A Week at the Theatre!!! (yes, spelled the British way)

First night out to "Billy Elliot" last week!

In front of the Victoria Palace Theatre where "Billy Elliot" has been playing since March of 2005.

This week on Tuesday we went to "Wicked" at the Apollo Victoria Theatre (right across the way from where "Billy Elliot" was). It has been playing there since Sept. 2006.

The set for "Wicked"

Follow the yellow brick road!

Posters in Leicester Square (might recognize these from the post of my photography social...)

Dominion Theatre where "We Will Rock You" has been playing for nearly 9 years (literally right outside of the Tottenham Court Rd. tube station).

So for the past week, Mom and I have been trying to fit in all of the West End (what London calls their version of Broadway) shows we can! If you go to Leicester Square the day of the play, or a few days in advance, the theaters start to release discounted tickets (sometimes up to 50% off) that they know they won't be able to sell at full price before the show. It makes the theater affordable even for some great seats in the stalls and dress circle!

Starting with Billy Elliot (you may remember the movie) which is the story of a 12 year old boy who starts going to ballet class instead of his boxing classes in the hard times of the 1980's in Durham, England. He falls in love with dancing (and happens to be pretty good), and has to convince his dad and brother of his talent so he can audition for the Royal Ballet School instead of going into the dangerous and un-lucrative mining business they are in. As it takes place in a time where miners were losing their lives and rights while on strike, he had to overcome some very strong issues (of course!). It was hilarious and a little sad too! AWESOME!

Next, we saw Wicked which is based on the best selling novel written after The Wizard of Oz which acts as a sort of prequel telling the story of Glinda (who goes on to be the Good Witch in the Wizard of Oz) and Elphaba (who goes on to be the Wicked Witch of the West that Dorothy runs from in the Wizard of Oz). Glinda and Elphaba meet in sorcery school, and Elphaba being born green, has to overcome some adversities to fit in. It portrays the witches in different lights than the Wizard of Oz and was great despite our sub-par tickets (as it is currently the most popular show in the West End and this is apparently mid-term week where all the kids have off of school like Spring Break, tickets were hard to come by)! Besides, I already knew the popular "Defying Gravity" song thanks to Glee which made it more fun to sing along with.

Last night we went to see "We Will Rock You" which to be honest, we were a little wary of because the story takes place in 2310 and sounded pretty strange. Earth as we know it no longer exists, and kids are all forced to dress the same, learn the same songs, watch the same t.v. shows, so they are all brainwashed in order to follow orders from the Killer Queen. A group of rebels (one being called Meat-after Meatloaf and one being called Brit after Britney Spears), have found old magazines and posters referring to popular music and rock 'n' roll, and know that in order to release the kids from their brainwashed states, they must find the only musical instrument still hidden on the planet-once belonging to Queen front-man Freddie Mercury. So weird, right? Right. Well the show was basically all music, very little dialogue other than through songs, and the play is based on songs from Queen. Of course Galileo and Scaramouche, the main characters (hmm...sound familiar), find the guitar (buried at was once Wembley Stadium) and the rebels become the Champions. With songs like "Another One Bites the Dust", "We Will Rock You", "We Are the Champions", "Bohemian Rhapsody", and about 12 more popular songs, I actually thought it was pretty awesome (surprise to me too!). The dancing and singing made the weird story well worth it. Plus, all of the subtle references to popular and present artists/issues made it pretty funny! Was possibly my seond favorite show after Billy Elliot, but really, they were all spectacular shows!!

All in all, I am so glad I've gotten to see some West End shows and will hopefully see at least one more before I go! I will miss half-priced musicals back in Houston :(

Dinosaurs and things...

Horses outside the Horse Guards Parade on Whitehall. They were standing in a pile of their poo....

Currently the Fourth Plinth is occupied by the ship in a bottle. But I liked the writing on the ground better than what was actually on the plinth. I borrowed Dolan's shadow as well.

Natural History Museum

Reminded me of the 'Night at the Museum' movies! Dinosaurs!

Bones

The Great Court at the British Museum

Reflections in windows...

Dolan arrived yesterday morning, so after a quick lunch, we tried to use the good weather to our advantage and see a bit of London. We started out at Embankment and walked acorss to Southbank towards Westminster. We passed by the London Eye, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. Since Dolan has been here once before (many many years ago), he wasn't too worried about seeing all of the sights. Even so, I made us walk to Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and Covent Garden as I feel they are very "London" next to the Southbank tour. After all this walking and Dolan getting little sleep in the past few days, we headed back to Bob's so he could take a nap. That evening we went for what was supposed to be a short stroll around Clapham Common. Well, I got us lost (surprise), and two hours later, my legs aching, we finally made it back to Bob's.

