Swan Lake

There are so many things that I got to do in London, it continues to amaze me. Here's another: hey guys, you bored? Wanna go see SWAN LAKE tonight? Seriously? Heck yes. Off to the London Coliseum for the Mikhailovsky Ballet rendition of Swan Lake.

Front row balcony seats--BEST SEAT IN THE HOUSE--in my opinion.

Siegfried left much to be desired unfortunately (Sister Seely said the only way he could have gotten that part was his height); Derek in THE SWAN PRINCESS is much better, haha. However, the jester and Odette were absolutely wonderful, and it was a great show, and now I can say that I've seen the 28 fortes of Odette--and yes, I even counted them out loud to make sure she did all 28.

Intermission? How about some ice cream? Yes, feel free to do the math: there were only four of us.

But you have to understand something here--IT'S ICE CREAM!! and it was a fairly LONG show.

We may have got carried away a bit... but that's what we did at shows--intermission means ice cream. Duh. :)

Warhorse

As with so many things, I was a little apprehensive of WARHORSE at first, hearing that it was a "puppet show," but I am open to just about anything, so I went. Oh and it was worth every single minute! It is a story about a horse during the Great War--sounds strange, and it is, the horse is a puppet propelled by 3 puppeteers--but by the end I was bawling, it was that good. You totally forget that the horse is a puppet, it becomes absolutely real. It was quite fun to see a completely different perspective of the war. I totally loved it. SO GOOD. I would recommend it to everyone.

And you know where the National Theatre is? On Drury Lane! No Muffin Men though...

Groundlings

The Globe: best experience so far, seriously. Saw Comedy of Errors--BEST SHOW!!! I loved it. Katy and Caitlyn and I got there extra early to get a good spot--we had standing tickets by the way, but it was well worth it. Much better than sitting in seats, SO MUCH BETTER! Since we got there so early we had front row standing--awesome. We were leaning on the stage, yeah, that closer--the actors were spitting on us, that's just how close we were! One of them even stepped on my hand and broke a nail--quite the experience.


The show was awesome as well; instead of having four different actors for the two sets of twins, they just had the two actors playing all four--so one actor played both individuals in the one set of twins; at the end when all four are supposed to be together on the stage, they used cardboard cutouts on wheels, pretty cool--does that make sense? Hahaha, it was highly confusing and extremely entertaining--even one of the actors got confused and didn't know which person she was actually talking to at one point. It was like Jekyll and Hyde on steriods--you could totally tell when the character changed just from their dramatic actions and facial expressions. It was so wonderful!!!

Going to the Proms

BBC PROMS, short for promenade concert, is an eight-week summer season of DAILY classical music concerts and the like held at Royal Albert Hall (just across the street, no big deal). We went and saw a performance of the beautiful Chopin Nocturnes--LOVE CHOPIN, he's one of my absolute favorites. It was fantastic--Royal Albert Hall could definitely use some AC, but other than that it was positively fabulous.

Music of the Night

The nightlife of London--how about a Broadway musical? Can I just say that I LOVE BROADWAY! Music is the best thing in the world--in my little world everyone breaks into song every other minute. It's great. :)

First on our list: The Phantom of the Opera. Admittedly this was not my first time seeing this show, it's a personal favorite of mine. My earliest memories consist of listening to my mother play Phantom on the piano while my dad sang along. Andrew Lloyd Webber is amazing, and this performance left no room for disappointment. As far as pure talent goes, this was the best I've ever seen--not like the wannabe Broadway voices, but rather the amazing true vocally amazing voices. LOVED IT!

The stage--we were pretty high up, haha.

Next on the list: the one I have waited years to see, seriously. And when it finally decided to come to Utah, I was going to be out of the country! How does that work? Fortunately it was in London as well, and again, AMAZING!!! One of my favorites, ever. The stampede scene: so cool! I totally cried--but seriously, who can NOT cry when even watching the movie?

The set and costumes were by far the most spectacular thing I have ever seen!

Next, I gave in and finally saw WICKED. I wasn't planning on it--there is so much girly hype over this show, there was no way I was going to contribute. If I hear one more graduation using "For Good" I'm going to puke. And yet I made it to the show--and it did not disappoint. Defying Gravity was spectacular! The greatest scene--it was breath-taking.

Last but most certainly NOT least--LES MISERABLES!!! My favorite--SOOOO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! But let's face it, Rachel and I couldn't keep from laughing during Castle on a Cloud--she had the broom and everything! ;)

Jean Valjean was so good--I was so completely in love, seriously. and yes, I totally cried when Eponine died. She was by far the best of the entire show. LOVED IT!