Lauren Terry's Review

I couldn’t believe that the time had nearly come for me to see Jessie in A Little Night Music; my family and I decided to go and pick up the tickets a little earlier than we had planned. As we walked into the Menier and I could hear the cast getting ready for the show. I was really excited as Jessie was actually in the next room to where I was standing, I didn’t think I would see her before the show but I was wrong. Jessie came out of the dressing room on the phone and I didn’t want to disturb her in mid conversation so I waited, however she went back into the dressing room shortly after so I didn’t get to speak to her then. About 10 minutes later she came out again and she was still on the phone, she walked up to the box office (which happened to be right near where we were sitting) and started talking to another member of the cast. After she’d finished my Mum asked her if she would mind having a photo with me and she obliged, then my Mum said to Jessie “Did you get my letter”. I was confused because I didn’t know anything about a letter! Then Jessie said to me “Oh you’re the singer aren’t you!”, and I said yes. She then encouraged me to carry on with my singing, signed my program and went back into the dressing room to get ready for the show. I didn’t know this but my Mum had written to Jessie explaining that I’m a massive fan and that I had tickets to go and see her! After I had spoken to her I was so excited so I decided to phone my friends and tell them all about it.

Another hour passed by and it was finally time to go into the theatre, having seen wicked the night before my expectations were high and I certainly wasn’t disappointed! I didn’t really know what to expect of A little night music but I was soon to find out all about it. Jessie waltzed on stage with the rest of the cast and she looked so elegant and ladylike. How they managed to twirl and change partners in such a small space I shall never know! Jessie delivered the English accent perfectly and if you didn’t know any better you probably would think she was English!

When Jessie started to sing ‘soon’ she sounded like an angel, her top range was so pure and refreshing to hear. I especially loved the scenes with Jessie and Kelly price, the countess; they were very funny together in ‘a weekend in the country’.

Maureen Lipman played Madame Armfeldt very convincingly and was also extremely funny in her part. Hannah Waddingham and Holly Hallam worked so well together and you could see the chemistry between them that made the mother-daughter relationship believable.

All in all the performance was a HUGE success and I enjoyed it very much. In a little night music Jessie’s character, Anne says ‘I wonder what it would be like to be a one and only’. I don’t think Jessie will have to wait very long to find out. Jessie, you’re the nicest and most genuine person I have ever met and I wish you the best of luck in your future (not that you’ll need it!)

A Little Night Music - Paul in London's Review

http://paulinlondon.blogspot.com/2008/12/theatre-little-night-music.html

I was a bit worried about seeing A Little Night Music on Sunday. Well, the last time I went to see a Trevor Nunn show it all ended in disaster (although I ended up with seats with lots of space around me). This time at least I was certain that the material he had to work with was much better. But still, I was a little bit worried. It was less to do with the show and more to do with the company I was with. After having lunch with the Whingers, John and a few others, our party of ten to see it was in a very silly mood.

The two bottles of non-cheap red wine consumed over lunch may have had something to do with it. There was so much banter that anything was a target and everything was hilarious. The production team sat in the row in front of us, taking notes using pens and little notepads looking like they were waiters. John suggested we ask Trevor to take our order for a couple of lattes for the interval. Yes, it was set to be a silly afternoon.

Fortunately all the banter stopped when the lights went up. Well the lights went up in the row in front of us anyway. The note taking continued under the glow of pen lights and mobile phones. It took a while for the stage lights to go up. I think they did not go up until about the third number and it was hard to make out who anybody was until then. Still there was so much to enjoy about this show; the excellent cast, the brisk pacing and the great story.

I had not seen a production of A Little Night Music before but was familiar with the score. I also knew the film Smiles Of A Summer Night on which the musical is loosely based upon. Smiles Of A Summer Night is an Ingmar Bergman film, but is not a bleak film about death (like many of his films) but a very funny comedy. The book and score of A Little Night Music is just as witty and incisive. So it was great to see this production bring out the fact that at its heart this show is a sexy comedy.

There are some wonderful singers in this cast and they all kept the show real while managing the right balance of laughs and pathos. Some in our party had reservations about Maureen Lipmann playing Mme Armfeldt but I figured the role called for a touch of channelling Margaret Thatcher with a bit of Miss Havisham. But particular credit has to go to Hannah Waddingham in the central role of Desiree. Judi Dench played it in the last London production, but by giving this role to Waddingham (who is in her early thirties and looks stunning even eating a bag of crisps), the show makes a lot more sense and gives added power to the story. It was also nice to see Jessie Buckley, runner up in the TV show I'd Do Anything to find the next Nancy for the upcoming West End revival of Oliver! playing the role of the young virgin wife Anne as well.

