Thursday, May 27, 2010

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Good day today! We started our five-day weekend today, so I got to sleep in late. We went to see Henry VIII at the Globe for only 5 pounds, which was great. It was a pretty good show. They actually opened the run of the show with our performance, so we were their first audience. I was mostly pleased with the performance. There were some pretty fanastic actors who were big and showy, but still totally emotionally grounded and connected, which made their showiness totally work. It was refreshing to see that after some bad showiness in The Lion King a couple weeks ago.

The show itself was interesting. I had never read or seen it, but enjoyed seeing the story on stage. I am curious to know how Shakespeare got away with writing and performing it back in that day; it was awfully critical of the Court and Church.

After, half of our group went to see John Mayer and Scott and I went to Jersey Boys. We went to the theater, got 5th row seats for a great price and then went to get Chinese food in Chinatown, which was really close (the theater is in Soho). It was really quite good. I enjoyed the dinner a whole lot. I am really glad that Scott and I have gotten to be friends on this trip. He's a different kind of friend than I've had in a long time and I'm really grateful for him. He is super grounded and down-to-earth, but also can get down and have a good time, which is really great. We can have really great conversations, but he also has no problem being light-hearted. He is a really great friend for me to have.

Anyway, Jersey Boys. Talk about a disappointment! Holy cow, it was so half-hearted. The music was good, the singing, good, but the actors did NOT “go there.” I was really irritated. They just never really peeked in terms of energy and never really got to where the show asks them to go. I was really looking forward to seeing the show after having such a good experience in Chicago, but they really let me down. And they definitely had the potential to do it. So I'm only two for four as far as good shows on West End goes. Pretty disappointing, really. I noticed something today, actually: most of the musicals on West End right now are mere crowd-pleasers. The shows themselves have very little heart. Most of them are shows like Jersey Boys, Mama Mia, Lion King, and the like. I certainly think there is a place for those shows, but they also need grounded shows that have real heart.

After the show, we came back to the flate and I dilly dallied about for a while and now I'm here. Pretty enjoyable day.