Musical of the Month - Minchin Around

Hello everyone...do you know what being at the end of July means!?! That it's my 21st birthday really soon, as in on the 1st of August...eek!!! Anyway this month the Musical of the Month isn't really a musical at all but, panic not, it is relate to a musical.

Basically, I was in HMV recently and in the 'Soundtrack' section there was a CD from one Tim Minchin's stand-up concerts: So F***ing Rock. Well, I was tempted as I love the music from Matilda (for those who don't know he wrote this as well) and was interested to hear more of what he has written. 

To start off with...it's incredibly random and very rude (as you've probably guessed by the title), however if you aren't easily offended and can cope with a good dose of randomness then it's absolutely incredible...so much so that I'm turning it into an honour musical so I can feature it as a Musical of the Month :p 

I think the best bit about every song is that there's a catchy or beautiful tune and all are very intelligently written. Another thing that's brilliant about the majority of the song is that, in addition to the comedy element, they are littered with an awful lot of home truths about the way we live out lives. Also, it's clear how brilliant Minchin is at playing and composing for the piano as it's this that really makes each and every song. 

Currently my favourite songs are 'Canvas Bags', 'Some People Have It Worse Than I' and 'Not Perfect'. 'Canvas Bags' is probably the most random song on the entire album yet it is all very true...basically it's a song about remembering to take your canvas bags to the supermarket...umm total genius! 'Some People Have It Worse Than I' is very catchy and the perfect song to make you realise that your life could be much, much worse than what it is now. Finally, 'Not Perfect' is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard; Minchin describes it as a song about the feeling you have when you feel like you're the smallest doll in the Babushka doll. To me the song is very good at explaining how wealthy we all are just by having a little bit of earth, a body and a brain to call our own. Also, this song is the one that can be related most to Matilda as it sounds like a mix between 'When I Grow Up' and 'My House'.

Overally, I strongly recommend you buying this CD was even though it's not a musical it is we'll worth the title of Musical of the Month!

Have any of you listen to Tim Minchin's music or been lucky enough to see him perform? If so let me know either by commenting below or tweeting me at @GreenGirlsRox. 

Love you all

Kat

Quacks and Laughs

Heya everyone, finally here it is my blog about The Duck House, which I saw back in January (January 25th to be precise)...OMG that's really bad, please forgive me! Anyway, The Duck House is an amazing political satire which was playing at The Vaudeville Theatre. For me it is quite strange to see a play, particularly when I'm down in London, as musicals tend to be more my cup of tea. However, I'd seen this advertised and decided to pop along as I'm rather into politics and love anything that can make a joke out of it; yes i'm an avid watcher of 'Mock the Week'! The other advantage The Duck House had was that it was starring Ben Miller, who I've always found to be really funny, so this was just a bonus in my book. 

I was sat quite near the back of the stalls for seeing the show, which felt quite restricting as the overhand from the Dress Circle was very low. We'd (my mum and I) had been assured by the booth we'd brought the tickets from that they weren't restricted view so were quite shocked when we got to the seats to find how low the Dress Circle was, in addition to the fact that the tickets actually had 'Restricted View' printed on them (check your tickets before you walk away people). Nevertheless, when the show began all the action happened on the ground so we didn't really miss anything in the way of the action of the play, it just would have been nice to not feel quite so hemmed in.

The play itself had just the right level of humour and actually had some bits that made me laugh out loud...for someone who really likes comedy I'm not really your rolling round the floor laughing type of person so this is a real mark of respect to the show. The plot, as simply as possible focuses on the MP's expenses' scandal and the way MP Robert Houston and his family try to worm their way out of the trouble that they are now in by not paying for everything quite legitimately. Anyway, I won't say too much more incase the show goes on tour and I promise the show is a lot better than my description.

