When you work in theatre, any time before around 10:00 is generally considered antisocial. So when we get up at 05:30, there’s only two reasons that can warrant it: a cab waiting to take us to the airport or a top secret project involving 100 pastries and 17 top London shows.
Full disclosure, the Official London Theatre team didn’t rock up until 08:30, but our supremely clever colleagues who cooked up the magical Kids Week trailer we released last week did, after spending weeks planning, storyboarding and finessing the project that celebrates our incredible kids go free campaign.
To celebrate 2015’s month-long celebration of family theatre going on sale today, we wanted to give you an exclusive peek behind the scenes of what went on when 33 leading cast members from the West End stage – plus one wooden goose and a real-life, surprisingly lovely rat – gathered at the set of The Railway Children to star in the video you can watch at the bottom of this article.
It was a morning we’re unlikely to ever forget as we played fly on the wall to capture the shoot that took eight hours on location, 10 crew members, two cans of fake smoke – It’s called Magican, for those interested – 11,000 watts of light, 12 clipboard wielding staff, four radios, three options to find the perfect chair for The Play That Goes Wrong to fall off in style and one cross-show Anchorman jump.
Check out photos from the West End-tastic shoot above and then head over to Kids Week website to book your tickets to see one of more than 40 top London shows this August.