Three in a row of our Post Christmas Leicester Curve Musical Trips took us to see Hello Dolly en masse again.
I had seen this once before at the Oxford New Theatre, not long after I had started my 4th Year of Chemistry at Uni. I had discovered that my mini supervisor who was doing a DPhil was as big if not bigger fan of musicals as I. This was coming to Oxford we ended up getting buy one get one free tickets for the one of the first nights. She lent me the DVD she had as I didn't know anything about it and I enjoyed watching it. Put on your Sunday Clothes soon became one of my favourite songs and my new friend introduced watching it on youtube to me. A bit of a stumbler when they rang to say they had cancelled the Monday and Tuesday nights shows, but we were able to rebook to later in the week with our deal. Those first nights must have been going to be sooo empty as it still seemed practically deserted when we went. That's not something I really enjoy - empty audiences. It was advertised as staring Darren Day but we couldn't believe it was him when he came on stage - it sure looked like he had gone to seed and maybe had some drug problems! The show was ok, as far as I remember - and I am not remembering much writing this 5 years later. I can picture the scene where Darren Day came out for the first time from under the floor of Van Der Gelders Hay and Seed shop but that's it. Think we both agreed we preferred the film!
I was excited to get to see a new production of it as I had fond memories of the music. We all agreed that the storyline was rather incidental and ridiculous and I enjoyed the dance routines. We all had good fun saying 'Mr Van Der Gelder' and 'Yonkers' plenty of times! The set was good, but I did miss Louis Armstrong!
We had fun putting the three musicals in order afterwards and all had different favourites. Think I liked Hello Dolly, King and I then 42nd Street.
Thanks for another good holiday outing!
"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall." Confucius "Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead." Louisa May Alcott
Saturday, 19 January 2013
Panto - Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Wow - my first ever Panto. Well, the very slightest memories of going to Rickmansworth Watersmeet and seeing something with Noddy and sawing a woman in half, but was very very young and Noddy doesn't actually sound that Panto like! We saw this advertised at the Wycombe Swan when we saw Radio Times. We texted family to see if they wanted to come and John's side of the family sure did. Why? Because like us they are huge Strictly Come Dancing fans and this starred and was directed/choreographed (not sure?) by meany judge himself: Craig Revel Horwood as the evil queen and it starred comedy dancer from a couple of seasons ago, Anne Widdecombe as...Widdy!
So after school on Thursday 14th December off we went back to Wycombe. I was excited but apprehensive! I didn't really know what to expect. I felt I might like it but the reason I had never really been was because Mum would always groan at them and say how awful they are! I had intended to go by myself before in Malvern, but thinking about it, that would have been strange to be by myself!
We had dinner in the theatre restaurant beforehand again and I was pleased to see that there were more adults than children congregating! We had bought practically the last seats and were sat up in the farthest corner at the top. There was a funny confusion with the usher who kept telling us to use the other door but that involved climbing up over railings which wasn't really on!
We all took our seats as it was starting and I am pleased to say it was a pleasant performance. It opened with a good musical number which made me think I was seeing a musical! Then Craig came on and stole the show. He was brilliant and funny and danced and sang and had great stage presence - dressed full on as the Queen! The bits with him in were the best! Ann was quite funny, but not really intentionally, she just seemed to be being herself which was funny enough! I also learnt lots of other bits that are apparently standard panto happenings. Like reading out special mentions for birthdays and groups; children up on stage trying something out and getting a goody bag; the extremely risque comments that you hope are going completely over the heads of the children. The sort of compère of the evening who interacted with the audience was called Muddles and was a ventriloquist. Not something I am usually a fan of but he was impressive with his skunk Pongo!
I think a good evening was had by all and to top it off, as we were saying our good byes outside the theatre, who should we see coming out of the stage door but Craig himself and we ran down the corridor and got his autograph and a photo! woop woop what excitement!
So after school on Thursday 14th December off we went back to Wycombe. I was excited but apprehensive! I didn't really know what to expect. I felt I might like it but the reason I had never really been was because Mum would always groan at them and say how awful they are! I had intended to go by myself before in Malvern, but thinking about it, that would have been strange to be by myself!
We had dinner in the theatre restaurant beforehand again and I was pleased to see that there were more adults than children congregating! We had bought practically the last seats and were sat up in the farthest corner at the top. There was a funny confusion with the usher who kept telling us to use the other door but that involved climbing up over railings which wasn't really on!
