Monday 26 September 2011

What a cabaret!

After three shows over the weekend with hardly a spare seat in the house I think that it's safe, and fair, to say that we gave a cracking performance which our audiences enjoyed. We had 180 seats available for presale, with only single figures remaining for the Friday evening and Saturday matinee performances and people queueing at the door for extra seats on the Saturday evening. Altogether back to our usual standards (and numbers) for our shows.
It was certainly a different experience performing on a stage that largely consisted of holes boarded over with planks around the back and white plaster dust coating every surface. And white dust certainly didn't go down well with our black costumes! Oops.
It was great to see the review that was posted on line very quickly by Belper people - you can find it on their website and I will add the weblink as soon as I can!
Mark did a great job of welcoming people to the show each time and his gold hard hat added a real touch of glamour to the building site. It was then a lovely touch for different company members to announce the numbers as we went through, starting with my introduction of Cabaret, Hey There, Every tear a mother cries and The Impossible Dream. If you'd like me to put the whole programme of numbers on here please add a comment and I'll pop it on.
If you came along to the show, please let us know what you enjoyed and how much fun you had - we may use all the nice things you say in our future publicity! And if you think that there's something we could do to improve, then please let us know that too.
Remember that Honk! the musical from our Junior group is running the weekend of the 25th/26th November. It would be lovely to pack out every show for them as well - they deserve the support.
For all those who came, once again a big thank you from everyone at Belper Musical Theatre. We all love to sing and perform and we're so glad that you came to join us.

Friday 23 September 2011

Hold tight - here we go!

Well after months of rehearsing, line learning music checking and practising we are ready to stand on the stage of the newly refitted Belper Theatre Hall and wow our audience!
Of course there's a slight chance that the 'newly refitted' description is a little bit ahead of its time, but everyone has assured us that the Theatre Hall will look fantastic when it's finished - and whoever heard of a builder finishing the job on schedule?
For those who haven't found it just yet you can see one of our last rehearsals at Strutts School here:



So, take a few moments to watch that, then come and see it live and kicking on the stage!
We have been absolutely amazed, and really pleased, at the response that we've had this time around on ticket sales. Our Friday night show is sold out and very few seats remain for advance bookings for either of our Saturday shows, so if you, or one of your friends, had wanted to come along, then they need to get to the door early and hope that there are spaces left - it quite takes us back to our final performance of the King and I when people were waiting in the hope that we would have last minute cancellations!
My advice would be to get ready to buy your CopaCabana tickets as quickly as you can, the best seats in the house really do go quickly.


Before I go, let me just say that everyone in BMT has worked so hard to make this a cracking show, we're looking forward to seeing you there and giving you a performance that you'll remember - for all the right reasons! See you later.

Monday 19 September 2011

The Sunday before the concert..

Sunday afternoon saw the company members coming together for a run through of the whole concert from start to finish, so that we could find those last little tweaks that we need to make in order to finesse the final product and really wow our audience.

And the really exciting part was that we had a photographer along to join us from Belper People. You can find their website at www.belperpeople.co.uk and you can find a selection of the photos that Darren took at http://www.belperpeople.co.uk/pictures/Belper-Musical-Theatre-rehearsing-Life-Cabaret/pictures-13354929-detail/pictures.html and even more at http://www.belperpeople.co.uk/pictures/Belper-Musical-Theatre-rehearsing-Life-Cabaret/pictures-13354923-detail/pictures.html.

Scarily enough there will be a couple of videos of us in action going on YouTube on Thursday evening, together with an article in Belper People - get the website stored in your favourites now and check back later this week.

Thankfully, having listened to us all, Darren was still enjoying what we did and he's looking forward to coming along on Friday evening, bagging his seat and watching it for real. We're sure that he will enjoy it as much as we will!

So this is it, the last week for you to be able to buy tickets, or to encourage other people to come along. We do have a few seats left. And my parents are travelling up from Birmingham - so make sure that you think about those in far flung and foreign places when you're calling folk up!

We'll see everyone again on Tuesday evening for our next full rehearsal (well except for me as I will be away with work again!).


Thursday 15 September 2011

How to buy a ticket!

I had a text message today from my Mum who is one of our very many stalwart fans and is already looking forward to coming along to our Autumn concert. The purpose of her text message was to ask me how she could find out how to get her tickets for the show.
I recognised then that the majority of the population wasn't likely to have our booking number listed in their favourite numbers of the phone and that it could be a good idea for me to make it easier for you. So here goes:
Firstly, you can look at our poster by  clicking your mouse on the title to the right that says "Life is a Cabaret - 2011".
This poster tells you our show times (7.30pm on Friday and Saturday evenings and 2.30pm on Saturday afternoon).
It also tells you that you can call Andrea on 01332 882909 and she will take your booking for you.
And it makes sure that you know it's being held at Belper School Hall, DE56 1RZ (postcode for your Tomtom etc)

If you know someone in the company, then you can also get your tickets by asking them very nicely to order them for you, and by giving them the appropriate sized cheque (prices on the poster, £6 concession, £8 full).

Finally make sure that you save this blog page as one of your favourites, so that you can keep coming back to find out what we're doing. It would be great if you could share your comments on the show as well. I'll keep all of the nice ones!

Saturday 10 September 2011

Excitement builds!

This month sees the motor behind BMT's autumn concert really crank up a gear. As well as the increased number of rehearsals putting the finesse into our performances, we're also getting our advertising boards in place, putting together the final programme for the event and making sure that everything is in place at the school.
This concert is going to one that begs you to sing along with practically every number as well as introducing you to some great new talent from Belper Junior Musical Theatre (they will be performing two of their numbers from their next musical production 'Honk!').
If you've not bought your tickets just yet, then download the flyer from the column on the right of this page and give Andrea a call.
If you have bought your tickets, then make sure you tell your neighbours to come along too. Not only will they thank you for a fantastic night out at a reasonable price, the bigger the audience is, the better the atmosphere will be and the louder you'll be able to sing along!

Thursday 1 September 2011

Copa, Copacabana....

It's amazing how a couple of fruit kebabs and a cup of pineapple and orange juice can make you feel like you really are in Havana, well ok may that is a slight exaggeration, but the delight on everyone's faces last night when we turned up to our "Copa Night" certainly got us off to a good start!

So let's set the scene, there we all are, eating, drinking and eagerly awaiting to hear all about the buzz of our latest company production and the audition parts available, with the Copacabana CD on in the background to get us in the mood!

As each part was explained - some with a little innuendo - you could see everyone's brains ticking over, deciding which part was ideal for them.

The interesting thing I found out about Copacabana as a production is that, as long as you have a mid-range of notes (you can sing) and you can make yourself look older or younger than you really are (you can apply make-up and wear different costumes) then every part is available for everyone! - There is even a part for someone who can't sing, ironic for a musical theatre production.

I feel that the audition panel will have their work cut out this year with all the talent we have in the company, I want to wish everyone good luck for whatever they are auditioning for - I'm sure that we will all have good fun being a part of the production whichever part we play!

Once again - Good Luck!