Nicole schreibt...

After championing the Eurostar during 2011 I was now back on my usual Lufthansa/BMI flight from Cologne and rather wary after the last spectacular cock up in January 2011. At least this time everything went well and we arrived in Heathrow in good time - though now I appreciate the facility of hopping off a train at St.Pancras even more after all the endless walkways in Heathrow and the sixty minute trundle on the Piccadilly Line. On the plus side, I had a lucky escape since Belgian railways were planning a big strike on Monday and transport had been by buses from Brussels to Lille where the Eurostars were waiting.

I was in town by 4.30 and did my usual wander around the shops before the first show of this trip - "The Lion in Winter". At first I had been excited about this production, starring Robert Lindsay (who I've been wanting to see for a long time) and Joanna Lumley (who I wasn't keen on but appreciated her comedy cold performance as Patsy in Ab Fab) as Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of my all-time favorite women in history. It got pretty mediocre reviews and ticket sales weren't too grand either which surprised me and I went off it a bit, but as I was just reading Sharon Penman's excellent trilogy on the life of Henry II and Eleanor and nothing else screamed "see me!", I decided to give it a go anyway. Good thing I did.

My "blind booking" half price ticket from Last Minute turned out to be an excellent seat in the middle of row M with a great view on stage and performances were fantastic all around - much better than in the famous 1968 movie starring Peter O'Toole and Katherine Hepburn, who I generally like but who, I thought, played Eleanor too frail and weepy. Nor was she really ever a beauty while Eleanor was supposed to be the most beautiful woman in Christendom. When Joanna Lumley first appeared with her trademark platinum blonde hair and heavy eye make-up I first thought "oh good grief" but even though the real Eleanor was not a blonde, she had won me over within five minutes, playing Eleanor exactly as the strong, snarky woman I had always imagined and definitely mirroring the image of a fading former beauty. Poor Henry and Robert Lindsay didn't stand a chance against her as she owned the stage whenever she was on it.
The boys were better cast here too - Tom Bateman as Richard being a tall strapping lad who I could easily imagine as the famous warrior they called Lionheart and not short and dumpy like Anthony Hopkins in the movie. Joseph Drake was an excellent John, short and mean, and not the drooling open-mouthed idiot as which Nigel Terry had to depict him in the movie. Poor James Norton shared his character Geoffrey's fate - slipping through the cracks and going mostly unnoticed. Rory Fleck-Byrne was a decent Philippe, though not as deliciously mean as Timothy Dalton in the movie who got the young evil French king down to perfection. Lastly Sonya Cassidy as Alais was as bland as the part usually is - and whoever gave her that clingy white dress and brunette hairbuns for a costume should be shot, because I expected her to pull a gun any second and call for Han and Luke to rescue her from the Death Star, er, Castle Chinon. The show was fast-paced and fun and in the end I was really really glad I had gone to see it.

Friday I decided to head out of town and finally go on a pilgrimage, er, sightseeing tour to Canterbury, a place I had wanted to see for some time and which now really fitted well with my Henry II.-themed trip. The fare was a mind-boggling 32 pounds for the return journey (yes, off-peak) and when I finally got there, half the cathedral was closed to the public because of a graduation ceremony of the University of Kent. Well, bummer. I was okay with not seeing the Nave where the actual ceremony took place, but I don't see why they had to shut off the small room in which Thomas Becket met his end as well - there was a separate entrance from the crypt (which was open) and I'm quite sure this place is what most people want to see. Or am I the only one with a blood-minded disposition? Nonetheless it was all pretty interesting, getting a much better sense of the place overall and the vastness of the abbey grounds as well as the huge cathedral itself. Canterbury itself was also quite nice and small, with one major street to walk up and down, a few museums which I skipped and the ruin of the Norman Castle. Oh and note the bright blue sky. How come England is always rainy, grey and awful when I visit in summer, but gorgeously sunny and warm enough to have lunch outdoors in January?!

Show for the evening was The Wizard of Oz which, much like Shrek, was one of these new big family shows I couldn't really muster an interest in and unlike Shrek it didn't even have deliciously witty songs, just the fluff from the ancient classic movie and a few new songs written by ALW and Tim Rice. But with pickings slim (especially since I had already seen Matilda during the unexpected trip in November) and decent discount tickets available through Get into London Theatre, I decided to give it a go. Overall it was quite nice even - it was fun to see the SO familiar movie characters come to life and the Wicked Witch (I probably wasn't the only one to mentally call her Elphaba all the time...) played by Marianne Benedict, stole every scene she was in and had one really spectacular entrance from above the stalls. The role of the Wizard was expanded and a new song had been written for him - "Wonders of the World" - which was quite nice but no standout, though I was also quite glad I could still catch Michael Crawford, who'll be leaving in three weeks. Can't say I was too keen on Danielle Hope as Dorothy though. While I am not prejudiced against casting show winners, she just didn't do much for me and she certainly didn't have Judy Garland's winning cute innocence. And as some critics scoffed,yes, indeed, she was often upstaged by the incredibly cute white terrier who played Toto. Overall it was a nice, bright and pleasant show with some wonderful big production numbers and good performances overall - nothing to rave about but I'm quite glad I was able to catch it.

