erm... hi

Well this blogging thing lasted long didn't it? Here's a list of what I've been up to since my last post:

• Port at the National
• The Captain of Kopenick at the National
• Table at the National (my last entry pass ticket *sob*)
• Idina Menzel & friends at the Hackney Empire for BBC Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night. She reminded me why she reserves the biggest space in my fangirl heart.
• Beyonce at the LG Arena. She was great and I really enjoyed her show (but still preferred Gaga's Born this Way Ball)
• In non theatre/show news my best friend brought her second child and a darling little girl into the world and asked me to be god parent so that's pretty exciting.

Coming up in May I am turning 26 (I'm going to be in my late twenties *more sobbing*), visiting Dublin for the first time and seeing Book of Mormon so more posts to come (maybe).

Review: Kiss Me, Kate - The Old Vic

Get into London Theatre offer big shows at small prices, I've know about them for a few years now and never actually got round to booking shows through them until this year. Most of the shows do seem to only have tickets available Monday-Friday which is a bit of a pain when you don't live in London but luckily Kiss Me, Kate had some Saturday shows on there and you can't beat a good half price ticket. 

Now I'll readily admit that I'm a complete seat snob in theatres and rarely sit up in the gods and I'm trying to get used to it as when I turn 26 I apparently lose all entitlement to being a "young person." So my ticket at just £15 was in the Lilian Baylis circle (as pictured above) and I wonder if this played a part in my enjoyment (or rather lack of) of the show because I just felt so disjointed and far away. The audience's irritating behaviour also did not help, I'll forgive any fidgeting as I probably was just as bad myself with the uncomfortable seats but the constant mutter of comments, crackling of plastic water bottles, noses being blown and my chair being kicked was so distracting.

The show features a show within a show as we see a theatre company putting on a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew but things are complicated when the leads Lilli Vanessi playing Katherine (Hannah Waddingham) and Fred Graham playing Petruchio (Alex Bourne) are ex-lovers. Things take a turn for the worst when Bill (Adam Garcia) racks up a gambling debt of $10,000 and signs a IOU in Fred's name prompting two gangsters to turn up to collect it during the show. Obviously it's an old fashioned musical and has a lot of long talking scenes and with the mixture of being so far away and surrounded by an irritating audience it was hard to keep concentration during them. I also can't say I was too comfortable about the ongoing joke that Fred had beat Lilli so hard that she was in constant pain.

This isn't the first show I've had the pleasure of seeing Hannah Waddingham in and she deservedly stills the limelight yet again. I also enjoyed seeing Adam Garcia on stage again as well as Clive Rowe as one of the gangsters. The ensemble were also wonderful to watch in their big numbers such as "Too Darn Hot." I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this show as much as I was expecting but I didn't hate it either, for me it was just ok. 

Something's coming, something good

I have really been slacking with this blog, I was suppose to be off to see Taboo a couple of weeks ago  but then the snow came and shat all over that plan so I couldn't review that and then I've just been procrastinating and not watching all the movies that I planned to.

Anyway today's post is brought to you by the excitement of Broadway since we seem to be getting a lot of it coming to London this year. New York City is my absolute favourite city in the world, I've been lucky enough to visit twice but sadly haven't been for a good 7 years. Needless to say with a love of NYC comes a great love of Broadway.

Next month I'll be seeing Sherie Rene Scott at the Matcham Room, Hippodrome, I don't have tickets yet but am hoping to see A Chorus Line and Once at some point during February and March, I do have a ticket booked for The Book of Mormon in May and I'm also hoping to get a ticket to see Patti LuPone in June. Most, if not all, these shows I've seen come and go on the other side of the pond the last few years and now I'm rather excited that I get a chance to see them for myself.

Also yesterday the National announced their next season which also sounds incredibly, particularly the Tori Amos musical The Light Princess and the Simon Russell Beale/Sam Mendes King Lear. Unfortunately for me my entry pass membership expires when I turn 26 in May so no more amazing £5 tickets, here's hoping there are plenty £12 Travelex tickets to go around!

Review: Florence + the Machine - O2 Arena

                                                             Photo by me

Along with the theatre, I absolutely love going to gigs and when the opportunity came up to see Florence for the second time this year I just couldn't pass it up. I feel like a bit of a latecomer to f+tm as I didn't really fall in love with them until the release of Ceremonials and that's when I went back to listen to Lungs and realised what an incredible album that is too.

I made my way to the O2 yesterday and got there for about 6:30 when the doors opened so managed to get a decent standing spot only about 6 people back from the barriers. If you're not a seasoned gig goer I recommend aiming for the sides as you can normally get closer with everyone else aiming for the middle and as you can see above I didn't have a bad view at all.

After standing through the support act Haim (made up of 3 sisters and a lone male from California), who actually weren't all that bad but I was far too distracted by the bizarre facial expression the bassist kept pulling. It was finally time for Florence to take to the stage, the set and entrance were pretty much exactly the same as when I saw them at Alexandra Palace but who needs to focus on that when Florence is demanding all your attention. She's definitely up there in my favourites and just has so much energy bouncing around the stage it's impossible not to bounce with her in the pit. My personal highlights would have to be 'You've got the Love', 'Shake it Out', 'No Light, No Light', 'Sweet Nothing', 'Spectrum' & 'Dog Days.' As you can tell it's quite hard to pinpoint my exact favourites as I really enjoyed the whole concert. If you're a fan of the music then you definitely need to go see them live.

Review: The Magistrate - Olivier (National) Theatre

I begin my first review at the end, that is unless I decide to grab tickets to something last minute then this will be my last and 19th theatre trip of the year. Maybe I should find something else to see since I have an irrational hate of odd numbers. Anyway off to the National I went yesterday, as my time as an entry pass member comes to an end next May I'm trying to see anything and everything I can at £5 a show, well it would be silly not to.

The Magistrate by Arthur Wing Pinero promises to be a "fast, furious, brilliantly plotted Victorian farce" and whilst it's not the funniest thing I've seen on stage, I had an enjoyable afternoon. The story centres around how telling a little white lie can snowball into bigger things, John Lithgow plays the timid Aeneas Posket Police Magistrate and particularly shines when he gets to take centre stage near the beginning of the second act and recounts how he made an escape. I could find no faults in any of the other cast and enjoyed performances by Nancy Carroll, Christina Cole, Beverley Rudd & Joshua McGuire.

With only two different settings in each act I found the action not always as hilarious as it could be and the first half did start to drag a little, although this was certainly not helped by sitting up front in the National's uncomfortable seats. Each setting interlude was filled by a song from some Dandies which I enjoyed being more a fan of musicals than straight plays, especially the all cast number at the end of the play which guarantees the audience leaves with a smile on their faces. I can't finish this review without giving the impressive set a mention which often resembled a pop up book and certainly appropriately set the tone of the piece.

The Magistrate is a lovely piece of theatre and I believe this cast gives it that extra oomph that makes it worth seeing. It is playing at the Olivier Theatre at the National until February 10th and will be broadcast to cinemas across the UK and around the world on January 17th.