Grease the Musical, Piccadilly Theatre - review

So in a final salute to Flyingpops' birthday, Saturday saw us taking (an extremely rare) weekend trip up into town (it's hard to do the commute when you don't *have* to), starting with a bus journey (as Flyingpops wasn't sure how much cash she had on her Oyster card, the queue to top it up was about 300 people long, and buses take small change) which seemed to take about 40 minutes to cover the same distance as the 10 minute tube journey (thanks to the huge amounts of traffic) -

- we got off the bus by Foyles (just opposite Denmark Street on Charing Cross Road) and worked our way through the alleys to Frith Street where our (pre-planned) venue for lunch was located - The Gourmet Burger Kitchen -

- we got a seat quite easily (it being out of the way a little bit) but considering that - it did fill up rather quickly thereafter (which was lucky!)-

- Flyingpops went for the Butternut Squash burger, her mum (Nanjan) opted for the BBQ Burger (well done) and I really couldn't decide between the Blue Cheese and the BBQ (so I had both!) cooked medium rare -

- and to quote Samuel L Jackson "Mmmmmmm! This is a tasty burger"! After a brief pause to consider options - Flyingpops took hers to bits to reduce it's height, Nanjan used her knife and fork, and I got Blue cheese and BBQ relish all over my face...delicious! ;)

That done, we started walking towards the Theatre, first through Chinatown -

- all decked out with (festival) lanterns for the Chinese New Year celebrations (which is actually today! Happy Year of the Ox everyone!) -

- (which makes the people hugging guys in cow costumes seem a lot more sensible)
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- we struggled through the crowds across Picadilly Circus, stopping only briefly to goggle at the new flagship Barclays store opening where Wimpy/Burger King used to be -

- where I waited outside (staring at the guys squirming with embarrasment dressed in blue Grenadier Guard uniforms)-

- while Flyingpops and Nanjan fought (successfully) to grab a few free goodie bags they were giving away (containing flyers and a pocket-sized London street atlas (quite useful)...!

And then (many pedestrian collisions later) we made it to our destination, the Piccadilly Theatre-

- we had pre-ordered tickets (just to make sure I had enough leg room - Chicago had been so bad I had to move seats!) - had a quick drink in the pub opposite (as we were there about half an hour early) watching others arrive - this lot were part of a Hen do, all dressed up as Pink Ladies (really good idea by the bridemaid there!) -

- and then in!

It was a really good show (as I said to Flyingpops, it was never going to be able to compete with the Beauty and the Beasts or Josephs of the Musical world, but) the cast was great (the winners of the related ITV talent show were playing the leads) and *Jimmy Osmond* was playing the Teen Angel (he got the loudest applause of all)! If I were to have booked it up again I probably would have sat a bit further back - a lot of the characters smoke herbal cigarettes on stage (and they honk!), when the pyrotechnics going off it was a bit like being Ross Kemp in Afganistan and the smoke machine made it a bit hard to see at times but overall it did what it said on the tin, and Flyingpops loved it (and that's all that matters)... ;)

I want to go and see Oliver (with Rowan Atkinson) next, Flyingpops is voting for Billy Elliot (which I will point-blank refuse to go to), so we'll just have to see what happens... ;)

Chicago the musical

Yesterday was a loooong (but really fun day), Flyingpops was treating her mum to the aforementioned musical by way of a belated birthday gift, we headed up from Redhill to London Bridge via Network rail (on an extremely old train, must have been one of the first generation electric door ones, and it was looking more decrepit than even the most aged of the slam door variety) -

- we wandered around Borough Market (which was *far* too busy to actually shop in at that time of day (best to get there early I think!) the queues for some of the "fast" food type stalls were 40 people deep -

- so after taking in the sights and sounds and aromas, we began our walk along the south bank of the River Thames past "Shakespeare's Globe" -

- towards the "Millennium Bridge" -

- and then across it looking towards St Paul's Cathedral, it couldn't have been a better day to take in the river, just wonderful, so clear and bright, perfect "London Eye" weather actually... -

- We stopped for lunch at a little place called "The Centre Page", which was almost in the shadow of the dome of the catherdral (it was situated in "Knightrider Street" if you can believe that!)...I had a Steak and Ale pie, which was excellent, even though the first time they brought the dishes out it seemed to have been left abandoned in their dumb waiter and sent back down to the kitchen, to much confusion among the staff. Oh and Flyingpops's mum asked the foreign waitress if she might have some "Salad" cream to have with her Fish, chips and salad and was brought out a pot of "Sour" cream...but none of this ruined the experience...

- so, full from lunch we walked around St Pauls -

- and hopped onto the tube (which was nice and quiet for a change!) to Charing Cross to catch the show (which was in the Adelphi on the Strand) -

- Flyingpops had managed to get some bargain priced seats (right in the middle and right near the front of the Dress Circle) which afforded an absolutely stunning view of the stage, however, by the interval the restricted leg room was making enjoying the show almost impossible for me, so I said that I was going to have to find somewhere else to sit. As I was looking around (the back three rows looked totally empty and rather tempting) Flyingpops and her mum were having a discussion about the possible identity of a person that had slipped quietly into the audience from the exit during the performance and whether or not that person looked like "Darius" a fairly well known pop-type singer who emerged into the mainstream after failing to win one of these "Pop Idol" type shows a year or two ago. Interestingly he was supposed to be taking one of the lead roles in this show fairly soon, but neither of them were sure...so anyway, the interval dragged on and I hobbled up to the top of the dress circle to hover and wait to pounce on the best free seat I could when the lights went down...the one I settled on (right at the front on the left hand side) even had a free seat next to it, bonus! I politely enquired of the two young ladies sat deeper along the row if the seat was free, and one of them replied "Well, Darius were sitting there during t' first 'alf but e 'int 'ere now". I said "Right, well I don't suppose he paid for his ticket anyway", smiled and sat down..."Oh, there goes me chance of an autygraf then" she chuckled...but he didn't come back to reclaim his seat...after the show (which was actually rather enjoyable), we hopped on the tube to Leicester Square and walked up Regents Street to check out the Christmas lights (mostly super blurry blue LEDs, but it looked quite effective as they merged into one in the distance) -

- we peered up Oxford Street too, which was, if anything even more impressive, but by then the fatigue was starting to set in and the crowds were starting to get annoying, so we caught the tube from Oxford Circus over to London Victoria and happily collapsed onto a train within about 5 minutes of getting there...exhausted...

Having a rest today... ;)