ptwest

I kind of think of Lloyd Webber now in the same way as an ageing rock group - new albums come every so often, the fan base buy them to get a good initial sale, but then the sales drop quickly, rather than the mega sales of earlier in their career. It's become the same with ALW musicals now. Perhaps if he stops trying to go for the blockbuster this might make his work more interesting.

I always make group bookings, and to be honest, this has been a hard sell. Where I normally average 40 - 50 tickets (ie have 50 people seeing Priscilla in Manchester next week), I only managed 10 for Wicked. It seems that all who are interested have already been to see this in London. I've no doubt ticket sales will take off nearer the time but it would seem like the initial popularity has been over estimated.

This goes back to the point I made a few pages back - a Spice Girls show should be frothy, frivolous and OTT, rather like the songs and group themselves. The songs are not weighty enough to carry a deep story - and any show that is forced down the line of album tracks and solo hits to fill out the evening is in trouble unless you have a huge back catalogue of great songs to choose from. I wonder how many Spice Girls fans these days listen to the third album or get beyond the singles on the first two?

Admittedly I have not seen the show, but from everything I have read there would have been more fun, drama and story if they had simply told the Spice Girls Story. You've got the struggle to be famous, big success, fall outs, break ups, then the big happy ending (so long as the story stops with the reunion!). Still would probably be cack but at least be entertaining along the way...

A static performance on a tv show is never going to have the same impact as the full staging, but having just watched the clip from the Jonathan Ross show just confirms how great the 1996 recording is!

Lionel Blair at Throughly Modern Millie, (gave Amanda Holden a big wave at the end!) and sat behind Helen Worth at the Mamma Mia 10th anniversary performance. I suppose Bjorn and Benny at the same performance is cheating a little......

The one that always comes to mind is Cats -  how the hell it ran for so long is beyond me.