hairspray at leeds grand theatre

picture source: x

hello! it's been an awfully long time since i actually sat down and wrote anything for this blog but i've been so busy lately (an update post to come). last week i made time in the middle of all the madness to go see hairspray at my beautiful local theatre, and felt that it was far too good not to blog about it. so here we are!
i absolutely adore the film version of hairspray, i'd definitely say it was in my top 10 films of all time, and it has one of my favourite soundtracks. i'm happy to say that the stage show did not disappoint in comparison!
first of all, the actors and actresses were fantastic. freya sutton played tracy, the leading lady, and she was phenomenal. her voice was stunning, she was so funny and cute and my face just lit up whenever she was on stage, which is pretty essential for such an up-beat musical. another actress i loved was lauren hood who played penny pingleton, she was HILARIOUS. not to spoil anything but when she has her little makeover at the end of the show there were genuine tears in my eyes because i felt so happy for her character ("i'm a pretty girl now, ma!" *huge collective 'AAAAWW' and wiping of tears from audience*).
one of the main thing that draws an audience to a show is a celebrity performer, and this had two! lucy benjamin, who played velma von tussle, was wonderful (although, i hate to say it, but her voice was not as strong as others and tended to get a little lost in the music), but mark benton, who was to be playing edna turnblad, wasn't able to be on stage that night, so we were treated (and i do mean treated) to a performance from the fantastic daniel stockton. i have never laughed so much in all my life! he was INCREDIBLE. his partnership with on-stage husband wilbur, played by paul rider, was absolute perfection and their comic timing was on point for the whole show. one song that i had never enjoyed much in the film was 'you're timeless to me' but these wonderful actors made it such a huge number (made particularly great by the fact that daniel lost his composure and started shaking with laughter twice).
i've saved my favourite performance until last - sandra marvin as motormouth maybelle made me feel every emotion under the sun. she was just... i can't even put it into words. it will never compare to hearing it live, but if you like, you can click here to hear one of her performances of 'i know where i've been', a big-belt song which i ADORE. her voice filled the whole theatre and you could feel the astonishment radiating from every member of the audience, and we were all applauding before the song was even over, much like in the clip. i was very close to the stage and i could see her face very clearly; during the song, she is essentially trying to comfort her children and tell them that they'll live in a racism-free world one day, and the raw emotion on her face was so powerful, i was just sat there sobbing. she's just incredible, i would go again just for her.
the story was actually pretty different from the film, with a completely new jail scene which i was quite surprised by. if i'm completely honest i didn't really like the jail scene, it sounds silly to say it know as it was completely plausible, but at the time it just seemed ridiculous to me. there was also a slightly strange dodge ball scene which was a bit bizarre, but it didn't detract from the overall show. one thing i loved was that there were 2 songs in the stage show that hadn't been included in the film; 'it takes two' and 'mama i'm a big girl now'. those are possibly my favourite songs on the soundtrack so to see them performed live was really interesting for me.
needless to say, there was a never-ending standing ovation, and i was really happy to find that there was a little reprise of 'you can't stop the beat' for the crowd to join in with (which i both loved and didn't love, as none of us knew the dance so we couldn't really join in).
the backdrops and costumes of the show were amazing, very bright and colourful; the kind of clothes that just made you smile non-stop the second anyone walked on stage. i was just so HAPPY watching this show, i don't even know how to describe it. the atmosphere in the theatre was just wonderful and i want to live in that kind of environment forever. it's just a perfect feel-good night out. it was never-ending happiness and dancing and incredible voices and beautiful costumes, i LOVED it. you guys know how much i loved wicked at the west end and i was seriously doubting whether or not that could still be my favourite after i saw hairspray, THAT'S how good it was. it's still at the grand for another week and will be coming to lots of other places over the next few months, so if you haven't booked your tickets yet, you really need to do so right now because it is definitely not to be missed. i'm sort of toying with the idea of going again myself. just go! you won't regret it, trust me! x

fun. at leeds o2 academy

i was too scared to use my big camera at a gig and these are what my little camera churned out! kind of bizarre but i'm sort of in love with them. 

