PANTOMIME REVIEW: Robin Hood at The New Victoria Theatre, Woking

There’s nothing like a pantomime to truly get you into the Christmas spirit. 

The timeless tale of Robin Hood and his merry men has stormed its way to Woking’s New Victoria Theatre for the holiday season. It’s safe to say Robin Hood is quite easily the most dynamic and exciting panto I have ever seen. Packed full of visual spectacle; acrobats, fight sequences, ACTUAL MAGIC, a 3D movie segment and even a DINOSAUR, Robin Hood is everything you could wish for in a panto. 

Shane Ritchie, of Eastenders fame (and beyond), leads this cast as Robin Hood. He is wonderfully funny and engaging with children and parents alike (especially the “yummy mummys” out there!) It simply wouldn’t be pantomime without a revamped version of The Twelve Days of Christmas and Ritchie shines effortlessly here. Who’d have thought the words “two juicy apples” could great quite so much hysteria!? To quote my thirteen year old brother - “He’s bloody hilarious”.

ALBUM REVIEW: Original Studio cast recording of Cool Rider

Cool Rider, the lesser known sequel to the ever popular Grease, follows the relationship of unconventional lovers Stephanie Zinone, a Pink Lady, and Michael, an English transfer student. After the musical played a successful one night only concert in January 2014, it transferred to The Duchess Theatre where it played for one week. Unsurprisingly, it's not the most well known musical ever to grace the West End, but its surprisingly large and extremely supportive following  helped to ensure that Cool Rider was immortalised in musical theatre history by backing a kickstarter to help fund a studio recording. 

FIRST LOOK: New cast join the UK tour of WICKED the Musical

WICKED, the global musical phenomenon that tells the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz, have a new cast starting from 16th September; that includes Ashleigh Gray (Elphaba), Samuel Edwards (Fiyero), Steven Pinder (The Wizard and Doctor Dillamond), Richard Vincent (Boq) and Jacqueline Hughes (Standby Elphaba) will join the record-breaking UK Tour from Tuesday 16 September 2014 at Liverpool Empire Theatre. 

Emily Tierney (Glinda), Marilyn Cutts (Madame Morrible) and Carina Gillespie (Nessarose) all continue in their current starring roles. 

The tour is currently at  Birmingham Hippodrome (9 July to 6 September 2014). It will then tour to Liverpool Empire Theatre (16 September to 11 October 2014); Southampton Mayflower Theatre (21 October to 15 November 2014); Edinburgh Playhouse (19 November 2014 to 10 January 2015); Plymouth Theatre Royal (20 January to 14 February 2015); Bristol Hippodrome (18 February to 21 March 2015);Sunderland Empire Theatre (31 March to 25 April 2015); Aberdeen His Majesty's Theatre (5 to 30 May 2015) and concludes at The Lowry in Salford (3 June to 25 July 2015). Tickets are now on sale at all venues and can be booked via www.WickedTheMusical.co.uk

WICKED UK tour announces new cast, Ashleigh Gray will star as Elphaba

WICKED, the global musical phenomenon that tells the incredible untold story of the Witches of Oz, is pleased to announce that Ashleigh Gray (Elphaba), Samuel Edwards (Fiyero), Steven Pinder (The Wizard and Doctor Dillamond), Richard Vincent (Boq) and Jacqueline Hughes (Standby Elphaba) will join the record-breaking UK Tour from Tuesday 16 September 2014 at Liverpool Empire Theatre. 

Current cast members Nikki Davis-Jones (Elphaba), Liam Doyle (Fiyero),Dale Rapley (The Wizard and Doctor Dillamond), George Ure (Boq) andJemma Alexander (Standby Elphaba) will all play their final performances on Saturday 6 September 2014 at Birmingham Hippodrome. Nikki Davis-Jones will join the London production from Monday 27 October 2014. 

Emily Tierney (Glinda), Marilyn Cutts (Madame Morrible) and Carina Gillespie (Nessarose) all continue in their current starring roles. 

