Things I want to see in the West End

I attempt to make at least five trips a year to London to watch shows and soak up the stagey atmosphere that I am severely lacking up here in the sleepy suburbs of the midlands and I'm always being asked by friends and family what I want to go and see next.

Of course I have a list as long as my arm of what I want to see. So in today's post and video I thought I'd talk about a few things that I want to see by the end of this year.

1. 42nd Street... I saw a touring version of this many many moons ago, which introduced me to the glory that is 42nd Street. I don't remember a great deal of the plot or story line, which is why I want to take a visit to the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane.

2. School of Rock... I have loved the film featuring Jack Black since it came out in the cinema so the moment that I found out there was a musical based on the film in the pipeline, I have been as happy as a pig in muck. I have been super patient for it to arrive in the West End and I am so excited to go and check it out. The fact on top of everything else that Andrew Lloyd Webber composed the music for this musical, just excites me even more.

3. Young Frankenstein... As I said in the video, I don't know much about this musical but I have been interested in seeing it since I saw Sutton Foster (one of my favourite Broadway stars) singing a song from this musical on YouTube clip from many years ago. The cast who will be playing in the West End version, which begins previews in September, is an amazing one which includes Hadley Fraser and Ross Noble amongst others makes it a must see for me.

4. Wind in the Willows...This is very soon to open in the west end and I want to see it...why? Three reasons...ONE: cast. Rufus Hound, Simon Lipkin, Denise Welsh, Craig Mathers..need I say more? TWO, it's written by Julian Fellows (the man behind many things including Downton Abbey) and the music and Lyrics are by Stiles and Drew and THREE, it's at the London Palladium, a theatre I've never been in and it's an iconic place right slap bang in the middle of  London.

5. Hamilton...This will be on my need to watch list until I actually get a ticket because unfortunately I am sans ticket right now. I don't feel like I need to explain why I want to see Hamilton as it's HAMILTON!!! Please theatre gods keep this musical stay open forever so I might get a ticket.

What's on your must see list right now?
Don't forget to check out the video below.

            

REVIEW: Half a Sixpence at Noel Coward Theatre, London

On the same day that I saw Whisper House (see the review HERE), I took the trip to the Noel Coward Theatre for an evening performance of Half a Sixpence at the Noel Coward Theatre.

I didn't know much about the musical before I went in apart from two things. Firstly I was aware of the final song Flash Bang Wallop, which I had seen performed on a few variety television shows but I didn't know the context of and the secondly I was aware that the lead male, Charlie Stemp who plays Arthur Kipps was a very impressive actor that is one to watch out for.

As I have mentioned Charlie, I will first talk about the cast. They were amazing, both leads and ensemble were beyond impressive. Charlie Stemp as Arthur Kipps sung, acted and played the banjo with such energy and talent that has to be celebrated.
 The other cast member I'd like to shout out is Gerard Carey who played two characters that I loved. His main character James Walsingham is one of the "villans" of the musical, who played his character so well that you actually disliked him a little and then in the final song, he takes on his second and final persona as the photographer and he was so entertaining that I couldn't stop watching him...he was brilliant.

The plot of this musical is a happy one. It is the classic girl meets boy, they part ways only to meet later in life under different circumstances, stuck in a love triangle and it all ends happily ever after. The premise of this one is that Arthur becomes rich suddenly due to a family member leaving their fortune to him. He then gets involved with Helen, a female from the higher class who has an overbearing family but meets his original sweetheart, Ann at a party he has been invited to where Ann is working. Who does he choose?

The songs in the musical are all very catchy and I have had them on repeat since leaving the theatre as the cast recording is available on iTunes. It's definitely worth a listen if you love a good musical. My favourite songs of the whole musical are Pick out a Simple Tune and also Long Ago for different reasons.

Overall seeing Half a Sixpence is  a great night of entertainment, I left with a massive smile on my face and I definitely would like to return to see the cast once again before the musical closes in early September. Half a Sixpence is definitely gone into my list of favourite musicals.

Have you seen this prouduction? What did you think?
Don't forget to watch the review below.

REVIEW: Whisper House at The Other Palace

Last weekend, I spent my time the best way possible...watching musicals and theatre productions and catching up with friends in the capital. On Saturday Afternoon, I headed over to Victoria and to The Other Palace to see Whisper House.

I did not know much about this production before I entered the theatre apart from that it was a ghost story of sorts and that it had a great cast. It was safe to say I was going into this performance blind, which is sometimes the best way to go into something.

