Why I miss Miss Saigon…

If I haven’t said it already I BLOODY LOVE MISS SAIGON. It’s up there in my list of favourite musicals and it is fantastic. I thought it’d be appropriate seen as though the 25th anniversary performance has just been released on DVD (I went to see it when they showed it at the cinema on the 16th, bawled like a baby of course but I didn’t expect anything less) to post a review of the show. I’ve seen the musical twice, for the first time this exact time last year and again before it closed in London in February (also bawled like a baby when I found out it was closing, not gonna lie).

 

Miss Saigon ran in London for 10 years in the 90s then was revived in 2014 where it ran at The Prince Edward Theatre for 2 years and had it’s 25th anniversary. Even though it closed in the West End, it’s touring the UK next year and has transferred to Broadway. Hopefully I’ll get chance to see it again, praying that that’s on Broadway (we can all dream okay). Like I say, it’s one of my ultimate favourites and it’s pretty hard to make it on to my top musicals list.

This is me, queuing at 5am, for day seats. A week before the show closed in February. Loving my life and freezing cold (shoutout to my Nanna for knitting this blanket)

 

So here is my review…

The Story

Miss Saigon is set in the 1970s in Saigon during the Vietnam War. It’s based on the opera Madame Butterfly (nope I’ve never heard of it either but just thought I’d throw that in there) and tells the story of the relationship between Kim, a 17 year old Vietnamese girl who has ended up working as a bar girl, and Chris, an American GI stationed in Vietnam. I’m not going to go too much into detail, because the first time I saw the show I had no idea of the story and it made it so much more special. Basically, it’s heartbreaking and that’s coming from someone who likes to pretend they’re an ice queen and has no emotions. I bawled like a baby.

The Cast

I love the story line of the show, the music and the set but I always think you can have a good show but bad casting can completely ruin it (I’m not one for shady examples BUT this could not apply more than to something currently on tour that I saw at the beginning of September in Wimbledon, you can work that one out for yourself). Miss Saigon is 100% not one of those shows. The casting in my opinion is perfect. Two of the key actors who stand out to me every single time are Jon Jon Briones and Eva Nobelzada. Jon Jon for me just is the engineer and I don’t think it would look the same without him playing that part. He’s everything I imagine the engineer to be and even though you really don’t want to liked the slimey, money orientated bar owner you can’t help but love the guy. He’s hilarious at all the right moments and my mum also commented on how fantastic she thought he was. And well Eva Nobelzada…is just incredible. To be able to play such a heavy part at such a young age is truly admirable and her vocals are absolutely unreal. She is truly a raw talent and is one of the people in the industry that inspires me. The first time I saw the show I was sat front centre, and watching her sing I’d Give My Life for You I actually felt like I was in the show. I also end up crying every single time Gigi sings Move in My Mind, Marsha Songcome and Rachelle Ann Go are both amazing. Never have I been as moved by a musical as I was the first time I saw Miss Saigon, and that was definitely down to the actors playing the roles amazingly.

The Music

The Miss Saigon soundtrack has to be one of my all time favourite musical soundtracks. I genuinely can’t think of a song that I don’t love. If you don’t cry your eyes out at least 3 times you’re definitely not seeing a very good production. The music is so heartfelt and is written beautifully. When I listen to the songs, I so wish they were my casting but unfortunately I was not born male so I couldn’t choose to sing Why God for my college assessments this term, and I also wasn’t born in the middle east so looks like Kim is also out the window. There’s only one white female song in the whole show, so it looks like Maybe is going in my repertoire. We’ll blame my parents for that one. Anyway, my personal faves are Sun and Moon, Movie in my Mind and The Heat is on in Saigon. I also like The American Dream (who doesn’t love a number with show girls and feathers) because I find it really interesting how it seems so upbeat and fun but is actually really sad when you think about it. The engineer has a totally warped sense of reality and as the audience you know that really what he believes is his “American dream” isn’t at all what the real world is like, and the likelihood of him ever even getting to America is pretty slim.  I also challenge anyone to listen to This is the Hour and not get goosebumps. Every. Single. Time.

