Tag Archives: Alexia Khadime

RE-REVIEW: Les Misérables (Queens Theatre) – 2012

Les Mis

Let me start off by saying that, recently, I have reviewed Les Misérables TO DEATH! Ha!

This will be my last Miz for quite some time!

I’ve just come back from seeing Les Misérables at the Queens Theatre, London and have once again had a thoroughly amazing evening, made all the more poignant because this is the penultimate show that I’ll get to see before I depart the West End for a bit! (the final curtain call, will be The Phantom of the Opera on this – Tuesday – evening).

The casting team for this show are currently famed for their three-month contracts, which currently includes Phantom-extrordinare, and current West End ‘IT MAN!’,  Ramin Karimloo, as Jean Valjean (and who unfortunately does not play on a Monday or a Thursday evening); thus this review is unable to comment on the interesting though historically traditional transition that he’s made over to this other West End stalwart, nor comment on how well he takes on this monumental role.

However, Les Misérables is definitely not a one man show, and for me, I really value to get to see the understudy, as you tend to get someone without the gimmicks or biased pulling power, thus it makes it so much easier to review the performance, as you’ve got no preconceptions, and you tend to get blown away! :) Plus, in an era of such short contracts, it also affords some longevity to this review, in addition to hopefully reassuring that subset of people who oft tend to be a little hard-to-warm to the concept of seeing an understudy.

Incidentally, I also think that the character of Javert is definitely the more interesting of the two principal adult male roles, but that’s by the by, and for another day! :P

So, Monday 23rd January, and the overall performance was, as ever, FANTASTIC!

We had a rather large number of understudies on owing to Principal cast holiday/performance schedules, including Christopher Jacobsen as Jean Valjean, Zoe Doano as Cossette, and the (incredible) Shaun Dalton as Inspector Javert.

I’ll start with the good, and say that Shaun Dalton as Javert was perfect, in my opinion. It’s the one role that I look at closely in this musical, and I found Dalton to be note perfect, incredibly commanding on stage, and a real force to be reckoned with. My plumed 19th Century Inspectors hat comes off to him, and I’d love to see him in a more Principal role come the next cast change.

I was very pleased that Alexia Khadime was in tonight’s performance, as her Eponine is absolutely gorgeous, and always a pleasure to watch. I’ve also warmed a lot more to Craig Mather’s Marius, and Katy Secombe was fantastic as ever in the role of Mme Thénardier. It was my first time seeing Cameron Blakeley as Thénardier, and I thought he did a great job in the role, making it distinct from the great shaping that I felt Matt Lucas brought and added to the role immediately prior.

Christopher Jacobsen took a little while to grow on me as a plausible Valjean, and I was initially a little worried… certainly during the opening numbers, and right up until At The End Of The Day, I felt that his voice lacked the operatic depth that I’ve perhaps become spoilt and used to with previous Valjeans. Having today learnt that he is a meer 23 years old (@tobiased makes a good point in that Valjean is never this young at any point in the entire story); I feel that this explains a lot. However, the ‘older’ Valjean got, the more I found that I became comfortable with Jacobsen’s performance, with his voice becoming more resonant, and, ultimately, I think that you end up with a passable, though not authentic, Jean Valjean. Credit where due, some of the songs were sung with great emotional depth and absolutely pitch perfect.  I probably wouldn’t shy away from a Monday/Thursday performance to deliberately avoid his Valjean, were you not too fixed on definitely seeing Ramin Karimloo.

It was my first time seeing Liam Tamne in the role of Enjolras, and I have to say, as I’d expected, I wasn’t keen. On all my previous visits to the show over the last 9 months or so (and there have been quite a few!), I’ve always had Scott Garnham, and I do much prefer him in this role, if I am honest. Similarly, I still haven’t warmed to Caroline Sheen as Fantine, though, as ever, it is worth noting that the audience are usually receptive to her, and perhaps it’s just that she’s not right for my own vision of Fantine.