Today was a miserable day weather-wise. It was pouring and had turned quite cold. If there's something I can't stand (and Dolan too), it's wet socks! We started out at the Natural History Museum thinking we could escape the rain by doing a day of Museums. Unfortunately, Dolan was under the impression that this museum would have paintings, but instead, we just saw dinosaurs and minerals (both at my request-I mean we were already there!). From there we decided maybe the British Museum would be more exciting, but after having it pour on us the whole way there, and running into cafes to find somewhere to eat only to find strange menus and expensive prices, we were exhausted. We ending up eating in the museum cafe, took a few pictures, then headed back towards Bob's, stopping for a bit to do a few errands for me. Not terribly exciting days for Dolan in London I'm afraid!

Win, Lose, or Draw

Carnaby Street (obviously)

Liberty of London-They even have the Target collection shown here

Liberty of London-I think this is the stationary and chocolate room. They have a room for everything!

Liberty of London-more of the Target collection (I'll include more photos fo the store another time. Giong through the store is the only way I know how to get to Carnaby Street).

Liberty's again....

This photo is for Cat- a Belgian waffle with Belgium white chocolate

Weatherspoon Pub-site of our Sunday pub brunch

A draw it is! 1-1 for the USA vs. England World Cup game. Although I had good intentions of going somewhere cool to watch the game last night, I ended up watching it on Bob's couch in my pajamas and was quite comfortable! I had quite a day trying to get around...

I started out the morning thinking I would just hop on the tube and run down to Oxford Circus quickly to find an England shirt so I'd blend in more with the locals. Bob insisted I use the bus because it's much more scenic, but as it takes an hour from the King's Ave. bus stop to Oxford Circus, I opted for the tube instead. Bad choice#1! I walked down to Clapham South station (10 minutes walk or so from Bob's), and it was closed for rail repairs for Saturday and Sunday-not just Clapham South, but half of the entire Norhtern line, so it wasn't even like I could walk a mile or so to another station! Now, everyone looked slightly confused but seemed to deal with it very well. I on the other hand got a bit panicked. I non-chalantly walked by, like "oh, I wasn't going to catch the tube into town", and crossed the street. I looked at the bus stop, but the only buses that ran from there were going to Brixton or Balham (that I could tell-the bus system is very tricky to me), which are the opposite direction from anything inside London. After circling the station a few times, I noticed the guy in the Underground vest that said-"Ask me, I can help" at the opposite bus stop and asked him what to do. He said I could either change buses quite a few times (he clearly didn't think by my face that this option was good, because he didn't endulge me with any details on how to do this or bus route numbers) or ride the bus to Balham and catch the overhead train--overhead train-what? I decided to go back to Bob's. I got some money out at Tescos so it wasn't a complete waste, then walked back to Bob's, stopping to get a batter-dipped sausage to console myself.

After some iceless Coke and sausage (I miss ice), I went to the bus station at the other end of the street to catch the bus to Oxford Circus. It was a nice ride (I sat on the second level) through Sloane Square, Knightsbridge, Marble Arch, to Oxford Circus, but it sure took forever. Once there, I got an England shirt at the sports store I had looked up online (I saw a better one in the giant Nike store, but of course, only after I had bought the first one). I walked over to Regent's Street to Liberty of London. Going through this store is the only way I know how to access Carnaby Street where I had gotten a cool England t-shirt last year. Liberty is one of my favorite stores in London. It's close to the size of Harrod's (takes up a block or so and is 4-5 stories high) but seems to cater more to designers than Harrod's. Anyways, I'll cover Liberty in another post! I found the shirt shop, but not a good shirt, so I headed back to Oxford Circus to get the tube to Tottenham Court road from whihc I could then easily walk to Leicester Square. I wanted to go back to the same store I bought my neckalce at to look at a ring by Serge Thoravl:http://www.atelier-serge-thoraval.com/htm/uk_historique.htm

I got lost coming out of the Tottenham Court Road station though (didn't look at my map-was I really just assuming I would pick the exact street out of the five ta the round-about-to take ot Leicester Square? yes). Instead of heading towards Leicester square, I headed towards Goodge Station whihc happened to be the exact opposite way. I finally figured this out when I reached Goodge Station. After walking for about an hour back past Tottenham Court Station, I finally made it to Leicester Square, bought the ring, and walked about an hour back to Oxford Circus-stopping only for the belgian waffle with white chocolate (who wouldn't stop!). I only knew of the one bus that would get me back to Bob's, so I had to catch it from Oxford Circus, and with the impending game, everywhere was PACKED.

I was so exhausted by my 4 hour walk and 2 hour cumulative bus rides, that I watched the game from Bob's couch last night. Today, all Bob and I did was go out for a Sunday Pub lunch up the road, then nap all day. Luckily, Cat, Zak, and I also figured out how to video chat on gmail today, so I have a date with them, Colton, mom and dad in a few minutes. :)

Some other fun things I saw:

http://www.jackwills.com/
This store (at Leicester Square) was like Abercrombie and Fitch on steroids-with models standing at the door and all the popped collars you would ever want to see. It in no way exhibits London fashion which is very similar to the 80's throwing up-leggings, one shoulder shirts, and ballet flats.

http://www.oliverbonas.com/
Cute chain store where each store tends to sell different items.

http://jessicadelotz.wordpress.com/
Saw her jewelry advertised on the London Jewellery Week Brochure. LOVE IT!