Snowdrop

Brilliant that you caught some of the BBC Leeds review Heather. I saw the tweet during the day, retweeted, then got utterly distracted by work and forgot entirely about it. It looks like it's available now. Starts at 12 minutes in. http://www.bbc.co.uk...rammes/p00tcg7g There are some great things being said, and I agree with most of what the reviewers are saying. As a fan, I did think Gareth was "under-used" a bit in the show from a vocal point of view. He was well within his comfort zone, so didn't get to show off his abilities there. However, the part wasn't written with the expectation Gareth would be doing it and what Gareth does do is brilliant. Gareth's singing is his strength and IMO it's his beautiful voice that makes him stand out from other, often very competent performers, so it's a great accolade that despite me personally wishing he'd done more singing, he is getting great feedback on a role that is heavily concentrated on dialogue and the physicality of acting. In fact, it may be because the singing was so far within his comfort zone that he and the audience were able to focus so much on the non-singing aspects of his performance.

Lovely video.

Should be a good one. The cast all seem very excited, and have put a great deal of effort into their outfits! There have been quite a few people tweeting about going there tonight too. If only I lived closer I'd love to be there again tonight.

Gareth has tweeted to say he's off to the press launch, and this journalist is asking for questions! https://twitter.com/#!/LowriStafford

I loved your report and thanks for the photos - fantastic!

I'm sure you'll find someone sooner or later Floz. Just buy it now to be prepared! I see the release date has been pushed back a week - now due out on 2nd July.

It's odd how we see things differently. I just thought I was reporting that Gareth was popular with a load of teenagers who had just seen a show in which he was brilliant. While the rest of the cast were popular, he was obviously the person that most people wanted their photos with. I wasn't trying to make a point. For starters, the youngest girls who were jumping up at the photo were too young to have a realistic clue of who he was ten years ago. I think they just took seeing him at face value - and based on what they know of him.

Maggie and I went on Friday night - but what with travelling and everything, this is my first chance to post. Friday was officially the first proper show, as prior to that it was still in previews, and I know they'd been making changes all week, and even on Friday they were in all day rehearsing new bits - apparently they'd even changed the ending! Overall, I thought the show was very good, with a cleverly put together plot, and a good balance of humour and drama. And of course Gareth was aces! The rest of what I'm going to write will contain some references to the plot and the themes, so if you want to remain entirely spoiler free - don't read! Although you probably wouldn't come into a thread for reports in the first place! The basic premise is that it's set in an American high school, around the emergence of computers, and the story's hero, Michael Dork, is a computer nerd, who hangs around with a bunch of sci-fi fans and general geeks who like to quote from Star Trek and don't know how to talk to girls. If you watch The Big Bang Theory, it's familiar territory. Although this show is mainly about Dork's mission to invent email, his best friend, Lucas, has this idea for a book with a working title "Galaxy Battles". There are a lot of jokes playing on how he gets his ideas, which are cleverly inserted throughout the show. They are best friends, but they have another pair of friends who are a lot less serious and are obsessed with making a model space ship, and provide a lot of the comedy. As we all know, Gareth plays Eddie, who is the top jock and school bully. His dad owns the big computer company, which is just one extra excuse for coming into conflict with Dork. Then there's the new girl, Holly, who is conveniently already able to write computer programmes, who is also very pretty, and fed up with being treated as stupid because of that. I don't think I'm being biased when I say Gareth was brilliant! He played the role of the "baddie" incredibly well. He wasn't an outright evil baddie, more someone who is spoilt, shallow, and vain with a sense of entitlement, who thinks it's OK to make Dork's life miserable for his own entertainment. This meant there was a lot of humour in many of his scenes. There was a reasonable amount of singing from him in the first half, which I was pleased about. Not so much in the second half, which I did find disappointing, not least because some of the songs would have been sung much better by Gareth! However, Gareth was on stage for a lot of the show, and his character was much more interesting than the deliberately boring Dork, so he was more fun to watch! I thought the girl playing Holly, Eliza Hope Bennett, was really good. She was vocally very strong, and presented her character convincingly. The comedy duo of Marvin and Francis (Lil' Chris and Daniel Buckley) were great fun. It's in the second half that Eddie realises he needs some drastic action to impress his father, which is what moves him from regular school bully mode into manipulating everyone so that he can claim credit for Michael (and Holly's) work on the invention of email. The music was good, but there were times when the band were too high in the mix compared with the singers, not dissimilar to how a lot of bands in the ilk of Busted or Son of Dork do it. IMO, that's fine, and often preferable, when the person on lead vocals isn't so much a singer, but someone who shouts a bit along with the tune. However, it's a waste and frustrating when you have proper singers, and especially when you need to be able to listen to the lyrics because they are driving the plot. The band were very good, and I liked how they had them on stage and worked them into the show. The set was very clever too. It was simple, but it worked incredibly well. There was fun use of big picture cards to represent props. On Friday night, the theatre was almost full, and there was a good mix of ages although there were more girls in their late teens than you'd normally get at the theatre! Everyone seemed to really enjoy it and there was a lot of laughing and enthusiastic clapping. At the curtain call (there is no curtain), Gareth comes on for his bows after the comedy side-kicks Marvin and Francis, and before Michael and Holly. He's the only one to do his bows on his own, and got a big cheer. There was a lot of dialogue for Gareth, and he was brilliant. Not just that his actual speech was good, but he brought a lot of charisma to the role, and gave it enough charm that it was plausible he'd be the classic popular jock in the first place, and made sure he was funny when he was supposed to be. I bet he had a lot of fun playing it. The bar stays open after the show, so it's easy stop for a drink and watch the cast leave. As others have said, the cast leave (and arrive) through a door just beyond where you pay for your food in the food bit. Maggie and I arrived fairly early to managed to be surrounded by a few of the cast and crew as we bought, then ate our dinner. I missed Gareth darting in as I was too pre-occupied by what the wine was. There were quite a few people catching the cast on their way through the bar, asking for photos or for autographs. Gareth didn't get as far as the bar before being surrounded! There were loads of teenagers eager to get their photo and/or autograph, and he was very good with them. It's a joy to watch him with them, and how everyone reacts to him. By the time Gareth worked his way as far the bar the rest of the cast had either left or sat down with their drinks, but he was very patient and tried to make everyone feel special, but in the end he did have to explain he had to go, so just gave a few quick autographs then made a dash for it. Based on twitter, he was keeping his sisters and cousin waiting! We loitered for a bit in the lobby, where there is a series of pictures from the show. Gareth's one was getting a lot of kisses from some kids. It was a bit high for them, so they got around this by kissing their hand, then jumping up to place it on him! If you arrive early, you can eat in the theatre "diner", or sit in the bar. The programmes were £3.50, and have some nice backround to the show, and a few rehearsal photos, but none of the more recent ones we've seen with the cast in costume. It tells you who wrote each song, but not who sings them.