Overall, and it’s made harder to judge with so many understudies on this evening, I feel that the cast is fairly strong, though definitely not as strong as when it had its full June 2011 complement, and underwent the mini-re-invention.

Technically, the show was great, and I was very fortunate enough to have had a private tour of the stage a few months back, and so it was great to watch the production with more ‘technical’ eyes. The orchestra sounded brilliant, and the surround sound which was recently installed back in 2011 also did a great job during the first barricade battle scene – even when we were right at the back of the Dress Circle you felt in the thick of it! :)

As ALWAYS, I ended up having a bit of a blub at the end, it’s just such a fantastic show, story and score, and coupled with a great cast, and thus I had a really fab time.

Les Misérables is currently at the Queens Theatre, and running pretty much until forever! If you would like any more information on the show, please visit their official website!

REVIEW: Les Misérables – Queen’s Theatre, London (feat. Alfie Boe and Matt Lucas)

les-miserables

On Tuesday evening, I went down to the Queen’s Theatre to see Les Misérables, currently starring Alfie Boe as Jean Valjean, and Matt Lucas as Thénardier.

Whilst I’ve ADORED this musical for many-a-year, I must also admit that it was thanks to seeing both in the O2 25th Anniversary concert that made me finally decide to plump and see the Queen’s production – especially having already seen the Barbican touring production, which, I was told by many, was far superior in comparison…!

However, I have to say that, on reflection, I found a lot of the memes kicked around by my fellow West End Wendies seemed to be rather exaggerated… nothing looked particularly tired or shabby, and whilst the revolve did get a little tiresome at times, and the Javert end scene really doesn’t work, I thought the staging remained inspired for its requirements, and it was particularly fun to see dead or maimed people constantly whizzing by you several times at substantial speeds hehe!!!

I should add that the production has recently taken a small three-day breather, just before cast change, to facilitate the introduction of a new state-of-the-art surround sound system, and also the building of a larger orchestra pit to facilitate the now larger orchestra, in turn needed to be able to play some of the newly introduced scoring, brought in from the 25th Anniversary production.

The musical is, of course, fantastic, and you may find my review of the Barbican (25th Anniversary touring) production more to your liking if you want more of a discussion of the show… this is going to be a significantly shorter post, touching on the current casting at the Queen’s (though I will say, fourth row back, centre stalls, whoop us!! Heh).

Alfie Boe’s Jean Valjean is, simply, second only to Colm Wilkinson’s… It is absolutely world-class in my opinion! His opera voice lends itself to the role magnificently, and boy oh boy can he act – I was reduced to tears by the end!!

Matt Lucas is absolutely my all time favourite Thénardier…. he brings SO much to the role… some of it delightfully subtle, other bits so overblown and absurd that you cannot help giggling manically. I don’t think there was a moment that I wasn’t smiling when he was present on stage heh. He and Katy Secombe (Madame Thénardier) make the perfect gruesome twosome! :D

Alexia Khadime makes for a great Eponine, but I did prefer her in Wicked, if I am honest. Of course, with such a vocal powerhouse, you don’t have to worry about On My Own, as you just know from the outset that this will be one of the songs that will absolutely knock it out of the park for you when it comes, and gosh, that it did!

I may get booed for saying it, but I was less of a fan of Caroline Sheen’s Fantine and her version of I Dreamed A Dream… but I DO rate her as a fabulous musical theatre star, nonetheless.

Despite having seen a number of people perform this song, I’ve yet to actually see/hear someone on stage who can match the undeniable vocal of Ruthie Henshall (see below, from 10th Anniversary concert) – as, for me, it needs a much older and world wizened lady in the role than the creative team ever seem to cast on stage these days…

Having just said that, and after seeing the 25th Anniversary Concert, I have to say, Lea Salonga actually nails this song COMPLETELY and reduces me to tears every time, proving that a more delicate/vulnerable and less jaded version of the song can work just as well!

