Back to blogging (aka an update)

Hello, everyone!
I realise it has been over a year since my last post. Wow! 
When I think about it though, I feel like not very much has changed since then as I am still studying music and musical theatre at the University of Chichester. I have had the opportunity to take part in a number of shows and have started focusing more on backstage work rather than performing as I feel it offers more variety. Unfortunately I have not had the chance to go to the theatre very much as a spectator but as I am hoping to slowly ease my way back into blogging, I hope to entertain you with a variety of theatre-related articles. Perhaps beginning with a couple of posts about the shows I have been lucky enough to be involved in this year including Half a Sixpence, Jekyll & Hyde, Picnic at Hanging Rock and currently Sweeney Todd. 
Please stay tuned :) 

BA Music with Musical Theatre at the University of Chichester

Some of you may be aware that I will be going to university in September to study BA Music with Musical Theatre. I originally auditioned for the straight Musical Theatre but they offered me this Music degree with a specialism so I accepted as it is my singing that I really want to work on more than anything.

The University of Chichester has two campuses, one in Chichester and one in Bognor Regis, the towns are approximately 6 miles (~10km) apart. Bognor Regis is located on the south coast of England and it is a popular seaside resort, Chichester is northwest from there.

The red dot marks the location of Chichester. (Source)

Location of Bognor Regis in relation to Chichester (Source)

I will be living in a four-bedroom house near the Chichester campus with three other first year girls. None of us had secured the university accommodation we wanted and we are, in fact, cheaper off renting privately even if Chichester can be a fairly expensive place to live. I have also succeeded in getting a job transfer at the opticians chain I work for, to the store in Bognor Regis so I will be able to keep working on Saturdays and do extra days during the holidays :) My move-in date will be the 15th September and university officially starts on 23rd September the first week being freshers' week. 

I believe we will have about four set lectures a week and the rest will be modules of our choice (e.g. acting, dance, orchestra, I'm going to ask if I could do technical theatre too). We also get 1 hour of one-to-one tuition a week. I have chosen to have half an hour of classical voice and half an hour of musical theatre voice. I debated for a long time whether to do half voice half violin as I played the violin for several years when I was younger but in the end I decided I wanted to concentrate on singing. I will still take my violin with me and get back into playing it. Maybe even join an orchestra again. 

I know I completely failed doing updates on my musical theatre foundation course but if people are interested, I promise I will update you on my university studies every now and then! 

Overdue update

Apologies for being so quiet on here: I always seem to be on the go at the moment :/

Firstly, my course is going well. To begin with it was tough with a minimum of 14 hours of dance/body conditioning every week but I have gotten into the routine now and I certainly should have a beach body by the end of the year. In terms of dance classes, we have ballet, jazz, commercial and tap. Some of the jazz classes are technical and some are musical theatre based in which we learn routines from shows.
On top of dance, we have various classes in acting and singing. So far we have covered a bit of Stanislavsky, Shakespeare, acting through song (a BIG component) and acting for TV among others.

Aside from me there are only 4 people on the course which means that no hiding can take place: you will get caught if you haven't done your work. However, it is above all a positive thing because of the vast amount of time the teachers have to spend with each of us giving individual feedback. 

I would be lying if I said I have not improved in all the different areas. However, I have noticed particular improvement in terms of core body strength, flexibility and stamina. I have never been much of a dancer and only started dancing upon the realisation that if musical theatre was what I want to do, I will have to learn to dance decently. The course has made me rather enjoy dance and because my fitness level is higher, my body doesn't wear out as quickly and I am able to enjoy the exercise more. In addition, my technique and ability to remember routines have improved which makes everything more fun. 
My confidence has gone up a lot as well. It is not a big deal for me to get up and sing in front of the class anymore. I used to have a problem with my voice locking up as soon as I had an audience but as I have learned to accept that I can sing and produce a fairly good sound, it has made me relax significantly.

So far we have covered a lot of West Side Story: acted out some scenes, practiced a Puerto Rican accent, sung Somewhere, worked on the dance routine to Cool and at the moment we are putting together a whole musical theatre number to America. We have also danced to Grease and In the Heights among others.

On a Friday morning we do work on individual production numbers. Each of us gets to choose a song from a musical which is then choreographed so that everyone can be in it. You get to sing and act your own song and everyone else become the ensemble. I am doing So Much Better from Legally Blonde for that. Gives me a reason to learn to sing and dance in heels as well. I bought a gorgeous pair of tan-coloured character shoes with 2 3/4" (~7cm) heel which are also incredibly comfortable and I love wearing them. I must post a picture on here soon. Or maybe I should do a video blog...(?)

