Behold a dream, the dream is gone

Well seeing Aaron Tveit in concert in real life, mere feet in front of me, was not on my 2023 bingo card 😭 There was a concert held in London for the Rodgers & Hammerstein 80th Anniversary. And I have to say that it was quite a strange experience, as it was barely advertised beforehand and had a stacked roster: Aaron Tveit, Michael Ball, Audra MacDonald, Marisha Wallace, Patrick Wilson, Daniel Dae Kim. I heard of it just the month before on Instagram, and even now after it's happened it still feels like a surreal experience that didn't actually happen. I haven't seen Aaron live since I went to New York in 2019 and it was my whole entire reason for going on that trip. I've been having a rough few years since and have only recently started to feel like I'm coming back to myself, and being able to bookend it like that and see him again feels really special, even if it does feel like I dreamed it.

“You must go on a long journey before you can really find out how wonderful home is.”

It's slowly feeling more and more autumnal here and I can feel myself approaching my hibernation phase. Oh to be a bear! As I can't sleep all winter I've done the next best thing and have mostly been holed up with my illustration work and crafts.

I've been re-watching one of my favorite TV shows, BrainDead, which I realized I'd last seen two years ago in 2018! I'm having to use the US Amazon to stream it (thanks VPN!) as I guess because it's currently topical with the US elections that they've started charging to watch it on most platforms when it used to be free. Because it's been a while I'd forgotten some of the finer details of the show, and it really is hilariously funny. If you're into political satire I can't recommend it enough!

I finally finished my Snow Queen project which I've written about in great detail over here on my art blog along with all six of the finished pieces. It's been a lot of work as I was bubbling over with ideas during lockdown and am still playing catch up and digitally painting it all. I'm feeling a bit done with it all to be honest and am itching to work on something new but I still have about 8 different illustrations to finish.

I'm still working on my sketchbook, I drew these two portraits with ballpoint pen last weekend. I'd watched Joker for the first time since I'd seen it at the cinema and met it's director Todd Phillips, and that whole thing was just such an experience that I was worried my very non-cinema sized screen would diminish the memory somehow. And also it's just that feeling of wanting to savor your favorite things instead of over watching it, you know? It inspired me to draw the character though. When I draw I don't really see the whole thing as I just focus on the tiny bit I'm currently working on, and it's always such a wonderful feeling when I mentally 'zoom out' and see how it's all come together! I'm tempted to paint the drops of blood on his face and perhaps the clown make up too, but I'm worried about spoiling it and losing some of the detail.

I also drew Aaron Tveit because of watching BrainDead which he's one of the main characters in (and is the whole reason I ever watched it in the first place, let's be honest).

This is what I'm currently working on in my sketchbook, using actual paint for a change. I've been itching to draw something from Wicked - I remember seeing it several times a year, and how inspired I'd feel at the end of each performance and I miss that feeling so much! I dug out my old sketchbook to look at some thumbnails I'd messily sketched out in my car on the way home from London before I forgot, and this was one of the them so I decided to finally give it a go. I was a little worried the perspective wouldn't work, but it was one of those rare moments where the image in your head comes out exactly as you want it too! I love using gouache as it's so satisfyingly matte and flat once it's dry, and I can't wait to see how this painting progresses. I'm using a different sketchbook to my usual brand, and I do really miss my old one but I'm also enjoying being able to use more materials and paint in it. The only issue I really have is that because the paper is so much nicer I'm struggling to really fill it up as I don't want to 'waste' it - which is generally why I steer away from fancy sketchbooks in the first place!

