Madness, I hear you cry, but if I told you that it was to accept a kind invitation on behalf of the David Bowie is exhibition, then perhaps you can see why I jumped at the opportunity and invested?!

Sadly, being in Manchester, I was unable to make the press preview day at the exhibition, before it officially opened, however, as soon as I had a free weekend to arrange to come and see the exhibition, I got it straight in the diary – it has been almost killing me to see all of the fantastic comments about the exhibition online in the meantime, as a massive Bowie fan, the feeling of suspense was massive!

The exhibition itself was very well thought out, and it was marvellous to see costumes, hand-written notes and experience so much of David Bowie’s music as you wandered around the tour. When you arrive, you are provided with a headset that you just press ‘play’ on, and as you approach specific exhibits, the sound will automatically play in your ear to accompany what you’re looking at – a very nice bit of kit (I also love my tech!).

The museum does operate a timed entry system for this exhibition to try to stagger the number of people (if you’ve ever been to South Kensington, you will know how spectacularly busy these museums get – for the Natural History Museum down the road, the queue to get in was literally about half a mile long) – however for David Bowie is, I struggled to see a few bits just owing to the sheer volume of people, many of whom either selfishly stood right in front of the more intricate exhibits, or, at times, there were so many people in front, it was impossible to progress forward when you wanted to. When we arrived, the crowd from the previous 15 minute slot hadn’t really gotten through the first room, so adding more people to that did cause a little bit of a bottleneck in my opinion. Kudos to the exhibition for thinking to limit numbers by way of timed tickets, it’s just a pity that natural human behaviour seems to rebel a bit against this!

In the interest of fairness, I should stress that I was there on a Bank Holiday weekend/Saturday, and that the systems in place at the exhibit were actually all working, and that there was nothing else that could feasibly be done!!

Personal highlights for me included seeing the costumes themselves, a massive wall of video with additional costumes behind it, experiencing all of the music performances, and (as a child of the 80s, the two things that made me scream a little!!) – Jareth’s crystal ball and crop from Labyrinth!!!

An absolutely fantastic exhibition, and one which was well worth the massive round trip. If you live any closer than I do, then you’ve definitely no excuse not to go and see it!!!! I don’t know what the plans are for it after it closes in August, however I can only hope that it goes on tour as did the Annie Lennox retrospective last year…

I’d love to hear what experiences other people have had of this exhibition, and perhaps even of the great man himself, so do please feel free to leave a comment on this post, and share/encourage your friends to visit the exhibition!

The V&A has been given unprecedented access to the David Bowie Archive to curate the first international retrospective of the extraordinary career of David Bowie.

David Bowie is features over 300 objects including handwritten lyrics, original costumes, fashion, photography, film, music videos, set designs, Bowie’s own instruments and album artwork. On display will be more than 300 objects brought together for the very first time Ziggy Stardust bodysuits (1972) designed by Freddie Burretti, photography by Brian Duffy; album sleeve artwork by Guy Peellaert and Jonathan Barnbrook; visual excerpts from films and live performances including The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), music videos such as Ashes to Ashes (1980) and set designs created for the Diamond Dogs tour (1974).

Alongside these will be more personal items such as never-before-seen storyboards, handwritten set lists and lyrics as well as some of Bowie’s own sketches, musical scores and diary entries, revealing the evolution of his creative ideas.

David Bowie is, at the V&A 23 March – 11 August, in partnership with Gucci, sound experience by Sennheiser.   www.vam.ac.uk/davidbowieis

Last night (Thursday 25th April 2013), I excitedly took my seat for RENT in Concert, playing at the Manchester Opera House on the opening night of its short UK tour.

Fellow musical theatre geeks will probably question the heralding of the ’20th anniversary’ banner too – and in my opinion, it’s a little bit of a cop-out, as the show didn’t hit Broadway audiences properly until 1996, and the West End until 1997. However, the first staged reading at the New York Theatre Workshop was in March 1993, hence the anniversary. That said, any excuse for a production of RENT is viable in my opinion, and so I’m not grumbling TOO loudly in this instance.