All told this show looked and sounded fantastic. I would challenge anyone not to enjoy the closing number of Act 1, "A Weekend In The Country". It is helped by the small confines of the Chocolate Factory and the extra intimacy it provides. You know you are seeing the real thing as you are so close to the performers as they deftly handle very tricky music. The production design was another added bonus. A real treat and one not to miss. Press night was 3 December and it will run until March at the Chocolate Factory. Beg, borrow or steal (if the Sondheimistas snatch them all up) to get a ticket while the nights are long... It is worth it...

A Little Night Music - Webcowgirl

http://webcowgirl.wordpress.com/

Last night I headed off with my uncle, J and Sue to see A Little Night Music at the Menier Chocolate Factory. Now, I approached this whole show with some considerable misgivings, chief among them that, though I am a big fan of musicals, I do not care for Sondheim. I base this on seeing two of his works and finding them not very good (“Into the Woods” and “Sweeney Todd”) and the fact that I generally find his music “tweedley” and just generally not very hummable. Me, I want to walk out of a show singing something, like I did for “Drowsy Chaperone” and “Anything Goes,” but Sondheim doesn’t really leave me with a single memorable musical moment … it’s just kind of noise, like modern operas, though not to the extent that I want to stick an icepick in my ears like I did for “Pierrot Lunaire.”

My second major misgiving was that this whole thing was directed by Trevor Nunn. Now, chances are that if you know anything about musical theater, you’ve probably heard his name before. Unfortunately for me he is forever linked with “Les Mis,” which is stuck in my memory as the very first time I realized a musical could be complete crap. Nowadays I realize that pretty much anything can get hyped beyond all realms of belief and yet still be a steaming pile of poo, but twenty or so years ago this came to me as a tremendous shock. So I figured that once again I was likely to be signing myself up for something that was overdesigned beyond all belief and also hollow at the core.

Well, okay, there was one reason that I did not absolutely believe that this would be the case, and thus bought the tickets in the first place, and this was because this show was being produced at the Menier. Now, my first visit to the Menier was a bit of a disaster; the show (“Playing Our Song”) was a turkey and I left the theater with huge scrapes on my knees from the overly close seating arrangement. However, I loved the space; intimate as all get out (a bit much so in regards to the other audience members) and a really amazing place to watch people singing big songs to you from ten feet away. I’ve also been pretty impressed by the Menier’s record at getting its shows transferred elsewhere; while I can’t imagine why I’d ever bother with “Sunday in the Park with George” (as transferred to Broadway) its “La Cage,” now on the West End, is apparently quite the thing, and I thought that chances were better than not that this would be a good show and I’d be pleased to say “I saw it when” etc.

But then of course there was the Sondheim angle. Bit of a roll of the dice, eh, but the tickets were bought, and, if nothing else, my uncle was quite pleased to be going to see this show while he was visiting, and, well, the company would be good, so my fingers were crossed.

New to this trip was an Assigned Seating System (woo!) which ensured we could actually relax with our dinner and glasses of port at the Boot and Flogger prior to the show, all the while knowing we’d not have to sit in the row with the four inch wide aisle because we had seats waiting for us. Hurray! Unfortunately, “front row” meant “in the seats designed for people who are under five feet tall,” as we were ridiculously low to the ground and spent the whole time watching the show from over the top of our knees. Oh well, at least we had leg room – though we were a bit worry we might trip up the performers.

The show itself was actually a quite interesting little frippery (based on a Bergman movie – one of the happy ones, apparently) about a middle aged man wedded to an 18 year old girl (Anne Egerman, played by Jessie Buckley), who have an unconsummated marriage; he is attracted to a lush actress (named Desiree, my!) with whom he had a liason some years back, while his religious son is in love with the wife (who’s much closer to his age) and hating himself for it. All of this contained sexual energy goes wild when the unhappy family is invited to the actress’ country house for the weekend, at which point the play suddenly turns into one of those Shakespearean comedies of errors in which all true lovers are united at the end and we are sent home with smiles on our faces.

