A Magical night at Magical Musicals Gala Premiere

[EDIT] I've finally uploaded a few videos onto youtube! Check it out here :)

It was one magical musical indeed! Thanks to allMalaysia.info and Sunway Lagoon, I was given a pair of tickets for the gala premier as well :) Thanks to Diese for collecting my tickets! I left work so late and the traffic was so heavy!

If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have gotten good seats ^^

The queue was never ending! It stretched from Sunway Lagoon's entrance all the way to Pyramid 2's entrance (J. CO)! We only managed to enter Sunway Lagoon after 8pm.

Look at the queue!

Mix.fm Breakfast show DJs JD & Dilly entertaining the crowd outside the amphitheatre

:)

As mentioned in my previous post, this musical is about 6 budding actors who are trying to make it big in New York. The 6 main characters are Danny(played by Stephen Weller) and Megan (played by Stevie Tate Baeur); Josh (played by Gareth Heesom) and Amber (LJ Neilson); Ryan (played by Neil Couperthwaite) and Stephanie (played by Amanda Salmon).

The show was split into two acts; Act 1 introduces the main characters which takes place in Times Square, New York. Megan and Danny are a couple from Seattle and they are desperate to leave their hometown and work in New York. Amber and Josh are a young couple who are very much in love. Stephanie is an actress from Baltimore and is attracted to shy guy, Ryan. Act 2 takes place 5 years later with the girls starring in Dreamgirls in Times Square, Megan and Danny on their honeymoon, Stephanie getting proposed to by Ryan.

ACT 1

Don't Stop Me Know
Good Morning Baltimore
Welcome to the 60s
You Can't Stop the Beat
Tonight
America
You're the One That I Want
Greased Lightning
Summer Nights
I Need a Hero
Footloose
As Long As You're Mine
Defying Gravity
Shakalaka Baby & Jaiho

We were all super excited to watch the 2nd half of the show! The first half too as we only saw them in plain clothes, no makeup, no costumes, and no fancy lightings or pyro effects. hahaha.

View of the stage from my seat

Aaron Soo, CEO of Sunway, appeared from the stage lift singing (!) gave a short and sweet speech knowing that we all were sooo excited and couldn't wait for the show!

Director Chris Colby and choreographer David Kort giving their short speech as well


Moments later, the lights dimmed and show started!

Stephanie and Ryan during the opening

Dancers; Gwen Reyes and Sean Smith during 'Tonight'

Megan up on the balcony during 'Tonight'

Danny joins Megan on the 'balcony' for Tonight

Stephanie, Amber, and the dancers during 'America'
(They're wearing the Sg. Wang Couture pieces^^)

Beautiful lighting effect created by the Disco Ball during Megan & Danny's 'As Long As You're Mine' performance

Megan on the stage lift for 'Defying Gravity'

Shakalaka Baby / Jaiho was awesome with the fire effects!

The Bhangra drummers and fire blowers (not in pic) literally ended the first half with a loud BANG (actually, quite a no. of bangs)! Awesome? There's still the 2nd half!

[15 minutes intermission]

Act 2
Dreamgirls
One Night Only
Go to Distance
Night Fever
If I can't Have You
Reflections
The Elephant love medley
Don't Stop Believin'
Don't Rain on My Parade
One Less Bell to Answer
Singing in the Rain / Umbrella
We Will Rock You / We Are The Champions
Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!
Mamma mia!
Dancing Queen
Money, Money, Money
Proud Mary

Amber, Megan, and Stephanie opening the 2nd half of the show with Dreamgirls in glitzy and glamarous dresses

The pyro curtain was used during Dreamgirls ^^

Danny singing 'Go to Distance'

Stephanie and Ryan during 'If I Can't Have You'

Danny, Josh, Amber, Megan, and Ryan during the 'Elephant Medley'

This scene made the audience all go 'Awwwww~~~'
Ryan finally proposed to Stephanie

After that, they sang a few songs from GLEE! Stephen 'hinted' earlier that they 'might' be doing 'Don't Stop Believin' which they DID perform! It was sooooo awesome! We were a little disappointed during the 'Umbrella' performance because the lights on the umbrellas weren't working :( After the show, we asked, David what happened to the umbrellas and he said ,'It was made in CHINA!'. LOL. He mentioned that they'll revamp the umbrellas with UV paint~ That'll be cool!

Under my umbrella ella ella ey ey ey~

They ended the show with another favourite medley of 'Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!', 'Mamma Mia!', 'Dancing Queen', and 'Money, Money, Money'. Everyone was singing along with the cast. It was super duper fun-tastic! They sang 'Proud Mary' for their encore. I had so much fun and the cast really did an amazing job! I can't wait for another production like this.

Had an awesome time with the girls too!

If it wasn't for this show, I would have never met these cool bunch of people; Diese, Shemah, Lily, Camie, Serge, Merryn, and Christy! You guys made that night so much more memorable. Thanks to Shemah's little angels, we got an excuse to go backstage to meet the cast after the show. Hahahaha. If it weren't for them, I don't think I would have the courage to walk so 'selamba saja'. Only managed to meet Amanda, Chris, and David though.

So, if you are a musical fan or you just wanna have a good time, go and watch this musicals! Satisfaction guaranteed! I was singing the whole time :) Visit HERE to purchase your tickets priced at RM100 (yellow zone), RM200 (blue zone), RM250 (red zone), and RM300 (VIP). In my opinion, go for the red zone (or VIP) as the cast interacts with the audiences in that zone which makes it much more fun!

