OPINION: Grease The Musical (2017)

Before I get into this post, I sincerely hope anyone who reads this has watched Grease, and if not, W H Y? Grease is one of THE best musicals ever, long before Zac Efron had even graced this world with his presence, it is basically the 70's version of High School Musical, with an incredible cast of John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John where we follow the journey of The Pink Ladies and T-Birds through high school who face tough decisions in their final year and summer lovers Danny and Sandy and whether they will rekindle their romance now Sandy has joined Rydell High. Now, anyone who knows me realise how much I love everything about this musical; the story, the fashion, the songs and even to this day when a DJ goes into his cheesy playlist, I am there on the dancefloor doing my best Sandy impression. 

Just going to casually insert of picture of me and my family as Pink Ladies and T-Birds for my Dad's 60th ...

Even if you haven't watched the film, there is no doubt you know Greased Lightning, You're The One That I Want (ooh ooh ooh honey) or Summer Nights. 

Okay, so I rambled on enough about my love, we can establish my excitement when I found out they were revamping the theatre show and touring this year and coming to Plymouth! Not only that, the teenage love of my life, Tom Parker (from The Wanted if you didn't know) was cast as Danny Zuko so, no brainer right? I HAD to go!

When we got into the theatre I was a little apprehensive, understandably I had very high expectations of the show as I'm sure did the whole audience, there's an enormous amount of pressure to pull off such an iconic musical and ensure it's relevant for this century but I assure you, it didn't disappoint once I got over some of their American accents. 

Alongside Tom, Danielle Hope (who previously played Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz) portrayed Sandy amazingly and with an effortless vocal performance to match. Eastenders' Louisa Lytton also joined them as Pink Lady leader Rizzo, bringing to the stage the right amount of sassiness that we all know and love from the character.

From the get-go, the whole theatre was filled with laughter, applause and singing, even when there was an unfortunate technical hitch that brought the show to a halt in the first half, but true to the saying, The Show Must Go On, and it did and the cast were greeted back on stage with a massive reaction from the audience. 

Overall it was a spectacular performance, Tom and Danielle retelling the far-from-perfect love story of Danny and Sandy with ease and powerful chemistry throughout, the whole production of light and sound were outstanding which really brought the show to life, and the whole cast just go together seamlessly with good comedic timing and really engaging with the audience. It really has done the original justice. 

Now I'm off to watch the film for the 1000th time.

2015; The Year Of Memories

A couple of months ago, I decided I really wanted to own a photo album with memories of this past year. Lurking around my house are many photo albums from when I was younger, my siblings were younger and my parents were younger but with the new technology of Instagram, Facebook etc. owning a photo album with physical photos is unheard of. I know the trend of Polaroids are back in but I don't think anything beats flicking through an album.

You might be surprised that you literally cannot purchase a photo album ANYWHERE, unless its a wedding album or another occassion, there are just photo frames everywhere which was so frustrating so in the end was forced to find one online and I fell in love with this. 

I got it for around £5 on Ebay and it's perfect. It holds 200 photos, has lines to write captions/memories beside each photo and the cover is so pretty. My only qualm (i like that word) is that you can only put in your photos horizontal, meaning my selfies are sideways but I suppose it's the memory that counts!

I spent quite a bit of time out of Plymouth this year as well as spending time with my friends and working; I went to Cardiff for the X Factor tour with my sister, I made monthly trips to London with my good friend Charlotte before taking my mum on her first proper trip there in August (the original time we were stuck in a coach station all night because we missed the last bus) and I met up with very talented people along the way who I become very close with (some more than others) ... 

ANYWAY, this book is full of my favourite moments of these past 2 years that I can keep forever and look back on as well as adding more memories to come. It also shows how myself and alot of other things have changed already but I will always have those moments with me.

Courtesy of The Wanted and my favourite song;

The Memory Of Being Here With You, Is One I'm Gonna Take My Life Through, Cause Some Days Stay Gold Forever.

Katie x