Given the two extremes in interpretation, I find it a little strange that these are the only two versions of the song that I can say that I actually enjoy. Despite it being covered an infinite number of times - these are the only two to evoke any kind of emotion from me, and the only two versions where the actors really seem to be emotionally invested in the song.

Anyway, I digress! :P

I’d also like to call out Scott Garnham who makes an EXCELLENT Enjolras (he is the understudy for Liam Tamne) and don’t even get me started on Hadley Fraser’s Javert – which was super SUPER amazing, and, as always, produced goosebumps (I am perhaps a little biased, as this is, without doubt, my favourite role out of anything in musical theatre hehe).

All in all, an absolutely fantastic production; the current all-star (and phenomenally accomplished cast) make this summer a PERFECT time to go and see Les Misérables… I cannot imagine a workable ‘dream team’ that I would want to see more! :D

Les Mis is currently playing at the Queen’s Theatre, London and is running, well, forever…..!! (yaaaay).

Alfie Boe will play the role of ‘Jean Valjean’ until 26 November 2011 and Matt Lucas will play the role of ‘Thénardier’ until 10 September 2011.

The show is a bum-numbing three hours long and you may find yourself singing ‘One SONG More’ at the end of Act One, if you are anything like me hehe!! The toilet situation at the theatre is a little grim, expect to queue for a long time, and that’s just the men…!

Tickets for the show can be booked, and more information sought, via the production’s official website.

REVIEW: Michael Bruce – Unwritten Songs

Today (21st March) marks the release of the debut album of music by composer Michael Bruce – a name familiar to many West End luvvies (and perhaps the only person to commercially re-arrange a Queen song to my satisfaction!!!).

I’m going to do a track by track review of the album (currently available in iTunes for £7.99 and if you follow the link you can preview each of the songs that I am discussing) but first here’s a little bit of artist blurb for your digestion:

Michael Bruce: Unwritten Songs
Studio Recording

Michael Bruce is the most commercially promising new composer of the last four decades. On his debut album Michael Bruce: Unwritten Songs, he is joined by a plethora of talent that encapsulates the future of the West End.

Michael Bruce: Unwritten Songs will feature Anna-Jane Casey,Avenue Q’s Julie Atherton and Paul Spicer, Wicked stars  Mark Evans, Alexia Khadime, Ashleigh Gray and Sarah Earnshaw,  award-winning West End favourite Daniel Boys, newly crowned Glinda in The Wizard of Oz Emily Tierney, Mamma Mia’s Alex Jessop, We Will Rock You’s Ross Hunter, Spring Awakening’s Charlotte Wakefield, ‘I’d Do Anything’ stars Sarah Lark (Oliver) and Jessie Buckley (A Little Night Music), and double Olivier Award nominee Michael Xavier (Love Story).

Michael Bruce is currently composing the music for the Sonia Friedman produced David Tennant and Catherine Tate star vehicle Much Ado About Nothing at the Wyndham’s Theatre, having recently written the score for Josie Rourke’s acclaimed production of Men Should Weep at the National Theatre. He is Resident Composer at London’s Bush Theatre and orchestrator of the current Confused.com TV ad campaign featuring the well-known songs Somebody to Love & Chain Reaction.

Michael Bruce: Unwritten Songs is produced by Neil Eckersley & Paul Spicer for Speckulation Entertainment, with musical direction and orchestrations by Michael Bruce.

So, without further ado, let this review commence! :D

1. Don’t Wanna Leave You Now – Ross Hunter

Gorgeous little love song, that starts off delicate and then surprisingly explodes into an amazingly sweet chorus – you’ll be humming this for weeks!! Ross Hunter’s voice adds a lot of optimism to the track and suits it perfectly!

2. Even Then – Paul Spicer

Lovely sweeping orchestral introduction, very classical sounding musical theatre song – think My Fair Lady, Kiss Me Kate and the like. Delightful!

