Musical - Return to the Forbidden Planet

Writing up to date as we went to see this last night, 3rd April 2015 (although now by the time I have finished and posting it's 26th April!)!  I had been to see it while I was at uni fairly on the spur of the moment when I was at home in the holidays in Malvern.  I didn't remember much about it, except that I loved it and wanted to go again the following night but didn't.  I remember loving the music (mainly rock 'n' roll hits) and being impressed with the performers who sang, acted and played loads of instruments on stage the whole time.  The only other things I remembered were that it was set in space and Brian May was recorded and appeared every so often on tv.

So there was quite a lot that was new to me last night.  I had had the dates in my phone for months for when it would be in Oxford and John generously bought us both tickets to go.  It turned out the story was based on the Tempest and that a lot of the dialogue was Shakespearean-esque, though I recognised a lot from Romeo and Juliet so I don't know where the rest was from.  When we entered the (less than half full) auditorium there were several cast as astronauts walking around the stage and they came down in to the audience. It started with the lights on with one of them giving funny safety announcements and then we had to practise 'reversing polarity'.  The words jogged something in my memory but I have no recollection of the whole audience doing actions.  And as seemingly everyone in the audience immediately did it, we felt that lots of people knew the show well.

It started really well with Wipeout.  The sound filled the theatre and they played really well and moved in time together cleverly.  Then it went in to a funny no gravity situation that was very effective.  Sadly those were the main highlights of the show.  I was equally impressed with the performers and loved spotting who was playing a new instrument - such variety: guitars, drums, keys, saxes, trombones, trumpets, various singers.  The story was definitely ridiculous.  I was excited for Great Balls of Fire, the only one I specifically remembered, but it didn't wow me as much as I hoped.   That is, until...

The encore...WOW!  It definitely made me want to start a post specifically about encores!  This would be right up there in the top 3.  This was when they really went for it and played music like crazy.  This is what must have made me think it was so good!  Most of the performers started to strip off part of the astronaut suits.  It was quite creepy to see the robot guy as only half a person!  And to me delight they redid Great Ball of Fire super duperly and I was able to do a standing ovation.  What a way to rock the end of the show!

Thank you John for taking me -  I won't make you go again!
  

Theatre - Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime

A 'cultural' outing with friends organised at New Year very pro-actively for Saturday 21st March.  I had read the book back in 2004 when everyone was reading it on the tube and there were posters on all the stations (same time at the Da Vinci Code).  I had enjoyed it then, and heard good things about it as a play, although when it came to the evening I realised that all I remembered was that the boy was autistic, there was a dead dog, he got the tube on the northern line and the chapters were numbered in prime numbers.  So it was quite enjoyable just from a learning the story point of view.  It was also amazing in terms of theatre.  The set was like the inside of a huge black box.  There were lots of lights on it, looking a bit like going in to the abyss in Star Tours.  They lighted up cleverly at different points to make different staging.  And I wasn't sure how it would transfer from book format to play, but they had a teacher reading Christopher's writing which worked well. There were some stand out set bits including the opening of the pit to be the tube line, walking down the escalators that came out of the wall, and Christopher spend a long time building a train track and then the train suddenly started moving!  Lots of people gave it a standing ovation which was well deserved.  After the curtain call, Christopher came back to explain Pythagoras' theorem which was a joke that had been made during the show and was funny and well received!  Various chairs in the auditorium had covers on them and little cards saying that Christopher had designated them prime number seats.  It said if your name added up to a prime number then you could go and get a prize and John was brave enough to do it.  It turned out both our names are prime numbers!

Clearing up at the interval!

It was at the Gielgud Theatre where it had moved to after the roof of the theatre fell in on the night i went to see Cats. 

Musical - White Christmas

This was my Christmas present to John.  He really loved Tom Chambers in Strictly and we have watched his show dance with Camilla Dallerup many times and most especially his video of learning to drum and tap dance like Fred Astaire so often that it is now a family joke!







