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MickeyJoTheatre
*everything* Mickey-Jo did in 2024 | looking back on a year of memories as a theatre critic and YouTuber
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Miki Jo
Oh my God. Hey, welcome back to my theatre themed YouTube channel. My name is Miki Jo and I am obsessed with all things theatre and I am currently a sofa in the same room that you normally see me in, but slightly further back because sitting on the seat felt sort of weirdly formal. And if you couldn't tell, I'm instantly uncomfortable to be talking about myself rather than a theatre production. But what I wanted to do with this video that I've even, um, denarded an hour ago about making is to talk about 2024 and what 2024 was like and what I did in 2024, both to let you know and to share some insights and my perspective on it with you. And I guess what I learned, but also for myself to say it out loud and realize like, oh, yeah, I did a lot of things because particularly when life gets really busy, when a lot of things are happening at the same time, it ends and I forget about it completely. So I'm gonna talk through my Google calendar from the start of the year because this runs my life. So we're going back 12 months to January 2024. I did start a really exciting partnership with London theatre magazine now londontheatre.co.uk who are a part of the Todaytix family, making fun little Instagram reel content with them. We found another pre theater menu here at Machelio. Who is my dream casting for Sally Bowles in Cabaret? I'm surprised have to ask. It's TV's Basil Brush. So if you care to find me, look to the Victoria line, the District, like the Circle Line. But if you happened to see any of those and if you enjoyed those, more of those will be coming in 2025. I really enjoyed making them. I hugely underestimated how timec consuming they would be to make because it's only like a couple minutes in video. But just walking around to all of those different theaters, very time consuming and then the editing afterwards and trying to get it exactly right. Turns out it's more like an entire afternoon and sometimes an entire day. The other thing that happened in January is we went back to New York for what was Aaron and mine's third trip to New York. If you don't know, Erin is my stagey fiance. We both love and work in the theater New York and we're going on an expedition to go and see 9am Theater in Brooklyn. If you weren't expecting this to happen, you don't know me well, we saw a lot of stuff. We wouldn't have had the chance to see again. We knew that Harmony and House Dancing Ohio was sadly probably going to close soon. I don't think they'd been announced by the time we booked the flights. And the Connector was the huge surprise of that trip. That was a brilliant show. Moving on into February, what did I do in February? I saw a lot of theater. I did the Watson Stage Awards again, which I don't always talk about. So for the last two years, I have been the person live tweeting the what's On Stage Awards, back when Twitter was still Twitter. Better times, simpler times, which I enjoy very much. It's also some of the most stressful hours of my life because they have a far wider reach on social media than I do on my personal accounts. And so tweeting out from, like a branded publication to their hundreds of thousands of followers, you get really ner. You have to triple check the spelling of every single name of, like, a winner when you're talking about, like, a detail in their speech. So for the most part, this, this year was me sat in a box at the London Palladium on my phone the entire time, worrying that people could see me, by the way, and looking like I was being hugely rude the entire time, trying to think about 12 different things at once. And then I went to the after party with the majority of the West End and they dropped the Wicked trailer. They being universal, not what's on stage. So I drank a lot of wine very quickly because I wasn't drinking wine while I was live tweeting because I was in the zone. And then I had to have a glass of wine afterwards because my brain was exploding. And then I walked all around this club holding the Wicked trailer on my head, playing it on repeat for hours, for, like, hours. And that's my prevailing memory of February. March brought more European travel because we headed to Hamburg, we being myself, Erin and our friend Sean, to go and see multiple shows, but for the most part to go and see Hercules des Heldenhaften musical at Theater Neue Flora in Hamburg, because we'd seen it in New Jersey and then they were changing it. They brought in a new director, Casey Nicolaw, and we wanted to keep following the journey of the show, which has now been announced for the West End in summer of 2025 at Theatre Royal Drury Lane, but went there to see Hercules and then to catch a couple other shows as well, and try and learn as much as we could about theatre going in Hamburg in a gesture of international outreach and affection. I am dressed like the German flag, you have