My second favorite musical after "We will Rock you", "Mary Poppins" (2015) by Belen Delgado

I haven't been so excited for a long time to see a musical as I was to see this one . And you will probably be wondering why..? Well, when I was a kid one of my favourite Disney stories was "Mary Poppins". I can't remember how many times I read it , what I could remember was that I wanted to have a nanny like her. My sisters and I have different nannies but believe me ,none of them were as fun and magical as Mary Poppins (they were more similar to the horrible nanny that the kids from the story had when Mary Poppins leaves for the first time)! I wanted to dance over the roofs with an umbrella ; sing and dance while cleaning up the house but the truth is that Mary Poppins was every kid's dream but noneone had ever had a nanny like her!. Yesterday at the Board Gais theatre I could see the closest I'd ever get to see Mary Poppins. She became alive on the stage, the way she looked, the way she walked, was just like I imagined her. What a joyful way of finishing a regular Monday. I was blown away by the magical effects, the lights, the changes of sets, the costumes, the dancing and faultless singing. 3 hours of endless fun and happiness. We couldn't stop smiling! At the end, everyone stood up clapping and I even had tears of joy. It is unbelievable the magic that it has to see a story like this in the theatre. I could only imagine how i would have felt if i had seen it when I was a kid. The musical even ended up in the air with her umbrella getting closer to the audience among other surprises. I'd recommend it to anyone. One musical that you definitely have to see once in a life time! Thank you so much, Elisa for coming with me and share this unique and unforgettable moment of my life. The day when I finally met Mary Poppins! Yes, she exists!

"Dirty Dancing", The Musical by Belen Delgado

Dirty Dancing is a movie that I have seen an uncountable number of times , it does not have a memorable plot, photography or excellent acting but it had something that was appealing to me when I was a teen and it was very exciting to see it live as a Musical at the Board Gais theatre in Dublin. Theatre was packed with group of mid and late thirties women with a few boyfriends and husbands. The performers looked very alike from the ones from the original movie. If you ask me if I recommend it..  well, not so sure. It was a bit disappointing that they didn't sing all the songs live but when they did it was good. There was no connection between the 2 main protagonists, however, the last scene that most of us was looking forward to: " The Time of my life", brought tears to my eyes . Two additional singes sang it live on the stage, while they danced, this was the highlight of the whole show for me. At times it was funny when the ,al protagonist took his t-shirt off and showed off his fit body and the female audience (including me lol), started cheering very loud. Their representation was an exact "copy" of the movie, there was no innovation (I guess i was expecting a bit of it..) and no "wow" factor for me. As we have seen so many musicals at this stage, we have become very demanding. And how come they didn't sing live "she is like the wind", one of my favourite songs from the movie.. :-( . A pity that a musical with so much potential did not blow us away.

Highly recommended: "Singing in the Rain - The Musical", Board Gais Theatre Dublin by Belén Delgado

1952's movie musical "Singing in the Rain" is superbly performed in a production direct from the West End at the Board Gais theatre in Dublin  from the 20th to the 31st of May. I actually didn't have plan to go and see this musical, even though i knew the musical that I watched several times during my teen times when I used to watch classic movies with my parents. Last Friday night was raining not-stop and on Saturday morning i woke up needing to disconnect from the routine , what do i usually do in these situations? Going to a good concert or to the theatre, so I did my research online and when I saw "Singing in the Rain" , I did not hesitate and I was lucky enough to find 2 tickets in the circle, row c, seat 37 & 38. They were the last 2 seats left together in a good location, the theater was packed!. Andres was happy to go with me and i think he was very surprised to see how good it was. I personally have always admired Gene Kelly, his energy, lively personality and charm and I thought it was going to be very difficult to portray that on stage, how wrong i was!

 (Photo taken from their Facebook page)

Happiness, love, positive energy, full of color, vibrant dancing with 12.000 litres of water live with the famous "singing in the rain performance", which is portrayed twice. The audience was smiling all the way through and we were personally dancing along in our seats, so emotional, even my husband cried out of joy in one of the songs. For us, this has been the best musical we have seen so far, after the one from Queen that we saw in London. It just made me feel what i needed, this is the magic of performances when they are well done. I would have loved to bring my mum to this musical, too, she would have loved it.

There are also celebrities in the cast, screen star Maxwell Caulfield plays the studio boss R F Simpson, i was actually saying to myself all the time, his face is so familiar.. i knew him from somewhere! From Dynasty, the tv series!! Gee, he still has the same face!!, Actress Vicky Binns from Coronation street soap opera, is so hilarious.. her voice is terrible!! Amy Ellen, blew us away with her fabulous voice and dance style. The main singer portraying Gene Kelly is also very elegant and professional and his funny colleague , Stephanie Annelli,was excellent. No need to say that at the end of the show, everyone stood up to clap and everyone had a huge smile in their faces. And of course, when we left the theater, it was raining cats and dogs , so we were dancing along on the way home !

Some of the highlights for me:

Good morning song; singing in the rain (both performances), specially seeing the people in the first rows trying not to get wet (lol); performance with the 3 male dancers doing tap dance in a very funny way and all the scenes with the mute movies being shown like the old times.

Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/SITRMusical/reviews

Their official page:

http://www.singinintherain.co.uk/cast/