ALW's birthday party in Hyde Park
Sep. 15th, 2008 01:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
burntcopperAndrew Lloyd Webber's birthday party in the park.
Fabulous. Utterly fabulous. Started off as v. nice sunny day so it wasn't utterly freezing once the sun went down. Pooks managed to bag us space right at the front (behind the screaming Lee Mead fangirls, ow my ears - though still not as over-excitable as one middle-aged woman in front of us). And telling some Phantom fans to stop waving their damn masks. Though at least the girls with big banners were right in front of the stage so the banner didn't obscure our view.
And utterly brilliant to hear entire audience singing along softly to most of it. Best of course when it was the Joseph numbers when everyone's got their arms round each other and do the echo bits.
Performance run-down :
Maria Friedman : As if we never said goodbye. (Pooks was in floods of tears and I was on the verge of it) I love it when it's not a big tv star but someone who was just fucking brilliant and audience gets floored by a damn good performance.
Duncan James : ...I hate it when people who you think are tossers and riding on the reality/fame thing as ex boyband members turn out to be really good performers with great voices and stage presence. Also : hips. legs. :gibber: Due to him I now have 'Mr. Mistofelees' stuck in my head.
Original 90s' Jesus doing Gethsemane. v. good. my lot all going 'why, why, why can't we have another production of JCS?'
The current Christine and Phantom doing 'Phantom of the opera' As Pooks said, '...he's not straining. No effort whatsoever. Fuuuuck' (though we're also of the opinion that mrrrrow)
Rhydian's 'Music of the Night' - very good, great voice, but I kept being distracted by the fact that he looks like an ice sculpture dancer what with being that chiselled and pale.
Hayley Westenra being lovely, gorgeous and utterly fab dresses doing a lot of numbers and duets. Special mention to the Whistle Down the Wind stuff.
Jodie's 'You Must Love Me' :sigh: Great, heart-breaking and near on tears for me. Love that song so much. And thanks *so* much to those girls near us who fucking booed her so they had to re-do the link. grow the fuck up.
Jessie I will grudgingly agree was good on 'I don't know how to love him' and would make a good Mary Magdalene.
Dean Collinson : making us laugh like loons on 'King of My Heart' doing full-on Elvis.
Elaine Paige doing 'Memory' as the closer.
Michael Crawford's video message : HEE.
Due to Ruthie running late (off recording the Songs of Praise christmas special) we had one of the girls from Dirty Dancing doing 'Buenos Aires'. Which was boogie and samba-tastic. Got entire crowd bouncing.
Lee Mead : good stuff, but still going to kill one of our lot for constantly saying he looks like a sheep. Couldn't stop laughing.
Jason Donovan : okay, nowt special, was apparently horrifically out of tune during the sound-check. But *so* looking forward to him in Priscilla.
Julian Lloyd Webber plus band on good form for Variations.
Andrew Johnston, Young Musician of the Year kid for his Pie Jesu. Great voice, just... sounds like every other good choir kid.
JB doing full-on arse-wiggle and playing to the crowd. as usual. (Oh what a Circus, Sunset Boulevard and Perfect Year with Ruthie) And the boy only fluffed three lines of the links. With many bad jokes. And don't think we didn't notice you hugging all the cute young lads at the end, John.
Idina didn't stand out that much for me, sorry. Wicked fangirls, do *not* scream 'Wicked we love you!' over the beginning of a song. Good performances of Don't Cry for Me Argentina and one of the Tell Me on a Sunday songs, we've just heard better.
Denise did good on hers (one of the Tell Me on a Sunday) and I want her hair.
Ruthie : horrible dress. So not in tune occasionally. But her and JB doing 'Perfect Year' - sigh. With dancing and snoggage and dammit, you two, get on stage together sometime soon in this country...
Josephs and Nancys (Daniel, Ben, Lewis, Keith, Keisha, Rachel, Jessie, Niamh) : Light at the End of the tunnel. Good, bouncy, I may have bounced... rather a lot when Daniel came on stage (am totally blaming![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
fairyd123 for enabling my Daniel fangirling with all her pics and vids) and squeed so much because he was given the first verse while everyone else got a couple of lines or group. Er, did Keith get any lines on his own? Guess who's being pushed/promoted. Or at least getting a lot of notice for being *good*.
BBC concert orchestra and Crouch End Festival and Capital Voices all on good form. Special mention to the Jesus Christ Superstar intro. And the percussionist, who was having too much fun with him totally rocking the maraccas during 'Buenos aires' and tossing the tambourine during another one.
ALW did a quick gush to the Beeb for supporting musical theatre.
Couldn't see half the fireworks due to being too close to the stage, but we kept wanting the on-stage roman candles to get the conductor's hair.
Pics over atfairyd123 of several of the performers.
For once, didn't bring way too much food. Go me.
Radio 2, fucking hurry up with broadcasting so I can have this on my headphones.
Last Night of Proms good. Bryn, that flag jacket... OW. We liked you better in the rugby shirt. Hee to the conductor and his chinese jacket. I think I zoned out during the sea shanty because I don't remember it at all. mmmm, Bryn, feel free to do traditonal simple folk tunes any time. Also, kudos to the composer and her 'Froms' tribute piece ('for the proms') who is funny and that was a good music.
Shely's birthday today. One day, I will learn not to eat any chocolate cake whatsoever and just stick to the icing. I tried for the smallest sliver possible and I'm stilll fucking queasy.
Finally found a blemish stick that goes on as well as the Benefit and doesn't cost £20. Why did I never try Natural Collection before? It's £1.99, goes on easily and the shades work. I tried the Rimmel that bunch of people recced and it's plasticy.
