No One Mourns the Wicked

Here we go with Wicked!

This one will be slightly different, but we'll give it a go. For this one, I'll do my own mini review, but it was quite a long time ago when I saw it so I can't remember huge amounts. Therefore, my sister agreed to let me interview her as she has seen it three times, once about four years ago, then twice this year, once in Manchester in July on a school trip and then last month in London. Therefore, this one will be slightly different as I'll write the questions I asked her and then her response. Please bare in mind that she is only just 13, I've only just started getting into the flow of reviewing things, and she has never done it before! My Mum was also in the room and wanted to join in a bit, she usually never answers with why she gives answers, but I tried to get some more information out of her!

So, I went to see it in July 2007 as part of a school trip. Basically, the school orchestra and jazz band did a week intensive residential course and part of this was seeing a west end show and dining at a famous London restaurant as the mid-week treat, I think it was the old Planet Hollywood that year. It was only the second west end show I had ever seen, so was quite overwhelmed by it. We were lucky enough to see lots of the original cast, except notably, not Idina Menzel but Kerry Ellis as Elphaba, which I didn't think about at the time, but am now a bit gutted about! However, Kerry Ellis is very good and one of my favourite west end performers now!

Wicked first appeared in the West end in 2006, after its success on Broadway. It was written by Winnie Holzman and the music is by Stephen Schwartz, but originally it is based on the novel 'Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West', by Gregory Maguire, from 1955. The best way to summaries it is by telling you its official full title: 'Wicked: The untold story of the Witches of Oz'. Basically, the musical follows the life of Glinda and Elphaba, who we see starting college (I think? Any Americans out there can correct this if they want!). I gives us a different perspective on the lives of the 'good witch' and the 'bad witch' and how they ended up the way they are. It makes us think about how we see people and should we see them for what we think they are straight away, as in the musical, Glinda comes across as the self-centered idiot, where as Elphaba is the nice one really, who is often left out or picked on due to her green appearance. The story follows the development of their friendship, relationships with men and the Wizard and the struggles that Elphaba faces. We also get to see their meeting with Dorothy to show how it matches up with the original Wizard of Oz story, 

The things that I can remember most about Wicked are the music and the sets. I still love the music and I listen to the soundtrack all of the time on Spotify. Kids at my sister's dance school usually perform at least one song from the show at every one of their shows as well! My favourite song changes, it used to be 'What is this feeling' when I first heard it, as I had a friend who was completely different to me, but we got on so well once we got to know it each other, so it reminds me a bit of that! I did like 'I'm not that girl' at one point because I played the piano for a friend when she sang it for her GCSE performance and I realised how nice the melody and harmonies are in it. At the moment I quite like 'For Good', I was listening to the album on Spotify and I think I used to skip the end ones, but I left it on and really liked it. I like what they are singing about, the harmonies and how the different verses fit together at the end. 

The sets are the other thing that I can remember. I have always remembered the dragon breathing smoke across the audience above the stage. It was one of the first shows in London I saw and I think I was really impressed by the scale of the sets, and I used to love dragons when I was younger! I can remember there was a lot of glitter and how amazing Emerald City was with all of the different greens and sparkly costumes. The theatre itself was one of the nicest I have been to and I remember reading how it had all been done up for Wicked, everything was green! It was before all of the chaos in the Victoria area really started I think as well, as we had photos outside the theatre and spent time looking around their before the show. I think it is the first time I spotted Billy Elliot and looked into what that was about. 

I can only really remember Kerry Ellis as Elphaba, as at the time, the only song I had really listened to was 'Defying Gravity' because there was so much hype about it. I can only say that she did not disappoint with her performance, and like many other people I suspect, it was my favourite part in the show and Elphaba is definitely my favourite character! I do remember getting a bit bored in the first half between some of the more famous songs such as 'Popular' and 'Defying Gravity', but I liked the second half as I think it is where most of the action takes place and the pace picks up a bit. 

I would love to see Wicked again at some point, if only to hear to music live again, and to see what I can remember! It is a shame that the tickets cost so much and I am always drawn to seeing new things in London rather than seeing the same thing twice if there is something new I fancy instead. However, as my sister loves it so much, and it is so popular, I am sure I will be visiting again one day! 

