Our recent trip to London was scheduled around Book of Mormon tickets. We’d been desperate to see it since it first opened in New York, but tickets were hard to come by during our visits. Luckily we were able to get tickets to see it in London just a couple months in advance. Yay!
Book of Mormon is a musical written by the creators of South Park (with the help of a guy from Avenue Q). It is, as we expected, full of biting humor and catchy songs. Every morning since, I seem to wake up with a different melody from Mormon stuck in my head. The actors (mostly from the original London cast) were phenomenal.
After Book of Mormon, we were hungry for more theater, so we headed to the TKTS booth in Leicester Square one day. TKTS in London works a little differently than in New York, but the general concept is the same: you can go here to get same-day tickets for plays and musicals, sometimes at a significant discount. There’s a board up outside listing the shows that are available that day. If you’re in London and want to see some theater, and are a little flexible about what shows you’re willing to see, this is a great way to pick up tickets at a discount. And unlike New York, the line at TKTS London seems to stay manageable (we waited less than 10 minutes). You can get a feel for what is likely to be available by checking their website a few days in advance of when you’ll be there.
Our TKTS excursion netted us tickets for One Man, Two Guvnors and From Here to Eternity. One Man, Two Guvnors is a play full of hammy jokes and a bit of slapstick. The lead actor was brilliant, and kept us well entertained even though the writing didn’t quite play to my sense of humor.
From Here to Eternity is a new big-budget musical based on the same novel as the 1953 movie. This one fell a little flat for me. The characters had stupid problems (I can’t fall in love with you because I have a vague life plan that includes lots of prostitution, I can’t play the bugle anymore because it makes me too gosh darn emotional) that made me kind of hate them. The music felt formulaic, and none of the songs were stuck in my head the next day (although to be fair, the songs from Book of Mormon were already taking up all of my headsong space). But even though it won’t be making its way onto my favorite musicals list, From Here to Eternity was still a decent evening of entertainment, carried by strong performances and some nifty slow-motion scenes.
Have you seen any good theater recently?
I found Book of Mormon lyrics running through my head when I woke up for about three months after the first time I saw it.
I’ll be off to see it again for the third time in the near future!
So catchy, aren’t they? I’m surprised how many different Book of Mormon songs have made it onto my brain’s playlist. This morning it’s Man Up.