Half a Sixpence got the number 9 spot in my Top 10 Shows of 2016 and a glowing 4 star review back when I saw it on press night so I was extremely excited when I was invited to a special bloggers event to see it again.
The event was held at the Noel Coward Theatre for a number of bloggers, vloggers and stagey people. I saw some familiar faces as well as meeting some new people and it was a really lovely opportunity to spread the theatre love. We started off by having a talk from the charming, witty, supremely talented and just generally lovely Charlie Stemp who told us all about his audition process for the role of Arthur Kipps, the transfer from Chichester to London, his journey learning to play his banjo Babs and all about his new rockery!
After that we were taken up onto the stage where we were taught a section of the "Flash Bang Wallop" dance by dance captain, Jaye Juliette Elster. The section we learnt was only ten seconds long but we all had an absolute laugh prancing around pretending we were in the show. I for one will be using the choreography as my party trick from now on!
Once our little boogie was over, we went for another Q&A/chat with some more of the cast: Charlie Stemp, Emma Williams, Bethany Huckle, Sam O'Rourke and Jaye Juliette Elster. They are all such lovely warm people and it's evident from hearing them speak, how much they love the show and being a part of it. Particularly funny were the anecdotes of onstage mishaps such as when the revolves broke in Chichester and when the bike got stuck on stage in the finale and the cast had to cleverly force it off whilst still smiling and waving as if nothing was wrong! The cast are so warm and genuine and it was just lovely seeing them laughing and loving what they do and it certainly shows on stage with spades of enjoyment and energy flying around from start to finish.We then left the cast to warm up for the show and made our way to the bar for some pre-show drinks and Instagram selfies (here's my stagey insta!) The show was wonderfully joyous and uplifting and even better than I remembered it. My views are pretty the same as before so I won't bore you with another review where I repeat but you can see my original one here. To sum up the show I would say that it's full of life, heart and love and provides a perfect treat to leave you feeling content and warm inside.
When the show was finished and we were all on a stagey high, we were given a backstage tour which was wonderful and a very exciting opportunity to see the props and sets close up. I filmed some clips of the stage and dressing room which will all be in my vlog which will be posted on: https://www.youtube.com/rewritethisstory It was incredibly interesting to see everything close up and see how much work goes in backstage to create such a flawless performance for the audiences night after night.
We all parted ways feeling like we could jump for joy and sing all the way home!
If you haven't seen Half a Sixpence already I really implore you to hop down to the Noel Coward Theatre and see it in all its glory! It's currently booking until 2 September 2017 with tickets available at www.halfasixpence.co.uk
