After 2012 was amazing year for me, I had to wonder if 2013 could remotely live up to it. I have to admit at the beginning of the year, I did not think it would as I did not have very much planned. Luckily it turned out to a fabulous year with some unexpected surprises!
2013 started off the same way 2012 did and how 2014 will be starting out as well, with a trip to the Royal Opera House to see the Royal Ballet's final performance for the season of The Nutcracker. This time, however, it was for Rachael's 9th birthday and she will attending for her 10th birthday in a couple of weeks. We had very different seats this time, but despite the higher seats, we had a clearer view. Such an enjoyable ballet to see and the perfect end to the Christmas period. I am looking forward to seeing it again this month.
A few days later, Rachael and I were back in London, trudging through the snow, for the Hollywood Costume Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. The exhibition had a wide variety of costumes from different movies such as Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean and The Wizard of Oz. It was definitely a fascinating exhibition and to see the detail put into these costume, even if not all of it will be on screen, was an amazing opportunity.
February led to the first of our many opportunities to meet celebs and a brand new friendship. Rachael and I attended our first Red Carpet event together, the What's On Stage Awards at the Palace Theatre. Arriving early led to us meeting the fabulous Harriet, who we have become fast friends with and share fab theatre experiences with! The red carpet event also kick started us meeting many Harry Potter cast members this year through meeting Imelda Staunton, who played Dolores Umbridge in the film series. We also got the opportunity to hold a London 2012 Olympic Gold Medal, thanks to Peter Wilson, who offered Rachael the chance to wear it without us needing to even ask!
The end of February ended with me attending what was meant to be a one off gig at the Hammersmith Apollo for the Big Reunion. It ended up leading to two major tours, neither of which I attended. But this gig was fantastic and the atmosphere was electric! Despite being sat at the back and spending a good bulk of the gig on my tip toes (it does suck being short), I had an amazing time, getting to relive my teen years through bands I genuinely loved and still do! The acts for the next series were recently announced so do hope to be able to attend the gig if one is happening this time round.
The beginning of March started with the last chance to see Girls Aloud on tour for the final time. Despite having booked in the presale, I still ended up with seats near the back! But it didn't matter as there was a B Stage located near our seats. The show was a fantastic end to their time together, singing all the big hits from the career with a few new ones from the final album and as normal, one fab cover! It is shame they are no longer together because they have always put on great live shows. The one thing I will remember about them, their gig (not this one obviously) was the first time I had attended the O2 after it became a music venue!
The following week, it was time to experience Symphonic Cinema was the first time. We attended the Royal Albert Hall to see this experience for Singin' In The Rain, one of my favourite movies. Gene Kelly's wife Patricia Ward Kelly introduced the film and told us little known stories from the shooting of the film. Watching the film with a live orchestra was absolutely brilliant and fascinating and hopefully it is something I will be able to experience soon with other films.
April led to our first of five West End Shows we would see, starting with Potted Potter, a must see for all Harry Potter fans. All 7 books are told in 70 minutes and in a very funny way. I was laughing all the way through the show especially when a girl literally tackled one of the stars hard onto the floor!
Two weeks later, we were at the Oliviers Red Carpet event and while there was a lot of waiting around due to the time we arrived, it was worth the wait as we got to meet one of our all time favourite musical theatre actresses, Idina Menzel and Harry Potter himself, Daniel Radcliffe. We are still unbelievably grateful to the woman who spotted us and got him to come over! It also led to another friendship, through a fabulous Warblers costume, our friend Tim! We also met so many other stars and cannot wait to attend again this year, come rain or shine. We hoping that Rupert Grint will attending this year, who will have just finished performing in his debut show on the West End!
May was our quiet month, with no major events except our annual family holiday. The day after we arrived home led to what quite literally a month of madness and completely unexpected celeb meets which would have never had dreamed of. June started though, with unexpected trip to the Royal Albert Hall for Coronation Classics after my in laws were unable to attend. I had promised Rachael for a while to take her to something like this, but had never got round to it as quite honestly it was not my sort of thing. But as it turns out, I actually quite enjoyed it and definitely plan to try and go to something like this again.