INTERVIEW TIME!!! (My sister is the Italics and my Mum is in red, for most it they are talking about the London production in August 2015)

Who is your favourite character and why?

My favourite is Madame Morrible because she is very loud throughout the show and is a very funny character.

I like Glinda, because she really does make you laugh. I also liked Professor Dillamond, because I liked his makeup a lot and he was a very good actor. 

Who do you prefer between Elphaba and Glinda and why?

Glinda, because I feel like she always tries to be good, it doesn't always work but at least she tries. I also like her part in 'Popular' and she is always just so glamorous!

Obvisouly Glinda, she is the funniest and I like how 'Popular' is performed. The actress was a really good singer and actress. 

Which is your favourite song from the show and why?

My favourite song is 'No good deed' because it stands out as a powerful song, I like the spell at the beginning as well it helps to build tension. 

My favourite song is 'What is this feeling' because I like how upbeat it is, compared to what they are singing about. 

What did you think about the costumes and makeup?

I think that they are very creative, I like the Emerald city costumes because they are all variations of green, but all very different. I think that the costumes reflect the characters personalities really well. The makeup is very impressive, it was very precise and well done, with a big impact so that even people at the back could see it clearly. 

I thought that Glinda's costumes represented her very well and Elphaba's represented how her personality comes across. I particularly liked Glinda's wand! 

What did you think about the set, lighting and sound? 

I thought that the set was very impressive and you could really tell where the characters were supposed to be and it wasn't confusing. My favourite part of the set was the Wizard's machine because it was cool that it had the face moving and how it turns around with all of the lights.  The lighting was used effectively and it help to set the mood. However, the sound was a bit off, it was varied between loud and then suddenly too quiet at some points, and during some of the songs we could barely hear even though we were on about the third row, so I imagine that the people at the back couldn't hear any of it. Everything, including the band, was really quiet, as though the mics had been turned down. 

The set is really good, especially the bubble! I love how bright and colourful lots of the sets are. The lighting makes is all very dramatic at the right moments! All of it was spot on except for some sound issues during the songs. 

What is your favourite part of the show and is the show consistent all the way through?

My favourite part of the show is when Elphaba goes to find her dead sister and her, Glinda and Fiyero have an argument because it is funny when they all point guns at each other and just end up going around in a big circle for a while. I think that it is consistent and goes at a good pace throughout. 

The best part is Glinda in the bubble, especially the line, 'we can't all travel around by bubble.' The first half is quite slow compared to the second half, which is much better. Even though most of the best songs were in the first half. 

For Izzy only, as you have seen it three times and one of those was when it was on tour in Manchester, could you tell any differences between the productions? 

You could tell small differences between the tour and the London show, but not many. The main difference was that the London cast were much better singers in general than the tour. However, the tour cast were much better actors overall. The set was exactly the same, even the words on the chalk board were written exactly the same! The dragon was there as well! 

Would you recommend this show? 

I would definitely recommend this show and I would definitely go and see it for a forth time. I think that Wicked is one of my favourite shows in London! 

Website link for London: http://www.wickedthemusical.co.uk/wicked-london.asp

If you want to throw the hammer- Matilda

Sorry for the wait, however, I must warn people that I am going back to uni late next week so posting may become difficult at times depending on my workload, but as I am enjoying this, I will do my best to keep it up and post regularly! I thought that I would do Matilda next as this is another one from the last few years that I really enjoyed.

July 2013, Cambridge Theatre, Matilda was played by Elise Blake, Bruce by Marcus May and Lavender by Ella Yard. We had no understudies for the performance.

I'll start with the cast, as I do think that the children in these kind of shows deserve a lot of credit. Lots of the children in this show are aged 9-11 I think, which can put people off. However, the adults, especially the Trunchbull, have a lot of stage time compared to other shows with children and lead a lot of the scenes with children in. I can only think of a handful of scenes when there was no adult present on stage as well as the child actors. Sometimes children, especially those from the famous drama schools in London, can overact and it becomes annoying, but in this instance none of that happened. The songs led by the children were probably the best ones.

