Last Days In London

Ian McKellen is one of a kind. The panto, which he starred in, would have been thrice as bad had he not played the dame.

Pantos are classical British plays that resemble vaudeville (more in variety and grand showmanship than style) and generally contain at least one drag role; usually executed by a hideous drag queen. They are made for children and encourage much participation, hissing and cheering and even sing-alonging (That’s not a word!) The subject matter this time was that of Aladdin and Ian was fabulous in it.

Afterwards, we met Sir Ian McKellen in his dressing room. He was exhausted, but still managed to greet us with a smile and a handshake. Did I mention that he stared at me for 10 whole seconds before shaking my hand?

The night ended with a royal dinner in a private room at London’s oldest restaurant “Rules.” We were joined by some well known British actors. To say the least, we had an extraordinary 3 hour dinner.


King Edward VII Room

Next Morning was the 31 and we saw the only musical I was truly looking forward to seeing. -The Phantom of the Opera- Bad staging, great acting, and powerful music. Cannot wait to see Joel’s version.

We spent the New Year at one of our actor friend’s where the food was good and we played a game of “Guess the First Line of a Novel.” I almost won. (Placed 2nd out of 7)

On the first we had our last official engagement, the musical “Sweeny Todd.” It is a tale of a barber gone mad. He kills his clients and makes meat pies out of their corpses. It’s a famous Sondheim (Gypsy, Little Night Music, The Company) musical and is more attractive in plot than in song.

The last day of the trip, 2nd, was spent roaming the streets of London. We had plenty of time to visit The British Museum and The National Gallery. Both were extremely large, enjoyable, and packed with screeching younglings. One cannot expect any less from a museum that does not charge for entry.