Les Miserables red carpet & the after party!

Up until NOW the theater has been doing preview shows of Les Miserables, but once you have opening night you are in full swing. On opening night all the critics come to write reviews of the show. All the participants of the show give gifts to each other (Olivia came home with loads of cards and trinkets, one card was from Cameron mackintosh himself). I felt so embarrassed, we had NO IDEA so we didn't have cards for anyone!

On opening night there is a long red carpet for those watching the show to walk on. Media will line up outside the red carpet (as the red carpet is sectioned off) and take pictures of the cast or other notable people coming to watch. 

After opening night there is an after party! The after party is quite exclusive, and to get tickets is very tricky (I know, because they only let one parent accompany Olivia to the red carpet event). The town that hosts the very first opening night usually has the biggest red carpet/ after party. After Les Mis finishes in Melbourne it will tour to Perth, they will also have an opening night but their after party will be a much smaller. Since the kids don't usually tour with the production company (they will get new kids when they go to other parts of Australia), Olivia was super lucky to be part of the Melbourne cast and to have Melbourne be the opening city!

Below are some pictures from the red carpet and the after party.

Finding red carpet attire for a 10 year old was not as easy as you would think! We ended up hiring a friend named Polly King to sew Olivia's dress. We were smitten with the end result! She sewed it in just a couple days based on this picture: 

We got as close as we could (put more fabric on the back and went with a silver necklace instead of gold). But were very happy with the end result. Seriously, this woman is talented and she wasn't that expensive either!

Olivia Swinton & Stanford Swinton

Here is Olivia Swinton  with Patrice Tipoki

Here are the les mis kids!

Here is the Les Mis cast!

And here are some pictures of the party!

Crazy Chandelier!

Olivia was shown on TV for The Voice Kids on Sunday, and the following Thursday (4 days later) was on the red carpet for Les Mis. She was nervous to go to the party because she said she wouldn't know anyone. Instead it was the opposite, everyone was coming up to her to say "are you that little girl on TV?" She was on cloud 9, and had the TIME OF HER LIFE! The best part was, most people introduced themselves to Olivia- so Stan didn't have to try to place people! Thank goodness!

Here is Olivia with different people from The Voice 2013,  (Below she is with Harrison Craige, (the winner of The Voice 2013). He also approached Olivia after recognizing her from TV and to say she was smitten would be an understatement!!

Olivia Swinton and Harrison Craige at opening night of Les Miserables

Here is Harrison with some of the other kids from Les mis. He was SO NICE, and sat and talked to Stan for some time, offering any help he could to Olivia.

Olivia Swinton and Simon Gleeson

On our way out...2:00am? we bumped into Simon Gleeson (Jan val Jan). He had also seen Olivia on The Voice kids and told her that his daughter LOVED Olivia and he even got her autograph- all I can say is Simon Gleeson is the nicest guy ever! Thanks everyone for being so supportive of Olivia, I never expected or anticipated any of this. I just feel so happy for her!