Well, Idina 8 days actually.
As many of you will know, Idina Menzel is my favouritest singer/actress/performer ever. Ever since I first heard about her, I've wanted to see her perform her own stuff in concert. Being over here in England while she was miles away in the US made this impossible. Boo.
However, a couple of years ago, she came over to head up the London production of 'Wicked' and I was able to see her many times in that. Woop! Then she did a one-off Radio 2 concert at the Mermaid Theatre in London with Josh Groban. We were unbelievably lucky to get tickets for this, and it was such a priviledge to be there. (Even if I did skip a lecture...sorry Mum!)
Anyway, I digress. This year, she came back to London! EXCITING!! Originally, it was only to perform for 2 nights in 'Chess in Concert' at the Albert Hall. Clearly I booked tickets for that straightaway. It seems like forever ago that this was announced...but it finally happened! Chess was actually amazing. I knew some of the music from various CDs and stuff, but had never seen the show itself. The whole concert was brilliant. All the performers were amazing. I have serious amounts of love for Idina's rendition of "Nobody's Side" and her parts in "Florence and the American" and "Florence Quits". I actually really want to see the show properly, regardless of who's in it...I loved the music! Kerry Ellis also did an amazing job as Svetlana...with only one solo she managed to take the roof off the hall...fabulous stuff!
I considered the stagedoor on the second night...but it was just so manic, and I was in the middle of teaching practice and in desperate need of sleep...so decided against it.
So then on saturday, Idina was doing a signing at Dress Circle of her new album..I say new...it's actually been out since the end of January, but I think we must just be a little backwards over here. Anyhow, I had already planned to be in London that weekend to take my sister to see 'Wicked' with Nat and Jade. That meant, we could go see Idina too..happy me :) After a restless night, I headed to Dress Circle to meet Katie and Laura to start yet another queue. It rained. A lot. However, some of us were too excited to care about a bit of rain and the time flew by fairly quickly. We heard the cheer as Idina arrived and many people seemed to think they had the right to mob forward..losers. Anyhow, we got going and were eventually inside the shop. The lovely manager of the shop told us that we could take photos with Idina, but we would be the last - lucky or what?! I actually felt really nervous...don't ask me why for I don't know. But I was scared. The last time she did a signing over here, I kinda just stood there and went "hi". *eyeroll* so I was hoping to not repeat that.
Cute moment - Laura was about to take Katies' photo but was shaking....bless!! All Idina's people laughed along as she tried to steady herself..so sweet.
So it was my turn, I dumped my bag on the floor and took my CD and card over. Idina smiled and said "hi how are you?" then kinda stared until going "you look familiar to me, have we met before?" I went "umm yeh" and pointed at the post it note with my name on (yes, I couldn't say my name once again) and this caused a "OH you're GEMMA!" from Idina and then "is your hair lighter?" I explained that no, it wasn't. But it was straightened, then I apparently felt the need to pull my fringe from behind my ear and show her the straightness. idiot. but yes, we had a hug....cue photo moment (thank you Kelly!!!):
Umm, then she signed my CD and it made me smile :)
Then I asked for a picture, which we had taken..
As many of you will know, Idina Menzel is my favouritest singer/actress/performer ever. Ever since I first heard about her, I've wanted to see her perform her own stuff in concert. Being over here in England while she was miles away in the US made this impossible. Boo.
However, a couple of years ago, she came over to head up the London production of 'Wicked' and I was able to see her many times in that. Woop! Then she did a one-off Radio 2 concert at the Mermaid Theatre in London with Josh Groban. We were unbelievably lucky to get tickets for this, and it was such a priviledge to be there. (Even if I did skip a lecture...sorry Mum!)
Anyway, I digress. This year, she came back to London! EXCITING!! Originally, it was only to perform for 2 nights in 'Chess in Concert' at the Albert Hall. Clearly I booked tickets for that straightaway. It seems like forever ago that this was announced...but it finally happened! Chess was actually amazing. I knew some of the music from various CDs and stuff, but had never seen the show itself. The whole concert was brilliant. All the performers were amazing. I have serious amounts of love for Idina's rendition of "Nobody's Side" and her parts in "Florence and the American" and "Florence Quits". I actually really want to see the show properly, regardless of who's in it...I loved the music! Kerry Ellis also did an amazing job as Svetlana...with only one solo she managed to take the roof off the hall...fabulous stuff!
