erm... hi

Well this blogging thing lasted long didn't it? Here's a list of what I've been up to since my last post:

• Port at the National
• The Captain of Kopenick at the National
• Table at the National (my last entry pass ticket *sob*)
• Idina Menzel & friends at the Hackney Empire for BBC Radio 2's Friday Night is Music Night. She reminded me why she reserves the biggest space in my fangirl heart.
• Beyonce at the LG Arena. She was great and I really enjoyed her show (but still preferred Gaga's Born this Way Ball)
• In non theatre/show news my best friend brought her second child and a darling little girl into the world and asked me to be god parent so that's pretty exciting.

Coming up in May I am turning 26 (I'm going to be in my late twenties *more sobbing*), visiting Dublin for the first time and seeing Book of Mormon so more posts to come (maybe).

January Glossybox review

Obviously it's already February and so I'm a bit late with this one but I signed up only a week or so ago for three months to see how much use I get out of them and also I wanted to try out the products before writing a post. Now everyone who knows me knows I'm not the most beauty/fashion savvy so dipping my toes in the beauty bloggers territory is a little bit daunting but here I go. This month I received:

Monu Micro Exfolioant

I used this Friday evening when I got in from work. The past few months I've become a fully fledged Liz Earle devotee and it's going to be hard for a product to beat the legendary hot cloth cleanser for me. Upon applying this it felt much more rough than I expected and as I have sensitive skin probably too rough for me. I'll probably give it a go once a week to see how I continue to get on, my skin did look fully cleansed after but I don't feel it reduced the appearance of pores and fine lines at all.

Jason Lips Bee Healthier

I've tried this a couple of times now, after removing the lid the first thing I notice is a strong peppermint smell which surprised me since on the label it mentions "aloe & beeswax" and peppermint is quite far down the ingredients list but it's not an unpleasant smell. The texture of this feels quite hard when I'm applying it but it does leave my lips feeling nice and moisturised. Again though I'm currently devoted to my coconut flavoured Balmi so I don't think this is quite good enough to replace that. 

Premae Skincare Balance Rescue Face Tonique

Immediately I thought the packaging for this looked kinda cheap, like anyone can get a travel size bottle and print a label off for it. This is suppose to be applied after cleansing but I only have Boots Tea Tree & Witch Hazel cleanser & toner so I had to use it after that. This is made for combination skin and I definitely thought it mattified my skin but I'll have to give it a few more tries before seeing if it does leave my skin fresh and plump.

Sanctuary Spa Active Reverse Thermal Transformation Mask

This is a two step mask that's suppose to dramatically improve your skin the same way cosmetic injections would. The first step is a serum so it's a light and clear liquid and then you apply the second step which is thermal rose clay to generate a warming effect. After the first use the skin is supposed to look brighter and tauter, I do think my skin does look a little more firmer but I'm not sure if I'm fully sold. The price is the main thing that is putting me up trying the full size product so it's something I might keep my eye out for in case any special offers pop up for it, especially as I currently very rarely use face masks so maybe it's something I do need to get into the routine of doing.

Paul Mitchell Lavender Mint Moisturising Conditioner

This one is obviously a pretty straight product. The smell of the lavender and mint together is lush, it applied nicely to my hair and washed off leaving it feeling lovely and fresh. After I've washed my hair I towel dry and then leave it to dry naturally, no combing or anything. So this morning I was able to brush my hair easily and I think it has been left in a pretty good conditioner. I look forward to continuing to use this one.

Review: Kiss Me, Kate - The Old Vic

Get into London Theatre offer big shows at small prices, I've know about them for a few years now and never actually got round to booking shows through them until this year. Most of the shows do seem to only have tickets available Monday-Friday which is a bit of a pain when you don't live in London but luckily Kiss Me, Kate had some Saturday shows on there and you can't beat a good half price ticket. 

Now I'll readily admit that I'm a complete seat snob in theatres and rarely sit up in the gods and I'm trying to get used to it as when I turn 26 I apparently lose all entitlement to being a "young person." So my ticket at just £15 was in the Lilian Baylis circle (as pictured above) and I wonder if this played a part in my enjoyment (or rather lack of) of the show because I just felt so disjointed and far away. The audience's irritating behaviour also did not help, I'll forgive any fidgeting as I probably was just as bad myself with the uncomfortable seats but the constant mutter of comments, crackling of plastic water bottles, noses being blown and my chair being kicked was so distracting.

