Change your username to John Bennett!
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I got to see Jenna Russell in Flowers For Mrs Harris. Delightful musical that made me weep in a couple of different points.
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School trips are the best; I miss them. When I was at Secondary, we got to go on an overnight trip to London where we saw Les Miserables and Wicked, got to ride the London Eye, and had a private group dance lesson at Pineapple Dance Studios. Still find it crazy to say that I attended a dance session at Louie Spence’s dance school. I mean, I’m not even a big dancer but that was still a once in a lifetime experience.
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Best trip ever! I’d pay to do that now!
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It was just occurring to me that I wasn’t thinking about Las Vegas shows when thinking about musicals I’ve seen, so I thought I’d mention two shows that’d seen that would qualify.
I saw Cirque de Soleil’s Ka a few years back. Don’t remember it too well, but it was good.
Even further back, I saw the David Cassidy version of EFX, though I’ve heard the soundtrack to the original Michael Crawford version a million times. Lots of fun…
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Just a reminder. This premieres on YouTube today, 12th March, at 7pm (UK time). It will be available to watch for free until 18th March.
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Oh is it limited? Must find time to watch it.
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My daughter is off to see the Bridge Theatre’s Into the Woods this afternoon with her school. I’m very jealous.
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Leslie Odom Jr’s doing a West End run of Hamilton for a few months, and we’ve been very lucky in managing to get tickets for a decent price! 
It sounds like the tickets for the Broadway run were pretty expensive, so we were fearing the worst.
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Whenever I hear this song, I can’t help but think of the Simpsons parody song of it, ‘Adequate’, sung by Groundskeeper Willie, Bart and Lisa.
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Here’s a thing.
As I mentioned previously, my other love aside from Doctor Who is musical theatre. And I’m a Doctor Who fan, so, obviously, I like ranking things. For this reason, over the course of the five years I was in my previous job, I listened to the soundtrack/cast recording of every musical I could possibly think to name (excluding the very few that aren’t available on Spotify). And, yes. I ranked all 567. I’ve never found much of a purpose for this, but I did thoroughly enjoy it. I thought I’d mention it here in case anybody fancied a game of ‘give me a number and I’ll tell you what musical was ranked in that place, or give me a musical and I’ll tell you where it placed, and some brief thoughts on it’ (catchy title for a game, right?)
Equally, that’s all very self-indulgent and I shan’t be in the least offended if nobody has any interest in doing that. The other reason I mention it is because I have a Spotify playlist that contains all 567 musicals - over 10,000 songs. If you’re a weirdo like me who likes randomising things (another thing to adore about this site), and have wanted a mammoth playlist to just shuffle a huge number of musicals, do let me know and I can zap you the link. Personally, I love a shuffle that unpredictably swaps between something I love and something I know less well - this could be a fun way to enjoy old favourites whilst discovering new gems. Though, I warn you, some of them are of course absolute tripe.
EDIT: I should have mentioned, I have tried to keep my ranking to the music alone, based on the recordings, and not allow any positive or negative bias I have from specific productions I may have seen, because, obviously, I haven’t seen all 567! I think some bias is unavoidable, but it is interesting how rankings change if I’m thinking solely of the recording or allowing in my opinions of staging, book, design, performances etc.
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Curious where you rank newsies (I prefer the movie but I do like the live show!)
Also would 100% appreciate seeing that playlist I love playlists like that
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Also my friends going to see starlight express before the Wembley show shuts! I’m happy for her she LOVES greaseball. She’s also assigned me and my friend characters and I’m Dinah haha
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I’m a big Newsies fan. It’s at #37! I think the music is excellent (bit of a sucker for Alan Menken) and my favourite thing about it is that it’s that rare thing where the ensemble feels like a character - arguably the main character - in its own right. Thanks to the choreography being so strong, they carry the whole show, and I think that’s a rare thing with modern musicals. I love the recording on Disney+ (I’ve previously referred to myself as JeremyJordansexual - that is, my sexual orientation is women + Jeremy Jordan). I also saw the London production a couple of years ago but was a little underwhelmed by parts of that one.
I’ll drop you a message with the playlist link.
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Starlight Express was the first show that got me into musicals when I was in primary school. Went to see the tour with my family, bought the CD, listened to it on repeat until I could recite every lyric. Absolutely adored it.
Came back to it as an adult who is generally not that hot on Andrew Lloyd Webber and was devastated to discover it wasn’t nearly as strong as I remembered (it’s way down at #416 on my list). But I still have a huge amount of nostalgia for it.
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This was literally me at 13 (but for the original London production and listening to it on cassette not CD).
I still love it now, though, and thought the recent revival was a great production (even if they have cut at least two of my favourite songs).
I would ask you for your link but seeing as my Spotify looks like this, I feel it would be a waste of time: (Oops, realised my full name was in there so took those images out!)
Yes - musicals grouped alphabetically
And then there is the one which is all my favourite ones which I add to on a regular basis
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So real on that one man. WHAT a voice he’s got it’s insane.
Im personally biased towards the movie with Christian bale because it was the thing that got me and my best friend together, but the musical is genuinely so great I’d watch either version. And you’re right about the ensemble! In both versions it’s so easy to name all the side characters and stuff cause they’ve got so much personality it’s so cool. (Another one of my friends went to a con as racetrack it was very fun)
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You have a lot of correct opinions, it’s a delight. (Your full name appears to be on that playlist too though, sorry!)
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