Off To The Theatre

So far while being in London I have been blessed with the opportunity to see so many plays and a couple of musicals! In one fireside our speaker told us that if we saw one play a night every night while we were here we would not be able to see all the plays London has to offer! At first this seemed to be a false statement, but now that I have been here for a while I have learned that it is in fact true!

The first experience I had was with the Royal Opera House when I went to see the opera Linda di Chamounix in concert. I saw this on September 7 and even though it was just the cast singing everything out it was still so amazing. This was my first experience with opera and I must say it was a good one! I did not think I would enjoy it that much, but the singing was great and I even could understand what was going on!

The next experience was on September 11th when we went and saw Peter Pan. I have already blogged about that, but again I must say it was amazing!

I then went to Chicago at the Cambridge Theatre on September 12th with my roommate Jenny. This was a nice way to get out of the centre and see the theater side of London. We went down that night and got tickets to the night show. They have these half price ticket booths down in the square where you can go the day of and get amazing tickets! We were so lucky because we got tickets in the stalls and had such an amazing time! The accents were a little funny because it was British actors putting on an American- Chicago accent- so pulled it off well and others were just plain funny! It was also not as risque as I thought it was going to be. Everything was tastefully done- in fact if you have seen the movie then I should tell you the play is a lot better! The set and costume is so simple and yet it is so amazing at the same time! I would recommend this to anyone... well at least adults!

Then on the 14th of September as a group we saw Shakespeare's As You Like It at the Globe Theatre. For our Shakespeare and Hum 202 classes we had to read the play so our professors also wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Globe was putting it on! It was such a great play! Being at the Globe and seeing it preformed in such a classic way was a great experience. All of the actors were so good and very convincing. Of course Orlando, played by Jack Lasky, was a crowd favorite. Jenny and I became quite enamored with him and even went as far as looking him up on facebook! He was quite cute. But the play really came to life at the Globe and every ones humor was so much better seeing it in person. I never really liked Shakespeare before but since this play I have gained a better appreciation for him.

On the 17th my roommates and I (Jenny, Brittney, Ashael, Elliott, and Sarah) all went and saw Wicked at the Apollo Victoria Theatre for Sarah's birthday! I saw this right after I graduated high school, but there was a lot that I did not remember about the show. It of course was so amazing! Again some parts were funny because they had British accents and it was weird hearing them while they were singing! But the cast did a great job. At the concessions they had Wicked shirts with the black hat and the point of the hat was a map of England! I thought it was so cute but I could bring myself to drop 30 pounds on a shirt! This night was also memorable because this is the first night Jenny and I had a Lion bar! Which is the best candy bar on the face of the earth! For those of you that have not had the opportunity to try one picture this: if a kit kat and hundred grand could have a baby it would be a Lion bar! DELICIOUS!!!

On the 19th as a group we went and saw another Shakespeare play, All's Well That Ends Well at the National Theatre. Again we had to read this play and it was pretty good in text, but I thought this production was amazing. Some of my classmates did not like it, but I really enjoyed myself. It was a darker take than some directors do with this, but it turned out good. The only complaint I had was some of the acting. But again such a great experience.

The last theatre experience I have had was seeing The Winter's Tale at The Courtyard Theatre in Stratford-Upon-Avon (Shakespeare's birthplace). We had to read this for my Shakespeare class and it was really good. The director did most of the second act with everything made from pages of books! It was really neat and I thought a lot better than reading it!

So this is the last of my theatre experiences thus far and as you can tell everything has been so good! I am hoping to have many more opportunities to go see productions and I will or course let you know how they go!


I will put pictures up when the internet is better!