Our second attempt at Hello Dolly was more successful. It didn't rain so we actually got see the show at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. The weather was even nice enough for us to have a little pre-show picnic.

Our picnic spread included a teeny-tiny bottle of champagne. I picked up a four pack of these bottles from the Castellane Champagne house in Epernay on our recent visit to France. It didn't quite stretch to fill three glasses of champagne. I think you could drink a bottle of this all by yourself. It's the first bottle of champagne that I've seen with a screw top.

While we picnicked, I checked off another one of the items on my "things to do in London" list - sit in a deck chair in a London park. During summer all the parks in central London have deckchairs that you can hire for a couple of hours.


The show was fantastic by the way. Great songs, fantastic singing, fabulous dancing. Even some tap dancing... with lobsters.

The lease on our apartment is due for renewal at the end of September. It's at this time each year for the past two years that we've had to make the "to stay or not to stay" decision. Will we stay in London or will we move home? I can tell you now that my trip to the theatre other night makes that decision a little harder. In London, I can see a fantastic show like Hello Dolly for only 12 pounds. A few weeks back, it was La Cage aux Folles. Next week, I'm off to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert. Hrm, better review that pros and cons list again.

On Wednesday evening, Andrew and I were lucky enough to go and see the opera, Monkey: Journey to the West. The opera is based on a famous Chinese story, Journey to the West, written in the 16th century. The 100-chapter story has been condensed a bit (luckily): Monkey is born (from an egg on a mountain top), achieves immortality and then causes a ruckus in Heaven at the heavenly peach party. As punishment for his mischief, Buddha says he must accompany Tripitaka (the boy priest), as he travels to India to get the heavenly scriptures. He is joined by the Pigsy, Sandy and the Dragon Horse Prince on the journey. They face many obstacles along the way but emerge triumphant.

It's an opera but not a traditional opera with fat women and period costumes. It's brand spanking new, created by Damon Albarn (Blur / Gorillaz), Jamie Hewlett (Gorillaz) and Chen Shi-zheng. It has animated sequences, funky costumes and the choreography is amazing. It includes martial arts, acrobatics and circus tricks. There are girls with diablos, soldiers that ride unicycles, spider woman doing tricks on ribbons hanging from the ceiling. In the final scene a group of 12 girls spin plates on long thing poles while doing rolls and the splits. They finish with a pyramid, including the spinning plates of course. (Because 1 girl spinning plates isn't impressive enough. You really need 12 girls to make it impressive.)

Of course, most of us know of the story of Monkey from the television show, Monkey Magic, which used to be on the ABC of an afternoon. I can remember playing "Monkey" in the backyard. Alice was Monkey (as the oldest), Annie was Tripitaka, Edward got to pick whether he was Sandy or Pigsy. I was stuck with the leftovers. Patrick was still in nappies. Andrew also played Monkey too, although Simon always got be Monkey.

If the opera makes it to Australia you MUST go and see it!


(Unfortunately, the venue was less than impressive. The opera was performed on a custom stage at the O2. When we got there we discovered that our seats were at the very edge of the tent. About 5m to the right of the END of the stage. To see the action on the stage we would have to sit at a 90 degree angle to our seats. Luckily, it wasn't sold out and when the lights went down we were able to relocate. If we hadn't been able to do that I might have written a different review to the one above. My review probably would have read, "I'm sure it was a great show but we didn't see much of it!" Why do they even bother to sell seats like that? And they weren't cheap either!)

Finally we are starting to take advantage of our proximity to the West End. A couple of weekends ago we finally went to see Spamalot. It's been on our list of things to do since it opened in September last year.

Natalie snapped up some tickets from some English rugby fans who had decided to watch the Rugby World Cup final instead. I wonder if they were satisfied with the transaction? They lost around 20 pounds each on the tickets to watch England lose the cup (ah! sweet revenge.)

Andrew and I had both been looking forward to the production as we're keen Python fans. Andrew, more so; he can quote the film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, word for word. The production is based on the film so we had high hopes for an enjoyable evening.

Unfortunately, we were disappointed by Spamalot. Maybe our high expectations were our undoing. The whole thing seemed a little stale and was like a big university revue, with a better budget. Well, a university revue where you already knew all the jokes.