never seen a model railway like this. Un. You have been to Miniatur of Wonderland. Love Never dies, Phantom 2. What a reference to survive. We're on the boat, everybody. The shows that we saw tended to be on the more commercial side, so we also saw Frozen, which is Diegen in German, as well as Tanzda Vampire, which is a European theatrical staple. The vibes of Hamburg theatre going, I enjoyed very much, very much. And we're hoping to go again in 2025, so yay on that front. I also just love Germany. I think it's a very. A very calming place to be. What did I do in April? I mean. Oh, I did a lot in April. I was barely here in April, so. The Olivier Awards are always a big part of our annual theatrical calendar. This is today's venue and the venue for the last few years. This is the whole process leading up to it. And Mickey is giving Oscar Wilde flower arrangement. He said floral. He said spring. He cannot breathe. I plan to buy a bottle of champagne. Oh, my God. Hey. And also. Oh, my God. I'm emotionally exhausted. I'm emotionally overwhelmed. Let's talk to Mickey. Jo Boucher, who is a theatre critic and YouTuber, was there at the awards last night. How was it? It was fantastic. It was another really great year for London theatre, represented by a pretty brilliant ceremony. All I remember is trying to wear this suit. This. Where is it specifically? A white multicolored floral suit that. Did I burn it? Maybe I burned it. This suit that I'd bought years ago. I think I was thinner then. We made it. But honestly, never again. And we will try and go to the Olivier Awards again next year. I would love to get to do something professionally with the Oliviers. I would love to get to be on the carpet. But it's kind of the one day a year in UK theatre that all of these other outlets and organizations suddenly care about the theatre because it's the most high profile, so they can court, you know, bigger than the likes of me, basically. But I would love to get to do something. Oliviers this year will be there regardless, because for us, it's like we spend all year talking about these shows and hyping them up and speculating and, like seeing everything and trying to boost the industry and the West End. And so it kind of feels like our end of year party for Aaron and I. The next day, the very next day, we went to New York for our longest trip ever. This was two and a half weeks, which was a real long time. So we are sat here Outside of schmackeries, we found Kate Rankin. Yeah, we did. Yeah. It's Slow Zoo. Oh, my God. Pigeon just landed on his head. We got tickets. Pretty soon we'll take our spot and we'll get ready to interview some people for the opening night of the heart of rock and roll. Lobster roll or a sushi roll? Oh, lobster roll. Sushi roll. Lobster roll. The warm ones. Instant feud. I've never tried one. Where am I going for the best lobster? Oh, my God. To Cape Cod in Massachusetts. You go there and cold only. Do not get a hot lobster roll. Don't do it. It's. I mean, it's good, but it's mostly about the bread. Lots of things have bread. Yeah. It should not be about the bread. They don't. Well, I'm allergic to lobster and I love sushi, so that's easy. Wait, you're going to kill me, but I'm actually allergic to both of them. Either of these. But when I go to sushi and sesame seeds. Oh, my gosh, this is going so well. A body roll or a cramp roll. Or. Or cramp. A body roll. Th percent body roll. Yeah. Could you do both at the same time? I'm so proud of. Yeah, Crampro on the big carpet. And we saw loads. We saw the bulk of the new shows from the 2023-24 Broadway season. Got to go to a couple of fun events in amongst there as well. Got to see our friends and had the most ridiculous travel experience when we got back. Bear in mind, every time we get back from New York, we are wildly jet lagged. We're exhausted. The day after that, we went down to Southampton to get onto a cruise ship that wasn't going anywhere to see a show on the cruise ship. Erin and Sean, who is across the corridor from us, just enjoying some balcony time. The biggest interest for us is a brief encounter with David Pugh. Brilliant theatrical producer David Pugh and Emma Rice. You made me husbands. Wait for it. Okay, the canapes are rolling out. I'm on the quiche. How cute is that? How great do we look? Stayed the night on the cruise ship, then got the train from Southampton all the way up to Manchester to then get to salford to see 42 balloons. Ridiculous. Now, May was a lot. I remember May being a lot. There are so many meetings here. And on the 26th, this is the biggest bullet point. I did the first ever Mickey Jo Theatre live at the Phoenix Arts Club, which was terrifying and wonderful. How are we doing, everybody? I can see this many of You. And then there's people in the dark like in Sunset Boulevard. If anyone has a burning Q and A question, now is the time. Another job that you hope at. I should have pre warned you about this. And then people might actually have very tricky one. What is your favorite show of all time? Into the Woods. Okay, sorry. Do