Hairspray The Musical, Cardiff

Hey Kids,

A show and a half, Hairspray Live is all fun and games. I was a lucky boy last week as I got the chance to see it in the Millennium Centre, Cardiff. It was a Christmas present from my cousin who I live with so a special shout-out and thanks to you, Lucy!

Source: here.

Hairspray being one of my favourite musicals you can only imagine how excited I was to see the musical live in show - but according to my cousin I showed no excitement in my facial expressions at all. Not before, or during the performance. Resting bitch face problems!

I've seen the DVD a dozen times over and I can honestly say it is a great watch. Lucy knew I loved it so couldn't resist treating me to the renowned show. It was on a Saturday afternoon that we went. We got up nice and early for the train ride by which I mean 9.30am (such a drama queen) and then ahead of the show we had a cheeky three course meal at Zizzi's which was fab-u-lous before heading to the centre for the matinee performance.

When we got to the centre it was packed, people were everywhere in site. I didn't realise how popular the show actually was. I was hoping to have the luxury of not having people sit around me because I'm anti-people and although that didn't happen the two seats in front of me were empty so I got to put my feet up. Was lovely.

The show did all the famous songs you'd expect from the film including my favourite 'Welcome to the 60s' amongst others like 'Good Morning Baltimore' and much more. They even included an extra song or two that I'd never heard; one being from an added scene where Traci went to jail. Bless her. Overall the music was great and featured a live band on stage so was as lively as it could have been. The singing by the cast was on point and really got the audience energised. You couldn't help but sing along. Well I mimed because I'm a shy little boy.

Amongst the singing there was also a lot of dancing as you'd expect. It was a big'ol gay fest, I was in my element. The dancing however wasn't the main focus of the musical unlike the dialogue and singing. The dancing was pretty basic apart from the occasional flip that they threw in to jazz things up - but still was thoroughly enjoyable. How would I describe the dancing? I'd say it was cute.

Any standout scenes you ask? WELL they did have one cheeky scene and when I say cheeky, it was naughty. So you know the bit in the film where Seaweed rescues Penny from being tied up at a home and then they go into the song 'Without Love' -  well Seaweed basically started humping Penny in bed during this song. Totally not as PG as the film but was pretty fun LOL.

Honestly it was a great watch and I highly recommend going to see it if you haven't booked already. They're not in theatres for long so grab tickets whilst you can...and if there's actually any left. Fingers crossed.

Have you seen Hairspray the Musical? Tell. Me. All.

Liam

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Related links:
https://www.wmc.org.uk/Productions/2017-2018/DonaldGordonTheatre/Hairspray2017/

Night Time Music Playlist

Music is great, right? There's something for everyone. Music that makes you laugh; music that makes you cry; music that makes you dance and even music that helps you to chill out and even fall asleep. The latter applies best to me as I use music mostly to help me chill out, wind down and fall asleep to. Of course I love a cheeky boogie to music too though. But for the purpose of this post I'm going to give you my favourite songs to chill out and also fall asleep too. Maybe you'll find something you like or maybe you'll recognise some of these.

1. Skinny Love by Bon Iver

2. Holocene by Bon Iver

3. Candles by Daughter

4. Youth by Daughter

5. To Build a Home by The Cinematic Orchestra

6. Angels by The xx

7. Hey Now by London Grammar

8. Higher Love by James Vincent McMorrow

9. Naked as we came by Iron & Wine

10. Me by The 1975

A massive shoutout to Spotify for having such a wide diverse of music on offer. If it wasn't for me purchasing a subscription with them I wouldn't have come across some of these songs or found a passion for music. Kudos to them for helping me wind down.

Most of the songs I've listed are by mostly indie or alternative artists, but I've always found non-mainstream music artists to know a thing or two about the art of chilling out. Yes they often offer other music genres too but they always have a song or two in an album that makes you want to grab a cup of tea and curl up in bed to it. Am I right?

The artists I've listed are mainly modern and all apart from one or two are fairly well known which goes to show that you can still make great music no matter how famous you get. And as for the less well known artists like Iron & Wine and James Vincent McMorrow they both do a good job as independent music creators. Here's to great music!

What's your favourite songs to wind down to? Let me know below!

Liam

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Top 5 binge worthy TV shows on Netflix

Netflix: everyone's guilty pleasure. If you're happy, you watch it. If you're sad, you watch it. Maybe you're bored, maybe you're excited, whatever you're feeling Netflix has something to suit your mood and preferred genre. It's great, isn't it? A cheap subscription with lots of binge worthy TV that keeps you coming back. I personally L - O - V - E Netflix with all my heart, I even have it on in the background as I type this blog post right now #addicted. If you love it as much as me, read on as I tell you the top 5 binge-worthy TV shows to watch on it right now.

1. Once Upon a Time

The cheesiest most dramatic show but a great one that recreates the stories of fairy tale characters. If you're a Disney fanatic, you'll surely love this show as it tells the story of love and good vs evil with characters like Elsa, Snow White and Ariel making an appearance. And let's not forget Captain Hook and Prince Charming who are easy on the eyes who are enough of a reason to tune in.

Watch if you like: Disney films and fairy tales.

