Review: No One Mourns the Wicked!

On Thursday night I went to see Wicked at Leeds Grand Theatre, after having tickets booked for over a year. I had been looking forward to the show for the past couple of weeks, and downloaded the Broadway soundtrack, listening to it on loop pretty much every day. For me, Idina Menzel is the queen of musical theatre, and I was worried that I would be disappointed with the cast currently touring the UK & Ireland.

I'm thrilled to say that I wasn't disappointed. The show was every bit as magical and wonderful as the Broadway cast made it. I found myself wanting to sing along to almost ever single song but I can't imagine that would have gone down too well with those around me who weren't my friends! Our Elphaba was Nikki Davis-Jones, who was absolutely amazing, with a killer voice to belt out every song that she was part of. I would say she was definitely on par with Idina Menzel, and I couldn't wait for the scenes involving her simply because she was so fantastic. Our Glinda was Emily Tierney, who was, again, amazing and perfectly peppy and sweet as Glinda and Galinda. It goes without saying that the rest of the cast were wonderful as well, and a well deserved standing ovation was given at the end of the performance. 

I spent a while staring at the merchandise table before going in and I do wish I had bought something to remember the show by, however I am almost certain that I'll be going back again at some point. I did get a house program though (pictured above). If I had enough money right now I would book another ticket before the current cast leaves Leeds on July 2nd :)

As you can imagine I have been listening to the soundtrack non-stop since Thursday, and singing along rather loudly - apologies to my neighbours! I'm pretty sure that my friend Emily has been doing the same too :) 

I would highly recommend that you book tickets to see this current tour of Wicked. Leeds is the first stop on the tour, and I believe Birmingham, Liverpool and Southampton are next on the list, amongst many others, but you can find out more information by checking out the Official Wicked UK Tour website.

Stay Wicked! c:

~ C xxx

Book Review: From One Fangirl to Another

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 “In new situations, all the trickiest rules are the ones nobody bothers to explain to you. (And the ones you can't Google.)”

It was really hard for me to pick out a quote to start this off with, mainly because there were so many lines from Rainbow Rowell's Fangirl that stuck with me. Like many people who read this book, I really identified with Cath, our main character. In today's Tumblr oriented world, I found it so easy to relate to her and the way that she obsesses so heavily over Simon and Baz, going so far as to construct her own version of their world herself online. I won't go into too much detail about the plot or give anything away because I don't want to spoil it for those of you who'd like to read it. I just want to say that I wholeheartedly recommend this book. 

After a long, long time of picking up books and setting them straight down again, Fangirl has been the first book that has hooked me from the start. I first saw it advertised in the train station on my way to and from work, and the title was the thing that struck me initially. Having been on Tumblr myself for about four years now, I'm well accustomed to the language of the website, and I was really intrigued to find out if this Fangirl was the same sort of fangirl that I had in mind. I decided to google the author, and found that she has written three other books; Eleanor and Park, Attachments and Landline. Curiosity finally got the better of me, so I went out and bought Fangirl :)

As I mentioned before, I felt such a connection with Cath. And I'm not ashamed to admit that I fell a tiny bit (okay, a lot) in love with Levi. The story reminded me of when I first started university, and how hard I first found the transition from living at home to living completely independently, and most of the time I did what Cath does - stayed cooped up in my room. 

I can do nothing but praise Rainbow Rowell for the characters she has created in this book. Each and every one of them occupied their own little space in my mind as I flicked through the pages, and all have such strong and distinctive voices. I felt such conflict while I was reading; half of me desperately wanted to finish the book, and the other half was desperate for it never to end! If you ask me, that's a sign of a brilliant book.

I've already moved on to another of Rainbow's books, Eleanor and Park, so I'll probably be fangirling about Rainbow herself in a post sometime soon. I'm thoroughly enjoying her writing at the moment and I suggest that you all get your hands on a copy of Fangirl and devour it like I did.

As always, any questions and comments are welcome! What are you reading at the moment? Have you read any of Rainbow Rowell's other books? Let me know your thoughts. 

~ C xxx