Shows

One of my favorite things about London is the culture. I'm a geek, so I love museums, art galleries, going to the theatre, things like that. Basically, London is a playground filled with treats for the academic traveller. One of my classes is called "Contemporary British Theatre" and it is a drama class for non-drama majors where all we do is see one show every week and then talk about it, occasionally writing a review. So far we have seen two shows: one bad one and one good one. We have also gotten to see two well known London theatres, too - The Young Vic and The Royal National. One of the reasons I love the class is because the focus of the class is not on the big, commercial musicals and plays that the West End gets, which is an area of London similar to Broadway. Most of these shows are either transfers from New York or will eventually transfer to New York if they are successful here; so I have seen a good chunk of them already, or they are things that I would chose not to see...like Thriller Live, a Michael Jackson tribute musical. Not my style.

But this past Friday afternoon I found myself sitting around my flat realizing that I hadn't done anything "Londony" all day. Then I got upset that it was already almost October and the time has just been flying by. So I decided to treat myself to one of the big West End shows that I was interested in seeing. I looked up a few shows, but I found that the West End theatre district is not nearly as organized or accessible as Broadway; you can't just walk up and down one street and see a marquee for almost every show. I didn't have time for a plan, so I just took the tube to a stop that I knew was within a close proximity of some theatres, and I just looked around. Lucky for me, the first theatre I saw was showing "Love Never Dies" which actually was my first choice of shows I wanted to see. For anybody who hasn't heard of it, it is the sequel to "Phantom of the Opera." I walked in half an hour before the show, and I was able to snag a ticket in the last row; I was ecstatic. The show was good, but it has a few major flaws. There are some really good songs, and some mediocre ones. The writing is kind of spotty, and it's a little "dialed down" from the intense writing and thrilling score of the original. There were some amazing technical elements, including a lot of impressive special effects. The biggest complaint I had was that the girl playing Meg...well, she sucked. And Meg is one of the bigger roles in this show. (Pretty much all the same characters from the original are in the sequel, as well as a few new ones. Christine's son, who we find out VERY quickly is actually the Phantom's son, adds an interesting "creepy child" element to the show, but I feel for that kid. He must be EXHAUSTED with how many songs he sings!) I couldn't get any pictures inside, but here's the marquee and my ticket as proof!



And finally, to wrap up my amazing weekend, I had such a great time last night. I met up with Vince and Janelle, two of the people that I lived with when I was volunteering in South Africa this summer. Vince is from London, so I've seen him a couple times since getting here. Janelle is actually from Canada. I had dinner with both of them on Thursday after Janelle flew in, but this time we were actually able to go out for an evening. Janelle is here for a short stay with Vince until both of them go back to South Africa, which I am insanely jealous of. It is just really good to see people from this summer. We have a bond that nobody else will ever replace. I miss everybody else from SA!

But back to the event at hand. We managed to get into a huge club where we saw The Saturdays in concert!!! For anybody who doesn't know who they are, they are basically a modern day Spice Girls, but not quite so popular. They are the biggest girl group in the UK right now. The concert was so much fun, even though I couldn't move an inch where I was standing. That was only because I was pretty close to them, check out the view.



So it's been a REALLY GOOD weekend, and I'm hoping that this week isn't a let down, with class and all.