Oh What A Night!

This week saw me pay two visits to the Liverpool Empire to see Jersey Boys. I love musicals and Jersey Boys is my absolute favourite - I saw it in London for the first time in 2015 and it's been my number one ever since. I don't know if it's the music, the story or the pure sixties vibes, but I love everything about it. 

So you can imagine what I was like when I found out that the UK tour was stopping in Liverpool - absolutely, unbelievably, incredibly excited! Tickets hadn't been on sale very long and I'd already snapped up three seats in the stalls for me and my parents. It was part of my Dad's Christmas present, I knew he'd love the show and it seemed like the perfect present for him. Plus Mum and I were desperate to see it again. In the build-up to seeing the show, the soundtrack was (and still is) on repeat and Dad still thinks he can sing like Frankie Valli. 

On Tuesday, we jumped on the train to Liverpool, had a lovely meal (and a gin or two) in Pizza Express before making our way to the Empire. It was absolutely freezing, so we were thankful to get into the theatre and wait in our seats for the show to begin. Before we knew it, the lights went down, the band sounded and I started dancing in my seat - I was so excited I could've cried.

Jersey Boys follows the true story of The Four Seasons; how they started out, the troubles they faced and the classic hits they blessed us with. I'm going to cut to the chase - it was beyond words. I've never come out of a theatre feeling so much joy and positivity, I just wanted to dance my way down to the Albert Dock.

We were very fortunate that we had a brilliant, talented cast; Michael Watson as Frankie Valli, Simon Bailey as Tommy De Vito, Declan Egan as Bob Gaudio and Karl James Wilson as Nick Massi. Michael absolutely shone in his role as Frankie Valli. My Eyes Adored You is my favourite song, I hold it really close to me and he literally brought me to tears when he sang it - he's incredibly talented and one of the nicest people I've ever met. Declan was hilarious in his innocent portrayal of Bob Gaudio and Nick's rant about the wet towels was just pure gold.

They had us laughing, singing and dancing from start to finish. They even struggled to stop the crowd from cheering at one point, but who doesn't love a good rendition of Walk Like A Man? We were sat in the stalls and I think that our seats made the experience as brilliant as it was. There was an electric atmosphere, everyone was stood up singing and people were dancing in the isles. I've never seen anything like it, but it goes to show that it's true what they say - Liverpool crowds are the best.

We saw the highs and lows of being in the band, each member getting the chance to tell their side of the story, as well as an insight into life on the road and an argument about wet towels. Simon Bailey's sassy, confident portrayal of Tommy De Vito was hilarious. But if the story isn't your thing, then I guarantee that the music will be - I promise you'll know more songs than you think, and you'll be singing them for days, even weeks, to come.

They received a standing ovation from the audience who stayed on their feet to dance to the end songs of Who Loves You and December 1963 (Oh What a Night!). We were even dancing when we left the theatre and our train was full of people singing along to the songs on the way home.

It was just amazing, so much so that Emily and I spontaneously decided to go and see the show again on Wednesday night. It was Em's first time seeing it and as you can imagine, I didn't take much convincing. It was brilliant, as always, and I walked out of the theatre feeling so happy and humming along to the soundtrack.  I can't even express my love for this musical, I think I love it as much as I love Disney (and that's a lot!). A lot of the adults around us started talking to us, asking us why we'd come to see the show as they thought we'd be too young to enjoy the music. How wrong could they be? I've always said that I was born in the wrong generation as I love anything sixties.

After the show, Emily and I were stood outside Lime Street saying our goodbyes when I spotted Michael Watson across the road. After seeing him give two flawless performances, I had to go over and say something. I tapped him on the shoulder and told him how brilliant the shows had been. He couldn't have been lovelier. We chatted for a while and he remembered me tweeting him the previous night because of my photo on Twitter. I mean, I'm glad I've got a memorable face. We had a photo (thanks Em for being the best photographer) and he was so patient and kind - he really is a credit to the show and I urge every single one of you to get tickets to see it. Also, can we just talk about how cute this photo is?!

