Yesterday (Monday 13 - on Sunday there's only The Lion King and I had already seen it... and didn't like it that much) there was no matinée and I decided to go for The Sound of Music which I had never seen (of course I saw the movie many times and love it).
Once again, I was lucky enough to find a day ticket: 20 pounds for the first row (they consider first row as a restricted view, but it's a wonderful sit! And you can also see a little of bit of the orchestra which is nice in my opinion).
At this performance, the role of Maria was played by the alternate Maria, Aoife Mulholland. She was very very good at singing and acting! The role of Captain Georg von Trapp was played by Christopher Dickens and he was good too!
Probably, the most impressive performer was Margaret Preece, playing Mother Abbess (i.e., the one singing the wonderful "Climb every mountain"). There's no doubt about it, also considering she's been playing the role of Carlotta in The Phantom! By the way, by looking at her biography, you also find out that she's the one singing the parts of Carlotta in the Phantom movie (Minnie Diver does not sing those parts).
The show was really great and I enjoyed every minute of it! Many compliments to the whole cast!
At the end of the show I went to the Stage Door, and managed to get the sign of Sophie Bould playing the role Liesl (very bright in her performance, and so cute and wonderfully kind after the show at signing! - by the way, she also played the role of Maria sometimes) and also the one of Christopher. Unfortunately Aoife wasn't coming out and I didn't want to be too late.
Since it was Saturday I knew in advance that it would have been quite hard to find any good ticket (if not any ticket at all) since that's the most crowded day for musicals.
I first tried with the Sound of Music, but they had really high prices and only one "cheap" available sit (very far and with restricted view). Too bad. I tried with Billy Eliott the musical. Well, there was an acceptable queue for day tickets but fortunately I found one for 25 pounds in the second row. This was intended as a restricted view, since you had to keep you are very near the stage which was a little bit high. However, it wasn't restricted at all! That was really a very good sit and I could see everything and very well!
The show started very well and looked pretty good! In particular all the kids were very good at dancing and also singing. The music was not that impressive in my opinion. The show lasts 3 hours and I found it pretty long... many numbers might also be removed without losing anything, I think. Moreover there were many kitsch parts... for instance, the one sung and "danced" by the grandmother and most of all the encore after the finale... well... I guess it might have been better... I'm not saying I hated the show, but I've surely seen better ones, and I'm sure I wouldn't want to see it again.
For the evening, I found another 25 pounds dayticket, fourth row in the stalls, for Avenue Q. I knew nothing about this show but it was suggested to me by some friends and I thought I should give it a try... Thanks a lot to those who suggested it! That's one of the most funniest show I've ever seen! I laughed and laughed and laughed till I got misty eyes, really!
The characters of the show are both "humans" and puppets (that are moved by actors that act together with the puppets themselves while they're singing) who live in Avenue Q. It's incredible how the actors moving the puppets succeed in creating such expressions in the puppets! And, both the actor's and the puppet's several face expressions are the same. The show is really meant to be funny: really, nothing serious, even though it tries to provide a moral, which is nothing new, but not even wrong.
The cast was really greeeeattt! Only six persons; 3 of them acting as "humans" and 3 of them moving the puppets (these 3 often played more parts at the same time). They were great at singing and also at acting (and at moving the puppets). Unfortunately, I missed some jokes, due to the English language, but for most of the time I laughed and had fun.
If you have the chance, please do not hesitate, and enjoy this show! :-D
By the way, without knowing it in advance, I happened to attend the 500th performance of Avenue Q :-)
OK, so here's the report about the second day (10th August, which, by the way, was also my honomastic)!
For the matinée I tried to go to the theater of Grease. I had seen this musical in Italy and I enjoyed it, so I thought I could see it in West End :-) I was actually quite skeptical about seeing it in the West End, since I happened to read on a magazine here in London, that critics about it were not quite good, although the audience loved it. However, I found a day ticket, 20 pounds, first row (yeah, really first row).
Well, the audience was right: it was a really, really, funny show! The cast was absolutely brilliant! Everyone! They were good at singing, at dancing, and most of all, at acting! And this makes Grease a really enjoyable show that I suggest to everyone that also likes to have fun and laugh at musicals :-)
For the evening, I decided to see one of my favorites: Mamma Mia! this was the third time I was seeing this musical.
This is one of those funny musicals, where you really laugh a lot (well, probably if you're mother tongue, you'll probably laugh more than me, since I miss some jokes: you know, when the audience suddenly laughs and you don't know why :-)
Abba songs are carefully and ingeniously embedded in a funny comedy!
Well, I must admit that the cast was not so brilliant in singing... but they really compensated that with their acting: they were perfect for this comedy! Every moment, every expression was meant to make you laugh. I had a very good place (sort of day ticket) about 10th row, perfectly central, so I could see every single blinking eyes, and every single minimal face expression of the cast. So, this was definitely my best Mamma Mia performance.
Mamma mia is a must see, in my humble opinion! I might be biased, though: I love Abba music :-)
So, this musical day was indeed a funny musical day!
I arrived yesterday (9th August) in the morning, so I had the chance to enjoy 2 musicals already!
The first one was the matinée of Mary Poppins the musical. This musical features the original songs plus some new written songs (just for the musical I guess). The original songs are lovely, while the new songs... well... they look like they're there only to fill some gaps... probably I'm saying this only because I heard them once.
However, the cast was great and also the choreography was brilliant; there were also lots of special effects (Mary actually "flights" with her umbrella also over the audience and Bert walks upside down on the stage).
