Days 8 & 9

24 hours later and I'm definitely not over how good The Beaux Stratagem was last night. I knew it was going to be funny because I laughed out loud while just reading the script, something I don't often find myself doing when it comes to classical and restoration pieces, but the cast and creative team took this show to another level. It was funny, charming, poignant, and all around just a great piece of theatre. I especially loved the music, and I think we'll all be singing the Trifle Song for the next few days.

Some of my favorite aspects of the show were the transitions from the Inn to Lady Bountiful's house. When I walked into the theatre and saw the set, my first thought was that they were going to have a rotating stage to switch between the two locations (which definitely would have been cool, too). However, I really liked the way they ended up handling the transitions, they were quick, seamless, and incorporated everyone, which added to the feel of an ensemble show. Not to mention, it didn't stop the action of the show at all, as transitions so often do. I loved how they payed attention to the small details that differentiated between the Inn and the house. For example, every time we transitioned to Lady Bountiful's house, they added a gold decorative piece to the end of the stair way where there wasn't one in the Inn. They also traded in their hanging lanterns for chandeliers and added tablecloths to give the house a more elegant feel. The director, cast, and crew definitely knew how to work with their set and make the most of it, and it made for a quick paced and highly enjoyable show.

(nationaltheatre.org.uk)

Erin and I also got to see the Phantom of the Opera matinee yesterday, a show that I've been dying to see live since the first time I watched the movie. It's such a beautiful show and everyone had such beautiful voices and it was all just really, really beautiful, guys. But there were a few technical difficulties, and it's always fun to be in an audience when something goes wrong in a professional production. At least I find it slightly reassuring. In the first scene where the Phantom leads Christine to his lair, they're supposed to ride a boat. Instead, they sang part of the song offstage and then he led her downstage...walking. They covered it beautifully and no one would have ever known, except for the fact the whole boat ride thing is a fairly famous part of the production. Also, when she wakes up after the song, she sings about how she remembers that there was a boat....and there was no boat. But really, it was just a little thing that didn't impact the performance or the production at all, and the show was everything I could have hoped for and more.

Today we went on a tour of the Tower of London and went to go eat lunch at Borough Market, which may make it's way into my top 3 favorite places in London. There was so much food and it all looked absolutely amazing. I feel like I'm going to frequent Borough Market throughout the next three weeks here. After, we headed to the TKTS booth and got tickets for Matilda the Musical tonight (!!!!!!!!), and then went to go buy tickets for The Elephant Man starring Bradley Cooper for the matinee performance on the 18th (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!).




I like this place a lot.