It's the perfect show to beat the January blues and it'll have you dancing and singing along from start to finish. If you want to find out more, you can get details and tickets here.

What's your favourite musical?

Lots of Love,
Meg
xxx

Weekly Update │Wolverhampton, Reunions & New Specs

14/05/2016 - 20/05/2016

This week has been very exciting; I've had a lot of time to reflect on the things that matter to me and thanks to the help of my wonderful friends, I'm learning to delete negative energy from my life. I've been all about positive vibes this week and although I've had my down moments, it's really helped to keep me grounded and happy. At this moment, things seem to be falling into place and they're actually starting to make sense. I can see people getting happier and that makes me happy too. 

│Loving│

This week Charlotte, Liv and I went to see our friend Kathryn in her University performance. We travelled all the way to Wolverhampton to be able to support her and honestly I've never been so proud. It felt strange at first, because we're so used to being on stage together but once we got over that we cheered and danced along with her. We got her some flowers and a card as a way of saying congratulations and in true Kathryn style, she cried. Every time I've given her flowers she's cried; it must be something we're doing wrong. 

I'd like to take this moment to say how much I love Wolverhampton. I've visited once before but didn't get to see as much of it as I would have liked. I was expecting it to be a complete dump but it's actually really lovely; it's much nicer compared to where I'm from. We found the most beautiful gardens outside the Arena Theatre and it felt like we were in a different part of the world. We'll definitely be going back to visit Wolverhampton and Kathryn very soon. 

If you want to see all of the things we got up to in Wolverhampton, including our emotional reunion with Kathryn, then check out our VLOG. 

│Hating│

If there's one thing that's really been getting on my nerves this week, it's people who can't take no for an answer. I just wish people would respect your decisions and support you in what you choose to do instead of having to push for what they want you to do or make you feel guilty for saying no. My happiness is more important than your expectations of me. 

I've also been hating bullying this week. I think it's absolutely disgusting how someone can be made to feel so small and ridiculous by a group of people who think they're better than everyone else. I genuinely feel sorry for them; their lives are so boring and pathetic that they have to pick on someone else just to bring themselves a little bit of joy. Seriously, grow up. 

│Listening│

There has been one song that has been on repeat for me this week and that song is 'Hair' by Little Mix. I've not been able to stop singing it, I didn't actually like it at first for some bizarre reason but now I just can't stop listening to it! 

│Wearing│

In last week's update, I mentioned that I had been for my eyes tested and spent £50 on some new glasses. I went to pick my glasses up this week and when the optician called me over to try them on, I looked in the mirror and thought "What the hell have I chosen?". This always happens. Anyway,I got them home, wore them around the house for a bit and now I actually really really like them. I think they suit me much more than my old glasses did, although Mum thinks I look like a librarian. 

│Eating│

Again, a lot of jacket potatoes have been consumed by me this week.

We went into Starbucks quite a lot this week, once in Wolverhampton and then again to meet our friend Rach who'd come home for the weekend. I'm so completely obsessed with the Starbucks s'mores chocolate and marshmallow frappucino. It's one of the nicest drinks in the history of ever, it makes me sad they're going to take it off the drinks menu soon. 

│Feeling│

A mixture of happy and proud. 

It's been so nice to be re-united with my friends from home, it makes me realise how much I miss being around them but also how strong our friendship is. We can go a month without speaking because of hectic Uni life but when we meet up, it's like we never stopped speaking which is lovely. Being able to watch Kathryn perform this week made me so proud; she's so talented and is definitely going far. 

│Moment│

The highlight of this week for me has been being able to go to Wolverhampton. We felt like we were going on a little holiday and seeing Kathryn's reaction when she saw us with flowers was the cutest thing. I also made a lot of new friends as we got to meet all of Kathryn's flatmates. I love meeting new people, it's so much fun! 

Lots of Love,
Meg

xox

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Rocky Horror Show

I'm very late writing this blog post, which annoys me a lot because I wanted to blog about it as soon as we left the show, but here I am, a week late, finally writing about one of the best experiences I've had this year. 