So there I was, hunched in my front row seat, watching these people sing and dance close enough to me that I could see the wrinkles on their faces (except for the 18 year old, whom appears to be actually … well, 19), listening very closely to the music and laughing at the clever libretto (who’d ever think to use “Titian” as a rhyme with “Venetian?”), and I realized … I was actually enjoying myself. Sure, I couldn’t stand Desiree Armfeldt’s (Hannah Waddingham’s) hairdo, which was too “1960s sex goddess,” and the miked voices made me want to tear my OWN hair out, and the actress’ aged 10 or so daughter was just verging on nauseatingly cute and precocious (though I did admire her for singing with so much hair in her mouth – was it all about the hair for me?), and my uncle was gagging a bit on the cigar smoke in Act Two – but wasn’t it all just rather lovely, with the simple, yet effective sets, the 100% professional cast practically sitting in my lap, the very interesting and believable characters? I mean, wasn’t it pretty much the whole package other than some niggling bits?

Anyway, by the intermission I’d perked up quite a bit, and by the end of the show I was thinking, well, who knows, maybe this Sondheim guy isn’t so bad after all. Maybe the fact it was a community college cast I saw performing “Into the Woods” affected how I feel about it. Maybe … maybe Sondheim is a taste best appreciated with age. When I found myself comparing the libretto to Cole Porter’s work, it did make me think I’d turned a corner. At any rate, it was a good evening out, and I do very much encourage people to take themselves down to Southwark and catch this show – it’s on for three months so you should have a bit more luck than you would at the typical Donmar production.

(This review is for a performance on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008.)

A Little Night Music - Christina's Review

Seeing A Little Night Music at the Menier Chocolate Factory was going to be three firsts: my first visit to this theatre; my first time seeing the piece despite being a Sondheim admirer; and of course Jessie Buckley’s professional theatre debut. And I loved all three!

The Chocolate Factory is a welcoming place, with a restaurant, bar and gallery as well as the theatre. It is all bare bricks and wooden beams, and the theatre space itself is so intimate that I’m sure every seat (actually you sit on benches!) would offer a great view. I always enjoy seeing a play in a studio theatre but I don’t think I’ve ever seen a musical before. Now I’d like to see all musicals there! You are so close to the action that you can appreciate every detail of an actor’s performance and it is so special to hear them all without the need of amplification.

The piece reminded me of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, as is obviously intended, where the romantic and rather foolish lovers go into the country from where they emerge with their right partners. Because I hadn’t seen it before, I was not as surprised as those who have enjoyed previous productions by the age of Hannah Waddingham, who plays Desiree. She is considerably younger than some in the role, but to me this made sense with the age of her daughter, and as she is still twice the age of her ex-lover’s wife (played by Jessie) the jokes about this age difference still work.

There are some hilarious lyrics, all delivered with expert phrasing by the entirely excellent cast. As Madame Armfeldt, Maureen Lipman has a dream part being literally wheeled on to deliver some killer one-liners. Other highlights include “You Must Meet My Wife”, with Hannah Waddingham extracting every possible laugh with her reactions to Fredrick’s description of his 18 year old wife Anne (Jessie), and “A Weekend in the Country” which closes the first act on a real high (and in which Jessie gets her own laughs!).

Jessie first comes on stage waltzing with the other cast members, and despite the lack of light it was easy to pick her out! Somehow, in the relatively small space, they managed to twirl around elegantly, changing partners as they went. When Jessie speaks Anne’s first lines, it does come as rather a shock, as her charming Kerry accent has disappeared. And then when she sings “Soon” there is another surprise: her soprano voice. She reaches its extremely high notes with apparent ease.

Jessie looked completely at home on the stage with actors most of whom are vastly more experienced. She was touching and funny. I thought her scenes with Kelly Price who played the Countess were particularly good. There are two moments in the play when the mood changes and we see the pain behind the previously comic misadventures. One is of course the most famous song, “Send in the Clowns”. The other is “Every Day a Little Death”, beautifully acted by Kelly and Jessie.

If the critics know what they’re about - and on occasions you do wonder! - this production should get great reviews. And so buy your tickets before they come out on Thursday! I feel it could sell out rapidly, and even if a West End transfer follows, it is special to see it in this space.

A Little Night Music - Jeanne

"Please forgive me if this review is not very good, or if its difficult to follow. I’ve never reviewed a show before & I must confess that I was mostly just paying attention to Jessie.

So, I arrived at the theatre to collect my ticket, & buy a program, in plenty of time (I got there just after 6:00 – I was a little panicky about being late, lol). Once I had my ticket in my hand, I wandered around for a little while, heard some harmonising going on behind the theatre so I had a little sneaky peep through a gap in the big metal gate & caught sight of a mass of brown curls – I’m sure it was Jessie, nobody else’s voice makes my heart race like that!