The story is set in the Second World War begins with two ghosts setting the scene of who is who in the story and how they are all involved with each other. There is Christopher, a small boy, who has been sent far away from home to live with his Aunt after his father's plane was shot down.
His Aunt owns the lifehouse and it is all she has known all her life and has only her mysterious Japanese Housekeeper for company. Then the final character we are introduced to is the sheriff and we are asked is there for justice or something else instead. In fact the only back stories we don't get right of the back is the stories of the two ghosts but more becomes clearer as the story progresses, complete with many twists and turns.

As I said before I was aware of the cast before I went in and I wasn't disappointed. The two ghosts were played by Niamh Perry and Simon Bailey, who were perfect for the roles as they mixed the eerie slightly creepy manner of a ghost that you expect but also have a slightly warped comedic element to their characters. The Sheriff was played by Simon Lipkin, who in my eyes can do no wrong in anything he does. To complete the six person cast, there was the brilliant Dianne Pilkington, Nicholas Goh and Fisher Costello-Rose, who all acted their socks off.

The music in this show helps progress the story on and there is a few reprises of certain songs to help explain more of the story further. The music is written by Duncan Sheik, the genius behind Spring Awakening and you can tell his influence on the piece with the rock like musical songs, which are rather catchy and definitely worth listening to.

The staging of this production is rather interesting in the way that it is effectively a circular stage with a sunken middle. I feel like this is done to portray the lighthouse which is at the centre of the story but that is only my opinion. I feel it worked for this musical because it helped to highlight the different levels of the lighthouse and also help separate certain parts of the story to other part.

My favourite parts of the play included Simon Lipkin's sheriff character's lasagna line (he explains that a ghost story is like a lasagne in that it has layers as do lasagna..it was funnier than I'm explaining I promise) and Niamh's facial expressions, which were brillant to watch throughout, she gave the female ghost's character a slightly twisted but amusing in equal measures

I would definitely recommend checking Whisper House, if you are able to before it closes in a week on the 27th of May.

 Have you seen Whisper House? What did you think?
Don't forget to watch the review below.



          

REVIEW: The Miser at Garrick Theatre

Hello,

It's time for my first review here on Five Minutes Till Curtain Up and today I'm review my time at The Miser at the Garrick Theatre in London.

What to say about this play. Well let's start with the cast shall we? It couldn't be more "star cast" if it tried. To name just a few names the play has Griff Rhys Jones and Lee Mack as two of it's "main characters". I say main characters but I think most of the cast could be given main character status. Alongside those two big name, the play also stars Matthew Horne, Katy Wix, Andi Osho and Ryan Gage. So it's safe to say it was well cast.

The Miser is all about one man. He is rather rich however he doesn't like to spend any of his fortune.  so he plans to marry off his two children so that he doesn't have to pay for them anymore and can therefore live with his money alone.

The play was originally written by Molière but was adapted for this version, in theory to bring it more entertaining and more relevant to a twenty first century audience by Sean Foley and Phil Porter into something that reminded me of a slapstick pantomine style play, complete with many funny jokes that I really rather enjoyed.

The official reviews of this play have not been overly kind, mostly due to the fact that there is so many visual and vocal gags, which weren't part of the original play. However for me, it was a very entertaining couple of hours well spent.

The Miser is on at the Garrick Theatre in London until 3rd June.
Have you seen this play? What did you think?
Don't forget to watch the review below.

            

Welcome

Hello,

Welcome to Five Minutes till Curtain Up. The home of all things stagey written by me.

 If you don't know who I am, my name is Clare and I live in the West Midlands of the UK and I am obsessed with all things musical theatre. This has been the case since I was young and was introduced to the magical world of Disney. My first experience of musicals/singing in films was Mary Poppins and I've been in love ever since.

This blog is my way of sharing one of my favourite things with an audience of more musical theatre fans in collaboration with my YouTube channel, which you can visit by clicking HERE or by clicking the video down below.

Today's post and video are just to say hello, welcome to the channel and blog and the kind wish that you subscribe to the channel and follow this blog anyway you wish. To reiterate what was said on the video, my plan is to use the channel and this blog in conjunction with each other,so that every time I post on my channel there will be a corresponding blog post, which might have anything in that I might have missed and vice versa. For example, if I post a review video on my channel, I will also write a written review on here for people who would prefer to read the review.

I hope you come along for the ride and subscribe to the channel or follow this blog by clicking the bloglovin button on the right hand side under my picture.

Clare

xxx