Cinderella in Dubai!

For those of you who have been here since the beginning, you may remember a little post called "Snow White in Dubai" that I posted this time 2 years ago. Well, get ready to receive some major deja vu! That's right! I travelled back to one of my all time favourite places in the world to portray one of my all time favourite princesses. On the 7th of December, myself and our wonderful cast flew to Dubai, hopped in a rental car, and travelled up to Abu Dhabi for the first part of our trip. But not before a week full of intense rehearsals! And boy, were those rehearsals full on!

Stress began to build in that first week, due to the fact that I was extremely poorly. What is winter without a case of the old classic cold & flu? Oh! And a bit of viral tonsillitis! Yay! I'm not kidding, I hadn't felt that awful in a very long time! And the timing couldn't have been worse!

Luckily, it began to subside a little on the day we flew, but just to be sure, I purchased a massive box of tissues, and a pair of "Ear Planes" from Boots to reduce the air pressure when landing. For someone who already struggles with major ear pain on flights, these were certainly a god-send! After watching several episodes of Modern Family & Two And A Half Men, it was time to travel to Abu Dhabi!

You may be wondering why on earth we were going to Abu Dhabi, when the title clearly says DUBAI. Well, luckily we got to do almost a "trial run" in Abu Dhabi for a few days before we headed down to Dubai for the longer run. We stayed at a lovely little hotel called One To One Hotel Village, Abu Dhabi. Even though it was in the middle of nowhere, we had rental cars to get everywhere so it wasn't too bad of a location! The wifi was fabulous, the rooms were lovely and spacious, and the staff were perfectly polite and accommodating. Due to time issues, I only visited the gym once, which was fully stocked and pretty much looked untouched, which was perfect! The pool area was situated right outside the gym, and that was delightful too.

The lovely pool area!

(My only issue was that my room was right underneath the villa's own rooftop pool! All I could hear all night was water dripping and a glugging sound from the pipes! Not ideal!)

For the first week in Abu Dhabi, we rehearsed in the hotel nightclub (not unusual for regular cast members!) Our lovely Fairy Godmother, who had just returned from playing Rosie on the Royal Caribbean Cruises production of Mamma Mia for the past 6 months hadn't been in the UK while we rehearsed, so technically it was her first rehearsal! And she was a true professional, knowing all of her lines and picked up all of the choreography in just a day! In the middle of our rehearsal week, myself as Cinderella had to do a few photo-ops at various locations around Abu Dhabi to promote the show on social media, which included a lot of hilarity from not only passers by, but from our cast as well!

"Hey! That's me!"

Presenting the Cinderella Meet & Greet at the Oasis Centre!

When it was time to visit our venue for the first time, all of us were taken aback. Cinderella would be performed in the auditorium of The Emirates Palace Hotel, a great tourist location where pretty much everything you see around you is solid gold! Walking in was surreal in itself, but when we saw the stage we would perform on, all of us began to get a bit overwhelmed!

The Emirates Palace auditorium! The picture does not justify just how huge it was!

Overall, the show in Abu Dhabi wasn't too bad. Considering we only had a cast of eight people to fill a massive stage, the audience seemed to really enjoy it! (We also got to meet two little princesses of Abu Dhabi and their friends, of which all of them told me I was beautiful! Too cute!).

The Evil Stepmother, the Fairy Godmother and Cinders backstage during a show!

Whilst Abu Dhabi was closing up shop, we began to get even more excited about heading down to Dubai to begin the proper panto run, including meet & greets, meeting the kids in the show, and meeting our lovely choreographer Johnny (who happens to be the husband to STEPS member, Lisa Scott Lee, who was delightful!). Dubai is, without a doubt, one of my favourite places in the world. With it's luxurious surroundings, glorious sunshine and the most extravagant shopping malls you've ever seen! Plus, our venue was situated inside the fabulous Mall Of The Emirates, which meant a lot of shopping in between shows...my bank account really wasn't prepared!

All of the kids were absolutely fantastic! I've never met a bigger bunch of personalities in my entire life! Rehearsals were brilliant fun, but I'm not going to lie, it did start to get a little tedious after a while. But all of that changed when it was time to start the run!

We were back at the same venue where we did Snow White 2 years ago, and boy was it good to be back! The DUCTAC Centrepoint Theatre was filled with old and new audience members, and our opening shows were a huge success! The comments we were receiving seemed too good to be true, with one audience member saying that Cinderella was "the best show ever!". (We all assumed it was one of the kids mother's being biased, but turns out it was just a complete random audience member!)
We quickly got back into the swing of the show once again, and thoroughly enjoyed every moment.

For the Dubai run, we were staying in the Arabian Gulf Hotel Apartments, located literally five minutes away from our venue, which was incredibly handy! Although slightly old fashioned, the apartments weren't too bad. At least, they weren't once the wifi had been fixed!

