Theatre Trip: Young Frankenstein

YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN

Garrick Theatre
Date: 28th December (Thursday), 3:00pm
Seats: Stalls AA4-5

(With Jess!)

Yesterday, I had a day with my friend Jess. She has wanted to learn to knit for ages, and because I know how, I invited her to my place to spend the day learning and hanging and eating junk food. At almost 11am, Jess made a comment about always entering the ticket lotteries for Young Frankenstein and Hamilton - we are desperate to see both of these shows! So I went 'oh yeah', and entered the Young Frankenstein lottery which closed at 11am, at 10.59. 2 minutes later, I got the 'better luck next time' email and I thought that was typical - except that my phone rang 10 minutes later! It was the same situation as Venus in Fur - lots of people hadn't claimed the tickets, and I was the first person to answer my phone! So on the day we were already hanging out, we got to see a show we'd both been craving to see! Such amazing luck.

I had wanted to see this show for a few reasons. First was Mel Brooks' the writer, who created the Producers movie and musical, and he created the movie and then musical for this as well. It is based around Dr Frederick Frankenstein, the grandson of Victor, who inherits the castle and goes to see what he has inherited. Then shenanigans!

It also had a few actors I was excited to see perform. Dianne Pilkington had a main role - she played the original Glinda in London and was fantastic! She had a few great songs too. Summer Strallen I had seen first way back in 2008 in the Sound of Music as Maria, and she was great then too. I loved her in this show, actually, she had a great costume and sang really well even through the silly accent! The guy who played Dr Frankenstein was really good (Hadley Fraser), and Frau Blucher was pretty good too (Lesley Joseph). The stand out, though, was Ross Noble who played Igor. He was hysterical!

We also had a great technical error! When they first arrived at the castle, they made a comment about the door, and then straight away the safety curtain came down. There was an announcement 'Please stay in your seats, there will be a short delay, we are sorry for the inconvenience'. Then the Dr and Igor came out in front of the safety curtain, and they adlibbed for about 5 minutes (well, mostly Ross Noble did) about how the door is usually further to the right, and how the men in black with strange headresses (their microphones) were swearing. We could hear the drills on the stage! After a little bit, Inga (Summer Strallen) came on and said the guys had stopped swearing, and the show went on. It was so funny.

We even had pyrotechnics right in front of us! It was the funniest show I had been to in a log time - it's a great humour, but not a subtle one.

Thanks again TodayTix lotteries!!!

(Christmas) Cultural Experience: St Pauls

This evening we walked over to the beautiful St Paul's Cathedral to meet some friends and go to the Christmas Eve carols service! We haven't actually been to St Paul's yet this year - not because it isn't beautiful, but because it's rather expensive (£18 or something like that), so we've been saving it for a time when we have a visitor who would like to go. That being said, it's free when you go to a free service!

We arrived just about 2pm, and chatted and snacked and knitted our time away. At 3 the doors opened, and the service started at 4 (after you all go through a security check, of course). It was a really really lovely service, with lots of carols. We joined in for 5 of them (Once in Royal David's City, O Little Town of Bethlehem, Hark the Herald Angels Sing, While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks, O Come All Ye Faithful), and there were others in both English and Latin to listen to amongst readings.

It was a lovely service, in what is most definitely a gorgeous cathedral. And the atmosphere was so lovely, letting it all wash over us even when we couldn't see the singers/speakers. And most definitely, it felt very Christmassy.

Now we are watching Carols from Kings (on the TV), about to have some dinner and then watch Die Hard (Husbando's favourite Christmas film). Bring on present time tomorrow!