Obviously, Matilda herself leads a lot of the scenes and songs, which to be honest, is not a big problem. The young lady playing Matilda was a very good actress and she was particularly good in the story telling scenes with the librarian. I must admit that my parents  and I were a  little disappointed in her performance,through no fault of her own, as we think we was ill. She was twitching her nose a lot and some of the singing seemed a but muffled as though she had a cold/flu. I've watched performances by her online since, and she sounded and acted differently in those which I think confirmed our suspicions that she was ill. This is a little annoying as they made her struggle through and it did obviously affect her performance which is shame for the audience (as we had paid quite a lot of money), when I assume they could have put one of the three other Matildas on in her place, or even switched her in the interval as it was quite obvious she was struggling a bit. That being said most of the singing was fine, I've seen better versions of 'Quiet' online, but 'Naughty' was very good. 
Here is Elise's performance of 'Quiet' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoBX7wZO3tE
Here is Elise's performance of 'Naughty' https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1uimx6gbd4

The young man playing Bruce was very funny, 'Bruce' is a brilliant song and he also performed 'Revolting Children' very well. The young lady playing Lavender was a fantastic young actress, she was really funny when she was supposed to be and interacted with the audience really well, breaking the forth wall brilliantly. Lots of the other young performers were very good as well, in particular Amanda who get swung around by her pigtails (one of the most memorable moments as it is done in the audience). When singing as a group they sounded great, as well as when they were put with the older cast.

The outstanding performance has to be Miss Trunchbull. I was not expecting the Trunch to be played the way she was at all. I was a bit skeptical because it was being played by a man, and this can cause it to become just completely silly and not funny at times, which is what happened when I went to see Hairspray. All of the things I had seen on the internet before had Bertie Carvel in the part, who I love and I do wish I had seen him perform the role. However, we had David Leonard, who has brilliant! I don't think I have ever laughed so much at a musical performance. His facial expressions were fantastic and his comic timing was spot on. When she runs through the audience, all of the children did visibly back away and were afraid, which was quite amusing. The Trunch's power over the children is very good and she does come across as very scary and very mad.

We had Steve Furst as Mr Wormwood, who my sister was excited to see as he was in some of Dick and Dom's shows on CBBC. He was very funny and his version of Telly I did like, his interaction with the audience was very good and I like how they break the 4th wall with that song.  The other performance I particularly liked was Melanie La Barrie as Mrs Phelps. Her interaction with Matilda was really nice and her enthusiasm for Matilda's story really did come across to the audience. The rest of the cast were really good as well, Miss Honey seemed very genuine and the casting of her to contrast Mrs Wormwood was spot on. Mrs Wormwood did a spectacular job in 'Loud', which must take so much energy to perform.

Moving on now...

I'll be honest and admit that the only reason I went to see Matilda was because my sister had not stopped talking about it. However, as soon as I agreed to go I started listening to the soundtrack and loved it straight away. 'Revolting Children' is the most famous song and there is a reason for this. It is probably the most upbeat, and the children really do get into it. It is a very fun song but also gets you riled up a bit and wanting to join in. They get the audience clapping along and even throw paper areoplanes into the audience, and my Dad managed to catch one. It is Amanda's school report and is quite funny. I'll try and post a photo at some point, but my sister will go nuts if I unfold it and then can't get it back! If anyone is interested though as I had a few messages on Twitter about this when I first tweeted about it on there, I can post some photos of it in sections or just do some quotes! ' The Smell of Rebellion' is very strange, especially the day dream part, but is very funny at the same time due to Miss Trunchbull's expressions. 'Naughty' is another fun song and really gets you on Matilda's side. 'Telly' is another one of my favourites as it makes you see the Dad in a different light, that he isn't completely mean and just a bit of an idiot really. I think I prefer the Broadway version better, performed by Gabriel Ebert, but that might be because I like his style of singing more and the book title rhyming section is slightly different, which I personally prefer. As I said earlier, 'Quiet' could have been better and I think 'This Little Girl' could be a bit longer as Miss Honey's songs are quite short which is a shame as her songs are nice and the most emotional in the show.

Here is 'Revolting Children' performed by the original Stratford cast so a very early version when they were in rehearsals still, but I do quite like the Bruce in this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Kn-fEuRB0Q    There are lots of other examples on Youtube, as it usually part of the medley which is performed on lots of TV shows e.g. children in need.

