Pippin.... (or Hollyoaks meets cyberspace)

Well, where to start?  We fancied this as it had lots to recommend it..... great reviews, Frances Ruffelle, Matt Rawle, Bob Fosse choreography and... that bloke from Emmerdale. Oh, and it was at the Menier Chocolate Factory, well known for producing wee little gems.  We went along with high hopes, but other than than not a clue what to expect as we had never seen Pippin.

The staging was interesting, being directed to our seats through a teenage boys bedroom is not your usual theatrical experience, into a dark space transformed into seemingly the innards of a video game. So far, so wacky.  The Menier is a very intimate space, and it is difficult to view with anonymity, which in this case could have been helpful...because, well it was all, frankly, a bit odd.

 Eponymous hero Pippin on a search for an extraordinary life by negotiating levels of a video game.  The staging and direction was pretty good, very clever in places, especially where characters were dragged through the curtains to became shadows/images ( apologies,you sort of had to be there...!)  and the performances were good (with the exception of the bloke from Emmerdale, who was a bit cringey), it was the story we couldn`t quite get over.  It was just so weird and self-consciously earnest.  If you are supposed to take it seriously, well, you can`t.  We sincerely hope it was all meant as a joke, as we really couldn`t get on board with the land of eternal gardening, the dead duck, the medieval family feud and the scantily clad saucepots who rocked up periodically thoughout.  So, what did we like?  Well, the choreography was great, and Matt Rawle as the Leading Player did have the stunned audience in the palm of his hand.  Tamsin even got over his spooky resemblance to her yoga teacher, such was his stage presence.... Josie Lawrence also provided a star cameo as Granny Pippin and got the audience reluctantly singing along, but it seemed to be through gritted teeth unfortunately. There were a few good songs, although off hand we cant recall any in particular. 

But the plot...THE PLOT!!!!! Well, its dire.

The dialogue was sucky and we were embarrassed for the cast. The story goes through stages of the video game and although the producers had clearly decided to bring the whole thing into the 21st Century it still felt very dated in every possible way. As this was written by the same guys responsible for 'Wicked' we can absolutely see why 'Wicked' is a hit and why 'Pippin' will probably always be a fringe theatre cast off. But we also thought there would at least be a few catchy tunes we could hum along to. That would be a resounding 'no' then. The first act dragged on and on. When it finally ended after an hour and a bit Karina thought the show had ended, that's how confusing it all was. As the wiser one, Tamsin noticed people had left their coats on the seats, clearly aiming to come back. Though after the interval virtually all of the front row never returned. Must be soul destroying for the cast. And indeed for us, as we were now nose to nose with the cast, and as this show involved a fair amount of narration directly to the audience those of us with a less "interactive" disposition sank lower and lower in our seats, buttocks a-clenching, lest we be singled out for a rhetorical question or two.

In the end Pippin learns the meaning of life, that what you are searching for is usually under your nose (well, duh!) whilst his kind-of stepson gets sucked into the world of make believe. Profound.

Pippin was another one of those experiences that is very difficult to relate back, because it's so hard to describe how dysfunctional it was without witnessing it yourself. Though not one soul in this world could persuade us to sit through it again, even with free tickets. Fact. It was bizarre and not in a good way.  It was thought provoking in a 'why can't it stop already' kind of way. Thumbs up to Frances Ruffelle though, who sings like a dream, is a pleasure to watch and looks bloody amazing for her age. Or for any age actually.

And so that was Pippin. We think we actually prefer Ich War Noch Niemals in New York...

We saw Lee Mead in concert (and lived to tell the tale) and it was nice

DISCLAIMER

Neither one of us has any interest in resurrecting the furore surrounding the episode between Lee Mead's ardent fans and us. Frankly? These are still our humble little opinions. Don't read if you don't like. There's much worse (and better!) things to get angered about if you're that way inclined. But be warned if Mr Mead is the apple of your eye as you may not like EVERYTHING we say in the following entry.
Suitably warned?
Then we may begin.