This was posted on the Whats on Stage forum Based on the cast, crew and creatives tweets, they made some changes for last night, and have some more planned for tonight. It must be really interesting for locals who can go on multiple nights to see how it changes and comes together.

You'll need to add the exclamation mark at the end.

Thanks for posting the tweets. Here are some production photos to tease us! http://wyp.live.mandogroup.com/about-us/our-blogs/back-stage-blog/loserville/production-shots-first-look-at-loserville!

If anyone would like to go, but can't afford a ticket, you could win a pair in this competition! http://www.thepublicreviews.com/competition-momentous-musicals-new-wimbledon-theatre-london/

It was the first preview of Loserville last night. There is a fair bit of chatter on twitter about it - all very positive, and it sounds like they all got a standing ovation too. I don't have time to pick out bits and post before work, but it's worth a look if you get the chance.

There's a bit on the BBC News website. Only a passing comment (and pic) of Gareth. It's more an interview with James Bourne and Elliot Davis and them asking about Busted and Son of Dork, the music scene and the transition to the stage. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18446713

I don't think it matters if there are snide comments - people expect that on a place like DS or anywhere else that people leave their opinions. It's more important that there are some positive ones too.

DigitalSpy have picked up on Gareth doing the show now - they have taken "inspiration" from the Guardian piece! http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/news/a387882/gareth-gates-to-star-in-ex-busted-stars-musical-loserville.html

Thanks Heather - the photo they used too. How interesting that Steven Dexter who directed Gareth in "The King and I" all those years ago is now directing him in "Loserville".

This was repeated on Radio Leeds today. Unfortunately, I didn't find out until after I'd left for work today, so was only able to tweet about it, but hopefully some people managed to tune in. If not, and you want to hear the full thing (includin the songs), it's available to "listen again" here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/player/p00ss8vf They have cut the very beginning off, but you will get the gist of it!

Anyone going on the 26th? That's press night.

I see they've fixed a typo in the dialogue box. Presumably no-one noticed until after they first published it! That's really clever how they have put it together.

Eternal, I made sure that all references to the songs was included, so you know exactly what Gareth chose and what he said about each track. They are all already available on YouTube or Spotify, so you can listen to them there. I needed to remove them from the clip or I'd get copyright messages, and stupid adverts would appear, with the record companies of the songs listed claiming royalties. It also reduced the size of the clip, making it easier to upload and means that fans don't need to faff around fast forwarding through songs if they don't want to hear them. I think it's easier to press pause and listen to them elsewhere if that's what you want to do.

And someone has managed a review already! (they liked it) Unfortunately the link is no longer available.

Just in case anyone hasn't read the previous thread, and is wondering what this is about - you can read here. It's a musical version of the famous children's story "Three Little Pigs", which was written by Gareth's friends, Stiles & Drewe and has already run in Singapore. Gareth is playing one of the pigs! It's being released by SimG Productions, and if you go to the relevant page on their website, you can listen to some of the tracks, including Gareth's solo number "A Little House". http://www.simongrei...ittle_Pigs.html From what is available (and inevitably), it's very obviously aimed at younger children - all good fun! Here's the track listing for the physical CD - the digital version won't have the bonus tracks. Overture Band One, Two, Three Little Pigs Alison Jiear, Lewis Barnshaw, Amy Lennox & Gareth Gates A Real Pig Sty Alison Jiear, Lewis Barnshaw, Amy Lennox & Gareth Gates Perfect For A Pig Alison Jiear, Lewis Barnshaw, Amy Lennox & Gareth Gates A Little House Gareth Gates A Little House (Reprise) Gareth Gates A Bit Misunderstood Clive Rowe A Little House – Straw/Twigs/Bricks Amy Lennox, Lewis Barnshaw & Gareth Gates To Build A House Lewis Barnshaw, Amy Lennox & Gareth Gates I’ll Huff And I’ll Puff Clive Rowe Down The Chimney Company Finale Alison Jiear, Lewis Barnshaw, Amy Lennox & Gareth Gates Bonus Tracks: One, Two, Three Little Pigs George Stiles & Anthony Drewe A Bit Misunderstood George Stiles