The Lion King
Jan. 4th, 2009 10:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
supertinksSo yesterday Jamie and I went on an adventure to London to see the Lion King.
I was ridiculously excited in the morning, practically bounced my way to the train station, and most of the way on the train into Paddington as well. I was like a small child. Jamie put up with it all with very good graces :-)
Got to London, whereupon my plea to get cash out while at the station fell on deaf ears and we headed straight onto the tube to Covent Garden. Now Covent Garden tube station is a fair ways below the street, and the normal means of entrance and exit are by huge lifts. The queue for the lifts was massive, so Jamie says "look there's stairs over there". I follow with trepidation, for although lots of people are using the stairs, the sign that says "This staircase has 193 steps. For Emergency Use only" makes me a little worried. Again, my protests fell on deaf ears, so we went up the worlds most horrible spiral staircase. I was very wobbly when I got to the top!
We went straight from the tube station to the theatre, to pick up our tickets from the box office while it was still quiet. There was an extended period of bouncing and squee once I had the tickets in my hand. Then we went in search of a cash machine, which took a surprisingly long time, as we couldnt for some reason see the huge Natwest branch next to the church, and ended up walking a fair way down a different road to find a cash machine. By this point, we were rather hungry, so we had food from the Cornish Bakehouse (I had a panini, and Jamie had pasties). Then we started to wander through the Market, but decided we had headaches and sore joints (from all those stairs!) so we meandered in the direction of the Strand (not that we knew thats where we were going, because I am not all that familiar with London, this having been only my 7th trip into the capital) and found Boots.
Its kind of silly really, we were in London, in Covent Garden, and the only shops we went into were Boots, and Games Workshop! We had a wander around the Jubilee Market, and Jamie bought me a necklace with a little silver articulated lizard pendant. Then we meandered back over to the theatre and went inside.
Our seats were in the Royal Circle, so the balcony in the middle. I knew our seats would be kind of central, but I wasnt expecting them to be so perfect! They were right in the middle of the row, roughly in the middle of the balcony as well. Perfect view of the stage. I took a photo to show you, but I can't find the cable that attaches my phone to the computer at the moment so I'll have to show you later. The theatre was pretty full (it being a matinee showing on a Saturday, just before all the schools re-open) but a nice mix of families and couples. The four seats in front of us remained empty, and the seat to my left was occupied by a small girl who remained on the side closest to her mother, so there was plenty of room as well.
The show itself was incredible. Right from the word go, its amazing. The chorus were fabulous, particularly impressive were the elephant and giraffes in the Circle of Life bit. Of the cast, stand out performances from Scar and Zazu. Singing, Mufasa and Rafiki were great (although I'm not convinced by a female Rafiki), and for sheer entertainment Timon and Pumbaa were awesome. I was surprised, that as well as remaning incredibly true to the script of the film (with the exception of the new songs), the voices were also true to the originals. Mufasa was doing a pretty credible James Earl Jones voice, for example. The child performances (young Simba and young Nala) were weak, probably the weakest of them all. I had forgotten how much of the film Simba is a child for (Jamie hates child performers, and they were children for the whole first half), so poor Jamie had to suffer quite a lot of off-key singing, which grates on his perfect pitch. As expected, several children in the audience were bawling their eyes out when Mufasa's in the gorge with the stampede. In one extra bit, Timon falls down a waterfall and for a brief moment there is the possibility that he may have drowned, but hasnt. That set off a couple of the kids again. Overall, though, it was a marvellous spectacle and very much enjoyed by both of us. The costumes and puppetry are incredible.
After the show, we briefly considered having a drink somewhere but as it was getting on for half 5 on a Saturday everywhere was kinda busy, so we hopped back on the tube, which was heaving, and headed back to Paddington. Found a train headed back to Reading, and jumped on. We briefly considered having a drink in the Oakford when we got back, but decided to just walk home instead. Walked home via Mr Cod, because we had no food for dinner in the house. Came home, collapsed in a heap with our fish and chips (well, my jumbo sausage and chips, and Jamie's mega variety chicken meal) and watched There's Something About Mary.
