Theatre
What’s Up Wilma?
Hello dears! Can you believe it’s February already? That means that Valentine’s Day is only a couple of weeks away and to celebrate I’m taking myself to see the fab Miss Saigon!
What’s up with all these celebrities pretending they have been taking the tube around London? It seems to be the new craze with Nicole Scherzinger and Amanda Holden being supposedly papped using public transport. The pictures look too perfect to be unexpected to me, and now Helen Mirren has been mysteriously photographed on the subway in New York.
I would like to give a shameless little plug for my brand new #Stagey tote bags that I have designed and can now be purchased from my website westendwilma.com! If you aren’t familiar with the word Stagey it means ‘excessively theatrical’ and is a term many people in theatre love to use proudly to describe who they are.
I went to see Matilda the Musical this week which was incredible. It’s one of the best musicals on in the West End at the moment and if you haven’t seen it you really should go and check it out. It’s not the cheapest show in town but it’s worth every penny! I didn’t have the greatest audience experience sadly as the people sitting around me didn’t behave as well as you should at the theatre. This led me to write a blog post asking the question, ‘Is it bad behaviour of is this just the way audiences are today?‘
This week there was a swanky little #LDNTheatreBloggers networking event at Planet Hollywood, hosted by OfficialTheatre.com and SeatPlan.com. These events are a great way for bloggers to get together and chat about theatre and blogging in general!
So what’s been happening this week in the West End?
Wicked the Musical welcomes its newest Elphaba this week. Emma Hatton who has been understudying the role takes on the role full time from now after brief stints from Kerry Ellis and Jennifer DiNoia playing the part. The show has also announced an extended booking period to 30 April 2016.
Also announcing extensions this week is The 39 Steps, extending its booking to 31 October 2015. Sunny Afternoon, the Kinks musical has announced it is extending its booking period to 24 October 2015. War Horse on stage welcomes 26 new cast members and 12 puppeteers on 16 March, as the show extends to 13 February 2016.
Sadly, Ghost Stories is closing at the Arts Theatre on 15 March after three separate West End runs over five years.
On Sunday 1 March, stars of the West End will unite for an evening of musical theatre, pop and comedy at Chelsea’s prestigious Cadogan Hall, to raise funds for Red Nose Day and celebrate the work of Comic Relief. Last May’s inaugural Playing Our Part charity concert, raised over £63,000 for Target Ovarian Cancer and this year all proceeds go to Comic Relief. It features an orchestra of twenty-plus, conducted by Alex Parker, special guests, and a team of fifteen stunning vocalists including Simon Bailey, Gina Beck, Louise Dearman, Killian Donnelly, Laura Jane Matthewson, Laura Pitt-Pulford and Nadim Naaman.
This week I’m off to see Happy Ending at the Arcola Theatre, Di and Viv and Rose at the Vaudeville, The Elephant Man at the Brockley Jack Studio and Luisa Omielan at the Soho Theatre! That’s an awful lot of stageyness to fit in so I’d best go and get started!
Wilma xx