A couple of weeks later came the unexpected surprise, the chance to meet Chris Colfer. Despite arriving early Sunday morning, we discovered what was a ridiculously long queue, with people at the front having queued since Saturday lunchtime. Despite what turned into a stupidly long wait, we met loads of fab people and had a great time while we waited. And while our encounter with Chris probably only lasted around a minute, it was worth the wait to have met him as he was a great guy to meet. Hopefully next time he is over, I might get the opportunity to get a photo with him!
The end of June was all about the gorgeous Matthew Morrison! Thanks to a birthday present I was able to book a VIP package for a small gig he was playing at Bush Hall! This meant a front row seat and then a chance to meet him afterwards. I also got to meet Brad Ellis who had played the piano for him that night and is the piano player and song arranger on Glee. I also got to meet him at his CD signing the next day along with Rachael and Tim and again two days later at West End Live, where he actually remembered me and Rachael! West End Live was fab as always, though unfortunately most of the musicals we wanted to see had played on the Saturday, than on the Sunday this year!
July came along, which meant the first of three conventions for me and Mattie. This was one of the best we had been to as we got to meet Eve Myles, Joe Dempsie, Dan Starkey, Danny Glover and David Hasslehoff among others. Mattie thought David was brilliant, but purely cos he had been in the Spongebob movie! But more on that in a bit.
July ended with us back at Olympic Stadium for the Anniversary Games to celebrate the achievements of our Paralympians. Mattie loved every minute of it and was cheering very loudly every time he saw someone from Team GB compete! It was even more amazing to be there to see David Weir absolutely demolish the competition in his race!
August was our theatre month with three trips into the West End for shows in just four days! First up, Dirty Dancing, a show I had been putting off for a while as I didn't think it would translate all that well to stage! It was amazing and they kept the lift in!!! Two days later, it was time for our yearly visit to see Wicked. We had been looking for this before we had even booked it as Louise Dearman (Rachael's first Glinda) was now playing the part of Elphaba and she was phenomenal! The next night it was Top Hat! The show was fantastic and the sets and costumes were outstanding. After each of the shows, we went to the stage door and met the cast members and this time I made sure I got photos with everyone rather than with just Rachael!
The end of August saw Rachael, Mattie and me make the trip to Cardiff for their first ever comic con. We had a fab time, exploring Cardiff, discovering the infamous dedicated wall for Ianto (Torchwood fans will understand) and even more fab time at the convention. We got meet David Hasslehoff again, this time for autograph and we got an extra couple of them on special small photos from the Spongebob movie, making two very happy kids! We also got to meet Kai Owen, K9, Chris Rankin and Brian Blessed among others! We are heading back there in March for this year's convention and intend to do the Doctor Who Experience while we are there.
The weekend after it was back to Olympic Park for National Paralympic Day which gave us an opportunity to meet the Paralympians who we had supported and who had inspired us during that amazing summer. Mattie and I discovered this amazing tent which I can only describe as a huge sensory tent, which Mattie did not want to leave! I also managed to embarrass my husband by telling Hannah Cockcroft that my husband fancied her! Not sure how that is possible when he was not with me that day! We will definitely be attending again though if this becomes a regular thing!
It was beginning of October before the next event which was London Film and Comic Con part 2! This was a smaller trip for us as lack of money prevented any major meets. However we did get to meet 5 Doctor Who cast members, Bonnie Langford (who in turn managed to convince me to book tickets to see Spamalot), Paul McGann (the 8th Doctor), Noel Clarke, Neve McIntosh (who sung Happy Birthday to Mattie) and Andrew Hayden Smith. They are definitely some of the best guests we have ever met, all so enthusiastic. All guests need to be like them!
Two days later, I was back at The O2, for a long awaited concert, Bruno Mars. Again, presale had given me seats at the back (presales seem to suck this past year) and Rachael tagged along. Was not too impressed at the very long set that support act had, but was very happy once Bruno took the stage. Turned out it was his birthday as well, so the band got the crowd to sing Happy Birthday to him! Not the sort of thing a fan gets to experience very often! His show was brilliant and he is definitely a must see live act!
