So – went to see two shows in the West End this week – and they couldn't have been much more different.<\/p>\n
Firstly, headed off to see Charlie & The Chocloate Factory with Sophie, Nicky & Vicki – a v nice idea for a birthday prezzie. Preceeded by a bloody good scoff at The Opera Tavern (thankfully, no opera, but in fact some extremely good 'tapas' – I use the word lightly as it was way better than that. And the rare but much appreciated ability to knock out a jolly good raspberry martini). And thence on to the show – top marks particularly for set design and moveability – god only knows how you get the grandparents' beds, the Buckets house, dancing Oompa-Loompas, aggressive squirrels, the chocolate fountain, a Wonka Factory tour, a boat trip, a giant TV set and every other thing right through to the flying elevator all on one London stage – but they cracked it.<\/p>\n
V good night out. Arguably not quite as outstanding a show as Matilda, Billy Elliot or Wicked (still my top 3 votes for West End musicals, with of course my oldest fave Les Mis overseeing the lot) – but still very good and an excellent Wonka to boot.<\/p>\n
And then to last night when, much to the disgust of every current Added Value member of staff, I missed the AV Christmas party (oops) and the chance to dress up as a pirate (shame) as instead headed off to the Royal Court Theatre to go and see what sounded like – quite honestly – a crock of crap.<\/p>\n
'It's called 'Let The Right One In' (sappy name) and is about teenage vampires, a kind of coming of age thing – I think'. Mmm, how good a night out that potentially sounded – not.<\/p>\n
But it was REALLY good. Once you get over the relief that all the vast amounts of blood being slashed and spilled don't actually get as far as the audience (good job, we were in row 2 of the Stalls) it was weirdly extremely good. Fantastic acting from the entire cast, despite the mostly Glaswegian accents – which obviously help a lot when it's set in Scandinavia… um. And the first time I've seen a swimming pool filled up on stage with one poor sod being submerged in it – man goes down, trunks float up – he was very lucky not to have given everyone an extra small visual gift for Christmas.<\/p>\n
Anyway – a top tip as even Mr 'I say I want to see London plays but actually I find them pretty boring and sleep through most of it once I've scoffed all the Jelly Beans and interval ice cream' Hawkes, was impressed too.<\/p>\n
Party schmarty – both nights out rocked!<\/p>\n
Sx<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
So – went to see two shows in the West End this week – and they couldn't have been much more different. Firstly, headed off to see Charlie & The Chocloate Factory with Sophie, Nicky & Vicki – a v nice idea for a birthday prezzie. Preceeded by a bloody good scoff at The Opera […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1064","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n