5
2011
Magical Musicals: Sneak Preview
After the huge success of their first musical Peter Pan, Sunway Lagoon launched their second musical Magical Musicals at the newly refurbished Amphitheatre. Magical Musicals promises to deliver a mesmerizing medley of the world’s favourite muscial numbers over the past 25 years. With incredible talents hailing form London’s famous West End, a spectacular stage set, explosive pyrotechnics and large LED screens, Magical Musicals has been described as a ‘no-expense-spared’ production by Sunway Lagoon CEO, Aaron Soo.
Joining Aaron in the production of Magical Musicals are veteran West End Musical Producers, Chris Colby and David Kort. Chris is the director of the Magical Musicals production while David lends his expertise as a choreographer. If you’ve watched Peter Pan the Musical @ Sunway Lagoon last December, you’ll know that both Chris and David were also the producers then.
Today, about 10 of us bloggers from All Malaysian Blogger Project (AMBP) were privileged to get the chance to go behind-the-scene and catch the preview of Magical Musicals.
The talents for Magical Musicals are none other than the six West End performers casts as lead characters. Stevie Tate Bauer, Neil Couperthwaite, Amanda Salmon, Stephen Weller, Gareth Heesom and LJ Neilson and are no strangers to the prestigious Theatre Royal Drury Lane, The Prince Edward Theatre, London Palladium and Apollo Victoria Theatre, performing in various big name musicals such as Grease, Buddy, Wicked, The Rocky Horror Show, Rent, Les Miserables and Mamma Mia!
Of course we remember LJ Neilson as Wendy in Peter Pan the Musical :D
The cast of Magical Musicals
David showing off the lighted umbrella.. ella.. ella. This is AWESOME! Combined with laser effects, this is gonna be one nice RAINY scene!
Some of their bling-bling costumes. Nice!
Natalie parading the BEAUTIFUL feather head-gear! *excited*
LJ and Natalie showing off some of their favourite costumes
Stevie loves this dress they got from Sungai Wang. YES, you read me right! Our very own Sungai Wang! David said it is ‘Sungai Wang couture’! LoL! Class!!
Stevie hails from the United Kingdom and trained at the Arts Educational School of Musical Theatre, London. Just a few months ago, she completed her contract in the musical Wicked in which she played the roles of Elphaba and Nessarose.
We also got to visit Amanda and Stevie’s dressing room.
Amanda with her favourite sneakers for the musical. Amanda is from the United Kingdom. She trained at the Italia Conti Academy in London. After graduating, she made her professional debut playing the lead role of Pearl in Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London. Other London West End Theatre credits include Eponine in Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre; Sophie in Mamma Mia! at The Prince Edward Theatre; Sandy in Grease at The Royal Albert Hall and The Scandivanian Arena Tour; Linda in Blood Brothers at The Phoenix Theatre.
Most recently, she performed at London’s 02 Arena in the spectacular 25th Anniversary show of Les Miserables alongside Lea Salonga and Nick Jonas for 14,000 people!
Amanda showing us her fiancee. He’ll be flying down on the 10 June and will be staying for a week. She can’t wait! :D
David handed me the belt they use for “Shaka-la-ka-boom-boom” and I must say they are pretty HEAVY! But I like what I saw when they previewed the dance to us earlier. Made me wanna gyrate my hips too! :P
From Amanda and Stevie’s dressing room, we went over to visit Stephen, Neil and Gareth’s dressing room.
Stephen is from the United Kingdom and trained at Mountview Theatre School. His professional debut was in the London Production of Les Miserables at the Palace Theatre where he played Enjolras. Stephen dedicates his performances to the memory of his loving and talented sister.
Stephen is very nice (Not to say others are not, but he is EXTRA nice! :P). He really takes the effort to get to know us better by getting in touch via Twitter!
See, he twitted me even before we met!
And he tweeted after we left :D
Neil is from the United Kingdom and trained at the Arts Educational School, where he was awarded the Andrew Lloyd Webber Scholarship. After drama school, he went straight into the original West End production of Moby Dick at the Piccadilly Theatre.
Gareth and Stephen in their dressing room
Gareth, originally from The Isle of Man, studied at Middlesex University, acquiring a Degree in Performing Arts and subsequently progressed to a postgraduate year at the Royal Academy of Music. His latest performances include appearing in a new musical, New York, New York and many leading roles for P&O cruises.
Amanda in the guys’ dressing room :D
We exited the artiste’s studio. Felt so privileged to be able to mingle and see for myself what it is like in the rehearsal and dressing room.
We also got the opportunity to tour the stage. If you think Peter Pan the Musical is awesome, this is BEYOND awesome! I was at awe when I stepped onto the stage! Magnificent!
There are several improvements in store this time around. For instance, they brought in those HUGE fans to cool us down. The seats are all numbered this time to avoid chaos and they have definitely improved on the sound system to accomodate the ENTIRE theatre. CooL!
One of the many flame machines for the dramatic effect!
The people behind Magical Musicals.
Before I log out, here is what you’ve been waiting for. A sneak preview of what to come. Watch this video to see the rehearsals of Magical Musicals. David said it is only 7 days since they started rehearsing hence there’ll be much ‘rubbish’ but I totally disagree for what I’ve seen is hard-work and determination to make this the BEST musical ever!
It is ‘magical’ to be able to see them without costumes and in the raw, rehearsing!
There’s also Grease..
I’m excited already! But the next video is what nailed it! You’ve GOT to watch THIS!!!
MY favourite! Lots of eye candy and to tell you that I am just INCHES away from THEM!! It takes lots of self-restrain when you are THAT close to those topless dudes! :P NOSE BLEED I tell you, NOSE BLEED! I need a TISSUE!!!!!!! My hero, come gimme tissue! :P
Ok ok.. calm down Merryn! With all that said and done, I’ll be catching the Gala Premier this Friday! Can hardly WAIT!
Official ticketing agent for Magical Musicals @ Sunway Lagoon is AirAsiaRedTix. Get your tickets from www.airasiaredtix.com or call 603 8775 4666.
Sighhhh!!!! I love musicals. I wish I could go and see… Sobssss!!!!
Aww.. poor you Arthur. Fly here lah :D
Woohoo! See you this Friday!! :)
See you too! :D
Nice event…
Mery,
Yes it is. A chance of a lifetime to be backstage with the cast :D Priceless!
My daugther loves these shows, she went for Peter Pan…
Pete,
So are you going to bring her for this too? YOU'll love THIS as much as she will I betcha! The songs are awesome!!!
yeay! cant wait till this Friday! oops i saw Shemah there! hahaha
Yeay! See you Friday too! Yes, Sheemah told me she's your friend :D
Hi Merryn,
Thanks for the great blog post – it looks like you enjoyed yourself! It was lovely having you guys there to see backstage, and we hope to see you all again when you come to see the finished show :-)
Stephen
PS – you're right – I AM extra nice! hehehe
Aww…
Stephen commented in MY blog post! STAR STRUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm sure it's gonna be a blast Stephen. We've seen the first half and CAN'T wait to see the rest! We're already getting our blue suede shoes ready to party on the Gala Premier night! :D
Hi Merryn :)
It was nice meeting you~ Wow, your pictures are so nice!
Hi Sher,
It was nice meeting you too. Thank you :D See you Friday!
Looks amazing, is there a live orchestra playing for the show??
Hi Alan,
Not this time. I heard in the near future they'll bring in live orchestra too :D
what a great chance to meet the cast, but i missed this :(
It was indeed great. Are you going to watch this?