I've also been working on my memory journal, currently creating a spread for BrainDead as I like to record things I've enjoyed. I've also fallen down a rabbit hole of watching people journal on YouTube which is incredibly addictive! Including k-pop journals, which really isn't my thing but I just love their enthusiasm and I admire it really. When I was a teenager it was a period where being passionate about anything was sneered at, particularly if you were a girl, and it's something that really stuck with me and made it difficult for me to express my interests as I constantly felt like I had to dial myself down to fit in, and I'm still trying to unlearn all of that. So although I don't like the topic personally I really admire how unabashed these girls are, and how creative it makes them! Creating journals and scrapbooks of things you like is nothing new, people have been doing it since the 1950s, but it's become much more aesthetic now and I love that. And it's just really fun keeping track of stuff you're watching, which songs you're particularly into right now, and your general feelings on it all. Our interests shape who we are so much that it makes sense to have a place to record it in a creative way.

This was not as nice as I'd hoped but I liked the packaging!

Otherwise I've mostly been trying to keep up with all of my other hobbies. The trouble with having so many is that there's always something to do, which is a blessing as I've never been bored in my whole entire life, but I can get a bit overwhelmed at how much I want to do and how few hours there are in the day! I'm currently trying to get back on track with reading as it's a hobby I've really struggled with over the years as the computer and other such devices have stolen my attention span, and I've actually settled into a great book after a few duds and feel like I've rediscovered the joy of reading again which feels so wonderful! I've also developed little habits like carrying my Kindle in my hand when I'm commuting to and from work which encourages me to snatch little moments when I'm waiting on the platform instead of waiting to pull it out of my backpack when I'm on the train if at all.

I'm also halfway through a knitting project, which I didn't take any photos of as it's not very exciting to look at right now on the needles, but it's a triangle shape and learning how to shape knitted items feels pretty exciting as I'm still a beginner. And I've taken up hand sewing after discovering Bernadette Banner's channel over summer. I've sewed for years, I've made many of my own clothes, I even studied dressmaking up to college level and considered making it my career and continuing it to university. But as much as I love the finished result of owning the things that I've sewn, I always venimently hated the actual process of sewing and it's just a means to an end, and often a very frustrating one that I try and rush through which no doubt only adds to the stress! So seeing Bernadette hand sew full clothing garments kind of blew my mind as I've always associated hand sewing with mending or finishing a hem. I was particularly inspired by her Lady Sherlock waistcoat and decided to attempt it for myself, although in a much different fabric as the Victorian era isn't really my vibe so I've also had that on the go in the background. I've loved seeing it slowly take structure as I quietly sit with it on my lap in front of a movie rather than hunching over a sewing machine, and it's gotten me thinking about all kinds of things I want to sew next! I'm planning a trip to Tokyo's fabric district in a few weeks and I can hardly wait.

Why else live if not for love?

When listening to the Moulin Rouge OBC the other day I was inspired to share my feelings about the musical as it's something that I have a lot of thoughts about. I went to see it back in August when I travelled to New York for the first time in my life which I wrote about here and why it was such a huge deal for me on a personal level. I saw it twice while I was there because I'm such a huge fan of Aaron Tveit and I don't get many opportunities to see him live so I wanted get all that I could! I also think that because I saw it twice in such quick succession I'm able to look at it a little more critically because I got over that 'wow' phase of when you're not sure what's coming next, to where you know what to expect so can take in the details.

I wish I could say that I loved Moulin Rouge, but even after all this time I honestly still have no idea how I feel about it. It's a difficult musical for me to be critical about because it means so much to me personally, and regardless of my issues with it I will always love it and proudly wear my merch because it's so wrapped up in so many amazing experiences for me. If it wasn't for this musical I wouldn't of travelled to New York and it would of remained a 'someday' dream, I would never have met my favourite actor and given him a piece of my artwork, I would never have been on the journey it took me to get there in the first place. Which is why it pains me so much to say that there were a lot of elements I didn't actually like, and overall I just found a lot of it's storytelling really weak.

It's obviously impossible not to compare it to the movie as it’s supposed to be a direct adaptation, and I don't know how much that spoils it as obviously it gives you a certain level of anticipation before you even go in. I guess if you’re not a fan of the movie you might enjoy it more, but I am a fan if the movie, it’s been one of my all time favourites for about 10 years so I was pretty pumped. I completely understand the need for changes between movie and stage so I wasn't looking for a carbon copy, if anything I was excited to see these characters have new life breathed into them and see them be reinterpreted, but for me the musical missed the mark in so many areas.

