Wednesday 31 December 2008

2008 Review from Jo



I am absolutely addicted to reality TV, as Rosie mentioned, Liv, Rosie, and I can sit in Starbucks talking about reality TV for hours. After watching Rachel’s performance of about you now on the first live show, I knew immediately that she was my favourite Nancy, and as the weeks went on I saw that Rachel was the only Nancy who had the full package, and that was able to perform 8 shows a week on the west end stage. Rachel was by far the best actress, as she proved during the rats mission, has an absolutely outstanding, powerful voice (Belfast Belter as she was referred to on the show), and does not have two left feet and is a brilliant dancer.

My favourite performances that Rachel delivered from IDA were, about you now, as this was the first performance where Rachel proved to everyone how talented she was. Also “Oh what a night” was a personal favourite, just simply because I really enjoyed watching her performance. I will always love you was also incredible, and last but not least Caberet. Also you cannot forget Rachel’s version of ALAHNM, when I watched the other Nancy’s who had been knocked out of the competition it was just them singing Nancy’s song. However when Rachel performed ALAHNM it was Nancy delivering the song, I thought Rachel’s acting during that performance was incredible, and the emotion that she was able to put across to the audience was amazing.


Opening Night was just something else. I woke up on the morning of the 22nd, with no plans what so ever to attend opening night. I was so gutted because I was desperate to go, but I was 99% sure that the 22nd was the day I was meant to be starting uni, however it turned out to be the following week. Anyway about midday I went onto facebook, and saw that Chris was trying to sell his spare ticket, so I tried to get in contact with Chris but wasn’t able to. However in the end I managed to get hold of a ticket, and decided to travel up to London with my sister who was going to see a concert as well. Travelling around London by myself was quite an achievement for me I felt, as I had never been to London on my own, and was clueless of how to use the underground, so I was sure I was going to get lost. Anyway I managed to get to the dominion with no problems and on time to meet up with Andy, David, Chris and other TT members. We all got on so well, and were stood outside the theatre chatting away about IDA, and then we all met Karen upstairs in the bar area, where both Karen and Richard were telling us all the funny stories of what Rachel and them had been up to when under the influence of alcohol lol!! It was then time to take our seats in the theatre, I would like to thank Chris especially as I was able to sit with him using his spare ticket, David and Andy in the circle, as apposed to on my own in the stalls. As I am sure you have all read numerously Rachel’s performance was mind blowing, it seemed like she had been playing the part of meat for years, you would of never have guessed it was her opening night. The highlight for me was definitely Rachel’s performance of No one but you, words cannot describe how amazing this was to watch. As always Rachel sung the song perfectly with bucket loads of emotion, and the Belfast Belter delivered one of the best live performances I have ever seen.

During the interval I got talking to Rosie, and her friend Eleanor, we all got on like a house on fire, and realised we all had so much in common, which was really nice, and was also one of my highlights of the evening.

The end to the perfect evening was actually meeting Rachel at the stage door. I had read on the blog how lovely Rachel is from various different fans that had met her at Hyde park etc, but until you actually meet her for yourself you cannot appreciate how much of a lovely, genuine, modest, kind, grateful, and friendly person she is. I thought it was lovely how Rachel made sure that she had made time to talk to everyone of her fans that were there on opening night and how she thanked each and every one of us for coming, and posed with us for photos and signed our tickets. Rachel really does have a lot of time for her fans and has the ability to make each and every one of us feel appreciated. I was so excited to have finally met Rachel after so many months of watching her in inspiration on TV, I could not stop smiling for days!!! Also the stage door was where I met another of my new friends Liv.


Being the poor students that Rosie, liv, and I are, there was a lot of discussion about whether we would be able to afford to attend Scaramouch night. However in the end we decided that we could not miss seeing Rachel in this incredible role, and decided to break the bank balance and go. Rosie, Liv and I had been in a lot of contact via facebook between opening night and Scaramouche night and had become good friends, therefore we decided to meet up before the show. We went off to starbucks and literally sat there chatting non stop about the x factor, strictly, Rachel, the blog, west end shows etc, and the time flew by. We then set of for the dominion where we net up with Andy, David, David’s wife and daughter Catherine. Rachel was absolutely mind blowing in the role of Scaramouche, I remember after Rachel’s performance of SBTL looking at Rosie in disbelief, my jaw had dropped to the floor, it was sensational, she literally blew the roof off the dominion. I also really enjoyed watching Rachel deliver those comedy lines in the show, which she had managed to grasp so well. Who wants to live forever and under pressure were also incredible as well. Rachel was yet again able to deliver so brilliantly yet with such a demanding role, and she just keeps on getting better and better every time I see her.

The stage door was once again a lovely end to a lovely evening, it was much more relaxed than opening night, as there was not so many people, but Rachel was once again lovely, and we all stood there chatting as if we were old friends about the weakest link, some of the other cast members crazy fans, and of course Rachel in the role of scaramouche. Big thank you to Rosie and Liv, as I was able to share Scaramouche night with you guys, we must do it again soon, I had a fantastic evening!!


Last but not least thank you David and Andy for setting up such a wonderful blog for us all to follow, resulting with me being able to make lots of new brilliant friends.

No comments: