Ok, so I'm not the worlds best at writing reviews but here's what I can tell you about last nights
Come Dancing musical!I was especially excited about this concert for two main reasons -
1 - This would be the first time I'd ever seen it and I was mega excited about hearing new (to me anyway!) songs and of course, seeing Ray! I knew very little about the storyline, except that it was set in the 50s and was focused on dancing at the palias, and the life of one young girl.
2 - Believe it or not, I have never been to the theatre before!
We got there early and I was happy to see a lovely lady called Susan who I met at last years Kinks Konvention so it was nice to have a catch up with her
I met some other lovely people for the first time too, Olga, Jayne, Klare - to name a few! And Inakink was there - I recognised him and he said he'd have to drop by the board soon
Me and my friend Pete (who I went with) also met a lovely young American guy, Xray - who made a really kind gesture that that absolutely made our night (thankyou James!
)
We were lucky enough to have seats just one row back from the front and we had an amazing view of the stage!
I guess many of you already know the storyline, but the star of the show (as well as Ray!) was Ray's 'big sister' Julie (Natasha Barnes) and it begins with her getting ready to go dancing for the first time at the palias on her 18th birtday. Ray begins by introducing us to his fictional family - amongst the characters we are introduced to are Rose and Arthur (who you all already know about!)
I don't think I need to explain the whole plot but the main focus of the play is Julie, and one night at the palias that would change her life.
I LOVED everything about it! The songs were absolutely charming but knowing that Ray had penned them, I hadn't expected anything other then sheer brilliance - and I wasn't disappointed!
There were moments that made me laugh (Sid's exploits were especially amusing!
) and also moments that brought me to tears
particularly Hamilton and Julie's emotional song on the rooftop.
I really have no critisms whatsoever, Ray should be immensly proud of writing this musical, I felt proud for him.
I have to say that I was totally blown away by the acting, humour and by the many great singing voices that I heard last night. Julie in particular has such an amazing voice, and I thought she looked absolutely beautiful in her yellow dress.
Ray looked really smart in his navy pin-striped suit, shirt and red tie, and he seemed to be in good spirits
Everyone seemed to be really enjoying themselves and the atmosphere in the theatre was really special, it really was amazing!
It was really hard to take photos, my friend Pete was polite enough to take photos right at the end of the show (as was Susan who we sat next to) but this one usher was onto us straight away and warned us not to take any more pictures (of course we sneakily took a few more when he wasn't looking! ;D)
Oh, and I forgot to mention that YRGM and Tired Of Waiting were worked into the story - I gather from what I've heard from others that these songs weren't included in the 2008 version of Come Dancing.
Before I post some photos I just want to make something clear -
Please, please, please, could nobody from this forum, the Ray forum or anywhere else, re-post any of my photos without my permission! Thankyou!Credit has to go to my friend Pete for these great shots -
So afterwards a lot of fans hung around chatting, disussing the show, swapping stories, etc - and hoping to meet Ray!
After some time we saw him peeking around the stage door, but I reckon he must've felt a little overwhelmed by the crowd of people that had gathered as he quickly disappeared again. Many people left after that and over the next hour or so the crowd became considerably smaller. I reckon we waited around an hour and a half for Ray to reappear (btw, I noticed that he had changed into his trainers by this point! ;D)
I immediately felt very Startstruck (
) and although I desperately wanted to talk to him I felt incredebly shy. There were a lot of people hugging Ray, talking to him, getting stuff signed and posing for photographs so I tried to be patient and wait my turn.
Luckily Olga (thankyou Olga!
) kindly introduced me to Ray and said something like ' This young lady bought your old car Ray'. Ray genuinely looked quite suprised (and happy I thought) and asked if I meant his Mercedes. I said yes and told him that she was in the car-park nearby and that I was taking really good car of her. Ray signed a concert flyer for me and Pete asked if he would pose for a photo with me and he said yes
I stood right next to him but felt really shy and didn't really know what to do. But then Ray put his arm around me so I reckoned it would be ok for me to do the same. Now weirdly at this point I was thinking 'I really like the smell of Ray's aftershave, he smells very clean!' - funny what goes through your head in these situations!
I thanked Ray and then he walked a little further on and spoke to some other people.
We followed him and Pete waited for an oppurtunity to ask Ray a question. According to Pete he said something along the lines of 'Can I ask a strange request of you Ray? Can you sign my friends arm and let me take a photo of you doing it?'
So that's just what Ray did!
I think it was Susan who said something like 'Do it neatly Ray, she wants to get it tattooed!' So Ray looked at me and said 'Well you have my car, and now this, I guess you've got just about everything now haven't you?!'
And then Ray left and we all followed him out of the theatre and waved as he got into a little black taxi - and that was that!
Me and Pete had fun having a drink (or three!) in the bar afterwards with some of the fans, especially James and Susan who both had me in stitches!
So now I have the difficult task of trying to preserve Ray's signature on my arm until Wednesday, until I can get to a tattoo shop (yes, I seriously am going to get it done, besides, I told Ray I would so I can hardly back out now, can I!?) This proved difficult during the bath I had when I got home but somehow I've managed not to smudge it - so far!!
So to sum it up - last night was absolutely AMAZING! Thankyou Ray!
The only thing that would've made last night better would've been if my friends from this board could've all been there!
And if you're reading this James, please get in touch so I can foward you your Ray photos - I will
NOT post them here unless you'd like me to and give your permission.
Here are some more photos -
I think I was telling Ray about Lola in this photo!
Ray signing my flyer -
Me and Ray!
Ray signing my arm!
And Ray leaving
The getaway car!