From my initial post, and subsequent conversations, it is somewhat evident that there has been something of a lack of an effective marketing drive for this one night only show, despite it having a major West End name in Kerry Ellis on the bill. I don’t think that anybody who was sat there at curtain up knew exactly what to expect, given the ‘in Concert’ aspect of the show title (personally, I was thinking along the lines of the Les Misérables 10th Anniversary concert).

It was, therefore, with great delight (and much audience screaming) when the curtain rose and it became immediately apparent that we were in for a decently staged version of the show. Having seen the show on Broadway, I wouldn’t say that the production storyboards were much different to that, short of the required down-scalings.

First off, as a massive RENThead, I shall start with the fantastic – the cast!

For shows like this, I really don’t like to single anybody out as excelling, especially when it is so important to the integrity of the ‘brand’/ so many people in the audience that the character is truly ‘lived’, loved and believable. I think that EVERYONE on stage last night did an amazing job and all should be very proud of what they’re doing! From Ian Stroughair’s fantastic and fresh portrayal of Angel, right the way through to West End leading lady Nikki Davis-Jones’ feisty and foxy Maureen, new-comer Rory Taylor’s incredible turn as Roger, and Leon Lopez making a welcome return back to the role of Collins, which he absolutely excels in. I honestly couldn’t say a bad word about anyone whatsoever.

I guess many people may be reading this review on the basis of Kerry Ellis being in the show. I have to admit that I am not a hardcore Kerry fan. I do think that her voice is amazing, who could argue with that, but on a personal level, and seeing as much theatre as I do, it is very important to me that I am able to identify on a level with an actor for them to become a firm favourite, and for me something just doesn’t click here – obviously this is not any kind of slur on anyone, just an objective case of personal preference!!

Having avoided too much pre-show hype, I was very surprised to see Kerry in the role of Mimi – I had totally thought that she would appear in the role of Maureen. It was an interesting casting choice, and opened up a completely new dimension to my favourite character from my favourite musical, that I realised that I had never fully considered. Kudos.

(Please note that this is an official video (credit – Darren Bell) – it’s not a case of naughty audience behaviour! Also, the vocal that makes you go ‘wow’ isn’t Kerry Ellis, but rather Beth Humphries (Ensemble/Cover Joanne) – who absolutely had the stand-out vocal performance of the night!!!)

On to the less good – the production values were a little shaky from the front stalls.

We had loose spot lights drifting off in to the audience at times, on one occasion for an extended period. Often, there was very noticeable shadowing on the faces of the actors on stage and if they didn’t hit their mark precisely, you could only see half of their face, and so you had to battle the constant movement between light and dark (plus the fact that fixed lighting doesn’t give the actor full control of the character – as nothing can be ‘felt’ and added in to the performance) – all of which at times became overwhelmingly distracting. There were a lot of times when the lighting was whirling around for long periods of time up in the fly, when turned off, for no apparent reason, again, very distracting if you’re sat in the front few rows.

The sound was, unfortunately, no better, and the mix on the audio was often bass heavy, and at times the feed from the musicians completely drowned out the actors/singing. There were several missed lyrics owing to microphones not projecting. There were some very strange choices made by the musical director, and we (and the people around us) didn’t quite understand why she was (perhaps needlessly) ‘directing’ at a small band who, from what we could see, didn’t actually spent any of their session watching her – as the band are on stage, again the direction proved very distracting. Most unforgivable, however, was the bass player (sorry!), who constantly kept changing the tempo from written and was running away with himself, meaning that the band were often going faster than the performers, which resulted in a few songs being a bit of a mess.

Back to the positives – the overall stage management was great, and I thought that the set design really worked with the production – for a ‘one night only’ set, I thought they did really well on this aspect.

Whilst it may sound like I had an awful night, in fact, the absolute opposite was true!!

