Along with the rest of my family, I have been a pretty avid musical theatre fan for as long as I can remember. As well as going to see both touring productions and shows in the West End, from Matilda to Rocky Horror, I have also been involved in school and Am Dram productions which have been some of the best experiences of my life. However there are still plenty of shows that I haven't seen,  and there are a few current and future West End shows that are right at the top of my list to try and see this year. 

Les Miserables

I know, I know, what kind of musical theatre fan does it make me that I have never seen the stage version of Les Mis. Every year I say I'm going to see it but then never do, opting instead for newer shows. But it was recently announced that the show would be changing after its theatre has been refurbished, and they would be getting rid of the rotating stage. I'm now adamant that I will see this before it moves and changes later this year. 

Mamma Mia

Another theatre classic that I have never seen. The film of Mamma Mia is one of my favourite films ever and I saw the sequel in the cinema three times last summer, but for some reason I've never thought about going to see it in the theatre. But then one of my friends who is also a massive fan of the film went to see it last year and said it was such a fun experience so I'm now desperate to go and see it myself.

Wicked

Writing this list is making me feel like an absolute fraud of a theatre fan! Again, this one has been on the West End for years and years yet I've still never seen it. At this point it would be pretty much impossible for me to not have heard the music from this, although I've never actually listened to the entire soundtrack. But having listened to and loved songs like Popular and Defying Gravity for years, I feel like I need to finally see the show and understand the context behind them. 

Waitress

Not knowing much about it, when it was announced that Waitress would be coming to the West End I didn't really think anything of it; I'd heard good things about it but it wasn't at the top of my list. And then I heard 'She Used To Be Mine'. And I've had it on repeat ever since. I haven't listened to all the songs on the soundtrack because I don't want to spoil the whole plot for myself but I have loved every song that I have heard so far and I also just love Sara Barailles' music in general. I am so excited to hopefully see this soon and I cannot wait to be able to listen to the whole soundtrack!

Dear Evan Hansen

Another one making its West End debut this year, Dear Evan Hansen is a show I've been wanting to see since listening to the soundtrack for the first time around 2 years ago. With this one I have listened to the whole soundtrack (multiple times) as at the time I didn't know it was coming to the West End and didn't think I would ever be seeing it on Broadway (and still don't to be honest). I've heard so many things about how incredible and poignant this show is and love the prospect of being able to see it in person sometime soon. 

What shows are you wanting to see on the West End this year? 

So if you don't know, and by this point I'm pretty sure about 99% of the population do, I'm going to be doing the Walt Disney World cultural exchange program this summer. If you don't know what that is, basically I will spending 2 and a half months working in one of the restaurants at Disney World in Florida! Because I'm going to be working in America, I needed to go and get a visa, so I thought I would tell you about my experience of applying for and going to get my visa.

Before I could book my appointment, I needed to apply for my visa online. This was possibly the most stressful part of the whole process as I had to answer so many questions and fill in all of my details... I was so worried I would put something in wrong and mess it all up! You don't have to do the application all in one go, as long as you remember your application ID you can save it and finish it another time, so I completed mine over about 3 days. Once I'd finished filling in everything, the last step was to take a visa photo; this is basically the same rules as a passport photo except it has to be square. For this I just took a selfie in front of my white bedroom wall and used that! 

After I'd completed my application I could book my appointment at the US embassy. When you go to get your visa, you have to give them your passport as part of the process and it then gets sent back to you with your visa. Because i'm going away in April, I wanted to book my appointment as soon as possible to make sure I had my passport back in time so I actually booked it for just 2 days later. This was really simple to do and only took about 10 minutes. I then had to pay my SEVIS fee (I'm not entirely sure what this is, I just know I had to do it!) and I was all ready to go!

So the day of my visa appointment arrived and after an incredibly stressful morning in which my alarm didn't go off and my phone didn't charge, I got the 6:15 train into London in order to make my 8:30am time slot. I had so many documents with me and I was sure that I had left something incredibly important at home but it all went absolutely fine. When I got to Euston I met the girl who is hopefully going to be my roommate when we are in America and we got the tube over to the embassy together. She was so lovely and I cannot wait to spend my summer with her! 

We actually got to the embassy at about 8am but we had to queue outside for half an hour anyway, in which time they checked we had all the necessary documents with us and we went through security. Once we got inside we were given a little ticket and were told to wait until our number was called. This actually took way less time than we thought it would, and whilst we were waiting we realised the Warwick Davis was there getting a visa as well! After about 15 minutes my number was called and I went up to one of the booths. After giving them all of my documents and taking my fingerprints, I went through to another part of the building to have my 'interview'. This was a lot more informal than I thought it would be and only lasted about 5 minutes. I was asked what I would be doing in America and what my plans were for when I come back and that was it... I had a visa! They tell you at the end of your interview if you have been accepted or not and I had, so now I just need to wait for it to be sent back to me. We had heard loads of horror stories of people waiting in the embassy for hours so we were pretty surprised that within an hour and a half of arriving in London we had already finished!

I can't believe that tomorrow is only 100 days until I leave and now I have my visa everything seems so official and real! Before I went to get my visa I had no clue what it involved so I hope this was helpful to anyone currently getting a visa too!

Thanks for reading!

Amy xxx