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: Starlight Express - Brighton Centre

Whilst I was off work over Christmas and sales shopping, I decided I needed to book myself some theatre tickets for 2013 and I thought what better way to start than a musical on the first Saturday in January. 

Starlight Express written by Andrew Lloyd Webber is currently touring the UK with this Bill Kenwright production. I pretty much knew nothing going in except they're pretending to be trains on rollerskates. IMO ALW gets a lot of unfair stick in the musical theatre world, Evita would have to be my favourite musical of his and I would recommend it to everyone, it's a real stunning piece of music. It's a shame I can't say the same for this show, I was bored and thinking now I can't remember any of the songs bar one and I only saw it 3 days ago. I did read in the program that ALW wrote this for his children so maybe I'm just not the intended audience but then again that's no excuse for shoddy work.

Part of the reason I think is because it's a Bill Kenwright production and they're nothing if not know for being cheap. There was no set bar a giant LED screen and two half pipes to skate on, I imagine the show was stunning when it opened at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London but it just wasn't working for me at the Brighton Centre. When I walked in I was handed a pair of 3D glasses which are used to show the race part of the show but again I read in my program this was introduced in 1993 and needs some serious updating. It did amuse me that Pearl is blonde in the show and suddenly in the 3D film she's ginger.  The actors have my admiration for dancing and singing on rollerskates even though most of their routines did seem to involve skating in circles and I thought the costumes were good but again looking a little tired. All in all I can't say it was worth the £50 I spent on a ticket.

Looking forward to the other shows I've booked, next Saturday I'll be off to see Taboo in Brixton which has had rave reviews so fingers crossed I'll enjoy that one a little more. Also when I get paid I need to book myself tickets for The Book of Mormon, Once & A Chorus Line, they're probably the shows I'm most looking forward to in 2013.

What about everyone else? Has anyone else got any shows planned they're looking forward to? Or other TV, music or film that I should look out for?

Round up

It's that time of the year again when U.S. TV likes to take an irritating mid season break, well I don't know if it's always this time of the year, it just so happens two of my shows are affected so now I'll write about it.

First up I watched Revenge which has taken so many twists and turns now that I feel permanently dizzy but there's something about it that means I just can't stop watching. We've been left with Daniel successfully overtaking Grayson Global meaning the Initiative are now moving in on him, Jack has finally realised the Ryan brothers are bad news and an old flame from Nolan's past could possibly blow Emily's cover. At least we don't have long to wait to find out what bizarre twist the writers will throw at us next.

Unlike The Walking Dead, which is a brilliant, brilliant TV series. Seriously if you're not watching it then you need to question what you're doing with your life. I think I'd be going on forever if I wrote what has just happened in the last episode so my absolute favourite bit would have to be Michonne's fight with the Governor. I was hoping she'd chop his head off with her awesome sword or maybe just kill him once, wait for him to come back as a zombie and enjoy killing him again but unfortunately Andrea had to show up to ruin things. This of course led to him turning on Merle and I somehow missed in all the smoke and gunshots that they managed to capture Daryl. He's probably my favourite character and I'm now going to sulk until February when we find out what happens there.

In recent theatre news, Whatsonstage.com have announced their annual theatre award nominations. Any time any kind of nominations are released it reminds me I never get round to watching enough film, theatre etc. I guess it makes it easy in a way that I've only seen one nominee in each category. To view the nominations and vote click here.

I was going to also write my view on the latest Homeland and Misfits but this post is getting a little long now. So finally in book news, I got sent a copy of The Fault in our Stars by John Green, which I've seen so many quotes and rave reviews over on Tumblr so I'm looking forward to getting into it myself. I got sent it by Spinebreakers who are running a competition to #passiton, basically the person who has passed their copy onto the most people will win £500 worth of books to share which is pretty much my idea of heaven so hopefully my friends will help me out with this. Fingers crossed!

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.