OK, I’m finally ready to blog about Sunday night. It’s been a busy old week with the Globe on Monday, office and an overnight visitor on Tuesday, Twist Museum on Wednesday and trying to catch up on work on Thursday. So today, when all I’ve had to do is sit in a reclining seat and watch heroic types beating up monsters, I finally have a bit of brainspace to tell you all about the Musical Theatre Rave.
I know – digest that for a minute. It’s not a concept I was familiar either but it’s what it sounds like – a clubnight where the only tunes played are from musicals. This is definitely my kind of thing so when Bob’s sister invited me, I was more than up for it. As long as I booked the Monday off work, of course.
The rave is hosted by G-A-Y at Heaven, which confused me slightly as back in the day G-A-Y and Heaven were two separate clubs. But I’ve been off the scene for quite a long time so apparently I’ve missed some things. Heaven has not changed much since I last visited in the early 2000s though and thankfully, it was still as welcoming as it ever was…even for a party of straight girls. The only major change is that you don’t get a physical cloakroom ticket anymore and have to take a photo of your number. Now, that’s technology.
Technology had changed a few things actually. When we first got there, the dancefloor was packed but no one seemed to be dancing – just standing around chatting and taking selfies. I wasn’t sure what kind of age range a musical theatre rave would attract but it was packed with trendy young theatre kids. I guess shows like “Hamilton” have made musicals cool again and let’s not forget that this is a generation that grew up on “Glee”. I definitely remember it being uncool to like musicals a few years ago (not that it stopped me) so I’m glad the carousel has turned again.
We found a dark space at the back to limber up a bit to the theme from “Fame” but decided to join the main crowd when our host for the evening – Benjaminge – appeared on the stage. Benjaminge was there to tell us not to rain on her parade but also to introduce two West End stars who’d be performing for us. They were both super-adorable and tiny, especially when compared to the towering heights of our host.
First up was Grace Mouat:
Who performed “Hit Me Baby One More Time”, in “&Juliet” style. She then sang one of Katherine of Aragorn’s songs from “Six”, which was immensely popular with the crowd. In fact, anytime that musical was mentioned, the kids went wild. There was a bit of a generation gap because it’s not a show I’m at all familiar with and the songs are a bit too pop for my taste. But don’t worry – we found plenty of common ground.
Next up was Blake Patrick Anderson, who sang “From Now On” from “The Greatest Showman” and had the first proper crowd singalong of the night as we all hollered “And we will come back home!” back at him. He also sang a really sweet song called “Michael in the Bathroom” about being too shy to talk to people at a party.
Shortly after that, our group decided to move to the side of the dancefloor that was closer to the bar and a bit cooler. As I was off in the loos when they decided to move and they waited for mt to come back, it involved performing a tricky manoeuvre where I needed to push through people to get back to our group and then push back past the same people again. Luckily it was while they were playing “You’re Welcome” from “Moana” so as I went, I kept up a manic grin, made eye contact with people and shouted about killing eels and burying their guts. It seemed to defuse the tension.
Ah yes, Disney was indeed an area of common ground between us oldies and the younger folk. There was a lot of Disney played, most of which doesn’t exactly qualify as musical theatre because not every Disney film has been on Broadway (although it sometimes feels like it). So as well as Disney-based show songs (“Lion King”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Frozen”) there were several which were really just Disney songs (“Encanto”, “Little Mermaid”, aforementioned “Moana”). But of course I sang along with them all anyway. Sadly we were at the bar for “We Don’t Talk About Bruno” but we had a good singalong with everyone else who was there at the same time.
Weirdly, Eva looked at me like she didn’t believe any of this when I told her the next day. She was a bit sceptical that I’d been up half the night dancing to Disney songs in a gay club. I took a few videos to show her though, as I suspected she wouldn’t think it was real. I also think she’d love to go to one of these if there’s ever an under 18s version, especially when the whole dancefloor was shouting about being revolting children as one voice.
I don’t remember exactly what happened when. Not because I was drinking – I only had two drinks all night, to minimise loo trips – but because it all seemed like such a surreal fever dream that, like Eva, I’m not sure any of it really happened. I do remember the crowd going absolutely wild to “One More Day” to the extent that the DJ turned off the track for the last 30 seconds and we just belted it out. “Let it Go” also got a great reaction, and there were people up on each other’s shoulders for “Defying Gravity”.
Some of the older songs did seem to get a muted reaction. Barely anyone was dancing to “Spoonful of Sugar”, which is practically an insult to the divine Julie. And “Sweet Transvestite” also didn’t hit in the way I’d imagined it would in a gay club. I assume it’s because the terms used are kinda outdated and the younger people felt uncomfortable singing them. But there’s no denying that “Rocky” was hugely influential so I was surprised it wasn’t more popular . I am definitely an old fogie though.
For the most part though, everyone was dancing to pretty much every song except maybe the full-length version of “Bat Out of Hell”. The biggest cheers were definitely for the newer shows like “Heathers” which I haven’t seen because I think I’d miss Christian Slater too much. And of course “Six”, which provided the soundtrack to one of the night’s biggest moments – the lipsync battle between Emma and Harvey:
It was a tough decision for the judges as both contestants were superb but #sorrynotsorry, I was Team Emma all the way. Her lipsynch was just perfect although Harvey’s high kicks were hard to overlook. I think the track was “Don’t Lose Your Head” but I might be wrong.
It might sound chaotic and surreal but it really was an excellent night out. I left at 2, an hour before the end, and got to bed at about half 3 before jumping out and taking the kids to Harvester brunch. No wonder I’m still tired four days later….
Tickets for the next raves are already on sale! Click here for more info.
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