The worst parts are undoubtedly the book and the score, more than anything it just don't feel finalised enough for me and could of benefited from further rewrites. Visually this musical is second to none, the set design in particular is just incredible and I will throw hands if it doesn't win a Tony, second for the choreography too. The costumes were a bit hit or miss, some were spectacular, particularly Satine's and Zidler's, but Christian's and the Duke's were just...odd. Especially Christian's, why with all of the neckerchiefs?? I get that it's not supposed to be a realistic depiction of 1899, even the movie isn't historically accurate, but some of the costume choices just left me scratching my head as they seemed weird and out of place in 2019, never mind 1899. I also didn't get why Christian is suddenly from Lima, Ohio. I understand making him an American character for American audiences, and I'd much rather that then sit through an actor murder an English accent, but why make it so specific? It didn't enhance the plot and there was no explanation as to why he'd moved from Ohio all the way to France, it just seemed like an excuse to make some weird Ohio jokes.

The performances by absolutely everyone on stage were phenomenal. The ensemble were incredible, Danny Burstein had the whole audience in the palm of his hand as Zidler, I loved Ricky Rojas as the Argentinian Santiago, and how his and Toulouse's roles were fleshed out (I'm a HUGE fan of the real Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and I loved how they incorporated his paintings into the scenery). I wasn't overly familiar with Karen Olivo before but she was fantastic, especially her voice, and she really gave the character her all. And as I've already said Aaron is one of my favourite actors and his performance was just as amazing as I'd hoped. I stress all of this because what I'm going to say next has nothing to do with the cast, they did an incredible job within the limitations of the script they had to work with. But man, I really think this is one of the worst written musicals I've ever seen?? 

Throughout promotion they keep mentioning just how many pop songs they'd fit in to the musical, and I feel like they're more impressed with that than they are literally anything else and most of the additions felt completely unnecessary and hurt the script. In the movie the pop songs are charming and are musically altered to fit the scene, eg Roxanne by The Police is turned into a tango, Madonna's Like A Virgin is turned into a foppish farce, etc. I would of expected Broadway creators to have a better grasp of this kind of creativity within music, but they instead interpret the songs literally as straight up pop songs making it feel more like an episode of Glee. It feels like every time someone said "this moment reminds me of this song" they added it in, and you spend half of the musical internally playing "Name That Tune" which completely takes you away from the story. Also a lot of the songs seemed like they were chosen for laughs, which meant that the tone of the show was just all over the place and the audience just didn't know how to react and ended up laughing at poignant moments. I'm also not sure how wise it is to fill the soundtrack with pop music from the past 10 years? A big strength the movie had was that because it mostly reworked classic hits it felt ageless, but so much recent pop music is going to age this one fast and it'll be interesting to see if it's still even relevant in 5-10 years. I also wish they'd used Come What May more, I felt like Your Song had replaced it as Satine and Christian's love song, but I realise that's just personal preference.

Because of the over-saturation of pop songs, the book is extremely lacking and the dialogue was often cheesy. Like, SO cheesy it was embarrassing to watch at times. Whilst the movie knows when it's being cheesy and plays up to it to add to the heightened reality, the stage adaptation took itself too seriously in these moments so it just fell flat, and it was such a messy job that the parts that are supposed to be emotional just aren't. Christian yelling "because she doesn't love you!" to the Duke didn’t make me gasp or feel any concern for his welfare. Quite honestly I didn't even care when Satine dies in Christian's arms because Christian isn't given any time to mourn, he just gets up and stats monologuing about bohemian ideals so I feel pretty sure he's already over it. In the movie you feel Ewan’s pain, the tragedy of how they're still on stage and the audience think her death is part of the show and clap unsuspectingly as Christian screams out in pain. Whereas here it's too fast paced to allow anything to set in, and they quickly transition into a dance and sing Outkast's Hey Ya! to lighten the mood.