Tom Chambers was staring in White Christmas with Aled Jones and it turns out someone from the Bill for a special 8 week run over Christmas.  It finished last night which is when I got tickets for.  Sadly it wasn't a sell out but we thoroughly enjoyed it.  We didn't know the story and weren't really familiar with the songs.

I absolutely loved the sets - some of my favourites ever.  They changed often and after about half a dozen different sets I thought I ought to count how many but I was too involved with the show!  They were very full on sets and also it was a Vermont Inn which meant I loved the look of it any way.  There was lots of full on chorus dance numbers - John especially loved the tap dance ones, claiming it is his favourite type of dance.  I liked it when they tap danced on a little piano!  I thought the singing and acting was good too, being more impressed with the people I hadn't heard of before, including Betty and especially Martha.

 

Good times!

Musical - The Sound of Music

Very excited that this year Leicester Curve's Christmas production was the Sound of Music.  What a great choice, especially after our summer holiday in Salzburg.  And just the week before we broke up, the Year 5's had performed it at our school so it was definitely fresh in our minds. 

I had been to see it on stage in London when I was at uni at the time that the BBC and Andrew Lloyd Weber had done their 'How do you solve a problem like maria?' programme and Connie Fisher had won and was performing.  Although she was off for 2 weeks when we went as she had strained her voice!  I remember feeling it wasn't as good as the film as it turned out it was more like the original stage show before the film.  The songs were in a different order and there were extra ones for the baroness and they didn't have the puppet show. 

So in many ways I preferred it this time as I was half expecting those changes and indeed it was very like I remembered in London.  I was particularly excited as it was at the Curve and I dashed to the toilet before it started that I passed some nuns from the cast going in the opposite direction towards the stage!  The children were very good and I was particularly impressed with Captain Von Trapp as he sounded just like Christopher Plummer.  And I was very excited to find out in the interval that he had played Nick Jordan in Holby City who I had really liked!!

There was a funny bit where Maria is surprised by I think Brighitta so she exclaims and her exclamation made me and many in the audience in jump!  It was nice being the audience for the festival at the end though we all agreed that they didn't build the tension that much with the nazis and in the convent.  There was an interestingly huge picture back drop for the convent which was quite startling. 

The songs are so good - what a lot of great ones.  It was after buying the soundtrack last time I saw it that Lonely Goatherd became my favourite and still is.  Although I especially love it with the marionettes in the film.

Thank you for such a great Christmas present!

Theatre - Shakespeare In Love

This was an exciting pre-birthday adventure.  A few years ago Mum had given me theatre vouchers for my birthday and I had been quite particular about what sort of outing I spend them on.  This seemed to fit the criteria so the weekend before my birthday John and I headed to London and we invited Lizzie to go with us.

Shakespeare In Love has long been in my top 5 films and at the moment I would probably put it in the number one position.  I had heard they were making a play of it and I was in two minds about it.  Then I read a review in the week which said that the story had found it's natural home and it had four stars and said people would like it and if you liked the film then you would love it.  So that clinched it for me.

It was a fill that I remember watching when I was home sick from school and loving it all and crying so much (in a good way) at the end.   I loved that it was funny ('she has a cottage'), dramatic in a drama theatrical sense, a love story and it was the first thing I remember that made me think that Shakespeare wasn't all bad!

We went up to London for the matinee and sat in the stalls feeling very close to the action.  It was a great play with lots of lines direct from the film which I liked.  Though oddly, I didn't laugh out loud at those, I guess because I new they were coming, but there was the odd new line that I laughed at.  The staging was cool as it moved so you were either front of stage or back stage and I was very excited about being in the audience for the final production.  I was hoping that Queen Elizabeth would appear in our audience though.

Definitely a fun theatre time!

Salzburg

We went on a super week's holiday to Salzburg.  We had thought about going last year but are pleased we made it this year!  I wrote this list of things while we were there so thought I would copy it here and hopefully add photos!

Funny things

• Painful carpet
• Crumbling rock wall -stein slag
• Rising bollard
• Tipping at augustina
• Potato salad
• Brownlee dive
• John and clown
• Put your hands together ... In prayer
• We must have some real sound of music fans in the house. Yes. We have a treat just for you. Good.