The Rocky Horror Show is something I've always wanted to go and see live. My Mum absolutely loves it, and she always banged on about it when I was little. When the time warp would play at a party, she'd tell us all about how she went to Rocky Horror and dressed up as Frank N. Furter with her friends and how it was one of the best things she'd ever seen. I personally didn't see the hype over it, and I didn't understand why everyone would go dressed up to the theatre. Oh how stupid I was when I was younger. 

The show last came to Liverpool when I was around 12, but mum thought I was too young to go and see it, so decided not to take me. I was going to go in my halloween costume I'd bought for that year; a tutu with spider webs on it, a black t-shirt and my Dr Martins. I can see now why she probably didn't want to take me. So then, when my best friend Liv text me last November and told me she was thinking of booking tickets to go and see it, I squealed with excitement and they were booked within the hour. We didn't quite know what to expect, so we just booked some seats on the back row in case no one in the theatre got up and started dancing, because if there was one thing me and Liv were going to do in that theatre; it was dance. 

We then had a 4 month wait until we were going to see the show, so we spent a lot of our time looking for costumes. In terms of being unorganised, I got my costume a week before we were due to go and see the show, Liv got her costume the day of the show; but all worked out well in the end. Finding the costume was so stressful, we didn't know if people would be going all out or if we'd look stupid being the only people in costume. At one point I remember saying to my mum that I couldn't be bothered anymore and I'd just go in normal clothes. She looked at me, laughed and said "If you go to see Rocky Horror in normal clothes, you'll look stupid. If you do anything, you must dress up". 

So, I raided my wardrobe, found an old black skater skirt, a black top, an apron, some knee high socks and my trusty Dr Martins. There we had it; I was Magenta.

Last week, Liv and I strolled down to the Empire Theatre, both dressed as Magenta, being stared at by people who didn't have a clue what was going on. We were then greeted by hundreds of people dressed as the characters from Rocky Horror. The majority of the males had gone as Frank N. Furter, and they looked incredible. We were amazed, we'd never seen anything like this before. Finding our seats, we settled down and looked at all the people's costumes; some of them had seriously gone all out. My Mum was definitely right, the people who had come in their normal clothes looked absolutely stupid. 

Then, the curtain was opened and we were launched into the weird weird world of Rocky Horror. Immediately, the crowd started to heckle the narrator, and at first we were like "wait, what's going on? should this be happening?" but then we realized it was all just part of the show. I'll give credit to the crowd because some of the stuff they came out with was just hilarious. Everyone was singing along, and the whole theatre stood up to do the Time Warp. This was personally my favourite part of the show; it's my favourite. The actors were absolutely amazing, especially the guy playing Frank N. Furter and the guy playing Riff-Raff. The show ended with the cast doing renditions of the Time Warp and Sweet Transvestite, to which the whole crowd stood up and started singing and dancing. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced, but I loved it!!

I think the thing with Rocky Horror, is that it doesn't actually have a story line. It's not like Wicked or anything where you have to pay attention to everything that's happening to follow the story. It's just completely bonkers, and I think that's why I loved it so much. However, I don't think the people who were sat next to us knew what they'd come to see; they didn't laugh once and when everyone else was up, dancing and singing, they stood up with their arms folded and didn't move. They were also calling everyone for being dressed up, so I don't think they were too happy with a Magenta on one side of them, and a Riff-Raff on the other. 

When the show had finished, we headed to the bar next door to the theatre for a few drinks before we headed back to my flat. This is where, yet again, we were greeted by the whole cast of Rocky Horror. I would say around 80% of the pub were dressed as Rocky Horror Characters and as I was ordering drinks at the bar, a man dressed as Riff-Raff put his arms around me and screamed "THIS IS MY MAGENTA". It was a great experience. 

The Rocky Horror Show is a touring production around the UK, I'll link the dates HERE so that you can see if they're coming to a theatre near you. If you get a chance to go and see the show, I can't recommend it enough! And you have to go dressed up, no questions asked!

Lots of Love

Meg

xox


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