Rock Of Ages 23.09.2012 aka The Umbrella War aka “I Can’t Basically Close The Umbrella!”

Before you think “What a freak, goes to the same show 2 nights in a row?!” No, I didn’t. Although I was actually really tempted to…if it wouldn’t have been impossible to get Tickets for that last night before Cast Change. Huge groups of people had camped the infront of the Box Office the entire night, with the temperature not being higher than 4 degrees or something, all to get a ticket, and news were that the people who got there “just” at 5am in the morning, didn’t even get their ticket!

So there was no way I was going to see the show for a 2nd time…which did NOT stop me and my friend to go to the Stage Door at 10:45pm anyways to see the Original Cast one last time…which, with enough time lying between then and now, wasn’t the cleverest idea we’ve ever had.
The entire day, it was raining cats and dogs – literally. It was just the weather you think of when you think of England. And it was definitely NOT a weather to stand guard at any Stage Door at night, when it’s wet, dark and cold. But after my friend and I stayed at our hostel almost the entire afternoon and night, it was very clear to us that there was no way around it, that we just HAD to go to the Shaftesbury that one last time, because we wouldn’t just be able to sleep or rest our minds at all. So at 10:35pm, we stood at the Main Entrance of the Theatre, watched the last bits of the show from afar on a small screen and listened to the music that was blasting through the hall, and when the last big applause came on, we went straight to the Stage Door, both with our Umbrellas held high above our heads. I was quite surprised when a girl stormed past us, thinking that she was just running to get out of the pouring rain. But when we got to the back of the Shaftesbury, I had to see that this exact girl was already standing right at the front of the door, together with two or three others, and I slowly started to wonder if this had really been such a good idea. Anyways, about 15 minutes later, when enough time had passed for the actors to get their make-up off and get ready to go home…that small alley was CROWDED. It was like a Justin Bieber concert, with screaming and shoving girls (no, I’ve never been to a Justin Bieber concert, but I’ve seen enough on TV to know that I’m right about this). At first, I was standing quite in front, but as the minutes passed, a lot of girls thought it was VERY nice to push me back or aside (yes, this was Irony speaking), and I was already starting to freak out and curse, as I get annoyed, pissed off and aggressive VERY fast. My friend was standing a bit behind me, and found it quite amusing that, because of the huge crowd of girls holding their umbrellas, her own umbrella was magically hanging above her head without any need to hold it. Me, on the other hand, got so annoyed that I myself started harshly pushing away the girls that tried to push me to the far end of the crowd. Out of my mouth came the worst english curses and insults, and my friend slowly got worried I’d get into trouble (she kept telling me that I should PLEASE at least curse in german so nobody wold actually understand what I was saying), but I didn’t care and kept shouting “that some people here obviously never heard anything about good manners or education” and the one or other “bitches” may have slipped out of my mouth. During all this, Rohan Tickell stepped out at first, completely overwhelmed by the crowd, but there was no way to get to him. 
After him, Justin Lee Collins came out, and I really, desperately wanted to get a 2nd picture with him, as the first one the night before turned out to be total crap, but again: no chance for me. This all got me mad even more. Then, Sandy Moffat was the next actor to come out, and there my friend and me got lucky. We both pushed forward, and after he took a picture with two twins, he stood right infront of us. We both smiled at him and told him that we were from Germany, and that my friend was from Hamburg (remember that bit in the show where Sandy aka Franz talks about the Confectionary Store in Hamburg?), but that we both weren’t mad at him for this “Gay” reference to germans in the show. He laughed and we could both take a quick picture with him. Mine turned out to be actually absolutely crappy, considering my face, but Sandy was so cute and nice I can see past that 🙂