you remember what you said to me the first time you met me? I watch all of your videos while I'm playing Safer. I'm not just like. And I thought, wow, that is the most heterosexual musical theater thing. She has her heart, she loves her. She has Lily's hazel eyes. I have a little flirt with a footman as he takes my fur gasp. As you were. It was still developing. We were still figuring out what the show was. And I had surrounded myself with people who I felt very comfortable with. So performers that I knew as friends as well as being exciting West End talents, the likes of Jacob Fowler and Grace Moat. My friend Thomas Arnold as the musical director, which he has been ever since. And many friends and family were in the audience which was terrific. My friend Katie, who was here doing a show off West End but lives in New York, agreed on the day of to come and sing a song in honor of Richard Sherman who had just passed away like the rock star that she is. And it was. There was so much love and warmth in that space and we live streamed it and the venue was incredible. The venue has continued to be incredible because we've done the show now three more times. That was kind of like a preview version was how it existed did in my head. And then we were going to work out what worked and what didn't. And there was a lot about it specifically like the quiz aspect and the nature of the interviews that needed ironing out, that needed reworking. And then the version of the show that we came back with in September, October and November I was really happy with. And now it's a pretty easy formula I think that we can just slot new things into. There will be more in 2025. I haven't announced them yet because there is just a date that we're trying to move before we get everything announced and on sale. But there will be a handful of new Mika Geo Theatre live shows going on sale at the same venue very soon. So keep your eyes peeled and if there are particular performers you would like to see at those, let me know in the comments. And then June is not looking too bad except for one week which was ridiculous because there were events and shows every single day. We sold Sister act on The Monday we had a. There was a Fangirls event at the same time as a Kiss Me Kate call and then Kiss Me Kate that evening. There was a six event. There was the Mean Girls press junket. There was an Edinburgh Fringe event next to Normal and you're lying. April then did stuff on the next day. Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club. That was one of their gala shows, I think. Saw Leah Salongo at the Wolverhampton grand on the Friday that weekend was West End Live. We are here in Trafalgar Square. Many performances to come today and in half an hour's time, we'll be greeted by Frozen. Yeah, there is no opening this time. I finally do what Frozen things do in summer. I'm about to have the best bakery ever. She's behind the stage, so giving it vocals in Gingham. One of the best Western lives in recent memory. Been really good then going into. Oh, my gosh. I then interviewed Jeremy Jordan and Francis Maynard McCann on the Monday shows on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, a workshop on the Friday, and then Starlight Express press weekend that next weekend. Wow, what a mad two weeks that was. And it happens that way sometimes. Sometimes it's beautifully spread out and nice and chill and like, oh, something on the Monday, the Wednesday and the Friday this week. So a couple days to, like, address it and make videos. Because here's the thing, if there are events in the daytime every day and shows in the evening every day, I don't have time to be in this room talking about them. So everything gets just like a little more and more delayed. So if you see me posting videos a little after the fact, that is one of the reasons why sometimes if you see me and it's dark, it's because it's the middle of the night. And that's the only time I have to make those reviews. I would say, what have I learned from this for next year? But I only have so much power over those situations. One of the solutions would be to go to slightly less and to really think about, like, how important it is that I'm at each of these events. But sometimes everything is important, sometimes everything is essential. And also you want to be able to support as many shows and projects and workshops as possible. And you don't want, you know, to have to say to that one show that's just going to be the straw that breaks the camel's back this week. But that's something I might have to get used to saying in 2025, because that was a killer fortnight. Shortly after which, I hosted Rolls will never play alongside Luke Baer. This was a lovely thing to come out of the blue to be asked to come and host this at the Lyric Theatre in the West End. Hanging out backstage at Hadestown, I didn't get to see much of their set because it was all covered up sadly. But I saw the lanterns back and I got to hang out in one of the dressing rooms that I think the covers for the Fates used and just chatted to