Hellooo! I thought I'd take a belated look back on 2017 where I got more involved with the theatre world! The theatrical year began on the 4th March with a trip home to Grimsby which just happened to coincide with the Wonderland UK Tour stopping at the Grimsby Auditorium! I'd seen posters for it all around the town when I was home for Christmas and just loved the branding for it and ended up being home for the weekend! How convenient 😉! I've been to see shows at the theatre before but Wonderland kicked me into wanting to go more often and that's where my bank balance started to decrease dramatically...
On the 25th March I went to the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield to see a local production of Legally Blonde which I really enjoyed but for some reason did not write a review of! At the end of April Wonderland stopped off at the Palace Theatre in Manchester with Kerry Ellis as Alice rather than Rachael Wooding so of course I just had to go again! Then the pace picked up! In mid-May I went over to Leeds Grand Theatre to see Evita with Emma Hatton as the lead role and she was incredible but it wasn't my favourite show of the year if I'm honest. Then in June I went to the Alhambra Theatre in Bradford to see Funny Girl where Sheridan Smith was off ill and Natasha J Barnes stepped in as the lead. It was amazing to see how she won the initially grumpy audience over throughout the show!
Now for the biggie! My best friend Lyndsey (cheeky link to her blog) and I went down to London! This was the first time we'd been on holiday without parents like the full adults we are pretending to be! We agreed we would both pick a show each to see so of course, I picked Wicked (if you're new round here, I LOVE Wicked!) and Lyndsey picked Annie with Craig Revel Horwood as Miss Hannigan! Now with Wicked I had this weird thing where I put off writing a blog post on it because I wanted to make sure I did it justice except I put it off for so long that I never ended up writing it... Anyways Willemijn Verkaik starred as Elphaba and Suzie Mathers as Glinda and it was as amazing and magical as you would expect! Lyndsey had never seen it before and it was my third time so I was VERY excited to introduce her to the land of Oz!
Once we returned from London, I went back over the Alhambra in Bradford to see the Addams Family! I wasn't sure I'd like it because I've never seen the Addams Family film or anything but it was SO good! I also had my first stage door experience where I met a couple of the cast who were both SUPER nice! My next theatre trip was a bit further a field where I went down to Stoke to see Wonderland for the third and final time! Kerry Ellis starred as Alice and was just as incredible as the last time I saw her! I then put my stage door training into practice and met four of the leads from Wonderland including Kerry! I was VERY excited about it and so excited that I froze and hardly spoke to her like an AMATEUR!
Next up was Funny Girl again in Manchester! This time Sheridan Smith was starring and it also happened to be the last matinee (second to last show overall) of the UK tour so being in the audience was incredible! In October, I went to see The Band in Bradford which was not at all what I expected and I LOVED it and am hoping to go again at some point when the tour comes round my neck of the woods! My final show of the year was Fat Friends in Leeds! The show is so much fun from start to finish and is proper Northern!
Overall, I've loved everything I've seen this year! My highlights were probably Wonderland and The Band oh and Wicked! But then the Addams Family and Funny Girl were amazing too! There's too many to choose from! This year has definitely opened my eyes to touring theatre productions and how the quality of them can be just as good as West End productions!
Thanks for reading!
Sophie