Here is part of the Broadway 'Loud' at 4:10 as Mrs Wormwood is very funny in this, and part of Gabriel's 'Telly' is at 4:33 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7ECOMgQvas

The set is fascinating, the stage is surrounded by block letters and before the show and in the interval you can have a mini word search game of trying to find words related to the show in the letters. The desks rise and fall from the stage, which is a good way of avoiding big set changes. I liked how the swings are almost flying over the audience as it really makes you want to have a go and miss doing that as a child! The part where Amanda is swung around is really good as well as that is in the audience so puts you in the scene and you feel helpless along with the children against the Trunchbull. As I mentioned before, having the Trunchbull move through the audience was a fantastic idea! I'm pretty sure there were no technical issues with the sound at all. The lighting is also good, with very bright lights representing the happy scenes, and dark for Miss Trunchbull. The 'School Song' lighting is good as it plays on the idea of school being a prison and a very bad place to be with minimal lighting and having the bars reflecting onto the stage. Again, I don't recall any issues with this.

The costumes are what you would expect, and I did like how they go over the top with the colours for Mr and Mrs Wormwood's outfits compared to the dull uniforms and the browns/pale colours of the Trunch and Miss Honey. Mr Wormwood's hair throughout is very funny, so well done to the wig department for getting them on and keeping them fixed well throughout the show. The Trunch's costume is possibly the most interesting as they do try and make her as big and imposing as possible. They keep her looking very military like, with not a hair out of place, with big warts, making her look very scary to children I am sure.

Overall, I would thoroughly recommend this show, especially if you have children. If you have children who have never seen a musical before, this is a really good place to start. Even though it is mostly a children's and families show, please do go along as I think people will be pleasantly surprised with how much you enjoy it. I certainly was and my Dad really did not want to go but admits that it was very funny and the Trunch is his second favourite westend character (after Thenardier n Les Mis!).  The soundtrack I think is the thing that makes this show as well as the talent of the cast, especially Miss Trunchbull. I hope to go back in the near future as the cast is completely different and I would like to see another young lady in the role of Matilda and the new Trunchbull to see if he plays the role differently at all.

p.s. If you go to London, I'm not sure about the other locations, they sell really nice slushies in the interval!

Ticket link for London, but you can get to the other locations ticket websites through this: http://uk.matildathemusical.com/

Sparks inside of me- Billy Elliot

August 2015 at the Victoria Palace Theatre. For this performance, we had Ollie Jochim as Billy and Zach Atkinson as Michael, with the understudy Mrs Wilkinson. 

I can't really fault the casting, as all of the cast were brilliant, especially the two young men playing Billy and Michael.

Ollie's part of the programme 

I believe Ollie was the newest Billy when we went to see it, but you couldn't tell. He is a ballet Billy, meaning his version of Electricity is based more around ballet, rather than acrobatics or other styles as street Billy's have. Here's Ollie performing at westend live, his version of electricity is slightly different here due to the small size of the stage: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVw5M5fJEZw
and here's expressing/finale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LlWnGv205Ws

Other ballet Billy's that are good are Liam Mower and Elliot Hanna in case you want to see some different routines.

Just in case you are interested, here is a street Billy performing electricity, I think Harrison is one of the best, so I chose him, other good street Billy's are Fox and Bradley: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJC6Vv4dOT4

Ollie was brilliant at facial expressions and making you believe the story. My favourite dance routine to watch was Angry Dance as it was very intense and he really put his heart and soul into it. He worked really well alongside the other cast members, especially Zach who was particularly strong when performing the funny lines. You could tell that they both enjoyed dancing Expressing Yourself together. If you want to see Zach in action, he played Michael in the recorded live version that you can buy on DVD that was recorded a few weeks after we visited. Ollie also features in the finale.

Zach's part of the programme 

I can't remember which young lady we had as Debbie, but her and the other ballet girls were excellent dancers. The young lady playing Susan Parks was very funny and stood out!  