The Set

If you’ve heard of Miss Saigon before, you’ll probably know the set is pretty snazzy. It includes a full size helicopter on stage, yup. It’s pretty fully out. That scene is really cool, it’s where the last American helicopter leaves Saigon leaving hundreds of Vietnamese people at the gates of the American embassy. There’s massive gates which get switched around on stage really fast to show it from Kim’s viewpoint and then Chris’ which I always think is really clever. One of my favourite scenes set wise though is the The Morning of the Dragon. It’s literally just a big red backdrop but the effect it has is crazy. It’s so intimidating (which it’s meant to be) with big Chinese dragons and flags and loads of soldiers on stage. The choreography is so together, I love it.

Overall

I could literally go on for days about how amazing the whole show is but you really have to go for yourself to see how incredible it truly is. I can’t fault a single thing about it. The cast, the music, the story and everything element is just something else. And that’s the reason it’s one of my all time favourites. The story line is pretty hard hitting and there’s swearing and adult themes throughout so I wouldn’t advise taking younger ones, as it’s quite a complex story as well. But everyone else I would 100% recommend it to!

What else can I give Miss Saigon other than a 10/10?

The DVD of the 25th Anniversary Performance (featuring appearances from Lea Salonga, the original Kim, more of the original cast and speeches from Cameron Mackintosh and the writers) has just come out and you can get it from Amazon if you click this link, perfect Christmas present if you ask me! The show also goes on a UK tour (yay) starting at the beginning of July 2017. For more info on that check out the website which has dates and more details on. If you can get tickets, dooooo it! And then if you’re lucky enough to see it on Broadway, why did you not take me with you?

 

Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

 

Theatre Review: Jersey Boys

I literally cannot wait to write this review. Before we even start I’ll just say I LOVE JERSEY BOYS. This review will honestly not even begin to do it justice.

So day 2 of mine and my mum’s musical marathon, we decided to get up Tuesday and queue for day tickets for the show. As I said in my last post, Jersey Boys is one of the musicals my mum has wanted to see for a really long time. She loves all the music and loved the film too so we knew it was one we had to see, and what better time than now? We got up Tuesday morning after planning using TheatreMonkey’s website (Steve’s site is fantastic for info on day seats, if you’re planning on trying then definitely give it a read) and got to the Picadilly Theatre for about 8:45 and there were 2 people in front of us, about 7 people were at the door when the box office opened at 10. We managed to get tickets in the stalls, row C seats 13 and 14 (dead centre yay) for £25 each which is a bargain, even more so when the show is as incredible as it was.

The Picadilly Theatre is just round the corner from the big screens in Picadilly Circus 🙂

Jersey Boys has been playing in London for just over 8 years now and has won 57 major awards worldwide (and if you go and see it you’ll see why!)

And onto the show…

The Story

Jersey Boys is the story of the 1960s rock n roll group The Four Seasons. It’s a jukebox musical told in a kind of documentary style, from all 4 band members points of view starting from the very beginning when they first formed up until they broke up. It was actually Bob Gaudio (one of the original “seasons”) who put the musical together. There is sort of a “rags to riches” story line, telling the successes and troubles of 4 New Jersey lads trying to make it as stars. The story is pretty fast moving but easy to follow and the fact that it’s set to music was really interesting too. It’s got comedy elements, sad elements, everything you could want from a show.

 

The Music

Ah-mazing. I obviously wasn’t even alive at the time The Four Seasons were big, but I’ve grown up with my mum playing their music as she’s a big fan, so I do know and enjoy a lot of the songs. This musical is hugely focused on the music, and all the songs are interjeced in a way that the dialogue flows seemlessly into them which I think is fantastic. And boy is the music incredible. It includes all the bands biggest hits like Big Girls Don’t Cry, Walk Like a Man and my mum’s favourite, December 1963 (Oh, What a Night) to name just a few.