Seating plan

Oh, and if you're worried abt the heat, don't be. They added in HUGE HUGE fans in the amphitheatre and it was quite breezy throughout the night.

Can't really see them in the pic but these BIGASSFANS (That's what they're called!) really keeps the place cool

If it weren't for the fans, we'd all be sweltering

Thanks again to Sunway Lagoon and allMalaysian.info for allowing me meet up with the cast and also for the tix!

Hmmmm.... Next musical, 'Dreamgirls'~~ I'd love to go for that.

TTFN

Magical Musicals - Behind the Scenes

Just got back from the 'Behind the Scenes' not too long ago and I'm really impressed with what they have done this time! Plenty of improvements as compared to the last production (Peter Pan the Musical).

'Artistes only'

We were given the opportunity to visit backstage and their air-conditioned studio! Hahaha. Watched the rehearsal and it was AWESOME! Girls, grab your cameras, there's a number where the boys dance topless! lol. Hahaha. I'm not sure whether they're really going to be topless on that day itself :)

We only saw the first half of the show and I'm wanting more! The show is about 6 actors who want to make it big in New York~

Chris Colby, in green (Director) introducing the cast us.
(R-L) LJ Neilson, Natalie, international dancers + the choreographer, David Kort (tallest guy with blonde hair)

(L-R) Amanda Salmon, dancer, Gareth Heesom, Neil Couperthwaite, and Stevie Tate Bauer

Another picture of the some of the main cast with Stephen Weller (he's the guy in blue behind
Chris)

They opened with a number from Queen, 'Don't Stop Me Now'. Not very familiar with the song but the performance was very energetic! Then they sang 'Baltimore', 'Welcome to the 60s', and 'You Can't Stop the Beat' from Hairspray. It was so nice! I love it so very much~ Hairspray is one of my favourite musicals. They also sang 'America' from West Side Story.

Hairspray medley :)
Amanda starts off with 'Baltimore', followed by Stevie singing 'Welcome to the 60s', and ending with everyone singing 'You Can't Stop the Beat'!
the ending was missing because my memory card ran out of space :(

Next up was GREASE SONGS!! I ♥ Grease :) I think it's one of the first musicals I watched. They sang 'You're the one that I want' and 'Grease Lightning'. I remember we performed to 'Grease Lightning' for the Pyramid Ice Skating's production 'Festival of Jesters'. Fun times~ Kinda makes me miss performing.

They sang 'Holding Out For a Hero' from Footloose~ This is where the guys appeared topless. lol. A lot of lifts and spins in this number. The ceiling at the rehearsal studio was pretty low but they did it nonetheless. Well, they HAVE to sing FOOTLOOSE, of course right? I loved this song too~

Energetic performance of 'Footloose'

After that, they sang 'Wicked', 'Defying Gravity', Shakalaka Baby', and 'Jaiho'. The girls came out with those belly dancing belts. A little Bollywood touch to the production~ This was the last song they performed for the first half.

My take on this is, it's AWESOME! I'm a HUGE HUGE HUGE fan of musicals and this really is a MUST SEE! Lots of props and pyrotechnical effetcs (lol, yes, you probably already know that I'm a sucker for pyro effects >.<). Not only that, according to Chris, the director, this production will also throw in a fire eaters and Bhangra drummers. They'll also use a flame machine for 'Holding out for a Hero' and they'll have some wire stunts for 'Defying Gravity'. How cool is that? For the finale, they'll have a pyrotechnic waterfall.

The wonderful and elaborate stage

After wathcing their performance and the tour of the stage, we whisked back downstairs for a little chitchat session with the cast.

Chitchat with the girls and Chris (L-R: Stevie, Amanda, LJ, and Natalie)
They're really a friendly bunch

Stevie and Amanda showing us some of their favourite costumes

LJ showing a lovely glittery piece

Natalie donned a elaborate hairpiece/hat which will be worn during the finale

They were so happy to show us this Sungai Wang 'couture' piece

We got to visit Amanda & Stevie's dressing room! Amanda even showed us a pic of ther fiance who will be coming down to watch the show!

The girls' costumes are so glamorous and bling bling!

Why would you want to watch this production when there are other musicals out there?
Well, this wonderful production will consist of 35 songs all performed by casts from UK. The casts have experience performing at West End shows. One of them was the lead actress of Mamma Mia! The cast may be from UK but the stage was all built here in Malaysia by Malaysians. LJ who was played 'Wendy' from Peter Pan the Musical is also in this musical. Plus plus, fans of Glee and Rihanna raise your hands up! They'll perform songs from Glee and also Umbrella~ They will actually be using umbrellas with lights!

Here are more pictures of the cast in no particular order :)

LJ Neilson who will be playing Amber

Amanda lifted up by the dancers during 'Hero'

Stephen and Stevie singing a song about their love

Neil as Ryan

LJ and Gareth during 'Shakalaka'

I'll be attending the Grand Premier on June 10th thanks to AMBP and Sunway! Ticketing and showtime details can be found at this website. Bloggers and non-bloggers can win tickets to watch the show. Just mosey on over to this site.

BIG HUGE THANKS to Tracie and Nicholas from AMBP for choosing us lucky bloggers~ HUGE thanks to Kah Peng for showing us around.

Cast & Crew of Magical Muscial Some familiar faces from Peter Pan the Musical (incld LJ Neilson who played 'Wendy')

HUGE THANKS to the cast and crew of Magical Musicals for letting us have a peek :) They were so nice to us~ Had a blast~

Managed to snap a pic with Natalie and Neil before we left


Pic with the cast and bloggers! (credits:Sunway Lagoon FB page)