{"id":5594,"date":"2022-10-24T07:26:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T07:26:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/24\/feature-singing-along-at-musical-con\/"},"modified":"2022-10-24T07:26:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T07:26:05","slug":"feature-singing-along-at-musical-con","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/2022\/10\/24\/feature-singing-along-at-musical-con\/","title":{"rendered":"Feature: Singing Along at Musical Con"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<h2>Excel Centre 22 \u2013 23 October<\/h2>\n<p>We despatched Lily Middleton alongside to the primary ever Musical Con to seek out out simply what it&#8217;s all about, and whether or not it may develop into an annual occasion for the legions of musical theatre followers.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-style-default has-medium-font-size\" style=\"font-style:normal;font-weight:600\">\n<p>I feel we\u2019ve discovered the place the place we belong<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<p><div class=\"youtube-embed\" data-video_id=\"NpN6iZ8TRWQ\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"MusicalCon Round-Up\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NpN6iZ8TRWQ?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Strolling from Custom House station as much as the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.excel.london\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">ExCel Centre<\/a> and it\u2019s straightforward to identify my fellow musical theatre followers. Whilst I\u2019m sporting a \u201cThe show must go on\u201d charity t-shirt, there are additionally a plethora of Queens from Six, residents of Oz, college students of Westerberg High and rather more. We\u2019re all heading to the primary ever <strong>Musical Con<\/strong> \u2013 a conference for followers of musical theatre.<\/p>\n<p>The conference is a mixture of performances, panel discussions and alternatives to fulfill the celebs in addition to workshops for budding performers. There is a small number of stalls with musical theatre themed presents, temptingly charming embroidery kits and the newly launched <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicalsmagazine.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Musicals<\/em><\/a> journal. If you\u2019re seeking to practice within the business, there are many theatre colleges available to supply recommendation and steering. I met Sam Rowe, a musical theatre scholar at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.trinitylaban.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Trinity Laban<\/a> with desires of being Javert in <em>Les Mis<\/em>, who&#8217;s there to encourage potential college students. He stresses how everybody within the business should be a fan to start out with, and there\u2019s no scarcity of them on this corridor in the present day.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s loads happening at Musical Con. And sadly, that is barely to the detriment of the occasion. It\u2019s very loud. Very, very loud. When watching the unbelievable <strong>Jenna Russell<\/strong>, she caveats her efficiency of certainly one of Sondheim\u2019s most beautiful songs, by saying \u201cThis is gonna be hilarious. It\u2019s such a quiet little song.\u201d, and he or she comically wonders what her pal, Sondheim himself, would have made from the state of affairs.<\/p>\n<p>The entire occasion is in only one corridor at ExCel, so the music and shouting from the workshops simply carries throughout to the primary stage. It\u2019s distracting at greatest, however at worst it utterly spoils the performances on stage. In the \u2018Backstage\u2019 space, house to many desirable talks, there are headphones on every chair (the sort you\u2019d have at a silent disco) however once more it\u2019s fairly laborious to focus. You can\u2019t assist however really feel sorry for the celebs on stage, battling with the overall quantity of the occasion. We needed to hold leaving the occasion house once in a while to offer our ears a break.<\/p>\n<p>Musical Con has additionally obtained some criticism on-line round accessibility points, from not being clear prematurely of the occasion for followers who had been attempting to work out if it might be doable and secure for them to attend, to points on the day for those who did go. There could be very little seating round the primary stage; in consequence you both have to face for lengthy intervals of time, hope yow will discover a chair or simply sit on the ground \u2013 not an possibility for all attendees.<\/p>\n<p>Having stated that, when this occasion is sweet, it\u2019s unbelievable. The opening efficiency on the primary stage featured six West End icons performing an actual mixture of traditional present tunes and newer hits. Highlights had been <strong>Ben Forster<\/strong> along with his goosebump-inducing efficiency of \u2018The Music of the Night\u2019, <strong>Alice Fearn<\/strong> charming us with \u2018Into the Unknown\u2019 and <strong>Trevor Dion Nicholas<\/strong> thrilling the gang with \u2019Friend Like Me\u2019. And it was an absolute deal with to listen to the gang erupt when <strong>Layton Williams <\/strong>burst onto the stage in his icon-making function from <em>Everybody\u2019s Talking About Jamie<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But my private spotlight was witnessing 4 previous Elphabas, <strong>Alice Fearn<\/strong>, <strong>Louise Dearman<\/strong>, <strong>Laura Pick<\/strong> and <strong>Nikki Bentley<\/strong>, talk about their experiences of taking part in this iconic function in <em>Wicked<\/em> and performing a few of Elphaba\u2019s showstopping songs. Watching them carry out \u2018Defying Gravity\u2019 collectively was an awesome expertise, an actual deal with for the followers within the room.<\/p>\n<p>A brand new occasion will at all times have points, however Musical Con has some work to do for subsequent yr to make the occasion extra accessible and discover a method of controlling the noise ranges. It\u2019s additionally an costly day, at \u00a345 for probably the most fundamental day ticket and as much as \u00a3195 for a weekend VIP ticket. At first, I questioned whether or not the occasion felt well worth the cash, and when you&#8217;ll be able to\u2019t get a seat on the Backstage talks stage to listen to the panel discussions, or want to depart the occasion house simply to keep away from a headache, it feels laborious to justify.<\/p>\n<p>However, many of the guests I spoke to had been flying excessive on the thrill of the day. A sibling pair had travelled from Glasgow and stated they hope it occurs yearly while mates who\u2019d travelled for 2\u00bd hours to be there beloved the number of issues to see. A gaggle of Phantom cosplayers instructed me about their \u201cstand-off with <em>Les Mis<\/em>\u201d with glee, earlier than explaining how they felt the occasion was a secure house, the place they are often whoever they wish to be with out judgement. It\u2019s a spot for musical theatre followers to return collectively and freely share their ardour.<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully Musical Con will iron out its teething issues and handle the communication and accessibility points to make this occasion a secure and welcoming staple within the musical theatre calendar, for all its audiences.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p>Musical Con happened on 22 and 23 October 2022. Check the web site <a href=\"https:\/\/www.musicalcon.co.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">right here<\/a> for future bulletins for 2023. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script>\n\twindow.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-US'};\n\t(function(w, d, s) {\n\t  function go(){\n\t\tvar js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0], load = function(url, id) {\n\t\t  if (d.getElementById(id)) {return;}\n\t\t  js = d.createElement(s); js.src = url; js.id = id;\n\t\t  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n\t\t};\n\t\tload('\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en\/all.js#xfbml=1', 'fbjssdk');\n\t\tload('https:\/\/apis.google.com\/js\/plusone.js', 'gplus1js');\n\t\tload('\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js', 'tweetjs');\n\t  }\n\t  if (w.addEventListener) { w.addEventListener(\"load\", go, false); }\n\t  else if (w.attachEvent) { w.attachEvent(\"onload\",go); }\n\t}(window, document, 'script'));\n\t<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/>[ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Excel Centre 22 \u2013 23 October We despatched Lily Middleton alongside to the primary ever Musical Con to seek out out simply what it&#8217;s all about, and whether or not it may develop into an annual occasion for the legions of musical theatre followers. I feel we\u2019ve discovered the place the place we belong [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5594","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-drama"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5594"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5594\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/showbizztoday.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}