We all took our seats as it was starting and I am pleased to say it was a pleasant performance. It opened with a good musical number which made me think I was seeing a musical! Then Craig came on and stole the show. He was brilliant and funny and danced and sang and had great stage presence - dressed full on as the Queen! The bits with him in were the best! Ann was quite funny, but not really intentionally, she just seemed to be being herself which was funny enough! I also learnt lots of other bits that are apparently standard panto happenings. Like reading out special mentions for birthdays and groups; children up on stage trying something out and getting a goody bag; the extremely risque comments that you hope are going completely over the heads of the children. The sort of compère of the evening who interacted with the audience was called Muddles and was a ventriloquist. Not something I am usually a fan of but he was impressive with his skunk Pongo!
I think a good evening was had by all and to top it off, as we were saying our good byes outside the theatre, who should we see coming out of the stage door but Craig himself and we ran down the corridor and got his autograph and a photo! woop woop what excitement!
Musicals - Radio Times
On Friday 23rd November, we headed to High Wycombe after school to see Radio Times. This was something Mum had seen in Malvern and I had missed in Oxford but Mum had looked up for me for where I could see it again. I hadn't heard of it before but it is another Noel Gay musical like Me and My Girl and this production had been produced by Alexander Armitage with some help from his daughter (Lizzie's friend) and this one also starred Gary Wilmot.
The Wycombe Swan Theatre was a lovely venue (I'd been once before to see a Matthew Bourne dance thing - not my cup of tea) and we enjoyed a meal at the theatre beforehand. While we were eating, that nights ushers started to arrive and were collecting war time helmets and arm bands before taking up their positions.
The theatre was again depressive in it's emptiness. It seemed each person had an entire row to themselves and it was a huge theatre. I did feel sorry for the cast but they put on a great show and Gary mentioned at the ending about something to do with being grateful we were there. It was a good set, a radio studio theatre, but mainly instruments and props. About 10 mins before the start a man walked on and rested his head on the piano and put a jacket over his head and then I was still surprised when the show opened and characters walked on stage and he 'woke up' surprising them and us! It was a fun storyline about producing the slightly risque radio show in war time and during an air raid. My absolute favourite number involved ukuleles and it was such a surprise as more and more of the cast starting playing them picking them out of things on stage - very clever!
Just found this trailer on youtube which I think is great! The ukulele bit is there and it reminded me that I quite liked the run rabbit run number and that we all went away singing the 'polishing the sun' number - definite pleaser. There is also a snapshot of the sound guy and it was really funny when he did all the sound effects!
Thanks all for a good show!
The Wycombe Swan Theatre was a lovely venue (I'd been once before to see a Matthew Bourne dance thing - not my cup of tea) and we enjoyed a meal at the theatre beforehand. While we were eating, that nights ushers started to arrive and were collecting war time helmets and arm bands before taking up their positions.
The theatre was again depressive in it's emptiness. It seemed each person had an entire row to themselves and it was a huge theatre. I did feel sorry for the cast but they put on a great show and Gary mentioned at the ending about something to do with being grateful we were there. It was a good set, a radio studio theatre, but mainly instruments and props. About 10 mins before the start a man walked on and rested his head on the piano and put a jacket over his head and then I was still surprised when the show opened and characters walked on stage and he 'woke up' surprising them and us! It was a fun storyline about producing the slightly risque radio show in war time and during an air raid. My absolute favourite number involved ukuleles and it was such a surprise as more and more of the cast starting playing them picking them out of things on stage - very clever!
Thanks all for a good show!
Musicals - Cabaret
John surprised me big time for my birthday - my 28th. On Friday 12th
October we headed to London after school, to the Reubens Hotel opposite
Buckingham Palace! And wow what an experience it was!
It was such a swanky hotel with doormen that made us feel real posh! After checking in to our room, that I really liked as it had a view out the front including of the Union Jack on the front of the building, we went down to the restaurant for the buffet roast - could anything be any more perfect for me!!! I was able to get as many roast potatoes as I liked! The only funny thing was that although they let you serve yourself the waiters insisted on carrying your plate back to your table while you followed - slightly embarrassing as my second and third plates had a rather unusual selection of food! We had good fun beryling about the other guests in the restaurant!
