College Productions

Thoroughly enjoyed LJ this afternoon and have booked same seat for GPB in 3 weeks time. Again they they are charging £8 less for seats at the two weekday matinees.

I'd never heard of Bird College and also can find no way of booking their shows. I'm going to phone on Monday and will report back.If only college and university productions weren't so difficult to find out about and, in this case, book ; I guess they aren't really aimed at the general public but they are invariably professional standard.

i did find the first half a bit repetitive but the cast carried it, especially the two female leads, and I was thoroughly entertained for a couple of hours which is all I ever want from a musical.

I managed to see both casts for LJ (mostly due to this being a local venue to me and also because I expect this will rarely ever be produced).

The production was excellent as is usually the case with ArtsEd and this could easily transfer straight into a professional venue. The musical itself has all the hallmarks of one of those sleeper hit teen musicals (Heathers etc) but it doesn't quite work for me. I think the problem is how it presents all high school girls as being desperate for sex, which rather goes against the whole female empowerment vibe.

I also thought they very cleverly avoided showing any basketball being played. The very athletic cast were not demonstrating the greatest ball skills (although that could be part of the plot).

There are some catchy songs and this is a snappy 2 hours 15 minutes in one of the nicest theatre spaces in London. There are a lot of jokes and topical references, many of them which must have been added since the Broadway production, but they don't hit home for the UK audience.

One of the most interesting parts to me was seeing how both sets of leads were so different. Typically, a professional production has covers who look like the leads and perform things in a similar way. In this case, the two casts were very different, different ethnicities in many cases, different looks and vocal styles and there some staging changes. I don't want to pick out one cast over the other as both were excellent, just different. I did enjoy the show more the second time I saw it, but that may also be due to familiarity.

Funny note on the overheard conversations was that one of the cast had warned her mum that the show was terrible (it wasn't terrible and the mum didn't think so either - but I'm not sure it's the kind of show I'd want to invite my family to). I also had who I assume was Djavan's van de Fliert's boyfriend sat a few seats away one night, who got very loud and excited every time Djavan was on (most noticeable as he was the only person in the audience to do this, although I thought Djavan played the fun geek role well and would an excellent Jamie). I must also mention that Charis Alexandra's voice was sublime.

I wouldn't be surprised if we see more productions of this from student groups as it's very much age appropriate. I look forward to seeing GPB in a few weeks time.

I just phoned Bird College and spoke to a very nice lady who explained that theirs is a very small theatre so the shows are restricted to family, friends and I'm guessing industry personnel. I explained about this Forum and she read your post as we were speaking. She kindly took my email address in case any seats do become available for the public.  I said that alternatively she could join and make a post here.

Of course. I'll post it here if I have permission to do so or send a private message if I don't. They're the same three shows I'd book.

Hunchback and Bare are two of my favourites! I'm glad they're being performed, even if the public can't book :')

I just checked and Legally Blonde is actually already sold out for all of their evening shows + their Saturday matinee!

I saw Ally as Bobby and thought he was really good too. Thoroughly enjoyed that entire production!

Footloose and Carrie are now on sale, Cry Baby not yet. Seating is unreserved.

It’s quite common for Legally Blonde at the moment it would seem!

Saw a brilliant production of Legally Blonde at Urdang earlier this week. Full of feelgood and brilliantly performed

I would definitely have booked that had I been aware. Both performances tomorrow are sold out.