In anticipation of previews starting tomorrow, anyone going to the show, please post your reviews here.

I realise that this might prompt review-overload but could those going to Daniel and Ben's shows also put reviews here or link to the relevant bit elsewhere please? I have visions of trying to wade through tons and tons of posts on the appreciation threads to find them otherwise! Thanks

I saw Daniel last night in ST:

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...9102&page=1239

Or maybe separate review threads would be easier to navigate? Good idea though.

I went to the Friday night performance of Sweeney Todd. The Festival Hall is looking much better inside since the refit – very bright and clean, apart from the dodgy stair carpet on the upper floors…anyway! I was up in one of the boxes on the blue side and had an excellent view of the stage. I totally agreed with the reviewers who said that the amplification was dodgy – although the solo artists were easy to hear, the chorus were frequently drowned out by orchestra and many of the chorus lyrics were unintelligible, although luckily I knew the piece so knew what they were singing!

The show was amazing, though. I really went to see Daniel Boys, obviously, (and am a big Sondheim fan anyway), but Bryn Terfel’s voice is just astounding. This colossal voice comes out and blows you away. When he was threatening the front rows of the stalls with his razor they looked pretty scared! All the soloists were good – I don’t always like Maria Friedman’s voice but she was excellent, Daniel Evans sang beautifully, as did Philip Quast, Daniel Boys sang extremely well and the only mistake I spotted was Emma Williams singing rather sharp in one number near the end, which was a bit painful to the ear.

There was a huge ovation at the end, I’ve seen a lot of shows in my time and can’t remember a show getting such a reception, to be honest. Mr. Boys looked thrilled with the reception at the end. He played a very sweet and innocent Anthony, it was a good part for him, with plenty of chances to shine.

Afterwards we went to the artists’ entrance. Bryn Terfel came out quite soon and was very nice, signed autographs and chatted.. Be warned – the programmes are printed on black paper so you need a gold or silver pen to get autographs to show up – Bryn Terfel was all prepared with his own silver pen, what a pro!

After a fair old wait Philip Quast came out but soon dashed off, then Emma Williams came out – someone asked her “What is Daniel like to kiss?” and she said “Mr Boys? He’s lovely – he’s really lovely.” After another long wait, Maria Friedman came out, she was also nice, signed autographs and chatted for a while. After an hour there was no sign of Daniel Boys or Daniel Evans, and apparently neither of them had come out to sign on Thursday night either, so that was a bit disappointing. It was 11.30pm by then so we went home.

Great show, wish I could see it again tomorrow, a shame they are only doing 4 performances!

Thanks for the review JellyKate. Sounds as though you (and Daniel) had a perfect evening. Its a shame he didn't appear at the stage door although it does give you a great excuse to go and see him in whatever hes doing next

Did Phillip Quast not give autographs either? I've loved him since i first discovered him as Javert.

Hurrah for Daniel

He signed a couple but he looked like he was in a big hurry to get somewhere.

Just to add, Daniel Boys looks lovely dressed in all black throughout, and Emma Williams is very lucky because she gets to kiss him quite a few times during the show!!!

Oh yes, and Richard Stilgoe was there watching and came out of the stage door and chatted...and we also spoke to Stephen Barlow, the conductor, when he came out, and asked him if his wife, Joanna Lumley, had come to watch, and he said no, she was coming on Saturday night.
Last edited by JellyKate : 07-07-2007 at 13:43

looks like we're gonna have to wade through it to get to lee reviews!

Lee's reviews for first night absolutely brilliant, amazing, stunning , gorgeous ! Look at posts 61912 onwards on Lee appreciation thread for clues about where to read them. (Don't want to get into trouble on my first post for mentioning "Other Places")

Very happy Boy has done good !

Did I mention lots and lots of loincloth ? (apparently, if you're interested in such things. Quite frankly who wouldn't be ?)

I thought this thread may get congested with all the boys' reviews so started a new one exclusively for Lee.

I hope that's ok?

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=612515

An AMAZING day

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hello kittens - so I'm the first back from our day at Sweeney Todd.

Firstly to the performance - it's a fantastic show ... all the performers were excellent - particularly Maria Friedman who was absolutely brilliant. Daniel was fantastic, he suited the role of Anthony really well, and played it in a sweet natured way which was very fitting. It's odd having it as a concert performance, but still with a few props here and there ... a fair bit of the story was cut but this didn't detract from the overall production.

Daniel is on from the start - duetting with Bryn brilliantly ... he's then on and off the stage a lot ... a few of us (Sparkle!) didn't particularly like the 'Kiss Me' duet which ended up with Daniel and Emma Williams snogging, embracing and generally making out ..... for at least 5 minutes!!!! His man solo Johanna was brilliantly done ...

