On a Theater Bender

In the first three and a half months of 2012, I saw one West End show and not a single movie, so I made up for it by going to two shows and two movies in the past week!

Last Wednesday, my friend Becky organized an AWC outing to a matinee of The Hunger Games.  Several of the other women who attended had read the books -- I think it was even one of the recent AWC book club selections -- and were very excited to see the movie.  I had not read the books, but I enjoyed the movie and would like to read them if they ever have any copies available in our local library.  When I asked about it, the librarian looked at me as if I had asked for a copy of the final Harry Potter book on the day it was released.  Since we already have 13 boxes full of books in storage back in DC, I'm trying not to buy more while I'm in London -- especially when there's a library within walking distance -- but I might have to make an exception.

Thursday was AWC Theatre Day, which I had missed for the past couple months, so I was eager to catch up up -- especially since it was yet another in a seemingly endless string of cold, rainy days.  I ended up going to see Blood Brothers, which was an interesting story, but I found the songs to be rather repetitive.  It got to the point where I thought if I heard them try to rhyme one more thing with "Marilyn Monroe" I was going to lose my mind.  Former Wet Wet Wet singer Marti Pellow played the role of the narrator-- his voice reminded me of David Bowie.

Blood Brothers at the Phoenix Theatre

On Saturday Josh and I decided to see a show together, which is something we haven't really done since we moved here -- except when his brother was visiting last summer.  We went to the half price ticket booth and got tickets for an evening performance of Long Day's Journey Into Night, a semi-autobiographical play by Eugene O'Neil.   

Long Day's Journey Into Night at the Apollo Theatre

The lead roles were played by David Suchet (aka Hercule Poirot) and Laurie Metcalf (aka Roseanne's sister), so it was interesting to see them in person after having seen them on TV (well, David Suchet at least -- I was never a big fan of Roseanne).  The acting was incredible, but the play itself was a bit depressing -- talk about a dysfunctional family! -- and nearly 3 hours long with no set or costume changes to break up the monotony of four people bickering and yelling at one another as they got progressively inebriated.  I think Josh enjoyed it more than I did because I had already seen two dark, dystopian shows that week and was in the mood for something a little more lighthearted.

Fortunately, I had an opportunity to make up for that on Sunday, when we met a few of my AWC friends and their husbands at the Soho Hotel for a screening of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, followed by dinner at the hotel restaurant (the Soho Hotel, that is -- not the Marigold...).  We all thoroughly enjoyed the movie, which stars every famous British actor over the age of 60 -- including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, and Bill Nighy -- plus Dev Patel from Slumdog Millionaire.  In the movie, he has a gorgeous (Indian) girlfriend named Sunaina, which is a variant of my own name, so it scored a few extra points with me!  I don't think it's been released in the US yet (nyah, nyah!), but I do recommend seeing it when it is.  It will make you laugh and cry -- but mostly laugh.

I doubt I'll be able to keep up this pace of theater-going, but I hope I'll have a chance to see some more shows and movies in the near future.