RENT is one of those shows that I love so much and I, for one, was absolutely thrilled to see it on stage again (the last time it was professionally performed in the UK was as RENT Remixed – a project I enjoyed, but everyone else panned!).

I totally led the standing ovation and had a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Despite the production issues that I have mentioned, I wouldn’t hesitate for a single second in recommending this show to people – if you’re a fan of RENT (or even if you’re new to it), the current touring production will do you right, for sure!!

Oh, and in case you’re wondering – this production of RENT absolutely passed my sniffle test (if I embarrass myself, then it gets recommended, ha!) – and I’d love to hear what you, dear reader, made of it, if you’ve been fortunate enough to catch it.

… and it’s beginning to snow!

RENT is currently performing one night engagements across the UK. For further information, please see the official tour website.

Tweets from the night:

RENT In Concert was FAB! (It passed the sniffle test!!) – after all that ambiguity is properly staged too. London, see it tomorrow! #fb—
Gari Davies (@DarkAeon) April 25, 2013

Full review to follow on garidavies.me.uk tomorrow evening, but a magnificent cast let down slightly by technical team, overall loved!—
Gari Davies (@DarkAeon) April 25, 2013

@mzendle best Angel ever! (Even better than on Broadway) – added a load of fun and quirks to the character, made it original —
Gari Davies (@DarkAeon) April 25, 2013

Have Spotify? Check out the Original Broadway Cast recording here:

It is currently 14:49 at the time of writing, and the exhibition doesn’t close until 17:00. Infer what you will…

I had bought the tickets as part of Max’s recent birthday presents and had also decided on a few VIP seats and classes to make the day a little more worthwhile.

First off, I shall start with the good – we went to see Brendan from The Great British Bake Off over in the Bakery area, and after much of a to-do finally found out how to use our VIP seat tickets for the demonstration.

Brendan himself was an absolute treasure, shorter than I’d imagined, but he spoke of many interesting things and projects and gave plenty of amazing advice to those keen to take it. We loved the idea of the bread that he baked on the demonstration and are really looking forward to trying it for ourselves at home.

After the demonstration had ended, we then found ourselves with two hours to spare before our next demonstration event, with John – the winner of the latest series of The Great British Bake Off.

Wandering through the exhibition space, I have to say that this is where it all started to come unstuck for us. We quickly tired of walking around and found the following aspects to be problematic:

•  The event was more of a shop than a fayre. Stall holders were keen to just sell you their product rather than to explain the origins behind it or to show any passion or enthusiasm around the subject.

•  There were very few opportunities to sample goods, and whenever there was, the freebie crowd acted appallingly and used elbows and knees to get what they wanted.

• We didn’t come away with any sort of discount vouchers for any of the retailers whom we had allowed to pitch to us by attending this show – as I mentioned earlier, it was very poor and people were expected to just “blind-buy” (and do so very quickly) rather than build a relationship with the brand or ask questions.

• Not enough space was provided between the stands, making it very difficult to navigate, especially with the volume of pushchairs on the day.

• The mix of stands was particularly bland. Whilst stall holders pay a fee to attend the show, there really should be some control to ensure that the right mix of stall types are on hand, as otherwise, people crowd the few good ones, and the tatty ones become generic. We’re also still not sure why the Cats Protection League had secured a pretty prominent stand!

• Unless you were prepared to wait thirty minutes prior in a seat for a twenty-minute show, then it was near impossible to see any of the other demonstrations. As soon as you left your seat, people would rush forward to secure it for the next show.

• Plenty to do for kids, but absolutely nothing creative for adults!

• It was disappointing that whilst Mary Berry was used to promote the event (but sadly had to drop out due to filming commitments), that Paul Hollywood, who was also a poster boy for the event, was only available on the Friday lunchtime, and at no other point during the weekend.