I also didn't like how some of the characters had been rewritten and struggled to get invested in them. Satine is written as a strong, independent woman, but she ends up being so strong that I don't buy her story arc at all and Christian seems more like a nuisance to her than a potential love interest. In fact I don't buy their relationship at all as we don't really get to see it? The writers were so focused on adding appropriate pop songs that they fail to focus on the love and intimacy between them so their romance is never explored. Satine gets more intimate with the Duke than she ever does Christian, and one of the biggest plot points they missed from the movie overall was that Satine WON'T! SLEEP! WITH! THE! DUKE! and that's why the Duke get's so jealous and why Christian has a breakdown and it's the linchpin of the whole plot. She won't sleep with the Duke because she loves Christian, but in this version she jumps into bed with the Duke straight away and we never see her having any of these moments with Christian, who seems more concerned with philosophising over the subject of love in general, so the love triangle just doesn't work.

I also felt that Christian needed more sensuality and darkness to him, the only time we really get to see anything like that with his character is during Roxanne which is absolutely mesmerising and heartbreaking but I wanted to see more of that as the story builds. Ewan McGregor's Christian is naive but still sensual and passionate, whereas this Christian is much more of a boy scout and I missed the darkness and madness that disturbs his euphoric happiness of being with Satine. I don't blame Aaron for this as I know he doesn’t shy away from complex characters with some darkness to them, it's clearly very much a script and direction issue, but I wish they'd given him more substance instead of being too afraid of potentially making him in any way dislikable.

Zidler is also completely changed and becomes a much more sympathetic character and very protective of his girls, which completely erases the exploitative nature of the Moulin Rouge and repaints it as a safe haven for misfits so there's no real sense of risk to any of the story. In the movie the atmosphere is cut throat, Zidler literally sells Satine in an attempt to save his own ass and feeds her with the idea that she's not deserving of love and any attachments would place her at enormous personal risk. Without that background the stakes are lowered and so Christian and Satine's love is neither as triumphant nor as tragic as they never really had a lot to overcome in the first place other than Satine's indifference to Christian (seriously, when she tells him he means nothing to her I fully believed her!). Even when the Duke is making threats against Christian there's no weight behind any of it as he doesn't really hold any of the cards so it's not menacing, at the end his story line isn't even resolved, he just suddenly isn't there anymore. Christian is more of a danger to himself than the Duke is. Compared to the movie where Zidler grows and gradually becomes protective of Satine and shoots the Duke to defend her, it's a bit of a different mood!

I know from all of this it probably sounds like I hated it, but I didn't! Despite all of these misgivings I can't help but love it anyway in all of it's gaudy, ostentatious glory. I just wish it were better written by people who cared about the original movie, rather than people who wanted style over substance with tacky ideas over what a jukebox musical should be like. Theatre should be about the story first, everything else second, and they had a great story to work with and they didn't. But whilst it's not the most expertly crafted and doesn't even have a lot of heart considering it's a story about love, it is fun and there's a lot to be said for that. You won't cry, but you're guaranteed a good time, and I know that's enough for a lot of people so I'd still recommend it. Especially because of how hard the cast are working every single night, I felt exhausted just watching them! The opening of Act 2 with Bad Romance was probably worth the cost of admission alone (although it was completely pointless within the context of the story, which is what so much of it keeps boiling down to!)

I also appreciate that my negative feelings are mostly borne out of my love for the movie and I might not have been so harsh on it if I wasn't already so emotionally tied to these characters. However I do know that audience reaction and reviews have been very polarising, and I’m quite active in musical theatre spaces online and I think it says a lot that outside of Aaron and Karen fans, people aren’t generally talking about Moulin Rouge much compared to other shows that have opened recently. And although I'm really dragging it, it's only because I care about it so much! Despite what you might think from reading this I did enjoy it and I would happily go see it again. Although I saw other shows on Broadway on my trip, Moulin Rouge was definitely the most memorable and has come to epitomise the whole journey for me which is why it's so special (on top of it allowing me the opportunity to meet Aaron which I WILL NOT SHUT UP ABOUT!!)

