Day 4: 3 August 2014

As usual, I had breakfast with my Dad and his family, and after breakfast I wanted to go to Regent's Park. I have always wanted to go there, and the day before I had the distinct feeling the north-east corner of the park wasn't the most interesting, instead I wanted to start in the south-east corner.
I try to find different buses when I'm going places in London, as the busride is part of the sightseeing and experience in London - so I planned to take a bus from Bayswater Road to Victoria Station (148?) and then another bus from Victoria Station to Regent's Park (C2).

All went well - to start with. What I didn't know was the fact that there were massive construction works going on around Victoria Station, so when I got off the bus I was completely confused, I didn't even see anything that looked like a station ...
To make a long story short, I ended up walking around for about half an hour around Victoria station to first of all, actually find the station, and second, try to figure out from where my bus was departing! :) Finally I got on the right bus and I got off at the right place - so I say Bravo for me!

The south east corner of Regent's Park was AMAZING! I highly recommend a visit - and I will try to go back, as I didn't have as much time as I would have needed to explore it properly!
The nature was absolutely beautiful and they had these extraordinary rose gardens - due to the almost extreme heatwave they had almost started to wither, but it was an amazing walk!
I then found a bus that went straight from the south end of Regent's Park to Paddington, bus 205 - definitely going to remember that (also, it happens to go all the way to Liverpool Street Station, cool!).

I went back to the hotel to shower and change - as always it was difficult with the timing, and I came to the hotel earlier than planned, and realized that hadn't cleaned my room yet. Showered and changed in record time (didn't much feel like being the shower when the cleaning crew came!) and took a bus to Marble Arch, where I had lunch and was able to take it easy for a while.

I then went down to Aldwych and quickly found Lyceum Theatre, where The Lion King is playing. It was however, very early! I was supposed to pick up my tickets around 2 p.m. and it was before 1 when I got there. I ended up walking around the area, and for the first time really discovered Covent Garden! It was a bit too crowded and loud for my liking but it was really nice to have seen it! Also found a Disney Store there - which is always nice! :)
I ended up picking up my tickets early but the theatre was already opened. They had a dangerous souvenir shop there, but everything is extremely expensive. I went into the theatre and found my place as soon as they opened, and I have to say, I wonder how much money they make during one performance ... The tickets are expensive, yes definitely! I bought a programme and a souvenir brochure, which was £14 (more expensive than The Phantom of the Opera and Les Misérables) - and they sold SO much stuff. Not only food and drinks but dvd:s and records and stuffed animals - tiny little stuffed animals (that were SOOO cool) cost £15 - and you could easily see five kids buying them together ...

Anyway, a proper review of the musical will come in my musical blog, eventually - but I have to make a few comments. First of all, I hadn't realized it followed the movie as closely as it did. But it was basically word-for-word the same (yup, I know the movie! *lol*).
Also, it was extremely spectacular! The scenery, the costumes - it was absolutely astonishing! Not every musical you go to has an elephant coming down through the audience and jumping up on stage, inside the theatre, right?! :)

After the musical I went back to the hotel where I met my Dad and his family. We went for a walk in the area around the hotel and a little bit into Kensington Gardens, which was quite nice. I sometime find it difficult when I spend tooo much time with them, but catching up like this every now and again was really great!

The Lion King

I've been trying to decide on whether to watch The Lion King or not while in London.
I really really want to see it, I have a feeling it's an amazing musical, but when I first thought about it the tickets were totally expensive!

Then, I got an offer at reduced prices, which I was very  happy about of course!!
However, the only way I would get to see it was an evening show, and the theatre is quite a distance from my hotel ... I've been debating this with myself ever since I got the offer in the mail.

Now I have made the decision not to see it.
I know I might regret it, but the fact is ... well, things haven't been working out very smoothly for me during the last week (or a couple of weeks), I've been stressing out a lot, and now I took this superquick visit to my old hometown to watch my Dad receive a prestigious award, which also was a bit stressful. The point is, I'm not quite harmonious and feel totally at ease about this trip, I am quite nervous and anxious and stressed out about a lot of things, and I feel like adding one more thing on top of that is quite unnecessary!
Had I gotten tickets to The Lion King, I think it would have been Thursday night, and I'm pretty sure I would have spent most of my trip thinking and worrying about that - and I have enough things to worry about right now.

I am of course hoping that this trip will work out okay, meaning I will hopefully be able to save money and go back to London fairly soon - and I'm hoping to be able to see The Lion King (and other musicals) then instead.
At least the decision is made now, so I don't have to think about it any more - and hopefully I won't regret it too much either! :)

Decisions, Decisions

Now facing a bit of a difficult decision!
Got an email with an offer to buy tickets for The Lion King at quite a reduced price! The major reason why I didn't buy tickets for that show in the first place was the fact that they were a lot more expensive then the other ones ... now with the reduction in price, there's basically no difference at all - and I really would like to see The Lion King, I have a feeling it's a great production.

