Wonderland the Musical (Review)

On the final night performing at the Empire Theatre in Liverpool, Wonderland, a musical created by Frank Wildhorn, boasted a lively, loud and colourful show to a very willing audience. Opening immediately with a song lead by Kerry Ellis playing Alice in an outfit that I was surprised to see looking so ordinary for this crazy story, the cast hooked the theatre from the start. Her voice instantly presented itself as powerful and left me with an open mouth in awe and was a nice match at the beginning with the ensemble around her, as she sang about her life and tells the audience, through the song, that it was her birthday. On the same morning, she got her car stolen and consequently is fired.

The ensemble being a fixed part of the show, portraying both the “real life” people and the known characters in Wonderland, was excellent. One cast member, Benjamin McMillan, playing Tweedledum 1 stood out as soon as he walked onstage, showing his strength through very pronounced dancing and executed impressive contemporary choreography around props.

To my knowledge, a few of the cast I saw playing their characters were understudies but they played their parts like they’d never known any different. They owned their costumes, their songs and lines and choreography. Toyan Thomas-Browne played the caterpillar in a very sassy and humorous way, bringing an excellent way of carrying that vivid costume (and those pants) to a point where it was hard not to notice him. Toyan gave a diva-like performance of his soulful solo, “Advice from a Caterpillar,” surrounded by four amazing dancers, bringing a new, fresh side to the chilled caterpillar otherwise well-known.  Confusing yet insightful, the song lyrically prompts Alice to start her journey of reflection.

Along with Alice on this journey was Jack, her neighbour “from downstairs” who dreams of being a singer, and her daughter, Ellie. Jack, played by a very charismatic Stephen Webb, brought laughter and seduction to his songs. His costume, somewhere between a hero from a fairytale and what looked like a visual impression of George Michael, added to the bizarre wonder of the show. Naomi Morris gave a very noticeable performance through soft solos as Ellie, Alice’s daughter who was seen as clever to the people of Wonderland, mainly to the Mad Hatter. Both Jack’s and Ellie’s transformations through the looking glass gave a very different side to their characters. Jack, once unable to even talk to Alice, began to serenade her with no small amount of exaggerated hip rolls in her direction, whilst Ellie sheds her “grown-up” persona and becomes the widely gesturing teenager who just wants her mum back to the way they used to be.

Another startling character transformation was the “bonkers (it’s in the name)” Mad Hatter, who becomes a strong-voiced rebellious leader who adds to the theme of tyranny in the show by enslaving Wonderland in a bid to overthrow the Queen of Hearts. Her powerful and intense solo of “I Will Prevail” gripped the audience, letting the hidden, new side of the Hatter show in the centre of a darker set. Francesca Gordon, who pulled off her character with ultimate talent, sported a fantastic costume in purple, complete with the signature top hat whilst singing atop a platform, raised and tilted to give the Hatter a sense of higher status over the workers she employs in her factory.

Another powerful voice adding to the mix was the surprising appearance of Wendi Peters as the Queen of Hearts, to which the comment was made of, “She’s off Coronation Street, right?” Yes, she was, and what a different impression she gave from the one on the cobbled streets. Wendi Peters gave a captivating and funny stage presence to not only rule over Wonderland but the stage on which it was set. Her costume, a red dress complete with a tartan inner layer seen through a leg split in the garment, gave her an elegant look as she hurried herself across the stage in outrageously high-heeled shoes, nibbling happily on her jam tarts.

There were two moving songs that were inspiring in an unexpected way: “Finding Wonderland”, beautifully led  by Kerry Ellis with the chorus adding harmonies and power to the song, and “This Is Who I Am”, shared by Kerry Ellis and Francesca Gordon in a revelation of finding their true selves. With lyrics created by Jack Murphy, each song carries the story beautifully in an enchanting, captivating way.

Reality goes up against make-believe lunacy in Wonderland as a musical about turning back time and how it’s never too late to find and live a dream. It is moved along by touching ballads and up-beat, well-choreographed numbers, all performed around incredible set designs and emphasised by cleverly planned lighting with costumes which makes each character stand out in their own talented way. Kerry Ellis played her part of Alice excellently and lead a very talented cast through what I felt was a show that will stay as one of my favourites throughout my time visiting the Empire Theatre.

Holding Up the Universe (Review)

Title: Holding Up the Universe

Author: Jennifer Niven

Genre: Young Adult/Contemporary

Rating: 4*

Immediately, starting this book, interest sparks. In the first page, a disorder is spoken of: prosopagnosia, which means face-blindness. It’s mentioned in a letter, telling the reader that whoever is writing it is about to do an awful thing. That whoever turns out to be Jack Massalin, and he is struggling in school because of this disorder.

