Musical Mixtape | Walker Theatre

What a treat Musical Mixtape was! I've seen a few of Chris and Lucy Key's shows previously but this year they were joined by Les Miserables alumni Carrie Hope Fletcher and Rob Houchen along with students from their theatre school, Key Theatre Academy. Now I've seen countless musical variety concerts over the years but I have to say I think this was my favourite. The choice of songs was brilliant, with some classics from Carousel all the way up to some very modern shows including Waitress and Hamilton. What I also enjoyed was how unusual the songs were. You often find the same big hits from shows being performed over and over again so it was refreshing to hear some lesser known numbers sung by some truly amazing musical talents.

The Sound of Musicals | UK Tour | Symphony Hall

Last night my Mum and I took our annual visit over to Symphony Hall in Birmingham to see The Sound of Musicals, a concert with the Manchester Concert Orchestra and four West End singers featuring songs from a variety of shows. I've lost count of how many times we've been to see this particular show but I do know that this is Kerry Ellis' (star of Wicked and Murder Ballad) third year performing the show, while Graham Bickley (Les Mis, Miss Saigon etc) has done even more than this. This year they were joined by the superb Joanna Ampil who has played a variety of roles worldwide including Kim in Miss Saigon, along with Oliver Tompsett who I actually saw as Sky Masterson in the West End production of Guys and Dolls this summer. As usual, the program was packed with wonderful show tunes and as always I really enjoyed the show.