An Afternoon at the Theatre (Saturday, August 1)

I ran out to TKTS at Leicester Square this morning to attempt to buy matinee tickets to "Phantom of the Opera."  Dan and I had tried to purchase tickets online, but we couldn't get 6 seats together.  We really wanted to take the kids to see "Phantom" because it is still running in its original theatre in West End, Her Majesty's Theatre.  Andrew Lloyd Webber also owns the theatre, so we knew it would be a great production.  I arrived at TKTS about 20 minutes after it opened.  The square was deserted, except for the line for tickets.  The queue only took me about 15 or 20 minutes.  Success!  I was able to get 6 tickets in the Stalls (same as the Orchestra section) at a discount.  I headed back to the apartment to get the rest of the family, and we returned to West End together.  

We rode the Tube back to Piccadilly Circus so that we could walk around the area a bit before lunch.  Dan snapped a quick picture with the statue of Eros in the middle of the roundabout.  

We walked over to Trafalgar Square, since it wasn't far away. We wanted to show the kids the National Gallery, St. Martin-in-the Fields Church and Nelson's Column.  We decided not to actually take the kids into the National Gallery on this trip, since they have been in several art galleries already on this vacation.  We arrived in Trafalgar Square to find this...

There is a huge bike race across the City on Sunday, so apparently there was an organized fun ride around Trafalgar Square on Saturday afternoon.  You can see National Gallery on the left of the picture, the church in the background and the base of Nelson's Column behind the kids.  We weren't going to fight the bikes to try to get to the middle of the square.  Instead, we headed to lunch right next to Her Majesty's Theatre.  

Next, it was time for "Phantom".  

We all really enjoyed the show.  We had great seats (10 rows from the stage) and were able to see the actors' facial expressions really well.  We have a DVD of a concert-style staging of the show (no props, limited costumes, no scenery) and have listened to the soundtrack many times, so the kids enjoyed seeing the actual production of the songs they know.  There was one detail that Hadley couldn't get past.  For some reason, Christine Daae had blonde hair in this production.  Hadley had only ever seen the character with brown hair.  For some reason, it just really bothered her.  I explained that she had blonde hair in the book because she was Swedish.  That explanation didn't suit her.  Oh, well.  

Jack really liked the Phantom's costume in the Masquerade scene, where he is wearing a skeleton mask.  He wanted a picture with that poster after the show.  He is making his fierce face.  

Also, I couldn't resist a picture of the kids around the "House Full" sign, since we do have a house full of kids.  

We decided to wander around the area to show the kids a few more parts of London.  We headed up to Leicester Square, which was a big mistake.  It was as crowded as Times Square in NYC with street performers every few feet.  We pushed our way through the crowds as quickly as possible and walked back to Trafalgar Square in the hopes that the bikers would be gone.  They were, but it was almost as crowded as Leicester Square.  There were street performers everywhere, as well.  I didn't remember Trafalgar Square with street performers and huge crowds when Dan and I were there before.  He reminded me that was ages ago.  Times have changed.  We agreed that Times Square in NYC didn't have people dressed as Elmo and women in body paint ages ago, either.  I am really getting old.  

We dashed into St. Martin-in-the-Field church and showed the kids the beautiful interior.  Just up the street, we found a poster advertising "La Sylphide" at a ballet theatre.  The girls were excited, because they just performed in this ballet in Lexington in May.  We had to take a picture.  Unfortunately, the ballet doesn't start its run until we already leave London for Vienna. 

Then, we wandered around a few more side streets.  We happened upon the Chinatown section of London.  

We found an Asian grocery where I was able to buy some favorite Japanese snacks.  We finished off the evening with dinner at a delicious French Brasserie before heading back to the apartment.  It is nice to not have an overscheduled day every once in awhile.