Theatre - The Mousetrap

This was another school outing organised by Mr B on 8th October 2013.  It was my fourth time seeing the show.  The other three were at St Martin's Theatre in London.  This was a special tour of the show to mark it's 60th Anniversary - the longest running play in the world!  My first visit was a special grown up outing with one parent and R, my best friend from primary school.  The second time was not long after with the whole family and my French exchange.  And the third time was with John on a summer London adventure day.

The funniest thing about this was that I couldn't remember who the murderer was - I had got it very confused in my mind after the second time I saw it, a man in the audience said it was the butler who did and I think he might have said he had played Major Metcalfe in the play at one time.  So it was a nice surprise for me watching it this time and still being able to enjoy the twist.  I liked that the set looked the same - I do like a country house room set with lots of different doors.  There was a funny bit where the curtain, which is opened and closed comically many on several occasions, was gradually coming off more and more hooks each time it was opened until it fell off altogether and the audience gave a nervous laugh.

Pleased to be able to see it and enjoy it again.  This was also about the time they showed the final four Poirot's on TV and I read a few of my Agatha's from home so I was really having a murder mystery overload!  Way to go Agatha!

Musical - Once

John had been mentioning this musical as he had seen the film some years ago, but I didn't know anything about it.  I decided to get us tickets for it for our first wedding anniversary.

We went the night (Friday July 26th 2013) before John did the London Triathlon and we were staying in a hotel for the night near the Excel.  I had read that there was entertainment before hand on the stage so I was keen for us to get there early.  The set was an Irish pub and it was serving drinks which as we watched from our seats in the circle we realised members of the audience were buying and drinking on stage.  And meanwhile people were playing musical instruments and singing Irish songs on stage.  It later turned out that these singers and musicians were the cast.  As 7.30pm approached, they certainly removed the audience from the stage and after a few more songs, the show started.



I really liked the staging.  The cast were on stage almost the whole time, but when they weren't required for a scene, they moved to the side of the stage (still inside the 'pub') where they sat on chairs and watched the performance and then they became the musicians when needed and they played a whole host of instruments.  I enjoyed the music as it had a my kind of folksy feel to it.  The show was interesting, although I didn't think it would survive deep rationalising, and left you feeling upbeat.  I thought the two lead actors were really good as were the others.  I enjoyed the scenes when the characters were speaking Czech, but all that really happened was they put up the Czech subtitles, until a nice twist at the end!

 At the interval, the bar came out on to the stage again.  After lots of embarassed no's from me, we eventually went down the stairs and through the stalls up on to the stage - eeek!  I have stood on a West End Stage.  It was hard to take it all in and we weren't allowed to take photos.  We bought 2 J2Os for the most expensive price ever - £10!  We did get souvenir plastic glasses with lids that we are still enjoying using.

A very enjoyable evening.  Thank you John for the suggestion. 

The Definitive Musicals List Update

Today I have been filling in several posts about Musicals from over the last year. I am so lucky to be able to see them all.  When I was with Katy seeing Starlight, we got talking about musicals we had seen and I read her my Definitive Musicals List for her to see how many of those she had seen.  Then I started reading off the ones I had seen since that post to see if she had seen those and I was amazed how many of those there were.  I wonder if it's close to the original 50?!  And I am thinking that it would be nice to have a second list with all of those seen subsequently on it, with links to the reviews.  And hopefully whenever I see a new one I can add it on here too.

So here goes...

58. Rocky Horror Show - with attitude.  Oxford New Theatre.  June 2010
59. Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat. Oxford New Theatre. June 2010
60. Whistle Down the Wind.  Malvern, July 2010
61. Don't Stop Believin'. Deby, October 2010
62. Hairspray. Oxford New Theatre, October 2010
63. Jesus Christ, Superstar. Oxford Playhouse, November 2010
64. The King and I. Leicester Curve, December 2010
65. Mamma Mia. London Prince Edward's Theatre?  April 2011
66. Million Dollar Quartet. London, June 2011
67. Grease. Oxford New Theatre, July 2011
68. Jersey Boys. London Prince Edward Theatre, October 2011
69. Sister Act. New Theatre Oxford, October 2011
70. Our House. Harrogate. October 2011
71. 42nd Street. Curve Leicester, December 2011
72. Anything Goes. Oxford Playhouse, May 2012
73. Rent. Wantage, August 2012
74. Cabaret. London Savoy Theatre, October 2012
75. Radio Times. High Wycombe Swan, November 2012
76. Hello Dolly. Curve Leicester, December 2012
77. Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Oxford New Theatre, February 2013
78. Matilda. London Cambridge Theatre, March 2013
79. Billy Elliot. London Victoria Palace, April 2013
80. Starlight Express. Norwich, April 2013
81. Les Miserables. London Queens theatre, May 2013

Wow! Well that's up to date now.  Pretty good.  Looking forward to adding more as we go!

