Carrie Hope Fletcher #2 The Carrie Hope Fletcher Show

[TravellingPants]

I did GCSE music in 2005 and we had to be grade 5 standard on our selected instruments. I was learning my grade 5 piano at the time and that was sufficient. I think they generally expected people to already know how to read music if they were doing it at GCSE level. I was doing my grade 5 in singing at the time which allowed me sing on another students composition. Sometimes I think Carrie is lying about not being able to read music- I think she probably can but she can’t sight sing- it’s incredibly difficult, tbh not many people can actually do it. People have thought I could sight sing before, I can’t, I just know how to read music. Reading music isn’t just about knowing the notes, it’s learning about how recognise intervals, key changes, rests etc. Give a piece of sheet music and I could teach myself to play it because I can read it. An exceptional sightreader doesn’t need to practice, they can just play it with the music in front of them, or sing it in the correct key at the correct pacing with no accompaniment. The fact that she had a twitter argument with a graduate questioning why some professionals don’t know how to read music was a massive face palm moment for me and probably the whole theatre industry. A professional musical actress in the West End fighting *with a drama school graduate* on TWITTER about not being able to read music! Does that not scream MAJOR RED FLAG!

Pretty much my exact take on this! I’m around your age too and can’t see how she would have done GCSE music without even a basic understanding of notation...? You have to compose pieces as part of the coursework!

I learnt to read music very young as I’m from a musical family so maybe I am biased, but if you have even the most vague interest in music, the curriculum even before GCSE includes learning to identify pitch, rests, time signatures, note values, incidentals (flats and sharps) etc... you’d have to be actively trying NOT to take it in to not retain the knowledge, especially if you were having any additional music lessons (including singing) on the side.

I agree that Carrie is most likely equating ‘reading music’ with being able to sight-read it, which are not the same thing and I don’t think even the graduate whose sweeping statement tweet set all this off was implying that was his expectation of all performers!

 

[kev1974]

I was trying to find out what GCSEs Carrie actually did and came across this old video. I think I'd already stopped watching her by this point (ironically because I'd just started uni) but it just feels so aggressive

"I took the long way round"... Like, lmao, you literally took the shortcut of going straight into your career?
But yeah, this slightly barbed video gives quite an insight into what she thinks of higher education - keeps calling it "a bit of paper" and only thought about studying as a way to shut others up
But I wouldn't be surprised if this video/rant is also how she views reading sheet music.

ugh she's a bit shouty and irritating back then

 

[PocketRLocket]

That butterbeer advert is tremendously tit and cringe.

 

[silkytoes]

ugh she's a bit shouty and irritating back then

I don't even watch her videos these days because I feel like she only got more shouty and irritating as time went on.

Is she less shouty these days? I can't imagine her changing.

 

[Ripley Rose Kat]

I feel like she wasn't as bad then but slowly got increasingly more shouty and irritating around Heather's time.

I don't know, maybe because I was still a fan of hers when that video was posted, maybe I'm giving her a pass?

 

[silkytoes]

I feel like she wasn't as bad then but slowly got increasingly more shouty and irritating around Heather's time.

I don't know, maybe because I was still a fan of hers when that video was posted, maybe I'm giving her a pass?

I definitely don't think she's as shouty in this as she became later on, I remember her getting much much worse before I finally couldn't bear it and just followed her through social media rather than youtube.

 

[Ripley Rose Kat]

I definitely don't think she's as shouty in this as she became later on, I remember her getting much much worse before I finally couldn't bear it and just followed her through social media rather than youtube.

Yes that's very true!

I feel like she appears happier in those older videos as well. Just me?

 

[PocketRLocket]

Back then she seems shouty in a confident, stagey way. Now she seems shouty in an angry, arrogant way.

 

[Ripley Rose Kat]

Agreed. I feel like her ego has morphed into her personality.

Wonder if it has anything to do with why her relationship with her family has changed.

 

[Catsheldon]

Pretty much my exact take on this! I’m around your age too and can’t see how she would have done GCSE music without even a basic understanding of notation...? You have to compose pieces as part of the coursework!

