Yesterday, my members went to see I’m Every Woman, The Chaka Khan Musical at Troubadour Wembley Park, and during the interval they met Alexandra Burke. She is playing Chaka Khan, and she was every bit as wonderful off the stage as she is on it.
This is the sort of event I put together for Premium members, and since it is the first thing I have written on here, I cannot think of a better one to start with.
The plan was a meet and greet on stage after the show. That is usually how these work. The curtain comes down, the audience files out, and a small group of us gets to walk out onto the set and meet the cast while the theatre is still warm.
Now, plenty of people would have sent apologies at this point, and nobody would have thought badly of them. What Alexandra did instead was find another way. She kept her commitment to us and gave us her interval, which is the only real break she gets in a show that runs a good two and a half hours. We met her in the theatre restaurant rather than on stage, and she came in during the half and spent some time with us.
And when I say time, I mean it. She talked to everybody. She had photographs taken with everybody. Nobody was rushed along or told there was a queue. Then she went back out and did the second half of a show in which she barely leaves the stage, and then went home to her son’s birthday.
That is the kind of thing I love about this industry, and it is the kind of thing my members will be talking about for a long time.
She is extraordinary in it, and the critics have been unanimous on that point even where they were harder on other things.
The Times called her commanding. WhatsOnStage singled out her presence and her acting quality. One reviewer said star quality was practically dripping off her, and another called her magnetic throughout. When you have sat in that auditorium and heard her do Ain’t Nobody, you understand exactly what they mean. There is a moment in the second half where the room simply stopped moving.
If you want to see her in it, the run is on at Troubadour Wembley Park until 27 September, so there is still time. And if you become a member of my Arts & Culture Group, then you can get tickets for £15 each until 30 August.
It is a small group of us getting to meet the people who made the show we have just watched.
But I want to be clear about the scale of these, because I think it really matters to all my members. This is not a hundred people in a foyer with a photographer on hand. It is a handful of members getting a really personal experience, which is why there is time for everyone to say something and why nobody leaves without their photo. That only works because I keep the groups small, and I keep them small on purpose.
Sometimes we go backstage and have a nose around. Sometimes we meet the cast on the set. Occasionally, like yesterday, the theatre throws something at us and we rearrange around it, which is part of the fun of live work.
Meet and greets are part of Premium membership. Premium members also come to the meet and eats, where a small group of us goes off after a show to share a meal and pick the whole thing apart together, and there are also regular draws for free tickets.
Standard members get every ticket offer I find, and you can read about both levels on the membership page.
I have a great deal in the pipeline for the next few months, and some of it I am not allowed to talk about yet.
What I can say is that I am talking to museums, galleries and heritage sites about member offers, and I am working on discounts with some selected hotels and restaurants so that a night out can be the whole evening rather than just the show. There are more meet and greets being arranged, and a lot more shows coming that I am very excited about.
If yesterday sounds like your sort of thing, come and join us. Premium membership is where the meet and greets and the meet and eats live, and I would love to see you at the next one.
