 |
Strictly Come Dancing: The Professionals 2010 Tour (UK)
by karlsm93
We recently purchased tickets for the Strictly Come Dancing Professionals tour 2010 when it visited the O2 arena in Dublin in May. Neither of us were particularly interested in watching the celebrities, but wanted to see the real professionals perform alongside each other. The tickets were by no means cheap, and we paid just under 100 ... euro's for tickets, however, the O2 arena in Dublin, is extremely well tiered, so even though we had paid for middle of the road seats, we had an excellent view of the stage.
There was no opening act on this tour, simply the 10 professionals - Flavia Cace, Matthew Cutler, Brian Fortuna, James Jordan, Ola Jordan, Natalia Lowe, Kristina Rihanoff, Vincent Simone, Alioa Vilani and Ian Waite. They were accompanied by 4 singers, one of which 'Lance Ellington' from the live band on the TV programme.
The tour opened with all the professionals being introduced through a large screen on the stage, with the well known music of the show in the background. Then the professionals themselves came on stage, with James Jordan acting as the main compere for the evening, although all the other celebrities either introduced a dance or chatted to the audience in between dances. The funniest was by far Vincent and some of the other men, and it was obvious that there were many female fans in the audience. It was nice as well to see the personalities of the dancers come out since on TV it is the celebrities that get the attention for obvious reasons.
The celebrities did a mix of both solo dances with their partners, but group dances as well. The screen on the stage was also used to let the judges give their background info to the dances that wee about to coe on stage and about some of the dancers. There was no judging by the judges just introductions and backgrounds- but their input was good and funny at times.
The solo dances performed included:
The ballroom tango and Argentine tango ( Flavia and Vincent)
Cha cha cha and the Rumba (Ola and James)
Foxtrot and American Smooth (Natalia and Ian)
Rumba and Salsa (Brian and Kristina)
Jive and Hip HOp Salsa (Aliona and Matthew)
All in all, we had a fantastic night. There was an excellent mix of both professional and wow factor dancing, mixed with good chat and laughs along the way. Definitely worth the money for the tickets - so if you are a fan of Strictly, grab a ticket while you can.
Read the complete review |
 |
Alhambra Theatre: Joseph And The Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat
by wigglylittleworm
Joseph And The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice which retells the biblical story of Joseph via the medium of song and dance. I saw Joseph in May 2010 at the Alhambra theatre in Dunfermline and the show will appear at various UK venues. To be honest I had no idea what the show was about ... before I went along having received a pair of tickets for my birthday so I will give a brief plot synopsis for those who do not know the story.
Joseph is one of Jacob's 12 sons and being the youngest he is the favourite and is presented with a special coat of many colours by his old dad. The brothers are not too happy that Joseph is the favourite and plot to get rid of him and sell him as a slave to passing Egyptians telling their broken hearted father that he was killed by a wild animal with the blood stained coat being the proof of his demise. Joseph had always had prophetic dreams and a talent for interpreting the dreams of others which is eventually noticed by the pharaoh. Will this talent lead to Joseph reaching the greatness that his father had always believed was his destiny or will he die a slave?
To be honest now that I know what the plot is about it seems like a highly improbable story and one that would not work well as a musical. The whole show is sung, there is no spoken dialogue or straight acting at all. It's got to be said that the show is a bit tongue in cheek with some deliberately dodgy props such as a camel with rolling eyes and blow up sheep. There are many styles of music and song employed throughout the show ranging from a song called "One More Angel In Heaven" sung in the style of a barn dance, The "Benjamin Calypso" where the actors come out decked up as if they were in the Caribbean and Elvis even makes an appearance. Of course the most famous song is "Any Dream Will Do" made famous by Jason Donovan which is a rather bland and inoffensive pop ditty with the "Joseph Megamix" at the end sounding like it should be played at a rave.
