Any Way The Wind Blows…

May 31st, 2014. The day an era of 12 years at the Dominion Theatre ends, and after that day, neither Tottenham Court Rd. nor London itself will ever be the same.

I have been thinking long about whether I should do this post. I don’t want to sound like my life is ending now that my favourite show of all times is sadly closing. I don’t want to tell anybody out there that it has majorly changed my life or changed it at all, for that matter, because that would be a lie. It’s just going to be my personal way of saying Goodbye to something that means a hell of a lot to me.

I remember the first time ever that I watched the show. It was January, 13th, 2008. Cologne, Germany. Originally, I only went to see this show because I got 2 tickets for a former friend’s birthday 10 days before. She had spoken about it months earlier, and although I always had some kind of soft spot for some of the Queen songs, I never gave it much thought or even planned to go and see it, mainly because at that time, I had nothing to do with musical theatre at all. I was 22 years old, and I couldn’t think of anything more boring than paying to watch people dancing and singing on a stage.

Safe to say that this birthday gift was the best idea I had ever had.

The moment the show started at the Musical Dome, I was sucked inside. “Innuendo” has always had a very special meaning to me since that day, because whenever I hear it, goosebumps are everything I’m made of. I remember when “Radio GaGa” started a few minutes later, and I thought: “I love this shit.” And I do until this day forward. I don’t even know or remember the Cast we had back then, but I know they had a huge impact on the fact I fell in love with this show from the get go (although I was as far away as you could be on your first ever musical from knowing what a “Stage Door” was or that you could actually meet the actors after the show).

Years passed by where I completely forgot about it. My life went on, friends came, friends left. Then I met a certain person online, Kim, who today is one of my best friends. We became friends over the fact that we were both crazy “Supernatural” fans (nothing crazy about that anymore) and went to the same Convention hosting actors of the show in 2011. But what I only discovered later was that Kim was the biggest musical theatre fan I had ever met. I always saw her pictures of shows, “Cats”, “Tarzan”, “Rocky Horror Show”…and I have no idea how it happened, she somehow drew me completely into that musical theatre thing, made me fall head over heels for “Tarzan” (which is until today still one of the best things that could have happened to theatre land), and before I even knew it, I was sitting in Seat C 29 of the Stalls at the Dominion Theatre in London on September, 20th, 2012, on my first ever London trip.

The only thing I regret about that night? That I did not have any device on me to record the show. Yes, I know it’s prohibited, but if I had known back then what I knew today, I would’ve done anything to keep it recorded for eternity. Because that show simply knocked me off my feet. I had both understudies for Galileo & Scaramouche (which I didn’t know until I actually thumbed through the programme), Scott Monello & Emma Hatton. And up to this day, these two will always have a very special place in my heart. I fell head over heels for Scott’s adorable display of Galileo, for his vocals and his small dancing parts, and more than once after the show I thought how it could be that he was “only” the understudy? He was absolutely breathtaking. So was Emma; she sang the roof off the theatre with her insane vocals. Her hight notes gave me goosebumps, and having had the honour and luck to see her perfom one more time exactly one year later, I was more than happy to see and hear how everything in her voice had improved even more. Plus, her Scaramouche was one of the most adorable things I had ever seen on a stage (and note, that was only my 2nd ever musical at that point in my life). That I had also the honour to see Rachel John as Meat that night will probably always be one of the biggest highlights of my life. That woman has a voice that is out of this world, and she was the first and only person until last year who actually made me cry the instant she started singing “(No-One But You) Only The Good Die Young”.

