Whirlwind London

Whew! I feel like we haven't had time to relax in days! Two days in London is SUCH a tease. I need to come back. . .and just live here for a summer. . .and work on some awesome theatre. Anyways, we arrived in London on Tuesday morning, and Jordan and I split from Kelly at the train station. We took the tube to meet our friend Joanna (from our theater class at ucla), who is currently performing in a show on the West End and has a lovely little flat outside the London center. She lives in this lovely area with lots of space and quiet houses. We set our things down, cleaned up a bit, and headed back into the center for some sight seeing. Jordan is going to be Tobias in Moonlight amphitheater's production of Sweeney Todd when we get back, so we started at St. Pauls and then headed to Fleet street (as in the demon barber of). We wandered and found the churchyard and building that was supposedly where Sweeney lived - and is the setting of the musical. Jordan was SO EXCITED and we took lots of pictures and ordered iced lattes from the coffee cart in the churchyard (which is apparently a thing here?). After that, we got pasties for lunch, and ate them in a little park, where everyone was gathered enjoying the sunshine. It was HOT! Over 80 degrees -- it feels like July again! Our pasties were delicious, and then we wandered through some lovely streets -- all decked out for the olympics -- and did some shopping. I got a theatre outfit, which I desperately needed, as I only have travel clothes at this point! Then Joanna headed to the theatre to get ready and Jordan and I met up with one of his friends from high school for a delicious fish and chips dinner. That night, we saw Joanna's show. She understudies the female lead of "Thriller Live," which is essentially a concert of Michael Jackson songs and dances. Although she's the understudy, she goes on at least a couple times a week and requested to go on the night we were there. She was absolutely phenomenal. It was surreal to watch one of my classmates perform in a professional production in London -- and she was so brilliant. The show itself was a ton of fun and an experience, as the theatre didn't have air conditioning, so it was sweltering hot. We definitely got ice cream at intermission. After the show, we grabbed ciders at the pub across from the stage door and headed back to Joanna's place to go to bed.

The next morning, we had a lovely breakfast with Joanna -- eggs on toast and English Breakfast tea for me. Then Jordan and I went into town to try to get five pound tickets for Matilda the Musical. They have a limited number of 5 pound youth tickets that go on sale at 10am, so we were determined! Unfortunately, we did not get there early enough (before ten, but not before others!) and did not get tickets. The entire show was sold out, so I suppose I will wait until it comes to New York. Undeterred, we headed to the Sweeney Todd box office and snagged cheap day of tickets for the front row. SO EXCITED! This production stars Michael Ball (original Marius in Les Miz) an Imelda Stanton (Professor Umbridge in the Harry Potter films) and we get to see them LIVE in the front row! Jordan was especially thrilled in anticipation of his own production. Pleased with our success, we split up so that Jordan could go to the Tat modern and I could go to the British Museum. It was nice walking through the city while it was morning and uncrowded. Everything is looking its best for the Olympics and it was just fun to soak up the feeling. Once I got to the British Museum, I stepped inside and was taken aback by how....majestic? it is. High ceilings, full of natural light.... Oh it was so cool. They are currently have a Shakespeare exhibition in collaboration with the World Shakespeare festival, so naturally that's what I went to go see. It was a well done exhibit on Shakespeare's world and the world/themes of the plays. I especially enjoyed the smartly placed high-def projections of actors performing monologues. Miraculously, I didn't buy anything from the museum store -- it took all my restraint. Jordan and I met up again to have a cheap, pasty lunch with his friend (We went to Greggs. Such good pasties). Then his friend went back to work and Kelly met us to do some sight seeing. We went over to parliament and took touristy phone booth pictures with big ben. It was SO HOT, so I got a delicious iced blended coffee and we wandered along the other side of the river for a while. Eventually, we made our way to Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes museum. We didn't go into the museum, but the shop was quite fun! The ambience was great AND the subway station had Sherlock Holmes outlines everywhere. It was great. After that, we walked down Regent Street and then Oxford street, looking at shops and trying to find some theatre clothes for Jordan and Kelly. We had a wonderfully ridiculous time going in stores. Including this unbelievable toy store, which had the most beautiful Harry Potter things we had ever seen. It had every wand -- even the Patil twins. Then we went to Top Shop (my friend, Julia's favorite) for the first time, which was a bit of an overwhelming experience. This store had a cupcake shop, restaurant and salon amongst its five stories of clothing and accessories. It was insane. After shopping we rushed over to Sweeney Todd and changed into our theatre clothes. The show was AMAZING. Absolutely phenomenal in every way.... And we saw it from the front row. We gushed all the way to the pub where we met Joanna -- and then some more once we got to this little Chinese place in China town (omg such good food). We said our goodbyes to Kelly (last time I'll see her in Europe) and headed back to Joanna's. The next morning, we had a nice breakfast and headed to Bath! Onwards with our U.K. adventure!