Libby Strout, the female protagonist making up one of the two viewpoints that carry the narratives, has a very different story. Her first chapter, consisting of just less than two pages gives intense information about her. Her mother has died, she wants to join the Damsels—her school’s dance team (her school that she hasn’t attended since fifth grade and is now going to be a junior). There are stats; Libby’s story is her weight and how that affects her life. Immediately, Jennifer Niven states just how big she is and just how much she lets that panic her at first. How Libby gets through her life and all the time she spent locked away from society is found in books, from which she writes quotes on her shoes, the first one being: “As long as you live, there’s always something waiting; and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do? You can’t stop living.” As a reader who has similar panic issues to going out, this quote struck me and it made me realise that this was a book I really needed to read and and not just one I wanted to read.

Both central characters have a massive, obvious problem that alters their daily life. Every moment, the story is about how they either overcome it or, in Jack’s case, disguise it. Libby’s endurance mechanism at first? Smile at everyone, fake the confidence until it comes to her a lot more naturally, be herself. She seems to contain her unhappiness in herself so she doesn’t outwardly spread it. Jack’s mechanism? Being a great jerk without entirely meaning to.

Having a cancer-survivor of a cheating father and being undiagnosed with prosopagnosia, Jack is immediately shown as having to rely on identifiers of people he knows at school and at home, even with his mother. He relies on two boys at school who are even worse than him to others because otherwise he’d be lost in a sea of faces he can’t recognise. Jack makes lists, which is something I liked in the book. He lists why he likes something, or his embarrassing moments, and he lists how to make a robot, his younger brother’s Christmas present.

Jack and Libby have their first interaction in a situation that sets a lot of things off in the story. Despite her panic and fear and past, Libby continues to go to school and is completely herself. Her confidence grows and grows and is inspiring to read, knowing how much she went through, the hate she received, and then how much she starts to believe in herself. Then Fat Girl Rodeo happens, which involves the “shitty thing” Jack states he’s going to do in his letter at the very beginning: by being the boy to “grab onto” Libby, the fat girl. He knows how awful it is and how humiliating it would be for her but he goes along with his two friends, Seth and Kam, to fit in, to keep his dependability in school on them.

What Fat Girl Rodeo starts: Jack seeing Libby, which becomes incredibly important later on in the story; the breaking down of Jack’s insecurity that he needs to be horrible to fit in; Libby’s weight gaining more attention, turning into bullying, which becomes the fuel she gets to find further self-empowerment; Libby gaining a group of friends who stand up for her as well as just be her friend for wanting to be and the Conversation Circle.

A major thing that stands out from Fat Girl Rodeo is that nobody cares as much as they should about Libby getting grabbed because it wasn’t sexual assault. As a reader, that was angering to read—that nobody cared even though she was touched beyond her will and wasn’t let go of until she had to physically throw off the boy and then got into trouble for punching him in the mouth, which is completely supported. Her initial anger towards Jack at humiliating her in front of everyone in their high school slowly dies off when she finally discovers the letter he wrote about his disorder (undiagnosed, heavily researched at the time) and in the Conversation Circle they’re forced to attend each week, they talk and they grow closer.

Eventually, Libby attends a hospital appointment with Jack so he can be properly tested for prosopagnosia, where he’s told he has a very severe case of it. (Because, as I joked with my mum, characters in books cannot just have something in a minor way; they have to have the full, awful thing, which in Jack’s case, adds to his torment.) But his face-blindness is an intense thing, from something as minor as passing the ball to a boy on the opposite team during a basketball game in the Conversation Circle, to kissing a girl who looks like his on-off girlfriend, Caroline, when it turned out to be her cousin, to not getting a response from his younger brother at a kids’ party and ends up trying to drag the wrong boy out with him.

Meanwhile, Libby is receiving notes in her lockers: “You aren’t wanted.” Students involve themselves in the meanest way possible in Libby’s past once it comes out that she was the girl from the news story a while ago, when she had to be cut out of her house, which went national. Whilst Jack is pretending to be someone that he isn’t, Libby never pretends to be anyone else. All she tries to do is be a more confident version of her. Throughout the book, Libby has a rise and fall in her confidence, as many people do with a warped vision of themselves. One minute she is psyching herself up to march on; the next minute she’s writing horrible comments about herself in the girl’s bathroom before anyone else can. Even throughout the bouts of falling, Libby is a very inspiring character, in the sense that despite her weight and how she is perceived, she still does things. She refuses to lose weight for a costume if she was accepted into the Damsels because she’s already proud of who she is and what she’s achieved already. She still sees her friend Rachel and her friends she makes in school from when she used to go, and she still goes on a date with Jack, once they start understanding each other a lot more. Libby, despite her panic, goes out and that really hit me.

