Nicole schreibt...

This trip was born from the crush for Harry Potter tickets last year and the initial thought had been to combine a summer outing with some days pottering about Blighty, but in the end it was "only" London as so often, though this time with the mother in tow. My usual time frame of Thursday-Sunday was also thrown off and we ended up taking the morning flight from Cologne to Heathrow on dear old Germanwings. Who took all our worries about having to kill some time before hotel check-in off our minds by racking up a good 90 mins delay. We made it to Covent Garden before noon and had time for a nice late breakfast before checking into the Travelodge where we had forked out for early check-in from noon. After that it was time to go seperate ways for come hell or high water, I wouldn't miss out on the chance to do a double bill on Saturdays.
I hadn't been sure what to do with the matinee though after the initial idea to catch Tim Minchin's new musical Groundhog Day at the Old Vic fell through thanks to bad timing. So I was pleased when the Union Theatre announced a return of their successful musical The Fix to open their new premises (across the street from the old in Southwark). I had always enjoyed the cast recording of the show in the 90's when it was first done at the Donmar Warehouse with John Barrowman, but also thought that the story - American politicking vaguely inspired by the Kennedy Clan - was rather off-the-wall. Now, 20 years later, with TV-shows like Scandal and House of Cards and the orange-skinned menace currently running for real-life President, The Fix seems positively quaint in comparison. It's the story of young Cal Chandler, who's set up to run for Senator (and eventually President) by his ambitious uncle and his mother Violet, who could give Cersei Lannister a run for her money. But Cal slides into drug addiction instead, the mafia gets involved and in the end Cal and his lover Tina are dead and Violet decides to run for President herself.
The Union Theatre made good use of the tiny stage and the cast, led by Fra Fee as Cal, Lucy Williamson as Violet and the lovely Madalena Alberto as Tina, was excellent. I wasn't sold on the direction/choreography by Michael Strassen and would have done some things differently, but nonetheless it was fun to finally see this show live at last. While I was never able to see the old Union Theatre, I did like the new performance space which seats about 100 people and comes with a nice little bar. I only wish they'd announce their productions a longer time ahead... right now I'd kill to see their next one, Children of Eden, which has always been one of my favorite CDs from the 90's and which I never got to see live either, but there's no chance in hell to squish another trip in this year. Alas.
From the Union Theatre it was back to the West End for a quick dinner and the second show of the day, Brian Friel's Faith Healer at the Donmar Warehouse. I had booked solely on the strength of the cast, as I'm a huge fan of both Gina McKee, the fabulous Caterina Sforza from The Borgias and Stephen Dillane, who played Father of the Year Stannis Baratheon in Game of Thrones for four seasons. What I did not know was that it's not so much a play but four long monologues. First we get Frank, the questionable faith healer of the title tell us his story, when we hear his wife Gracie's version of events, Frank's manager's story and finally back to Frank himself. It's up to the audience really to figure out what may have been the actual story and also consider how everything is shaped by people's own perceptions. I had been highly doubtful about the whole thing, but I was mesmerized from beginning to end and I do think that this is really what good acting is about - being able to just stand/sit there for half an hour and engage the audience and draw them into your world and story. Naturally it was also great to see these people "off the telly" live on stage (plus poor forgotten Ron Moody as manager Terry, who was just as fantastic as the other two), so a great time was had once again in what's probably my favorite theatre in London. Oh, and a special mention for set designer Es Devlin's mesmerizing (genuine!) water fall.
The true biggie arrived on Sunday in the shape of the Harry Potter double bill for which I was meeting up with a local Potter fan to see the plays together. Yes, I'll be talking about the story here, so skip this paragraph if you want to avoid spoilers. The "new" story picks up where the cheesy epilogue of the last book left us with Harry and Ginny seeing their son Albus off on the train to Hogwarts along with Hermione's and Ron's daughter Rose. On the train Albus befriends Scorpius Malfoy of all people, son of Harry's arch-nemesis Draco. Neither boy is truly happy with their parentage and they go on adventuring together, chased by their anxious parents (forcing Harry and Draco to actually work together). I can't even recall all the details now, but it was just such a joy to dive back into the world of Hogwarts and spend some hours with these characters. And if there's one thing I always admired JK Rowling for it's her deep understanding of humanity and its flaws, which comes to shine here again. Not to mention the amazing magic tricks on stage, most of which I couldn't even begin to work out from the "rippling" effects of the whole stage whenever time was turned backwards to the transfiguration from kids to adults on stage. The cast was also universally great with not a weak link in sight. Jamie Parker was simply born to play Harry Potter. The boys - Sam Clemmett as Albus and Anthony Boyle as Scorpius - can't have been THAT young as they aren't alternating with other actors, but I definitely bought them as stroppy awkward teenagers dealing with all sorts of teenage problems from fighting with their Dads to trying to ask a girl out. There was a lot of brouhaha about choosing (black) Noma Dumezweni to play Hermione but personally I thought she was just perfect. But then I was never a fan of Emma Watson anyway, so this helped to forget about her. Completing the leads were Alex Price as adult Draco and the hilariously funny Paul Thornley as Ron