Onto the adults, Deka and Chris were really good as Billy's Dad and Tony. The scenes between them were very tense at points and others showed a funny father/son relationship. Chris was very good at showing the frustration and anger of the miners. Ann Emery as Grandma was amazing to see as she had been part of the original cast, with only a small break in the middle. Grandma's song was very emotional and one of my favourites, here she is performing it 10 years ago! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DMS18ShVrZw

David Muscat as Mr Braithwaite was also very funny and probably the person that made me laugh the most. His excellent dancing skills were a surprise and he made Born to Boogie to be honest. The fact that we didn't have Ruthie as Mrs Wilkinson was a shame, but the understudy did an excellent job and did remind me of how Julie Walters played the part in the film.  George was cast well as the actor playing him really did look the part and was very funny during Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher. 

The music is brilliant, a mixture of sad and emotional songs, with the intense angry dance, funny songs and then electricity made to show off Billy's skills. As someone who's family contains lots of ex-miners and a Labour party member, Merry Christmas Maggie Thatcher was particularly fun and they allowed for audience participation by having the house lights up, making you feel part of the community.  The letter is a very emotional song and I liked that they brought Billy's Mum onto the stage alongside Mrs Wilkinson and it switched between them singing the Mum's lines to show how Billy had maternal role models in his life. Solidarity was also very impressive, I think it was one of the first songs I had ever heard from the musical so I couldn't wait to see it live. I have read a lot about the miner's strike and police actions and have even studied the police in the 1970/80s and this song does help to reflect how two different working class jobs were pitched against each other. This song does show the intensity of the situation and the anger and frustration faced by the miners and their communities. Yet, how people tried to carry on and how the children were put in an awful situation. 

The set and costumes match the period and mood perfectly. I've heard that Billy wears seven pairs of shoes in one performance! The best part for costumes and stage props is probably Expressing Yourself when giant dresses and trousers appear on stage with a sparky background, this is a very funny song and does lighten the mood up. Angry dance is very intense as the police are in riot gear so have the shields and batons, when they bang the batons against the shields it is very effective. If you like feathers, then you will like Shine as all of the ballet girls and Billy dance around with a sort of huge feather fan! The lighting is also very well done, in angry dance it is very dark so makes it even more intense and in electricity there is minimal lighting expect for a main spot on Billy to put the focus on him entirely as this is his chance to show what he can do. The set is quite clever at times, Billy's room and stair case come out of the floor and other rooms are pulled in from the side of the stage such as Michael's house and the toilets, which I guess is quite a quick way of doing scene changes and it did not slow down the performance.

Anyway, that is probably enough for now, as I am hoping to see it again when it goes on tour, if it comes anywhere close to where I live! I would highly recommenced this show to anyone. (Be warned there is quite a lot of swearing so I would think about taking children under 11/12 who aren't at high school so might not be used to swear words yet, and the bit between Billy and Debbie from the film is kept in as well, look it up if you don't know which line I am talking about!). Lots of shows talk about how many emotions you go through watching them, but in this one it really does happen, you can be upset by the letter scene, tense in the miners vs police scenes, laugh at Michael's scenes and be amazed by the standard of dancing. Visit it if you can!

It is still running at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London, but they are slowly announcing UK tour dates at the moment! http://www.billyelliotthemusical.com/

The Importance of being Earnest

27th August 2015 at the Vaudeville Theatre. We had no understudies for the performance:

Full cast list

This was my Mum's choice as I had seen it with her at a local theatre a few years ago and it had been very funny. I was a bit worried about Lady Bracknell being played in drag as I did like having a strong, dominating female lead on the stage last time. 

This production had two intervals, to allow for scene changes. This was a little strange but was fine as the sets were quite big and looked like they took a bit of setting up. There were two different houses and then the garden. The second house was probably the most impressive looking, as the period features and attention to detail was nice. All of the lighting and sound were fine as everyone could be seen and heard at the right times and the sound effects were all good. The costumes were good, obviously the females dresses were the main focus, with Lady Bracknell's being rather large and more over the top, which is what was needed to suit her personality. 

