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 Ever woken up with a bad hair day? This is how HAODS chair, Julie Huntington, felt when she heard the news at the eleventh hour that the first in the season of Up Close and Personal with a West End performer might end in disaster as the billed star, Jodie Jacobs, had gone down with serious throat problems! With Jodie's opening night in Rock of Ages at the Shaftsbury Theatre looming in just two days time, her doctor had ordered her to bed. Thus, HAODS were potentially left with a stage without a singer! However, enterprising musical director, Andy Smith, called in several favours and managed to pull four replacement performers out of the hat!
The evening was rescued by James Milton, who was nominated for Best Actor for his role as Marius in Les Miserables, Poppy Carter, who has recently played opposite Keira Knightley in Children's Hour in the West End, Stuart Armfield, whose credits include Gad in Joseph and his Technicolor Dreamcoat and Samuel in Pirates of Penzance, and Helen Petrovna, who swore to us that she was "only a dancer" despite having played Cosette in Les Miserables, and Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors! The stars chatted casually with the audience, sharing personal information and funny anecdotes about their performances - more often than not about things that had gone wrong and how situations were rescued!
With only one run through at 6pm the artists were ready to perform at 8pm. The show was a resounding success, just going to prove the true professionalism of the stars that Britain is lucky to have gracing the stages in the West End.
An enthusiastic audience was also treated to some comic songs from little known musicals by HAODS member, Ian Head, and some songs from James Gwynne and Sally Rowlands who are playing the lead characters of Seymour and Audrey in the up-coming musical, Little Shop of Horrors, which will be performed at the Kenton Theatre 13 - 19 November (Kenton box office 01491 575698).
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