Anyway, they at least redeemed themselves with the baggage claim - last time, I had a 45-minute wait once I got to the baggage hall, before our baggage arrived. Last night, I was absolutely stunned to discover, upon arriving in the hall, bracing myself for another lengthy wait - and another call to my mother from the hall, pretending I was home already - that the baggage was already there, waiting to be collected! See, they can do it if they want.. Within a couple of minutes, I had my bag and was headed for the buses. Called her from the queue (pretending I was home), and caught a bus nearly two hours earlier than last time! Despite a lengthy wait for the city bus home, I was still home over an hour before last time. Mind you, it was still 4:16am..
Which is why I was rather tired today. What the hey, tonight I was back with Up in the Cheap Seats for the first time in weeks! Another performance of Showstopper! The Improvised Musical - different every night. At the Lyric again. I had a late meeting - when I discovered that yet another had been scheduled, to which they'd forgotten to invite me, I demurred; enough was enough. I left instead.
Boy, was it hot! I panted my way to the bus - which turned out not to be going the full way. Never mind, I changed straight on to a #19 that dropped me just across the road from the theatre. As it happened, I was the first of our group to arrive - I collected my ticket from the box office, then schlepped out again to join the queue, as the house wasn't yet open. Where a couple of the group joined me.. we proceeded to the stalls bar, which turned out to be largely inhabited by what seemed (from the accompanying fliers) to be a gathering of female musicians. Well, I proceeded there - the others needed the facilities first. Seeing me standing alone (holding a glass of wine that was rather on the expensive side), looking for the others, one of them kindly introduced herself and drew me into her group. Where they were astonished to find that I wasn't an "M. D.".. (musical director?)
Happily, the group finally arrived and rescued me. And we stood and chatted for a bit until it was showtime, and time to climb all the way up to (for me) the Upper Circle.
Don't ever, ever get the side slips here - they are dreadful. I don't usually make such an error - I can only guess that there weren't any Seatplan reviews of seats near mine when I booked it. The seat itself would have been comfortable - if I hadn't had to sit sideways, half on and half off of it, splayed across the wide barrier, in order to see anything at all! In retrospect, I'd have been better off standing - there wasn't a row behind me to disturb, after all. As I was sitting sideways, legroom was fine - there was a whole heap of empty space beside my seat - but had I been sitting faced forwards, I might have been a bit squashed. No, I must try to remember to avoid these seats like the plague in future.
It was actually exhausting, and really spoiled the show for me. I kept getting stiff from the strange way I was being forced to sit, and had to keep shifting and sitting back - which meant that I followed a lot of the show by sound, unable to see what was going on. I couldn't see the near corner of the stage, even when I was contorted as far as I could go! At the interval, I noticed one man who'd forsaken his slips seat in favour of sitting on the steps at the back - I'm sure it was much more comfortable. He and his companions were gone after the interval, and I don't blame them.
Having said all of that, the show was good, as ever. Suggestions yelled by an enthusiastic audience were duly noted by the mc, and we ended up with a hotch-potch musical, set in a retirement home for superheroes, done in the style of a bunch of musicals. Of the suggested ones, I'd only heard of Phantom of the Opera - which saw them sing "operatically", but they didn't take that very far.
For me, it took off when they landed in the Wild West (don't ask - something to do with a fake time machine). They also decided to throw in some Hamilton, though the crowd didn't ask for it. But hey, you have to admit that it requires no small amount of quick thinking to draw a musical around a clutter of random suggestions, and make the whole make sense. Funny, manic - always a good night out. And gee, they now have loyalty cards! I forgot to look for one on the way out..
A quick chat outside - where it was now chilly enough that I was glad I'd brought a coat, after all - and a dash for the #19 going in the other direction, and glad to be in earlier tonight. And it was great to see people I hadn't seen in an age! Tomorrow, another Funzing talk, courtesy of London Speaks Sessions and LDN Talks @ Night - Inside North Korea. I see the code crazy_fun is still getting a 10% discount.. sadly, I hadn't seen the code TALKS20 when I booked it, which gets you 20% off. Too late now to cancel and rebook.
On Wednesday, London Literary Walks is taking us to A Circus School and Shakespeare's Dark Lady.
On Thursday, back with Up in the Cheap Seats - at the Bridge Theatre this time, for My Name is Lucy Barton, starring Laura Linney. I got the very last £15 seat!
On Friday, would you credit it, I'm back with London Dramatic Arts! to see Monogamy, at the Park Theatre. Well, it sounds interesting - and they've sold their allocation for this showing, so we're free to buy our own (gee). My good God, it's August since I was last with them..
On Saturday, Funzing is advertising an ice skating display in aid of the victims of Grenfell. Via Funzing UK. The usual 10% discount applies.
On Sunday, Let's Do This is headed to the World Illustration Awards exhibition at Somerset House.
Next Monday, I'm headed to storytelling by Crick Crack again, finally.. I haven't been able to make any of their more recent ones. It's in Soho Theatre, and it's Sally Pomme Clayton, with Crow. Blood. Snow. Oh my God, it's been ages. Naturally, you'd never know from their Meetup group that it's happening at all. Our boss was supposed to be in London that week, so I decided to leave the rest of the week free, for now.
Then he pinged us, last week, to say it'll actually be the week after. Cue me booking things frantically for the week that was now free - happily, I did well. On the 19th, something very interesting - Up in the Cheap Seats is off to Whist, at Sadler's Wells. Now, turns out that this is an immersive, VR experience! Definitely different.
On the 20th, London Literary Walks is off on Pop the Weasel, and I'm delighted to be able to accompany them.
On the 21st, back to Sands Films for Fete de la Musique - Belcirque is performing, and they do sound quirky. Then it's Ireland again at the weekend.
On the 25th, I'm indulging myself with a premium seat to see Andrew Scott perform the one-man show, Seawall, written especially for him. It's at the Old Vic, two weeks only.
On the 26th, back with Up in the Cheap Seats, at Sadler's Wells. It's the Nederlands Dans Theater again - I remember good things about them from before. As I say, the boss is now in the office that week - well, he'll just have to manage without me, those two nights. I'm keeping the rest of the week, and the weekend, free, just in case. Hey, I do have to move that week as well, so could probably do with the time!
And on the 2nd, back with Up in the Cheap Seats, at the Gielgud Theatre for Imperium I - Conspirator. The first part of a double-bill, but viewable independently, it is told from the point of view of Cicero's secretary, as he watches how his master's work is used to bring about an end to the Roman Republic. I should probably have booked the second part at the same time - there's a discount for that - but well, my schedule is generally so packed..!
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