After that 1st visit, I was not only totally in love with London (coming from someone who always despised the british accent and never cared about anything british at all, I guess that’s saying something), but also helplessly with musical theatre, and it was just natural that I was back at the Dominion only 3 months later. This time, I would be seeing the new Cast doing their thing, forwardmost, Oliver Tompsett as Galileo. I had seen him in the role of Drew Boley in “Rock Of Ages” three months before, and back then, I he knocked me so hard off my feet with his talent that I was beyond happy to see him in my favoure show. And what can I say? He did definitely not disappoint me. He was, and still is up to this day, the most talented person I ever had the pleasure and honour to watch. His vocals, his talent, his acting skills, yes, even his silly little dancing steps during the show, were and are completely out of this world, and I don’t even know of one second that he didn’t give me chills all over my body. I had high hopes and expectations about him as Galileo, since I knew what he was capable of if you let him do his thing on a stage, but what I saw that night was beyond said expectations. The moment I saw him performing “I Want To Break Free” and through every song he performed that night, I knew he was exactly where he belonged. There is one word in Germany for someone on a stage who enjoys every second of it, who is practically overflowing with vitality, gratitude and happiness, all displayed by the biggest grin on their faces during an entire show: limelight hog. And that is what hit me the moment Oliver stepped foot on that Dominion stage, and that special feeling never left me whenever I came back to see him four more times; it was a gift from God he was chosen to play Galileo Figaro.
Rachael Wooding, who played Scaramouche – wow. I have barely seen any woman (apart from Emma Hatton three months earlier who had such a positive energy inside her little body and such mindblowing vocals than her. Plus, her interaction with Oliver was amazing, they seemed like they had done this job together for years instead of months! The chemistry between them was the one thing I will always remember the most about all my Dominion shows, because not only between Galileo and Scaramouche it’s a very important thing, but between all the other characters, too.

Months passed until I went back to the Dominion, but instead, I was part of two crazy months in May/June 2013, when the german Cast of “We Will Rock You” were on tour close to my hometown, in a city called Essen. I have talked about it in certain posts on here, and the fact that I spent a hell of a lot money for 7 shows in 8 weeks says a lot about how much I fell even more in love with the show than I already had. The Cast was the best thing I had ever witnessed on a german stage, and the time I spent watching the show and hanging out at the Stage Door was definitely one of the best times of my life. I made wonderful friends during the tour, including two Cast members, and it was all thanks to them that the show grew even bigger in my admiration than it already had. Even though a few songs were sung in german (which was weird after 5 years and recently having seen the West End Cast two times), I couldn’t help but sing, cheer and clap along with them. Some people say that different versions of the same show might be having different impacts on the fans, and I’ve heard a couple of times that a german Cast can never achieve or do what a West End or Broadway Cast is capable of. But here’s me saying: THEY CAN. And hell, HOW they can. The german Cast has shown me that no matter in what part of the world “We Will Rock You” is performed and no matter how much scepsis you will feel towards it at first, the songs and the feelings you have throughout it will never be different. They will always suck you in, because it’s the show itself that will always provide its inexplicable magic.

The thing that impressed me the most was the Cast Change day at the Dominion on October, 5th, 2013. It was a very emotional day, as it was the last performance of Scott Monello, Emma Hatton, Rachel John & Wayne Robinson (who played Brit), but also because it was the day that Brian May came up in the middle of the stage during “Bohemian Rhapsody”. Safe to say that together with the entire Cast smashing the song and his breathtaking guitar solo he totally blew the roof off the Dominion. It is, up to this day, the most amazing show of that Cast that I have seen, because everyone was on fire and giving it 200% of their talent.

I am gutted to no end to see this wonderful and amazing show leave the West End, because theatre is losing one of its biggest and best pieces today, but although I couldn’t see it more than 6 times, I am beyond grateful for these few times, and each and every one of the shows I was part of I will always cherish deep down in my heart. I am also grateful for every single actor of the Cast that ever took their time to come out and chat with the fans, with me, who were always so patient, kind, funny, caring, and never got tired of us showing up on their doorstep to tell them how amazing they are, or asking for photos or autographs. This goes especially out to the following people that I have met over the past one and a half years and that grew to my heart so much that I will always try and support them in whatever they’ll be doing: Scott Monello, Oliver Tompsett, Katie Paine, Rachael Wooding, Rachel John & Emma Hatton.

Thank You, “We Will Rock You”, for the past one and a half years, for every single amazing show, for every laughter, for every tear I shed, for every beautiful moment at the Stage Door, for all the goosebumps you got me, simply for all the beautiful memories that you brought me and that I will keep in that special place in my heart forever. You will all be massively missed, and it is more than wrong and sad you have to go, but one thing I know for sure: you’ll be going out with a bang, because that’s what you deserve.

THANK YOU.