3. I Want A Man – Sarah Lark & Sarah Earnshaw

Love, love, LOVE the sassy beat to this! Very ‘I’m going to wash that man right out of my hair’ – I was actually dancing around my bedroom and wiggling my bum around dangerously to this one!!! :P

4. Someplace Beyond The Moon – Charlotte Wakefield

Great to hear Charlotte Wakefield’s voice on this track, I love how dreamy the song is, and it’s so easy to get swept away by it and wrapped up / enveloped in it’s soaring orchestral refrains!

5. Money Honey – Mark Evans

I was totally drawn in and clicking along from the absolute first bar of this song, and adding in / riffing with my own ‘mmmm-ummms’ into this song – amazingly good! Smooth song that will have you gliding around your bedroom, I guarantee!

6. Continental – Emily Tierney

Song that INSTANTLY grabs your attention! hehe. Full of charm, wit, and has amazingly french/opera feel, and is completely JAM PACKED with character. Don’t even get me started on the high kicks that I was doing by the end hehe!

7. Away – Alex Jessop

Song that has a lot of atmosphere to it, very much like the piano, and guitar combination.

8. It’s Not Gonna Rain – Jessie Buckley

Delicate song, great to hear the stripped down piano and Jessie’s voice – very emotive!

9. The Musical Theatre Song – Anna-Jane Casey

From the opening piano scale, you just KNOW that this is going to be an amazing look back at the world that created it hehe! Very well done, and ‘unfortunately’ it sums us musical theatre enthusiasts up PERFECTLY hehe!!! :P Cooooommmmmpaaaaannnnnnaaaaaay!!!

10. My Kind Of World – Ashleigh Gray

Another ‘classic’ musical theatre sounding song – a good pace to it, you’ll find yourself humming along and doing quirky head moments at the little flute fancies heh.

11. Portait Of A Princess – Julie Atherton

AMAZING song! Great little parody of the Disney style princess gone bad/evil hehe. If you only listen to one song on the album… :D

12. Looking Back – Daniel Boys & Alexia Khadime

Fabulous duet, and again I am loving the piano on this track. Daniel and Alexia’s voices mesh very nicely and I loved how this song built up through to the end.

13. Unwritten Song – Michael Xavier

Total musical theatre song, and a really nice one at that! Nice way to finish the album off, with some great emotive vocals (especially when the song really gets going!!!).

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Fans of Portrait of a Princess will be thrilled to know that they’ve made a video for this track too (which is hilarious – check out my previous posting HERE) ^_^

Absolutely wicked to see our West End stars getting an opportunity to showcase their off-stage song talents to a potentially wider audience than the usual (but fabulous) late-night cabaret bar audiences alongside Michael Bruce’s truly amazing compositions/orchestrations.

I cannot recommend any more strongly that you should totally buy this album right now!!!! :D

Greg and Gari take a much deserved week off

Cor, so it’s been a little while since I made a personal post to my blog – mainly because I’ve been so busy recently!

Between Saturday 5th July and Saturday 11th July both Greg and I had a week off from work and decided to make the most of it. We had a lovely week, Greg came over and stayed at mine for the duration and we planned lots of fun things.

Saturday 5th

Greg’s 29th Birthday – whoop! It was also London Pride on this day too. Didn’t much fancy London Pride as it actually seems rather disunited and doesn’t have the community atmosphere that Manchester Pride has… well in my opinion anyway, I am slightly biased hehe!.

Greg had planned to have a birthday picnic in Regent’s Park, however due to the uncertainty over the weather, he postponed it until the Saturday after. Unfortunately/typically, the day turned out right nice (as we’d say up north) and so we should have stuck to the original plans really. Instead, Greg came over to mine a little earlier, we had lunch in ‘birthday park’ near me, and then Greg and I went to Ikea to pick me up some new pillows. I know it was hardly the best way to spend a birthday in the world, however with such short notice I couldn’t really arrange anything else :o (

I got Greg a few presents, including naming two stars after us (romantic really, see!), I had a Lichtenstein-style portrait made for Greg (with the tag “Will they still need me, will they still feed me, when I’m thirty-four?!”), I spent hours and hours making a set of 10 mix-CD’s for him (the personal present) and I also bought him tickets to go and see Wicked.

