Saturday, March 15, 2008

London Theatre





I'm staying right in the heart of the Theatre District in London. I'm renting a room in a flat, which is like being in the middle of Times Square in NYC. The noise is loud at night, but I could not have picked a better location.

I arrived Thursday morning, after a long flight from Rio. At least I slept most of the way. I took the Underground to Leicester Square and walked to the flat. I then went to see what shows were available.

But before the theatre, I must have crispy duck in China town, only two blocks from the flat. It was excellent.

In the afternoon I saw The History Boys - not at all like The Jersey Boys (which is also playing here). Front row seat, what more could I ask. The History Boys is about a nonconventional way of teaching a high school class on how to get into Oxford or Cambridge. I missed some of the English humor, but it was an excellent play.

For dinner, I opted for Indian food, which I hear is now the national dish in the UK.

That evening I saw Monty Python's Spamalot. What a fun show - eighth row center. I was going to see it in Orlando, but I hate the theater there - too large. Most of the West End theatres are small and intimate. I had a one block walk back to the flat.

On Friday I again went to the TKTS booth and got a matinee ticket for Chicago and an evening ticket for The Lord of the Rings. I've seen Chicago before, but it was interesting hearing a Brit trying a Chicago accent. This time I was only in the second row. All the actors were beautiful, which is one of the reasons I really like Chicago.

Lunch was my crispy duck again.

The best show of all was the musical of Lord of the Rings. The stage and costumes reminded me of a Cirque du Soleil production. It was a three hour show, which was needed to tell the full story. The stage revolved and went up and down in about 20 sections. Things were constantly happening, with the actors on stage and in the audience even before the show started. The Orcs came out into the audience during the second intermission, and scared many people. I don't know if this will every make it to Broadway, but if it does, a definite must.

Since I only had 30 minutes between the shows, dinner waited until after Lord of the Rings. Then I wandered around Soho until well after midnight.

Today I went to get a matinee ticket, but there was nothing I really wanted to see, so I'll wander around London until this evening, when I'm going to visit my good friends - Ann and Norman Shuker. Then tomorrow, I'm off to Cairo.

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