We set off from school (on a very packed coach!) just after 10am on Saturday morning and, after a very long break at a service station, sitting in lots of traffic and getting very excited when driving past North Gower Street (which is where Sherlock is filmed!), arrived at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London's West End at 2:15pm. Excitedly we made our way off the coach and piled into the theatre just in time for the 2:30pm matinee show.
The show overall was rather similar to 'Hairspray' but less cheesy and over the top! The cast were absolutely amazing (especially Beverley damn that girl can sing!) the songs were fantastic and one in particular made two of my teachers actually cry because it carried such a powerful message. The show was stunning from start to finish and I highly recommend it!
After the many standing ovations we all grouped back together and sat down in the theatre as we would be meeting Beverley Knight once she had got changed! Whilst we were waiting a very lovely man who worked on the show (I think he was the director?) talked to us, took any questions we had and even let us go on stage! After about fifteen minutes Beverley arrived in her hoodie and jeans and started talking to us all and expressed that she was sorry that she couldn't make it to 'Hairspray' and also told us that she had been looking forward to us coming to see her for ages! Someone decided that we should start singing 'You Can't Stop The Beat' and we all spontaneously broke out into song and dance on the stage (it was a bit cringey, I'm not going to lie haha) and Beverley said that she was glad she got to see a little taster of the show. Before we knew it, it was time to leave so we had a group picture with Beverley and she thanked us all for coming to see her and said that if we ever want to come again just to let her know!
Here are few pictures I took:
So to summarise my thoughts from this trip:
- Beverley Knight is an actual angel
- I really want to live in London
- I love the West End to pieces
- Memphis The Musical is really amazing
- Oxford Street is really confusing
- London is still my favourite UK city
xx Beth xx