The show features a show within a show as we see a theatre company putting on a musical version of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew but things are complicated when the leads Lilli Vanessi playing Katherine (Hannah Waddingham) and Fred Graham playing Petruchio (Alex Bourne) are ex-lovers. Things take a turn for the worst when Bill (Adam Garcia) racks up a gambling debt of $10,000 and signs a IOU in Fred's name prompting two gangsters to turn up to collect it during the show. Obviously it's an old fashioned musical and has a lot of long talking scenes and with the mixture of being so far away and surrounded by an irritating audience it was hard to keep concentration during them. I also can't say I was too comfortable about the ongoing joke that Fred had beat Lilli so hard that she was in constant pain.

This isn't the first show I've had the pleasure of seeing Hannah Waddingham in and she deservedly stills the limelight yet again. I also enjoyed seeing Adam Garcia on stage again as well as Clive Rowe as one of the gangsters. The ensemble were also wonderful to watch in their big numbers such as "Too Darn Hot." I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this show as much as I was expecting but I didn't hate it either, for me it was just ok. 

Something's coming, something good

I have really been slacking with this blog, I was suppose to be off to see Taboo a couple of weeks ago  but then the snow came and shat all over that plan so I couldn't review that and then I've just been procrastinating and not watching all the movies that I planned to.

Anyway today's post is brought to you by the excitement of Broadway since we seem to be getting a lot of it coming to London this year. New York City is my absolute favourite city in the world, I've been lucky enough to visit twice but sadly haven't been for a good 7 years. Needless to say with a love of NYC comes a great love of Broadway.

Next month I'll be seeing Sherie Rene Scott at the Matcham Room, Hippodrome, I don't have tickets yet but am hoping to see A Chorus Line and Once at some point during February and March, I do have a ticket booked for The Book of Mormon in May and I'm also hoping to get a ticket to see Patti LuPone in June. Most, if not all, these shows I've seen come and go on the other side of the pond the last few years and now I'm rather excited that I get a chance to see them for myself.

Also yesterday the National announced their next season which also sounds incredibly, particularly the Tori Amos musical The Light Princess and the Simon Russell Beale/Sam Mendes King Lear. Unfortunately for me my entry pass membership expires when I turn 26 in May so no more amazing £5 tickets, here's hoping there are plenty £12 Travelex tickets to go around!

Silent Sunday

Review: Les Miserables

It's going to be quite hard to write this review without completely gushing, we're only in January and I think I may have already found my favourite film of the year. Les Miserables based on the stage show by Schonberg & Boublil follows Jean Valjean through decades as he's being hunted by policeman Javert. I saw the show in London a few years ago now and enjoyed it but was never a mega fan and I think that's the best way to see the film because from what I've seen online the mega fans are going to be more nit picky over the film.

Being a self confessed musical nerd, it's an exciting time anytime a show gets a big screen adaption and I think Les Mis is a particularly good one for showing all the people who can't stand them that they're not all cheese and jazz hands. That said if you're expecting to see some perfect belting singing then you will be disappointed, this film is all about the raw emotion of the characters and this was perfectly filmed with extreme close ups by Tom Hooper. I also think the live singing works well with this rather than having the actors mime to pre recorded vocals. 

The cast are all brilliant and I personally enjoyed playing spot the West End actor with all their cameos. In terms of the lead cast, Anne Hathaway is fantastic and she will be robbed if she doesn't win the Oscar for this performance. I also enjoyed performances by Hugh Jackman, Samantha Barks and yes although Russell Crowe cannot sing I think his Javert works well for this adaption. I left the cinema immediately wanting to watch it again and am hopefully going again next Sunday to see it in IMAX.

Award season

Only 10 days into 2013 and we're well into award season already. The BAFTA nominations were announced yesterday and the full list can be seen here, the Oscar nominations were announced today and can be seen here and finally the BRIT awards were announced this evening and can be found here.

Every year when we get the film based awards I realise how behind I am in seeing the latest films, I'm trying to make it up this year though and at the end of the month I'm going to take out a Cineworld card and try and see as much as possible. I'm very much looking forward to seeing Les Miserables tomorrow night and you can expect a review on it as I enjoyed seeing the show on stage a few years ago. I've also just seen the trailer for Lincoln the first time this evening and since that seems to be sweeping the nominations I'll have to get myself to that at some point too.

Looking at the BRIT awards I can't say I'm too enthusiastic about the list of nominees, I have to admit I am biased towards my favourite musical artists so when they aren't featured I'm not too fussed. We still don't have a release date for Lady Gaga's ARTPOP this year and I'm not sure if Florence's Ceremonials qualifies, if it does then it's an outrage they've only received one nomination. Emeli Sande leads the way with the most nominations and I think I'm one of the few who isn't bored of her and I've kept meaning to check out Paloma Faith's new album and seeing it nominated will give me the push to do that.

What does everyone else think of the nominees? Are there any films or music I MUST check out?