However, I can't get tickets to a matinee show, meaning it has to be an evening show ... meaning it's going to end quite late at night. Also, Lyceum Theatre, where it's playing, is not exactly in the vicinity of my hotel!! If I'm reading the map correctly I should be able to take the same bus, but the maps aren't very detailed, so I won't know that for sure.

I had hoped to avoid evening musicals shows, as they do tend to end late, and I am by myself. A bit typical now in retrospect - I think I would have preferred to go to Les Miz or Phantom during the evening, as Her Majesty's and Queens Theatres are a lot closer to my hotel than Lyceum, but now I have already booked matinee tickets for Phantom and Les Miz ...

I still haven't decided what to do, I think the reduction in price will stay for a while, and since I don't have to worry about the tickets being sent home to me (I'm going to pick them up at the theatre on the day of the show) I don't have to book yet ... but it's not an easy decision.
I mean, I still have to be able to do things, even though I go to London by myself, right? ... And still, I don't want to be stupid and take unnecessary risks ...
Difficult decision!

Musicals

I have rather mixed feelings about musicals right now.
I have booked two, and I'm looking forward to them enormously - but I kind of really wanted to see two others as well, which won't happen, so I'm a bit upset about that.

Let's deal with the 'bad' news first, shall we?
Okay, so I really want to see The Lion King in London!! I absolutely adore all three movies and I think they make a fantastic musical ... so I did some checking, and sure enough, I could get tickets to The Lion King. One tiny problem; they are almost twice as expensive as the other musicals I plan to see ... I mean, I know it is expensive, and for the most part I think it's worth it, but these tickets were about 1000 SEK (about £94, $150, 117 Euros)!! And I think that's a bit much ... Granted, had it been Philip Quast, I probably would have payed it - *lol* - but not for anyone else! :-)
So no The Lion King ...

I also really wanted to see Sweeny Tood! I have seen the movie, which I think takes things too far, but I was hoping that the stage version wouldn't be quite as intense as the movie. Also, starring Michael Ball!! Hello?!? A chance to see Michael Ball live ... wow!!! Yeah, I had my heart set on booking tickets and started checking out times and dates and the theatre - and found out it's playing until Saturday September 22nd!!! What a bummer!!! :(
So, no Sweeny Todd either!

Now for the good news! :-)
I have booked Phantom of the Opera, which is one of my favourite musicals ever!! It's truly amazing and creates the most extraordinary mood in the theatre. Unfortunately, since the whole London trip came on rather suddenly, I did not get a good seat at Her Majesty's Theatre. I tried and tried and tried, but I'm a bit anxious about watching the evening shows and finding my way back to the hotel on my own that late at night, so I really wanted to see if I could catch the matinee show. Needless to say, if I could have gotten a great seat on an evening show I would have taken it, but as it stands, I'll be sitting in the back of Stalls on Thursday the 27th (matinee show).
I also really would have loved to see Swedish musical artist Peter Jöback as the Phantom - I have heard him sing "Music of the Night" and he's outstanding! - but as soon as I heard he would only play through August, I knew I wouldn't be able to see him ... :/

More good news, as I have also - of course! - booked Les Misérables for the matinee show on Wednesday the 26th! Managed to get a much better seat there which I'm very happy about ... after all, Les Miz is my number one favourite and it always will be, nothing can ever come close to it!!!
I know David Shannon did a stint as Jean Valjean this spring, and yes, I would have loved to see him! He was Valjean when I saw it in 2009 and I finally - after having seen the show four times in London (I think), once in Sweden, and listened to numerous recordings - found my Jean Valjean. No such luck though, as he's not currently in the show.
When I tried checking out the cast I really didn't recognize anyone, so I'm thinking I'm in for a bit of a surprise, which might in fact be a good thing! However, I did learn that since September 10th, Linzi Hately is playing Mme Thénardier!!! Totally amazing!! She's played Eponine early on in Les Miz in London, she's on my favourite recording of The Secret Garden, and she played Florence in the Scandinavian Tour of Chess, which I was lucky enough to catch in Olso (and there I also got to see David Shannon as Anatoly!) - and she's absolutely outstanding!! I was so taken with her in Oslo, and while Florence is quite a serious part, I have no doubt at all that she will be fantastic as the comedic Mme Thénardier!! So all fingers crossed that she actually will be doing the matinee show on the 26th!

Yes, now I've rambled on and on and on about the musicals! :) Will definitely come back with detailed reviews after I've seen them!!

From the Tenth Anniversary Concert (TAC), 1995
Philip Quast - Javert

Colm Wilkinson - Jean Valjean