Momentous Musicals: Theatre Review

Having perviously played a One off night in Wimbledon last year, Momentous Musicals is back. Keeping some of the songs from last years show with lots of new additions. From classics like Andrew Lloyd Webber to new Broadway hits like Newsies, this show celebrates generations of shows that have audiences coming back. The production also showcases what British musical talent has to offer, from the extremely experienced and well respected John Owen-Jones to new graduates from Drama Schools such as Mountview and GSA. The set list for the show has been chosen very well, I loved the selections of songs because even though there was the expected like Les Miserables, Phantom of the Opera, Wicked and West Side Story there was also some surprises like a Disney Melody, SMASH, Ghost and The Wiz. 

For what the show was it was very good, when you see something like this you could expect a bit of a budget performance with poor quality orchestrations and average performers, this was the total opposite. First of all the stage looked very classic, a simple black background with a starry effect was elegant and made room for Tom Boucher (lighting designer) to really fill the stage with some fantastic colours. The lighting had a lot of great moments, it was a delightful design and he adjusted the lighting to every song which really added to the over quality of the performance. 

Ashleigh Gray | Interview

Graduating from Guildford School of Acting in 2003, Ashleigh made her professional debut as Kim in the UK national Tour of Taboo before making her West End debut in the London Company of WICKED at at the Apollo Victoria Theatre where she was in the ensemble and understudied Elphaba. She was soon promoted to Stand-By Elphaba the year after joining the company, she left in 2010. Her other credits include Notes from New York, Kirsty in Only You Can Save Mankind, NHS the Musical, Miss Lynch and cover Rizzo and Jan in Grease, Emily in Myths and Hymns, Simply the Music of Scott Alan, Maid Marion in Robin Hood, The Songs of Bobby Cronin, Unwritten Songs; The songs of Michael Bruce, First Things Last; The Music of Lance Horne, Miranda in Betwixt!, Diva’s Sing Scott Alan, Wicked Witch in Mother Goose, Amanda in After The Turn, Lorraine Campbell in I Dreamed a Dream, Fairy Firefly in Jack and the Beanstalk, West End Men and Supporting Susan Boyle in concert. She can also be heard on The Journey Home by Mark Evans, Surrounded By The Sounds by Tim Prottey Jones, Acoustic Overtures; The songs of Dougal Irvine, Stand Tall; A New Rock Musical, Unwritten songs; The Songs of Michael Bruce, Christmas in New York and Sentimental Heart by Oliver Tompsett. She will be featured in Momentous Musicals alongside Gareth Gates, Rachael Wooding and John Owen-Jones which starts its short UK Tour from the 17th July. 

How did you get into performing arts?

I always loved singing as a child. As far back as I can remember there's always been music around me and even though no one else in my family sang or played, I found myself singing along and creating little dance routines to songs at any given chance. So I guess I was always destined to grow up to be a performer. My family were, and continue to be, very support of my love of music and performance so they willingly allowed me to join the local amateur dramatic group and also encouraged me to follow my dreams and go to drama school. The rest, as they say, is history.

Betwixt! the Musical: Theatre Review

Betwixt! Was first premiered at London Fringe back in 2008 with a concert following later that year, since then the show has been under some transformations and has most recently been adapted for the unique space, Trafalgar Studios 2. The show consist of a writer with writers block, his gay roommate, a head of a German Woman and plenty other fantasy characters! The show follows the story of Bailey (The Writer) and his journey to find a story for his long awaited new Novel and how he gets transported to an Enchanted Kingdom where he has to find the way to conquer The Enchantress and stop her completing her evil plan. Yes, I probably thought the same as you when reading the synopsis for the show, "What the f@#k is this?!" But actually, it's pure brilliance!

I was hoping the show was going to be amazing, but I had a strong feeling it was going to fail with the space it's in and the strange storyline. I was proven wrong! Ian McFarlane has done a great job writing this musical, its genius. Trafalgar Studios 2 was the perfect venue for this show, the intimacy of the space was part of the experience. The only fault I could find about the staging was having the band at the back, often they looked bored and looking like they were wishing they were someplace else however there wouldn't be anywhere else for them to go!