I managed to find somewhere warm to get some food, then found a shop & got some chocolates & a card on the off chance that I’d be lucky enough to actually meet Jessie. Just after 7:00 I walked back to the theatre to sit in the box office/bar area and wait for the door to open.

The theatre itself was small & quaint, 8 rows of seats…. Actually, not seats, benches that you have to squash on to, but they’re comfy enough & the view is great I imagine from everywhere – I was on the back row to the left (just 2 people away from the director, who was sat making notes through the whole performance) & could see perfectly. I also had the added perk of having the lovely Jessie rush right past me as part of the first act – squee! Oh, & anyone lucky enough to be in seat G10 (I think) will have Miss Buckley sat right next to them for a small part of the show!

Before the show started the artistic director of the theatre came out, to welcome us to their first preview, which he explained, was actually the dress rehearsal – this was to be the first time the cast had ever run through the whole show, from start to finish.

After a short delay, the lights dimmed and some of the cast appeared one by one, singing various little melodies. The rest of the cast joined them and they were all waltzing around the stage beautifully. Even in the dimmed light, Jessie was easy to spot, & may I say, dancing like a pro! She was twirling around the stage with ease & grace and didn’t put a foot wrong – I couldn’t keep my eyes off her, so, I would have noticed if she’d slipped up! :p

I won’t go through the entire show & analyse it – as I’m tempted to do – ‘cos a) it would be dull & b) it would spoil it for anyone who isn’t familiar with the play.

I will say though, that considering this was the ‘dress rehearsal’, it was amazing! There were no major slips, two tiny, minor things I can think of, but nothing drastic. Now, I will admit, for the first act I was mostly just paying attention to Jessie, but every single cast member was fantastic, the chemistry between them all was wonderful & they played off each other & supported each other perfectly.

Jessie’s accent was practically faultless – I heard someone in the audience comment that her Irish accent slipped out a little bit, but, I barely noticed & I was paying very close attention.

Her singing – as always - was absolutely note perfect and she delivered some beautifully high notes with such ease that she, quite literally, took my breath away & sent the best kind of shivers down my spine.

The role of Anne suited Jessie to a T, she was in equal parts playfully bubbly, endearingly naïve and heart-achingly emotive. She made me laugh, almost made me cry and made me adore and admire her even more than I did before. She was quite clearly ‘in the zone’ throughout the show; this was not tom-boy Jessie Buckley, in fact it was quite the opposite – she practically oozed femininity & grace, even during those adorable playful moments when it would have been tempting & feasible to allow a little tom-boyish-ness.

Moving away from Jessie – if I must – I have to say that the play itself was fantastic. I realised at the beginning of the second act that I was no longer just concentrating on Jessie, I was actually watching the show & really getting into the characters & the story. It was laugh out loud funny, charming, tender and touchingly heart-breaking and I genuinely, thoroughly enjoyed it.

And I have to give a special mention to the little girl who played Fredrika – she was wonderful. Extremely talented, a beautiful voice, more stage presence than some of the adult actors & bubbling with confidence.

Now, after the show – which ran on until almost 11:30 – I was absolutely determined that I was gonna meet Jessie…. Well, I did have those chocolates & card for her; I couldn’t very well leave without actually giving them to her. Unfortunately, I had absolutely no idea where she would come out, so I wandered around and up & down in front of the theatre, in the freezing cold, for a long time, muttering ‘please, please, please’ under my breath. Then, just as I was about to give up & leave, I glanced into the restaurant, and there was Jessie, stood chattering away to someone. She looked to be deep in conversation and I didn’t want to interrupt, so I stayed outside and waited for her to come out.

Finally, she made her way out of the building and I took a step towards her, she saw me walking towards her and gave me the biggest, most beautiful smile and said “Hiya” to me as if she knew me. I asked for her autograph and she graciously agreed, and I told her that she was breathtaking - which made her go all shy, she blushed and went “Aww, bless you, thank you.” I gushed rather a lot about how amazing she was – I’m sure I made a complete fool of myself. She asked if I’d enjoyed the show and I said that it was really good, she replied with “I think everyone else was really good and I was crap” which was accompanied with a sweet, shy little giggle, I of course disagreed & told her that she was great. I gave her the chocolates & card, and got a hug, she agreed to have a picture with me – which her boyfriend (who was with her) took. I have to say, her boyfriend was quite sweet; he just stood back while Jessie was speaking to me & after he took the picture he checked it to make sure it had come out okay.