Unfortunately, having the two-hour gap between talks, and all of the above started to take its toll on our day. We decided to leave early, despite having invested money in advance for VIP seats for John Whaite and also having bought a ticket for the classroom, as we simply were not enjoying the experience and didn’t think that the other demonstrations would be particularly interesting/’technical’. Had we stayed, we would have been staying for the money and not for the experience, which we both would have deeply begrudged.

All in all, it has been a positive experience. Max and I both enjoyed the day and especially loved hearing Brendan talk – that was a real pleasure. Would I go to an exhibition like this again? I am not too sure, it would depend on the mix of stalls, but as I wouldn’t be booking in advance as a surprise, I would be free to give it a lot more consideration, and I think that for future shows, I won’t leave such a gap between talks and demonstrations!

The Cake and Bake Show is also convening at Earls Court in London in September 2013.

I should mention from the off that CATS will always hold a very special place in my heart. I first fell in love with the show around twenty years ago (crikey!) at the age of around seven or eight when we performed the show at our primary school, and also got to see the show on tour. It was my very first exposure to musical theatre and I credit it entirely with my near life-long obsession with the world of musical theatre. I even put on my own half-decent production of CATS as a teenager!

It was therefore with great excitement and a little sense of trepidation that I took my seat on Wednesday evening, expecting the best, but fearing the worst.

I absolutely need not have worried though – the show has not been changed in any way from previous and it had fully retained its integrity! None of these modern re-workings that have plagued similar Andrew Lloyd Webber shows in recent years have crept in, thankfully.

Of course, some may view this to the show’s detriment, as it does look and feel every bit of its thirty years if I am truly honest. Similar shows from the period have received modern-day revamps, whereas CATS was so iconic and wonderfully staged in the first place, that I really don’t think that you could even start to modernise it, it would surely be impossible! This, along with many other reasons, is why I find it so comfortingly familiar and love it so dearly!

The staging was, as ever, a real delight and I would rank the CATS set as one of my favourites in musical theatre if honest. A simple yet really versatile bit of kit that whilst remaining largely static really does keep the show, which often becomes a little surreal/goes off at a tangent, held together and provides a great ‘anchor’. I really liked the little backwards nod that the 2013 set gives to the original designer, John Napier, on the car number plate.

I had never seen Growltiger’s Last Stand performed on the stage before as I’ve found that previously this is usually one of the first numbers that they cut/choose not to stage, however I really enjoyed watching it, and also seeing the additional staging elements that I’d not seen previously.

There was a lot more of the cats coming in to the audience this time around than I remember previously, so do be warned, if you happen to slip out to make use of the bathroom, you had better take care not to bump in to dear Old Deuteronomy or any of the others waiting in the wings!!

Cast wise, I thought that everyone was fantastic. I wouldn’t really want to pull anybody out over anybody else as the whole beauty of CATS is that the cat is the star, and not the actor. If you’ve yet to see the show, do keep an eye on all of the ‘ensemble’ cats too, as they all have their own little cute mannerisms and little tales.

One thing that I will say, however, and in slight contradiction to the above, is that musical theatre legend, Joanna Ampil, is sensational! I got all the expected goosebumps and more from her performance as Grizabella. It was truly a treat to get to see such an established name on the touring circuit and I would love to see her continue to become more involved with touring theatre wherever possible.

As with any show that I seemingly see, I have developed a new theatre crush – this time it is the turn of Cameron Ball – who plays Macavity/Admetus haha!

Of course, CATS is one of those shows that happens to collect up all of the best bums in musical theatre and put them on display – after all, if you’re going to appear in CATS, you have to be very well prepared for the tight-fitting costumes (and the associated comments, ha!). Alas, those costumes and their inability to flatter my thunder-thighs – along with my inability to actually sing and dance – are why appearing in a professional production of CATS will, sadly (or thankfully!), never happen for me!

