A Glasgow Girl in London:Part 3-Once

Today we bought tickets for Once at one of the Half-Price Ticket Booths just off Leicester Square. I had always bought tickets from the big tkts booth (where we bought our 'A Chorus Line' tickets) or at the theatre after a dodgy online experience. I don't know why I thought these other booths were untrustworthy...I just did. But it was absolutely fine and we got super cheap tickets for what turned out to be an amazing show. 'Once' is a completely different show from anything I have ever seen before and was fairly busy for a Tuesday night (perhaps due to it's feature on a recent episode of The Graham Norton Show). The Phoenix Theatre was so quaint and cute, and as we arrived we were in for a treat yet again-another upgrade. Our seats were fantastic. We sat down and were surprised to see audience members going onto the stage. I'm not sure if you needed a special ticket or just needed to be sitting in the stalls but as the show is set in a pub, before the show you can go buy drinks on the stage! My boyfriend and I were incredibly jealous. He is a musical theatre student too and we wished we could go onto West End stage just to see what it would feel like! The actors then started to join the audience on the stage with a small impromptu gig. All the actors play instruments in the show and stay on stage for the majority of the show. There is no orchestra, which makes it feel all acousticy and intimate. It was soooooo good! It did put a little bit of the fear into me as I only have basic piano and cello skills and the amount of shows such as this one which require you to be a quadruple threat is increasing rapidly...I better start practising!!! The set stayed the same the whole time and the lighting helped to show different locations such as a small box of light on the floor to show a small room. Another interesting feature was the use of mirrors on all the walls-this allowed you to see the action from every angle and let the actors break the first rule of stagecraft-never turn your back on the audience especially whilst speaking. The fact that they could look away and still be seen in the mirror allowed it to look much more naturalistic, as if you were really in the pub with them. The music is beautiful-my boyfriend is obsessed with the first song in the show 'Leave' and I love 'Falling Slowly' (the one featured in the Graham Norton Show) and haven't stopped singing it since. The show really does take you on a rollercoaster of emotions and is one of the best things I have seen on the West End. Go see it.

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