Imagine the opportunity to revisit one of my favourite productions of 2019 up close? I got the chance to do just that at the beautiful RSC to see what happens behind the scenes of their remarkable production of David Walliams best-selling novel, The Boy in the Dress. A stellar of a show for the entire family to enjoy! The buzz surrounding this show is still very much alive but its closing date, 8 March is on the horizon and you really don't want to miss out on this one! 

There's something wonderful about being able to witness all of the magic that goes on within the wings to create such an unforgettable show. Although I love watching the end product of the show, there's definitely something appealing about all of the work that goes on backstage. The teams there are the heart of the show and it's something I love being able to get the opportunity to do. Company Manager Robbie Cullen kickstarted our day at the RSC with a very thorough tour around the set and staging of The Boy in the Dress. 

The stage at The RSC is extremely vast and is packed to the brim with little snippets of true delight for the show, that everyone loves. I didn't realise the number of groves within the stage floor that enable the props to move fluidly around the space in what is a quite action-packed show. Looking above we could see the large disco balls lying in wait for their moment during the Disco Symphony number aka my favourite of the show.

There's so much more stage beyond what our eyes see too! There's not just set hidden behind a curtain at the back but there's some above and down below too - it's a very jampacked show with all of the best that RSC can offer in stage design. It's a remarkable stage to see up close with your very eyes. Robbie allowed us to get up and close with all of the props for The Boy in the Dress and of course, my favourite was the tub entitled 'snot!' what's a David Walliams story without snot?! The attention to detail in the props is remarkable, I was captivated by the forced perspective of the beach scene and the attention paid to the houses that glide across the stage quite a lot in the show. Standing on the stage of The RSC stage looking out towards the audience is also quite something alone - it really took me back to the days where I would perform on stage and I remember that buzz. If only they needed a swing for the show - I would have stepped in immediately! 

Whilst looking around the backstage area where we could get up close with some of the costumes for the show - the sparkly ones were my favourite. There is also quick-change areas situated around the back of the stall areas and an area directly for the child playing Dennis. It's admirable to understand how demanding this show is for a young performer - and how well they execute their responsibility as the leading character in The Boy in the Dress. Because a show like The Boy in the Dress is full of life - some of the props are also situated in little areas around the back of the stalls. They hide the magic well! 

We also got the opportunity to meet the true star of the show - Oddbod, the farting dog. His puppeteer Ben Thompson really brings this unforgettable character to life. It's hard to remember that this dog is, in fact, a puppet and isn't real. Ben gave us a fantastic insight into how he brings Oddbod to life and his role as a puppeteer which is really interesting!

After our behind the scenes tour, we headed up to the theatre's Rooftop Restaurant for a pre-theatre meal. The Rooftop Restaurant is situated on the third floor of the floor, serving up the very best of British food in relaxed and stylish surroundings with stunning views overlooking Stratford-upon-Avon. We tucked into a delicious cocktail and a Sunday lunch - the roast beef was divine and the portion sizes were incredible! Probably one of the best meals I've ever had in a theatre restaurant! I've not stopped thinking about this food since!

Ever been like me and although you love watching shows, you are eager to find out more about those people behind the scenes who help make it happen? I have said for years that the one thing my content is missing is a spotlight on behind the scenes, a spotlight on the careers within the wings that are just as much the heart of a show as its performers. I got things kicking at the start of January and got the opportunity to shadow the wonderful Lisa Lewis, the deputy stage manager for Curve's production of West Side Story. 

I arrived at the theatre just before 12:45 where I was greeted by one of their marketing team, Yasemin and taken through to the auditorium to be introduced to the cast and team of that day's performance. In fact, on the day I attended it was one of Curve's Relaxed Performances. Through their programme, Curve are driven to be more inclusive and regularly put on a range of accessible shows. These include Dementia-friendly, youch tours for the visually impaired, captioned and signed performances too. This was a relaxed performance which meant it was specially tailored to support audiences with additional needs, however, it is open to everyone to attend. 

In a relaxed performance, the lights remain on and there's the ability for audience members to come and go from the theatre as they please if they need a break from the performance. There's also a room specifically set up to be a space where people can go if they need to become calm. The show's sound and lighting are also adapted to more comfortable levels and the script can also be tweaked to soften or remove surprising moments. The team create a fantastic atmosphere for this type of performance and the Information Pack which is sent in an email and available on the day are exceptionally equipped to create a fantastic trip to the theatre for everyone. 

Anyway, I managed to have a quick tour backstage with one of the stagehands who gave me an insight into his specific role in the show as well as the different responsibilities they have for running the show. The West Side Story production was created on such an epic scale with its stage design - being able to see for myself how the foundations for different areas of the set was really interesting. The view from on top of the structure was quite something, especially with its perfect look towards the Dress Circle and overlooking where the orchestra was situated for the entire show. 

