Nicole schreibt...

I hadn't been to London for so long that I was extremly excited and giddy with happiness when I finally got going again now. And I really enjoyed flying dear old Lufthansa instead of one of the bargain airlines. It may only be a little cheese sandwich and a cup of coffee on a short flight, but even so it made a difference for me. Once in London I could take the tube straight to Piccadilly Circus where our apartment was located on Haymarket. No longer in touch with the person who helped me to stay cheap in Dolphin Square Hotel in Pimlico I was forced to shop around for alternatives. With restaurant prices as ludicrous as they are in London, an apartment with kitchen sounded like a good idea. And better than that - it turned out to be an excellent idea for the apartment was right at the Piccadilly end of Haymarket, offering a fabulous view all over one of the most famous and busiest squares in the world right from the bed. Meeting up with my friend Rob who had been kind enough to retrieve the apartment keys somewhere in Kensington first, we first went to have some Indian dinner. Cheese sandwich or not, I was starving. Afterwards I went to Tesco to buy food for breakfast and a few microwave dishes to last me for the stay. Then it was time for our first show "Avenue Q" the Broadway surprise hit featuring the first puppet sex on stage. I have loved the cast recording from the first listen on, but only when seeing it live now, did I realize just how much it was spoofing those children's educational TV-shows. But while it was definitely fun to see the show live and see the puppets come alive, I felt a bit like watching a comedy movie at the cinema when you realize that you've already seen all the jokes in the trailer. I knew the songs, I knew the jokes that were coming and beyond that there was little new to discover. It also bugged me a little that one female performer (Julie Atherton) was singing both female puppets, Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut, while the second female performer (Clare Foster) was more or less mute. Even in scenes with Kate and Lucy, Clare would only manipulate one puppet while Julie spoke both. Even in scenes with Kate and Lucy, Clare would only manipulate one puppet while Julie spoke both. The cast was fine overall and I definitely enjoyed myself, but I think this show belongs in a small theatre for a small ticket price. To charge the same for it as they do for a huge new spectacle like "Wicked" seems somewhat ridiculous. Friday morning I first went for a shopping stroll around the big CD/DVD-shops in Piccadilly Circus and my favorite book shops, then met my friend Jodie in Covent Garden. We hadn't seen each other for a long time but even so it felt like we had only just said goodbye in Bochum where she was in Starlight Express. She dragged me into a shoe shop first thing because she was looking for high heels go with an evening dress and I totally fell in love with the golden ones she chose. They had the same model in silver, so I ended up trying them on for the heck of it and... well, yes, ended up buying them. Well, silver high heels will last me for years I hope. We spent two hours chatting and catching up in Coffee Republic then before it was time to part. I returned to the apartment for a bath and some general relaxation before setting out to Islington to see "Blondel" at the Pleasance Theatre. I had been in Islington before as both the lovely Almeida Theatre and the King's Head Theatre Pub are there, but the Pleasance turned out to be in some rather grotty industrial area. However the venue itself was very nice, with comfortable benches. I had always been interested in "Blondel" because I love Tim Rice's lyrics (no matter with who he collaborates), I like historical stuff and I had "known" this show from the Austrian production in 1996 where my then favorite performer Andreas Bieber played the lead. Here it was some baby-faced soap star called Chris Grierson who was very good and likeable. His partner Fiona was played by Abi Finley, one of the Maria contestants" from the television show "How do you solve a problem like Maria" where the leading lady for the "Sound of Music" revival was found. One got the part, others went into other jobs like this one and I really really liked her. The whole cast was very good actually and it was just the kind of small, creative, clever show I like.  Definitely worth tramping out into the sticks for. On Saturday morning I decided it was time for some culture and headed to the National Gallery, which, in all my travels to London, I had never visited before. Good thing maybe, as I've only grown to appreciate paintings in recent years. I stuck with the "Old Art" section though, paintings from 1500 - 1900 with plenty of great Renaissance Art and even more from Flanders and Holland, including some original Rembrandts which I had last seen projected onto the stage of the Theater Carre in Amsterdam. Afterwards I decided to throw myself into the christmas shopping hordes on Oxford Street. Bad idea. The London police had (for the first time) closed Regent and Oxford Street to car traffic, so that people could wander all over the streets and not jostle for space on the sidewalks. However, the council had also hired lots of street performers to entertain the masses, so clumps of on-lookers blocked the street nonetheless. I was even crazy enough to venture into Hamley's in search of a toy, not aware that about 250,000 other Londoners and tourists had had the same idea. Crazy! I didn't even get as far as the changing rooms in Topshop because the queues and the mayhem there was unbelievable. The further down one walked, the better it got and I finally collapsed into a KFC in a shopping arcade. I dragged myself back to the apartment, took a bath and slowly got ready for the evening. Yes, dear readers, I didn't bother with a matinee. There were many shows that got my half-baked interested, but none strong enough to make me part with 50 pounds. I met up with Rob again and we went to Victoria for what should be the main treat of this trip: The much-hyped Broadway show "Wicked". I admit I was never too keen on it in the first place and the crazy hype around it just served to put me off it further. But reading Gregory Macguire's book in summer helped me to finally connect with the lead character, Elphaba, the Wicked Witch of the West in the immortal "Wizard of Oz". And when I heard that Broadway's original Elphaba Idina Menzel would come over for the first weeks of the show's run in London, I knew I had to go. Idina had been missing quite a few performances, so I was glad that she was actually on. And overall I did like the show very much, the stage sets and costumes were absolutely gorgeous, the book full of witty one-liners and touching moments. What I found sorely lacking though where really nice melodies. Most of Elphaba's songs are more shouted than sung, which makes songs like "Defying Gravity" and "No good deed" very dramatic but a pain to the ears. My ears at least. And when a lovely melody finally comes up, the duet "As long as you're mine", the sudden declaration of love between Elphaba and Fiyero comes so suddenly and makes so little sense that I found it hard to feel anything. So the only truly touching moment remained the final "For Good" between the two friends, Elphaba and her counterpart, ditzy blonde Glinda, the Good Witch. Yet, I can see the appeal of this show, certainly to teenage girls who have all felt like outsiders at some point and connect strongly with scorned-outsider-turned-powerful-witch Elphaba (who also gets the boy). I just don't think it's worth the hype. I had booked a late flight out on Sunday, so that I could spend the morning on Camden Lock Market to finally browse the stalls in peace, marvelling at the clothes on display - anything from true vintage via black gothic gear to hyper-modern techno stuff. I also loved the ethnic stalls, some that brought me right back to Malaysia or Burma. After a gloopy Chinese lunch and some more browsing, I went from Camden to Kensington for a meeting with my boss Lynda and arrived just in time for lunch, a traditional English Sunday roast. We had a nice chat but not too much time as she was receiving someone else later and I had to catch my plane of course. At least for the first time ever, I arrived in Heathrow by cab. I don't think it was any less time-consuming than the tube, but you can't beat a cab when it comes to style ;) After checking my luggage in, I did some more christmas shopping at the airport and returned to grumpy dear old Germany.