82. Once. London Phoenix Theatre.  July 2013
83. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. London Theatre Royal Drury Lane, November 2013
84. Cats. Oxford New Theatre, December 2013

Musical - Les Miserables

I wonder if this is the first time I have done a second post about going to see the same Musical?  Exciting!  This has been quite a big Les Miserables year.  The film of the musical came out in January and we had an 11am (earliest we could get) trip to see it with the Rascals in Cambridge on the first Saturday it was out.  We had such a good time, though I came out saying I still preferred the stage.  But I was really impressed with how true it was to the stage show.  And was absolutely astonished to hear they recorded the singing live on set while acting it - how amazing.  We have since had many a Les Mis sing-along together.  And we watched the 25th Anniversary DVD in two epic cry-fest installments together.

This was a birthday gift to D and we made the most of it with a day trip in London including picnic in Hyde Park, where we gave him the tickets - good surprise!  We were all so excited anticipating it and it didn't disappoint.  I, as the unmusical one, was super impressed with how the voices filled the theatre.  We were up in the highest circle but still good.

Lots of fun times and we now have many a favourite Les Mis related youtube session!

Ockham's Razor - Not Until We Are Lost

Well this was a new experience in very many ways.  Going to a theatre to see some modern dance/acrobatic/something-or-other and have a family member performing in it!

We really had no idea what we were going to see on 20th April, except that Lizzie had joined her friend in a choir who would be performing along with this production.  Mum had been to see it in Malvern, but with a local choir, not Lizzie. 

It was at a theatre in Finchley in some modern space and it was a promenade performance - there were no seats and you followed the action around the space.  I still don't really know what it was but it was fascinating.  There were 5 Ockhams who were all amazing gymnastic acrobats and they performed different routines/pieces/dances/? to the accompaniment of a harp and sometimes the choir's singing.  Definitely impressive and pleased we went.  Big thumbs up to Lizzie and B - super job!

Musical - Starlight Express

Wow! It seems quite amazing to me that this is the first Starlight Express post on the blog.  How can that be when it seems such a big part of my life.  Well, there is a post involving Starlight Express documenting some of my early experiences, but this is the first post about a current trip to see it!


Katy (wowee, check out her blog - super impressed.  I was there at it's conception and it has far exceeded my goings ons now.  Definitely in awe) and I have a long-standing history of going to see the touring production of Starlight Express.  She booked tickets for us to go see this one in Norwich on 13th April and great anticipation ensued with a slew of lyrics being texted back and forth in the week leading up to it.  We listened to one ear piece apiece on the train on the way to Norwich and decided on our favourite lines we would be listening out (sadly her's was cruelly missed but 'you want to boil with the oil or lose with the fuse' was there!).  We also debated how many times we had seen it - this blog appears to suggest this was our third - and generally had fun musicals chat including reference to this blog.

We did enjoy it, and enjoyed our time in Norwich too.  We can't help but feel it's not as good as in London and it never will be, but I think with our expectations lowered we end up enjoying it still!  There was a girl band number that I feel wouldn't look out of place on the X Factor that the carriages sing, but I think that was the bit that annoyed me most!

Thank you Starlight - we love you!

Musical - Billy Elliot

It really feels like I am on such a lucky run of musicals at the moment. After we saw Matilda, John texted one of his friends who likes musicals and as we were all teachers we decided to meet up in the Easter holidays for some West End Action.  Billy Elliot was what we had in mind and after some to-ing and fro-ing around Leicester Square, we ended up at the half price ticket booth with 3 stalls tickets for the matinee.

We had a lovely lunch at Honest Burger and walked through the very snowy blizzard (yes on April 4th, Easter holiday) to get the tube to Victoria.  There was lots of rebuilding work going on at Victoria and I thought the theatre looked so funny standing there on its own.  Though I also felt kinda proud for it, that it was worthy of staying standing!

We settled into out seats to enjoy the show.  I had been to see it while I was at uni and remembered enjoying it.  I remember being very impressed with Billy, I remember the whole audience sniffing after the letter song and I remember the bed moving up and down.  I realised as it started that that was all I really remembered and that wasn't very much!

The number where Billy and Michael were trying on his Mum's clothing was brilliant.  Michael had such confidence and stole that bit of the show.  There was then a bit where these 7 foot high dresses danced around them and that's when I realised how little I remembered as that seemed sure to be a stand out.

Just as Billy was building up for his big dance number at the end of the first half where he is angry with the injustice of something... and he ran off the side of the stage then a stage man all dressed in black walked on saying there was a technical difficulty and they would be breaking for the interval.  This made me feel odd as at lunchtime we had been talking about that happening and I couldn't remember the circumstances but as we all turned to face each other excitedly it turned out that the time we had been talking about was the last time our friend had been to see Billy Elliot!  A coincidence??  We speculated for a long time.  The second half continued and we never did see that number.

There were lots of other good bits though. I much more enjoyed Billy's swan lake dance with the 'older billy' - especially the flying bit which i didn't remember from before.  Definitely made me feel different inside.  Then of course there was the letter number where the tears collected in my big jumper neck.  I was cross with myself as I had reassured myself earlier in the day that I had tissues for this moment but then I had left them inaccessible in my bag!  I had them on my lap for the second half and was ready for the reprise which I felt I could feel the audiences reaction more.  Then 'electricity' was really good.  I like the combination of the singing and the dancing music.

On the bus on the way home, I read the entire wikipedia article on the mining strike as it really felt such a disturbing issue.  Back home we also watched several Billy Elliot youtube videos including a three parter about the staging of the second US tour!