'Rock of Ages' - my new favourite guilty pleasure

The posters up at tube stations really do speak the truth when talking about London's best new guilty pleasure musical or whatever the exact wording is. I had heard pretty good things about Rock of Ages. However, since I am not a complete rock music fanatic, I was not in too much of a rush to see it right away. The opportunity presented itself on Monday when I found out there were £12 stalls tickets (inc. booking fee) available for 16-26 year-olds for this particular performance. Not missing out on a deal like that! The seats we were allocated were brilliant as well! Almost bang in the middle of the auditorium so we could see the whole stage without obstruction.


Rock of Ages at Shaftesbury Theatre, London
Performance: 16th December at 17:30 (such a random time for a show! No wonder they have cheap tickets for this and no wonder the show was u/s dominated)
Cast included: Grant Anthony (Dennis, u/s), Shayne Ward (Stacee Jaxx), Jamie Muscato (Drew, u/s), Jodie Jacobs (Sherrie, u/s), Simon Lipkin (Lonny), Zizi Strallen (Regina, u/s), Rohan Tickell (Hertz), Sandy Moffatt (Franz), Rachel McFarlane (Mother), Carly Mercedes Dyer (Mother, u/s, took over in the second act)


According to the programme, the show would include 31 rock hits (of which I only recognised 7). That made me scared: How on earth would they fit that many songs as well as a plot of some sort into a 2,5h show? There was no way for it to overrun too much either since the next performance was due to start at 20:30. 
The answer: Surprisingly well. It was to a great extent a rock concert but there was an attempt of a plot: Sherrie moves to California to become an actress. She meets Drew, an aspiring rock star, at the club where he works, which is owned by Dennis. Hertz and his son Franz appeal to the Mayor in order to create a rock 'n' roll place of the much beloved city and Regina (who wishes her name to be pronounced so it rhymes with 'vagina'), the Mayor's PA, makes it her task to protest against the reform which the Mayor agrees to. The two men then go on to tell Dennis that the club will be shut down. Drew and Sherrie, predictably, fall for each other but Drew does not communicate his feelings clearly enough and so Sherrie ends up getting off with Stacee Jaxx, the real rock star whom all the girls are after. I will not reveal any more for those of you who want to go and see it but, well, the plot is fairly predictable. It should perhaps not be criticised for that, however, because this musical is very much a feel-good one focused on the songs and might suffer rather than benefit from having a complicated plot. Having seen We Will Rock You, I preferred Rock of Ages in terms of the storyline.


I recognised Jamie Muscato from the children's sitcom My Parents Are Aliens which I used to love. That was slightly surreal to begin with but I forgot that as soon as he started to sing as his vocals were phenomenal. I did not expect a voice as big as that. 
Jodie did a brilliant job of Sherrie who, as a character, initially reminded me of Elle Woods in Legally Blonde. The slightly breathy quality of voice suited the genre perfectly. 
Simon Lipkin was an absolute legend. Lonny, his character, acted as a narrator for the story so he addressed the audience and commented on what was going on. It seemed almost like he was improvising some of his performance. Particular point where I suspected this was when he was explaining Drew that he is an actor in a musical and showing him a copy of the very same Rock of Ages programme that was lying in my lap. Lonny said something along the lines of: "Look, there you are! Awww, look at that baby face. You have short hair there but long hair here *tugging Drew's hair*. Short there but long here. How old are you here *points at Jamie's picture in the programme*? Four?" He then went onto saying how he thought Drew should do his hair. Both Simon and Jamie were cracking up at this point but it was not a big deal as the moment was not too serious. So Simon Lipkin was very relaxed and funny. 


Other special mentions go to:

• Rohan Tickell's gorgeous voice
• Sandy Moffatt who was responsible for the funniest line in the play: "I'm not gay, I'm just German!", he reminded me of a male version of Galinda in Wicked (if those two were in a show together it would turn out a complete disaster)
• Shayne Ward who was a great actor
• The fabulous dancers

Not only did the actors address the audience, they were also running around, through the audience as a part of the show which was a nice add. The audience was really encouraged to get involved (although not quite as involved as a bunch of girls on our right across the aisle did with the help of some alcohol - not only were they loud at inappropriate points but they also got up to go to the toilet constantly). This sort of involvement and a kind of team spirit that developed is not that common in the West End I think. The only other time I have gotten the feeling that the audience really is there to support the performers was at Shrek the Musical so it really is not given. (And that resulted in the hot guys sitting on my left even saying 'hi' to us!)

Would I recommend Rock of Ages? Yes, I would. If you like rock music, even better I'm sure but my friend and I don't know very much about rock music and we still agreed that it was a great night out. Go see it. The theatre staff are very friendly as well and they gave us small glowy things that we could wave in the air during the performance! :D


Official website: http://www.rockofagesmusical.co.uk/

Dancing (and Singing) Through Life - Challenge

So this is the challenge my lovely friend Lily Luna put on the table: Introduce your current musical theatre collection.
Since I subscribe to Spotify Unlimited, I generally only physically buy soundtracks if they are not available on there. Hence the slightly random CD collection.
Update 13.3.2012: New additions in green


CDs:
Simply the Songs of Andrew Lloyd Webber
Chess in Concert
The Lord of the Rings: Original London Soundtrack
Les Misérables: 10th Anniversary Concert
Pinocchio (The Swedish Theatre in Helsinki)
Robin Hood (The Swedish Theatre in Helsinki)
Wicked - Die Hexen von Oz: Original German Soundtrack

Solo albums by musical theatre actors:

(Do these count? I decided to include them anyway)

Anthems - Kerry Ellis

Close Your Eyes - Annalene Beechey

I'll Bring You a Song - Shona White

The Journey Home - Mark Evans

Little Stories - Dianne Pilkington

Wish - Sutton Foster

You and I - Louise Dearman

DVDs:

