Thursday, 14 March 2013

Laughing All the Way

Hello everyone, hope you are all well. Well as I said in my last blog, I'm trying to keep these short and sweet so let's get going.
I normally can't go to theatre trips on Saturdays as I work but I was kindly given a week off so I decided to go to London with my mum as a Mothering Sunday treat.
The hotel we stayed in, The Park Plaza Westminster Bridge (I'm also staying there when I go to Once on 21st March), was lush and I'd highly recommend...it wasn't that badly priced either for a central London hotel.
The first thing we did after unpacking was head over to the Haymarket Theatre to get tickets to One Man Two Guvnors, which we'd wanted to see since seeing Rufus Hound (Frances Henshall) in the WhatsonStage Awards (see my blog here). We managed to get two tickets, one behind each other, in the 2nd and 3rd row of the dress circle.
After this we had a lovely late lunch/early dinner in Maxwell’s before having a wander round Covent Garden and then heading back to Maxwell’s to meet up with my friend Sharon.
After this we headed off to the Cambridge Theatre for our backstage tour thanks to Mark, one of the assistant stage mangers, who my mum and I met in Balans after the WhatsonStage awards. I debated a bit as to what to actually include here of the experience and have decided to be a bit vague so as not to ruin the magic of the show for you. All I'll say then was it was completely amazing, just to stand on the stage was magical and getting to look at the props, settings and some of the costumes was really interesting and very cool. I am so grateful for this opportunity...it was just so brilliant.
It was then time for a quick bite to eat at Pret a Manger before saying bye to Sharon and heading over to The Haymarket again.
Well I didn't really know what to expect but WOW!!! I have to say I don't think I've ever laughed so much at a show in my entire life. I can't say exactly what was funny else I'd ruin the show for you. Basically the whole show is a farce so if you're wanting something on a similar plane to Phantom then I would say this is not your cup of tea, however, if you're wanting a feel good show where your sides will hurt for days after and you'll have tears of laughter streaming down your face, then this is the perfect show for you.
As for the cast I could rave forever about how fantastic each and every one was but that would take forever so all I'll say is that Rufus Hound (Francis Henshall) and Martin Barrass (Alfie) completely stole the show. I have to say Hound is an example of when casting a celebrity in a show goes right; he was just perfect for the role and was amazing (rather expectedly) at ad libbing, which added monumentally to the shows humour. Barrass was completely perfect at portraying 80 year old Alfie and was so brilliant at falling down stairs...you'll see if you go.
As for other theatrical points...the sets were good (they weren't sparky but then this wasn't what this play was about), the leg room for the seats was a tad too small but that's just a minor thing...oh and one of the best bits for me was that they had the band come on stage and play some short songs before the show and during the scene changes; this added a really nice touch to the show and was used to enhance the comedy as well.
I'll leave you with a picture of me outside the theatre...


Overall, this was the funniest show I've ever seen and I would highly recommend it to you.
Have any of you seen One Man Two Guvnors? If so what did you think? Please either comment below or tweet me at @GreenGirlsRox...I'd love to hear from you.
Love you lots
Kat
Xx

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