Then we all went on our merry little ways, and I was floating on air for the rest of the night."

A Little Night Music - Roy

"It is hard to believe that 175 days had elapsed since that awful experience triggered by a BT malfunction coupled with a “John Sergeant” style sympathy vote had robbed the girl with the “world class performance” of her place as Nancy on I’d Do Anything. Now, the time had come for that wrong to be put right. Jessie Buckley was making her long anticipated London debut and my wife, Nicky, and I were among the lucky ones to have tickets for that opening night. We were so looking forward to it and now, at last, the day had arrived. I’m waiting spinal surgery following an old rugby injury that makes walking and standing a challenge. I was not looking forward to the underground journey, but I was not going to miss this performance for the world. On leaving London Bridge Station Nicky and I came face to face with a public house called The Banker And The Barrow Boy. We chuckled because “Barrow Boy” is Suzy Kirk’s nick name for John Barrowman. “That man gets everywhere” I joked as we hurried past afraid of contamination. We had arranged to meet Derrers, Roger & Lynne and Dawn in another pub that claimed to serve food until 7:00 pm. On arrival we asked for the menu only to be told it was an old sign that needed changing. After telephoning Roger and Derrers to warn them Nicky and I found a little restaurant where we ate something before making our way back to the original pub, collecting our tickets on the way, and running into Roger and Lynne in the booking hall. Eventually we all met up and after a drink and a long conversation about the show we made our way to the theatre. It is a cosy little place with a big heart and a very generous welcome. At last we made our way to our seats and just as we reached ours my legs nearly gave way giraffe style and I almost collapsed into a young lady’s lap. No doubt it would have been enjoyable for me but frightening for her. The show was scheduled to start at 8:00pm, but at about 8:10 someone (Trevor Nunn?) came out to explain that this was to be the first time it would be performed in its entirety by the cast who were treating it as a dress rehearsal. Then it began. As soon Anne, Jessie Buckley, started speaking Nicky looked at me and mouthed “O My God”. I knew exactly what she meant. Both of our minds were going back to that day in May when in a jealous tantrum a judge on I’d Do Anything criticised her Irish accent. There was not a trace of it now. Instead we had what would be described today as being a “Sloane Ranger” accent, 100% English. Her singing, timing, expressions were both mature but fresh, a side that came over so well in I’d Do Anything and set her apart from the other contestants. At half time Nicky and I were introduced to Katie, who was exactly as we expected her to be, a true devotee of Jessie’s cause and a very charming young lady. The second half was set in the country and at one point, one of the logs, came crashing down and could have caused serious injury to any one under it. With true professionalism it was cleared away as though it was part of the story and the show continued. After the final scene the cast took their final bow and acknowledged the outstanding musicians who had enhanced the production so well. At the bow we could detect the emotion in Jessie’s eyes. The same emotion she showed on week six of I’d Do Anything when Lord Webber described her singing as the best he had ever heard from a girl her age. Here she was among friends, her colleagues and her fans that had come to encourage and support her. Nicky and I were in the back row so we stood, and that encouraged the rest of our row to stand in appreciation of the whole cast. My overall impressions of the show? The singing, the acting, the overall performance was brilliant, not only from Jessie but from the whole company. Everyone was enjoying their role, but also intent on entertaining their audience. We made our way down to the bar where we were joined by several members of the cast including Jessie. Now she was back to being the enchanting Irish young lady who worked her magic on millions of viewers back in the spring. Very tired, but also very very professional. Then, with our eyes on the time and the underground timetable we left."

A Little Night Music - Katie's First Night Review

"So, I arrived at the Chocolate Factory at about 6.30pm to meet Jackie and David and it lovely to finally get inside somewhere warm! Having walked around London in what felt like arctic conditions I was severely in need of a comfy chair, warm surroundings and a drink. Having only read and found out information about the Chocolate Factory, I am pleased to say it lived up to what I had thought it would be like. An utterly charming little place, full of the buzzing chatter on the tables, the smell of good food and soft lighting; and who can forget the exposed brickwork and beams I mentioned in my article on the theatre itself?!

Anyway, on to what you all want to read about - 'A Little Night Music' itself. I won't try to pretend that I am au fait with Sondheim's works or indeed 'A Little Night Music' but I had got hold of the film adaptation to pick up an idea of the plot.