Joking aside, it was with some trepidation we entered the concert venue. Despite the fact we're so nondescript no one would pick us out in a line up, both of us were a little wary of being in the same room as so many Lee fans just in case they could detect us 30 steps away and eject us from the concert hall with a Boudicca -like flourish. After all, us fairies proved to not be too popular with this group. However, a recap maybe necessary.

We wanted to see Mr Mead in concert for one reason only. We used to love him but then our love waned for well documented reasons  Anyway. Harping over old ground isn't doing anyone any good, so on to the reason. We wanted to see him shine again. And wanted to see our Lee-love resurrected because WE MISSED HIM. Guess that's two reasons...

The concert venue was a bit of a shocker. It was a town well known for having a large retirement community. Not kidding. We know Musical Theatre isn't the most fashionable pass time with the yoof but our point being the venue alone would absolutely attract an older demographic. And in our opinion, Lee Mead needs to start appealing to a slightly wider audience. But instead he's turned a bit Val Doonican on us.

He sang nicely. His set was nice. It was all nice. Everyone joined in for 'Daydream Believer' at the end and there was rythmic clapping and stuff. It was very nice.

And so we sauntered off home. It had been a nice evening. But we won't be going again.

P.S. At risk of getting a little bit predictable, if not slightly monotonous, here is the reason it may not be a bad idea for Lee to leave Gethsemane off his set list in the future. How we like it sung. We'll be quiet now.

Out and About....

OK, so no point in trying to cover the past 8 months viewings, so will do a whistlestop summary to jog our musical-addled memories and, if nothing else, work out where all our hard earned money has gone. During our blogging slump we might have lost our writing mojo but we never lost our love of all things musical and theatrical and vaguely shiny. We saw plenty of nice things. And almost saw some...so. In no particular order:

Ramin Karimloo in concert. The man can sing, like, proper. But he can be just a teeny weeny bit self congratulatory. Nonetheless, Blessings. And....AND.... we had the distinct pleasure of sitting next to one of the most talked about men in musical theatre!  No, Ramin was on stage, natch.  Nope, not Michael Ball..... none other than.THE CLAPPING MAN  Having witnessed him at LND, we knew what to expect, but not the sheer volume of his accompanying whoops.  Plus, his proximity and interval familiarity had us a wee bit concerned that people might think WE WERE WITH HIM. Shudder.  Still, nice to see enthusiasm, even if it has left us deaf in one ear.
Ramin was great as expected, despite vacating the stage a bit too often for our liking, although we did love Celia Graham- she wore some cracking frocks, sang like an angel, and seems an utter sweetheart.  And we got to sing along to "Do you hear the people sing?" (Much frowned on in other venues. No, we dont, but others do - Tamsin was treated to a lovely mono whispered version of Bring Him Home at a recent visit. The songbird nearly got herself unceremoniously tipped over the safety rail...) But, we digress. Ramin was fab, sang several crowd pleasers, mixed with his album. So all good really.  Would definitely repeat the experience, funds permitting.

Lee Mead in concert (This might need a separate post to discuss it properly. Raised a few questions and dashed a few hopes. And now he's in panto. Blimey.)

Josh Groban in concert. Josh!!!!!!!!! We sang 'You raise me up' with him!!!! Us!!!! And a few thousand other people in the concert hall who clearly don't count.

Les Miserables twice. There are no limits to the amount of times we can sing the song of angry men. Seriously. Besides we wanted to see Ramin Karimloo  as pocket sized JVJ. Along with pocket sized Javert Hadley Fraser. And an ensemble that appeared to be munchkins as they were all small and perfectly formed.

25th Anniversary Phantom (see our previous predictions and how much of them came true(ish). We marvelled at the spectacle and the heartbreaking moment Phantom (Ramin) sang/whispered at the end 'Christine, I looooooove you.....'. With a sob we both collapsed in our by now customary nose-bleed seats. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  And we can relive it on DVD. Bliss.