We then headed over to the Savoy Theatre. I was excited to go here as I had not been before and was interested how it worked with the Hotel. Having just wikipedia'ed have found that the theatre came first and was the first public building lit entirely by electricity - interesting! It was funny that we sort of went in at the side off the road and we were on the top tier, but that was street level! So the stage was a long way underground!
We were there to see a production of Cabaret which had only just opened. I had not seen it before but have got the dvd. It is certainly an odd show - very dark most of the time, both literally and storyline! But it has lots of great songs that we came away singing! Will Young was playing the emcee and did it really well - lots of creepy make-up!
Thank you John for a great birthday!
It was such a swanky hotel with doormen that made us feel real posh! After checking in to our room, that I really liked as it had a view out the front including of the Union Jack on the front of the building, we went down to the restaurant for the buffet roast - could anything be any more perfect for me!!! I was able to get as many roast potatoes as I liked! The only funny thing was that although they let you serve yourself the waiters insisted on carrying your plate back to your table while you followed - slightly embarrassing as my second and third plates had a rather unusual selection of food! We had good fun beryling about the other guests in the restaurant!
We then headed over to the Savoy Theatre. I was excited to go here as I had not been before and was interested how it worked with the Hotel. Having just wikipedia'ed have found that the theatre came first and was the first public building lit entirely by electricity - interesting! It was funny that we sort of went in at the side off the road and we were on the top tier, but that was street level! So the stage was a long way underground!
We were there to see a production of Cabaret which had only just opened. I had not seen it before but have got the dvd. It is certainly an odd show - very dark most of the time, both literally and storyline! But it has lots of great songs that we came away singing! Will Young was playing the emcee and did it really well - lots of creepy make-up!
Thank you John for a great birthday!
Musicals - Rent
Catching up on life
I would love to re-enter the blogging world after todays snow post. Am not sure if I will be a regular poster again, but a quick catch-up on life will give me the option. I am going to bullet point it so that hopefully I will do it quicker and actually complete it!
- Last February John and I went on holiday to Norway and there he proposed to me! It was wonderful and I was delighted to say yes!
- We got to work and with the help of our family we planned a wedding for 21st July 2012. The shone and it was a day better than we could possibly have imagined.
- I moved into Maureen, the flat, where we had a MazzaMoon for a week and then it was off to be...
- Gamesmakers at the London 2012 Olympics! Wow!
- Then off to the Maldives for our honeymoon - Wow again!
- Then time to settle into wonderful married life :-) with little time for blogging!
Friday, 18 January 2013
Snow is here again!
What a time it has been since a post, but a fitting time to be blogging again.
We have a snow day! Well not a full on proper snow day, as we have been in to school, but it is 2pm and I am now at home. We were thinking if this had happened before and I said yes and I think it was a Wednesday; John said how do you know and I said I blogged about it and will check. Have just had a nice time reading the snow posts.
Last week, the forecasters starting predicting snow and we had had a little bit here and there but nothing to cause disruption - or even to build a snowman. Then rumours started going, including from the school cleaner, that Friday would be the day. I came out of the staff room yesterday after school to see all the teachers heading to one of the infant classrooms and had found out an emergency snow meeting had been called. The head gave out the same letters that had been sent to the children about how to find out if school is open and gave us his number to txt in the morning if we couldnt get in. John got the latest weather forecast up on the IWB and we all watched that. It seemed to suggest that snow would really hit us at 9am and carry on for the school day.
That evening (including during a meeting at school about turning to an academy) snow appeared to be falling, but very light wisps of it and not a chance of anything sticking.
Woke up at 6.30 with the alarm this morning and after a moment leapt out of bed to check behind the blind. Alas, there would be no need to txt the head. There was a very slight covering on a few of the car rooves but that was it. By the time we started driving it was indeed snowing, but nothing seemed to be sticking. We parked in the junior playground and carried snow boots into the classroom.
By the time the children were here, it was still snowing and this time it was settling. There were discussions about what we should say to parents about school staying open and the message was school will be open till 3 but children can be collected at lunchtime if conditions become such that it's needed. I did overhear the head discussing with the Didcot teachers that the 7 of them would each be responsible for a year group in the afternoon if all the other teachers needed to go. We also heard snippets from TAs about what was going on at other schools in the area.