October was rounded off by my final trip to the West End along with Tim to see Spamalot after being convinced to book by Bonnie Langford. Being someone who is not a fan of Monty Python, I had been dubious about seeing it, but it was ridiculously hilarious and my god, Bonnie is most definitely a triple threat! After the show, we met Bonnie and Les Dennis, though one fan tried to ruin the experience by being rude to Les! But everyone should go and see Spamalot, it is the funniest show on the West End right now! I even planned to go back and see it but this time with my husband!
November saw my first ever celebrity football match, Sellebrity at Selhurst Park. Definitely something worth doing as the celebs playing do make you laugh, whether it is attempting to join in with the cheerleaders or just mucking about on the playing field! But at the end of the match, the majority of them went along the stand signing autographs and having photos! Danny Jones from McFly pulled a great face when he had a photo with Rachael!
Final event of the year was not until the end of December when I attending the Homecoming gig for Rough Copy and Hannah Barrett, live finalist of the X Factor who all hail from Croydon. The show was fantastic and great way to give back to the fans of Croydon who have supported them throughout the series! I also got to meet them after the show, in a free meet and greet for 100 lucky fans! Hopefully both acts will go on to do well in the music industry!
2013 was fantastic and I fully intend for 2014 to be the same. Trips to see The Nutcracker and the Backstreet Boys are already booked. I have 3, maybe 4 conventions I hope to go to. I am off to Glasgow in August for the Commonwealth Games, plus loads of things hopefully planned for trips to the West End! So stay tuned!
I have to admit I have been in two minds about going to see the show since it opened. To be honest I am not sure why, I think perhaps because it is not your typical musical, considering the entire cast plays instruments on stage, without support from an orchestra. Yesterday, I finally decided it was time to go and see it with Rachael and our friend, Harriet. We decided against booking in advance due to costs and instead go for Day Seats. We arrived 9:30am, about half an hour before the box office was due to open. While there was a queue, we were able to secure three seats for the matinee show. The great thing about day seats is that they are inexpensive (in this case £25) and great seats (for us, Row D in the stalls). Definitely something worth considering if you love the theatre but cannot always afford to go.
We arrived back at the Phoenix Theatre about half an hour before the show was due to begin. I had been to the theatre before, around 15 years previously to see Blood Brothers, but I had forgotten just how small the theatre is. The size, however, was perfect for an intimate setting in which a show like Once deserves and needs. The theatre actually opens 90 minutes before the show as the bar on stage is in fact a working bar, where the audience can relax and have a drink before the show and during the interval. It was absolutely packed when we arrived, so we chose to wait till the interval and instead enjoy the pre-show, where the cast come on stage and play a few songs not part of the show. Once the audience has left the stage, they go straight into the show with the house lights coming down slowly in the middle of the first official song.
The show itself is absolutely fantastic and I definitely want to go again after the cast change in March. The stage set is basically just a bar, with the walls covered in mirrors. You have to imagine the different settings they are in, but it means the songs stand out without the need for big set changes. The mirrors, for me, are such a clever piece of stage design as it allows you see things you would perhaps miss otherwise. You can see all the instruments being played when the cast member is not facing you. The cast are all ridiculously talented, not just acting, singing and dancing but playing their own instruments as well. This element makes this musical so unique and makes it stand out amongst every other musical currently playing in the West End.
One of the biggest stand out parts of the show for me, was the well written lead characters, only known as Guy and Girl, with no given names and the actors who were cast in the roles. Declan Bennett and Zrinka Cvitesic were fantastic and sung every song so beautifully. Zrinka's character I absolutely loved as you rarely get to see a female part in which they are so bold and blunt on stage. The pair also a great chemistry, something which is really needed in this show! Their duet on Falling Slowly was stunning and one of the highlights of the show. The show was so fantastic that the cast were given three standing ovations!
After the show, we went round to the stage door to meet the cast. Sadly we did not get to meet Declan and Zrinka this time, but as they are nominated for What's On Stage Awards, we are hoping we will get to see them there instead. However, we did get to meet Valda Aviks (Baruska), Ryan Fletcher (Svee), Aidan Kelly (Billy), Gareth O'Connor (Eamon), Michael O'Connor (Da) and Jos Slovick (Andrej). Aidan even apologised to Rachael for the swearing but we told him we had heard far worse when we saw Billy Elliott!