all of the amazing lineup of performers for roles we'll never play. If you don't know, this is a recurring concert where a bunch of brilliant theatrical talents sing songs from roles that they wouldn't traditionally get to play. So a lot of like gender flipping and a bunch of other reasons why as well. But it was great and Luke Baer was fantastic and an utter pro, which allowed me to stand next to him and try and be functional, basically. But I was honored to have been asked and I had a great time. That was. That was a really nice experience. And that was on the 1st of July. Very shortly after that, we did this amazing North American theater trip, the main focus of which was to go to Gander in Newfoundland to go and see their non replica production of Come From Away, a musical which is also set in Gander. That was a incredible experience. I can't do it justice by describing it, but you can go and check out the vlog we are attempting and in the course of this vlog, we will go to Gander, Newfoundland. Welcome to Gander. Look at the sign there. This is basically a recreation of the photo. There you go. This is hitting me so much harder because I can see it all. I know. I know where they were and we've been there today. It was so incredibly special to be there, to get to meet so many of the people that the characters in the show are based on, to get to see all of those places, to get to experience that show and that story among that community. It was just such a rewarding experience to be there with Aaron. We already both loved the show, but it gave us such a newfound love for the show. That was an accidental pun, but that was good. And it was a hard one trip as well because we were meant to be flying there on two flights that became three and there was a bit of confusion in the middle. This is all talked about in the vlog. If you want to go and see us experiencing many of Canada's airports. We went London to Montreal, explored that for a bit. Montreal to Halifax. Didn't explore that, just went to sleep. Halifax to Gander in the morning and then afterwards Gander to Toronto, where we saw the North American tour of Wicked because we wanted to see Lauren Samuels. Meaning I have now seen Wicked in four different countries across three continents. And I would like to add to that in 2025 if I can. I don't know how, but I'm putting that out there into the universe. And then we came back through New York. What I will say is I would be reluctant to go and visit New York again in July because it was so hot. Oh, my God. It was staggeringly warm. It just, just biblically, just ridiculous. Then we had a handful more Western shows in July, including a performance of Kathy and Stella's Solver Murder, where I did a Q and A talkback afterwards. This is one of those things I absolutely would have forgotten that I did this year if I didn't sit down and look at my calendar. Yes, I was invited by the producers to be part of a whole roster of people which also included Phoebe Waller Bridge, her and me constantly, constantly booked for the same gigs we are. So had anyone in this audience seen the show before? Come down and see our manager, Alex. Beverly Bikes whenever you like. Bring us your bike with Beverly Bikes on Beverly Road. And I got to host a post show Q and A with the show's writers reflecting on its journey, which was great because I had seen the show in various stages of development. I'd seen three different pre West End versions of Kathy and Stella before it got to the Ambassadors, all of which had changed slightly. And so we got to talk about that. It wasn't the first time I've done a post show Q and A. I'd done one for Inklay in concert at the Other Palace. Again, because I'd seen the show in development and really wanted to help support it. This is something I should probably do more of in 2025. I love a hosting Q and A moment, and now that I've had a little bit more experience of being on stage, I think it'll be a great way to try and help bring people to off West End shows, shows people don't necessarily know about, because I can promote the fact that I'm going to be there doing a Q and A, and maybe people will come and ask questions. And I think that would be very fun. Let's do more of that in 2025, everybody. Then we get to August, which is always the month of the Edinburgh fringe, as well as always being the month of Erin James's birthday, which is always something that we have to plan around because we always want to make sure that we celebrate it and it doesn't just become part of the Edinburgh Fringe. And I never want it to be like, oh, it's Erin's birthday. But we're seeing like 13 shows today in tents and storage containers. I had the best fringe experience this year because we were with so many of our American friends who were experiencing fringe for the first time. A bunch of them had decided that they wanted to come and do fringe and we all stayed in a hostel room. It was so cool. Have we immediately gone the wrong way? We are not new to the Edinburgh Fringe, but all of our friends are. So this is going to be an