A Spoonful of Stiles and Drewe
Stiles and Drew, Spoonful of
Happy, happy and very funny. Drewe and Stiles themselves are hysterical and had brilliant patter.
Did stuff from Honk (Ugly Duckling), Peter Pan, Just So, Mary Poppins (Practically Perfect had three Marys singing it - 'who are you?' 'Your predecessor' and 'I'm the touring version'), a few cabaret songs (the one about nouvelle cuisine had everyone in stitches, but that was nothing compared to the one about the diva who can't carry a tune in a bucket, which got a full-on two minute cheer), a couple from musicals they're thinking about, and a bunch from their new one for next year, Soho Cinders (it has a lesbian rickshaw cyclist. Tell me how that's not awesome.).
Utterly brilliant staging - really good choreography and bits of costumes (full points for the ability to make a great duck costume with a headband from accessorise, a pair of marigolds and a feather boa).
Starry cast. Did full happy sigh over Julie Atherton, Daniel Boys is adorable as usual, Leanne Jones (she of Hairspray) was brilliant, Clive Rowe overpowers everyone else on stage, James Gillam (Boq in the London Wicked) was adorable in the Peter Pan numbers (which I didn't think I'd heard, until the last one), Oliver Tompsett was dribblesome and extra points to Dickie (Richard) Dempsey, who I've seen in some stuff but the face was nagging me and then looked at the program and went '...oh my god, he was the original Peter in the BBC Narnia!' So skinny! How the hell did he grow up to be that skinny and wee?** (it's not my fault. You always picture Peter to have grown up to be pretty big and at least slightly muscled due to sword-wielding and being the eldest brother) Helena Blackman was okay, but didn't stand out so much,.
Oh, and we is a bit stunned. Gareth Gates was playing Cinders in the Soho Cinders numbers. First number was a bit blurry, but subsequent ones actual clarity of words and half-decent acting. The uncertain, shy act really works when playing Cinders. Especially for the number about internet chatroom dating between him and Oliver Tompsett (who was playing the prospective ex-olympic swimmer prospective mayoral candidate Martin Prince) and the number him and Leanne Jones were singing about not being able to tell gay from straight these days (with bloody gorgeous chorus choreography of swapping partners).
Managed to *finally* get a Daniel photo at the stage door mugging-fest. Truly wee (if you're the same height as the fangirls, you are *officially* wee) and adorable and grinning - though of course fairyd123 trumps me on the Daniel fangirling. Did a 'dammit, no recording of Sweeney Todd' and he said they didn''t get one either. *Why* can't they do recordings of gala pieces, dammit?. Didn't get a photo with Julie, but she did give a big grin for me asking if we'd get another album at some point. James Gillam got stunned by a slightly obsessed Wicked fangirl (*ten* times. Dear lord. Though made her and the others jealous by telling them I saw Idina twice and that Graham was there on the first night) who'd brought along her birthday cake which had a photo of him on it so she could get a photo with him + cake - he went 'okay, I have to get a photo of this to show my mum'. Got a Richard Dempsey grinning his head off photo.
Of course, I discovered on checking my mp3 player on the tube that I hadn't hit the record button hard enough. BOLLOCKS.
observation : one of the 'stuff we're working on' was a number from Alan Bennett's A Private Function - the only problem is that it was Alan Bennett so I had 'And Thora Hird was there, with fifteen machine guns...' in my head. Bloody Radio 4 and Dead ringers.
**I appear to have been infected by Miranda Richardson in Blackadder. Hitting a patch of saying 'so tiny and wee!'. It's not my fault. All the actors in this performance appear to be shortarses aside from Oliver Tompsett.
ETA : Saw Sarah from IDA in the bar. Very tiny and very pretty.
And managed to compliment someone on their fabulous accessories who I found out is a rather major stylist. :snicker:
Also figured out what as bothering me about the body language of one of the Canadian Marias (one of the ones who was an indie songstress, no idea if she's still in it) - the arms stuck to the side thing. Julie was doing exactly that in one of her Just So songs to help convey that her character had major stage fright and self-doubt issues. Dear Canadian Maria, you need to learn this.