I only had 4 away which I felt was pretty good going. We had a pretty normal start to the day then it was all hands on deck for breaktime - children with boots went outside while others stayed in a couple of the classrooms. It was still snowing pretty hard which meant it was hard to look anywhere outside! Break was kind of delayed and so we didnt do phonics, and then things kind of descended! While I was checking who really did have wet shoes and socks, I put on the 8 minute video of the three little pigs. Feet checked I then started changing the reading books. The video finished but I hadn't - doh! The children pleaded to have it again so wonderful teacher that I am I let them! Then to fill time did a few maths games on the board and then explained to the children what might be happening at lunchtime. We gave out Ratty and had just started reading a big book story when the parents started arriving at 11.45. Children started to eat in the classroom if they were still here at 12.15. Then children all went to Foundation Stage for a film if they were still here and non-Didcot teachers were able to leave.
A pizza box was passed from one of the other cars in the car park to start clearing the couple of inches off Mavis. John drove magnificently home. The hairiest bit was at the end of the school road which has a little slope downwards to the main road. Mavis wouldn't stop and there was a car travelling slowly along the road towards us and somehow we missed but it was very close. The A34 was fine half the way and just slow the rest.
We are home safe now! John is in the bath and I am happily doing this. Sadly I have no photos yet - I am really out the habbit! but hopefully I will take some soon. We have tickets for a secret cinema event tonight with Lizzie in London. I really hope we can make it! It's still snowing outside...
We have a snow day! Well not a full on proper snow day, as we have been in to school, but it is 2pm and I am now at home. We were thinking if this had happened before and I said yes and I think it was a Wednesday; John said how do you know and I said I blogged about it and will check. Have just had a nice time reading the snow posts.
Last week, the forecasters starting predicting snow and we had had a little bit here and there but nothing to cause disruption - or even to build a snowman. Then rumours started going, including from the school cleaner, that Friday would be the day. I came out of the staff room yesterday after school to see all the teachers heading to one of the infant classrooms and had found out an emergency snow meeting had been called. The head gave out the same letters that had been sent to the children about how to find out if school is open and gave us his number to txt in the morning if we couldnt get in. John got the latest weather forecast up on the IWB and we all watched that. It seemed to suggest that snow would really hit us at 9am and carry on for the school day.
That evening (including during a meeting at school about turning to an academy) snow appeared to be falling, but very light wisps of it and not a chance of anything sticking.
Woke up at 6.30 with the alarm this morning and after a moment leapt out of bed to check behind the blind. Alas, there would be no need to txt the head. There was a very slight covering on a few of the car rooves but that was it. By the time we started driving it was indeed snowing, but nothing seemed to be sticking. We parked in the junior playground and carried snow boots into the classroom.
By the time the children were here, it was still snowing and this time it was settling. There were discussions about what we should say to parents about school staying open and the message was school will be open till 3 but children can be collected at lunchtime if conditions become such that it's needed. I did overhear the head discussing with the Didcot teachers that the 7 of them would each be responsible for a year group in the afternoon if all the other teachers needed to go. We also heard snippets from TAs about what was going on at other schools in the area.
I only had 4 away which I felt was pretty good going. We had a pretty normal start to the day then it was all hands on deck for breaktime - children with boots went outside while others stayed in a couple of the classrooms. It was still snowing pretty hard which meant it was hard to look anywhere outside! Break was kind of delayed and so we didnt do phonics, and then things kind of descended! While I was checking who really did have wet shoes and socks, I put on the 8 minute video of the three little pigs. Feet checked I then started changing the reading books. The video finished but I hadn't - doh! The children pleaded to have it again so wonderful teacher that I am I let them! Then to fill time did a few maths games on the board and then explained to the children what might be happening at lunchtime. We gave out Ratty and had just started reading a big book story when the parents started arriving at 11.45. Children started to eat in the classroom if they were still here at 12.15. Then children all went to Foundation Stage for a film if they were still here and non-Didcot teachers were able to leave.
A pizza box was passed from one of the other cars in the car park to start clearing the couple of inches off Mavis. John drove magnificently home. The hairiest bit was at the end of the school road which has a little slope downwards to the main road. Mavis wouldn't stop and there was a car travelling slowly along the road towards us and somehow we missed but it was very close. The A34 was fine half the way and just slow the rest.
We are home safe now! John is in the bath and I am happily doing this. Sadly I have no photos yet - I am really out the habbit! but hopefully I will take some soon. We have tickets for a secret cinema event tonight with Lizzie in London. I really hope we can make it! It's still snowing outside...
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