What Sophie Said

If you love West End theatre, you won't want to miss the current exhibition in the 'Theatre and Performance' section of the V & A. I went with my mum on Saturday to Curtain Up! and it's a complete visual treat. Telling the West End and Broadway story, mainly over the last 40 years, the exhibition features costumes, designs, set models, scripts, budget sheets and programmes / playbills from shows like The Lion King, Matilda, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, and The Producers. I'd say the more shows you've seen, the more you'll love it as it's amazing to see up close what went into the shows you've loved. There were sketches of Roxie's costumes in Chicago, and of the costumes of each lead adult in Matilda, along with one of Helen Mirren's outfits as the Queen and one worn by Judi Dench as Cleopatra. The space dedicated to the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime reminded me just what a feast ...

Jen Symes (left) as Nickie, Vicky Geary (centre) as Charity and me (right) as Helene in Sweet Charity Some of the cast of BYT's Footloose in 2009 I love going to the theatre. Big budget musicals, tiny touring productions and amateur shows are, for me, a treat to watch. Even if I don’t enjoy the show, I still always take something away from it, and quickly book my next theatre trip. Since I was 13, I’ve performed in youth musicals. I did a summer course with Youth Music Theatre, where we wrote a musical and performed it at the end of the week. I’ve been to Stagecoach. I’ve done terms and summer schools with Upstage. Playing Mary Poppins at an Upstage summer school was my first time singing on stage, and definitely one of the best experiences! I then did a few shows at Brookdale Youth Theatre, in Bramhall, where I got to understudy and play Cosette in Les Miserables , play Mrs Molloy in Hello Dolly , Ariel in Footloose and Helene in Sweet Charity . This doesn’t even in...