The casting was probably the best part of this production. All of the characters were cast brilliantly. The two male leads matched the personalities of their characters well, as Jack looked more sensible than Algernon, whose hair in particular matched the mischievous nature of his character. I did enjoy David's portrayal of Lady Bracknell as he was very good with his pronunciation and gestures, he even managed to stay in character when a member of the audience presented him with flowers at the curtain call which was quite amusing. I would like to see it played by a woman again though, in a production of that scale, so I could compare and contrast a bit better. The only characters that I found a bit boring were Miss Prism and Revered Canon Chasuble, which I don't think was the actors fault, more so that their charterers are probably the least interesting and you don't see how they fit into the story until the very end. The stand out performance was definitely by the young actress that played Cecily. Her facial expressions and comic timing were brilliant and everybody was talking about how good she was during the intervals and afterwards. She was particularly strong when playing off against Gwendolen who was very good with the more comical lines as well. 

Therefore, the standout performances were by the two young female leads, who worked well with other characters, but their scenes together were excellent. The rest of the cast matched their characters perfectly and to be honest it was one of the best cast productions I have seen. If you want to see a literacy classic then this is definitely worth a visit, especially if you want some fun, a laugh and not a heavy play!

It is on at the Vaudeville until November, here's the website which contains the trailer and some behind the scenes videos: http://www.nimaxtheatres.com/vaudeville-theatre/the_importance_of_being_earnest/

Just a quick note, it was shown live in cinemas across the UK, sorry I missed this and I'll look out for encore screenings, but you can catch recorded showings of it in cinemas in the USA on the 3rd November, here's the link showing you all of the options and links to buy tickets! http://importanceofearnest.com/cinema/

The Woman in Black

29th August 2015, at the Fortune theatre. We did not have any understudies for the performance.

The actress playing the woman is not named, to give the illusion that you have in fact seen the real woman in black! 

I had been wanting to see The Woman in Black in London since I first read the book and saw the play when I was 15/16 and studying it for GCSE English Literature at my local theatre. I really do like ghost stories and other horror classics, yet none of my family or friends had ever wanted to go. However, my Dad saw the film on TV and then we went to see the second film, so he agreed to go. 

The theatre is small which works really well for this play as the whole audience feels as though they are part of the set. The set is minimal in the foreground, with more going on behind a partially see through curtain that you can only see through when you shine light directly on it or behind it I think (if anyone knows the name of this material, let me know!). It comes out quite far into the audience with one central part basically where the rest of the front row should be which acts as the marsh where the pony and trap has sunk. The only props to begin with are a basket, a chair, a coat stand, a door and behind the curtain covered objects and a staircase. The covered objects act as grave stones and later make room for the famous rocking chair and the objects in a small boys room from the late 1800s/ early 1900s. The actors use the whole of the small stage well, as well as moving through the audience to create a few scares! 

The lighting and sound naturally have to be very good in a production like this and they are. The lighting is used to distinguish between where scenes are taking place, as well as building up the tension. The spookiest parts are when there is no lighting and you are relying on the light from the actors torch or candle to see. The shadow effects were my favourite part as trying to workout where the woman was is quite fun. The use of the smoke is really good as at one point you cannot see at all and are put in the exact same position as Mr Kipps and get to experience what he is supposed to be experiencing. Sound effects are key for ghost stories and they did work well. The music box is naturally quite spooky, but the most famous sound effect is the rocking chair pounding on the floor, which was really good. I think the screams of the woman were recorded, which could have possibly worked better with someone screaming live. It is all done without microphones, which is fine and everything can be heard well. 

Both the actors were really good, excellent at the humorous parts, especially Mr Kipps and then switched into the scary parts brilliantly. I really can't fault their portrayals of the actor and Mr Kipps. Their costumes were kept simple and in keeping with the time period, which obviously keeps it more realistic. The design of the woman's costume was nice, I think there was less to it than the one in the film and in the production I had seen before. However, the dress flowed nicely when she walked and the head covering wasn't too much so that you could not see her face when you wanted to. The make up was very good to give her the description that Susan Hill wanted. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the night. It didn't scare me as much as I thought it would, but as I knew the story really well I kind of guessed when some scares were coming. The final scare could have been a lot bigger I suppose but some of the other scares were very good. The build up to some of them was brilliant and did make me nervous about what was about to happen. The people sitting next to me jumped spectacularly every time! The actors all did a very good job and I think the thing I will most remember about this night was the tension in the atmosphere! Go along and see if it scares you!

Here's the website to book tickets:http://www.atgtickets.com/shows/the-woman-in-black-tour/fortune-theatre/