I think this reviewer sums up my thoughts nicely (maybe a bit harshly):
"...[Spamalot] systematically reverses everything that made the original funny. It is one big revue of cliches. The laughs are easy and unearned... Spamalot is the gaudy climax of a long, unfunny tradition of post-Python exploitation - books, action figures, video games - that treats the old material as a series of slogans to be referenced without doing any of the work that made the lines so original in the first place." -- Sam Anderson*

All things Python are hastily cobbled together with little new material. Always Look on the Brightside, the Fish Slapping dance, and the Finland song all make an appearance. There is a new song called "You won't succeed in Broadway..." which pokes fun at the Jewish. Obviously a joke designed for Broadway audiences as I didn't find it funny at all. Oh, and we heard the worst comedic French accent from the actors playing the French soldiers.

I did find their references to the World Cup Final, which was being played as we watched the show, quite funny. The Knights who say "Ni" turned into the Knights who say "'Ecky-ecky-ecky-ecky-pikang-zoop-boing-goodem-zoo-owli-zhiv... would you like to know the score?"

But now I'm just sounding ungrateful. The tickets were my birthday present from Natalie. Thanks Natalie. I did enjoy the evening! A chance to complete a London goal, a great meal of Okonomiyaki, a few giggles and good company were more than enough for me to rate the evening as a "great night". It was certainly better than watching the rugby.

Some photos of the Okonomiyaki from Abeno Too:

*Anderson, Sam (2006-06-21). And Now For Something Completely Deficient. Slate.com.

Another two items have been checked off my London to-do list. Last week we saw a play at the Globe Theatre and on Monday I finally managed to see a musical on the West End.

We saw The Merchant of Venice at the Globe. The Globe Theatre is a replica of the original Globe Theatre which existed in Elizabethan times. We wussed out and bought tickets for the stalls, rather than tickets for the yard. The tickets for the yard are only 5 pounds but you have to stand up for the entire play. I'm not sure my old bones would cope with standing for 3 hours straight.

Even in the seated areas I had a little trouble coping. It was freezing! You can hire blankets for the evening, but unfortunately we turned up a little late and they had run out by the time we arrived. Although I had brought a jacket and a scarf, I was still frozen by the end of the evening. You can also hire cushions, as the seats are only wooden benches and a little bit hard on the rear end. Wish I'd hired a cushion too as my bum was numb by the end of the play. (Yes! I am a very big wuss.)

The play was quite entertaining but it was definitely Shakespeare for the masses. There was too much gyrating and hip thrusting from the actors for my tastes. Often, the puns in the script were lost behind the laughter from a hip thrust. Disappointing.

Some trivia about the Globe:

• It is the first thatched building permitted in London since the Great Fire of London in 1666.
  
  
• The theatre can house 1300 people during a show. The original Globe could entertain an estimated 3000 people.
  
  

On Monday evening I snapped up a spare ticket offered by Tash to see Les Miserable at the Queen's theatre. The tickets were only 15 pounds so it was a bargain. Although, for only 15 pounds we did wonder what kind of seats we would secure. We weren't surprised to find that our seats were in the very back row with a view obstructed by the dress circle.

Still, I wasn't disappointed! Les Mis is my favourite musical and any viewing of it is worthwhile. Even an obstructed view from the very back row. Also, at intermission I relocated myself further down the front and got an clear view of the second half. Thanks for letting me tag along Tash, Matt and Ann. You've inspired me to get my butt into gear and see a few more musicals while in London.

The other night, Andrew and I tagged along with Juzzy and co to see Jump. The story of the show, a day in the life of an "average" Korean family, was really just a thin veil to show off. The actors dazzled us with amazing displays of martial arts and acrobatics. Mixed in with the acrobatic performances were elements of comedy. There was minimal dialogue and the show relied mostly on mime and slapstick. It was really effective; I'm sure Jump manages to cross all language barriers. With Andrew's history of Tae Kwon Do and my years of acrobats, I think we both left the theatre wishing we were in our early 20s and still enjoying our hobbies.

There were lots of kids in the audience and there was a young boy sitting behind me. He laughed uproariously at all the jokes and gasped in amazement at the acrobatics. His enthusiasm was infectious and his enjoyment of the show added to mine.

If Jump does make it it to a town near you, you should definitely make an effort to see it.