Considering they all only had a week and a half to learn the whole thing - I think they did amazingly. I'm only sorry it's just on for the 3 days.

So to other matters ... we decided to try and drop Daniel's gifts to him personally ... so loitered by the stage door before the performance ... whilst waiting there we saw Lee pass by ... but were so slow to react that we didn't get a piccie ... he just smiled and was gone ... very funny and he's pretty handsome in the flesh!

We thought we had spotted Daniel in an outdoor cafe along from the stage door, so everyone was trying to work out if it was him or not .... when suddenly we hear this voice 'Are you waiting for me? ..... and there was our lovely Daniel ... Can you imagine our reactions!!! Anyway, we stood and had a lovely long chat with him, had some photos (to follow later I'm sure), autographs ... gave him the pressies and told him about the others that had contributed ... told him about our panto trip - his face when we told him we had the front row was priceless and then just generally chatted. He told us he was expecting us after the show and that he had told his family he might be delayed (bless him) ... said that he hoped we would enjoy it and how hard it had been to learn in such a short time, and how 'amazing' the cast were. He has other things in the pipeline but couldn't tell us anything about those ...

He is so genuinely lovely ... laughs the same (yes we made him laugh a lot) ... and was touched that we bought him gifts.

So, as I mentioned the show was wonderful, and in fact a couple of others who have lurked and posted on the kitten thread found us out (seems we are a bit famous!!) and came and said hello, which was lovely.

Afterwards we decided to see if we could see Daniel very quickly back stage again to say 'well done'. This time there was lots of people waiting, so we hung back a bit ... and loe and behold Helen his sister came over and said hello to us - she was there with his parents - who we waved to ... I'm sure the thought of coming over was too scary!

So Daniel came out and he was the one everyone wanted an autograph from ... so we patiently waited - as we had already had our turn ... but he eventually wandered our way and we asked for a group photo ... told him how brilliant he was ... and he then thanked us for the presents and told us that we had 'Spent way too much on him'. Ahhh.

He spent a while longer signing and chatting to people and we wandered off by then ... but as he finally he left he turned and waved to us all.

This has been the MOST brilliant day and we all floated back to the train station to start our journeys home. I'm sure the others will report back too ....

I'm on such a high

How fantastic - lucky you, but what posessed you not to catch hold of Lee in passing......

Too slow - we did think of running after him but as it happens Daniel showed up a few minutes later .... so I'm glad we didn't.

We told Daniel we'd seen him and he asked if we'd had a chat

I think we were all too stunned. It took him less than a minute to get past us, but we were still tryig to get our brains to admit that it wasn't our eyes playing tricks on us lol!

Awww kittens i'm so glad you had a lovely time and that Daniel was so nice to you all (not that i expected anything less)

Are we allowed to ask what you bought him?

What was Lee doing there anyway? Is it near the Adelphi?

I love the thought of the 2 of them getting together for a drink after a hard nights work lol

It's not far from the Adelphi - just across the river ... he was walking by heading towards the theatre ...

I can imagine them meeting up ... Daniel was off to see his family after the matinee ... we decided to let him go and not follow him - slightly stalkerish otherwise.

We'd had our time with him ... I'm sure his mum,dad and sister wouldn't have appreciated it very much.

Quite a few people contributed to the gifts so we had enough money to buy three things. There was a stripey T-shirt (coz we know he likes them ), a book of Sweeney Todd that we wrote a commemoration message in, and then there was champagne and chocolates in a lovely presentation box that he can share with Helen

Awww thats lovely Amarea - something to eat, something to drink, something to wear and something he can keep forever............perfect gifts

Lol we thought so too! He thought we'd spent too much, though, so we made sure we told him that he's worth it

Hi everyone

Got a couple of hours of work and dog walking to do - but will be back later to post my review of Saturday's show.

Safe to say I'm still on Cloud Nine.

Wasn't sure whether I should post here, or the other thread - but that one seems to have turned into an argument over the rights and wrongs of going backstage uninvited, and has got a bit heated ..............

See you all later x

Can't wait for your review - I knew you were going on Sat and have been waiting SOOOO patiently for the review

Hey Jeanie!

Can't wait for your review!

xx

Saturday 7th July ! Bright sunny morning - just like my bright sunny mood. Saturday is usually our lie in day, as I have to get up at 5:45 for work during the week, and Chloe (my daughter) has to work on Sundays. Far too excited this Saturday to stay dozing in bed, so got up way too early (left grumpy husband snoring) and after singing any lyrics we could remember (scarily quite a lot!) from 'Joseph' at eachother for the first hour, we then wondered how on earth we were going to fill the next nine hours before we caught the train!

