Last Saturday we were up extremely early in the morning to travel to Trafalgar Square for West End Live (a fantastic event showcasing the very best of musical theatre... for FREE!!), followed by a trip to Queen’s Theatre to see Les Misérables! I’m sure I could write a book the size of Les Mis itself about our trip, but for your sake I will stick to brief highlights!
It’s a 3 hour journey to London, and I am absolutely terrible at finding my way in cities so I was a little worried that we might miss some of the acts at West End Live but thankfully we arrived just on time and got settled in a good spot just before my very favourite show... Wicked!! Here is a phone snapshot of our view!
I wish I had more photos to show you, and preferably better quality ones, but we just got so caught in the moment that we forgot! Thankfully, other people were a bit more on the ball, so I will paste YouTube links for all my favourite performances. Here are the Wicked videos!
I adore Louise Dearman and Gina Beck as perfomers, and they never fail to blow me away! They both looked absolutely beautiful - gorgeous hair and fabulous dresses! For Good was so touching, and Lou's Defying Gravity was incredible!
Moving on to my other favourite show (do I really need to introduce it?!) Les Mis!! I don't even know where to start. This cast have only been performing for one week, yet they are absolutely astounding! As always, cast change is bittersweet. It's sad to wave goodbye to previous cast members, but it's also great to see the roles in a new light as different actors take them on. Of course, the person I was most anticipating was Carrie Fletcher. So, imagine my excitement when Carrie is the first person to walk on stage, singing On My Own!! Cue much nudging and squealing from Becca and I! I can't say that my eyes remained dry during her performance (and I'm not the crying type!), and I was so impressed by the entire cast throughout.
Next up was We Will Rock You, I'd been wanting to see Oli Tompsett's Galileo, and I loved hearing his American accent!
Later on, Sir Tim Rice himself appeared to introduce a song from his new musical From Here To Eternity. The song was stunning, I really loved it and I can't wait to hear more from this new show!
The Sound of Music performed, having only been rehearsing for a short while (you'd never know!) I had no idea Chloe Taylor was in this new production, so it was a pleasant surprise to see her perform again!
So those were the highlights of the day for me personally! I hate to miss out other performances, as so many of them were simply incredible (although I'm not going to pretend they were ALL incredible, the vast majority were!) Do search through YouTube for more, and if you haven't yet been to West End Live, why not?!! I hope to see you there next year!
Moving on to Les Misérables, the day only got better!! I have only seen Les Mis at the Queen's once previously, on June 20th last year. I was having a bad reaction to a vaccination from the day before, had a fever and was delirious... so it was nice to go back in a slightly better state! It was also brilliant to see a new cast.
Gerónimo Rauch of course, is no stranger to the role of Jean Valjean, and there's good reason for that! He has a wonderful ability to draw in an audience, and tells Valjean's tale with such passion, emotion and presence. Unfortunately, I noticed on a few occasions Gerónimo missed out words whilst singing, or merged words together. His accent also slipped through a couple of times. It barely impacted his performance though, and I'm happy to permit a multilingual Valjean some minor enunciation/pronounciation errors, since those who don't know the show word for word probably didn't notice!!
I think last time I saw the show I was a little too preoccupied adoring the sight of Tam Mutu and Sierra Boggess on the same stage to fully appreciate Tam's performance! Tam is a fantastic Javert. I may even go as far as to say that his portrayal better resembles the stern, harsh inspector that my imagination conjures up than any other actor I have seen.
(Source www.broadwayworld.com)
Na-Young Jeon was ill on Saturday, so I got to see Melanie Bright's (almost) debut performance! What a busy day to debut - Melanie played her ensemble role at WEL, then performed both the matinee and evening shows! I was very impressed by Melanie's performance, she's definitely one to watch!
Cameron Blakely (Bamatabois in Les Mis 25th) and Wendy Ferguson (Carlotta in Phantom 25th) were very funny as the Thénardiers and I thought they were a fantastic duo!
(Source www.kherrigan.tumblr.com)
So... Eponine! You all know I'm a fan of Carrie Hope Fletcher, but I am not the only one to have come out of that theatre raving about how brilliant and faultless her performance was. She brings something new to Eponine that I haven't quite seen before, and can't quite put a finger on. I know when it was announced that Carrie had been cast, there was a lot of controversy. Those who knew Carrie only as 'Tom from Mcfly's sister' or 'that girl off YouTube' believed her to be a 'bums on seats' casting, a girl who did not have the talent, simply the fame. However, this girl does not need those labels to stand out, her talent is pure and her voice is HUGE! As someone who identifies as a 'hopeful', I can understand if you are skeptical regarding whether my opinion is biased, but I urge you to see her live before you make your opinion! To my fellow dedicated 'sprouts', it's ok to love Samantha AND Carrie. They are both wonderful in their own way - they need not be rivals, in fact they are good friends and big supporters of one another!
Samantha Dorsey is so beautiful, the very image of Cosette. I do enjoy her portrayal, although I felt as though there wasn't anything particularly striking or unique that she brought to the role. However, considering this was her 3rd performance of the day I will not criticise! Unfortunately, thanks to the delirium I cannot remember my opinion of her performance last year!!
I am often unsure and picky about the casting of Marius. He should be youthful, handsome and a little fragile in appearance and demeanor, yet this is a musical and his voice should be still be appealing, although gentle rather than strong! Perhaps I am too fussy, but I find that a lot of Marius' either look right or sound right, but not both. Rob Houchen however, ticked all the boxes for me! This is his West End debut, and he's certainly another one to watch!
(Source www.allthefights.tumblr.com)
I think it's fair to say that the vast majority of people walking out of the Queen's that night were enthusing about the new Enjolras (and his ponytail!) - Anton Zetterholm! Anton really commanded the stage with one of the strongest portrayals of Enjolras I've ever seen. His voice is so powerful, and he gave Enjolras the perfect authoritative, confident, courageous aura.
(Source www.allthefights.tumblr.com)
I promise I won't ramble on much longer, but I don't want to finish without showing my appreciation to the wonderful ensemble of Les Mis! Ensemble performers often get forgotten, but in truth they are the backbone of any show. It was lovely to see two of my favourites again - Sarah Lark and Nicky Swift. It was also brilliant to see Niall Sheehy on the stage as Feuilly. Wicked fans will know him, and if you're not following him on Twitter yet, do it - he's pretty funny!
Thanks for letting me share my day with you, and congratulations if you managed to read this far!!
Have a great weekend!
Emma Kate
xx
Rob Houchen tweeted me! <3 lol Awesome description of the day Em X
ReplyDeleteHe did!! And you shared a special moment with Tom Fletcher after Les Mis! :D
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