I learnt to read music very young as I’m from a musical family so maybe I am biased, but if you have even the most vague interest in music, the curriculum even before GCSE includes learning to identify pitch, rests, time signatures, note values, incidentals (flats and sharps) etc... you’d have to be actively trying NOT to take it in to not retain the knowledge, especially if you were having any additional music lessons (including singing) on the side.

I agree that Carrie is most likely equating ‘reading music’ with being able to sight-read it, which are not the same thing and I don’t think even the graduate whose sweeping statement tweet set all this off was implying that was his expectation of all performers!

Exactly. I definitely think the actors who kept saying ‘I can’t read music’ don’t understand the differences between reading music and sight singing because they never officially learned to read music with a teacher. Once you know where middle C is on a stave, it’s relatively easy to learn where the rest of the notes are. If you play me a note on a piano and ask me what note you are playing, I probably wouldn’t guess correctly- it would be an educated guess but it would still be a guess. People who are pitch perfect and can sight sing can sing an E# without having to hear it out loud- they can hear it in their head. No one expects all singers to be able to do that. Having done a Capella work as a teen, I always had a harmonica prompt and kept the note on my head,I couldn’t pluck it from nowhere, I find people who can do that absolutely incredible. Carrie surely must know the difference. She’s either completely ignorant or she lies to make herself seem more naturally talented than she actually is ‘oh i’m a West End star and cant read music, aren’t I incredible?’. It’s sounds impressive to those who can’t read music but to those who can, it just sounds like she doesn’t even want to try. Why would someone working in the industry not do everything in their power to continually train themselves to be a better performer. James Monroe Iglehart played the genie in Aladdin on Broadway. He learned to tap for the role and won a Tony award for it. Expanding your skill set can only improve your chances. If Cinderella bombs, which seems fairly likely based on the number of tickets sold compared to Frozen, her career could very easily fizzle out. She can’t belt top notes anymore - when she tries you can hear the strain in her voice, and she isn’t even 28 yet. That’s way too early to ruin your voice unless there is something seriously wrong. I do wonder if the reason she has been singing more in her head voice through lockdown is because she knows she can’t belt like that anymore. When I hear the clip of her singing Bad Cinderella in the adverts all I can think is yikes! She seriously needs to get a good singing teacher to get her singing healthily again and possibly see an ENT specialist because her voice hasn’t been the same since Heathers. I still can’t believe she sang through tonsillitis for so long, how did she not know?! She’s had it before. My sister gets tonsillitis a few times a year and knows what it is every single time.

 

[Illogic_ally]

Exactly. I definitely think the actors who kept saying ‘I can’t read music’ don’t understand the differences between reading music and sight singing because they never officially learned to read music with a teacher. Once you know where middle C is on a stave, it’s relatively easy to learn where the rest of the notes are. If you play me a note on a piano and ask me what note you are playing, I probably wouldn’t guess correctly- it would be an educated guess but it would still be a guess. People who are pitch perfect and can sight sing can sing an E# without having to hear it out loud- they can hear it in their head. No one expects all singers to be able to do that. Having done a Capella work as a teen, I always had a harmonica prompt and kept the note on my head,I couldn’t pluck it from nowhere, I find people who can do that absolutely incredible. Carrie surely must know the difference. She’s either completely ignorant or she lies to make herself seem more naturally talented than she actually is ‘oh i’m a West End star and cant read music, aren’t I incredible?’. It’s sounds impressive to those who can’t read music but to those who can, it just sounds like she doesn’t even want to try. Why would someone working in the industry not do everything in their power to continually train themselves to be a better performer. James Monroe Iglehart played the genie in Aladdin on Broadway. He learned to tap for the role and won a Tony award for it. Expanding your skill set can only improve your chances. If Cinderella bombs, which seems fairly likely based on the number of tickets sold compared to Frozen, her career could very easily fizzle out. She can’t belt top notes anymore - when she tries you can hear the strain in her voice, and she isn’t even 28 yet. That’s way too early to ruin your voice unless there is something seriously wrong. I do wonder if the reason she has been singing more in her head voice through lockdown is because she knows she can’t belt like that anymore. When I hear the clip of her singing Bad Cinderella in the adverts all I can think is yikes! She seriously needs to get a good singing teacher to get her singing healthily again and possibly see an ENT specialist because her voice hasn’t been the same since Heathers. I still can’t believe she sang through tonsillitis for so long, how did she not know?! She’s had it before. My sister gets tonsillitis a few times a year and knows what it is every single time.