As for the cast they were all brilliant and worked well together with all the relationships being believable. As previously mentioned, Ben Miller led the cast as Robert Houston, the MP whose life the play focuses on. Nancy Carroll plays Houston's wife, Felicity, a very snobby and stuck up woman who believes the way to impress people is by things looking good. Debbie Chazen played the hilarious Ludmilla, the Russian housekeeper to the Houston's, with James Musgrave playing the Houston's student son, Seb, Diana Vickers playing Seb's girlfriend, Holly, and Simon Shepherd playing Tory grandee, Sir Norman Cavendish. I think all the cast have to be commend for their fabulous portrayal and quick delivery; they were what made the show so hilarious.

Overall, if comedy plays centred around politics is your idea of fun I'd definitely recommend you see this show if it ever goes on tour, and if it's not, why not give it a go anyway; you could surprise yourself. If you have any more questions about the show, or anything else musical theatre related, please comment below or tweet me at @GreenGirlsRox; I'd love to hear from you.

Love you all.

Kat

xx

Musical of the Month - Do You Want To Build a Snowman?

Well hello everyone, I back...did you miss me? To start off with let me give you my reasons as to why I haven't been blogging; the first part is that I have now officially finished uni so, basically, up until the end of April I was busy, busy, busy writing essays and putting on a play with my friends.  Also, the other major thing that's been going on is I found out at the end of January that my mum had been diagnosed with breast cancer so life has been a whirlwind of hospital appointments meaning that there's not been a lot of time to sit down to do blogs. On that matter, two weeks ago I completed the Race for Life at Clumber Park, Nottinghamshire, in 36minutes and 4 seconds, to raise money for Cancer Research UK; if anyone would like to sponsor me for this please click to be taken to my JustGiving page. 

Anyway, back to blogging...now I have a bit of a backlog due to the time I have taken off but coming up shortly, and i do mean shortly, are my blogs on: The Duck House; We Will Rock You; Rock of Ages on Tour; the closing of the Priscilla Tour; and West End Live. Please keep your eyes peeled for these as I will be posting them in the next few days.

So that's all the background information, now it's time for June's Musical of the Month...I know it's now July but I hope you can forgive me. I bet many of you have guessed from the title of this post that the musical I am going to be talking about is Frozen...now I know this is technically a Disney film but it does have songs set to the story line, there is talk about it turning into a stage musical and the music (the songs with singing) was written by Robert Lopez who, also co-wrote the music to The Book of Mormon and Avenue Q.

The music is one of my favourite things about Frozen as you seriously cannot get the songs out of your head and I have ended up singing them for days on end. The other thing is how much Olaf  from Frozen sounds like Elder McKinley in Turn It Off (Book of Mormon), Elder Cummingham in Two By Two (Book of Mormon) and the Bad Ideas Bears (Avenue Q). It always makes me smile when I hear the songs and can see the other characters singing them. Additionally, it's nice to see that Lopez can create beautiful, serious music as well; let's just say Let It Go always gives me goose pimples, which I know is partly due to the amazing-ness of Idina Menzel's voice but is, also, due to the beautiful way the song has been written...well done Lopez :)

I, also, think the story is pretty cute, no, it's not the most complex and in-depth plot but it definitely does have some good features and shows that self sacrificing love doesn't have to be between a romantically involved couple but can be between two sisters, two brothers, two friends, etc. The film, also, has some really sweet quotes like, 'Some people are worth melting for.'.

The final things I love about Frozen is how cute the characters look, particularly Sven. Additionally, it's nice that they used well known people is the musical theatre world; Jonathan Groff as Kristoff who is known for Glee and Spring Awakening amongst others, and Idina Menzel as Elsa who is best known for her performance as Elphaba in Wicked in addition to starring in Rent and the concert version of Chess and is currently starring in If/Then on Broadway.

(From Left to Right and Top to Bottom: Anna, Hans, Else, Kristoff, Olaf, Sven and Pabbie)

The other thing I want to share with you on the topic of Frozen is this little video that a friend from uni filmed of me singing Love Is An Open Door, now it's not the most technical but it is quite funny, or so everyone at work has told me.

Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed this blog and if you haven't already please go and watch Frozen :)

Love you all

Kat

xx