What a 'Wicked' show - Theatre Royal Plymouth

'Are people born wicked or do they have wickedness thrust upon them..? 

Wicked is the show to beat all shows, I am an avid Theatre fan and have been lucky enough to watch many shows in London and in the Theatre Royal Plymouth over the years. So it's a big statement for me to make, but Wicked goes above and beyond and offers an electrifying performance to make all other shows go green with envy!

It is one of the shows that I have been wanting to see since it began in London but had not had the opportunity to see it before. I was shocked when I found out that the international award winning show was heading down to Plymouth (nothing ever comes to Plymouth!) as part of the Wicked UK tour. After speaking with quite a few people over on twitter it seems that a lot of people are already familiar with it or have had the chance to watch Wicked already, and I had only heard good things about the show! Wicked originally started out in Broadway and a few years later arrived to the West End where it has been for a number of years. Wicked has become a world wide phenomenon and sees people from all over the world flocking to watch it.

Wicked The Musical arrived to Plymouth on the 20th January and is here to stay until February 14th which is a nice long time for a touring show. I was lucky enough to attend Wednesdays performance and upon arrival at the Theatre Royal Plymouth I knew we were in for a 'wicked' evening. The entrance to the Theatre was illuminated with green lighting and which invited us onto the green carpet, I felt like this was a great touch to the whole experience and really set everyone up for the show ahead.

Wicked follows on from the story of The Wizard of Oz and contains elements of it throughout the show. In short it picks up from where the story ended and goes on to tell the story from Elphabas (the wicked witch) side of things as told by Glinda, who are the two main characters and where the tale starts off with the two of them meeting at Sorcery school. As a heads up the following does contain a few spoilers about the plot of the show!

It nails the stereotypical American high school cliche and singles out Elphaba as the outcast because of her sickeningly green appearance and as the girl who has no friends, as opposed to Glinda, the posh and popular girl at school who everyone wants to know. As the story progresses it shows how their initial unlikely pairing blossoms into a perfect relationship, and which in turn unfolds into the darker side of life in Oz when Elphaba realises her true powers which leads them on an adventure to the Emerald City in search of the wizard. The wizard misuses Elphabas power to his benefit and  which leads her down a dark spiralling turn of events which makes her out to indeed be the Wicked Witch of the West.

We are initially led to believe that Elphaba might be as wicked as she is made out but as the story unfolds we get to see the true picture of what actually happened and how the both girls help each other in the end to get justice. 

The whole show had me hooked from the opening scene and the acting, costumes and scenery were second to none and I really cannot find any faults with the whole show.. It had me spellbound from the word go! 

If you do live in Plymouth I would strongly recommend you all to visit the show even if you've seen it before (I know I want to go again!), it's here until February 14th and you will be sorry to miss out on this show stopper - you can buy your tickets here! Wicked is currently touring round the UK so it might be coming to a city near you soon, you can find that out here. If you want to see a little taster of the show check out the official Wicked trailer below...

  Have you seen Wicked before? What are your thoughts on the show?

Follow me on Bloglovin , Twitter , Instagram

First time cruiser!

I recently embarked on my first cruise which was with Royal Caribbean on the Independence Of The Seas and it was a Mediterranean cruise for 2 weeks. The port of calls were Vigo, Lisbon,Gibraltar,Valencia,Barcelona,Ibiza,Palma de Mallorca and Cadiz.Choosing a cruise for a holiday had never been something that i ever thought about and i often associated it with something that older people enjoyed. When my parents asked if i wanted to join them and my sister i jumped at the chance. Needless to say it exceeded any expectations i had beforehand.

The ship docked in Lisbon

Upon arriving to Southampton which is where we would embark for our cruise, the car parking there was so easy and our luggage was taken away to then be delivered outside our cabins later that day..how convenient! We were able to check in at 2pm to our cabins and our bags were already waiting there for us.

The cabin - We had an inside stateroom cabin, my visions of it beforehand were of a tiny room on a local ferry crossing! I was so shocked at actually how big the room was,with 2 single beds a sofa and also plenty of storage spaces for all of our clothes! Our stateroom attendant was called Alfina and her service was fantastic,nothing was too much trouble and the rooms were cleaned twice daily. Every alternate day they also left behind a towel animal ranging from a bat to a dog, such a great touch and something i always got excited about seeing in the evening!

Our stateroom

My favourite towel animal

The dining options - We were with my time dining and our dining room was King Lear on deck 5, most nights when we returned we were on the same table and always had the same waiters who were both from the Philippines which i loved as it was nice to build a friendship with them. Again the service was second to none and we were always well fed and the meals i did enjoy, however as i am a fussy eater i ate the chicken breast meal for two weeks, to say i was bored by the end was an understatement! But for those who enjoy eating different cuisines this is fantastic for you. For all other occasions of breakfast,lunch and dinner and also snacks on those days when we were at port the Windjammer buffet catered to those needs. I have never seen so much food in my life!!!They really did cater for all your needs including special dietary needs, for children and foods from different countries. It enables you to try a bit of everything and eat as much or a little as you like. I loved the buffet but it really is hard to resist those cakes!!

The grand dining room

The entertainment - Every night there would be a show on in the Alhambra Theatre which would be on at two different times so you were able to fit it around your dining time so you would never miss out. All the acts i saw were brilliant including a hypnotist,Queen tribute act,magician,love and marriage show,dancers,comedians my list could go on. They also had an ice rink where there were a few shows throughout the cruise this was fantastic to watch and hard to believe you could do all of this at sea!

Alhambra Theatre

Needless to say i could write pages and pages about this holiday but this is a summary of the cruise and i will try to do some more in depth blog posts in the next week or so! I honestly did have the most amazing holiday on my first cruise and i think i will find it hard to have a holiday which comes close to this.I really do recommend a cruise 100%!! 

Dining with a view of the Rock Of Gibraltar

Have any of you ever cruised before? I would love to hear about your experiences!