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Life upon the wicked stage: Already Perfect at Kings Head Theatre

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Performing two shows a day on a Broadway run sounds exhausting enough. But when you’ve just had a not-so-great matinee and are having a crisis of confidence, I would assume the last thing you’d want is to confront your past. Yet that’s the situation in Already Perfect, writer-performer Levi Kreis’s slightly autobiographical journey of confronting the past and his younger self. With a series of toe-tapping and emotional songs in a sleek production, you’re invited to experience someone else’s therapy session. And with a show title called Already Perfect, you know what kind of session this is going to be. It makes for a show where nothing is left unsaid, even if it is unnecessary,  unbelievable or best left on a greeting card. It’s currently playing at the King’s Head Theatre .  The story begins in his dressing room after a matinee, with Kreis alone. The show didn’t go so well. Struggling after being dumped by a lover, pressure mounting on the evening show being filmed for poster...

Theatre: Legally Blonde



I finally managed to catch Legally Blonde this week, the musical that channels your inner high schoolgirl almost as successfully as Wicked (albeit without the thrillifying sets or the deafening music), but snaps to the energy of the cast, which still holds up well despite not having Oliver award-winning Sheridan Smith in it.
It is easy to see why the show won the Olivier over the other contenders as it is a lot more fun than Love Never Dies, although the only similarity this show has with Legally Blonde would be that both have their theatres are located on The Strand. And even though there are a few cringe worthy superfluous musical numbers that could have been cut to make the show sharper (and possibly funnier), composer and lyricist Laurence O'Keefe (of Batboy fame) knows how to give a show perk and a showstopper when it's called for.

Susan McFadden as Elle does a fine job in the lead role, and she has a strong supporting cast to back her up including Denise van Outen and a set of rather cute performing dogs.

It is all very light stuff, but the mostly female audience loved it, and as this show brings out your inner high schoolgirl it is hard to resist... It is booking until October some year in the future...

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