Going around Ikea was a lot of fun as always, and we even purchased a big bag of Swedish Meatballs, which we scoffed with chippy chips when we got back home.

Sunday 6th

Really lazy day – we basically planned what we were going to do in the week (on a geeky planner that I designed on Excel… well, I do work in accounting!). We also ordered some shopping to last the week from Tesco, to be delivered the next day.

Monday 7th

Shopping arrived – we’d ordered a little bit more for packed lunches than we’d planned to…

Oops! HEH!

Again, a bit of a lazy afternoon, in the main due to the rain that we had that afternoon. We figured that we’d be best indoors than outdoors splashing about.

In the evening we went off to The Dominion Theatre and went to see We Will Rock You (see earlier post).

Tuesday 7th

We had planned to spend the day in Southampton, and were fortunate that the weather held out for us. One of the reasons for us choosing Southampton had been due to their weather forecast! Alas, I really wish that we had not bothered. Greg and I found that we really really disliked the place! We arrived there at 14:10, and promptly left on the 16:10 train home. I was thinking “Titanic”; “Seafront”; “Harbour” and “Fish and Chips” – what we got was a deserted harbour area, a very thin strip of water, a tiny local museum which had a tiny Titanic area (we didn’t even bother going inside in the end – it looked better on the website!) and a city centre that frankly looked like a council estate. It was really weird, as the local estate agents had some gorgeous new build properties for ridiculously low prices… but yet the city centre was like Beirut! Apologies to anyone reading this who maybe lives there or likes the place, it just really wasn’t for me. Perhaps it’s one of these cities that is just a city and not really for visitors…

We did come across Martin’s Rubber though… apparently it humps for 320 yards…

… and the ‘Yummy Yummy’ Takeaway…

Wednesday 9th

We decided to go to the Vue cinema at the O2 Arena on Wednesday to watch the latest Indiana Jones movie; Indiana Jones and The Crystal Skull. I have a two-for-one card and this was one of the films that I could watch at a time that fit in with our schedule. The screen was pretty much empty, there was just Greg and I in there, and later on we were joined by one other person – delightfully quiet! The film was really good (up to a point) I thought… the ending was a bit rubbish though… it just seemed to build up to a hype and then deflate all at once. Certainly watchable though.

After that we headed across to the Tate Modern on the South Bank in Southwark. By this point it was hammering it down with rain, which really wasn’t bestest. We managed to spend a few hours looking around the galleries and whatnot, though were frequently impeded by children and adults standing in the way of the picture/the tag and saying really loudly “I don’t even like this picture”. If you don’t even like it, then move the fuck outta the way so that people who do like it can appreciate it properly! The people viewing the art in the Tate seemed to have no manners or sense of purpose whatsoever. Not a place I’m going to be rushing back to unfortunately :o (

We also went to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria – one of Greg’s birthday presents. As always, the show was amazing, and I must say, I think that the current cast is the best cast that I’ve seen thus far! Alexia Khadime makes an excellent Elphaba and really managed to deliver her songs incredibly well. Mr Greg loved the show as I knew he would do and so a successful night all round!

Thursday 10th

Our Thursday morning was spent outside the Shaftesbury Theatre in the queue to pick up day tickets for that evenings performance of Hairspray. Having seen it numerous times previously, I knew that Greg just had to see this show! Day ticketing at the Shaftesbury costs £25 per ticket for that afternoon/evening’s performance, and you’re normally able to pick up tickets for the front row. Despite being right at the front, you still get a really good view of the stage, and the leg-room isn’t too limited (especially if you’re only between 5’8 and 5’10). We got there around 9am and there were already a few people in front of us, although they were largely queuing for matinee tickets.