Overall, I was surprised of how easily Libby forgives Jack and starts to feel attracted to him but that’s just how she seems to be: she feels sorry for the people who do wrong by her more than angry. Which leads to one pivotal moment in her life: “This is your moment in history. This belongs to you,” and then Libby stands in the school hallway in a purple bikini with the words, I am wanted scrawled over her stomach. Libby stands up for herself and hands out flyers explaining what the notes had said and how she wants everyone to know that they are wanted and those who say otherwise obviously have massive insecurities of their own to stoop to the lowest level of verbally hurting somebody.

Holding Up the Universe is a beautiful story wrapped in family, paranoia, friends, self-love and perception. It’s the story of a girl who is never seen past her weight until one boy who can’t recognise faces finally sees her and sees everything in her. Surrounded by a tormented household where his mother and father decide to separate after his father breaks of a side relationship, he finally plucks up the courage to tell his family about his disorder, because of Libby’s courage in herself. Libby Strout stole this book for me entirely—she inspired me page after page and ignited a new motivation in me. She’s had it a lot worse; if she can do it then surely I, as an inspired reader, can too.

Plagued by the panic of her mother’s death hanging over her every time her chest tightens, Libby still lives and loves and dances freely and expresses herself, ending one of her final chapters with a note: “You are the only you there is. Don’t be afraid to leave the castle. It’s a great big world out there.”

I loved this book and found it to be a book I needed to read and wasn’t disappointed, with the passion and courage and inspiration pouring from the pages.

Marry, Kiss, Cliff (Sarah J. Maas version)

Game time! A new sort of blog post! I saw another blogger playing this game and I've never played it so I thought I'd do my own version. On the same blog, I saw cliff replacing kill which gave it a more humorous vibe so I thought I'd follow suit.

Aaaand, as I'm a massive fan of Sarah J. Maas books and currently reading A Court of Wings and Ruin, I thought I'd theme it up accordingly. SO, I asked Twitter to give me some names and then I asked two friends, who gave me really hard choices. So, here are my decisions:

Celaena, Dorian, Nehemia -

I actually struggled over this one. I love all three of those characters; one meets an unfortunate fate anyway so I'm NOT doing to do them bad by chucking them off a cliff. I'd push Celaena off a cliff, just to see her climb back up (because let's face it, she probably would be able to, DID YOU READ THAT SCENE WHERE SHE HAD TO SCALE THE PALACE IN THRONE OF GLASS???!). Don't get me wrong, I'd run away fast when I pushed her because she'd KILL me but I do truly believe that if she can survive all she does in the books, she can handle a cliff dive. (I'm being nice, okay?)

I'd kiss Dorian because he's kissed a lot of girls so I think it'd be really nice to have a kiss off him and he'd probably make it enjoyable and lingering. Also, he's a prince. I'd definitely kiss him.

And I'd marry Nehemia. She's so beautifully described and like she'd be a really good queen alone but having a partnership with her would be so powerful and amazing. I'd definitely want to be Nehemia's love.

Cassian, Helion, Lucien -

This one is a little harder as I've not yet met Helion in A Court of Wings and Ruin BUT I've read so much about him on the internet and through my friend who has already read it. Still... I'd marry Cassian because I ADORE Cassian and he could fly with me, and also kiss me miles above ground and twirl me around in the air and make it scary and cute. I'd kiss Lucien just to know what would happen to be honest. And I'd push Helion off a cliff (which seems bad because I don't truly know him and I may regret making this decision) to see that if he knocked his head, would any weird thoughts get rearranged about the trio in the Inner Circle. *laughing-crying face*.

I thought, push Cassian off a cliff, he can fly but I'm not doing my favourite male in the book wrong like that and I wouldn't marry Helion or Lucien sooooo.

Beron, Tamlin, King of Hybern -

gODDAMIT. Well, I did ask for three characters my friend hated from the books.

Okay, I'd push Beron off a cliff, definitely. And I hope it's a massive cliff and there are sharp rocks at the bottom. I'd kiss Tamlin because for all his faults, Feyre did like kissing him at one point so he's the best option. And I'd marry the King of Hybern (even though I've not got his full, horrible story) because of the power in the position and I'd pull a Feyre move whilst married to him and turn his people against him, maybe form a rebellion and become a loved queen for overthrowing a tyrant. Can a queen overthrow her king? *looks at Red Queen* yes, I think they can, very craftily.

