Its Panto time again!

It's that time of the year again when we take the family to Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre to see the annual Pantomime... oh not it's not, oh yes it is...

This year it is Peter Pan and unfortunately Jimmy Osmond, who was playing Captain Hook, suffered a stroke on 27th December and was rushed to hospital, where he received lots of care and was well looked after.  Darren Day, one of my favourite entertainers from my teenage years, stepped into the role and done a great job.  Lots of ad-libbing and poking fun at each other by the cast, a really fun and enjoyable night out.

Wicked!!

Just got back from an evening out at Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre to see Wicked.  This kids had no idea where we were going until we parked up and started walking towards the theatre, or what we were going to see.  We kept it a big big surprise.

I have to say that this show is absolutely amazing with some fabulously colourful and creative costumes.  It stars Amy Ross as Elphaba, Helen Woolf as Glinda, Adam Sidwell (Steven Beale from Eastenders) as Fiyero, Kim Ismay (Claudia from Not Going Out) as Madame Morrible, Steven Pinder (Max Farnham from Brookside) as The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and Doctor Dillamond, Emily Shaw as Nessarose and Iddon Jones as Boq.

If it comes to a theatre near you, try to go and see it, you won't be disappointed.

Cinderella!!!!!!!

Took the family to see Cinderella at Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre this evening.  This year it stars Matt Slack (as usual) playing Buttons, Beverley Knight as The Fairy Godmother in her first ever Panto, Danny Mac as Prince Charming, Suzanne Shaw as Cinderella, Ceri Dupree and David Dale as The Ugly Sisters, Gary Watson as Dandini and Robin Colvill and James Brandon from The Grumbleweeds, which is now no longer a 5 member group as I remember them in 70's and 80's and only consists of original member Robin and new boy James who joined in 2013.

It was great night with Matt acting the fool as always, a fair bit of ad-libbing and giggling by cast members and audience interaction.  Looking forward to next year's Panto now.

Billy Elliott The Musical at Birmingham Hippodrome Theatre

As a family we love going to the theatre to watch shows, especially musicals and Pantomimes when we can afford to do so.  We're not really into the heavy theatrical plays.

We saw that Billy Elliott was coming to one of our local theatres and decided to book tickets, even though we had a bit of doubt about our youngest seeing it due to the amount of swearing in it as she is only 10 years old, but we're really glad that we did.

Everyone enjoyed themselves and it was a local lad, Lewis Smallman, playing the role of Billy on the night we went to see it.  An amazing show that I would definitely go see again in the future.  Many apologies for the terrible photo of me with the show programme, it was very late when we got back in so this photo was taken just after midnight and at least you only have to look at half of my face.