I cannot say it's the best musical I've ever seen (and don't know whether I'd like to see it again), but I surely enjoyed it, and I feel like suggesting it.
For the evening... I special musical, one of my favorites... Les Miserables! This is always a fantastic show! Absolutely! That was my third time but it's always magic! Moreover, this time, there was something I really had to see, John Owen-Jones performing Jean Valjean (the main character). John played the Phantom for 4 years in the West End (I saw him in that musical too), and he's really great. He did not disappoint me in Les Miserables, his voice is really great. I must admit, though, that I was a little bit disappointed about his acting... that was not really good, but after all he was great. I'd have some critics also about some other performers: Hans Peter Janssens as Javert and Edward Baruwa as Enjolras... I think they didn't really fit their role (especially Edward: his voice was not really perfect for the role). But this is just to find something wrong in this fabulous show ;-)
Well, stay tuned for some more news ;-)
At the moment, I found a 20£ ticket for Grease, this afternoon. Now I'm trying to find a good one for Mamma Mia for tonight!
Purple Sucker is a Deep Purple cover band I've been playing with since 1999. We perform only songs by the great Deep Purple! You can also find us on MySpace.
Here are some photos from our concert in Legri, on 30th June 2007. You can find the whole photo gallery in this section of our home page.
Since the 22nd will be our first concert, for the moment we don't have any live recording; we plan to make one on that occasion, so stay tuned for that :-)
Hope you like ABBA fabulous music, so full of joy and melody, and hope you'll take a chance and come to our concerts ;-)
If you've never seen this musical, you've missed a lot! It's one of the most spectacular, let alone funniest, musical I've ever seen. It is a rock musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Richard Stilgoe. It has a spectacular choreography, since it is performed entirely on roller skates!
The music is spectacular too, don't get me wrong (I might be biased since I adore Andrew Lloyd Webber's musicals :-) but what really strikes you is seeing those singers/dancers/acrobats on the skates. Indeed, the characters of the musical interpret trains!
This is the plot of the musical (borrowed from wikipedia page):
In a child’s dream, a racing tournament takes place on a model railway, with engines from all over the world competing. Representing the USA is Greaseball, an arrogant diesel locomotive who bears a strong resemblance to Elvis Presley, whose girlfriend is Dinah the dining car. He is accompanied by the Greaseball Gang, also diesel locomotives. In the yards lives Rusty, a steam engine who dreams of winning the race but who is seen as slow and old-fashioned by everyone else. He is in love with Pearl the observation car, but when he asks her out she turns him down. A late entry to the race is Electra, a state-of-the-art electric locomotive who bears some resemblance to David Bowie, with the Components, his own personal freight cars. He convinces Pearl to race with him. Poppa, an old steam engine and past racing champion, serves as Rusty's mentor. To bolster his confidence, he tells him the legend of the Starlight Express, a midnight train who helps engines in distress.
Dinah & Greaseball
In 1992 the plot was slightly changed, some characters were removed (e.g., Belle the sleeping car and BC), some songs were removed (e.g., "Only him") and others added (e.g., one of my favorite, "Next time you fall in love", which, like many of Webber's songs, immediately hits you, in spite of its simplicity)
Electra & his gang
I happened to see this musical, almost by chance, in 2000, at the Apollo theatre, near Victoria station, in London (when I was working in Cambridge). I knew basically nothing about it, and never heard any of its song. After the first song ("Rolling stock") I was already hit by the show and started to adore it and enjoy every minute of it. At the end of the show, I loved it!
The Coaches (Buffy: the buffet car, Ashley: the smoking car, Dinah: the dining car, Pearl: the observation car)
The show closed the year after (if I remember well) and started a UK tour, which is still on. Keep in mind that the stage in the theater was built especially for this show. Well, this is quite typical of London show (e.g., Cats) but in this case the stage spreads through the audience with many tracks throughout the theater that are by the trains... ehm... the actors when they perform the races (at high speed actually).
Greaseball & his gang
Then, in 2005, I went to Edinburgh for a conference... when I landed there, at the airport I happened to see a brochure saying the Starlight Express was touring there in those days! You can't imagine my surprise and happiness! Of course, I went to see the show (twice :-)
Pearl & Rusty
The tour version of the show is a little bit different, starting from the stage that could not be the same of the original one: you should change the theater almost completely. Thus, there were not tracks and the races were not actually performed live: they were shown on big screens in 3d (you get the special 3d glasses at the theater). The plot was changed too, and basically it was more similar to the original plot than to the 1992 plot. However, the cast was reduced, and some characters were missing (in particular, Belle, some national trains and some gangs characters). Some songs were changed too ("Lotta locomotion" was completely changed, in worse way, in my opinion) and "Next time you fall in love" was removed :-(
However, I enjoyed the show anyway, since it was still spectacular, and it was emotional to see one of my favorite musicals ever!
Here are some videos found on YouTube. They're not the most spectacular moments of the show, and it's not like being there, but you might get an idea :-)
"Crazy"
"Whole lotta locomotion"
"I am the starlight" and "Light at the end of the tunnel"
I'm a researcher in Computer Science at Dipartimento di Informatica, Univ. Torino, Italy. I love programming!
I'm also a guitar player, and love rock and musicals!
Yesterday (Monday 13 - on Sunday there's only The Lion King and I had already seen it... and didn't like it that much) there was no matinée and I decided to go for The Sound of Music which I had never seen (of course I saw the movie many times and love it).
At this performance, the role of Maria was played by the alternate Maria, Aoife Mulholland. She was very very good at singing and acting! The role of Captain Georg von Trapp was played by Christopher Dickens and he was good too!
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