I went to the prom with Seth Macfarlane

It's true. Creator of Family Guy and voice of Stewie. In a tux. At the prom.
And by prom, I don't mean nauseating taffeta dresses with crappy djs in a gym filled with paper decorations.

I mean the BBC proms at the Royal Albert Hall with stunning musical scores from the classic MGM movies (Singing in the Rain, High Society, Wizard of Oz, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Gigi, etc) played by the 92 piece John Wilson orchestra with performances by Sir Thomas Allen, Sarah Fox, Seth MacFarlane, Kim Criswell and Curtis Stigers. It is called a prom because it is a concert with a "promenade area" for standing viewers.


"Promming" tickets are only available day of for £5 - no advance sales. We considered pre-booking seats (they started at only £7), but they were sold out. Boy were we lucky about that! The promming arena is directly in front of the orchestra. The BBC prom website claims "many consider this the best position in the hall" - and I would agree. This was my view! I took this picture following the final encore!

Yes, we literally were in the front row - 4 feet from Seth Macfarlane (and the orchestra, as well). The only person closer was the BBC camera man. We deserved it though for the pain we went through that afternoon to get those tickets!

We went early that afternoon to see the afternoon screening of Singing in the Rain at the Royal Geographical Society. We weren't exactly sure how the tickets for that evening worked, so we asked one of the Royal Albert Hall workers. I was introduced to an absurd system.

They said, ok - now go stand in that line (as seen below) - that's where you get your queue number.

We go and get in line. They literally follow us the 15 feet over to the "line" and hand us a number. (In my head, I think - why couldn't you have given me that number over there?) They give us directions to the film screening and instruct us to come straight back to the line.

After the film, we returned to the line (leaving only to buy a strange "hot dog" - which was actually the nastiest sausage I've ever eaten - from a man in a food cart outside the hall). We spent two hours in the rain, yet they still claimed we should not leave, even though we have queue numbers. They wouldn't tell anyone what time they were going to sell the tickets - the box office just comes out randomly. I later learned it didn't really matter if we were there when the box office came around to sell the tickets because they sold those in the queue tickets at the door if they didn't already have them. *This is information that would have been more valuable two hours before.

The line later:

The whole process seemed absurd. Give me a queue number, tell me to come back at 6 p.m. to reconvene in the line, and give me my ticket on the way in. This allows me to be out of the rain, someplace warm and comfortable to eat real food or drink a hot chocolate or something.

It was completely worth it, nonetheless. The show was breathtaking. John Wilson reconstructed every MGM piece from the soundtracks and bare bones conductor score sheets because the full scores and orchestral parts for the shows were all destroyed in 1969 because they "took up too much space - and a new car park was needed." It had to be a tedious task, but the result was a tremendous masterpiece of musical entertainment.

Check out Singing in the Rain (Seth Macfarlane) and all five soloists for That's Entertainment. Seth slips in the Stewie voice in That's Entertainment. There were approximately 7 audience members (Catie, Hannah, and myself included) that whooped and cheered for his Family Guy reference... and the 1500+ other audience members stared blankly. I guess the 60+ demographic that populated most of the Hall probably doesn't watch Family Guy and the 20-30 year olds that do were probably at a pub or club on a Saturday night, not watching an orchestra. They missed out, I must say.

Below are my crazy paparazzi style photos of Seth Macfarlane during the final applause and performer bows. (We weren't permitted to take photographs during the performance, but I took the opportunity afterwards to sneakily snap a few).


Definitely a night of great entertainment!