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My Precioussss

I went to see Lord of the Rings on stage yesterday in London. It was absolutely fantastic. I couldn’t leave without a program, a book full of pretty pictures, a poster and some paper that fell from the ceiling.

The musical - yes, that’s right it was a musical - was being put on at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. Of course, that meant a nice three hour train journey down to Kings Cross. But one of my friends, Katie, managed to get us free 1st class tickets! I was so excited about it, I’d never travelled 1st class before and it turned out to be so cushy. It was 1st class seats on the way back as well.

We did have a little mishap on the way there though. Our original train was cancelled, so we had to rush on to an earlier train otherwise we would have never gotten there in time. We weren’t impressed. It was a good thing that I insisted we arrive at the train station and hour earlier than the departure time.

I have to say, the staging was just…amazing! And that doesn’t even begin to describe it. Four of the boxes were unavailable because they were covered by the staging. The whole stage itself could rotate and on top of that, it was segmented so different parts of the stage would rise up to different levels. They did a great job with the huge spider and the Balrog too. Shame photography was banned really, but I understand the reasoning.

The acting itself was great too. I really admired the guy that played Gollum. He did it so well! I think Gollum is one of those characters where it’s either played successfully or it’s an epic failure. This guy was the former of the two options. The only thing that bugged me was how the elves were played. I felt there was too much with the flourishing arm movements. It didn’t ruin the experience though.

The only thing I would have to say though, is that if I hadn’t watched the films prior to seeing it on stage, I would have never understood what was going on because I haven’t actually read the books yet. I’ve started reading them though, but slowly.

After leaving the theatre on a high, I reached an all time low during my stay in London and that was caused by the Tube at rush hour. Oh it is absolutely awful! Everyone was pressed up against each other or the doors. I literally got out of the trains smelling like other people, and not the nice kind either like when you leave a heavy rock concert. It was hot and horribly humid, despite being under the ground. My other complaint is the price! It cost me £5.30 for a single zone ticket for the entire day - that’s about 3 times the amount I pay at home for a similar thing. To put it bluntly, I couldn’t ever experience that on a regular/daily basis and it’s just strengthened my resolve to never live and/or work in London.

Other than my experience with the Tube system, I had a wonderful time in London. A bit too dusty and fast-paced for my liking; I much prefer places like Newcastle, Glasgow, Edinburgh and even York! It’s a shame that the staging cost more to maintain than the money they were bringing in - they’re stopping the show at the end of July.

Posted on 11 Jul 08 at 4:51 pm.

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