Wrench's Domain
Me: What was your first opinion?
Ritchie: My first opinion was, 'It's the end of a dynasty'. End of an era. Erm, that's
the first thing, erm, cos I know some of the people who were in the original show. I mean some of them were friends of mine, still are friends of mine, so...and er..it's a real shame for it to close. I mean the appeal is so... the appeal is so widespread.
Me: And there are so few kids' shows around these days.
Ritchie: Yuh, and er..
Me: You've got the Lion King, but that's completely booked up
Ritchie: Yeah, exactly, and I don't think you can ever get as close to the people in the Lion King as - well, it's just different. People kinda grow through the show. I mean people came in like Sam Lane, came here at 18, or whatever it was, you know, god knows how many years ago.
Me: She told me she was gutted when they lost Belle, I can't imagine how she feels about this.
Ritchie: Oh, terrible about it. But that's the nature of the beast, of the business. You know, we're not bank managers and stuff, unfortunately
Scott: In and out, in and out of work.
Ritchie: It's it's all about money, really, at the end of the day, and y'know, I think that the days of the big production shows are over, really, cos they're all gonna go eventually.
Me: Yeah. And none of the new shows seem to last at all.
Ritchie: Well they're not but that is the natural way that shows are supposed to be.
Me: They all die out, and then a new one comes along...
Ritchie: They last a couple of years, and then someone moves on. These kind of things are freaks, really, I mean you can see at the end, when... Miss Saigon? When that went, it was just, y'know, bit by bit they're all disappearing, all the big shows.
I don't see how they're gonna manage to tour Miss Saigon, with the um helicopter thing.
Ritchie: Well, they will find some way. They'll find a much smaller helicopter. A much smaller version of it.
Me: Or they just won't use one, They'll use a lot of flashy lights and dry ice.
Ritchie: Yeah, they'll be able to find something that creates that effect. I'm sure they will be able to. It won't be the same as a huge, well, thing, but...
Me: Yeah, I was trying to work out how they're gonna try and do a UK tour of this. It'd eitherbe like the American tour, which was hideous, or it'd be like the Jap/Aus tour, which was huge.
Ritchie: Well, it was a big stadium tour, wasn't it. I s'pose it'd have to be a stadium tour.
Algie: That depends if you're talking about a world tour, or European.
Me: Have you seen any pictures of the American one?
Algie: I've seen it.
Me: They had a ribbon of track over the stage and people with masks and stuff
Algie: S'in Vegas.
Me: Well it's shut now...
Algie: I've got a programme.
Me: Sorry, I'm just trying to work out who's talking here. Well I've seen a couple of pictures, and I've heard a couple of 'recordings', erm but..
Algie: A much smaller set. Much smaller.
Me: Oh, yeah. Well, for normal theatres.
Ritchie: Well, this is the second largest theatre in the West End. What's the largest one?
Me: Well, I always used to think it was titchy.
Algie: Palladium, I think it's about 2000
Me: Oh, not the Dominion?
Algie: Yeah, it's....1800? 1500, 1800, something like that.
Ritchie: There's a few of them, I mean what about the one Saigon was in? Er...
Scott: Saigon....saigon...
Algie: This is, literally, the second biggest theatre. It had to be a big theatre.
Ritchie: Huge. Huge.
Scott: Huge.
Algie: Got to have the seat capacity, plus you've got to have the size to fit the set in
Ritchie: You know, there's a lot of people upset but still...
Me: Ok, next one - the European tour.
Ritchie: We'll see what appens. Dunno when that is.
Me: At least they're not completely killing it.
Insane giggling in the background from Algie
Ritchie: They're not gonna kill it, it's a money making show. If this year hadn't been hit by...y'know, this is partly a result of foot and mouth disease. If all the tourists had come over, cos when tourists come over they pay for tickets full price. That made a lot of money, so that would've made a difference. We've lost that this summer. Summer's usually packed. It wsa busy, but it wasn't like you can't get a ticket. You know what it's like normally. Pretty hard t get a ticket in sumer, isn't it?
Me: Well... actually, I don't know... I don't usually try.
Scott: She gets freebies.
Ritchie: No but you..
Me: Hey just cos my sister's dating an usher...
Scott: The usher?
Me: What?
Scott: The usher, or an usher?
Me: An usher.
Ritchie: Usher the singer. Have you never heard of him?
Me: Er, probably.
Scott: Hullo? Anybody home?
Me: Is he normally like this?
Ritchie: He's normally worse.
Scott: I forgot how young you are, sorry. You're too young for 'Back to the future', then.
Me: Er, yeah.
Ritchie: Marty. Have you seen Back to the future?
Me: I probably saw it once and left the room halfway through cos I got bored.
Ritchie: There's some really classic moments in there.
Me: I've been on the ride at Uniiversal Studios, that was fun.
Scott: It's a good film.
Me: I actually started pulling the ride apart, It took them about 20 minutes to start it working, and I had a screwdriver in my bag so I thought 'Ok, what's wrong with this?' I only managed to get one... thing off though.
Ritchie: How did you manage to wangle your way up here, that' what I wanna ask you.
Me: He invited me. Can you believe it?
Buffy's Domain
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Disclaimer: This site is not related to RUG, Andrew Lloyd Webber, and is not official in any way, as I hardly know what I'm doing. I don't make any money from this site, I don't HAVE any money so the idea had crossed my mind, but quite frankly it wouldn't work as no-one would pay for it. It exists purely to show off all the great pics I been sent by my friend in Germany, have taken myself, created myself, badgered actoors into taking for me or otherwise procured. Starlight Express is (c) Really Useful Group, not me. Not that it really matters any more. Also, please don't sue me because as I said, I have no money.