Over the Christmas holidays I promise to catch up on reviews of shows and such on here so stay tuned! 

An update on ME! Yay!

I thought that it might be nice if I actually started blogging about myself every now and then. Because, well, surprisingly people do seem interested in me as a person. Very flattering. Or maybe they just want to read about the everyday life of other people. Hoping for schadenfreude moments perhaps. Reading about someone whose life sounds significantly worse than your own makes you feel like you're doing good. That's kind of depressing but true.

Now, another reason why I thought it might be nice to write updates about myself once in a while on here is that the blog has, as you must have noticed, very much drifted into a musical theatre direction and I will be studying musical theatre from 24th September.
It will be a one-year full-time foundation course and I am hoping that that will help me get onto a BA course and this then into doing musical theatre professionally and fulfill a couple of things on my life list in the passing. Performing in a West End show of course would be one of the most amazing things ever. I would also like to perform solo in a lovely, intimate musical theatre cabaret; be a part of an international touring production and perform at an open air theatre in Finland (because open air theatre is a part of a traditional Finnish summer so it would be a honour to be involved in creating it).

As I will be a student again, there is no way I will be able to afford to go and see as many shows as I have over the past year unfortunately but I am hoping I'll still manage to keep this blog remotely interesting.
Would people be interested in reading a short update on what I have learned every week on my course for example? All ideas welcome. Also, any improvements that you feel could be made on the blog, please let me know - those would be greatly appreciated! :)

Cabaret: 'Chloë Hart - Redesign'

I didn't hesitate in booking a ticket right away when I found out Chloe was organising another cabaret. I had enjoyed the last one immensely and this time it would be even better because I had become better acquainted with the "regular" attendees to these sorts of events (promotion: Twitter is great for meeting people with similar interests as well as for finding out about smaller scale cabarets you might wish to attend) and therefore I would have people to chat with at interval rather than being that loner in the corner.

Date: Sunday 22nd July 2012
Location: Union Theatre, London
Featuring: Lucy May Barker, Gina Beck, Liam Doyle, Chloe Hart (surprise!), Charlotte Scott, Thomas Sutcliffe, Rebecca Trehearn

Charlotte Scott and Chloe Hart. Photo: Fonsaca Malyan-Brooker

I was reading the diary entry I had written right after this cabaret and it seemed to be mostly about what people were wearing (there seemed to be a strange fascination when it came to shoes...) but since Fonsaca's lovely photography provides a taste of that aspect of the night, I'll talk about the songs instead. Don't take any of this as a review though: wrote this mainly for all the people who did not have the chance to attend.

Now, Chloe was supported by Charlotte and Rebecca in the opening number, I'm A Star. I thought it sounded perfect. Chloe was not happy, however, because she had messed up some of the lyrics (I bet no one noticed!) and asking we would not put that performance on YouTube. She added another rendition of the same song at the start of Act 2. The funniest thing was that by the time we got to the start of the second act, I had forgotten about Chloe's promise to perform that first song later on and I wondered why the song sounded freshly familiar. For anyone who noticed me having a quiet laugh halfway through: that was why. Stunning harmonies and Chloe's got such a gorgeous, clear voice.

We heard several Kooman and Dimond songs. Chloe's a massive fan of theirs. "They deserve to be more famous," she says and readily shares her enthusiasm for their compositions. In general, Chloe tends to go for a lot of new writing - she says she is a bit of a geek that way - so many of the songs were unfamiliar to me. However, some of the songs I had most certainly heard in cabarets before (what would a Chloe cabaret be without her signature song: Stagey and Proud?) but I just did not know the titles or the composers. That goes for Chloe and Thomas's The Temp and the Receptionist (such a great song) and the "die, die, die" song Lucy sang (sounds very obscure but anyone who has heard the song will know what I am on about - that's the section of the track that stays with you!). To comment on the latter: it really made me realise what a difference the singer can make. I have heard Jacqueline Hughes sing the same song in the past. A brilliant, humorous performance in both insteances but just very different in terms of the voice. Liam Doyle sang a song from the Catch Me If You Can musical. I think that was the first time I heard a song from that show. I might need to go away and have a proper listen.

Charlotte sang Scott Alan's beloved Never Neverland. You hear that song at just about every cabaret: it's such a beautiful song people want to perform it and audiences are always happy to hear it. That I may not have been able to find a recording of on the generally omniscient YouTube but I just discovered this from Chloe's previous cabaret. I think Charlotte does an incredible job of this Cheno song, hence the sharing:

Because Gina Beck ("My next guest doesn't need an introduction") was there, how could they not sing For Good? Gina also performed a song called My Prince by Alexander S Bermange. Rather Glinda-y that one.

