wicked

for teresa's birthday, we decided to do another one of those london things - the west end show. the west end is essentially london's version of broadway, and it's where all the musicals are running. there are a bazillion to choose from, from small to major production, old and new. the funny thing is, the west end really isn't all that west. it's more like in the middle. and not all the theatres are in the same area; there are a few scattered further out.

based on the recommendation of a couple friends, we decided to go see 'wicked,' the untold story of the witches of oz. historically, we've never really been musical (as in show) type people. teresa's seen the lion king in toronto. caspian saw stomp ages ago (does that even count as a musical?). and the extent of all our recent activity involving musicals has occurred largely/solely on cruise ships in the caribbean.

trade secret: there are many ways to get tickets to wicked. you can buy them online from a number of ticket resellers. you can go to a physical ticket booth that specialises in selling tickets to shows(there are many around london, most of them in leicester square). while these routes will allow you to get tickets for cheap (as low as £17), you get what you pay for. we were going to go this route until we discovered the best option. every day, the box office at the theatre itself will release about 24 tickets for the front row for only £20 apiece. and by front row, we mean front row: you-a little space to walk in front of you-orchestra pit-stage. the tickets are released at 10am every day.

alas, by the time we started queuing, there were already a number of people in line. apparently 5 min before 10am isn't early enough, but we're sure quarter to 10 would suffice to get you tickets. by the time we got there, there was only 1 day ticket left (what are we going to do with one ticket?). so we had to get other tickets since we were pretty much set on going that day. but the benefit of being at the box office is that they can tell you exactly what the seats are like, and even get you some deals. we scored tickets that were valued at £60 for only £30 - half off ain't bad.

the show itself was a lot of fun and we enjoyed the experience immensely. our seats were great, located second row in from the balcony. the box office lady told us that we'd be close enough 'to see the actors' faces' (we guess this is important to theatre-goers?) and, sure enough, see their faces we could. the songs were energetic and fun. the vocals were excellent (at no point were we scared that the big bold notes would not be hit - not so when watching x-factor). the story was clever. and the ending was satisfying (we wouldn't want to spoil it for those of you who have yet to see it).

if you have the time when you stop in london, we highly recommend catching a show, any show really. if you're a big fan of musicals, and are highly critical, then maybe you won't be quite as awed by wicked as we were. but sometimes ignorance actually can be bliss.