Happy, happy and very funny. Drewe and Stiles themselves are hysterical and had brilliant patter.
Did stuff from Honk (Ugly Duckling), Peter Pan, Just So, Mary Poppins (Practically Perfect had three Marys singing it - 'who are you?' 'Your predecessor' and 'I'm the touring version'), a few cabaret songs (the one about nouvelle cuisine had everyone in stitches, but that was nothing compared to the one about the diva who can't carry a tune in a bucket, which got a full-on two minute cheer), a couple from musicals they're thinking about, and a bunch from their new one for next year, Soho Cinders (it has a lesbian rickshaw cyclist. Tell me how that's not awesome.).
Utterly brilliant staging - really good choreography and bits of costumes (full points for the ability to make a great duck costume with a headband from accessorise, a pair of marigolds and a feather boa).
Starry cast. Did full happy sigh over Julie Atherton, Daniel Boys is adorable as usual, Leanne Jones (she of Hairspray) was brilliant, Clive Rowe overpowers everyone else on stage, James Gillam (Boq in the London Wicked) was adorable in the Peter Pan numbers (which I didn't think I'd heard, until the last one), Oliver Tompsett was dribblesome and extra points to Dickie (Richard) Dempsey, who I've seen in some stuff but the face was nagging me and then looked at the program and went '...oh my god, he was the original Peter in the BBC Narnia!' So skinny! How the hell did he grow up to be that skinny and wee?** (it's not my fault. You always picture Peter to have grown up to be pretty big and at least slightly muscled due to sword-wielding and being the eldest brother) Helena Blackman was okay, but didn't stand out so much,.
Oh, and we is a bit stunned. Gareth Gates was playing Cinders in the Soho Cinders numbers. First number was a bit blurry, but subsequent ones actual clarity of words and half-decent acting. The uncertain, shy act really works when playing Cinders. Especially for the number about internet chatroom dating between him and Oliver Tompsett (who was playing the prospective ex-olympic swimmer prospective mayoral candidate Martin Prince) and the number him and Leanne Jones were singing about not being able to tell gay from straight these days (with bloody gorgeous chorus choreography of swapping partners).
Managed to *finally* get a Daniel photo at the stage door mugging-fest. Truly wee (if you're the same height as the fangirls, you are *officially* wee) and adorable and grinning - though of course fairyd123 trumps me on the Daniel fangirling. Did a 'dammit, no recording of Sweeney Todd' and he said they didn''t get one either. *Why* can't they do recordings of gala pieces, dammit?. Didn't get a photo with Julie, but she did give a big grin for me asking if we'd get another album at some point. James Gillam got stunned by a slightly obsessed Wicked fangirl (*ten* times. Dear lord. Though made her and the others jealous by telling them I saw Idina twice and that Graham was there on the first night) who'd brought along her birthday cake which had a photo of him on it so she could get a photo with him + cake - he went 'okay, I have to get a photo of this to show my mum'. Got a Richard Dempsey grinning his head off photo.
Of course, I discovered on checking my mp3 player on the tube that I hadn't hit the record button hard enough. BOLLOCKS.
observation : one of the 'stuff we're working on' was a number from Alan Bennett's A Private Function - the only problem is that it was Alan Bennett so I had 'And Thora Hird was there, with fifteen machine guns...' in my head. Bloody Radio 4 and Dead ringers.
**I appear to have been infected by Miranda Richardson in Blackadder. Hitting a patch of saying 'so tiny and wee!'. It's not my fault. All the actors in this performance appear to be shortarses aside from Oliver Tompsett.
ETA : Saw Sarah from IDA in the bar. Very tiny and very pretty.
And managed to compliment someone on their fabulous accessories who I found out is a rather major stylist. :snicker:
Also figured out what as bothering me about the body language of one of the Canadian Marias (one of the ones who was an indie songstress, no idea if she's still in it) - the arms stuck to the side thing. Julie was doing exactly that in one of her Just So songs to help convey that her character had major stage fright and self-doubt issues. Dear Canadian Maria, you need to learn this.