When I first got the email inviting me to a Digital Press Night at Dirty Rotten Scoundrels I genuinely thought it was a wind up. Not only is this blog in it’s infancy but I always thought it would mainly be for my own amusement and didn’t think it would get much interest.
I delayed replying not least because life got in the way and it was only when I got a reminder that my interest was piqued. A quick query to the #LDNtheatrebloggers (the people in the know) and it was confirmed legit. I couldn’t believe it, not only was it a show I hadn’t seen but ‘I’ had been invited!
But that wasn’t all! Not only do I get to see a show but there was a chance to learn one of the dances from the show and a meet and greet with the cast afterwards. FANTASTIC! If it went well I could even tick off another of my #101in1001 – take part in a dance class!
On the train into London I was a mix of nerves and excitement. I only manage to get to the West End about once a month, and this month has seemed particularly long and I was in need of a West End fix and this was going to be a good one.
Arriving at the Savoy Theatre we were shown into the Mezzanine Bar where all the bloggers and press met. It wasn’t long before we were led onto the stage of the Savoy for our ‘Dance Lesson’ which was taken by the Associate Choreographer, Darren Carnall and Associate Director Dominic Shaw. I was a little nervous due to a pulled back I had been suffering from all week (due to my #101 challenges but more on those on a future blog) but i
t turned out to be fine and great fun. before long we were dancing like pros…..well, we can dream 🙂
We were then given a hat and were told to try rolling it of the top of our head onto our feet, I was thrilled to be given Robert Lindsay’s OWN hat from his Me and My Girl days. I have said before in this blog that ‘Me and My Girl’ with Robert Lindsay was my FIRST West End show and I have been pretty hooked ever since. This was an extra special treat, I was delighted!
The last exercise was a demonstration of a move that the character Jolene does, it involves being swung by 4 blokes – looked a lot of fun but when they asked for volunteers, I thought it may push my bad back too far, but they did get a couple of brave volunteers including the Wonderful West End Wilma. Fantastic, Respect!
You can see some of our antics here:
Video is courtesy of @via_jess22 check out her blog here
And then the show – and WOW what a show! You can read my blog about it here – I am still smiling.
It was back to the bar for pizza and drinks, not for me though, stuck on water ALL night (another brainless #101 challenge) – do I sound virtuous? I certainly hope so!
There were competitions too! We were asked to tweet a three word review about the show and also upload a vine about our own personal Dirty Rotten Lie. Very hard to do when there is no signal. I videoed my ‘lie’ and my friend and I came up with ‘Calculating Naughty Antics’ as our three words and that is where my sober night turned to my advantage we whizzed away from the bar and outside to tweet. My three words went through but HAH! My phone battery died as I was uploading the video! Phew my secret is still safe – just as well really, I didn’t fancy it going viral.
I was one of the WINNERS of the three word review competition, and won an extremely sexy Facebook T-Shirt, I just need an occasion to wear it now. Also in the booty was a Facebook bottle opener keyring. Result! That will come in very useful. I wonder what the video prize would have been….???? No, I am not thinking about it!
Winning the competition also blew my cover. Other Theatre Bloggers started to come over to say Hi. I guess I don’t look like my cartoon character avatar. They weren’t scary at all, they were all really lovely.
Finally after the amazing show we were all a-buzz and everyone was excited about meeting the cast. At this point I realise my limitations, I get very tongue tied and must admit even though most of the cast are half my age now, I get a little star struck, I never think of anything intelligent to say, however I thought I would be really brave and speak to Robert Lindsay (swoon), and I did! I waffled about his hat and Me and My Girl and forgot to say anything about Dirty Rotten Scoundrels at all! Luckily he was a perfect gentleman and didn’t let on that he knew I was a nervous wreck.
Rufus Hound was also at the ‘meet and greet’ and what a lovely person he is, I snatched a sneaky photo with him too. After which it was unfortunately time to cut and run, everything was still going strong but unfortunately there was a train to catch. I could have stayed all night.
I would like to thank Richard from www.laughingbuddhauk.com @laughingbuddha for hosting such a very special evening. I had a fabulous time and enjoyed myself immensely hopefully we’ll catch up again soon.
I’m jealous, this sounded like so much fun!
It was, I was so very lucky.