The night brought some unexpected extra entertainment in the shape of a live version of London's Burning: At 1.30am the fire alarm in the hotel went off and tons of dozy people assembled first in the lobby, then outside, while the fire brigade actually turned up with two engines and had some guys go in with a hose. Apparently one woman (who was first seen shouting at a staffer and later gabbering at a fireman) had started a little fire in her room. Just great!

I had little to do on Saturday morning and was longing for a stroll through my beloved Covent Garden, so not surprisingly I ended up spending too much money in Superdry. Not sure what it is about their clothes, but I absolutely love them. I then went on the long wander south, across the Thames and along the river to the Menier Chocolate Factory, where I had for the first time booked the meal deal - which was quite nice actually, with beef bourguignon and a very filling crepe (that was pretty much a posh version of the banana pancakes I have come to love in Thailand!).

Now as for Pippin - it was one of those typical 70's shows like Hair and Godspell that don't really have a plot or a strong tale, just a hodgepodge of songs vaguely held together by a thin story thread - in this case Charlemagne's son Pippin trying to find his place in the world - and a very basic staging. Not surprisingly, Pippin disappeared off the stages along with the 70's and in order to revive it now, the Menier had come up with a rather intriguing concept: They brought Pippin up to the 10's by having it take place in a computer game. I like quirky stuff and the cast was full of people I liked (Matt Rawle!) or have been wanting to see live for a long while (Frances Ruffelle!), so here I was.
Access to the auditorium was through what looked like a typical gamer's room with posters for Assassin's Creed, Skyrim and lots more and Harry Hepple, who played Pippin, playing Fifa 12 on a computer. When the show starts he is summoned into the game by the Leading Player and gets to "level up" through the various topics that make up Pippin - the art of war, glory, religion, love and so on. It was as odd as it was brilliant. They had also revived the sexy original choreography by Bob Fosse, that lifted Pippin miles of hand-waving hippie stuff like Hair and brought home that it's really quite an adult show. Between the wonderful dance numbers and some really nice tunes like "Corner in the sky" and "Magic to do" I do think that Pippin is really worth seeing. The cast was brilliant too with Harry Hepple the perfect bland (and strong-voiced) everyman caught up in this game, Matt Rawle as the charming leading player, Carly Bawden as sweet Catherine and the truly age-defying Ms Ruffelle as Fastrada (okay, so she wore layers of make up but she didn't look any looker than when she did Eponine 25 years ago). Special mention to Gay Soper's great comedy tun as Berthe. I really did enjoy the creativity that has gone into this revival and think it may be a good idea for so many dated tired shows to bring them up to today. And why doesn't anyone actually write a Tron-like musical set inside Cyberspace? Hundreds of good ideas there.

From Southwark I hurried back to Covent Garden on the tube to Luvvie Central - er, the Donmar Warehouse. I have often wondered how come that everyone except me seems to run into celebrities in theatres all the time. Well, this time it was my lucky turn. First I ran into my own leading man Eddie Redmayne on the street as I was heading for Fopp and he presumably for work (and looked every inch the Burberry model in his big grey coat). While I waited outside the Donmar for the show to begin, a scrawny guy with lots of black hair entered the theatre and I actually identified Ben Whishaw straightway (having just watched "The Hour" some weeks ago helped). He actually sat diagonally across from me in the theatre, so I could watch him a bit. Two minutes after him Sheridan Smith emerged at the entrance of the Donmar as well, though I later failed to see her in the audience. Still - wow.

As for the show - Richard II. is probably not Shakespeare's most intrigueing character, a young king so far up his own royal ass that he treats those around him rather shoddily and reaps the rewards when banished Henry Bolingbroke returns to not only take England from him but the crown as well. And to avoid Richard-loyal nobles staging a revolt, has him murdered. Maybe. Actually the history books are kinder to Richard and mostly say he tried to do a good job, but here he's a bit of an idiot and Eddie certainly played him as being some diamonds short of the crown jewels, so you just wanted to kick the whiny creep. Handsome tall Andrew Buchan as Bolingbroke definitely seemed to be the guy who deserved the crown here. The rest of the cast was good too (as you'd expect from such a high-profile production!) though it's starting to really grate on me that they seem to need one alibi black in every Shakespearean production, in this case even two - Pippa Bennett-Warner as Queen Isabella and Ashley Zhangazha as the Duke of Aumale. I loved my corner seat from where I had a great view and was three inches away from being on the stage and while it didn't engross me as much as last year's Richard III or Jerusalem, it was still a good evening. Oh and is Eddie Redmayne a scrawny fellow or what? Him and Whishaw combined would make one decently proportioned bloke.

Next morning it was off to home once more, with no more London trips booked until December - giving the Olympic craze a wide berth. But who knows, with the right shows and people, I may just be tempted over for a quickie in spring.