Unfortunately, Max was one of those people who “just didn’t get” CATS and found that it was all just a bit bizarre and had too much interpretive dance (I for one thought that Gillian Lynne’s original choreography was sensational as ever – kudos to Chrissie Cartwright for re-creating this so nicely!). I should add that this does seem to be the opinion of many people – I think most either fall in to this category, or else become massive fanboys of the show, like myself. There’s not often a middle ground opinion – it is quite polarizing.

Regardless, I love that this show is at the core of my love of musical theatre and would not change that for the World. It was an immense treat to see the show on tour again, and I am absolutely loving having all of the CATS/’The Memory Returns’ advertising plastered all over the city at the moment.

If you have the opportunity to see the show, I’d very much urge you to take it. Sure, it’s not the most modern piece of theatre that you will ever see, but what it is, however, is a puuuurfect (see what I did there?!) example of the origins of musical theatre as we know it today, and a genuine opportunity to see something that is authentically dated, rather than staged to be that way.

I had a fantastically magical night, and not just thanks to Mister Mistoffelees – the conjuring cat! I’d recommend it to all reading as a fantastic musical and a great night out/celebration of musical theatre at it’s finest.

CATS is currently playing at the Manchester Opera House until Saturday 20th April, after which time it continues to tour the UK and Europe. For all production information, including tour dates and ticketing options, please visit the official tour website.

The show duration is around two hours and thirty minutes, including interval (during which, Old Deuteronomy stays on stage and signs programmes – bit odd to watch, but get in quickly as there was a lot of demand for it once people realised that they were allowed to queue to go up).

Associated tweets from the night:

Max and I are totally getting divorced – just back from CATS (I obsessed about this from the age of 7) & he didn’t get it *cry* #stagey #fb—
Gari Davies (@DarkAeon) April 03, 2013

At one point, he even said “Cor, Moufassa’s looking old!” GASP!!

My full review on garidavies.me.uk on Saturday! (busy week)—
Gari Davies (@DarkAeon) April 03, 2013

New theatre crush incidentally – @BallCameron *giggles* -tho I hate ALL the cast for how fab they look in a leotard! #WellJel #CatsTour2013—
Gari Davies (@DarkAeon) April 03, 2013

12 people prancing about in leotards to an awfully 80s soundtrack.—
Max Wellingham (@shinyperson) April 03, 2013

And then halfway through some bird in a moth eaten coat sings a song that's so far removed you think it's from a different show.—
Max Wellingham (@shinyperson) April 03, 2013

I don't think I 'get' Cats!—
Max Wellingham (@shinyperson) April 03, 2013

Gosh. I just looked at @shinyperson’s twitter feed. I do not know that person. He’s talking like a straight man!!! #devilmandevilman!!—
Gari Davies (@DarkAeon) April 03, 2013

CATS review has been written, but I am too warm under my duvet to get up and format it for posting. Give it an hour or so… #lazy—
Gari Davies (@DarkAeon) April 06, 2013

Reblogged from Simon Parris: Man in Chair:

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Benefitting immensely from an extreme makeover, The Addams Family arrives in Australia in peak condition. Funny, charming, tuneful and very well cast, the show is an infectiously enjoyable treat.

Read more… 821 more words

When our Councillors are taking tough decisions about how to spend our taxes, they need to know how much we value our local theatre’s work and role in the community. Let’s tell them - my theatre matters!

If you are a lover of the Arts, and given that most of the traffic to my site does come from the Arts sector, then I’d very much implore you to check out this link and see what you can do to help!

Some of the most striking items on the resources link genuinely only need you to press the print button on your browser.

One click, that’s all!!

I live in Manchester and we’re lucky enough to have a real wealth of theatres and Arts venues in our grand city, of all sizes. However, on the flip side, we also now have the offices of the badly hit Arts Council up here, and other smaller fringe venues which are really struggling.

Across the country, the picture is much worse – and it’s really important that we recognise that ‘local’ theatre is not just something that happens in your back yard – all theatre comes from somewhere, and something that happens in a local production in Dunstable could just as easily impact upon what happens up in Salford a few months later.

