The cult following that the Broadway show has gained for itself has come as a complete shock, it is now one of the longest running musicals and has celebrated its 10th anniversary on April 24th 2006 when the whole of the original cast reunited and took part in a special performance of the show.
The soundtrack to the show has proved to be one of the most successful soundtracks of all time boasting both a double disc and complete recording CD collection with the main title track of the show ‘Seasons of Love’ having been covered by legendary singer Stevie Wonder.

With the stage show having become such a huge success it was later made into a feature length musical movie released in 2005 and directed by Chris Columbus. The movie was eagerly anticipated by fans and was well received when it finally hit the movie theatres. Columbus had stayed close to the original storyline and kept all the crucial scenes in the film whilst managing to bring a whole new element of life, and a rocky edgy nature to it. He produced another winning formula by casting almost all of the original Broadway stars in the movie such as Anthony Rapp as Mark Cohen, Adam Pascal as Roger Davis, Jess L Martin as Tom Collins, Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Angel, Idina Menzel as Maureen and Taye Diggs as Benny.

They also brought in two new actresses to play the roles of Joanne and Mimi. Actress Rosario Dawson played the role of Mimi and Tracy Thoms took on the role of Joanne. The whole cast seemed to instantly gel and the film made for explosive and emotional viewing that really had you singing along with the many well known and loved songs like ‘La Vie Boheme’ ‘One Song Glory’ and of course, the classic ‘Seasons of Love’.

The stage show continues to run on Broadway and the film has managed to entice a whole new generation of theatre goers to watch the show that inspired it. Powerful lyrics, great acting and an emotional and thought provoking topic make Rent one of the best loved musicals and now movies of all time.

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The story centres around young soprano ‘Christine Daae’ as she performs in the Paris Opera House, guided and mesmerised by a mysterious stranger who lives in the dark catacombs below the building, hiding his hideously disfigured face from the light of day and addressing himself only as ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. He soon unleashes a reign of terror onto the Theatre and its performers in a desperate attempt to keep his hold on Christine and stop her from falling in love with her childhood sweetheart ‘Raoul’.

Audiences were instantly enthralled by the shows beautiful and haunting soundtrack, with popular songs such as ‘Music of the night’ and ‘The phantom of the opera’ actually going on to be released into the charts in the UK in the late 80’s its popularity seemed to know no bounds. Her Majesty’s Theatre was full to the brim at every single performance and it is still classed as one of the most popular shows of all time to this very day. So much so that Andrew Lloyd Webber even agreed to director Joel Schumacher transforming the show into a big budget musical movie in 2004 with an all star cast such as Gerard Butler as The Phantom, Emmy Rossum as Christine, Miranda Richardson as Madam Giry, Patrick Wilson as Raoul and Minnie Driver as the Diva of the show ‘Carlotta’. The film was a huge success worldwide and helped to raise the profile of The Phantom of the Opera to a completely new status with movie lovers who had not seen the stage show booking up to attend to see the original for themselves. It managed to create exactly the right balance between remaining true to the stage show version for the die hard fans, whilst developing even further to add new dimensions to both the music and the various different scenes to make it a stand alone film which would leave its audience in awe. Early reviews of the film showed that both critics and viewers loved the way the movie had turned out and that it would almost certainly become a classic for many years to come.

The stage show itself continues to run worldwide in venues all over the UK, US and Europe. You can book tickets both online and from individual box offices. Make sure you catch this truly unique and beautiful show for yourself so that you may truly experience the magic of The Phantom of the Opera in all its glory.

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Wicked is a hugely popular musical Theatre show that first opened on Broadway on October 30th 2003. It starred some extremely talented celebrities including Idina Menzel (Rent – The movie) as Elphaba and Adam Garcia (Coyote Ugly) as Fiyero and Kristin Chenoweth as Glynda.

It tells the tale of the untold stories of the two witches Glinda the Good and The Wicked Witch of the West from L. Frank Baum’s ‘The wonderful Wizard of Oz’ and aims to show a completely different viewpoint of the Land of Oz before Dorothy arrived there from Kansas. The story explores the idea that the Elphaba (The Wicked Witch) was completely misconstrued and became the way she was due to being victimised after standing up to the Wizard’s untruthful and corrupt ways.

We witness how Glinda and Elphaba were once best friends and room mates at University and how their friendship slowly begins to buckle under the weight of various apposing viewpoints and the trials of best friends falling in love with the same boy.

Wicked is directed by Joe Mantello with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and has been nominated for ten Tony Awards including “Best Musical”. Idina Menzel won ‘Best Actress in a Musical’ for her performance as the green skinned Elphaba with the cast recording of the soundtrack winning a Grammy Award in 2005 for ‘Best Musical Show Album’, it later went platinum in 2006 due to the extreme popularity and interest in the show itself.

Wicked has become one of the highest grossing Musical shows of all time, playing to sell out audiences at every show on Broadway since it first opened.

The show become so popular it was decided that it should also run in London theatres and so the original stars of the show headed to the UK to reprise their roles on its opening night September 27th 2006. It was instantly a huge success in London, with critics and theatre goers raving about the special effects, soundtrack and fantastic performers. The role of Elphaba will be taken over by the British stage actress Kerry Ellis in January 2007 but it is thought that the show will continue to be just as successful and draw in even more crowds for the New Year.

There are plans to take the show to Japan and Germany in 2007 and it is rumoured there may even be productions appearing in Canada and Australia sometime in the near future.

The full musical soundtrack is one of the most magical and moving aspects of this show, providing just the right mix of classical sounding tracks with upbeat and perfectly fitting tunes. For those interested in the song tracks themselves the titles are as follows:

No One Mourns The Dead
Dear Old Shiz
Wizard And I
What Is This Feeling
Something Bad
Dancing Through Life
Popular
I’m Not That Girl
One Short Day
Sentimental Man
Defying Gravity
Thank Goodness
Wonderful
I’m Not That Girl
As Long As You’re Mine
No Good Deed
March Of The Witch Hunters
For Good
Finale

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Spamalot is a musical version of “Monty Python and the Holy Grail”. It had been a few years since I had seen the movie and I purposely did NOT watch ir before going to Spamalot.

The show was great ! Tim Curry, David Hyde Pierce and Hank Azaria were excellent but the real surprise was Sara Ramirez as the Lady of the Lake. Most people will now probably recognize Sarah from her current role on Grey’s Anatomy.

Sara Ramirez has an amazing voice. She won the 2005 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Featured Actress.

Here are a few pictures from the day.

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We sat in the very last row of the theater and the seats were just fine. Here is a picture from inside the theater taken with a cell phone camera. It looks worse than it was.

Here are some other pictures from the day. This a picture from outside the theater and the Avenue Q marquee.

This is Times Square. The center of the world.

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