Seeing as my parents were with me, we decided that we would share a 2 bedroom apartment, which actually worked out pretty well! Especially as we were there over Christmas! The lead up to Christmas happened incredibly quickly, which ended up with my mum and I having to split up on Christmas Eve to go shopping for both my mum, my dad, myself and our "secret Santa" recipients. A few days before Christmas, each cast member picked another cast members name out of a hat, and whoever we picked, that was who we were to buy a present for. With just 100AED to spend, it was time to get creative!

With Trevor the Tree! Bought from Carrefour to put in our apartment living room! It's not Christmas without a Christmas tree, after all!

Luckily, I picked out our lovely fairy godmother Helen's name, and knew exactly what to buy her! I had seen a little coffee mug in Hallmark that had a chalk drawing of Cinderella and the Fairy Godmother on it, and it said the phrase "Bibbidi Bobbidi Brew!" on it. Helen and I had several talks about our love for coffee, so it seemed pretty perfect. Plus, when we walked into Bath & Body Works, she had pointed out a fragrance that she had fallen in love with...it was aptly named A Thousand Wishes, so, of course, I bought that for her as well.

Christmas day itself was absolutely lovely! My parents and I started the day pretty late, after showering, doing hair & makeup and having breakfast; we quickly opened up our presents, and then waited for the rest of the cast to head up to our apartment to exchange secret Santa gifts. I won't go into detail about what I got for Christmas, as this post is already too long (bless you if you've read this far, you're a trooper!) but let's just say that I got a lovely mix of things I wanted, and things I needed!

Christmas Morning!

Opening my Secret Santa present!

For Christmas brunch, we headed to an Irish pub called McGettigan's, where they were offering an all you can eat buffet for a great price! I have honestly never eaten so much in my entire life! The food was gorgeous, and the company was even better. Once the brunch had ended, I asked my mum if she fancied popping into the mall for a little bit of extra shopping, to which she agreed. So, at about 7pm, mum and I headed back to the mall for some retail therapy! (Which included me purchasing some glorious pairs of PJ's from Victoria's Secret...it was Christmas, after all!). When we returned to the apartment, dad and I snuggled on the sofa and watched a variety of Christmas films, one of them including The Holiday, which I had never seen before! Let's just say it is now added to the list of my favourite festive movies!

Mum, Dad and I at McGettigan's!

Dad and I stole Mum's Secret Santa present to watch The Holiday...the comfiest blanket EVER!

After such an incredible Christmas day, a hardcore, three show Boxing Day had arrived, and let me tell you, those shows were tough! I'm pretty sure all of us were still in our food coma's from brunch! Still, like the pro's we are, we got through it! And the rest of the run was just as fabulous! Each show came with new problems and giggles, and even three show days couldn't get us down. After all, we did get to both work AND play!

A trip to Dubai would not be complete without a trip to the glorious, the divine, the beautiful Dubai Mall! With a quick trip to my favourite restaurant in the world, Chilli's, we then took our cast members on a little tour around the mall, stopping obviously to watch the lovely Dubai fountains outside the Burj Khalifa. If you ever get a chance to go to Dubai, head to the Dubai Mall and watch those fountains! They're fab!

The Burj Khalifa!

Waiting for the fountains!

Family picture outside the Dubai Aquarium!

Our final show day appeared, and all was very depressing in panto-land. But we couldn't not throw a big party for all of the fabulous kids (and their parents) to say thank you! I must say, I felt like a celebrity during that hour; being hounded for autographs and selfies will do that to you. We had such wonderful feedback from all of the parents about how much fun their kids had had, and how they wished panto would go on forever! Sadly, it was time to say goodbye. We packed up the set and costumes, shed a few tears, exchanged a few gifts (thanks Jordan for the emoji pillow! I adore it so much!) and headed out of the theatre for the final time. However, not before having our final meal in Dubai at Chilli's! Hey, I said it was my favourite!

Taking our final bow!

With the lovely Lisa Scott Lee from STEPS! Her lovely husband Johnny did fab work with the choreography, and her beautiful children made me laugh during every show!

Saying goodbye to gorgeous little Etzi, she was darling!

With my amazing Emoji pillow!

Honestly, this trip to Dubai was so wonderful, I'm feeling horridly depressed just writing about it. I'm not kidding when I say it's taken me about a month to write this post, because every time I thought about how amazing the trip was, I shut down my laptop and felt sad for the rest of the day. Still, all things must come to an end, and there's no doubt in my mind that I will return to the lovely UAE. Our fabulous company was truly that...just fabulous! For now, all I can say is a massive thank you to everyone who was involved in Cinderella at the DUCTAC, and I hope that no one is struggling as much as I am with the post-show blues...because I wouldn't wish that upon anyone.

Anyway, on to the next one!

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, do let me know in the comments if you have ever traveled to Dubai. and if not, let me know where your favourite place in the world is! I'd love to have a read!

(If you would like to find out about H2 Productions latest shows around the world, you can find them on Facebook here at H2 UAE Productions, and on Twitter: @H2ProductionsAE!)

Thanks guys! See you next time! And remember: "Have courage, and be kind".

Fawce xoxo.