 

The Cast

Again, ah-mazing. I was saying to my mum, I feel like since I started studying musical theatre myself I appreciate theatre so much more and take notice of completely different things now, acting and character being one of them. I honestly cannot fault anyone in the whole show. The New Jersey accents were absolutely spot on and every one of The Four Seasons was unreal. Each one of them was so believable and committed to their character, they all had different things that set them apart and made them individual and it inspired me as a wannabe actor so much. Simon Bailey (who played Tommy Devito) was your typical New Jersey boy and he played the part so well at times I forgot he was even acting. I loved Declan Egan as Bob Gaudio and Matt Hunt as Nick Massi, everyone was amazing. We saw the alternate Frankie Valli on Tuesday, Dayle Hodge. His voice is just incredible. Frankie Valli has such an iconic sound so to play that part must be pretty daunting but Hodge absolutely nailed it. The cast is actually pretty small, but all of them were fabulous.

 

The Set/Lighting

I particularly enjoyed how The Four Seasons interacted with the audience during the parts where it was as if they were playing a show. It made me feel just like I was sat at a concert and really added to the whole show experience. There are a lot of scene changes (and a hell of a lot of wig changes for the girls, how do they do it that fast?!) but the transitions are really smooth. There’s screens at the back of the stage which also add to the scene changes. The story is told using the four seasons (as in Summer, Spring, you know) and these are written on the screens at the back, as well as projecting pop art style pictures as well which again adds to the 50s/60s theme. The lighting really helps set the mood too, particularly when Frankie sings My Eyes Adored You and Fallen Angel, both sad songs which is showed in the way the lights are dimmed.

Overall

Both my Mum and I loved Jersey Boys. It’s definitely one of the best shows I’ve ever seen overall with an incredible cast, music and set. Sometimes I find in shows that something can be amazing, but then there’s something else lacking but that was not the case at all, everything was outstanding. Jersey Boys has made it into my list of top musicals (which is a hard list to make, the only other ones on it are CATS, Miss Saigon and Hairspray) and I would 100% recommend. You’ll have The Four Seasons songs stuck in your head for days and will be dancing in your seat for sure. I wouldn’t advise taking young kids to the show as there is quite a lot of strong language, but that’s up to you. I honestly could not suggest going to see it more, absolutely wonderful night with my mum!

For me Jersey Boys can only be a 10/10!

If you want to find out more or book tickets the website is here. Day seats are available for Tuesday – Thursday performances as well. It’s definitely not one to miss!

 

Cheers for reading!

3 days, 3 shows… (featuring my review of The Bodyguard)

Yep you read that right. I somehow managed to go and see 3 shows in the space of 3 days, meaning I’ve seen a show every evening this week which, compared to the fact I used to see a West End show maybe once every 2 years, that’s a new record. And I hadn’t even planned to see 2/3 of them!

My Mum has been down visiting the past few days and we’ve had a fabby time being touristy (we’ve done Buckingham Palace, St Paul’s Cathedral and the Museum of London to name a few things, I’ll get round to writing about those).

Cheeky snap in the Queen’s garden

 Whenever my mum visits we always plan in a theatre trip as she loves the theatre like me, so this time we’d planned to see Jersey Boys as my mum has been dying to see it for so long. I bought her the film for Christmas and she loved it so we decided it was time we finally got round to seeing the musical and planned to go try for day seats on the Tuesday. We decided we’d enter all the lotteries as well just in case we didn’t get those, however…

Monday evening we decided to enter the lotteries through TodayTix and unfortunately missed out, so went to try our luck in the Aladdin lottery. If you’ve not entered a lottery in person before, basically you turn up and stick your name in and then the lottery is drawn and if your name comes out the tickets are yours (there’s a limited number though). We didn’t get lucky there either so were pretty disappointed and made our way home in the hope we’d just be able to get tickets tomorrow for Jersey Boys. It just so happens that The Dominion theatre is on the way home and I said to my mum “shall we go in and see if they’ve go anything left?”. So we did and when the woman told us there were 2 front row tickets for that evening’s performance at £25 each we genuinely thought she was joking. It was 10 to 6, an hour and 40 minutes before the show started! Deffos fate if you ask me hehe.