interesting experience. We're enjoying a hearty lunch of love hearts courtesy. The queue is moving. Courtesy of I love you. You're perfect. Now change that you can see at the end of a fringe and cider. Right, let's have selfies. Come on, come behind me and look, we have five minutes, which is actually plenty of time. It's party the Plant, It's Potty the Plant with Mickey Jo Theatre on the poster for five stars. Oh, I'll show you. I'm spending the whole day seeing nine back to back shows at the Roundabout, Tin can in a tent. Everyone up until like 2am chatting about the shows they had seen that day, Everyone trying to get tickets for like something that had been recommended to them for the next day, Everyone shuffling their schedules all the time. Everyone suddenly realizing it was impossible to keep up to date with content about the shows because you're seeing so much. Everyone's saying like, oh, we'd leave breaks and then invariably not leaving breaks and seeing like 10 shows back to back, 11 shows back to back. We took a break in the middle for Aaron's birthday, went down, celebrated with his family, saw Hamilton on tour for the second time, went back to the Edinburgh Fringe and did a second week, which I think is the longest amount of time I need to spend at the fringe. I think 10 days is pretty perfect. And beyond that, there are still a couple of things I didn't get the chance to see, but it would have become too overwhelming heading into September, which is my birthday month, which is maybe why the theatre going was a little bit quieter. We did head up to Nottingham to go and see the Non Replica tour of Dear Evan Hansen on its first tour stop. That was exciting. Have you ever been to Nottingham before, Aaron James? No, I don't think I have either. We are here to see Peep the Hat. Dear Evan Hansen, Do I Ditch the belt. Does that open it up to. Are we Coco Chanelling this very modern looking, very round auditorium. There's briefly locked antlers, the tension of that moment. This was also the month that Mikadrio Theatre Live came back to the Phoenix Arts Club and we did one of our best shows, I think. Evie Hoskins Sang helium from 42 balloons. I chatted to Jack Godfrey about him writing that and babies and the ongoing development of both of them. Hopefully we see both again in 2025. Also, Jody Jacobs, who is one of the most talented people I've ever seen on stage, who had been in hello, Dolly that summer, who had understudied Imelda Staunton as Dolly, but hadn't had the chance to go on. So at Mickey Jo Theatre Live, I got to give her the opportunity to sing so Long Dearie from the show's second act and she had me on stage as a prop. It was so much fun. I loved that show. And that's now the standard that I'm trying to achieve every single time with Mickey Jo Theatre Live. It was great. We're gonna do a little bit of hello, Dolly. Let's do it. So wave your little hand and whisper so long, deary, deary should have said so long so long ago Travelator. Oh, I can hear that choo choo calling me on to the fancy new address. And right at the end, I forgot this had happened. The Stage Debut Awards and I got to be in the press room chatting to the nominees and the winners as they were coming through. I want to do this so much more. This was so fun and it was great having seen their performances and getting to talk to them about their journeys, I'm so happy because this sort of award makes it not a competition, but a celebration. When I heard that I was in the same category as all these people who were on stage, I did the biggest happy dance. Not on skates, but I did the biggest happy dance. In a way, I'm not surprised that Next To Normal itself has resonated, because it resonated with me when I was a teenager and like I said, I'd booked tickets to see it at the Donmar because I was so excited to see this production finally. And then so to be a part of the machine that was making it is a completely different set of circumstances that I wasn't prepared for. Congratulations. I'm so glad that there is recognition in the world of theatre awards for the brilliant artistic work that you've done on that show. Thank you so much. Particularly the Stage Debut Awards. It was fun because it's emerging talents and for many of them, their first nominations and recognitions and getting to be in that press room and do those interviews was such a joy. I want to do that at. I would love to do that at the Oliviers. I would love to do that at the Watson Stage Awards. And I think that might be the thing that I want to move towards doing at those awards ceremonies. We also went to the wicked 11th. No, ninth anniversary. No, way more than that. Oh my gosh, they've already had 10. Opened in 2006, Wicked's 18th birthday, I guess, at the Apollo Victoria Theatre in London. But I'd spent that whole day, and I don't think I've said this, this anywhere yet I had spent it on a Beam panel. Now, what this is, is something that happens every two years and a bunch of different new musicals are curated from many, many applications and presented to a room full of