I considered the stagedoor on the second night...but it was just so manic, and I was in the middle of teaching practice and in desperate need of sleep...so decided against it.
So then on saturday, Idina was doing a signing at Dress Circle of her new album..I say new...it's actually been out since the end of January, but I think we must just be a little backwards over here. Anyhow, I had already planned to be in London that weekend to take my sister to see 'Wicked' with Nat and Jade. That meant, we could go see Idina too..happy me :) After a restless night, I headed to Dress Circle to meet Katie and Laura to start yet another queue. It rained. A lot. However, some of us were too excited to care about a bit of rain and the time flew by fairly quickly. We heard the cheer as Idina arrived and many people seemed to think they had the right to mob forward..losers. Anyhow, we got going and were eventually inside the shop. The lovely manager of the shop told us that we could take photos with Idina, but we would be the last - lucky or what?! I actually felt really nervous...don't ask me why for I don't know. But I was scared. The last time she did a signing over here, I kinda just stood there and went "hi". *eyeroll* so I was hoping to not repeat that.
Cute moment - Laura was about to take Katies' photo but was shaking....bless!! All Idina's people laughed along as she tried to steady herself..so sweet.
So it was my turn, I dumped my bag on the floor and took my CD and card over. Idina smiled and said "hi how are you?" then kinda stared until going "you look familiar to me, have we met before?" I went "umm yeh" and pointed at the post it note with my name on (yes, I couldn't say my name once again) and this caused a "OH you're GEMMA!" from Idina and then "is your hair lighter?" I explained that no, it wasn't. But it was straightened, then I apparently felt the need to pull my fringe from behind my ear and show her the straightness. idiot. but yes, we had a hug....cue photo moment (thank you Kelly!!!):
Umm, then she signed my CD and it made me smile :)
Then I asked for a picture, which we had taken..
Told her I'd be seeing her on tuesday at the meet&greet after her concert which she seemed happy about. Then off I went! With a goodbye, see you on tuesday...and then I kicked over the CDS that were next to her. Nice going me. But apparently I looked great....so there you go. Needless to say, I was pretty happy after this...and I apologise to Kelly, Nat, Jade, Katie and Laura who had crazy!Gemma for a few hours. Saw Wicked that evening....it was a good show. Dianne nearly pushed Kerry off the bed in popular causing a few moments of laughter for everyone, and then in the 'toss toss' bit, she went crazy and Kerry just couldn't do it. Love it.
For those of you who don't know, when I last saw Idina, when she was over for Wicked and the Mermaid thing...I had curly hair. Apparently having it straight nowadays make my face shape different. I can see it...I do look very different!
Anyhow..TUESDAY. Now this was the highlight. Basically, it had been announced that Idina would be doing a one off intimate gig at London's Ambassador's Theatre. It seats around 400 people. Tickets sold in under half an hour..major kudos to Nat for getting Nicki and I the tickets...much love! We had seats 19 and 20 in the Dress Circle, row A. Hyper or what! THEN it got better....I couldn't believe it either. On Idina's official site, there was a competition for 3 fans to win places to meet Idina after the concert. I thought I may as well give it a go on the off chance. I didn't say a word to Nicki, and hardly expected to win...but I did!! When the email came through, I ran downstairs and jumped on Sam as well as throwing my ice cream across the living room....Sam didn't appreciate it all that much! I eventually got hold of Nicki to tell her happy birthday...we're going to meet Idina ( I loved making that phonecall!!) and yes. Very excited was I.
So yeh, Nicki came down on the tuesday and we had the trauma of deciding what to wear...it took long enough. We were SO excited and got bored here so headed into London after visiting Pret and Primark in Reading for SOCKS. We sat on a platform at Reading station while a train also sat there.....after about 5mins, we decided to actually get ON the train. Special.
What did we do all day? We visited Dress Circle and had a look at various things there, we went to find the theatre and look at the Idina posters up outside it, oh and then we went and visited Hairspray to pick up a load of socks from Nicky. The socks are AMAZING..I was actually speechless. Major kudos to the cast of Hairspray.
