saigon

Day 28 – London

Posted on July 27, 2014

This is the hour.

Lunch at a Chinese restaurant today and then Miss Saigon matinee. Unfortunately, Eva Noblezada (the actress playing Kim) was out and her understudy filled in. She was good, but I would have liked to have seen Eva perform the role one more time.

Tonight is our first (and only) night where we don’t have a show to see, so we’ll just be staying in and getting takeaway Indian for dinner.

Tomorrow is our last day in London. Not sure what we’ll be doing during the day, but seeing Derren Brown’s show at night. Then it’s a super early start to catch a seven hour flight to Dubai. Luckily, we have a two-night stop off there before continuing the rest of the way back to Australia.

Day 26 – London

Posted on July 25, 2014

Do you hear the people sing?

Today turned out to be another mega-musical day. A spontaneous booking for Miss Saigon’s matinee, because it was that good. Got some good tickets, so had lunch at an Indian restaurant nearby and then rushed to the theatre. The Indian was good, but greater things awaited.

We made it and took our seats. They were closer to the stage, to the left, but still great. The show was just as good as the first time.

After the show, we met up with the others and went back to that cafe with the amazing gelato for round two. Then it was off to see Les Mis.

As you would expect, it was awesome. Once again though, some people made me angry with their noise and talking. I’m not sure why Miss Saigon was perfectly fine in this respect (both times), yet these other productions have had bad audiences. Perhaps it’s the age demographic (a lot of oldies at Miss Saigon). Regardless, the show and production were great.

It seems though that the Miss Saigon production towers over every other show. So much so, that we will probably see it a third time on Saturday if we can get some decent tickets.

Tomorrow we don’t have much planned. We might just rest during the day from the constant theatre-going and then we’re going to see Matilda at night.

I haven’t been using (or taking) my camera around much in London, as I’ve spent most of my time seeing shows, but it’s the best thing to do here and we only have one chance to do it.

Day 24 – London

Posted on July 23, 2014

The heat is on in Saigon.

Today was quite eventful, though started late. We slept in and lazed about for the morning, only leaving to head out after lunch. We decided to walk to see Big Ben and Buckingham Palace as they’re all in the same area and fairly close to the Prince Edward Theatre where we were to see Miss Saigon that night.

It took a little while to get there and when we did, we didn’t stay too long. Here’s a few photos of Big Ben and the London Eye.

They’re interesting to see, but after seeing so many huge, amazing monuments, they aren’t super impressive. We also walked around St James’ Park which was nearby and quite nice. There were some cool squirrels around who seemed to expect food from bystanders.

After seeing those, we walked the short distance to Buckingham Palace. Again, it was cool to see, but nothing too amazing.

From there, we walked the fairly significant distance to the theatre and picked up our tickets, then got some dinner nearby. There was a Moroccan/Lebanese restaurant right next door, so that was handy. The food was nice (not the best, but still nice) but I would’ve liked more of it. We just shared a few meals and I was still hungry.

Mmm... meat.

Mmm… meat.

Once we had consumed our food, we went into the theatre and took our seats, eagerly anticipating the start of the show. Some waiting. Excitement building. Still waiting… and then the lights dimmed and the Overture started. I have no words.

Okay, I have some words. Here they are, in an order that will form coherent sentences. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. Seeing this musical in its new production with such an amazing cast was a wonderful thing. And it seems they will be releasing a live recording of the show (not this specific performance) sometime in the near future which was great news.

Overall, one of the best nights on the trip so far. Looking forward to seeing The Phantom of the Opera tomorrow night.