Is living in Australia for a year so lots of travel reviews coming your way! Trying to read and rate...
Is living in Australia for a year so lots of travel reviews coming your way! Trying to read and rate as much as i can xx
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West End Live Weekend
My mum was coming up to London for the weekend so I decided to have a look in Time out to see if anything was going on in London that weekend, to my surprise and delight I discovered that a weekend event called West End Live was taking place. As many of you know I am trained in Performing Arts and enjoy going to see musicals so this was right up my street.
When was it on?
Saturday 17th & Sunday 18th June 2006, 12noon - 6.30pm both days
West End Live is a celebration of West End theatre put on by Westminster Council. The whole event is free with live performances from west shows such as The Lion King, Footloose, Mama Mia and Chicago as well as Youth Music Theatre Groups, Dance Companies and much more. The square is also filled with free stalls supplying Face painting and Arts Activities for children and if you are lucky you will get the odd freebie as well.
My Thoughts & Experience:
We only went for the Saturday but we had a fabulous time, with so much to see and do and with the weather being so good it was absolutely packed in Leicester Square,
this was the only down side to the day. Rather than try and get to the front we decided to stay further back from the stage and watch most of the performances on the large projection screen either side of the stage, the atmosphere was brilliant with many families with children having a great time. When the more up beat numbers came on everyone was swaying and dancing to the music especially to Mamma Mia and Footloose. A lot of the stalls were aimed at children so we didn't really study them too much and just casually wondered around soaking it all in. We did pick up a couple of FREE goodie bags and had fun with the contents, popcorn, soft drink, chocolate and vanilla milk shakes, Bella magazine, Fairy Liquid and information leaflets on West End events. The great things about it being held in Leicester Square was that you could stop for a refreshing drink at one of the bars and sit outside and still enjoy the music and atmosphere. This was a great FREE event and Westminster Council should be pleased with them selves, great entertainment and a very organised event with plenty of staff on hand and all the events ran to a tightly kept schedule so the audience was not kept waiting.
What Was On the Main Stage?
Musicals over the two days included:
Guys and Dolls, The Producers, Mamma Mia, Chicago, Footloose and The Lion King; bearing in mind that most West End shows have two performances on a Saturday and Sundays either a matinee or it is their day off the performers did not disappoint. They took to the stage with great energy and enthusiasm and gave it their all. Each musical gave a small performance of one or two songs, I was really pleased to see Mamma Mia as I have not seen this yet and Footloose that looks amazing. Bear in mind if West End Live is on next year that the Musicals are on in the early part of the day between 12.00pm - 2.00pm.
Other West End Shows Included:
The Blue Man Group, I have never seen this before and was intrigued to see what they would do. The Group has a live band that play music while two men came on stage and created art using paint balls, it is very strange to say the least and difficult to described. The best part for me was when they were creating music by using tubes.
STOMP is a wordless percussion dance company and their work is a sight be seen and heard, I really enjoyed this and may now go and see the full show in the West End.
Other highlights:
Other highlights for me were the Sylvia Young Theatre School performing songs and dances from the Musical Oliver; it was great to see the performers of the future up on stage singing and dancing their little hearts out. The London's Gay Men's choir were also entertaining, and China Towns Showcase complete with dragon, they must have been so hot as the sun was seriously beating down on the Saturday.
Arena Stage:
We didn't really concentrate on this area so much as it was aimed at children mainly but activities that were gong on included Circus Skills, Film Stunts and Demos, kung Fu Demos, Performing dogs and tai Chi demos and workshops.
Theatre Truck:
My mum and I made the mistake of going the theatre truck not realising that it was for children, we sat for 20 mins and watched 3 short children's films from London's children film festival. They were good I think as the children were laughing loads but not really our sort of thing!
Face painting stalls were set up by Greasepaint an established Make-Up artist school, the faces were amazing and of a very high standard and the best thing of course they were FREE! The Theatre Museum (Covent Garden) were running theatre puppet making stalls for children, Hamley's London's great toy store also had a stall with loads of toys for children to play with. Madame Tussauds also had a stall but I didn't get to see it there also loads of other stalls I didn't get to see including Victoria & Albert Museum, The Science Museum and National Gallery.
Cars: On the out side of the Square you could also see some amazing cars that had been brought down on display including Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Car, Pink Panther Car and a few Minis from The Italian Job. I was personally very excited about the Chitty Bang Bang car, as I was a great fan of the show when I was younger.
Partners & Sponsors:
www.Theatre.Com is a great theatre website offering information on a host of West End Shows and selling tickets. At the event this weekend they were running a competion to win 2 theatre tickets to West End shows every month for a year. I believe the competion is still open so visit their website for more information.
www.visitlondon.com is a website that details London events and attractions though out the year, it is great for people to find information about our great city.
Land Securities are Britain's largest Property Company; they currently have many developments in central London.
The West end Live Weekend also had a whole host of Associate Sponsors and Other Supporters and Media Partners for a full list please see the West End live website.
Pictures of West End Live Weekend
chicago
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Advantages: Good location, proximity to tube, good area for foor and drink, clean rooms Disadvantages: Price of breakfast, food in bar, very small amount of amenities, booking in
Jun 26th, 2006
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