theatre makers and collaborators and producers who may want to take that project further. And that is a new musical theatre conference called Beam. And in order to put that conference together, they curate a list of new musicals from thousands of applicants, from so, so many. And they invite people within the industry to come and sit on panels. And I got to spend a day doing that, listening to all these exciting and inspiring new musicals. There was so much brilliant work and I got to help participate in the selection process. And I was just truly so inspired by all of these artists. There were some people who sit on multiple of those panels. They have many of them, they're amazing. I was just a small part of that, just getting to share some thoughts, which was joyous. In October, went back to MusicalCon, did the first day of MusicalCon, because the second day I was doing another Mickey Jo Theatre Live. Saw a bunch of shows on tour, traveled around the country a little bit. Went back to New York right at the end of the month, which is where we were for half of November. Round they go, they are skating round and round. That's my hand. I need to give you a sense of perspective here. Many Broadway shows doing Monday night performances this evening because tomorrow is election day. Gonna try and find catharsis. Gonna try and spread joy to people. What is challenging day for performers. My heart really goes out for the people who had to tell these stories and offer catharsis to audience members. But grateful to have the shows and to have theatre there, both for catharsis and for distraction, for whatever people need it for and will always need it for and have always needed it for, like, there's theatre for entertainment. There is also every other purpose. Another really brilliant trip. Saw a lot of shows. We were there during the US election, which was just a devastating evening. We were gathered with a group of people, everyone hoping for this wonderful, exciting, promising outcome that never came. And then just like, trying to help them navigate the days that followed in the immediate aftermath of all of that, that was really challenging and just brutal to witness, honestly. But after nearly three weeks in New York, we came back, I did another Mickey J Theatre live, and then it was time for the Wicked Movie. This has been a huge part of the last few months of the year because it's given me a really exciting opportunity to connect to more people on the Internet who are discovering musical theatre through the Wicked Movie. And I make a lot of different videos and I put a lot of effort into the videos that I make on this platform. But invariably the stuff that does the best is the stuff that is part of the wider public conversation, because musical theatre and theatre in general is still a niche interest. When something like the Wicked Movie happens, more people are paying attention, more people are engaging with theater content. And I got to talk about so many random little details of the Wicked Movie. I got to talk about, like, here are the ways that it's slightly different from the show and why that matters, and here are the choices that they made. And I got to really go into detail and depth on it, and people engaged with that and people cared about that. And that's one of my favorite things, is when we all get to collectively share a moment of, like, these tiny little details that we all care about. Like, yes, that is significant to us. Yes, we are interested in this. And there's something brilliant about getting to just do something that I'm authentically passionate about. And people respond to it well. I can hardly believe I get to say this sentence in real life, but this evening I was invited to go and see an early screening of the Wicked movie. I have been to go and find all of these products in the wild, in London, in New York and in Paris. That's right. I have been traveling the world in pursuit of Wicked merchandise. We're going to be talking about Wicked Part 2, aka the newly announced title, Wicked for Good. Then we get to December, and this is when life started to get a little bit out of control, because I started counting how many days I had left before Christmas, before a festive break, whatever, and I realized I had as many days as I had. Videos that I wanted to make, shows that I needed to review things that I wanted to talk about Wicked Movie videos to make on Wicked Wednesdays. And so I had to start making videos every. Every single day, which is not something I've done for months. And trying to turn all of that content around, trying to make something every day while doing trips, while going away to Paris for a few days, and while trying to be a human being that gives myself breaks, that was one of the most intense periods I can remember. Which sounds ridiculous because I'm making videos about theatre, right? But in my world, it was very busy. It was a very busy time and I'm very grateful for the break which followed. I also, because of the nature of that time of year and sales reels, got to do a bunch of