So it turned out Monday night we were seeing The Bodyguard! I was sooooo excited because it’s something I’ve wanted to see for ages and I’m not sure how long it will be in London. I love the film and Whitney Houston’s music so I was pretty buzzing (actually I couldn’t sit still in Mcdonalds, yes Mcdonalds. Me and my mum love a classy meal before we go to the theatre.) So here’s my review of The Bodyguard…

The Story

If you’ve not seen the film then, uhm you should watch it now. The story is basically about a huge popstar called Rachel Marron (aka Whitney Houston) who has a crazy stalker, so a bodyguard is employed to protect her. As you can probably guess they fall in love, kinda your typical love story but that’s it in a nutshell! The musical differs slightly from the movie, but it’s pretty similar most of the way through.

The Cast

When we bought our tickets, the lady on the box office asked if we still wanted the tickets despite Beverley Knight not being in it that night, her understudy Carole Stennett was playing Rachel. Now I don’t know about anyone else but I actually love seeing an understudy. I always feel like they’re fresher (not saying the normal actor isn’t fantastic because of course they are) because they don’t do it almost every single day. And Carole was amazing! I always think “wow, singing Whitney songs must be such a challenge!” but wooooow Carole’s voice is unreal. I know I’ve been at college too long when I sit there in the audience saying “yaaaaaas”  in my head, it can’t be only me that does that (please tell me it isn’t) but there was a lot of that going on for the whole of the show. I also loved Rachel John who played the sister Nicki Marron. Her voice was equally as amazing, and I may have actually loved it even more. her rendition of Saving All My Love was gorgeous. Ben Richards made a great bodyguard too, I thought his acting was spot on. His accent was slightly dodgy at times but we can forgive him a bit if he’s nice to look at right? My mum loved the guy who played Tony the security guard as well!

The Music

Well if you love Whitney Houston’s music then this show is 100% for you seen as though that’s what all the music is. Including her massive ballad hits like One Moment in Time, I Will Always Love You and I Have Nothing it’s then got upbeat songs like Queen of the Night and I Wanna Dance with Somebody (personal fave). There’s a few additions from the film, including Million Dollar Bill which obviously came out after the film was released. I cried my eyes out god know how many times, Greatest Love of All was amazing, Carole Stennett made me ball like a baby and don’t even get me started on Run to You. Run to You isn’t my ultimate favourite Whitney song but it was my favourite in the show. I Will Always Love You at the end was beautiful. Carole’s voice is amazing, and me and my mum both lost it at the key change haha. Then finishing on I Wanna Dance with Somebody had everyone up dancing.

The Set/Effects

Well full out is the only way I can describe them really. Fire, smoke, raising podiums, it had it all. I felt like I really was at a Rachel Marron concert during the opening number with all the lights and fire! If you’re sitting on the front row you might want to prepare yourself cause it gets pretty hot.The lighting was fabulous and costumes were cool too, the dress at the end is soooo pretty! I‘m one of those people who always pays attention to costume. Also, just as an added warning there is a gunshot at the beginning and you’ll want to know about that before you go because we had no idea and when I say I jumped out my seat I nearly ended up on the floor, no joke pahaha.