Gina Beck and Chloe Hart singing For Good.
Photo: Fonsaca Malyan-Brooker

Gina Beck singing My Prince.
Photo: Fonsaca Malyan-Brooker

And look, I found Gina's rendition of the song. Just listen to the lyrics (not that you can actually miss the beautiful voice):

                             

And this is what we were treated with to finish off:

I love Smash (the TV series about making a Marilyn Monroe musical in case someone's been living under a rock) and I love Chess so I was very content to have experienced both of these songs live. I was surprised by how deep and powerful Rebecca's voice was. This video doesn't really do it justice but live it was incredible to listen to, especially the belt in Let Me Be Your Star and when she performed With You from the musical Ghost in which she currently understudies the female lead. I have much love for the video clip above because it captures some of the lovely atmosphere of an intimate musical theatre cabaret. It's informal (I'm sure we all noticed Liam checking the lyrics on his phone) and both the performers and the audience get to have a bit of a laugh. I have absolutely fallen in love with these kinds of events. One thing on my life list: to perform solo in a cabaret like this. 

If anyone is interested in hearing additional tracks from the cabaret (this one and also Chloe's first one), you can find more video footage on Chloe's own YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/ChloeXxXHart

And Rukaya's uploaded some stuff from this cabaret too including a great capture of Chloe and Gina singing For Good: http://www.youtube.com/user/RukayaC 

And thanks again to Fonsaca for letting me use her photos for this :)

My West End cabaret experience

As a part of the 12-week Sunday intensive musical theatre course I took at the American Musical Theatre Academy of London, known just as AMTA, my course mates and I got this amazing opportunity to perform in a cabaret at Charing Cross Theatre (i.e. actually in the West End) with an ensemble and four West End soloists.

Insane About Broadway at Charing Cross Theatre
On 29th April 2012 at 19:30
Main soloists: Kenneth Avery-Clark, Mark Goldthorp, Alice Fearn, Kirsty Hoiles


Our call was at 10:30am. It really wasn't my morning: Not only did I succeed in getting lost while changing tubes at Earl's Court underground station (note to self: never change there, however desperate you are) but I also had trouble finding the theatre. It is slightly hidden from view with the entrance in an alleyway underneath an arch which read something like 'Arches Shopping' over it. In addition, it was still down on the maps under its former name: The New Players Theatre. Obviously I did successfully arrive in the end, otherwise this blog post would cut rather short. 
Charing Cross Theatre is one of those gorgeous, old-looking venues. You know when you think of the word 'theatre' as a building, you probably think of the interior as something like Charing Cross Theatre. It seats 275 people so it is decent size as well: very nice for a cabaret.

Fave! Me with Elaine and Bronwyn in Skid Row. 

Alice's gorgeous shoes.

Kaisla's Dorothy shoes.

We only had the theatre for the day of the cabaret so we did all the tech and finalised the blocking then. Of course we had blocked all the ensemble numbers previously but we did not actually know whether it would work on the stage we had or not (mind you, we did have to make a fair number of changes due to things like the stairs on either side of the stage not being lit enough for people to stand on them during numbers). The best you can do is keep track on all the changes. Preparing for this cabaret really made me realise what a huge responsibility each ensemble member has. A group of people put on stage together does not automatically transform into an ensemble but each person needs to put in maximum effort in order for the ensemble to function.

Alice, who had a matinee to do at Shrek the Musical (she in in the ensemble playing the Sugarplum Fairy and Gingy as well as understudying the role of Princess Fiona), rehearsed her solo numbers and duets first. I decided to sit and watch. Alice was on as Fiona when I went to see Shrek last August. She was brilliant in the part and I absolutely loved her voice. While I was sitting there listening to the rehearsal progress, the realisation that I would get to be a part of all this finally hit me. I smiled and snuggled deeper into the comfortable, cushioned seat absorbing in that special theatre atmosphere which I have grown so very fond of. It was great watching the professionals work, you can really learn a lot by doing that although sometimes they make you roll your eyes by saying how badly they did even though it sounded perfect to you. Obviously Kenneth, Mark and Kirsty also had fabulous voices (go Google them all!). I listened with particular interest to Kirsty's rendition of Somewhere That's Green from The Little Shop of Horrors as that is one of the songs I have recently learnt but have not had the chance to perform anywhere yet. 