different ad collaborations. I did one with great thameslink Railway, I did one with London Theatre Direct. And that's kind of another aspect of my year that I haven't really spoken about on here much. If you're following me on Instagram, on TikTok, then you may well have seen the reels and the content that I've put together for those. But one of the most special ones that I want to highlight, as well as going to do a little something with the Wicked Movie with View Cinemas, is getting to work with the National Theatre. This was a video that I made here on YouTube and they got in touch with me with the idea of collaborating on a piece of content, talking about the history of National Theatre Live, which is something that I have loved for many years and something that, the more I thought about it, I realised had kind of followed me in my own theatrical journey. And many of the landmarks of National Theatre Live's 100 broadcasts kind of tied in with my journey as a theatre lover, as an audience member, as a critic. And so I got to make a video on here, which is the only thing I've ever scripted for YouTube. And if you watch it, you can see my eyes kind of reading at the same time as I'm talking. This was the first National Theatre Live broadcast I ever saw. But after seeing this, I was hooked. And with perfect timing, because National Theatre Live was already on a roll. In February of 2020, I was in eager theatre blogger, writing reviews of Vault Festival shows and off West End plays mostly, as well as creating social media content for a musical that had just arrived from Broadway. But when the pandemic brought in person theatre going and by extension, the world of theatre criticism to an almost complete standstill, I saw this as an opportunity to hone my craft, find a voice and get as much practice as possible, writing reviews of the National Theatre at Home Screen. I was so, so honored to have been asked by the National Theatre to do that. Like getting to do ads, getting to do collaborations like that is incredibly useful. Obviously, it's valuable and I try in every single one that I do to do something that is informative, something that is a value add that can either be engaging or entertaining or funny, or better yet, telling people about things they may not have been aware of. And at every turn, trying to just. Just encourage and support people. Going to see shows and supporting the industry, but getting to talk about that, getting to work with the national as a brand, that's one of the absolute highlights of my year. And in recapping that entire year, it all sounds like a very professional reflection. I did have a little bit of a life alongside, but honestly, it was shaped around the shows we were seeing and the stuff that we were doing and the places that we were going for theatre. And I think in 2025, I probably need to get a better balance of having an actual life alongside seeing all these shows. I saw 264 shows, I think, in 2024, and I probably need to resolve to see fewer in 2025. I don't know if that's going to happen because I also, simultaneously, it's a contradiction. I want to go to more places, I want to see more things, I want to broaden my horizons, I want to take more ch dances, I want to see more stuff before it gets to the West End. I want to see more stuff regionally, I want to see more plays in London, I want to take more theatrical risks. But at the same time, I want to have evenings watching vlogs with Aaron, I want to have weekends. And I have to tell you as well that it's so many stressful moments throughout the year, whether we're in an airport trying to figure out how to get somewhere, whether I'm up till 1am just back to back filming and crying on the floor. Aaron has been such a rock and such a comfort throughout all of that. And I truly, truly could not do anything that I am doing any of this on YouTube, across the Internet, Mikado Theatre live, any of it, without Aaron James at my side and constantly nearby. So it is everything we do, it's the two of us, always, every single day. And to that end, there's another video I would like to make soon here on my channel that you can look forward to, which is going to be both of us talking through our theatrical resolutions for 2025 and the stuff that we want to do. And there's probably many more things that I've learned from 2024 as well. But I've been talking about the year for a really long time now and I'm going to take my own advice and I'm going to take a break and I will see you very soon with another video. I'm not sure if you're seeing this before or after after my roundup of my favourite shows of the year, but that will be either coming very soon or has recently happened here on YouTube. In any case, I hope you've enjoyed this reflection on the last year and everything that I've done and I hope as always, that you are staying safe and that you have a stagey day and that you had a stagey 2024 and that you will have a stagey 2025 for 10 more seconds. I'm Mickey Jo Theatre. Oh my God. 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