In my opinion, there is even massive potential that local cuts could adversely affect the longer-term future of the West End, as future generations of performers will find it even harder to get that first break and valuable local momentum behind them. Audiences will also dwindle as fewer people will have had an introduction to the magic of the theatre, and most will not pay hefty rates on a chance first encounter in a West End theatre!

There’s never been a more important time to get your voice heard – especially as councils across the North West have recently engaged, very actively, with the public in setting the budgets for the forthcoming financial year!

The Arts are a MASSIVE contributor to the financial and social economy of the country (at both a local and national level) and funding for theatre at all levels must be protected!

Today, I was lamenting my failure to see the Pebble Kickstarter from last year (having now just forked out $150 instead of $95), when I happened to check recent funding opportunities and came across Julia Okrusko’s post requesting investment in an album of fantasy style music, played on violin.

Please click anywhere on the image above to visit the funding request and to hear a sample/see the funding video.

Being a sucker for RPG music, and also for violins, I was HOOKED from the moment that I viewed the funding video, and have happily backed this project, which should hopefully come to full fruition in August 2013.

As I have come in to the request quite late, this is a project that is already guaranteed to go ahead, having met (and indeed surpassed) the original funding goal. Extra funds raised are being used towards extra tracks, and, if another $700 can be raised before the listing closes, a HD video to come out with the album!

I know that many people who visit this site, and who I have interactions with on Social Media, love this genre of music too, and I’d very much encourage those people to get in at the ground floor with this one.

The way to look at it is very much as if you are pre-ordering an album. We now know that the album has financial backing and so should happen, and for the small amount of $10 (about £7 give or take, including any banking adjustment) then you can also get this album in advance of anyone else.

I would dearly love a HD video to come out with this album, and so I am hoping that Julia Okrusko is able to raise the additional $700 needed in time (the project closes to funding on Sunday afternoon, so you shall have to be quick!!).

Please excuse the mess, it is Sunday morning after all – come slip under the duvet with me and let’s have a good old gossipy catch up!

Links mentioned:

Facebook Like: http://www.facebook.com/garidaviesweb

LinkedIn: uk.linkedin.com/in/garidavies/

Stalk Me: http://garidavies.me.uk/social-media-stalk-me/

P.S. – if you’re one of my lovely subscribers, then you will need to come and visit the post on the site directly most likely, as this is a video update. 

Gari x

Absolutely loving the support that I’ve had thus far with this (thank you) and would love to swell the numbers some more – especially amongst my lovely (LOVELY!) email and RSS subscribers.

All that you need to do is to click on the link below, and hit ‘like’ and you’re done!

http://www.facebook.com/garidaviesweb

Alternately, in the right hand widget area of my site, there is now a quick and easy button that lets you like my site directly from any page you visit on here.

Thanks a mil for all the support guys, it is appreciated more than you will ever know!!

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Oh, and here’s a video of Megan Mullally singing ‘Turn The Tub Around’ – just for the sake of it/to say thanks for checking this post out – it is one of my ABSOLUTE FAVOURITE things on the Internet!! x

It has thus far proved to be a fascinating series, and not just another fly on the wall type documentary, with this one actually proving to be really interesting and giving us a real flavour of what it is like across different parts of the network – I’m captivated by it!

There has been some criticism that it does seem to make commuters look to be the ‘bad guy’ and that we’re only seen to be complaining, but at the same time, people as a whole are unpredictable, especially in large numbers, which must make things very difficult to manage for trains staff, and so I think that it is intriguing to see the efforts that do go on behind the scenes that perhaps don’t get noticed by the majority.

One of the show’s biggest assets, for me, are the wonderful compositions by Andy Cowton (who has also worked on quite a few other TV programmes too).

Here are a few posted below, unfortunately they’re not available for download via Soundcloud, but totally do keep coming back to my page to listen to them!!!

My absolute favourite is ‘Xmas Getaway’.