One of the things that Ashley and I knew that we for sure wanted to do in London was to see a play on West End. We discussed it a LOT before leaving, and knew we wanted to see a musical, and we didn't want to break our banks, even though we were saving with this in mind. So, after a little online research, we decided to wait to purchase our tickets and try our luck with the TKTS booth in Leicester Square on the day of, since we weren't married to the idea of seeing one particular musical.
We left HPR Hotel and took the tube to Leicester Square, which was being set up for a big premiere the next day. On our way in towards the square from the street we noticed a TON of booths all claiming to be the best "Half-Priced Tickets" in town. I knew, however, that the ORIGINAL half-priced tickets could be found in the TKTS Booth, the only stand alone building within the actual square. So, we approached the booth and waited in a short (about 10 minutes) line to get our tickets. I remember a few of the musicals that were playing -- the biggies, of course: Wicked, Les Miserables, and Phantom of the Opera. These were all a little out of our price range, even at half-price, and I had actually seen all three of those musicals professionally performed...Phantom and Les Mis more than once! I'm pretty sure Ashley had, too, so we ruled them out right away.
Legally Blonde the Musical was one of my top choices, Grease was playing as well, Billy Elliot, Sister Act the Musical, etc. etc. all were available. However, we made a choice that neither of us really expected, but both of use ended up enjoying immensely: Avenue Q the Musical. A racy puppet show with staple songs like, "Everyone's a Little Bit Racist" and "The Internet is for Porn" had been on my radar for a while, but I'd never seen it, or even really listened to the soundtrack, much to the dismay of most of my drama class cohorts in high school and in college. I believe the tickets ended up being about 36 GBP. So we grabbed our tickets and headed back to the tube to take in some culture at the British Museum before returning for the play that night. On the way to our culture we stopped for lunch at Marks & Spencer (I had some really great tomato soup) and shopping (got some cute stuff from H&M, discovered that Gap in London is just like Gap in Bakersfield, etc.)
The British Museum was not something that Ashley was necessarily looking forward to, but me being the nerd I am had insisted that we simply HAD to go. Overall, it was...AMAZING! I love history and mummies and art, and was enthralled by the whole museum. I could have easily spent hours and hours going through this place. We hit the highlights, of course: the mummy room, the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, and wandered around for two or so hours looking at the exhibits. One of my favorites (aside from the Elgin Marbles) was the exhibit about monies of the world. I looooved that they had Harry Potter money (galleons, sickles and knuts) in the exhibit as well!
Me in front of a panel from the Elgin Marbles
MUMMIES!
You're a Wizard, Harry...
So, I enjoyed myself at the British Museum, and then Ashley and I headed back to HPR hotel to change and get ready for the evening. I wore one of my new dresses from H&M with some tights (which were much trendier in the UK than they were in California during the summer, for some reason). We then headed back to Leicester Square for our night out!
Avenue Q was SOOOOO good! I loved loved loved it! The theater was small, so it was a pretty intimate setting for a big stage musical, and the acting was phenomenal. We had great seats for a bargain, and found ourselves quoting some parts of the play ("It's the bad idea beeeeaaars!") for the rest of our trip. I'm so glad we had the advance knowledge - thank you, TA and Rick Steves - to get our tickets at the official TKTS booth. After the show we went to a cafe across the street to get some food (what I jokingly, or not-so-jokingly, refer to as my best meal in London - a bagel with cream cheese and cucumbers) and ice cream, before returning for a semi-early night to the HPR Hotel.
Overall it was an AMAZING night following up a GREAT day in London.
My next post: Day 3 in London - Changing of the Guard, Tower of London, London Eye and the Ceremony of the Keys (what? it was a busy day!!)
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