sorry that my posts are jumbled and messy right now, i'm so back-logged on posts, this is crazy! my weekend in london apparently warranted about 10 posts (some of them i still haven't written!) and now my regular posting schedule is a mess. i keep having to weave new things between london things and it's all very confusing, but i shall try to move on!
anyway, last tuesday i saw fun. at the leeds o2 academy, which is the closest music venue to where i live (we also have the cockpit for very small gigs and the leeds arena is opening soon, which i'm super excited about). i think fun. either just finished or are soon to finish the uk part of their tour, but if you're sad that you missed them they are embarking on a summer 'most nights' tour and will be back in the uk for that! YAAAY.
the support act were miniature tigers, who i had never heard of, but before the gig i searched some of their songs on youtube and i thought they were quite good (think kate nash meets two door cinema club), but they sounded much more like an indie dance band live. they were REALLY GOOD though, i just wish i hadn't been stood in the 'respectfully bopping and not thrashing around' section of the venue. i can imagine them being very good at a festival, maybe in the dance tent at leeds fest or something? they're american and at one point andrew from fun. came out to play keyboards with them for a song and the lead singer of miniature tigers got everyone to chant, "andrew! andrew!" but with a room full of yorkshire folk it sounded more like, "arndrew! arndrew!", and i found that to be particularly amusing, apparently. they also kept trying to get us to chant, "fuck london!" and we all just kind of went, "uh... no." haha!
after miniature tigers there was a 30 minute interval and it started to get crazy crowded. i knew it would be busy because it was a sold out show but it was literally packed with people everywhere, and i mean PACKED. like my face was inappropriately close to this guys bicep (i'm quite short), and for maybe the whole first half of the show my nose was almost buried in some woman's blonde curls. pretty ridiculous. also, because i'm so small and there were so many people directly in front of me, it was quite hard to see for a lot of the show, and at points i did end up doing the shitty thing of watching it through my phone camera (the video i shot is above, although the audio is annoyingly awful). all of that sucked BUT what counts is that fun. were amazing and crazy and perfect.
when they first came out it was like a shot of blinding white light and then darkness, and then when it went light again one of them would be stood at their little station on stage, which i imagine would've looked pretty cool if it wasn't for the flash photography illuminating the room so you could see everyone scuttling around on stage, haha! they opened the show with 'one foot' which was the PERFECT opener because it's so strong and each beat had a different coloured flash of light with it, like green blue yellow red etc., it looked amazing. i'm probably the only one who picked up on this because i'm so conditioned to notice lights from watching queen live so many times, but their lighting guy should win a fucking oscar, i have NEVER seen such perfect light choices for anything in my whole life! (one of my favourite bits was during the chorus of 'out on the town', which you can see in my video footage, but again, the sound is terrible).
the show was about 50/50 between songs on their big hit album 'some nights', and their first album, 'aim and ignite'. i'm going to confess that i haven't actually listened to 'aim and ignite' yet (i have this thing that if i like a band then i don't like to listen to all their material at once, like i save it for when i really need it), so i didn't know a lot of the songs, but that didn't detract from the show. they did all my favourites, like 'some nights, and, 'why am i the one', and 'stars', but really i love all of the songs on 'some nights' and they all sounded incredible.
like, i know lots of bands are very good, and lots of people have very good voices, but i've literally never heard anyone be THAT GOOD consistently throughout a WHOLE SHOW before. even the voices of the greats crack at some point, but nate's voice just kept growing and growing until it filled the whole room. i heard someone say, as we were leaving, something like, "in my life i've seen people like U2 and elton john and aerosmith, but they were probably the best live act i've ever seen!" they were THAT good.
nate ruess was so charismatic as well, you can tell that they take inspiration from queen. lots of people compare them to queen, but i don't really hear it in their music, so maybe they meant their live shows? nate did the freddie call-and-response for a bit, which, as a queen fan who never got to see them live, was so wonderful to take part in. his performance, and his stage presence was just mind-blowing, like i was so swept up in this guys beauty and voice and energy, i just wanted to live in it forever.
oh, and i know what you're thinking, "what about 'we are young?'" well, it was possibly the best thing i've ever heard. they kind of did one of those 'pretend to end the show and wait for an encore but really you just walk off and then walk back on again' things (like, they could never leave before doing that song), and the drums started and the whole place went fucking insane. the energy and the atmosphere in that room was so powerful, i felt like i could just float right up to the stage. the whole audience sang the whole song, pitch perfect, holding every note to the very end. we all just kind of stood there and danced and sang, whilst fun. sang with us, i've never experienced anything so simple and pure and perfect before. we all sang the last lines ("so if by the time the bar closes, and you feel like falling down, i'll carry you home, tonight.") and it sounded incredible and nate looked so happy that he could've cried and i don't even have words to express how great it felt to have been part of that.
the final encore was 'stars', which is one of my favourites of theirs, and oh, it sounded so PERFECT. nate was holding all the notes for what seemed like years and his voice is so strong, it sounded magical and euphoric and lots of other words as well. the song went on forever and they kept pausing to say things and tell stories and they kept going back to the song but it was almost like the song never stopped, if that makes any kind of sense. it was WONDERFUL. at first i was like, "why are they not ending on their biggest hit?" but then it made so much sense to end on 'stars', it was just perfect.
i hope that they come back to leeds on their summer tour (and do a show, not leeds fest, because i can't go to leeds fest) so i can see them again. i hadn't been to see a band live since 2008, when i saw the kaiser chiefs at their homecoming gig at elland road stadium (incredible, if you're wondering), and it was such a wonderful feeling to be part of that gig atmosphere again. plus, fun. are just amazing anyway. xx