It wasn't long before I had to be called to the stage to receive my cans for the show. Cans are communication devices used backstage in a theatre, they consist of a pack (like a radio) and a headset. These are vital in ensuring the effectiveness in a smooth show and clear communication between the many individuals involved in the production; from the stage manager to the stagehands. In this production Lisa, the Deputy Stage Manager of whom I was shadowing was situated at the far back of the theatre. Sometimes you may see them situated on the side of the stage but in this instance, we were at the back, which actually gave us a fantastic view of the entire auditorium from the stalls. 

Lisa has a huge role in the fluidity of a show's run. She has several key responsibilities and tasks to performance through each phase of a production, this includes scheduling and running rehearsals, communicating the director's wishes to designers and the performers, coordinating the work of the stage crew and managing cues during the performance too. Her space within the stage manager box (which is what I'll call it for simplistic terms) has a huge board which has a camera on the conductor in the orchestra as well as an image of the stage from where you can see the production from. This board also contains a collection of different buttons which are used to function cues or enable communication to the various teams within the production crew. Of course, Lisa also had a copy of the script in front of her which was scrawled with cues and a timer set up in order to establish the running times in the show. 

I quickly realised how organised you need to be as a stage manager in order to deliver the correct cues and to communicate different notices to the team. The team ethic was clearly demonstrated and I loved chatting with Lisa between the cues about her career and the shows she's worked on before including Grease and Evita. Being a stage manager sounded exceptionally challenging but rewarding, especially as someone who can tour through various theatres throughout the UK with shows of different genres too! Lisa also spoke about how she initially trained as an actor whilst participating in extracurricular activities which gained her skills in a wider field of the theatre industry. As someone individually myself who did some stage management type roles through university, the experience is incredibly invaluable for someone who wants to work in this industry. We also got into an interesting discussion surrounding female representation in stage management, because it's, in fact, a role that has a lot of females at the reigns. Although Lisa explained there was a lack of it in the sound department. 

I came away with a real insight into the role and absolutely loved being able to stick on cans and feel like part of the Curve production team for an afternoon! Thanks to Lisa Lewis for giving me permission to join her! 

LAOS is a well-established theatre company from Loughborough. They started performing in 1895 and have since performed in a number of venues across the small Leicestershire town and under a variety of names before becoming Loughborough Amateur Operatic Society in 1939. This now abbreviated to LAOS. I joined the company in their rehearsal room at Grace Dieu Manor School for their upcoming production of The Wedding Singer. It's performing at the Loughborough Town Hall between 10-14 September. 

The Wedding Singer is mostly known for the hit movie from 1998 which starred Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. Transport back to the year 1985, the year that was dominated by Madonna, Back to the Future, Super Mario Bros and where hair is big, greed was a good thing and the wedding singer was the coolest man in town. We follow Robbie (James Nelson), New Jersey's favourite wedding singer. He's the life of the party until his finance, Linda, leaves him at the altar. He allows his heartbreak to affect every wedding as disastrous as his own. He bumps into Julia (Erica Makin) and he falls madly in love with her. But it's not that easy, she's engaged to a Wall Street big shot named Glen (Cameron Sim). It's a fun-packed musical with fantastic musical numbers and a feelgood show that you'll be tapping along with all night. 

I have seen this production before during the 2017 UK tour (read my review here) so I was excited to see what this local company had to offer in its energy and punch - and plus, I friggin' love this musical's soundtrack!

Gemma Landers takes on the very uninhibited and forward character of Holly in this production, "she knows how to have a good time and is a bit of a flirt". Gemma has two favourite parts in the musical, one being her musical number Saturday Night in the City, "It's a big party number, I get to sing and dance in it which I love. The second is a scene right at the end between Julia and Robbie where they finally realise they are in love with each other and it's an absolutely beautiful scene. The way in which Erica and James create that is amazing!". 

Taking on the baddie in the musical is Cameron Sim as Glen, "he's all about himself, about the money". Cameron said he has enjoyed playing Glen as it's something he's been able to "get his teeth into being nasty". "If I was being selfish I would say my favourite number is All About The Green which is my number purely because it's really fun, although difficult, a really fun character". One of Cameron's challenges with this musical is he explains "I quite have a severe hearing impairment which not a lot of people know about. I have learnt ways over time to adapt and lip read so singing can be difficult. I have to go over it repeatedly for muscle memory really". 

The choreography and direction for this musical are really spot on and you definitely feel as though LAOS have filled their stage in a spectacular style. I love how snappy they are between transitions in scenes and how their vocals amplify the room through every musical number. I most definitely think they are about there for curtains up in September and I definitely think you should see it. 