Legally Blonde We went. We day-seated with squeally girls. The musical was...not much cop. The story was lame. Over acted. The music? Not to our taste. We saw Lee Mead as Emmett. We remained a bit unimpressed (saying that, the part of Emmett is a bit of a stinker, dontcha think...?)

West End Live What a fab weekend. We got proper rained/hailed on big stylee and spent our time there soaking wet. We stayed in what was possibly the most appalling hotel in London but loved every single second. There were SO MANY high lights but for some reason the ones that stick most to mind are the cast of Betty Blue Eyes and the Jersey Boys who cheered all the audience along whilst we were boogying along to their snappy tunes whilst the skies opened. All together now: 'BIG GIRLS DOOOOON'T CRRY...!'

Singing in the Rain Deserves it's own post as seen recently and utterly marvellous from the first to last tap of those tappy shoes...

Pippin Three hours we will never get back. Needs a post of its own. Just so we can have a rant at length.

Priscilla Queen of the Desert Seen by Karina for the first time not long before it closed. What a treat for a girl who lurves a bit of eurotrash and is an 80's girl at heart!  Doesn't take itself seriously though the story was surprisingly moving. Laughed and sang along all night and found myself smirking and happy all the way home. Surely a sign of a good night out.

Ghost  We had tickets.We were looking forward to this. We were due to go on the second night of the London riots. Bummer. As we would have both had to travel through rioting hotspots we chose to stay at home instead and curse the filthy toe rags that made us, for the first time ever, fearful of our home town. But not for long!!!! HAH! The Riot Wombles did a splendid job and the yobs are continuing to get their come-uppance. And we have to get another ticket to see Ghost...

Sweeney Todd We had tickets for this too. We had a slight mishap. We went to have our nails done. We were chatting merrily about nail colours when a cold chill went through Tamsin and she said she was worried we were due at the matinee. 'Nonsense!' said Karina, tossing her hair in a Miss Piggy-esque fashion, 'We NEVER go to matinees!' But this time we HAD booked a matinee. And therefore missed the show. We ended up going to the movies and seeing 'We need to talk about Kevin'. Good film but not a patch on the musical evening we were expecting to spend, especially as instead of singing along to a mass murdering pie maker we watched a film about a mass murdering teenager. More tickets being planned and we have sworn off  ever having our nails done on the day of an 'event'. Fact.

The filming of the Michael Buble Christmas Special We almost managed to get tickets for this twice. We were on the reserves list. They were almost in our eager little paws. And then our hopes were scuppered and we ended up having to watch the cheese fest with one of the most gorgeous men in the universe on the sofa with a box of Quality Street, just like the rest of the nation. Not fair AT ALL. Not fairy in the slightest. We object. And will tell Mr Buble so the next time we see him.

Ich War Noch Niemals In New York (also known as 'What The Hell Was That?')

We truly didn't know what to expect when we managed to nab two tickets to 'ich noch niemals' (as we fondly call it). We'd only been in Vienna a matter of hours and were still acclimatising, and were possibly a little weary from our travels, hence seeing a musical seemed like a grand idea.
 And it was.
 Kinda.

Our seats were in the stalls and the 10euro price tag implied we might have a somewhat restricted view. We were sitting behind a delightful red velvet pillar. Tamsin missed the entire right third of the stage and Karina the same amount on the left, but what the hell. We also got told off for carrying our coats in to the auditorium.'Either wear them or put them in the cloak room!' said the rather firm usher. So we duly put our coats on and took them off under the cover of darkness, which lasted all of 10 seconds. Because...

This show is BRIGHT. It's colourful. It has songs (surprise surprise). LOTS OF THEM. And they all follow a perfect format, explained best by the following link .The Song That Goes Like This - courtesy of Spamalot Except they don't all end with a kiss. They generally end with sequins, a key change, jazz hands, and a bit of high kicking. Think Eurovision meets The Morecombe and Wise Christmas Special and you'll get the drift.