Interval photos, with Michelle, Elaine,
Bronwyn, Claire and Rachel

Everyone shared one small dressing room which, as I am sure you can imagine, ended up hot, stuffy and crowded. I took forever getting ready as usual. Apparently I also looked too pale on stage and I was trying to figure out how to dispose of the problem without ending up looking orange. Clothing-wise I had only brought one dress with me: the only one I own which could be considered vaguely "glam" (I think I need to get some more nice dresses) and which was not extreme in terms of the colour. Some people had brought several outfits and were trying to decide which one to wear for which number.
There were five group numbers: Skid Row from The Little Shop of Horrors, 'Til We Reach That Day from Ragtime, Seasons of Love from Rent, One Short Day from Wicked and In Whatever Time We Have  from Children of Eden as well as a group of six girls (Claire, Michelle, Elizabeth, Irina, Elaine and Chiara who all deserve to be mentioned by name because they did an amazing job) singing and dancing to Cellblock Tango from Chicago and most of the boys sang What You Own from Rent as a group number. Some of the students on the full-time programme at AMTA performed solo songs. Incidentally, one of them happened to be Finnish - very surreal but it was nice to chat to someone in Finnish for a change. We also had some of the full-time students doing stage management. Thanks for being such a great help! 

Mark (left), Alice, Kirsty and Kenneth in the last number:
In Whatever Time We Have

Was I nervous? Of course I was. Excited-nervous though, and only just before the show began. I am one of those people who just tends to go into calm-mode. Once I got on stage, I enjoyed being there too much to have any second thoughts. With the number of times we had rehearsed all the songs, there really was no reason to panic. Everything was in muscle memory.


Special thanks to all the people I had the privilege of meeting and working with over the 12-week course, our teachers Duncan, Ross and Alex and Kenneth and Christie for giving us this fantastic opportunity to perform :) I had such a great time on the course and on the day of the cabaret and I suppose it goes unstated that I would love to do something similar again in the future. (Such a sloppy way to end the post...)

I was on a post-show high or something... My "cousin", Lumi, was in the audience :)

'Friday Night Is Music Night' with Kerry Ellis

I don't know if I have mentioned this in my blog before but Kerry Ellis is by far one of my favourite singers. Musical theatre is where she started her career and playing the role of Elphaba in Wicked both in the West End and on Broadway was her big breakthrough. She is also famous for playing Nancy in Oliver!, Meat in We Will Rock You and  Svetlana in the concert version of Chess at the Royal Albert Hall amongst others. She has become noticed by the general audience also as a result of collaborating with legendary Queen guitarist, Brian May, who played on and produced her solo album, Anthems. 

(Source)

What?

Friday Night Is Music Night at Watford Colosseum, Watford

On 20th April 2012 at 20:00

Organised and broadcast live by BBC Radio 2

Seat: Stalls right, 3rd row

Performer: Kerry Ellis

Guests: Ramin Karimloo, Jonathan Ansell, Brian May

The last time I've been to a show that was broadcast live was the ABBA tribute concert in Hyde Park in 2009 I seem to remember (incidentally Kerry sang a song there as well). That went live on both radio and TV. Anyway, both times have been awesome already due to the fact that the audience really gets into the show. One of the worst things I know in the theatre is a boring and quiet audience so I really enjoyed this concert. The auditorium was completely full as well. Only when we actually sat down did I realise how good seats we actually had. 

Kerry was the main performer of the night singing a bunch of songs mostly famous from musical theatre. I've seen Kerry perform live twice before. Apart from that time in Hyde Park, I saw her on her Anthems tour last year. What I like about seeing Kerry do solo stuff live is that she never pretends to be anything aside from herself (and she seems like a lovely person). She doesn't need to. She only needs to open her mouth and start singing and she will have the audience listening. 


I had never heard this song before but it was one of my favourite songs of the evening: 

After the orchestra (they had a full orchestra on stage) had blasted out an instrumental medley including Wicked, 9 to 5 and My Fair Lady, Kerry came on and opened the concert with Don't Rain On My Parade from Funny Girl. It was great to hear her sing again and, above all, to see her perform so close-up.