Overall it had me leaving the Al Hirshfeld feeling a mix of excitement and disappointment. Excitement because some of the music was fun and Aaron Tveit live!!! But so much disappointment because I didn’t feel anything at the end when everything is falling apart, and ultimately there’s no love in a story about love.

(All photos are my own, please do not repost.)

Another year over, a new one just begun

I've always been really excited by New Year. I know it’s just a day like any other and time is a human construct, but I love anything that signifies clear endings and the feeling of a fresh start. 2019 has been a weird one overall and I've had a bit of a love-hate relationship with it. I've had some truly life changing experiences, but I've been battling myself a lot and been in a bit of a weird funk for the latter half. But at the same time I've got a pretty good idea of what I need to do to help myself, so I guess that's a pretty good place to be. I also think this time last year I was in such an optimistic place that it kind of skewed my expectations and made me look back on 2018 with rose coloured glasses, so this year could never compare which is ridiculous. Especially as a lot of amazing things have happened this year. The biggest of which was always going to be the fact that I finally achieved my life long dream of going to New York and seeing not one, but three shows on Broadway. I was also able to meet my favourite actor Aaron Tveit and he was everything I could of ever hoped he'd be (they say 'never meet your idols' but thankfully all of my experiences have been great ones so far!).

I also visited Disneyland Paris for the first time in years and had the best time meeting all of the characters around the park. I attended London Comic Con and dipped my toes into the world of cosplay, styling my own wig from scratch with no prior experience. I really made the most of travelling around my home country and visited Whitby, Liverpool, Manchester, York, Eden Camp, as well as multiple trips to London. I was able to go to the theatre 11 times in total, and saw Wicked x4, The Phantom of the Opera, Come From Away and High Fidelity in London, and Moulin Rouge x2, Wicked and Frozen on Broadway. I beat my anxiety and stage doored for the first time with the leaving cast of Wicked, a total on the whim moment as I only booked the ticket the day before.

I went down to London with my mum for my birthday and we ate at the Hard Rock Cafe two days after it opened without even knowing. I actually stuck with language learning and developed a pretty good grasp of Danish which has always been a lifetime goal of mine to be able to speak another language, but I never thought I had a head for it until I was able to prove myself wrong. I added lots of amazing things to my personal collections, especially Mika and Frozen. I completed two sketchbooks, and finished Inktober for the first time in my life. I went to the cinema more times than I ever have before in my entire life, 17 times in total (8 of which were just seeing Joker over and over, but still!) I even went to the cinema in France and saw my favourite movie in French.

Last year I wrote that I wanted to "continue to throw myself into the things that I'm passionate about and stop feeling apologetic about it all and stay enthusiastic and true to myself and my heart", and although my usual insecurity ate into that a bit, it's something I'm striving for in 2020 too as I believe having passion for what you enjoy and what you do is what will get you far in all aspects of life. Whilst I do have my long term goals that'll take a few years to happen, I'm starting 2020 much less sure of where I'll go than when I started 2019, but maybe that's OK. I may have less of a plan but I have plenty of options to try too, and that's pretty exciting!

You only have to read the lines, they're scribbly black and everything shines

I've been drawing a lot of portraits lately as I find it fun and it's good to draw things for me, but it's something I always feel a little unsure of sharing as although I'm proud of them I don't want people thinking it's part of my 'brand' as an illustrator. It's a whole side of art business that I struggle with honestly, as it feels nowadays like you have to have your one aesthetic and stick to it but I'd get so bored! And honestly I think it's good to be versatile. But saying that, I don't think I'd want to do portraits as commissions as it'd no doubt lead to drawing people I don't care about which wouldn't be fun for me, so I keep them as just a hobby.