 Despite not being able to understand a word of what was going on we manged to use the medium of dance and bodylanguage to interpret the profound messages this musical proffers, as follows:

1) You can't be a career girl and find love.
2) Love comes in many forms
3) Eating makes you fat
4) Old people are wise
5) Young people are less so
6) Greek women are scary
7) New York is busy
8) You're unlikely to catch a cruise ship in a Jeep

The lead was played by none other than Mrs Sarich, Ann Mandrella. Fine set of lungs and very long legs which put our stubs to shame and set us into a pit of depression. At least we could hide behind our pillar. Good hair too. Man, sometimes being nice is so difficult ...why does she have to be talented AND beautiful??? She has Drew Sarich!!! Leave something for us!!!!She is good though and we say this through gritted teeth. Moving on.

The cast was huge. And every number a grand production where seemingly every cast member played a part. Even the duets had angelic choirs in the back ground. As said before, every song could have been a eurovision song contest entry. The set was lavish and had plenty of doors, which allowed for much Benny Hill stylee entrances and exits. Our Austrian audience members seemed to love this and the guffawing sometimes drowned out the action on the stage. This production has been going steady for two years or so and it would appear the audience loves the slap stick and the jokes almost as much as the formation dancing and key changes.
behold a wee taster of the show ...you know you want to...
On many occasions we found ourselves staring mouth open at the spectacle unfolding infront of our eyes. The show ended with a mega mix of the songs which finished us off pretty much, and ensured we were humming the title song constantly throughout our time away and even now it catches us unawares (as an example: breakfast. Bacon butties. Eating whilst humming the song. Have we been damaged?).
One week later later we still looked baffled and confused.

So Drew Sarich is still Drewsus...

One year on, same set, new cast (partly) and two karten im handen, off we trotted for a little city break.  You see, Drew was back as Jesus. Having witnessed this spectacular event last year, we felt our love for all things Vienna reignited around November when an email from the efficient bods at the Ronacher Theatre kindly whispered in our ear that it was all happening again..... farewell Blighty, Guten Morgen Austria!
As fairybreaks go ours started in its usual spectacular fashion; off the aeroplane, straight to the town centre, to our lovely hotel in the centre of all manner of beautiful buildings (these Austrians luuuurve their statues and cherubs) and then via the pub to see an austrian musical. More of that later. But as you will discover we needed a cleansing experience following it, and so 'Jesus Christ Superstar' fit the bill nicely. For soo many reasons, but the main one being the glory that is Mr Sarich. Four days on and we are still wibbly wobbly pieces of jelly, hence sitting here now with a bag of Mozart kugeln and a bottle of Schlumberger sparkly, washing away the post Vienna Drew blues and writing about the experience.

What can we say that hasn`t already been said (by us at least)?   Not a lot apparently, but it probably wont stop us banging on for a while at least.  We entered the theatre in excitement, and armed with the knowledge (last years miscalcuation)  that a small glass of fizzy at the Ronacher costs approximately the same as a small country, we bypassed the bar and headed straight for the CD lady, who was gamely trying to entice punters to buy last years recording (we did of course), the previous one from 2005???? alongside Mischa Mang (Judas) and Drew's solo albums.  She had very few takers until after people had witnessed the greatness, at which point she was mobbed as we smugly trotted past, CDs hotly clutched in search of sustainance and a post mortem.

Relaxing in the efficient, shabby comfort of Cafe Pruckel with a grosse bier (Bitte!) and a fag (Gawd Bless Vienna and indoor smoking...) we gazed gormlessly at each other across the table as we searched for the right words.  But its hard, you see, because when you have been in the presence of the Sarich-God, it does tend to render you speechless. If not entirely scramble the few braincells we were still desperately clutching on to. See, we were seated in the stalls. Second row. and were subjected to the full Drew Sarich Audience Gaze (patent pending) as well as the force of his incredible vocals and his angst-ridden, tear inducing emoting. Never OTT, and never, ever to be underestimated. He walks on stage and suddenly you can't look at anyone else. We did try, Mischa, really. But as we recently deducted, Drew has the Marilyn Monroe Quality. He can 'switch it on' whenever he needs to. We've seen it so many times now, in Les Mis as well as JCS. Like a little light bulb, that boy.

