Fun Home - 07/07/18

This is a show I had been obsessing with for a over a year. I was so excited when it was announced in London. The way the tickets work at The Young Vic is you pick a band and you get your seats assigned at a later date. I don't remember what band I picked but they had student tickets at £10 so we choose the ones in that band. I expected kind of horrible seats, but no, we were in Row G. which was very close considering when we saw The Lion King at £22 we were in the heavens.

We saw the show in previews, meaning they could have adjusted things since then. Not that much needed adjusting, the only mildly concerning thing was Medium Alison's college bed. It was on wheels which I understand is to make it easier to bring onstage but it kept moving whenever somebody would get on or off it. This resulted in it coming off the turntable and the stage manager having to come out to push it back on. This didn't detract from the performance though, it was just one thing I noticed in and otherwise perfect show.

The standout performers were definitely Jenna Russell as Helen, Harriet Turnbull as Small Alison, Archie Smith as Christian and Eddie Martin as John. The children's entire number 'Come To The Fun Home' got the longest applause I have ever witnessed in a theatre. I am half surprised there wasn't a mid-show standing ovation. It was such a fun number with astounding choreography to match the brilliant vocals. Russell's performance of 'Days and Days' almost had me in tears. The only other musical that has had me that close to crying is Falsettos. If I could see this show again, I would. Lets hope it does a UK tour so I can!

5/5 

Legally Blonde - Beverley Musical Theatre @ Hull New Theatre 20/06/18

So I have loved Legally Blonde since I saw the version MTV filmed! It was the gateway musical to a lot of my current favourites, yet I had never seen it live.

The theatre company we saw is an amateur dramatics company, so I wasn't expecting much. (Due to my own experience in amateur dramatics elsewhere. It was not a pre-conceived conception of this company). After watching the show, this company showed me how amateur theatre should be done: professionally. I loved it so much. I did keep having the debate in my mind of did I love it because I love this show so much or did I genuinely love it? It was the latter.

The standout performer was definitely Joshua Archibald as Emmett, this was his debut with the company. He made the role entirely his own. It was so different to any other version of Emmett I have seen whilst scouring the internet. He made his Emmett dorky and lovable but in such a unique way that you really can't name it.

All of the songs sounded amazing! I highly praise their musical director for creating such perfectly unique sounding harmonies with such a range of voices.

4/5

The Phantom Of The Opera - West End - 18/06/18

I will start this by saying that both the alternate for Christine and the standby for Phantom were on when we went to see it, in terms of the Phantom, this was something I only discovered after the show when I compared the cast board to my programme. They were both amazing, and I definitely was not disappointed that I didn't see the 'usual' cast.

I love the film version of this show. So I was excited to get to see the live version! It definitely did not disappoint. Amy Manford was a stunning Christine. I was lucky enough to see both Christine's due to Kelly Mathieson performing for West End Live. They were both equally as brilliant and you really can't compare them.

My favourite character has always been Meg, and seeing the show live just confirmed my love for this character. The ballet choreography was beautiful and all the dancers make it look so effortless.

4/5

The Mousetrap - West End - 16/06/18

This was the only show I went into knowing very little about the plot. All I knew is one of my favourite actors was in a previous production of it and it was a murder mystery. I have watched a lot of murder mystery TV shows, films and have read a lot of murder mystery books. I was intrigued as to how one would play out on stage.

As the only none musical we saw in London, despite going there to see musicals, I hoped I would enjoy it. It ended up being my favourite show of the three that we saw! It's a murder mystery so you'd assume the charm is lost after knowing who the murderer is, but I would definitely go see this show again if given the opportunity. To know who it is, looking for the little clues placed throughout is the fun of seeing a murder mystery with knowledge of the murderer.

I won't reveal who the murderer is, the cast make you promise to keep it a secret but I will say that I was shocked. I had my theories throughout, my friends spent the interval discussing who it could be but when the murderer was revealed as well as the motive we were all stunned.

The cast were amazing, the particular stand outs for me were Phoebe Fildes as Mollie Ralston and Rhys Warrington as Christopher Wren.

5/5

The Lion King - West End - 15/06/18

I will confess, The Lion King is one of my least favourite movies. But my friends and I agreed to pick a show each, one of them wanted to see this so we did. I enjoyed it so much more than I expected to.

One thing I was excited to see is the puppeteering, it's not something you see on this scale very often. It was amazing, the way each performer had control over the puppets they used was brilliant.

The standout performers were definitely the two children playing young Simba and Nala, I wish I knew which of the young actors were playing these roles because they're definitely people to look our for in the future. They had both the energy and the feisty-ness to portray the lion cubs. Another standout was the actor playing Zazu (Gary Jordan). He was very funny and though I found the character annoying at first, he really did grow on me.

4/5