London Theatre

The point of going to London was/is theatre.  When we couldn't find any interesting shows (we have seen Mathilda, Book of Mormon, Billy Elliot, and even Jersey Boys), we were planning to go elsewhere for our long weekend.  But then my friend Evan told us (because someone he knew had been in London recently) about Shakespeare at the National Theatre, and when we were closer to our dates, we found some interesting shows open and available.

The first play was King Lear at the National Theatre.  Three. and. one-half. hours.  Those folks really got good value for a penny in Shakespeare's time.  But really engrossing.  It's staged in modern times in a military dictatorship.  Could be Vietnam, Congo, Serbia, Syria.  The theme is that absolute power corrupts (and destroys) absolutely -- but you knew that.  Very well staged. Lear is played by Simon Russell Beale (a well known British actor.  You might know him from My Week with Marilyn, or he played King Arthur part of the time in Spamalot, both Broadway and London).  He carries the show.  Regan is played by Anna Maxwell Martin, who plays the lead (the woman with the two kids) in The Bletchley Circle (well worth following, if you don't already).  The other actors may be well known to British audiences, but not to us.

Our star-struck moment came when the person next to us, a season ticket holder, pointed out Penelope Wilton (plays Mrs. Crowley in Downton Abbey) in the audience.  She too is a Shakespearean actor.

The stage was nicely done.  Relatively austere, but with lots of special effects done with images. King Lear starts with an eclipse (at least in the script), and this is what we saw before the play began.

Ending with:

The second night we went for the opposite end of the spectrum -- a revival of Pajama Game, a 1950s musical, that's about labor vs. management at a Pajama factory in Keokuk, Iowa (we were probably the only people in the audience who knew exactly where Keokuk is).  Of course, it's really a multiple couple love story, but the employees' fight for higher wages is the underlying framing.  It has songs you might know, but probably don't associate with it:  ¨Hernando's Hideaway¨, ¨Steam Heat¨, (while I'm sure this got by the 1950s censors without major problems, it definitely pushed the envelope in the direction of risque lyrics) and ¨Hey There (You with the Stars in your Eyes)¨.  The cast was energetic, excellent singing and dancing, and it was a lighthearted evening.  It just opened about two weeks ago; the theatre was full, mostly of people who might have seen it during the initial run.

Here is the outside of the theatre:

The stage before 'curtain up':

And the very lovely loges (no, we didn't have seats there):

So we got both serious and light London theatre.  Not bad for only four days in town.