Some other songs sung by Kerry over the course of the evening:

• I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady (new arrangement)
• Cabaret from Cabaret
• Defying Gravity from Wicked (new arrangement)
• Love of My Life
• Born Free
• 9 to 5 from 9 to 5
• Lady is a Tramp from Babes in Arms
• Rock-A-Bye Your Baby

Because I know I have lots of Wicked fans reading this blog, here is the Defying Gravity Kerry performed on the night. Personally I didn't like this arrangement that much because I think this song needs much more guts but that put aside, Kerry does a beautiful job out of it: 

Ramin performed two songs from his new album as well as a duet, Somewhere from West Side Story with Kerry. Ramin is also one of my favourite musical theatre performers. He has such a fantastic voice, too perfect for Phantom. So when he sang "Hold my hand..." I was thinking in my head "Kerry, don't do it! He's the Phantom!". From where I was sitting you couldn't hear all of Kerry's high notes in the song that well, her voice is quite breathy generally and obviously she isn't a soprano, but in this audio I found the whole song is fine actually (and the song itself goes on forever, doesn't it...!): 

Jonathan Ansell I had never actually heard of before but his rendition of Anthem from Chess was one of the highlights of the evening. It was definitely one of the best versions I have heard and the final note was just "Wow". Kerry picked it up and said, kind of in passing "I don't do that on my album". The way she said it made everyone laugh.
Jonathan also sang a classical piece and a duet with Kerry: Come What May from (I'm sure you all know where) Moulin Rouge. Kerry sang this with Alfie Boe on his album and I was half expecting Alfie to come on stage but Jonathan did a great job of the song as well.


I had absolutely no idea Brian May was going to be there. I spotted his distinctive hair by the side of the stage when the previous song was reaching its end and I had to keep myself from bouncing up and down. I had seen the pair of them perform together on the Anthems tour and, well, you can imagine it was incredible. The audience was treated to Save Me and No One But You: Kerry blew the roof belting them out. One could just tell she was comfortable singing these songs, it's peculiar how confidence can shine through like that. 


So a very enjoyable evening overall, it was great hearing Kerry live again. And of course we are all waiting for a second solo album from her...

Chlöe Hart & co in cabaret - Ensemble Power

Chloe Hart, who is currently in the ensemble of the London production of Wicked, put on a cabaret to raise money for a lung cancer charity. Some of her fellow cast members as well as a few drama school students came and joined her on stage during the night and if there was one thing the average audience member gained from this night I should imagine it to be respect for the ensemble. 

Michelle Pentecost (2nd cover Elphaba)
Photo: Fonsaca Malyan-Brooker

Chloe Hart
Photo: Fonsaca Malyan-Brooker

Each and every one of the performers (shame on those people underestimating the ensemble) was not only perfectly capable of singing solo, they were fantastic at it. In a way that should not come as a surprise considering they are trained musical theatre actors but it seems to me that the ensemble does not always get much credit. It is also very rare to get to hear them sing individually. That's why I thought the cabaret was such a great idea. Big thanks to Chloe for organising it!


The theme of the cabaret was new writing so all the songs had been taken from new musicals or they were new songs from current musical theatre composers. The only major song that really did not fit into that category was one Thomas Sutcliffe had decided to sing: Bring Him Home from Les Misérables. 

Thomas Sutcliffe
Photo: Fonsaca Malyan-Brooker

Lauren Samuels
Photo: Fonsaca Malyan-Brooker

I won't go into all the songs that were performed but here are a few of those that stood out to me:

Charlotte Scott (1st cover Glinda)
Photo: Fonsaca Malyan-Brooker

Girl in 14G
Regardless of the massive amount of love I have for this song, I always become weary when I am told someone other than Kristin Chenoweth is going to sing it. It's just one of those songs you associate too strongly with one person. However, I have to say that Charlotte Scott (1st cover Glinda) definitely did justice to it. What an amazing voice! And the acting and comic timing were spot on. I am now determined to try and catch a performance of Wicked with her as Glinda.


An Old-Fashioned Love Story from The Wild Party
When I heard this song for the first time about a year ago, I was certain that the lyrics had been tampered with. I was proven wrong there: the lyrics actually are not what you would expect at all. This is a brilliantly funny song and I was laughing all the way through because I anticipated the comedy.
I actually found Jackie Hughes's performance from that night on YouTube:

The Wizard and I from Wicked
Well, I suppose there couldn't not be a Wicked number in the show. Chloe performed this song as one of the final numbers of the cabaret and she did it justice. 


Stagey and Proud with music by Chris Passey and lyrics by Amy Caroll
This brand new song had been written especially for Chloe and this is the first time she has performed it. Have a listen. it is funny, especially if you know Wicked. 

Some other songs we were treated to:

• Mama Who Bore Me from Spring Awakening
• Beautiful Disaster (performed by Lauren Samuels)
• I'm Not Pregnant
• Never Neverland (Fly Away) by Scott Alan - I love this song

Conclusion: It was such a nice night. The atmosphere friendly and supportive, we got several good laughs. In addition, it was great to meet some fellow musical theatre fans as well as exchanging a few words with the stars of the evening. More of these kinds of cabarets, please :)


A special thanks to Fonsaca Malyan-Brooker for letting me use some of the photos she took!