London Review - Mary Poppins, Avenue Q, Wicked, We Will Rock You

[Mark_E]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 6:56am

Well, we are finally back from London after a very long week. Here is what we got up to from Mon 23rd to Friday 27th.

Got the train to Kings X from Newcastle on Monday Morning and arrived at about 2pm. We were staying about 10 minutes walk from the the station at the Premier Travel Inn on Euston Road. Checked in and went for a walk round London, finding all the theatres for the week. So we walked down Totenham Court Road, and down Charing Cross, and then all the way to Big Ben and then down to Victoria. As we were walking along my Dad pointed out that they were taking some massive Wicked posters down outside of the House Of Fraiser. So my mum went up to the guy and asked for one of the posters and he gave us it!!! Its a long Horrizontal poster and is really cool! Looks like we were just in the right place at the right time!! We then walked back up to the Prince Edward for our first show.

Mary Poppins - Monday Night - Upper Circle Row H
Great Seats!!! And what a Great Show too. The thing that most impressed me was the set and special effects. I liked Scarlett Strallen as Mary Poppins but at some points she seemed to have a squeeky voice when she was talking. Her singing was great however.

Gavin Creel was great as Bert and the rest of the cast were also superb. Fave parts have to be Berts dance part in "Step In Time" and Marys Final Exit and also her appearence in Lets Go Fly a Kite.

Loved the new songs. My sister (Who is 7) was not scared of Temper Temper at all and I must say that after everything ive read about how it was scary was abit of a letdown.

Apart from that however, would highly reccomend to anyone.


On Tuesday we got an all day bus pass because we had done so much walking the day before. We had breakfast in the hotel (£15 for a buffet for ALL 4 of us because kids were free). We got off a Leister Square and my mum tried to get Lion King tickets. They were offering her the cheapest upper circle seats for £45 each. Told her not to bother and to go to the theatre instead. Me and my dad were going to see Avenue Q that night so she only needed 2. We did get 4 WWRY tickets for wednesday night for £20 each which i thought was good, even though they were at the back of the circle.

We went into the Lyceum at 11:30 and they said to come back in half an hour. We went and got drinks and were second in line at the returns place. My mum and sister got House Seats (Second row dress circle). We spend the rest of the afternoon shopping before going off to our shows.

Avenue Q - Tuesday Night - Row A of stalls.
This was by far the best show I have ever seen. The actors were amazingly talented and everything was spot on.

Ann Harada as Christmas Eve was amazingly funny. Loved her "Mother Bird" joke and the funniest line of the entire show was her "I Not arrowed to say". That probably got the biggest laugh in the whole show.

Giles Terera was great as Gary. Loved his new lines in "It Sucks to be me" and he sang his other songs amazing well.

Sion Lloyd made the best out of his VERY bad character - I felt bad after "Im Not wearing underwear today" because nobody moved a muscle.

Clare Foster was really good with Mrs T and the Bad Idea Bears. Its a shame she didnt have a song of her own so she could show off her talents more.

Simon Lipkin was AMAZING as Trekki and Nicky. His voice was perfect for the part. Also liked his line when he was a bear -"Feel Her Boob".

Jon Robyns as Princeton and Rod was also really good. I especially liked his Rod voice.

Julie Atherton as Kate Monster was amazing. Her voice is probably the strongest out of the whole cast. She made "Fine Fine Line", a song which i normally skip, one of my favourites in the whole show. Her Expressions were perfect to match with the puppets, and the way she did Kate and Lucy together was very clever.

Other parts of the show i found cool was the whole Lucy hit by penny hospital part. And then of course the Knights joke. Fave song was Everyones a little bit racist and Schadenfreude.

After the show i went round to the stage door and Julie came out and she signed my Program and i got my picture took with her. I wanted to wait for Ann Harada and Giles Terria to come out especially but we had to leave to meet up with my mum and sister.


On wednesday we went to Madame Tussauds. Very good but also very overpriced. We then went to WICKED

Wicked - Matinee - Row P Dress Circle. Fairly good seats, especially for just £15.

Idina Menzel was all i expected and more. She blew the house down. Helen was also great as Glinda. Can see why alot of people wouldnt like her though.

Rest of the cast were great too.

The one thing that I was majorly dissapointed in was the set. After seeing mary poppins I was spoiled with such an amazing set. It wasnt an issue with Avenue Q because i knew exactly what the set was going to be like. I think if i didnt have such high expectations it would have been fine.

Still, I enjoyed the production as a whole better than Mary Poppins because the singing was so fantastic. Would Deffinately see it again.

After having a meal we went to WWRY. I saw it last year and it was just as good as then. Not gonna go into detail though, although must say that Mazz Murray was the deffinate standout as Killer Queen.

Thursday. We had originally planned to go to Legoland but scrapped that idea due to the weather forecast. The weather was fine in the end so maybe we should have gone.

Instead, we went and booked tickets for Avenue Q again. This time I was to take my mum. We got Row G of the stalls for £20 each. I got it cheap because im a student and he let my mum have a seat next to me for the same price.

We went to the history and science museums. BORING. Not our scene to be honest, and it was so packed you could hardly move.

The show that night was just as amazing as the tuesday night. Id gladly spend all my money on seeing this show if i lived in London. Im probably going to use this show for something in my GCSE now too.

Friday - Went out for a walk in the morning before heading to the station. Our train was due to leave Kings cross at 2:30.... WRONG. Out train was Cancelled due to a "fatality" on the line. We ended up on the train at 3:30, with an almighty scramble of 3 train fulls worth of people trying to get on. The aisles were full of people standing and you could hardly get moved at all. At least we got home eventually, and i cant find anything about what happened.

In all, I loved it in London this time. We are already thinking about another trip sometime next year.

[ruthiefan_felix]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 8:12am

Cudnt agree with u more on most of ur reviews. But I did love Wicked's set since it blanded it perfectly with the theatre!
You should have gone to the National Gallery, it's great fun!

[WiiCKED x3]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 9:11am

Great review
Glad you had a good time.

[DRSisLove]

Posted: 10/28/06 at 9:17am

Sounds like you had fun!
Great reviews too.