After purchasing our tickets, Greg and I embarked upon our planned day at a few of London’s museums. The bulk of our time was spent at the Natural History Museum in South Kensington. I really enjoyed visiting the museum (and took an abundance of photo’s – honestly, I don’t think anyone will ever need to visit there in person again hehe) although I hear that a lot of the ‘better’ and more eye-catching exhibits were no longer there. We also briefly popped into the Science Museum and had a play around on some of the interactive bits and pieces for an hour or so (I also purchased some cool flying plane things), before heading back to Covent Garden for a spot of tea and then onwards to the theatre.

Whilst waiting outside the theatre, a gentleman was walking past me when his whole foot just fell off right in the middle of the pavement! Quite surreal – it was a prosthetic foot (obviously) though it was a bit weird handing it back to its owner!

I was also rather dismayed to find that Ben James-Ellis was not in my performance of Hairspray once we’d gotten into the theatre however, apart from that minor set-back, I enjoyed myself so much at Hairspray that I am already planning to go again (my fifth time) for my birthday in a few weeks. Greg absolutely loved it (surprisingly more than Wicked which I didn’t think he’d say as he loves Wicked) and has rated it his second favourite musical (after The Lion King). A whole heap of fun (I stand by my previous reviews completely!) and I sincerely can’t wait to go back!

Friday 11th

Friday was a bit of a wind-down day as we were coming to the end of our week. We went down to the London Aquarium (soon to be re-branded as a Sea Life Centre) on the South Bank, Waterloo and spent a good few hours in there, wandering around and whatnot. I was a good chap and only sang “Under The Sea” once… there may or may not have been some camp “Under The Sea dancing” which accompanied this…. Hehe! :o P Again, a huge number of photos were taken from the Aquarium – managed to get quite a few nice ones I think – hurrah! The Starfish which thinks it is Marilyn Monroe is my favourite (although it is digesting a crab – ugh!) along with the awesome picture of the Jelly Fish that I managed to take.

Saturday 12th

Due to the risk of rain, Greg unfortunately had to cancel the birthday picnic that he’d rescheduled from the previous week. Typically, and once again, the weather turned out nice. Grrr @ the weather man. Felt really bad that Greg hadn’t been able to celebrate his birthday properly – gah! I bought him a proper birthday cake on the way to make him feel a bit better though!

We decided to poke around the historic “City of London” and so passed the Stock Exchange, The Royal Courts of Justice and the Old Bailey on the way to St Paul’s Cathedral. St Paul’s itself wasn’t too busy given that we had gone on a Saturday afternoon in the middle of the summer and I for one really enjoyed looking around the place – the main dome is absolutely stunning! We were even brave and ascended the stairs up to the interior gallery, though once we got up there and saw how high up we were we quickly ran back down again after having spent about 60 seconds on the balcony hehe!

I finally managed to get to the Knight’s Templar pub on Chancery Lane at a time when it was actually open on the Saturday too. I’ve been trying for months to manage to get there for a meal, though usually without success. Unfortunately, the food wasn’t stunning and the atmosphere was non-existent and so it was a little bit of a let-down I thought, as I had built it up to Greg when describing how fab it is (you have GOT to see the ladies toilets at this venue [a few of my friends have pictures of them on Flickr]– they are the best that I’ve ever seen!). Still, we had a free meal out of it (I had some vouchers that their Head Office had sent me) and the peace and quiet was rather nice!

So there you have it, a rather action packed week spread into one blog post. I really enjoyed myself and it was really awesome to have Greg to myself for a whole week!

There are plenty of pictures of my week that I have posted to Facebook (far too many to post here – we’re talking around 600 pictures!) and so feel free to visit my profile and have a nosy through the galleries if you fancy it.

Thanks for reading xx