Overall

All in all I loved The Bodyguard. Fun, glitzy and quite a bit of cheese. The show is really about the music. It’s not the most intricate story line, quite typical and predictable, but the music makes up for it. I think this show is more about Whitney’s greatest hits then 5* acting but it’s the perfect musical to go and see with your girls (or with your mum like I did!) and you’ll definitely be singing along, I guarantee. Everyone was up dancing by the end! We sat at the end of the front row of stalls. The Dominion theatre is one of the bigger ones, but our view was still very good. It was ever so slightly restricted at some points and there were a few times were all we saw were the actors’ backs, but for £25 I am not complaining! For an enjoyable evening and an easy to watch musical I would definitely recommend The Bodyguard, if you’re a lover of Whitney and her music then it’s a must see. If you’re looking for something that is acting focused/a strong storyline then it probably isn’t for you but I would still recommend it as something to go and see, purely for the sing a long! And much to everyone else’s enjoyment, of course my mum and I sat singing the songs on the bus home.

Overall, The Bodyguard gets a 7/10 from me.

Catch the show at The Dominion theatre on Tottenham Court Road before it goes, it’s currently booking until January 2017. If you are wanting to see Beverley Knight, she doesn’t perform on Mondays or at weekday matinees. I definitely wouldn’t let this affect your decision to go though because as I said, Carole Stennett is wonderful. You can book tickets online here or take your chances and do what we did and try for day seats.

Keep an eye on my blog for my review of Jersey Boys, the 2nd musical of my triple show week!

Theatre Review: Titanic

Well it’s been a while! These past few weeks/month I’ve been unbelievably busy (partly why my last blog post was 3 weeks ago) so apologies for the lack of content. I finished my 1st year of college and we had our summer show to name a few things, but anyway I’m back home in Leeds for the next week so I finally have a bit of time to write a new post!

Last week my friends and I decided it had been too long since we’d last been to see a show together, and seen as though we knew Titanic was closing soon and we had an offer where we could get discounted tickets we decided that was the one we were going to go for. Titanic has been playing at the Charing Cross Theatre since the end of May and finishes this weekend after being extended. It’s won 5 Tony awards including Best Musical, so evidently it’s a good show. We decided on a bit of a whim to go, but thankfully we did because as well as the show we managed to pick the day that the composer Maury Yeston was doing a Q+A session afterwards (good random choosing skills from us!) but I’ll speak a bit about that at the end of this review. We paid £15 for tickets and sat towards the back of the theatre but this didn’t matter at all. Charing Cross Theatre is one of the smaller ones so even sitting on row V we had a fantastic view, anywhere you sit in this theatre you’ll be fine. So onto the show…

The Story

Before I start, Titanic the musical is not based on the film Titanic or really anything like it other than that it’s based on the same historic event. The stories from the Titanic fascinate me, so it was interesting to watch something from a more factual standpoint ( I watch all the documentaries and stuff, love a good documentary me). The musical is centered around the stories of real people who were on board the RMS Titanic when it sank in 1912, and whilst telling the stories of these passengers it also tells you a lot about the tragedy itself, driving home the fact that there were empty seats on the lifeboats, the captain was dealing with dangerous demands and it really brings to light the issues with the class system at the time. As well as individual characters, it displays the different hopes and dreams of the class groups as a whole. The 3rd class looking for a better life in America, the 2nd class wanting to be associated with 1st class (showed brilliantly through the character of Alice played by Claire Machin) and the 1st class aiming to still be the highest class just by boarding the world’s most talked about ship at the time.

 

The Set

I think the Charing Cross Theatre was a fantastic setting for the show. Regardless of the set, the theatre itself made me feel like I was on a ship. It’s a thin auditorium but is really deep, which is why any where you’re sat is a good seat. The set was pretty minimal but really effective and adaptable. It featured moving staircases, desks and props which helped with scene changes.

 

The Music

For me it was the music that really made the show. I wouldn’t say the songs were particularly catchy, they’re not songs you came out the theatre singing and had in your head for days, but they really helped further the story and gave such a strong feeling of the characters emotions/experiences. The songs from the 3rd class showed their desperation for a better life, and the song “No Moon” gave me goosebumps it was so eerie! It’s quite different to my kind of taste in musical theatre as it’s a lot more legit style music, but I still really enjoyed it. They’re not toe tapping showstoppers, but they lyrics are all very clever and the overture and instrumentals really set the atmosphere and build tension when it comes to the end. All the songs/music was there for a reason and they all fit perfectly into the narrative, everyone had a reason to start singing it wasn’t just “lets stick a song here because we haven’t had one for a while” which is what I sometimes find with some musicals. Maury Yeston has done a fantastic job!