As this production has had a review from us last year, and the staging has remained unchanged (though the orchestration was better this year) we feel the only option is to pick out a few fairy highlights. And not just Drew  - but let's face it, who are we kidding? We adore him and would see him in absolutely anything and exmplified by the fact we are typing this whilst watching 'Rudolf: Affair Mayerling' in German on DVD. We've even noticed we could play the Ladies of the Night in the scene we are currently watching happily. Moving swiftly on. Highlights.

1) Gethsemane.
THE BEST EVER (Thanks to Silivren for You Tubing this, the memory is irreplaceable).
There are no words. Listen to the recording (which doesn't do it full justice) and then imagine it 1000 times better from 10 feet away. Imagine him looking you in the eyes when singing 'But if I die...' (we naturally are aware 1000 people felt he was looking them in the eye...but most wouldn't have still been in their seats 72 hours later with their mouths open and a hypnotised look in their eyes unless they knew they had a plane to catch and sodding work to go to). Btw, we don't do punctuation in full on chat mode, so excuse the long sentences and just remember we do take breaths sometimes. There were big blobby tears. There was a standing ovation, and not just by us. Spectacular.

2) Poor Jerusalem.
Listen without crying if you can.
 Beautiful. No Drew rock screams but stunning, right to the moment he stalked off down the aisle and we had to be physically restrained to not stalk off after him. But as stalking doesn't belong in our job description, we pretended to not care where he went. So where did he go??? He only bloody appeared on the scaffolding at the back of the stage in angry mode screaming his head off, telling everyone to get out of his Temple. (Not the right version, but hell, who cares??)  Masterful. Quiver.

3) Pontius Pilate was exceptional. Just the right amount of anger and frustration; he really wanted to help this guy Jesus and hated being used as a pawn. Stopped counting the lashes at 30-odd and watched the crowd counting with an incredulous look on his face, until he intervened and put an end to the baying for blood at 39.

4) Herod. Again, our least favourite song, spoilt forever by Christopher Biggins and his comical turn on what is a song about absolute hatred and humiliation. Not supposed to be a funny ha-ha crowd pleaser and should be uncomfortable viewing, not a giggle-fest. This time performed with malice and genuine disgust and sarcasm. Which is the point of the song.

5) Mary Magdalene - great part and performed brilliantly. Slight concerns about her wardrobe though, as she performed dressed in a virtually identical dress to Tamsin, avec the red scarf. Some people just can't make their own style choices...(or appear to have come to the theatre dressed as their favourite character -Karina ;o) )

In summary; we adore this show, and especially the simplicity of the Austrian/Ronacher production. Though not avid church goers, this production packs an emotional and spiritual punch which leaves you questioning and wondering. We also think this production should be recorded on DVD (are you listening, Ronacher bods??? You'd make a fortune!!!!) as Drew Sarich deserves a wider audience and as awesome as he is on CD, witnessing that stage presence and charisma is part of the deal. Andrew Lloyd Webber, stop looking now. Drew Sarich will ALWAYS be the ultimate JC and if you're honest with yourself, you know we're right. It's not like we haven't told you before...

So, a big round of applause from us, witness the curtain call (thanks to spanishgirl1902 , another lovely youtuber)
We challenge you to resist the gorgousness.
Oh Drew.

Theatrefairies; the sequel

Well, its been a while....
We lost our blogging mojo for a while, due to general unpleasantness and unfairylike happenings, but have decided that life is too short not to bore each other rambling on, so here we are.  You may notice a distinct lack of pretty pictures, sadly due to a fear of being sued by anyone from ALW to The Buble we removed all our naively posted pretties. From this moment on (ooh I feel a song coming on....) any photos will be of questionable quality and our very own handiwork. So there. 
Having just returned from Vienna (shh) we caught The Terminator on telly in our hotel room and decided to follow in his footsteps and "be back". It was German but we got the gist. So here we are. Revitalised and just a little chatty.