Cabaret

Chess in Concert
Les Misérables: 25th anniversary concert

Moulin Rouge

My Fair Lady
The Phantom of the Opera: 25th anniversary concert

The Producers

Rent: Live on Broadway

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Vocal selections (i.e. sheet music books):

Chess

Jesus Christ Superstar
Legally Blonde
My Fair Lady

The Phantom of the Opera

Wicked

Tickets and programmes that have survived:
Theatre:

After the Turn, The Courtyard Theatre, London (ticket + programme)
The Baker's Wife, Union Theatre, London (programme)

Billy Elliot, Victoria Palace Theatre, London (programme)
Blondi - Legally Blonde, Samppalinnan kesäteatteri, Turku (ticket + programme)
Crazy for You, Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, London (programme)
Ghost the Musical, Piccadilly Theatre, London (ticket + programme)
La Cage aux Folles, Helsinki City Theatre, Helsinki (ticket + programme)
Legally Blonde, Savoy Theatre, London (2 tickets + programme)
Les Misérables, Queen's Theatre, London (ticket + programme)
The Lord of the Rings, Theatre Royal Drury Lane, London (ticket + programme)
Parade, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, London (ticket)
The Phantom of the Opera, Her Majesty's Theatre, London (ticket + programme)
Pippin, The Menier Chocolate Factory, London (ticket + programme)
The Secret Garden, Hampton Hill Playhouse, Hampton Hill (ticket)
The Three Musketeers, Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames (ticket + programme)
We Will Rock You, The Dominion Theatre, London (ticket + programme)
Wicked, Helsinki City Theatre, Helsinki (2 tickets + programme)
Wicked, Apollo Victoria Theatre, London (2 tickets + 2 programmes)
Cinema:
Wicked, Circustheater, Den Haag (programme + souvenir book)

Mamma Mia! (x2)
The Phantom of the Opera: 25th anniversary concert

Autographs:

Annaleigh Ashford, Desmond Barrit, Gina Beck, Annalene Beechey, Katie Rose Clarke, Michael Crawford, Louise Dearman, Siobhan Dillon, Killian Donnelly, Kerry Ellis, Mark Evans, Nicole Faraday, Alice Fearn, America Ferrera, Lillie Flynn, Julian Forsyth, Sutton Foster, Alex Gaumond, Shimi Goodman, Ashleigh Gray, Joel Grey, Jill Halfpenny, Megan Hilty, Amanda Holden, Danielle Hope, Ramin Karimloo, Julie Legrand, Caissie Levy, Aoife Mulholland, Dianne Pilkington, Zoe Rainey, Carley Stenson, Oliver Tompsett, Rachel Tucker, Anna-Maija Tuokko, Matt Willis, Maria Ylipää.

Other:

Legally Blonde: 8x10" photo print with Sheridan Smith as Elle Woods

Stamp set featuring West End musical theatre posters

Wicked: green t-shirt which reads 'Defy Gravity'

Wicked: 8x10" photo print with Rachel Tucker as Elphaba

Wicked: Broadway cast-signed playbill

Inadequate explanation of absence and update

So, I did not use this blog at all in the way I intended to. In fact, I did not end up using it at all.
What happened? I have no idea. Anyway, by this time, I have returned to live in the UK. Not because I did not like Finland (on the contrary, after getting over the initial problems, I ended up having an absolute ball) but rather because I felt the need to return. After all, I did have a university place waiting for me here in Nottingham.


Over the six months I spent in Finland, theatre became an even greater part of my life than it had been before.
I went to see the Finnish production of Wicked in March at the Helsinki City Theatre. I was already a fan of musical theatre and having seen several shows in London's West End, I went in with an embarrassingly prejudiced attitude: "There is no way a production in Finland will beat a West End show." (N.B. I had never seen Wicked in the West End and I did not know the story behind the musical even if I had heard some of the songs.) Already after the first act I could not contain my excitement. The show was one of the most fantastic things I had ever seen on stage.

Delving deeper into the world of Finnish theatre, I found that, despite being a country with a small population, there is a surprisingly large number of plays going on at a surprisingly large number of theatres, particularly in the capital. And, naturally, this would not be the case if there were not a significant number of people seeing them.
One cannot leave out the summer theatre culture, of course. All the big theatres are closed in the summer, giving the small open air theatres (not rarely located in the middle of nowhere) a chance to shine. And speaking of shining, the weather usually agrees with this tradition, which is lucky seeing as some of the theatres are completely uncovered. One might expect these productions to be cheap and amateur-made but this is so far off the truth that... I can't even come up with a piece of imagery to describe it. An expensive set or lots of special effects simply is not the point of summer theatre. That would be very much out of place, I think. Besides, the talent of the actors keeps the audience engaged. 


Interesting piece of trivia:
The Finnish production of the musical The Producers had translated Max's line, which originally read:
"I am the director who invented theatre in a square."
as
"I am the first director who put on summer theatre in the winter."


It is a shame tourists do not particularly get to be a part of the Finnish theatre culture due to the language issue. In addition, the budget of shows is rarely of a size allowing the sets and costumes to be particularly flashy like they tend to be in the West End or Broadway, so most of the time there is not even a visual element for tourists to follow. The best bet, if one does not speak Finnish would be to go and see one of the musicals at the Helsinki City Theatre (as far as I understand, the productions of Broadway musicals they put on there, are of high quality and very enjoyable to watch, especially if you know the story beforehand).


I have a feeling that my blog (which I will try to update regularly) will take a slightly more theatre and musical theatre orientated approach. But cultural differences are such a curious topic that it will certainly feature.