After randomly sitting and taking lots of silly photos, we met up with various friends of Nicki's including Tim, Chris, Steve and Sarah which was fun. Apart from the annoying balloon from hell...damn thing. Then we headed to the theatre...we had to go pick up our amazingly cool blue WB wristbands and an envelope with the meet&greet details inside....how exciting!!! We decided to be 100% supercool and have photos taken next to the huuuuge Idina poster on the wall outside the theatre. Super cool that was.
The concert was just amazing...I just sat there thinking "oh my god..I'm actually watching Idina in concert..in person." I couldn't believe it. She was all sorts of awesome. She broke the microphone stand which made me smile a LOT. Also came out with some classic quotes about squatting, needing the bathroom and various other things. One of my favourite songs on 'I Stand' is 'Don't Let Me Down' so I was very happy that she sung that. I also love Brave. When it was first heard, I was feeling quite low and Batman messaged me telling me to listen to this song. I just love it. I can't really explain why, but I do. So when SHE started getting choked up about it..I had no chance. It was awesome. But way too short. Longer next time please??
So after the show, we had to wait up in the circle for Idina to come see us. There were quite a few official looking people waiting with their wristbands too and we knew she'd be talking to them first. We chatted amongst ourselves while we waited, Idina's cackle occasionaly rang out from wherever she was. About half an hour later, she came over to us and asked people's names and things. When she got to me she just held out her arms and said "hey gem". Now, I'm not gonna lie. I enjoyed that hug a lot. I wasn't expecting it, and it made me smile. She finished going round everyone and then just sat down...there on the steps at the side of the circle. I was so surprised. She just plonked herself down and was like "so how are you guys?". Now I was ridiculously nervous before it, probably partly out of excitement...but it was at that moment that any nerves just disappeared. We sat and chatted with her for about 20 mins about her tour, her birthday, her husband, RENT, rent remixed, I'd do anything, Chess, sweets, American Idol, her shoes and I forget what else. The conversation kept going off on tangents (mainly her fault) and yeh. It was fun!!
Some random but funny quotes "well yeh, that's why I was kissing ass over there...thats' what thats' all about.." "I tried to walk sexy in them, but I don't think it worked.." "I should really hate that show, I've worked for so long to get here and they're all young and just get up and do it ..". Ha, it was entertaining and so unbelievably relaxed! So the time came when she was hurried up by her manager ("just a few more mins ok?") and then we got stuff signed. She signed numerous things for people....wondered aloud how it was possible for her to have fans in Ireland....and had photos. I ended up just getting her to sign my big printed photo of her and me from the signing "oh from the other day right? this is such a nice photo of us!" so I gave her a smaller copy...
So sweet. I saw what she was writing and went "ha again" in a kind of "poor you" to which she responded "well it's true! it's been a while but...and I didn't mean from like the other week, I meant from...2 years ago" Not quite 2 years Idina...but not far off.
Oh, and then she did the socks for us...I think she was suitably impressed with Hairspray's contribution and wanted to do more on them for us, but time is limited and we would have had to wait ages for her to post them back to us...so it seemed simpler for her to just sign a pair for us...but she also drew a little witch on them (which I mistook for a star originally..) and told us to make it cool.
Then I had a photo taken with her..
Then came something random...she turned to her manager and went "oh this is gemma the girl I was telling you about...who I said we should get involved with some stuff." My face must've been a picture. Then she turned to me and went "actually you should like give him your email or something" and carried on about something that I totally didn't take in. Anyway, he gave me his email and told me to contact him..which I did. Not actually expecting anything to come from it...but i would like to know what it was about!! Then off she went. I managed to tell her that I'd be seeing her in New York "ooh yaaay great!" and then we left! Goodtimes!!
Popped round to the stagedoor to see people...and it was crazy. Some people clearly have no idea of respect...hounded the poor woman. I tried to cross the road to get to Nicki and got squashed against her car. I finally got free and Idina grabbed my arm as I walked past. She looked petrified. I felt awful because I couldn't do anything to stop all those people. boo.
BUT...wow!! what an amazing experience. I was so grateful to her team for organising it all...I just couldn't believe my luck. And I'm so glad I shared it with such other lovely people at the meet&greet....there was no fangirling and everyone was lovely and normal - phew! Nicki, wouldn't have wanted to take anyone else with me...it was awesome dude!!
So that was Idina 8 days. I'm now seeing her twice while I'm in New York (Kim and I compromised....we can see Idina twice if we can see Wicked twice...) and yeh. Happy times :)