2. Sense 8

Sense 8 is a unique show that connects 8 less than ordinary men and women across the globe by making them fight for their lives. This team of 8 uncover new powers that connects each of their minds and skills to each other but a team of different people see these 8 people as high risk. A tense and very fast show. Perfect for anyone with a nerdy side to them.

Watch if you like: Travellers.

3. Grace and Frankie

A lighthearted comedy show that joins two couples in an adventure in America.

Two men, one that dated Grace and the other, Frankie end up divorcing these women for each other as they discover they are in fact gay. This complicated dynamic sees Grace and Frankie try to work out their new relationship with the men but also sees Grace and Frankie come together as partners in crime. A hilarious show best suited for those looking for something easy to watch.

Watch if you like: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt and You, Me, Her.

4. 13 Reasons Why

A daring show, one like no other that will have you making 'oo' and 'ah' noises every episode. Very dark, the show sees the aftermath a young girl named Hannah Baker makes after she commits suicide. By leaving tapes for people you see why and who caused Hannah to come to such drastic measures. Not for the faint hearted.

Watch if you like: Riverdale.

5. Riverdale

One for those that don't want to use many brain cells, Riverdale follows a town in their venture to uncover the murder of the town's high school football captain. Full of drama and scenes that make you go "NO WAY" Riverdale will have you gripped from episode 1.

Watch if you like: 90210 and 13 Reasons Why.

What are some of your favourite shows on Netflix right now?

Liam

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Beauty and the Beast 2017

The beloved Beauty and the Beast (*BATB) film stormed into cinemas yesterday but as a remake of the original 1991 animated Disney classic. The original film captivated audiences from around the world with many favouring it as their favourite Disney film, but how does the new remake compare? Well I went to go watch it yesterday morning, here's what I thought.

I can't claim the 1991 classic as being my favourite Disney film, but it's certainly in my top 5 so I had some expectation on what I was going to watch. I was a bit nervous on how the remake was going to perform. I had dozens of questions, like would the cgi of talking kitchenware look childish and how would Emma Watson perform as Belle? That's the problem with a remake; you never know if it's going to turn out good because nothing beats a classic, right? Then again, there has been films that have been much more enjoyable than the original like The Jungle Book remake of 2016 which I think was much better than the original. Controversial? Probably. It just goes to show that you never know what you're letting yourself in for. Presumptions and questions aside, I was pretty excited to go watch the remake of BATB.

Source: here.

So at 11.15 I sat myself down in the cinema with my falafel wrap and smoothie (yes that was really my choice of cinema food) and got ready for the film to begin. It began with huge amounts of colour and shots of the local village before diving straight into song and propelling me and the audience straight into it. I wasn't expecting such an exciting opening. I thought it was going to be good, but not great to the point my eyes were popping out of their sockets. There's nothing I love more than a film that captures an audience's attention as soon as it begins because that's a clear sign that the director is dying to enthral his viewers. And Bill Condon certainly did that. My attention was his from the moment I saw Emma Watson singing with the local villagers. But if you're thinking it was just in the beginning BATB had my attention and not throughout, you'd be wrong. Sure there was once or twice when I got distracted and was off-focus for about 10 seconds, but as soon as that happened the film found other ways to capture my attention. From the loud articulate beautiful voice of the gorgeous Luke Evans (Gaston) to the magical dance in the ballroom scene between Beauty and the Beast (which had incredible birds-eye view angles). There were all sorts of ways the film got me to continue watching.

What I particularly enjoyed was the humour throughout the showing. It was nothing like in the original animation. It was witty jokes and sarcastic comments which is certainly my type of humour, but maybe not of the target children audience. Strange that there would be so much adult humour in such a childish film, but I'm not complaining. It made me want to watch. It was really funny, the whole audience was laughing. Of course the best humour was from that of Gaston with him being a smug self-absorbed character, but all his jokes emphasised the kind of care-free person he was. Disney really captured his character, but also that of LeFou's character who had a much larger role than in the original film. Different to the original, LeFou's humour was very camp and flirty which was hilarious to watch because it was unexpected considering he was not made camp in the original.

Disney really experimented in this remake by changing the characters, from presenting LoFou as gay (presumably) to making Gaston more evil.  They almost exaggerated their personalities which made an interesting watch. Although this was mostly good, I found Belle's character a little disappointing. Sure, Watson played her part well and her singing was okay, but the one characteristic that lacked was her enthusiasm and happiness. I was questioning this throughout the film and found myself becoming annoyed at why she wasn't cracking a smile like Belle was constantly doing in the original. Maybe this doesn't sound like a major thing, but to me Belle's smile is important. It's who she is.

As for the houseware characters (Cogsworth, Lumiere etc) I was impressed to see how the CGI created them. It didn't look how do I put it, terrible. In fact, I was rather impressed with how well the talking chinaware looked. I would go watch this film just to see the CGI alone because it was that good and certainly the team deserves an applause for it. I'm normally not a fan of huge amounts of CGI in films because I feel it distracts from the movie and areas like acting and script can fail, but not in this movie. Everything was up to scratch.

So is the film worth going to see? 100%. No matter if you're a Disney person or not you'll enjoy this one. I saw children, mothers, couples, mums and sons, a group of boys, a group of girls, I could go on. Everyone was seeing it because it was so suited to all age groups and people. I've only seen it the once and I already want to go for round two! Highly recommend.

Watch the full trailer here:

What do you think of the remake?

Liam

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