Catchup on last night

[karohemd]

The premiere of Cirque de Soleil's Alegria at Royal Albert Hall was utterly beautiful last night.
Many many thanks again to dreamsewingmiko for the ticket!

After taking an early train at 4:45, I just got to the RAH on time to pick up my ticket because I was a muppet and turned right instead of left coming out of South Kensington tube and then had to find the box office. Trundled in to find my seat (fourth row ringside, no less) and asked the lass sitting there if she was one of dreamsewingmiko's friends and indeed, it turned out to be ajva so we exchanged a few words about this and that and then lolliepopp turned up who knows faerierhona which again proves that you can't go anywhere without meeting someone who knows faerierhona. ;o)
Then I finally got to meet dreamsewingmiko who showed up just before the show started and joined us watching the performance.

The acrobatics were stunning (have a look at the link above for the lineup), the clowns entertaining (I got to throw a paper plane!) and the music and singing was very moving (I kept humming the theme last night on my home and this morning, too). A very good night out and I would recommend it to anyone. It's on until the 11th of February, so get your tickets!

After the show we met up with envoy (yay, another LJ friend finally met IRL) and jhg by the stage door and headed backstage (or rather downstage into the bowels of RAH) first into dreamsewingmiko's lair and then to the bar where some awful wine was served. *shudder*, one would have thought you'd get something better at such a prestigious venue, at least it was free. ;oÞ
We found out that royal guests (Prince William and his gf) had watched the premiere, too but hadn't come backstage. Booh. ;o)

Later we wandered to the Kensington Roof Gardens for the official secret After Show Party but there was just enough time for me to have a quick look around and say good-bye before I thought I had to leave so I could get back to Kings X in time. Obviously, I was far too early but had I left five minutes later, I would have been stuck in Kensington as there was a "passenger incident" which shut down the Circle Line and I got the last one...

I was still buzzing from the show so I watched the last bit of Jools Hollands' NYE thing and then two episodes of Monk on DVD until I finally went to bed.

Comments

[fractalgeek.livejournal.com]

When we saw the last run, we were in the balcony to one side of the stage. Not sure how much happened right at the back, as the staging covered much of our view to there

[the-mendicant.livejournal.com]

Well Robin, the boys and I were busy getting Kulcha at Saddlers Wells yesterday, seeing Matthew Bourne's production of Swan Lake. It was fantastic (well at least I thought so). Robin said it was fine, apart from the Swans!

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Aren't the swans sort of the point? ;o)

[feanelwa.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. I saw Alegria about five years ago and it was fantastic, though we were in the gods so we got blinded by lights every few minutes. I bought the music, it's at my mother's house somewhere.

But - you turned down the After Show Party? :o

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

I didn't want to but my original place of crash had fallen through and then I thought I could really do with a good night's (or at least long) sleep in my own bed.

[malkmark.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a fabulous evening's entertainment, Ozzy. Again, quite envious... 8-)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

When you see it live, you're much more aware of the scale of things and realise how high/far they actually jump and when you're reasonably close you see how hard they work, too and it's even more remarkable how effortless they make it look.

This was especially fascinating with the guy doing the hand balancing. Thanks to his remarkable physique (and skimpy costume), you could literally see which muscles he was using as he moved from position to position or just kept himself steady.

[uberredfraggle.livejournal.com]

Glad you enjoyed it. Really looking forward to thrusday. I need to prod dreamsewingmiko at some point about that. :)

[karohemd.livejournal.com]

Have fun and be prepared for eye-candy! ;o)

[uberredfraggle.livejournal.com]

Rar! Shame I'll have to keep quiet as I'm going with my mum but I can gossip with someone after. :)