The part of Joseph is currently played by Craig Chalmers and the ads for the show proudly proclaim that he was in the BBC TV show "Any Dream Will Do " which was a talent show for choosing the actor to play the part, what it did not tell you was that Chalmers never won but actually came fifth! Having said that he played the part really well, he had a slightly shaky start when he came out but as the show progressed he bounded around the stage singing at the top of his lungs and dancing around with gusto and I especially liked his performance of some of the more emotional songs with his smooth voice particularly suited to the slower melodies. I have only two quibbles about him, the first is that he has the worst haircut I have ever seen and the second was that when he was bouncing around in a loincloth that for some reason he reminded me of Rocky from the Rocky Horror Picture Show!
Joseph is supported by a large cast of actors, a mention must go to Rachael Louise Miller who sings the narration perfectly. It is unusual for a musical to be so male dominated but this one centres round the twelve brothers and Jacob, each brother played his role with gusto. The women when they did appear were also brilliant. There was a chorus of insufferably cute kids which for the touring production had been plucked from the local private primary school choir and I suppose they sang well enough but I really don't think having a bunch of precocious little brats on stage really added much to the production and oddly for kids from an Edinburgh school they sung in a Cockney accent some of the time!
I had problems I keeping up with the story and action as there was so much going on at certain times that it was a real assault on the senses. The Alhambra stage is meant to be one of the largest stages in Scotland and it only just contained the army of actors and the chorus so I imagine this show would be best seen in one of the huge London theatres. The stage was so busy with movement at times that it became just too much and I found some of the scenes where there was a solo performance were much better.
Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat is a huge production full of life and song and although I enjoyed the performance it would certainly not rate as the best musical I have ever seen. It does have good acting and a couple of catchy songs but to be honest some of the songs are very easily forgettable. It is an odd mish mash of styles and sounds and to be honest I can't understand why it is such a huge hit.
Read the complete review |
|
|
Peppa Pig Live UK Stage Tour
by carlz2001uk
I took my daughter to see Peppa Pig Live in March of this year at Harrogate Theatre, after a successful trip to the pantomime in December, it seemed such a long time to wait to take her to the theatre again. My daughter is about to turn 4 on Sunday so I would say she is just about at perfect age for a performance like this. I was worried ... that it may seem a little babyish for her. I needn't have worried, it was a huge success, and my daughter thoroughly enjoyed watching this show although I have to say I was a little bored!
The show is based around Peppa Pig's birthday and she has a trip to the woods planned with a sleepover in tents and a birthday party at the end. My first impressions of the show was that it was performed in a very strange way! Whilst I expected people to come out in Peppa Pig suits and all the other characters, they actually were like large character dolls on the end of sticks, with the performers moving them around. I can imagine that at first this would seem very difficult for the target audience (2-4 year olds) to grasp why these adults dressed all in black were holding these dolls - although my daughter was too excited to mention anything. I would imagine the main reasons for doing this are down to the scale of the characters, for example George is absolutely tiny, but Daddy Pig is humongous, so this may not have worked very well as a stage production. Expect to see favourite characters from the TV programme such as Peppa and George, Suzy Sheep, Danny Dog and Emily Elephant, as well as Mummy and Daddy Pig.
The set's were really good, with colourful, fun and engaging scenes, such as Peppa's house, a country scene and a train. The sets were all true to the TV programme and it felt like you had just stepped straight into the cartoon! The production also mirrored the TV programme in that its messages were that of family values, fun and a safe environment.
The show also involves audience participation which myself and my daughter particularly liked. This involved doing various basic dance moves, such as stamping feet, turning around and jumping up and down. This really made my daughter giggle and warmed my heart just watching her have so much fun!
Tickets are still on sale now for various theatres all over the country such as Birmingham on 4-5 September and Sheffield on 5-6 June. Expect to pay around £13 a ticket.
I would recommend as a fun afternoon out for pre school children. If you do plan on going to see this, make sure your children are wearing something with Peppa Pig on - they may feel left out if not!
Read the complete review |
