Video of the Week (30)

Musicals are my guilty pleasure, so whenever a video like this pops up I get really excited. The Australian cast of the musical "The Lion King" decided to sing "The Circle of Life" on a plane. AWESOME!!!

 

In the Picture: The Characters from "Les Misérables"

Because I recently both saw the movie and read the book, I think it's about time to take a look at all the characters from the marvelous story.

Jean Valjean
Played by: Hugh Jackman
Jean Valjean is a Frenchman who was in prison for 19 years, for stealing a loaf of bread, and finally released. Years later he has made a name, but he has broke parole and is still hiding under a false name. Valjean takes care of Cosette, who he adopted and now raises as his own daughter.

Javert
Played by: Russell Crowe
Javert is a police inspector. His whole life is dedicated to finding Valjean and imprisoning him once again. Nothing holds him back.

Fantine
Played by: Anne Hathaway
Fantine is a struggling factory worker and the mother of an illegitimate child called Cosette. She is fired from the factory, owned by Valjean, and is forced to sell her own hair and her body for money in order to keep her daughter alive. After Fantine passes, Valjean takes Cosette under his wing.

Cosette
Played by: Amanda Seyfried
When her mother is still alive, Cosette lived with an innkeeper and his wife. They didn’t care for her and treated her badly. After Fantine died, Valjean takes Cosette with him and she lives a safe life with him. When she’s older, she meets Marius and falls in love with him.

Marius Pontmercy
Played by: Eddie Redmayne
Marius is a student revolutionary. He lives for his live as a revolutionary, but when he meets Cosette he changes his priority. Marius wants to find her, whatever it takes.

Éponine
Played by: Samanta Barks
Éponine is Marius friend and follows him in everthing. Marius doesn’t know that she is in love with him, but Éponine is heartbroken when she realizes Marius has already fallen in love with an other woman. Éponine is the daughter of the Thénadiers, the innkeepers that used to take care of Cosette.

Thénadier
Played by: Sacha Baron Cohen
Thénadier is an innkeeper and also a fraud. He steals from his customers and lies about everything just to get money. He sold Cosette to Valjean.

Madame Thénadier
Played by: Helena Bonham Carter
She is Thénadiers wife and just as contrived. Madame Thénadier can put up an act, she can manipulate you. She pretended to care for Cosette so Valjean would pay her more money.

Enjolras
Played by: Aaron Tveit
Enjolras is the leader of the revolutionaries, and Marius’ companion. He has one goal and hates the fact that Marius isn’t all in anymore after meeting Cosette.

Favorite Character: Éponine

Zorro the Musical

Yesterday me and my mother went to see a musical in our local theatre. It had been a while since our last musical visit, so we were very excited. We all know the story of Zorro and the musical was filled with Spanish songs, by the Gypsy Kings. Tommie Christiaan played Zorro and he was great. Lone van Rosendale played one of the female leads, she had the best role and had great humor. The villain was played by René van Kooten, who is without a doubt our favorite musical actor. He only had one song in this play, but goosebumps overall! It was a fantastic musical, one to look back on. Here are some pictures we made.

The decor, before the musical started.

Me and the star of the musical. He's signing my book.

In front of their tourbus. First me (with very zombie like eyes...) and second my mom.

Two new layouts

I haven't done any scrapbooking since may 2010! That's a long time. I just didn't have any inspiration. But I picked it up this weekend. I already made to and I have four more to go. Here are the two I made today (I'm sorry for the quality of the photos).

The Clouseau concert:



My visit to the musical "Mary Poppins":

New Musical Adventures

I have a lot to look forward too. The 11th, 12th and 13th of June I will visit Pinkpop, the biggest music festival in The Netherlands. I will not go all three days, but there are so many great bands I'm going to see there. Coldplay, Foo Fighters, 30 Seconds to Mars, Manic Street Preachers, Band of Horses, Gaslight Anthem and..... Lifehouse!!! Among others off course. So I'm really looking forward to that. They already sold 50.000 tickets, yesterday, on the first day.
July 6th me and my brother will go and see Brandon Flowers. I'm a big Killers fan but I never saw them live. When we heard that Brandon was coming to The Netherlands, we decided to go to his concert. Because Brandon alone is also great. Really cool, because this is going to be his only concert in our country.
Last, but definitely not least, me and my mother will go to the musical Zorro, november 11th. Totally different from the other musical experiences, but I really like musicals. And I haven't gone for a long time. Last time was May 2010, Mary Poppins.
So there are some great musical adventures waiting for me. And I'm super excited about all of them. As soon as I visited them, you will read about it on my blog.

Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

My mom and I visited a musical yesterday: Mary Poppins. I LOVED IT! Such a great musical. Noortje Herlaar played Mary, she was the winner in a contest and I wasn't a fan of her when I was watching the show. But when I saw her there on stage, I realized how good she was. William Spaaij played Bert. I saw him before, in the Dutch version of Grease. I liked hem then and I liked him now. The décor was amazing. It looked like a dollhouse unfolding everytime the set changed. I can't describe it, you really have to see it for yourself. The songs were all familiar, but now in Dutch. They sounded good and catchy, just like in the movie. This musical was worth every penny and me and my mom had a great day. Here are some pictures:

The theatre in Scheveningen:



Mary & Bert (alias Noortje Herlaar & Williams Spaaij) signing after the show. They signed my photobook as well:



The first thing we said to each other after the show: What's the next musical!?!?

The Full Monty

I love the movie "The Full Monty" , about six unemployed men who decide to become strippers, because women would pay a lot to see the Chippendales. Only these men will go the full monty. Well, yesterday I saw it live! I went to see the musical version of "The Full Monty" and I have to say that it's the most hilarious musical I ever saw. The story was very similar to the movie and the songs were great. The leading actors were perfectly cast. Especially Dave and the suicidal Martin. They were also the funniest men of the group.
In the movie you don't actually see them going the full monty, because you see their behind. But in the musical we saw every bit of it! Reviews said it only took 3 seconds. Well, it was a little bit more then three seconds. I think it's very brave of those guys to do that every night in front of so many people (mostly women). They got a loud applause and they had to come back for like three or four times. It's a great musical and if it plays in your country, please go see it. It's a real treat. As you can see, I had a lot of fun:

All Shook Up - Love Me Tender

Yesterday I had a great evening. My mom and I went to see the musical "All Shook Up - Love Me Tender". It's a story about falling in love and it has 25 hits of Elvis in it. The songs were in Dutch off course, but that didn't bother me at all. Rene van Kooten was the leading man. He's my favorite musical actor. I've also seen him in "Beauty and the Beast" and "Les Miserables". For that last one he won a very important musical award. He's a great singer and actor. The leading lady was Brigitte Heitzer. She once attented a talent show, where she won the role of Evita. I never saw Brigitte in a musical, but I liked her performances I saw on T.V. I voted for her when she was in the race of becoming Evita. After last night, I'm even a bigger fan. She gave me goosebumps (that's a good thing)! She stole the show with her humor, spontaneity and her incredible voice.
My favorite song of Elvis always was "Falling in Love". It was also the toppoint in this musical, before the break. It gave me chills over my whole body! It was a wonderfull, funny, swinging and happy musical. I want to see it again!!!!

Here are some photo's:

Movie Tip #29 - West Side Story

Director: Jerome Robbins

Starring: Russ Tamblyn, George Chakiris, Richard Beymer, Natalie Wood

Description: Two warring New York City gangs- the white Jets led by Riff (Russ Tamblyn) and the Puerto Rican Sharks, led by Bernardo (George Chakiris). Their hatred escalates to a point where neither can coexist with any form of understanding. But when Riff's best friend (and former Jet) Tony (Richard Beymer) and Bernardo's younger sister Maria (Natalie Wood) meet at a dance, no one can do anything to stop their love. Maria and Tony begin meeting in secret, planning to run away. Then the Sharks and Jets plan a rumble under the highway - whoever wins gains control of the streets. Maria sends Tony to stop it, hoping it can end the violence.

Review: Every musical fan loves this movie. It's personally my favourite and most beloved musical ever. I haven't seen it in real life though. The story is a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The music is catchy and beautiful. "West Side Story" was best picture at the 1961 Academy Awards. My favourite song is "Maria". If your name is Maria, your a very lucky girl.... haha. For musical lovers it's a classic!

New musical adventures

My mom and I like to go to musicals, like I once said. We allready have two musicals to look forward to. On november 26th we will go and see "Love Me Tender". A musical with songs by Elvis Prestley. The other one is "The Full Monty" on january 14th. I wrote a review of the movie last monday and I'm a big fan of the film. I'm really excited and very curious about both musicals. The first one will be in november, so we have to wait a while, but I'm really looking forward to it!!

X Joyce

Joseph

Yesterday I went to see the musical "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat" in a theatre in Heerlen (The Netherlands). I was really excited about it, because I'm a huge musical fan. My mom and I always save money for these events. In october there was a TV show where they were looking for the leading man for this musical. Freek Bartels (my personal favorite) won. But he didn't play the role of Joseph yesterday. Shame, but Hein Gerrits, who I once saw in a dutch version of "Grease" , was also wonderfull. "Joseph" is a swingin, colorfull, happy and funny show with a lot of different music styles. The best performance was by Renee van Wegberg, who played the narrator. What a voice!!! My mom and I enjoyed the show and we are allready looking forward to the next musical. Then you will read about it here!

X Joyce