was seeing Will Young come out alongside Harriet after the show, though we didn't stop him as he disappeared away from the fans very quickly!

Overall, this was an amazing night as always! If you can, book tickets to go and see the show before October so you get the chance to see Louise as Elphaba! I am already looking forward to returning next year to see the new Elphaba in action!

Dirty Dancing - August 2013

I absolutely love the movie Dirty Dancing. It is one of my all time favourite movies. So I have been a bit dubious about going to see the stage adaptation since I heard about it a few years ago. I just didn't think it would translate well. So yesterday I plucked up the courage to go and see it along with my daughter Rachael and my friend Harriet.

I had not booked tickets in advance so we had to buy day seats. Unfortunately when we got there, they had sold out already, learning that I really need to arrive before the box office opens to have a chance of getting them. Luckily, there were still other cheap seats available, so we booked 3 seats at £24.50 each for the Grand Circle. I felt that was quite reasonable cost as it was only £4.50 more than the day seats cost themselves. On arrival back at Piccadilly Theatre, the box office spotted us and called us to change our seats as they were not originally together. We ended up being upgraded to the Royal Circle, sat together in seats we are pretty certain cost more than we paid and with a better view. 

The show itself was fantastic. For the most part, the original dialogue, music and choreography is kept with a few additional parts added for flow, costume changes etc. Some characters felt much more developed than within the movie. For example, Dr Jake and Majorie Houseman's relationship is explored a bit more, Neil Kellerman seems cornier, Lisa Houseman is much comedic and Mr Schumacher was far creepier! My only little moans is that I felt some of most dramatic lines were lost within the performance from how they were delivered in the movie. But otherwise I really enjoyed the show. When Johnny said that famous line "Nobody puts baby in the corner" the audience, or should I say females, went wild and that continued throughout the performance of the movie's most famous dance, especially when the lead couple performed that infamous lift! 

After the show, as always, we went to the stage door to meet the cast. Despite having attended the matinee performance, the majority of the main cast members came out at some point, even though one had to go inside to get two of them out for us! Each and every one of them were really nice to us, asking us what we thought of the show and thanking us for waiting!

I definitely recommend this show, whether or not you are a fan of the movie. The cast are extremely talented and done amazing job of taking on such iconic characters!

Cast Members met: Jill Winternitz (Baby), Paul-Michael Jones (Johnny), Charlotte Gooch (Penny), James Coombes (Dr Houseman), Stefan Menaul (Neil Kellerman), Wayne Smith (Billy), Emilia Williams (Lisa) and Callum Nicol (Robbie).