The Fight Sequence

Have just been sitting about 6ft away from Ray Quinn in a studio at Birmingham Hippodrome who has been rehearsing the fight sequences with Fight Director Karl Magee.

Ray, who plays the Prince is fighting the horrible Slimeball, played by Alex Woodhall, in a very complicated fight scene which sees Ray doing all sorts of jump and spins. (I can now understand just how fit he had to be to do Dancing On Ice last year).

I was there for about an hour watching all of this and in that time they did the sequence over and over until it was perfect (about ten times). In fact the Fight Director made Ray and Alex do five press ups each time they got something wrong!

When I left the studio I caught the lift with Ray who told me ".. he had been working on the scene all day, it was physically hard but glad they had got as far as they did with it"

It looks pretty impressive to me and can't wait to see the dress rehearsal next week when the scene comes together with the rest of the cast.

Here's a sneaky peek of Ray in rehearsal this afternoon. Click here

Family panto is family affair

The wonderful Ria Jones is the latest to join the cast of Sleeping Beauty. Ria, who was last seen at the Hippodrome in Witches of Eastwick, the national tour of Anything Goes and as Mrs Overall in the UK tour of Acorn Antiques will play the role of Carabosse, the wicked fairy.

I've seen Ria in all three of these productions at the Hippodrome and I never fail to enjoy her performance. She has such presence on stage and a powerhouse of a voice - well, being from Wales I wouldn't expect anything less.

And Ria has a very talented brother too in the guise of Keri Dupree who plays the role of Lady Passionella. I've met these guys a couple of times now and they strike me as both having a wicked sense of humour. Me thinks there will be jolly japes and much mirth backstage over the Christmas period.

Am very excited today because I've arranged to go to Middlesborough to see for myself how the 3D is going to be put together for the pantomime. I remember seeing the 3D here a couple of years ago and was really surprised at the amazing quality and even more impressed with the fact that the panto cast interact with the images - proof that 3D is pretty impressive in a theatre setting.

I rememer sitting watching the show when a giant button came flying out of the stage and floated above me and the audience were invited to press the button to get rid of the baddie - a very small child got up and stood in the middle of the aisle put his hand in the air and started to press down with all his might on what he thought he could see in front of him - just pure magic.

Anyway I'll be taking the flip camera with me and posting stuff on Facebook and Twitter so you can see behind the scenes of the Sleeing Beauty 3D.

It's all go Front of House

Walked into the office at the Hip this morning and noticed my colleague, Dave Hartland, was buried in what I can only describe as lots of pink, fluffy, shiny, flashy things.

What? you may ask. Well, one of the benefits of working in an open plan office is that you get to find out what other departments are doing and Front of House have had the delightful job of choosing some of the pantomime merchandise. It always creates an atomosphere of fun in the office when the flashy wands, head boppers and crystal stars appear and some nice fits of laughter when the most serious of staff go all child like at the mention of a goodie bag. And of course, there's always one member of staff who has to model the lastest tiara - must be the performer in all of us - even in admin!

Dave tells me that he's ordered boxes and boxes of the stuff that will arrive just before Sleeping Beauty first night - it's not even Halloween Dave!

The Characters in Sleeping Beauty

You may remember I mentioned Michael Harrison in my previous blog (he's our pantomime Director). He contacted me this week to say he'd had quite a few requests for a character breakdown. So Michael kindly put the following together - a sort of who's who of pantomime and how they fit into the plot.

Muddles, played by Joe Pasquale is the court jester. He's madly in love with Beauty and will be called upon at some point to save the day! Expect some manic comedy as always from Joe and hilarious routines with Ceri.

The Prince, played by Ray Quinn is from a nearby kingdom. He was friends with the Princess as a child and has fallen in love with her again. Ray has some great musical numbers lined up in the show.

Lady Passionella is Princess Beauty's governess and mother of Muddles. She came to live at the castle when the curse was put upon the Princess. The costumes are wonderful and at the last count Ceri will change 22 times during the show.

Princess Beauty played by Lucy Evans is made to stay within the Palace grounds. She doesn't know about the curse and has never seen a spinning wheel... Until now!

Carabosse is yet to be cast. She is the evil fairy who casts the evil curse. This part is currently on offer to one of musical theatres leading ladies and an announcement is expected soon.

Slimeball played by Christopher Howell is Carabosse's son. He loves beautiful ladies, especially celebrities!

The Enchantress will be announced soon. She is Carabosse's opposite number. A good spirit.

The King and Queen are yet to be cast. Beauty's parents who for 18 years have tried to protect her from pricking her finger.

Thanks Michael - looking forward to finding out who is going to be playing Carabosse!