I used to draw portraits quite a lot with pencils, but because I'm a perfectionist I hated them if they weren't super photo realistic and it really sucked the fun out of it. So last year I began drawing them with ballpoint pens, something that scared me silly at the beginning as it's so permanent so there's obviously no way of erasing if you make a mistake, but it's actually really liberating and I feel I've learnt a lot from being forced to work with my mistakes. Because these are just for fun, they're all in my sketchbook. The top is Joaquin Phoenix in Joker, as it's turned out to be my favourite movie of the year and I'm lowkey obsessed. Second is Mika which is my favourite of the three (look at those pinstripes!!), and lastly is Aaron Tveit which whilst I like, I had issues with my pen blobbing while I was drawing it (why do they do this though??)

And here's two other illustrations I've been working on. Above is from the Broadway adaptation of Moulin Rouge, and it's how they end Act 1 with Elephant Love Medley. I'm not keen on how the song has been reworked honestly, but visually it's amazing, and I had fun trying to translate specific people into my art style whilst still making it look like them, as usually I draw fictional characters so likeness isn't so important. And below is from the finale scene of Wicked, and uh, spoiler alert? But Fiyero gets turned into the Scarecrow and I've always felt like he gets vastly overlooked within fan circles when this is a huge thing he goes through and a major sacrifice. I've always felt particularly attached to Fiyero though after reading the novel, his character is a lot more developed in that so I guess if you haven't read it it's easy not to care about what happens to him as he doesn't have a lot of stage time.

Project 365: III

15/365 - Sunday 15 September: I got my signed Playbill from Moulin Rouge! professionally framed ♥♥♥ The frame was custom made as Playbills are awkward dimensions, and it's all sealed up at the back so it's safe and sound. I'm just so, so happy with it as it's so important to me as it represents so much and was signed by one of my favourite actors, and now I can display it with pride on my shelf and take it traveling with me and know it won't ever get damaged. You can see my little New York snow globe in front of it too!

Project 365

I've been messing around with my domain name, I hope everything's working OK! Anyway, I've wanted to try my hand at doing a 365 project for years, and have dabbled with smaller term photo a days now and then but have never been able to commit to a full 365 as a full year has always felt like too much commitment. But after coming back from New York I feel really inspired to give it a go, and I know it's not the typical time to start something like this but I also think surely there's no wrong time either? You just gotta do it when you feel like it or you never will.

I guess part of why I feel inspired to start this after coming home from New York is obviously I was documenting a lot when I was there, so it's already started a bit of that habit in me. Also I feel like this is a year I'm going to want to remember, and I've learnt from looking back on the photo a day posts I've already done that it's my favourite way of documenting because they're full of the smaller day to day memories, so are special as they're more personal. Also I simply want to get used to using my camera more, to get more comfortable carrying it everywhere and taking photos in public, and to also get used to taking photos on manual. I've had a DSLR for about 10 years, and I'm ashamed to say I've only ever used it on Auto and still don't understand all of the different settings, so I figure it's a great chance to learn all of that. Especially as I find myself relying on my point and shoot camera more and more as that's how I use my DSLR anyway, and I'm often unimpressed with the colours and so feel a need to cover them in filters. And I just really love seeing other peoples 365s so why not do my own!

001: Friday 30 August - Sorting through my New York memories, and creating a sketchbook spread of my tickets in my sketchbook.

New York, Part I

Last week I was in New York, which even now feels like a surreal sentence to say and now I'm home it half feels like it was all a dream. I've always wanted to visit New York and see a show on Broadway. I don't know if I've got a 'bucket list' per se, but it's just always been a life goal of mine. I've been a fan of musical theatre for most of my life; I grew up in London and each year my primary school would trek us into the city centre for a matinee West End performance, a privilege which I took for granted. I was probably about 16 when it went from being something I casually enjoyed to something I was passionate about, and I had wanted to make it my career but life had other plans (which looking back I'm thankful for as I prefer just being a fan, it keeps the magic alive).