There's a good two hours' break between the end of part one and the start of part two, which was sufficient for us to have a nice dinner and take a break, but I also admit that after the second interval my concentration was fading and I started to think "get on with it" during the final showdown with Voldemort's daughter Delphi (the only character I didn't fully buy). Still, I do think it makes sense to tell the story in two parts as chopping it down to fit into one regular-sized play would have impossible. The seats in the Dress Circle I had been allocated, turned out to be excellent, giving a clear view over the stage and the effects and everything. Now to fight for tickets to see this again from the stalls this side of 2020... After this fairly intense theatre weekend it was time to slow down a notch and do touristy things with the mother. Only last month the new slide had opened at the ArcelorMittal Orbit, also known as Boris' folly, a strange sculpture with a viewing platform next to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford that has been draining taxpayers' money ever since it opened. To drum up visitors, they recently installed a loooong slide, that spirals down the whole thing for 178 metres in 40 seconds. Always up for geeky stuff, I booked tickets for this and although the mother made a flutter about it initially, she gamely went ahead. It was a crazy adrenaline rush and a truly fantastic experience, that leaves you weak-kneed for a few seconds and then just wanting more. Wish it wasn't so stupidly expensive... Of course it was also nice to see the whole area, now called Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park with the Olympic Stadium, the Aquatics Centre and a lot of nice open spaces aimed at the locals. From the Slide we wandered back to Stratford's huge Westfield Mall, that had also come into existance as part of the Olympic Project and contains several dozen shops, food courts, a multiplex cinema and probably even more. We had a poke around the summer sales, but only just managed one floor and a handful of shops, before a break for ice cream and returning to the hotel to chill. We had decided to do Afternoon Tea since that isn't something I could (or would) do when I'm in London alone and also such a quintessential English thing to do. This time we chose the Café Royal Hotel in Piccadilly, where Oscar Wilde used to hang out in the Grill Room, which has now been renamed Oscar Wilde Bar in his honour. It was all plush and gilded mirrors and just my cup of tea, literally, with fine food, tea and a pianist providing some live music in the background. Stuffed to the gills with sandwiches, scones and cakes, it was time for this evening's theatre outing, The Book of Mormon. It was my third time, but after dragging a friend along before, I now wanted to drag the mother along as well as I don't think BoM will ever make it to Germany and if it did, it would only be ruined by a shoddy unfunny translation, miscast incomprehensible performers and sky-high prices anyway. So it was back to the Prince of Wales and even the third time round, it was still hilariously funny with not a bad song or lame filler in sight. I wasn't too sold on new leads KJ Hippensteel as Elder Price (too old to convince as a 19-year old naive boy) and Brian Sears as Elder Cunningham (bit over the top), but warmed enough to them as things went along and I absolutely adored the impossibly cute Alexandra Ncube as Nabulungi. I don't think I need to see it again (unless there are other people that need dragging along...) but in terms of intelligent writing, good music and all-around-good fun BoM is still one of the very few rare masterpieces of the last years for me. About twenty years ago I met a nice young chap in London (don't ask...) who took me to the lovely swimming ponds on Hampstead Heath on a day out. Ever since I had wanted to revisit the ponds (not the chap), but there wasn't a single occasion on which the English summer weather was good enough to do so - until now. With a "scorcher" predicted for Tuesday and having packed a bikini in happy anticipation we were off to Hampstead Heath after breakfast for a quiet nice day at the Ladies Pond. Well, us and half of London, because it became utterly packed by noon. But the lifeguards did a great job of not letting more people into the pond than were coming out, so it was never crowded in the blissfully cold water and overall it was just a wonderful time out. And although I was initially bemused by the idea of separate Ladies and Men's Ponds, I did soon enough begin to appreciate the man-free zone with no creeps and gawkers anywhere (sorry chaps, but unfortunately it's true for every mixed lake/public pool). Now I can only hope I needn't wait another twenty years to revisit the pond... The trip was already unusually long, so I was almost glad it was coming to a close this evening with Aladdin. Having seen it on Broadway, I hadn't been THAT eager to see it again so soon, but I did like the London cast with Dean John-Wilson (one of the fantastic leads in Here lies love a while ago) as Aladdin and also seized the chance to take the mother here in London for £50 in the front stalls than €150 in Hamburg. And while I did enjoy it again, coming so hot on the heels of the fabulous BoM, I did become more aware of Aladdin's flaws, especially the very light-weight story with so much fluffy filler material to stretch it out into a full-length musical. And while the Broadway version was entirely carried by James Monroe Inglehart's incredible performance as the Genie, I can't say the same for his London counterpart, especially as we had a stand-by, Oliver Lidert. Sure, Inglehart had been in the show for more than a year at the point I saw him while Lidert probably hasn't had many shows at all yet, but even so, he was "okay" at best. I also couldn't warm to Jade Ewen's Jasmine who was too much stuck-up C-list celebrity and too little lovely Disney princess and while Dean John-Wilson was pretty decent as Aladdin, his physical ressemblance to Nathan Fillion just took me out of the story all the time as I expected Beckett to show up any moment and tell him to stop playing dress-up. Ah well, overall a good reminder why it's often a good idea to just enjoy a show once and then leave it alone and savour the memory. And thus endeth this trip, not without another Germanwings cock-up and 90min-delay on the way home. Good thing I'm already clutching Eurostar tickets for the next trips in winter...