So, as we were all packed into the astonishingly tiny auditorium I could definitely feel an air of excitement. At first the set seemed simple with just a chair in the middle but later we were to find out how effective and flexible a set it was. It didn't start dead on 8pm but this was no bother to me or anyone else it would seem. Just as we thought it was about to start, the Artistic Director of the Menier Chocolate Factory came on stage to announce something no-one could have expected. Tonight's performance, the very one we had come to see, was actually the first full run-through dress rehersal!! The whole cast had not been through the entire show yet!! Thoughts of 'oh my god' and I hope they don't forget their words etc were going through my head but I needn't have worried for a second.

As the lights dimmed to almost pitch black, the show opened with a prologue, introducing the Liebeslieder Singers, who begin singing various melodies that are heard in songs later on. The other characters of the play entered, dancing a waltz. Now for anyone who reckoned Jessie was the unfortunate possessor of two left feet and bad rhythm - they can think again! She waltzed well and didn't look out of place whatsoever.

Then, the cynical and elderly Madame Armfeldt, played exceedingly well by Maureen Lipman, entered along with Fredrika who is Desiree Armfeldt's illegitimate daughter who was played superbly by a darling young girl.

Without wanting to give too much of the plot away, the story begins with the tale of the marriage between a successful middle-aged lawyer Fredrik Egerman and his young wife Anne. Even after 11 months of marriage they still have not consummated it and thus Fredrik sings 'Now' then it leads onto Anne singing 'Soon'. The part of Anne requires a soprano voice and Jessie absolutely did her main song justice. No sign of any difficulty in reaching those high notes whatsoever.

As I've said I won't go into a full length review of the whole play, partly because I want to keep some of it from those of you who are going and also because a lot of it has just blurred into one. The whole show was so engrossing that I was just concentrating on it solely!

In relation to Jessie and the other cast members they all seemed to get on very well and it came across as a whole team effort, particularly shown by Maureen Lipman's comforting pat on the shoulder as they left the stage after the curtain call where Jessie seemed quite emotional.

Overall the show provided moments of comedy, moments of heartbreak and sadness and moments of joy and happiness. The striking thing was that it seemed totally believable and natural. On top of this, Jessie played Anne so convincingly that it didn't seem like we were watching Jessie Buckley; it was a young, naive, materialistic girl with a posh English accent.

The play ends with Madame Armfeldt and Fredrika alone on stage talking about the smiling moon which is mentioned at the start of the play. Before they see the third smile from the moon Mme. Armfeldt dies peacefully in her chair. As at the beginning, the characters waltz again but now with different partners - Anne with Henrik, Fredrik's young son, and Fredrik with Desiree, a past lover.

As all the characters bowed for the curtain call they got a deserved and resounding round of applause that went on for quite a while. Jessie appeared to be quite emotional but it was completely understandable - she has clearly been working her socks off and was probably relieved the first show was out of the way and a success. As we left the auditorium I said to David 'that was a very proud clap from me', and it was. I felt so proud of Jessie that it had gone well for her.

As we waited in the bar area after the show I could hear lots of chattering about how good it was and many people mentioned Jessie. This was the case even during the interval. I heard some ladies talking about it and saying how they didn't realise that 'Jessie who was on I'd Do Anything was in it'. We waited around for about 15 minutes as we were told that the cast normally leave from the door by the bar. Jessie finally emerged but it didn't take too long. I decided I didn't want to rush over to speak to her so I hung back for a bit. I could see Jessie's boyfriend had arrived to pick her up and I said to him that I didn't want to keep them waiting so I wouldn't push in or anything. We got talking and as I mentioned the 'Blog site' he seemed to know who I was almost instantly, even my name! I was quite taken aback by this as I wasn't expecting him to know but we shook hands and he introduced himself as Neil. We chatted for a couple of minutes about the show amongst other things whilst Jessie spoke to other fans and I can honestly say he was very lovely and easy to chat to. Then Jessie came over to him and a few seconds later he introduced us. As far as I can remember he simply said something along the lines of 'this is Katie' and she also seemed to know who I was straight away. We chatted for a few minutes and she said she didn't feel as if she had given her best performance. Obviously my response to this completely disagreed. As Hannah Waddingham who brilliantly played Desiree Armfeldt walked past Jessie said she was the real star of the show. Whilst she was excellent, for me and many of us there last night Jessie stole the show. To me she was completely faultless; the singing, the dancing, the acting all impecable. If I was asked who the star of the show was my answer would most definitely be Jessie Buckley."