Susan Boyle I dreamed a dream musical review World premiere Newcastle Upon Tyne 23rd March 2012

Tonight I got offered the chance to attend the world premiere of the Susan Boyle musical I Dreamed a Dream. Newcastle was chosen as the location to start the UK tour of this production

Without giving too much away the musical follows the story taking a look back at Susan's life with Elaine C Smith (Susan) at the front both Narrating and playing her part in the story, through the lows at the start of her life through to the highs of becoming recognised due to Britains Got Talent and the fame, success and increased media attention that followed.

The story began with her parents being told not to expect much of Susan due to complications in the pregnancy and being starved of oxygen at birth, she was bullied at school for being different at the rest and was the only one in her class who had a talent and joined a choir.After singing in a Karaoke Bar, and following on from her parents death an opportunity came about to audition for Britains Got Talent an audition which would see the path of her life change. The Musical also showed the lows that susan faced after coming second, but then also showed her rise again recording her first album which was a bestseller.

At the end of the Story Elaine C Smith gave way and took a bow with the rest of the cast before the big moment where the Theatre erupted as Susan Boyle was introduced to the audience, the atmosphere was electric as she sang I Dream A Dream before the finale song of Who I was Born to be, an apt song to end the show with and was sang with so much emotion and had me welling up.

Fantastic production and I would well recommend it to anybody. There was even comedy and funny parts shown in the story (susan and Elaine making jokes as well as other BGT auditionnees being portrayed ( a bagpiper, a clown some examples)

National Television Awards and my trip to London

So where do I begin 

Well it all started on Wednesday 25^th January when I left the house and headed towards the train station in Newcastle. There had been an accident ahead of us causing a few tailbacks. Really didn’t think we were going to make the train at Newcastle central station, but by some miracle I don’t know how we just made the train with literally a second to spare.

Had a smooth journey down to London before heading down to the 02 as at 2pm they were going to start to hand wristbands out for people to go and stand on the red carpet to see the stars arrive. So we joined the queue at the 02 at 12:45 and got talking to some lovely young girls who are big fans of Caroline Flack. 2pm eventually came and we were led through to an area where there were barriers so we could queue up and wait for wristbands. Eventually got wristband at 15:15 so was able to go and check in at the hotel and leave our bags there before getting ready to go and get our place back in the queue at 4:30 so we could be taken out onto the red carpet. We were led out in numerical order and managed to get stood in a spot just past the end of the red carpet but could still see where the stars got photos taken as the photographers were in an area in front of us. 

Due to the location where we stood on the red carpet only a few of the stars came to our area to sign and have photos taken: Jack P Shepherd, Russell Cain, Chris Fountain and Michael Le Vell. At 7pm we decided it was time to head in the arena so we could take our seats. We were closer to the stage this year (went last year for the first time).  

Little Mix and Military Wives were fantastic performing live inside the arena, a great atmosphere.  Closest to where we were sitting the EE cast were sitting in front of us on the floor area of the 02. Loved every moment of the awards ceremony. After the awards had finished Jacqueline Jossa and Tony Discipline (Tyler and Lauren from EE) came round with her award and were kind enough to let people have photos taken with them (including me), Most of the stars just headed towards the exit at opposite side of arena so it was nice of a couple of them to come round to see some of the audience. After the awards we headed to the hotel for a nights sleep, my feet were in agony after wearing my boots and standing around for so long all night but it was worth it. 

On Thursday morning I went to the 02 to meet up with a twitter friend for the first time (@currentmartin) for a chat before heading into central London for sightseeing well wanted to take photos mainly so went to see London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace where we came across a man who is from Durham who had just been inside the palace getting an MBE. Then we went to Harrods to have a look at the crazy prices and saw the harry potter shop/exhibition that was inside it. Then headed to Bloomsbury where we went for afternoon tea (Christmas present from uncle). 

We had time to kill so we headed to Trafalgar square to take a picture of the Olympic countdown.

We then headed to the Cambridge Theatre via Leicester Square (which looks a mess as they are doing construction work to improve it). Arrived at theatre to see Matilda the Musical which was recommended by a friend on twitter (@sharonbarbour) would have never known about it if it wasn’t for her! Matilda the Musical is amazing and is a must see show. Great Cast and production, the young girl who played Matilda was so talented. Upon leaving the theatre we saw Miranda Hart and Sarah Hadland from her comedy.  We then headed back to the hotel for a good nights sleep.

A great trip to London was completed with a trip to platform 9 3/4 . 

Sarah Millican and Friends Work in Progress Tour

Hi Everybody HAPPY NEW YEAR and all the best wishes for 2012 to anyone reading this, I spent new year in Edinburgh and saw in the New Year recording a fantastic fireworks display please feel free to watch my footage Edinburgh Fireworks New Year 2012 Edinburgh Castle Sorry it has been a couple of months since i last posted I have had a great couple of months since my last blog One of my resolutions is to Blog/Vlog a bit more so I will try my best. Yes.. you read right Vlog- I am becoming a little more confident after each Youtube video I do though I am still finding it hard and not sure how i come across- positive comments mean a lot to me and I appreciate each comment I get! Here is a link to the video I recorded just before going to see Sarah Millican and Friends last night (2nd January) Sarah Millican and Friends Vlog.

I went to the new Stand Comedy Club in Newcastle to see a Sold out Sarah Millican and Friends Show. This show was a Work In Progress show where she tried out her new material ahead of her upcoming TV series  that she is about to film. Every moment of her comedy was fantastic and as I was sitting right in front of her on a few occassions through the show Sarah interacted with me- don't think she recognised me from when I was on stage with her in Edinburgh though which I totally expected. I am just so lucky that she interacted with me about 3 times during the whole show.

Sarah was supported during the evening by Mick Seargant, Andy Fury, Gary Delaney and Jonathan Mayer (hosted the evening)- all fantastic. 

Roll on April when I see Sarah on her new tour where she will have different material than she did last night (material from last night to be used in TV show)

Thanks as ever for reading and any blog/youtube comments are appeciated as ever

Next blog will no doubt be after my trip to TV Awards

Over and Out
Claire x