He's behind you ...

This is a sentence often screamed loudly by hundreds of children in theatres across the country throughout December, whilst they laugh at the hero/heroine's inability to notice the baddy creeping up behind them. However, it can have far scarier implications as we found out on our theatre trip to the gala evening of the Bodyguard Musical last night. 

All being fans of: (1)the theatre; (2) scaring the public by going out en masse; and (3) dressing up,  it was always going to be an evening that couldn't fail to disappoint - and so it was with great excitement that we met at Richmond Station ... all looking a lot more glam than we normally do .... and headed up to the Adelphi Theatre in a fashion that was incredibly reminiscent of school trips (especially as we had several actual teachers in tow). 

Having made it to the theatre all together - no mean feat (obviously I've never ever been left behind on the platform watching forlornly at those sliding tube doors due to my inability to push) - we rushed to our seats and ignored the collective groan around us as almost four rows of the stalls were filled with giddy, photo-taking-obsessed, Whitney lovers. Then the show started and all went quiet. 

Though the singing and soundtrack were outstanding from the start, the pulse-accelerating plot line didn't kick off until the second half - but when it did, oh man talk about TENSE. Obviously I will not reveal the exact goings on but suffice to say there was A LOT of gasping, squealing and hand-squeezing going on (@trixiecantswim not being a main perpetrator at all) all leading to the emotional peak of 'I will always love you.' 

Not being in vogue to leave a west-end theatre audience feeling teary and on-edge at the end of a performance, especially with a show honouring Whitney's musical offerings, the encore came in the form of a high energy rendition of 'I wanna dance with somebody.' This was a great excuse for the dancers of the show to come into their own (including @PlagueDanceCrew's Dharmesh Patel), busting out some of their best moves to that banging beat. But more importantly it was a brilliant excuse for all of us to get up and boogie in the seats, in the aisle and all the way home on the train - with our flash-mob-style performance only being curtailed by lack of space on the locomotives provided by tfl. Needless to say the energy was high and all sorts of hilarity ensued - much to the other passengers delight - particularly noteworthy being LOUD renditions of 'I will always love you' to various members of our company across the escalators at Waterloo. 

Overall a great night was had by all, and it was a fantabulous way to kick-off the party season. Just make sure to lock your doors and check under your bed after you read this ... turns out your mum was wrong, monsters do exist!