Yay for musicals!

First off, Jen, I don't think you can go wrong between Wicked and the Lion King, especially since you've seen Phantom already. Those three are my top picks by far! So whatever you choose, I garuntee it will be worth your money. You're best off to go to the half price ticket booths in Trafalgar or Leicester Square and book a couple of days in advance for the best seats you can get, and for the Globe, go a day or two early as well (to the Globe box office that's in the building), and get the standing seats (if that makes sense...I mean get tickets for the area around the stage that you stand and watch, they're the best and the cheapest tickets!!) and then just make sure you're at the Globe a half hour before the performance starts to get a good spot (preferably close enough to the stage that you can lean on it during the performance.) Oh yeah, and the easiest way to get to the Globe by underground (my fav tool for getting around the city) is to ride the tube on either the Circle or District lines (yellow or green in colour) to either the Mansion House or Cannon Street stations, then just walk across Southwark Bridge (from which you can see the Globe just off to the right hand side on the opposite bank) and take the stairs down at the other side and walk the 500 feet along the river Thames to the theatre. It's the quickest and easiest way to get there by tube. Hope that's helpful and will save you the time I took in discovering the way there. Okay, now on to a little bit of theatre...

Phantom, no need to really say it, was absolutely phenomenal!!! The sets OMG, the singing OMG, the music I had never heard before OMG (there's apparently more than what is usually on the soundtrack and the movie, so very happy!!). You just have to feel attatched to Phantom, it's so incredibly powerful and magical!! Ah me...for all you theatre geeks, lets just say that they went all out on the set. It had so many complicated aspects to it it would take me all day to relate them to you. Lets just say the scenes of them paddling over the underground lake were mindblowingly cool, and that the proscenium arch (that lovely outer part that boxes in the stage for all you non-theatre people) had been constructed specially for the show, separate from the usual build of the theatre. There were these huge golden statues of angels and demons and stuff, was amazing to look at, and for the musical number "That's all I ask of You", the Phantom was watching them from up on the central statue piece, and when Rhal and Christine left the stage, that statue piece detached from the procenium arch and descended so the audience could see the phantom there!!!! SO COOL!!! There was even a spiffy moment in the first number Christine does ("Think of Me") when they play with curtains and stuff and give the audience the impression of watching from backstage and viewing another audience and orchestra conductor on the other side!! Tee hee, it was so wonderful. And the music!!! Ah the music!! They singers were so good that you actually got carried into the emotions of the pieces, you felt the joys and the anguish and the passion and the struggle!! SO GOOD!!! I got the fancy programs and stuff for everyone to see later...I actually think that all my programs, pics and brochures from places I've gone to are the heaviest pieces of my luggage now, so it's a good thing I'm sending some stuff home today in an effort to balance out some of the weight...sheeesh...I got one of my roommates to take a pic of me in my blue dress holding the program for Phantom, so that's pretty cool too! Tomorrow I join up with the Contiki group and so will be more out of contact than I have been. Sorry, but the blogs will probably cease to occure on a daily basis...I shall do my best to find an internet cafe every couple of days, but I'm gonna be pretty much on the move from June 3 to June 20, so if you aren't hearing from me here or on the phone for those of you I call to check in with, it's because I just won't have the convenience of this computer lab (which is just downstairs in my hostel from my room). Anyways, today is laundry day. I'm writing this as I wait for the dryer to finish...it takes FOREVER!! Then I'm taking the laundry and getting everything re-packed in preparation for my Contiki tour, then I'm going to the post office to send all items no longer needed home, as well as some light knick-knacks that I've picked up. I think I've decided against going back to Scotland, sorry to say. The train costs and stuff are just ridiculous, would be more expensive than if I just came back here, and there's still plenty of museums and stuff for me to see, as well as a couple more tour days I wouldn't mind going on, and then I could see the other Shakespeare play the Merchant of Venice!! So yeah, that's as far as my plans go so far. I'm a bit sad that I'm not going back to Scotland, but at least I got to see it, and I shall definitely be coming back in the future, so no biggie. Okay, back to luandry and stuff, love and miss you all, shall do my best to keep you updated on my Euro travels!!

Hugs, Mel