Mor, Amren, Nesta -

Daaaaamn. No, actually, this one is easy. I'd definitely marry Amren (man, I love her so much). I'd kiss Mor because who DOESN'T want to kiss Mor? And I'd push Nesta off a cliff because of how awful she was to Feyre in the first book and I hope it's a really small cliff that she can find her back to the top of and kick me across Prythian for it just so I could be blessed with her wrath. I have a thing for wanting to see the kick-ass side of females come out.

So there! I literally had to sit thinking of some of these for ten minutes because they were so hard. But I definitely want to do more book-themed games like this. Send me any suggestions on Twitter @ShaneDReid!

Also, I'll be posting two reviews on here as well either tonight or tomorrow, one for Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven, and one for a theater show I went to see called Wonderland so look out for them if you're a fan of either, or debating whether to read/watch either one!

Where I'm At.

It's 7am as I write this; I've been awake since 4am and have A LOT of writing to do today. In these hours, I've been reading through and updating my blog. I read back on the post of Imperial Infiltration's progress and thought I'd take the opportunity to properly state where I'm at with that.

First off, I finished an incredible read of Holding Up the Universe by Jennifer Niven yesterday. I've had the book on my to-be-read for months after loving (and being a little broken by) All the Bright Places and finally crawled through my reading pile enough to read it. Completely. Adored. I took notes as soon as I finished for a review I'll be writing on it! I want to get that down before starting A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J. Maas sometime today.

But Imperial Infiltration's progress. For those who follow me on social media, you'll have noticed that I've been posting about querying agents again. (Again, as in, remember three years ago when a too-young me took this path with The Huntress's Curse?) I'm querying because I've scrapped the idea of self publishing. In turn, I've scrapped the post "officially" announcing the decision to self-publish, which was hard because I read over it and saw how happy and excited I was to give out that news. But I believe that I'll one day deliver better news about my books, announcements backed up by a lot more than just myself. After making that post, I went on a week's holiday to Corfu without my laptop, which was needed and beautiful and gave me a lot of time to research and think over my decision. I found a new article that suggested self-publishing wasn't the path for the sort of writer that I want to be. To achieve that, I need to go back to querying, as I did three years ago, and bite back the negativity associated with rejections. Self-publishing wasn't as cost-effective as I'd originally thought. However, I did get to see an amazing book cover and the start of a map for Imperial Infiltration.

As soon as I got home from Corfu, I began writing my query letter. I, of course, forgot how tedious it was. I got everything prepared, edited, polished and I sent off the requested sample pages and a query letter to three agents. That was another change from last time I queried. I needed much smaller batches of agents at a time to save rejection confusion and to improve my content each time and make it better with each submission batch. Three rejections later, I'm moving onto researching my next three. Now, these next three that I'm querying have asked for a little more content. They want longer samples, a cover letter, a query letter and a synopsis.

If you've ever had to write a synopsis, you'll understand the despair I'm in when I say that I'm working on it and wondering what the hell my book is about. Honestly, I'm torn between how can I neatly and passionately (enough) condense my 300-odd page/120,000 word novel into a one-page synopsis and keep things interesting, and what even is the purpose of this story down to one sentence? Through this panic, I realised I was looking at the question the wrong way. I was comparing my story to other, very different stories and wondering why my hook didn't sound like theirs. That's because Imperial Infiltration is more of a mental journey of finding oneself and making peace with a past and a present and lives that seem to fly beyond control. It's not a massive action story until the second book comes into play. So to explain that this is a story twisted around grief and questions and mental struggles is okay because that's what I've chosen to write about. But still, how do I make it interesting enough?

At the moment, I have a very, very awful rough draft of a synopsis, plus a better one half-done. Which rounds me back nicely to my writing list today:

• I have two reviews to write, one for HUTU and one for a very insightful and surprisingly inspiring musical that I saw last night, which I'll be uploading onto here.
• I have three more query letters to tailor to three more agents.
• A synopsis to finish and polish because I'll never get an agent if I don't finish it and send it off.
• I'll be writing more on my magician story (which has taken a really good albeit crazy turn).
• I need to write a cover letter, different to my query letter, which needs to feature an author bio of which I have one thing for, which won't be stressful to write AT ALL.
• On top of that, I'll be looking over my sample chapters again for anything missed last time.

But it's only 7:25am and I have many, many hours ahead of me to get this done, or at least make a caffeine-drenched, impressionable progress with this list.