West End Play

Before I start this...I am writing this post now, over a month after going to our West End play, so my memory might be a little foggy. A lot has happened in the last few weeks... I took pictures, but forgot the cord in England.  So I had to wait until Jeff headed back to send me a few of them.  So, sorry for the delay! (More updates on life over the last month to come).

Here we go...

We planned our trip home around seeing a West End (the Broadway of London) play. Jeff and I headed down to London on Wednesday night, and the play was Thursday afternoon.  Mackey came along with us, for those of you that were wondering (not the to play...haha).  We headed into the city centre, as we were staying out by the airport a few hours before the play began, as we were seeing a matinee.

We ate at one of our favorite cafe type restaurants before heading to the show.  We ate at a nearby park, and enjoyed the beautiful day.  It was so nice to eat something healthy, people watch, and enjoy some quality time soaking up our last moments in the city centre of London. 

 Our bag filled with goodies

The show began at 2:30 in the afternoon.  We grabbed a couple drinks in the theatre and found our seats.  We saw Elephant Man, which if you do not know much about this true story, please click here.  One of the reasons we picked this show and not a happy-go-lucky sing along type show was that Bradley Cooper had the leading role as the elephant man.  And let me tell you...he was amazing!! First of all, it was so cool to be only feet away from him.  And his acting was incredible.  He had the walk, and the talk as if he really was the elephant man. My favorite part was in the beginning where they went body part by body part talking about the deformations, speech, and other issues.  I would highly recommend going to see this if you ever have the chance.  Bradley Cooper was only going to be in London performing for 3 months, so our timing was perfect.  But he came from Broadway doing this same show.

 Theatre Royal Haymarket

Right before the show started.  We were so close!

What a perfect way to end our time in London.  We headed on the Underground one last time, which was sad for the both of us.  What a great transportation system they have in London. 

Overall, it was a great way to end of English adventure together.  It was so fun to have our English to-do list and looking back I think we did pretty good!  A few more posts over the next month before closing the blog down for good.  Be on the look out for posts about Mackey's flight back soon.

On to the next adventure...

Theatre Night in Nottingham

This past weekend (January 31st...I'm behind on publishing my posts), Jeff and I went to the Nottingham Playhouse to see a play.  We had to walk a whoppin' 1 minute to get there. If you're not following it is directly outside of our front door. I have taken pictures from our living room, which is a direct shot of the playhouse.  So lucky us, as everyone was finding parking, we were walking across the street.

 The view of the playhouse from the front of our house.

I had been looking for over a year for tickets that appealed to us.  We used to have season tickets to the plays at the Indianapolis Repertory Theatre downtown Indy a couple years ago. We both enjoy it, so don't think Jeff was dragged against his will to see it. Although, I think I enjoy them a bit more than he does; I will say that.  I picked a comedy called, Forever Young, which was about six senior citizens in a retirement home.

Albert Hall (convention center type of place) and the playhouse restaurant are attached to the theatre.

Right from the few first lines, we could tell our humor didn't quite match up with the local humor.  Not in a bad way, we just felt things we found "corny" were considered hilarious over here.  I guess that sounds bad. Maybe I should say you could tell our humor was different when it comes to the arts. Although some of it was a bit silly, they did have a few lines of what we would consider inappropriate. It was all in good fun, and funny to see some of the things these senior citizens were doing.  Overall, the moral was age should never be a factor when having fun.  Live each day to the fullest because you never know how much longer you have on earth.  Each of the cast members played an resident of this retirement community and had the spunk of a 13 year old.  You can read more about the summary of the play from the link in the previous paragraph if you wish.

Not sure if all plays are like this over here, but it felt more like a musical (minus the choreographed dancing) as there was very little dialogue.  Once one song ended, a few minutes later, a new one began.  They played mostly songs we knew (80's hits, Nirvana, Beetles, etc. ) although they ended it with a "sing-along" of a song we had never heard of...assuming it was a famous British song.  They started singing "We Shall Overcome" which we learned when researching at home was the anthem of the African-American Civil Rights Movement and was first sung in Charleston, South Carolina.  So many of you may know this song, unlike us. 

They are doing some construction on this rainy day...so it's not the best pictures!

Overall, I am glad we were able to have this cultural experience.  I think Jeff was not overly impressed, but oh well. We have a few other artsy things on our list for the upcoming months, so look out for those soon.

On to the next adventure...