 

The Cast

I was amazed by how small the cast was, and in the Q+A post show Yeston mentioned how both the cast and orchestra had been dramatically down scaled for the West End version. A lot of the time the stage felt like it was bustling, the way it would do aboard a ship even though there was only about about 20 actors all together, and all of them were fantastic. The characters are all named after actual people on board. I particularly liked Victoria Serra as Kate McGowen, a 3rd class Irish passenger who is pregnant with a married man’s child and is smitten with another passenger on the ship who agrees to marry her when they get to America. I thought she played Kate so well and made her the character I connected to most. I also really liked Sion Lloyd who played Mr Andrews, and was amazed by Niall Sheehy who played Barrett, a ship worker. His vocals were incredible!

Post Show Q+A with composer and lyricist Maury Yeston

The Q+A afterwards was definitely worth staying for. Maury Yeston spoke about the creation process of the hit Broadway show, his thoughts behind it, how it came about and a bit about his previous work on the show Nine. A lot of what he said rang true with me, not that I want to produce musicals (I’d rather be in them) but he was really inspirational and it was encouraging to hear that even when he hit a block when writing, he managed to keep going. As a musical theatre student, it was really useful to go to and really interesting. A fab one off opportunity that we managed to come across randomly! Maury even stopped for a photo with us, which I would put in here but I look absolutely vile (CC theatre clearly don’t have air conditioning and it was like a sauna in there, the comb over look was not working for me so you won’t be seeing this picture, sorry).

Overall

I’d recommend Titanic to probably an older audience and people who are into theatre. I can imagine that it might not be to everyone’s taste but was good to see something that wasn’t all about a big set and crazy costumes, it was definitely more story focused and was very cleverly written.

Titanic The Musical gets a 6/10 for me.

If you fancy it, it’s been extended to 13th August so you’ve still got until the weekend to make sure you don’t miss out! Tickets are really affordable for a London show and it’s worth seeing before it leaves. You can book tickets via the Charing Cross Theatre website.

 

Hopefully now it’s summer I’ll be able to post a bit more, thanks for reading!

 

 

The EU Referendum: a performing arts student’s perspective

Just to clarify, before I start this post I’m in no way saying I’m an expert on politics because I have absolutely no idea. However, recently after speaking to my mum about all this EU referendum business, I realised I genuinely had no idea what I’m voting and why I’m voting that way. So I thought, if I’m going to be voting for something that will ultimately change my future I need to at least know a little bit about it and how it will affect me.I’m also in no way trying to tell people what to vote, that decision is yours, I’m just writing about what I’ve found whilst looking up this whole debate.

To start with I headed to good old Google to find out a bit about the European Union. I know a few basics, but I thought this was a good place to start. The European Union (or EU) is a political and economic partnership between 28 European countries including us (Britain) that allows us to move ourselves and goods between the member countries as if we’re all one big country. The EU sets out rules on things like transport, consumer rights and the environment amongst a tonne of other things. Without going into a load of history (which I did read but I don’t want to be here forever typing, I go back to college on Tuesday) it’s a group of countries working as one big country to make decisions. We pay a membership fee to be a part of the EU, as do other countries, and in turn we get money back and are governed by EU laws.

So why are we having this “referendum”? Basically, when David Cameron (we’ll call him the big DC for short, ooo catchy) was running for Prime Minister he promised that if he was elected he would hold a vote on Britain’s involvement in the EU. So here we are, DC is PM and we’re having a vote. A referendum is just that, a vote. It’s where the Government ask members of the public to vote to accept or reject a proposition, which in this case is Britain being part of the EU . If you’ve seen the word “Brexit”, which personally I think sounds like some kind of new breakfast biscuit, that’s what people are calling the debate.