Erica Makin who plays Julia says you should come and see the show because "it is fun, it's a laugh and it's 2 and a half hours where you can let your hair down, your troubles can be forgotten and you can get captured in a simple, beautiful love story. It's got a bit of everything; love, romance, laughter, jokes and great songs!"

As a reminder, The Wedding Singer is performing at the Loughborough Town Hall between 10-14 September. Book your tickets here!

Outside the walls of The Old Mill Studio in Derby comes a thunderous wave of vocals that grabs your attention, so much so a local in the area complimented how pleasant it was to hear them rehearse. In the studio is Kristian Thomas Company who are rehearsing for their latest production, Andrew Lloyd-Webbers' Evita. 

Evita takes on the historical story of Maria Eva Duarte de Peron, a poor Argentinian girl who grows up to become the wife of the president of Argentina, worshipped and seen as a hero by the poor and working class. It isn't all that easy though and we see how Eva learns that her feminine wiles hold power among a culture, and a political system, run by men. 

The musical opened on Broadway in September 1979 and won an impressive seven 1980 Tony Awards including Best Book, Best Score and the Best Musical of the year. Even a year later in 1981, the cast recording was awarded a Grammy Award. Since productions of Evita have been performed all over the world and most recently in London's West End between 2006-7. It's most known for the 1996 Hollywood film starring Madonna and Antonio Banderas. It is, in fact, one of the musicals I have never seen! 

"this is the first show we've ever done that has brought a new style to work with" - Alysha Gomes

"There is no version of Che and these characters, they're real people and that's what has made it challenging. You can't follow the same process as an actor like you would have done" - Thomas Simpson

In the hall at Castle Rock High School, Coalville is a rehearsal for Christchurch Theatre Club's production of RENT. RENT is a fantastic musical based around a group of New York city artists dealing with the HIV/AIDS crisis in the late '80s and it reflects on falling in love, finding your voice and living for today. It opened in Broadway in 1994 and became a winner of the Tony Award for Best Musical and the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The musical was written by Jonathan Larson, who tragically died the night before Rent's Off-Broadway premiere, however, it's the success of this musical that makes it an absolute must watch for every theatre-goer. It's personally my favourite musical of all time! 

'Mimi and Angel's character are definitely living for today in RENT' - Lucy Maden. 

'People sing about living for today and you think damn right!' - Kristain. 

I have been memorised by the musical Billy Elliot recently, having listened to the soundtrack on repeat as well as watching the live performance film as well as the original as well as the 2000 film. It's currently playing at Birmingham Hippodrome until April 29 and with the opportunity to get a sneak peak backside to this production as well as speaking to those behind the production and see it again, I couldn't say no.

With eight truck fulls of kit and a technical crew of 50-plus people to bring the set of Billy Elliot to life as well as transport it from venue to venue during it's tour there's clearly a lot of work that goes into making it a success. The tour itself features a 55-strong cast including 28 children who come along with chaperones, teachers and parents in tow. The commitment by this young people is admirable, taking on the intense schedule of performing in a smash hit musical as well as studying and fitting in dance lessons. The Billy Elliot kids travel with the entire show as it moves around the country. This therefore requires a lot of extra hands on board, including seven full-time chaperones, plus extra travel chaperones, two full-time teachers, as well as specialist teachers at every venue or available on Skype to develop the kid's movement repertoire. 

With so many costumes to organise including 31 tutus, the wardrobe team spend around 7 hours a day, including 3 hours during the show doing laundry to get it all washed and ironed. Billy himself wears 7 pairs of shoes in the show, trainers, 3 pairs of tap shoes, ballet slippers, bedroom slippers and tap covers.





We were shown around the backstage by Scott Garnham who plays Billy's brother Tony as well as Emma who works for the touring company. They spoke to us about the importance of their dressers who are on hand to help the cast move through the various scenes. They also guided us through how the scenery was moved during the show, with some hidden secrets that I won't let slip to ruin the magic.

We also got the opportunity to sit in the auditorium and chat with the Resident Choreographer Jeroen Luiten who is helping ensure the magic and slickness of the show is kept throughout the tour. Hearing him talk about the intense schedule for the young people of the show as well as how the show was received over in Holland compared to the UK was interesting.  It must have been really intriguing to talk about how a bit part of UK's history is being presented in this musical. Whilst we spoke to Jeroen we were able to see the cast themselves warm up for the evening's performance.













Being able to sit in the audience after this tour and soak in the atmosphere and witness all of the hard work on the stage was really exciting. I thoroughly enjoyed watching the performance again, with our Billy Elliot, Haydn May and Michael played by Samuel Torpey stole the entire performance with Expressing Yourself.
There's still time to watch Billy Elliot at the Birmingham Hippodrome, it's playing until Sat 29 April and is well worth a visit. I'm even deciding on a final third visit before it departs from Birmingham!