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Seen: May 28th, 2011
Circustheater, Scheveningen

Read about our first visit here!

As stated at the end of my first MP post, I wanted to see Noortje as Mary sooo bad, I just had to buy tickets again. I opted for a Saturday night, as that is the most likely performance to see the #1 cast and no understudies or alternates on stage.

Got the tickets as a Birthday present for Sabine, so the two of us went to Scheveningen and had a lovely junkfood dinner 🙂 We were crossing our fingers as we entered the theatre and looked for the announcement about that night’s cast… and almost screamed when we saw: Mary Poppins – Noortje Herlaar. YES YES YES!

I had a smile from ear to ear and I think I’ve been smiling the whole evening. Noortje as Mary was all I had hoped for… and more. She’s not ‘Practically Perfect’, she just IS perfect, period! What an actress and what a voice. I could finally enjoy the show and saw things I missed last time (because of me being sick :p)

The cast is an enthousiastic bunch of people! The eyes of the public are always on centre stage, so I had fun looking at different parts of the stage and still see concentration and devotion eventhough they were not in the spotlights. That’s how it should be and believe me, I’ve seen enough shows to know it can be different!

Last time we saw William Spaaij as Bert and although I would have loved to see William and Noortje act together (they became a couple in real life during the rehearsals and I’m a sucker for romance :D) it was a pleasant surprise to see Mathijs as Bert. Mathijs took part in the search for Joseph but was voted off in show 6. His Bert was great! And when we caught him on his way from the stagedoor to the tourbus, he turned out to be a really sweet guy (and according to Sabine: HOT! Lol)

On a side note, the majority of the cast lives in Amsterdam and it’s a hectic drive to Scheveningen (The Hague) that’s why most musical productions have a tourbus, so the cast can get to and from the theatre in a relaxed way instead of stressing through traffic jams.

We usually wait a little before we go to the stagedoor as the actors have to take their make up off, take a shower and drink something before they come out. This time we went straight after the performance and were happy we did as they all seemed to be in a hurry (I don’t even think Noortje took her make up off) and the bus left within 20 min. So we were lucky to catch up with Noortje and she willingly posed for pics. Bless her!

All in all a wonderful night. I finally got to see my heroine and enjoyed the show much more than last time.

Last week was announced that August 28th will be the final performance of Mary Poppins as the theatre has to get ready for WICKED!!! But that’s another story 😀

Here’s a video of the ‘Search for Mary Poppins’, with both Sophie (became alternate Mary Poppins) and Noortje singing ‘Practically Perfect’ in Dutch

Just noticed I opened up PSP for the last time at April 2nd. That’s well over a month ago…

I’m afraid if I don’t find my mojo soon, I’ll never do anything artistic again!

**PANIC MODE**

Any good tips?

Absolutely LOVE this Google doodle 🙂

Soldaat van Oranje, de musical
Opening night: October 30th, 2010
Seen: March 4th, 2011, TheaterHangaar, Valkenburg

The musical is based on the book by Erik Hazelhoff Roelfzema, who wrote about his life during WWII. Often called a hero, Roelfzema hated the word. At the start of the war, no one knew where it would lead to, what could happen, how it would affect people. Matteo van der Grijn, who plays Erik in the musical said: “It’s all about making choices. I have never been in a situation where I had to make such important decisions, thank goodness – so I can’t say which decision I would have made.”
The students, featured in the musical, all make different choices. Several of them feel they have to do something NOW and get involved with the resistance, one of them focuses on getting his degree and goes on studying as if there was no war. Others end up on ‘the wrong side’ and collaborate with the German invaders. To me that’s the most important message of the musical. You can’t judge people if you haven’t been in the same situation. And even then it’s hard to judge as no human is alike and we all have different priorities, fears, future goals, family circumstances, etc.

The theatre – build in a hangar at former Militairy Airport Valkenburg – is one of a kind. The different sets are build in a circle and can be closed by -floor to ceiling- sliding doors/walls. In the middle is a revolving platform with 1103 comfortable chairs. By moving the platform the audience is taken to the next scene and that gives it a special dimension. No more set changes, the doors close – and are used as video wall where pictures and movies are projected, as addition to the storyline – the platform moves and the doors open again, ready for the next scene.

The musical ticket was a present from my mom and dad (TY!!) and, as they both experienced the war, I was particularly curious to know what they thought of the show. I could hear them take a sharp breath in when the German flags were shown and people made the Hitler salute by lifting their straightened right arm up in the air. My mom told me: “I felt shivers down my spine and was suddenly thrown back in time. I could feel the fear when I heard the sound of marching soldiers, their boots stamping on the streets… very emotional.”
The sniffing and use of handkerchiefs showed many more people were touched by what they saw.
For me it was the combination of strong lyrics, great music, the emotion of the scenes and the impact the war had on my parents’ life that made me tear up several times. After the show I was torn between highs and lows. I felt drained, numb, and at the same time overpowered by what I saw, excited about some of the technical things and grateful for my life in freedom – the mix of feelings stayed with me for a few days.

This review is already far too long, but I want to add that I was blown away by the technical stuff. The sea with rolling waves, the speed of the motorbike driving around the platform, the Dakota and part of the cast at the runway – which was shown by opening the outside doors of the hangar, where you could feel the cold – and the last scene when Matteo/Erik at the end of a powerful song puts his leather jacket on, starts his motorbike and drives off of the stage, onto the runway, makes a sharp turn right and disappears – stunning!
I am so happy that I got a chance to see this musical and I really hope to see it again. There’s so much happening on stage which catches your attention, I’m sure I’ve missed a lot of details because of that.
To be continued… I hope!

Love love love this one!

119th Birthday of the first documented Sundae Icecream 🙂