Took the dogs out for a long walk, and happily, junior dog managed to keep us occupied by rolling in something revolting, so she needed a heavy duty bath when we came home. We shampooed her twice, much to her disgust. Strange how dogs would much rather smell of dead carcass than Peach & Apricot shampoo..... Then, fate smiled at me again, as I discovered that the dishwasher had obligingly flooded - so, I was kept busy for a further hour or so, bailing out the bottom of the machine and taking it apart and then putting it back together again. Husband had surfaced by this time. He spent the whole day walking round with a long suffering look on his face. Can't imagine why. Especially as Chloe and were either gabbling nine to the dozen about 'Joseph' or else singing, or else dancing or else giggling or just looking at eachother and mentioning how excited we were.

Anyway - enough domestic bliss. Finally 5:30 rolled around and time to catch the train. Straightforward journey up to London. Stopped quickly in Mcdonalds to buy a drink and as an excuse to use their loo. Both too nervous and excited to eat anything. Had to send texts to my husband and Chloe's boyfriend to confirm we'd arrived safely. Found the Mcdonalds loo was "closed due to unavoidable circumstances, we apologise for any inconvenience." Using the word 'inconvenience' on a door leading to broken toilets smacks too much of someone's idea of a rubbish joke for my liking......

Trotted off down the Strand, and saw the coloured lights of JOSEPH in big letters outside The Aldephi. Beside the entrance they have GO, GO, GO, GO! in gold lettering - which sent Chloe and me off into another chorus of "Sha-na-na Joseph, you're doing fine etc." - but quietly, as it was very crowded and we didn't want to scare anyone. It was about 7:00 by now, and the place was heaving with bodies. For anyone who doesn't know The Adelphi, it's quite a small theatre - so it doesn't take many people to make it a bit squished in the foyer. There was an eager looking bloke selling programmes (bargain at £1.50). The merchandise stall is on the left as you go in. Think the fact that people were amassing round there made it more crowded in the foyer, as people were trying to get through to the toilet (ladies is located at the far end of the foyer), plus queuing (in a haphazard fashion) to have their tickets checked to go through to the stalls.

For anyone who doesn't like crowded, stuffy areas I would advise you to either arrive early or late to avoid the half hour before show crush.

Chloe and I were standing behind Mr & Mrs Tall, and Chloe whispered to me that she hoped they weren't sitting in font of us. I'm 5'1", and Chloe barely scrapes 5" - so we are somewhat vertically challenged, and seem to have a talent for tall or large people to either stand or sit in front of us. No sooner had she said this, then the absolute tallest and biggest man in the entire universe loomed up to stand beside her. We looked up at him, and just kept going, and stopped before we both got cricks in our necks. Led to us having quite an in depth conversation about how the front seats should always be reserved for small people, so to make sure their view is not obscured. Not that we've got an agenda or anything..........

Finally made it to the cheery ticket man. They headed off to find our seats. First impressions of the theatre was that it was really small and cosy. We trotted off to find Row B, our seats 18 &19 - which were bang slap in the middle of the row, right in front of the stage! Made the entire half row stand up, so we could get to our seats, then remembered that we still hadn't been for a wee - so, made them all stand up again. Everyone very happy and smiley and obliging. The ladies loos for the stalls are located on the right hand side. Only three cubicles, two sinks and one hand dryer. Pretty snug inside, and one of the loos had had a bit of a flood (no doubt in tribute to my dishwasher...), so it was basically down to two toilets and a lot of very over excited women.

Finally made it to our seats - which were totally brilliant. Had a little chat with a couple of nice blokes sitting next to us. Then there was a great hoo-ha up in the Grand Circle, when a loud cheer went up, and people started clapping and buzzing. Everyone in the stalls was craning their necks to see what was going on, but you couldn't see past the balcony. Guy next to Chloe said, "maybe it's Andrew Lloyd Webber" - then a brief whisper went round that it was John Barrowman. Turned out it was actually Donny Osmond. To which most of the people in the stalls said "oh" in a rather disappointed fashion and sat back down again. Now I'm old enough to remember when Donny Osmond wouldn't have been able to set a little toe inside a theatre without being mobbed by panting females, and having the clothes ripped from him. Says something about the fleeting nature of fame doesn't it?

Slightly later than 7:30, the conductor started the Overture. The excitement was electric. Conductor is very enthusiastic, and actually makes little jumps every now and then. Was slightly concerned that he might be a bit distracting as he was directly in my line of vision - and wondered if he'd start doing pogo leaps later on. However, I needn't have worried. What goes on on stage was more than enough to keep my full attention!

Have rambled on for so long - and haven't even got the the review proper yet. Apologies, I do get carried away. Going to make a cup of tea - will be back with Part Two in a mo - x

Jeanie this is fab - your details on the toilet facilities are very welcome!
*note to self, dont drink too much when going to see Joseph*

Am eagerly awaiting the next part!