Apollo Victoria Theatre 80th Birthday Gala
Name of Show: Apollo Victoria 80th Birthday Gala
Date: October 10th 2010 Evening
Starring: The cast of Wicked London, Sharon D. Clarke, Oliver Tompsett, Bucks Fizz.
Words and Music: Various
Opened: One night only
Theatre: Apollo Victoria
Seats: L2&3 (Limited View)
Seat Review: Fairly good seats, you can’t see the screen at the back or the back right hand corner of the stage.
Price: Approx £30
Visit number: One night only so first!
Rating out of 10: 10
Recommend: Definitely…I’ll be at their 90th Gala!
Describe it in 5 words: Perfect, pure entertainment, unbelievable, spectacular.
Strengths:
Many theatre fans, celebrity and not, descended on the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London to celebrate its 80th birthday. The theatre has seen many movies, artists and productions through its gorgeous green doors and last night, many of these were remembered in many, sometimes unusual, ways.
The first half was dedicated to the time that the theatre, previously the New Victoria, was a movie theatre and to the many bands and artists that have performed in the theatre. These included Frankie Valli, Arethra Franklin, Joni Mitchell and Dean Martin.
The second half, hosted by the fabulous Christopher Biggins, paid homage to all the shows that have called the Apollo Victoria Theatre ‘home’. These included The Sound Of Music, Bombay Dreams, Starlight Express and, of course, Wicked.
Highlights of the show were:
- the return of ASHLEIGH GRAY to the Apollo Victoria stage. Ashleigh, Nikki (Davis Jones aka Deej) and Sarah (Earnshaw) performed Strip Polka at the beginning of the show.
- the return of OLIVER ‘HOT THIGHS’ TOMPSETT to the Apollo Victoria stage. He was Fiyero for so long and really made that role very difficult to fill for his successor.
- the STARLIGHT EXPRESS feature at the end of the show which received a very worthy standing ovation
- JAMES FOX performing some Billy Joel classics, my favourite was Piano Man. He was also very genuine at Stage Door.
- WAYNE SLEEP and JACK WILCOX’s choreography – simply but hilarious.
- LOUISE DEARMAN singing Goldfinger. I seriously underestimated this woman. Glinda really doesn’t show off her vocal range – she rocked the place and proved us all wrong!
- SHARON D. CLARKE singing Midnight Train To Georgia – POWERHOUSE of a voice, amazing stage presence.
Flaws: The only downer that was put on the night was the problem caused by the microphones. In almost every number there was some sort of problem with them. It didn’t bother me until Niall Sheehy’s solo was completely mute. I was quite close and so could hear…just. I also wasn’t impressed with Jersey Boys and Bombay Dreams miming two of the three songs they each performed, although I loved the music they mimed to.
All in all it was a really special night to be in the audience for. It was probably a logistical nightmare for the backstage team. It finished 75 minutes late so we missed our train and got stranded but it didn’t matter, it was 100% worth it and I’m so incredibly grateful to the friend who bought me the ticket for my birthday.
Did you go the AV Gala?? What were your personal highlights???
MH xXx
Buy tickets here for Wicked and other one off performances at the Apollo Victoria Theatre.
P.S UPDATE 12/10/10 – Read the comment below re. Bombay Dreams miming
Tags: Apollo Victoria Theatre, Arlene Phillips, Ashleigh Gray, Bucks Fizz, Gala Performance, Lee Mead, Louise Dearman, Nikki Davis Jones, patina miller, Sarah Earnshaw, Sharon D. Clarke, Starlight Express, The Sound Of Music, Wicked
Sounds like you had a fantastic time! Wish I could have been there, but I’m definitley going to be at the 100th birthday! :D
I was there. It was an amazing evening – some bits more to my taste than others, but all well performed. Yes, the problems with the hand mikes were painful, but oh boy, that GODDESS Sharon D. Clarke! That woman is FANTASTIC! I’ve seen her as Killer Queen, and Mamma Morten, and she is simply a Diva. Wonderful voice, stage presence, musical mastery. She received well-earned thunderous applause – singing both her own spot AND filling in for Patina Miller.
Bombay Dreams – meh. Well danced, but… loud, repetitive, long, rather tedious actually. And for that, the wonderful Starlight Express was booted out of the Apollo Vic in 2002?
Yes, I’ve been a huge fan of Starlight Express since I first saw it in 1991. It just ticked all the boxes – back then it had a good plot, FANTASTIC witty lyrics by Richard Stilgoe, terrific music, great costumes and characters, and the racing – oh boy, the racing! SO exciting! (Yes, I think the current version of the show is a very watered-down, cut-back, sad thing by comparison). So I was there with very mixed emotions – was this going to be a sad mockup of the final performance? We knew Les Dwight, possibly the best (and most natural) Greaseball of all time, was closely involved in the Starlight section, and he’d rounded up dozens of the old-time stalwarts, but rollerskating on an unprotected, RAKED stage? With no set or costumes or light effects?
It came off brilliantly. And Les got on his skates and played Greaseball, to thunderous applause – he’s overcome terrible injuries to do that. It was happy, fantastic, varied, wonderfully well performed by the old (and not-so-old) troupers, and got the most thunderous (and only) standing ovation of the evening.
Oh, and the show closed with a rather down-beat song from Wicked.
But Starlight ROCKED the evening. Can we have it back, please? Possibly in the O2 Dome? In a nostalgic ORIGINAL production?
The night was amazing, for me, being part of the starlight cast made it even better!! Just want to say something to the first review, I can’t speak for Jersey Boys, but Bombay dreams were miming for two reasons, Sha-ka was mimed in the show anyway because it was done in huge water fountains, and microphones don’t work well in water! As for the first number, the cast were very very limited on which versions of the songs and music R.U.G would let then use, hence why they were miming to the Bombay Dreams CD show soundtrack, available in all good record shops!! Don’t want people thinking they were short changed!!!
The night was amazing, straight out of the top draw!!!!
After recently seeing Whoopi Goldberg in Sister Act, it was hard for me to imagine another night at the theatre topping that sort of atmosphere for a while….But what a night!
The atmosphere was just electric and I feel so lucky to have been there. Without a doubt the 50 strong Starlight Express cast stole the show and thouroughlly deserved their standing ovavtion. It’s a real shame they weren’t left to close the show rather than Wicked. It would have made more sense with the mega-mix of all the up tempo numbers. I had goosebumps, they were just incredible. I agree with the other comment that a revival at the O2 would be amazing. I felt a little sorry for Frances Ruffelle, without an introduction she didn’t recieve a very warm welcome…i’m not sure if most people even realised it was her. Big props to her for putting on skates again…what a pro!
Well done to the very slick Jersey Boys, The fabulous Divas from Priscilla and the incredibly hard working cast of Wicked who seemed to appear in every number!
I would like Sharon D Clark to adopt me. She was out of this world. After she finished her rendition of Midnight Train To Georgia, I was dying to see more of her, so felt no disspointment at the absence of Patina Miller, as Sharon singing Think was on a par with Aretha. She is every inch the diva and was worth the price of a ticket alone!
Well done to everybody involved in the show. It was an incredible experience, and the time the effort that must have gone into putting it together was certainly worth it!
Does anyone know what happened to Patina Miller and Rachel Tucker?