I regularly travel into London to see shows, and of course New York has always seemed like the bigger, brighter option. Last November I decided that I'd had enough dreaming and wanted to put things into action. Moulin Rouge had premiered for a limited run in Boston earlier that year, and I was really excited at the prospect of it being adapted to the stage as it's always been one of my favourite movies, and it was starring some of my favourite American theatre actors such as Aaron Tveit as Christian. I had already felt a little envious watching everything unfold second hand through my computer screen, and decided to turn those negative feelings into something positive. I promised myself that when Moulin Rouge opened on Broadway, I'd be there and would see it with it's original cast. It didn't have a date at that time so I still had the comfort of it feeling a way off. For about a week anyway, and then the dates were announced and panic set in! I realised that I was going to have to buy a ticket on a random date and hope that I could scramble together a trip around it. And that's basically what I did, buying bits of the trip as and when I could afford it and hoping it would all come together. And I did it!

I still can't describe the feeling of actually walking down West 45th St and seeing the Al Hirschfeld up ahead and everything I've worked for and the emotional journey I've been on to get that point and the sheer surrealness of I'M ACTUALLY HERE, THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING. Seeing Aaron Tveit walk on stage and know that this is actually him, and he looks exactly like he does on my screen but he's real and standing less than 2 metres in front of me was like an out of body experience. I got a face full of confetti from Danny Burstein's cane twice, I got to look up and see Karen Olivo descending from the heavens on her swing, it was all just so amazing and I was just sat there in awe throughout most of the show letting it all wash over me.

So, was it perfect? No. As a fan of the film it fell a bit flat in some areas and I didn't like parts of the soundtrack, but as for the overall experience of the show it's the best I've ever had just for what it meant to me to be there. And it's only after thinking on it afterwards that I realised bits I didn't like so much, I didn't care when I was actually watching it as it didn't matter.

I was nervous about the soundtrack as I knew they'd updated it to include more modern songs, and I was worried that might ruin it. In my view the reason the original movie works so well is because it uses mostly old songs it doesn't date it even though it was released 18 years ago. The new songs did work a lot better into the soundtrack than I expected, but I guess only time will tell how well it will age and how relevant it will still be in 20 years. The set was absolutely stunning, there was so much detail in all of it and you can tell it's a really lavish production with a ton of money being pumped into it. The entire cast were amazing, I loved how the ensemble stalked the stage at the beginning before the show opened and sitting second row in the orchestra made it feel almost foreboding. And because it is so different from the movie it definitely makes it it's own thing and worth seeing so there is definitely that in it's favour.

I'd heard horror stories of the stage door, but as I was front of the orchestra I got out quickly and beat the crowds. The cast were fairly quick to come out after the show, and Aaron was actually the first. He doesn't allow photos as it would take too long to get through everybody, which I was a little thankful for really as it meant you could enjoy your time with him without everyone sticking cameras in his face. I gave him my artwork which I was super shy about as no one else was giving anyone anything, but he was really complimentary and he was very gracious and kind. I met a few more from the ensemble cast too, but quite honestly I was just on a high that I'd actually met my favourite actor and he was just as nice as he seems.

Because Moulin Rouge was so important to me and I had so many hopes pinned on it, I saw it twice. I knew the first time I'd just be in awe of the whole adaptation, and so the second time around I could take in the details as I knew what to expect. I also sat further back in the orchestra, so I was still close enough to be absorbed into everything but far enough away that I could take in the whole stage this time. I love being close to the stage as it feels so intimate and I get truly lost in it and entirely forget the whole audience behind me, but there's definitely a benefit to being further away too so I liked having both experiences.

And obviously I had to buy a few things to remember it by!

I did see other shows that I'll write about in another post, but as Moulin Rouge was so important to me and my whole reason for going to New York, and special as I met my favourite actor, I wanted to give it it's own post. It also made me think about how I'd like to incorporate more of this kind of thing into my life. I don't want this to be a once in a lifetime experience that's now in my past, I want to be this happy again, I want to make the effort to travel to see my favourite performers instead of wishing they'd come to me. And if that means cutting back in other areas and traveling long distances for just a day or two, then I think it will be worth it. Hopefully I can make the opportunity happen again!