Day1 weds

• Flight gatwick to Salzburg.
• Saw Walter and Amadeus.
• Delayed flight.
• Friendly taxi driver-wrong drop off.
• Didn't know which door!
• Awesome one room.
• Drinks and dinner at Cabrera -sheldonian.
• Walk in the rain along river and window shopping.
• Ping pong

Day 2-rain thurs

• Lie in and Harry potter
• Wander and found bakery. John had half an enormous loaf of ice bun!
• Wander round shops inc toy shop (awesome games, we bought travel Scotland Yard), interio and supermarket.
• Saw much higher river - like rapids.
• Tourist info and walk through some streets and squares.
• Return via supermarket and cooked pasta lunch.
• New ping pong game and Scotland Yard.
• Cabreras for beer guacamole and wifi.
• Augustina brewery tavern.

Day 3 - sunny fri

• Lie in
• Mirabel gardens. Picnic lunch. Music
• Booked on tour
• St. Peter's monastery cemetery
• Huhensalzburg fortress. Funicular views masks museum photo postcards.
• Cathedral
• Pretzel apple
• Maria bike tour -awesome. Jk-views, falling off boat, flags. Ck- music in basket, pics on bikes, fräulein Maria bike, j chain coming off, theatr pic, nunnery,lake and houses

Day 4 sat

• Lie in
• John run
• Catherine market
• Bus to fuschl with Eva and Abraham help.
• Paid for resort
• Lakeside rest, swim, platform, diving board, brass band, slide
• Hail storm, bus back. Red bull hq
• Il sole Italian
• Last night commonwealth athletics

Day 5 sun

• Lie in!
• Afternoon rest by theatres
• Sound of Salzburg dinner show

Day 6 mon -austerity

• Mega lie ins
• John yoga
• Table tennis
• Supermarket
• University square
• Dinner pasta
• Rock climbers
• Augustiner krugg
• Monchslag walk
• Opera

Day 7 Tuesday rain

• Bus to mondsee with guide nick and English Frances and poppy.
• Pick up bikes and cycle to church from som
• Cycle round lake in non stop rain.
• Picnic under tree.
• Trek slip and sliding to waterfall.
• Guest house closed!
• Cycle through tunnel
• Hot choc at guest house
• Bus back
• Pasta and debate

Day 8 weds leaving

• Read
• Wander round town
• Ring
• Tidy pack and lunch
• Airport
• Flight

Festival time

This summer I experienced my first ever festival.  I was apprehensive about it not being a camper or someone interested in late nights and noisy music and thought it would be a cultural phenomenon that would pass me by.

We were invited to the festival to share in the 30th birthday celebrations of some friends.  We bought our tickets to the 'small festival' Cock and Bull which won brownie points for me as the money went to the charity, Jamie's Farm.  A group of 9 of us descended on the farm in Wiltshire for the weekend and were lucky enough to have glorious summer weather for the duration.

And... I didn't hate it!!  Admittedly the bits I liked best were the hanging out outside in the sun, but hey that's something.  I even did a little dancing though can't really say there was any of the music I enjoyed!

Here are my bullets of enjoyment:

• how our tents were in a little circle and we sat on picnic rugs and shared drinks together
• the goat that wondered round and how I first saw it when sitting at the top of the hill reading by myself and I saw it jogging up the hill to the accoustic tent and had no one to say, look at that, to!
• Reading generally on the grass, woohoo!
• the accoustic tent was nice
• watching the farm olympics with great events like hay bale toss
• listening to the talk about Jamie's Farm
• the food - yum yum yum!!!  lots of nice stalls of deliciousness
•  playing Kubb and ultimate nerf thrower
• John's story of falling asleep during the documentary 'gone curling' and then finding it was a q and a with the director and he was the only one in there!
• the camera obscura was cool

And the noteworthy if not enjoyable:

•  succesffully managing to go to the toilet four times in the weekend.  the first time i can remember using a portaloo.
• successfully showering
• being awake to listen to music at the main stage barn, although preferirng lying on the wool sacks with my eyes closed!

Happy birthday D&H!