i can’t remember exactly where she said it, if it was a vlog or an insta story q&a, but at one point she kind of alluded to feeling pressured to not take time off during Heathers when she got sick. I can honestly kind of understand that, because the whole Heathers thing seems so scummy to me, because I don’t think she genuinely realized just how much she’d been stunt cast for it. The whole debacle around the original cast album cover proved that the producers were using her as a cash cow, and I think she came to realise that after the run finished and the novelty of being a west end lead wore off.
I can understand how she would’ve felt like she should’ve take shows off when the producers were banking on her name filling seats, and her young rabid fans were coming just to see her.

Carrie has major ego issues, but looking back on Heathers after the fact, the whole thing just seems sad

 

[ShinyEspeon]

I passed the theatre that Cinderella will be in the other day and it’s all done up for that show already, with a huge 6 ft odd poster of her face on the side of it. She’s totally another stunt cast role, they saw what kind of numbers she brought in to Heathers and they want a repeat of that. But ALW isn’t as good as he used to be. I can’t see it succeeding. He’s going to wish he kept School of Rock in there.

Also agreeing with finding her taking an ad with Potter to be totally at odds with her stance on Rowling. If she was a real ally she wouldn’t be taking any more money from that franchise and wouldn’t be advertising them. I’d call out her hypocrisy to her on twitter but I don’t have the time to block all her crazy fans that would come for me. Or the TERFs.

 

[Catsheldon]

i can’t remember exactly where she said it, if it was a vlog or an insta story q&a, but at one point she kind of alluded to feeling pressured to not take time off during Heathers when she got sick. I can honestly kind of understand that, because the whole Heathers thing seems so scummy to me, because I don’t think she genuinely realized just how much she’d been stunt cast for it. The whole debacle around the original cast album cover proved that the producers were using her as a cash cow, and I think she came to realise that after the run finished and the novelty of being a west end lead wore off.
I can understand how she would’ve felt like she should’ve take shows off when the producers were banking on her name filling seats, and her young rabid fans were coming just to see her.

Carrie has major ego issues, but looking back on Heathers after the fact, the whole thing just seems sad

Yeah, I remember her talking about that. But if she really was pressurised to continue performing when she could feel how ill she was, why does she still have a close relationship with Heathers team? I certainly would not want to stay associated with Bill Kenwright, Paul Taylor Mills, Really Useful Group ( Andrew Lloyd Webber) or the director Andy Fickman if they were the ones telling her or enabling her to not go off sick. Now knowing that The Really Useful Group was involved in bringing Heathers to London, I’m wondering if she was trying to suck up to ALW? What will she do if she gets really sick during Cinderella? The stakes will be even higher because she’s helping create a brand new ALW musical. Sounds like she’d rather make herself ill than take some time off, though she did address it slightly in the 30 days of journaling video. Here to hoping the lockdown has made her reassess how she uses her time.

 

[CynicalV]

I don't understand her excuse of being too busy and then coronavirus as to why she hasn't been able to get wardrobes delivered since April 2019.

 

[NoPlates]

I'm seriously trying to wrap my head around her talking about her sleep schedule for a solid 13 minutes in today's video...I made it 2 minutes in and skipped to minute 9 and SHE WAS STILL TALKING ABOUT HER SLEEP.