Most importantly, what are the arguments for and against Britain stay as part of the EU? When I was doing my research, I had a look at both sides from different people’s viewpoints, from a business view, from a family view, (there’s a tonne of articles on that, I’m not gonna go into it all) but personally I wanted to know how it would affect me, so I decided to look into what affect a “Brexit” would have on the performing and creative arts industry. I heard on the radio a few weeks ago about a letter that a lot of famous people from the industry have signed to say they’re voting to stay, but I wanted to know why, so here are a few things I’ve found:

• Firstly, there’s the issue of funding and money. Through the EU, we receive money to put towards the creative arts industry in different ways; be it through scholarships, money for projects or other different things. The EU is Britain’s 2nd  biggest export market for music (which essentially means we make a lot of money selling music in the EU countries). I found out about something called the Creative Europe programme which supports culture and creativity in the EU with a budget of 1.46 billion Euros (I’m not sure what that is in £s but its’s a lot) and is used to implement training, pay for film festivals and project development etc. The CE programme has spent over £39 million so far on promoting British films to the rest of Europe including films like Slumdog Millionaire, The Iron Lady and The King’s Speech.Without this funding and promotion via CE would these films have been so successful? If we leave Europe, we may lose this funding which is essential for British creativity within the arts.
• We as part of the EU currently have access to a £93 million Cultural + Creative Sectors Guarantee Facility that’s launching that will help creative businesses by offering grants and loans and aid development in these areas
• In addition there’s the simple issue of movement of talent. From a general student perspective, being part of the EU we have access to foreign exchange programmes and academic mobility which is encouraged and I personally think that’s fabulous. In my opinion, travelling is so important. If we leave the EU airfares may rise, the European Health Insurance Card may not be as useful as it is now and you may even need a visa to work in the EU (which isn’t required now). I have several friends at college who have come from overseas to study here in London and it would be a shame if others didn’t have as good access to this opportunity in the future. This would lower the amount of people studying abroad due to extra hassles, and this also moves me into talking about this from a performing arts viewpoint. When I graduate from college I know that (if I was lucky enough) I’d love to work in a different country. I know of people in shows in Germany, Holland etc. Working in the performing arts industry in foreign countries could be affected if we did leave the EU, and thinking of my own future, I know I’d be really disappointed. This also leads me into my next point involving EU staff. At my college I can think of several teachers who are from European countries, and they’re brilliant. If we leave, would there be less international teachers as it’d more effort to get into teaching here?
• Back to the letter I was talking about before, celebrities including Keira Knightley, Benedict Cumberbatch, Matthew Bourne and Vivienne Westwood are among the 282 who have signed to say they want to stay in the EU due to the impact leaving would have on the industry. You can see the full list of names here

Ultimately, does it even matter? There will be changes either way. If we stay, DC made a claim that he would make a deal with other leaders to let Britain have a “special status” where we’ll be able to have more of a say on the things we don’t agree with, BUT it’s said that this might not even make a difference and isn’t what the PM promised. And if we exit? There will still be deals that need to be made with Europe. Either way we’re going to see changes.

So the choice is yours! As a British citizen I think that it’s important at this time to know about what the EU means for us as a country and after having a bit of a Google I do feel like I’m much more informed now to make a decision. I know when I vote, I’ll be thinking of my own future and the future of an industry I’m really passionate about.

Thank you for reading, I hope this has given at least a tiny bit of info to people about how this “Brexit” may affect our creative industry and wasn’t too boring. And finally, the answer to the question on everybody’s lips is No. We will not be barred from Eurovision if we end up leaving the EU.

 

 

 

Useful Links (aka articles that aren’t full of political words I wouldn’t understand)

BBC – The UK’s EU Referendum: all you need to know

The Complete University Guide – how the EU affects universities

Creative Europe website

Arts Professional – how a Brexit would affect the arts