Today we are mostly tidying up, doing some laundry and taking down the Christmas decorations.
I was ridiculously excited in the morning, practically bounced my way to the train station, and most of the way on the train into Paddington as well. I was like a small child. Jamie put up with it all with very good graces :-)
Got to London, whereupon my plea to get cash out while at the station fell on deaf ears and we headed straight onto the tube to Covent Garden. Now Covent Garden tube station is a fair ways below the street, and the normal means of entrance and exit are by huge lifts. The queue for the lifts was massive, so Jamie says "look there's stairs over there". I follow with trepidation, for although lots of people are using the stairs, the sign that says "This staircase has 193 steps. For Emergency Use only" makes me a little worried. Again, my protests fell on deaf ears, so we went up the worlds most horrible spiral staircase. I was very wobbly when I got to the top!
We went straight from the tube station to the theatre, to pick up our tickets from the box office while it was still quiet. There was an extended period of bouncing and squee once I had the tickets in my hand. Then we went in search of a cash machine, which took a surprisingly long time, as we couldnt for some reason see the huge Natwest branch next to the church, and ended up walking a fair way down a different road to find a cash machine. By this point, we were rather hungry, so we had food from the Cornish Bakehouse (I had a panini, and Jamie had pasties). Then we started to wander through the Market, but decided we had headaches and sore joints (from all those stairs!) so we meandered in the direction of the Strand (not that we knew thats where we were going, because I am not all that familiar with London, this having been only my 7th trip into the capital) and found Boots.
Its kind of silly really, we were in London, in Covent Garden, and the only shops we went into were Boots, and Games Workshop! We had a wander around the Jubilee Market, and Jamie bought me a necklace with a little silver articulated lizard pendant. Then we meandered back over to the theatre and went inside.
Our seats were in the Royal Circle, so the balcony in the middle. I knew our seats would be kind of central, but I wasnt expecting them to be so perfect! They were right in the middle of the row, roughly in the middle of the balcony as well. Perfect view of the stage. I took a photo to show you, but I can't find the cable that attaches my phone to the computer at the moment so I'll have to show you later. The theatre was pretty full (it being a matinee showing on a Saturday, just before all the schools re-open) but a nice mix of families and couples. The four seats in front of us remained empty, and the seat to my left was occupied by a small girl who remained on the side closest to her mother, so there was plenty of room as well.
The show itself was incredible. Right from the word go, its amazing. The chorus were fabulous, particularly impressive were the elephant and giraffes in the Circle of Life bit. Of the cast, stand out performances from Scar and Zazu. Singing, Mufasa and Rafiki were great (although I'm not convinced by a female Rafiki), and for sheer entertainment Timon and Pumbaa were awesome. I was surprised, that as well as remaning incredibly true to the script of the film (with the exception of the new songs), the voices were also true to the originals. Mufasa was doing a pretty credible James Earl Jones voice, for example. The child performances (young Simba and young Nala) were weak, probably the weakest of them all. I had forgotten how much of the film Simba is a child for (Jamie hates child performers, and they were children for the whole first half), so poor Jamie had to suffer quite a lot of off-key singing, which grates on his perfect pitch. As expected, several children in the audience were bawling their eyes out when Mufasa's in the gorge with the stampede. In one extra bit, Timon falls down a waterfall and for a brief moment there is the possibility that he may have drowned, but hasnt. That set off a couple of the kids again. Overall, though, it was a marvellous spectacle and very much enjoyed by both of us. The costumes and puppetry are incredible.
After the show, we briefly considered having a drink somewhere but as it was getting on for half 5 on a Saturday everywhere was kinda busy, so we hopped back on the tube, which was heaving, and headed back to Paddington. Found a train headed back to Reading, and jumped on. We briefly considered having a drink in the Oakford when we got back, but decided to just walk home instead. Walked home via Mr Cod, because we had no food for dinner in the house. Came home, collapsed in a heap with our fish and chips (well, my jumbo sausage and chips, and Jamie's mega variety chicken meal) and watched There's Something About Mary.
Today we are mostly tidying up, doing some laundry and taking down the Christmas decorations.