 

[emmer_moans]

Yeah, I remember her talking about that. But if she really was pressurised to continue performing when she could feel how ill she was, why does she still have a close relationship with Heathers team? I certainly would not want to stay associated with Bill Kenwright, Paul Taylor Mills, Really Useful Group ( Andrew Lloyd Webber) or the director Andy Fickman if they were the ones telling her or enabling her to not go off sick. Now knowing that The Really Useful Group was involved in bringing Heathers to London, I’m wondering if she was trying to suck up to ALW? What will she do if she gets really sick during Cinderella? The stakes will be even higher because she’s helping create a brand new ALW musical. Sounds like she’d rather make herself ill than take some time off, though she did address it slightly in the 30 days of journaling video. Here to hoping the lockdown has made her reassess how she uses her time.

I would have thought her agent/rep would step in if she was being forced into performing through tonsillitis. I think she pushed herself because of fear but perhaps could have spoken up sooner. I mean I they had a very good understudy so it should never have come down to her health being risked.

 

[LitNerd]

I passed the theatre that Cinderella will be in the other day and it’s all done up for that show already, with a huge 6 ft odd poster of her face on the side of it. She’s totally another stunt cast role, they saw what kind of numbers she brought in to Heathers and they want a repeat of that. But ALW isn’t as good as he used to be. I can’t see it succeeding. He’s going to wish he kept School of Rock in there.

Also agreeing with finding her taking an ad with Potter to be totally at odds with her stance on Rowling. If she was a real ally she wouldn’t be taking any more money from that franchise and wouldn’t be advertising them. I’d call out her hypocrisy to her on twitter but I don’t have the time to block all her crazy fans that would come for me. Or the TERFs.

I would at least understand her decision more if the product they asked her to advertise and promote was something directly connected to her brand - like a new fancy range of stationary etc - but bottled butter beer just seems... like a strange choice? The only connection I can see is her “look at me I’m an adult, not a Disney Princess, because I’m different do sexy things and drink alcohol” but I know, or at least hope, that’s a stretch

Her post about Rob’s cover about Into the Unknown also rubbed me the wrong way - I know it’s aligned with her “it’s so cute I’m going to squash it” and she’s expressing how excited she is, but she could easily express how much she loves him and his version without saying no one else can cover the song - I don’t know just one of those little things I admit

 

[Catsheldon]

I don't understand her excuse of being too busy and then coronavirus as to why she hasn't been able to get wardrobes delivered since April 2019.

It might be that the shop she ordered the wardrobe from stopped all deliveries due to the lockdown. I’ve only been back at work 1 week after being furloughed sInce March, so maybe the shop she ordered from had only just opened back up again with being a non essential business.

 

[cherryblossomlatte]

I would at least understand her decision more if the product they asked her to advertise and promote was something directly connected to her brand - like a new fancy range of stationary etc - but bottled butter beer just seems... like a strange choice? The only connection I can see is her “look at me I’m an adult, not a Disney Princess, because I’m different do sexy things and drink alcohol” but I know, or at least hope, that’s a stretch

Her post about Rob’s cover about Into the Unknown also rubbed me the wrong way - I know it’s aligned with her “it’s so cute I’m going to squash it” and she’s expressing how excited she is, but she could easily express how much she loves him and his version without saying no one else can cover the song - I don’t know just one of those little things I admit

Is not actual beer. Is supposly the same they sell at the parks and the studio tour.

I laughed at the “into the unknow is cancelled” becauseI just remember how awful her cover was.

 

[CynicalV]

It might be that the shop she ordered the wardrobe from stopped all deliveries due to the lockdown. I’ve only been back at work 1 week after being furloughed sInce March, so maybe the shop she ordered from had only just opened back up again with being a non essential business.

That's understandable and probably is what happened to her if she tried to get them at the start of lockdown, but she meant from April 2019, not this year. I'm just saying she had an entire year to get wardrobes before lockdown, that'd be a priority for me but she's playing the 'I've been soooo busy' card. She did plenty of frivolous and unnecessary things and had time off in a whole year, she just loves to pretend she's so rushed off her feet she couldn't buy wardrobes.