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.