Just got back from a really great week filming down in London. I was staying down there for seven days working at Wimbledon for the ‘Play Your Way To Wimbledon’ tournament, producing social content each day for ESPN. Ahead of the week, I’d done a few filming days profiling three of the players, so had already had a chance to work with some of the crew – Ged who was producing all the content (and who I’ve been aware of for years through mutual friends, but never worked with before), and another cameraman called Billy who’s based in the midlands and mostly does stuff for Sky Sports.

Me, Billy and another cameraman called Tony spent the days filming lots of the tennis matches, as well as shooting extra features with former tennis pro Laura Robson, who was with us to present each day’s social video. I felt a bit sorry for the editor Alex who had to deliver the final video at the end of each day, because we were constantly supplying him with more and more footage as he was trying to compile that day’s edit! I was kind of happy that I was filming rather than editing on this project!

We were mostly filming around the practice courts, but on one of the days, we did get to go around the main courts that are used during the main Wimbledon tournament, and they were really impressive. I also was quite surprised to discover they only get used for that two weeks in July!

The whole production team were great to work with, and I think the stuff we produced looked good, especially considering the tight turnaround! The only negative of the week was that it was so incredibly hot! Last week saw some crazy temperatures, and it was quite challenging at times filming outside when the temperatures are in the mid 30s!

One advantage I took from being down in London was taking the opportunity to catch a couple of West End shows. We were all staying at different locations as we had to organise our own accommodation, so that meant that once we’d finished each day, I had my evenings free (apart from our last night when we all met for food and drinks). So once I’d checked with the others that I’d not have to do anything else on the evenings, I found some performances that still had a few seats available.

Anyway, the first show I went to see was Hamilton. Obviously, I’d heard so many good things about it, and it’s all deserved. I tried watching it on Disney+ when it was released in 2020, but didn’t watch it to the end, but seeing it live at the theatre is a totally different experience. Just a few minutes in, I was already thinking that it truly is a masterpiece! All the lyrics are just so poetic (and have that unique Lin-Manuel Miranda sound), and they flow in a perfect rhythm, and are totally in sync with all the choreography.

Every performer gives it their all, and there’s so much energy on that stage all the way through, you really do tangibly feel it, as well as learning about history as well! Definitely a show I’d recommended!

Then a couple of nights later it was time for another one – this time, Dear Evan Hansen. I first became aware of the show when the film came out last year , and the trailer really intrigued me about the overall premise of the story, so went to see it when it came out. The film didn’t do too well critically – there were a lot of complaints that they’d dropped some popular songs, but the main thing people didn’t like was that Ben Platt (who played the lead role on Broadway) is a 27 year old playing a 17 year old! To be honest, that didn’t bother me too much because I grew up on films like Grease and Back To The Future where teenagers are played by actors much older! And since I hadn’t seen the original show, the dropping of songs wasn’t really an issue either. So generally I liked it, mainly because a lot of the ideas of the story connected with me, and I also enjoyed the music that I heard, which made me want to see the live show.

Anyway, with the pandemic closing theatres for so long and it taking a while to get back to normal, plus the film not doing too well, a few months ago it was announced that by this October, it will have closed on both Broadway and the West End which is a shame. So I’d kind of accepted I wouldn’t get a chance to see it, but then the opportunity appeared with me being down in London for a week with free evenings!

It’s probably a bit unfair to go and see another show a couple of days after seeing Hamilton, because it’s hard for anything to match that experience, but ‘Dear Evan Hansen’ certainly holds its own! As I’ve already mentioned, apart from personally really connecting with a lot of the themes explored by the story, I especially liked the staging, which made a lot of use of moving screens and projection mapping, and the cast were all really good with both the drama and the singing. I thought maybe that it occasionally was slightly melodramatic at times, bit that didn’t bother me too much really, and is kind of fine in the heightened environment of a stage musical. Also, I liked the way the band were in vision, with them all on a raised mezzanine on the left side of the stage.

I got chatting to the guy sitting next to me before it started, and we noted that four of the cast for that performance were the understudies (Connor, Zoe, Evan’s mum and Connor’s mum), which seemed quite a lot to be out on the same night when the cast isn’t that big, but they were all very good, and I wouldn’t have known if it hadn’t been mentioned to me! But I was glad that it was Sam Tutty who was playing Evan – he’s played the lead role in London since it started, and he’s won a few awards for it. He was excellent, playing it with a real sense of vulnerability and capturing Evan’s anxiety so believably, and it makes you side with a character who could quite easily turn the audience against him because of his actions.

So again, another strong recommendation from me! I ordered CDs of both the Hamilton and Dear Evan Hansen soundtracks yesterday, and they’ve arrived today, so I’m thinking I may be listening quite a bit over the next few weeks!