Fabulous. Utterly fabulous. Started off as v. nice sunny day so it wasn't utterly freezing once the sun went down. Pooks managed to bag us space right at the front (behind the screaming Lee Mead fangirls, ow my ears - though still not as over-excitable as one middle-aged woman in front of us). And telling some Phantom fans to stop waving their damn masks. Though at least the girls with big banners were right in front of the stage so the banner didn't obscure our view.
And utterly brilliant to hear entire audience singing along softly to most of it. Best of course when it was the Joseph numbers when everyone's got their arms round each other and do the echo bits.
Performance run-down :
Maria Friedman : As if we never said goodbye. (Pooks was in floods of tears and I was on the verge of it) I love it when it's not a big tv star but someone who was just fucking brilliant and audience gets floored by a damn good performance.
Duncan James : ...I hate it when people who you think are tossers and riding on the reality/fame thing as ex boyband members turn out to be really good performers with great voices and stage presence. Also : hips. legs. :gibber: Due to him I now have 'Mr. Mistofelees' stuck in my head.
Original 90s' Jesus doing Gethsemane. v. good. my lot all going 'why, why, why can't we have another production of JCS?'
The current Christine and Phantom doing 'Phantom of the opera' As Pooks said, '...he's not straining. No effort whatsoever. Fuuuuck' (though we're also of the opinion that mrrrrow)
Rhydian's 'Music of the Night' - very good, great voice, but I kept being distracted by the fact that he looks like an ice sculpture dancer what with being that chiselled and pale.
Hayley Westenra being lovely, gorgeous and utterly fab dresses doing a lot of numbers and duets. Special mention to the Whistle Down the Wind stuff.
Jodie's 'You Must Love Me' :sigh: Great, heart-breaking and near on tears for me. Love that song so much. And thanks *so* much to those girls near us who fucking booed her so they had to re-do the link. grow the fuck up.
Jessie I will grudgingly agree was good on 'I don't know how to love him' and would make a good Mary Magdalene.
Dean Collinson : making us laugh like loons on 'King of My Heart' doing full-on Elvis.
Elaine Paige doing 'Memory' as the closer.
Michael Crawford's video message : HEE.
Due to Ruthie running late (off recording the Songs of Praise christmas special) we had one of the girls from Dirty Dancing doing 'Buenos Aires'. Which was boogie and samba-tastic. Got entire crowd bouncing.
Lee Mead : good stuff, but still going to kill one of our lot for constantly saying he looks like a sheep. Couldn't stop laughing.
Jason Donovan : okay, nowt special, was apparently horrifically out of tune during the sound-check. But *so* looking forward to him in Priscilla.
Julian Lloyd Webber plus band on good form for Variations.
Andrew Johnston, Young Musician of the Year kid for his Pie Jesu. Great voice, just... sounds like every other good choir kid.
JB doing full-on arse-wiggle and playing to the crowd. as usual. (Oh what a Circus, Sunset Boulevard and Perfect Year with Ruthie) And the boy only fluffed three lines of the links. With many bad jokes. And don't think we didn't notice you hugging all the cute young lads at the end, John.
Idina didn't stand out that much for me, sorry. Wicked fangirls, do *not* scream 'Wicked we love you!' over the beginning of a song. Good performances of Don't Cry for Me Argentina and one of the Tell Me on a Sunday songs, we've just heard better.
Denise did good on hers (one of the Tell Me on a Sunday) and I want her hair.
Ruthie : horrible dress. So not in tune occasionally. But her and JB doing 'Perfect Year' - sigh. With dancing and snoggage and dammit, you two, get on stage together sometime soon in this country...
Josephs and Nancys (Daniel, Ben, Lewis, Keith, Keisha, Rachel, Jessie, Niamh) : Light at the End of the tunnel. Good, bouncy, I may have bounced... rather a lot when Daniel came on stage (am totally blaming
fairyd123 for enabling my Daniel fangirling with all her pics and vids) and squeed so much because he was given the first verse while everyone else got a couple of lines or group. Er, did Keith get any lines on his own? Guess who's being pushed/promoted. Or at least getting a lot of notice for being *good*.BBC concert orchestra and Crouch End Festival and Capital Voices all on good form. Special mention to the Jesus Christ Superstar intro. And the percussionist, who was having too much fun with him totally rocking the maraccas during 'Buenos aires' and tossing the tambourine during another one.
ALW did a quick gush to the Beeb for supporting musical theatre.
Couldn't see half the fireworks due to being too close to the stage, but we kept wanting the on-stage roman candles to get the conductor's hair.
Pics over at
fairyd123 of several of the performers. For once, didn't bring way too much food. Go me.
Radio 2, fucking hurry up with broadcasting so I can have this on my headphones.
Last Night of Proms good. Bryn, that flag jacket... OW. We liked you better in the rugby shirt. Hee to the conductor and his chinese jacket. I think I zoned out during the sea shanty because I don't remember it at all. mmmm, Bryn, feel free to do traditonal simple folk tunes any time. Also, kudos to the composer and her 'Froms' tribute piece ('for the proms') who is funny and that was a good music.
Shely's birthday today. One day, I will learn not to eat any chocolate cake whatsoever and just stick to the icing. I tried for the smallest sliver possible and I'm stilll fucking queasy.
Finally found a blemish stick that goes on as well as the Benefit and doesn't cost £20. Why did I never try Natural Collection before? It's £1.99, goes on easily and the shades work. I tried the Rimmel that bunch of people recced and it's plasticy.