After that, things somehow went completely out of hand. It was the moment that Shayne Ward opened the door and the screaming REALLY began. Girls with masks of Shayne’s face were waving their hands (and the stupid umbrellas; sometimes I thought one of them would actually trump my eye!) and shoving even more.
At one point, which was the most memorable of that entire night, I noticed a small woman right behind me, and I mean: she was really tiny, she could barely look over my shoulder (sue me, but I didn’t give a shit at that moment). She kept complaining about a girl right at the Stage Door, who had her umbrella so absolutely stupidly in her hand that it completely prevented the people behind her – including me, my friend and the tiny woman behind us, – to see ANYTHING except that blue thing. I kept shouting that she should put her umbrella down, I actually said “Put that goddamn umbrella down!!!” a couple of times, that I must’ve scared my friend I’d going to explode. But would you believe it?! That girl didn’t even care at all! She ignored all my shouting, and when the entire group behind me – literally everyone there – screamed “Put the umbrella down!!!”, she shouted back (and that, my friends, was the memorable moment): “I CAN’T BASICALLY CLOSE THE UMBRELLA!” Trust me, I haven’t been that furious in my entire life, because all I wanted was to see Shayne, to get forward, get a pic with him and leave. And a few minutes later, oh what a magic, that girl somehow managed to close the umbrella she “couldn’t basically close”…and the crowd cheered and clapped their hands.
A couple of minutes of later, I don’t even know anymore how I did it, I had fought my way through to the front and was the next person to get a picture with Shayne, and my heart was pounding so hard, though I was cool as an iceberg (with everything around, my mind wasn’t even capable of understanding anything that was going on). Shayne looked SO good, oh my. I’ve barely seen men who have this special kind of natural beauty, who don’t need a lot of hair gel or special clothes, but Shayne was one of them. You could already see he was shocked by the crowd that had mostly come for him (as he was one of the people who had their last show that night), and that he just wanted to get out of there somehow, but he was nice and polite anyways, and as I asked him to take a pic (feeling creepier than ever), he said “Of course” and I somehow placed myself right beside him, waved my friend forwards and let her take my picture. I don’t like that one, either, but Shayne looks perfect, and that’s all that matters!

The next person that came out was actually the main reason I had to go back again: Simon Lipkin. Only this time, I could read in his face that he was thinking: “What the actual hell is THIS?!” He was so annoyed and stressed (and maybe tired), but still took his time to take a pic with some of the fans, took their gifts and smiled, he even talked a few words with some, and I really give him a high credit for that. I don’t know if I’d reacted like that in that horrible situation, thinking you could actually be in danger to be suffocated or crushed (nothing else could describe it better). I was actually pretty anxious to ask for a pic, as I already had taken an amazing one the night before, and I’d taken several pics taken of him while he was shuffling around the crowd, but the wish to stand right beside him a 2nd time, to be close to my fave, got the better of me, and when I stood infront of him, I asked him for a pic, and he said “Sure”. I took one, but my friend suddenly said it wasn’t a good one, so I “had” to stay a bit longer beside him in his arm (it wasn’t that bad, though LOL), and after it, I thanked him again, but I could see that his mind was somewhere else, that he was so stressed he just wanted to get out, so I gave way to him and got to the back of the crowd.

After the biggest issue for me was solved, me and my friend stepped a bit away from the crowd (who had already cleared itself big time; there weer barely people out there, and I was wondering where they had vanished all of a sudden?) and saw Oliver Tompsett and Dylan Turner standing around, talking with some friends, and just as both of them already wanted to leave, we shouted their names and asked for another pic (I’m not sure, but I think I said something like “Can’t wait to see you in WWRY” to Oliver).

Then we were absolutely done, we started breathing out normally again, and slowly made our way back to our hostel again, and we still couldn’t believe what had just happened at the Shaftesbury. It was all too surreal, and we were both shocked at how ruthless some of the girls were (I wasn’t better, with cursing at all, but I wouldn’t have shoved or pushed anybody as long as they wouldn’t have done it!). As soon as we were back at the hostel, we both looked at our pictures taken, talked about the night, and for the first time, started laughing about it, because in retrospect, it was just too funny how crazy something like that could make people. Just a show with music and acting, a Cast Change, and it felt like the entirety of the Londoner West End got completely insane.
As I said at the beginning, going to the the Stage Door that night wasn’t really our/my cleverest idea, but I don’t regret it anyway, because somehow, I think, you have to make an experience like that if you’re a real Theatre Lover 🙂