So on Monday I started my internship and Syd started working remotely, so our days have been pretty filled up with that kind of stuff (I’ll get a post up about my internship at some point).
Even with working, though, Syd and I have managed to do a few things in the evenings. Both on Monday and Tuesday Syd came and met me after work at Victoria Station and from there we explored the areas around Buckingham Palace as well as Big Ben (Elizabeth Tower) and Westminster Abbey.
On Monday night we got student discount tickets to Wicked. I’ve seen the US National Tour once but Syd had never seen
it. We’re glad we went; it was really, really good. We’ve obviously listened to the Broadway recording a lot over the past 10 years, so it was a different experience (in a good way) to hear the show done in a British accent. The way words were pronounced and emphasized made it sound like I was hearing the music for the first time. Even some words felt like they had been changed around (for example, “uni” instead of “college”). For those of you who have seen the recent New Testament LDS Bible Videos, you’d probably recognize the girl playing Glinda as Mary. Her name is Savannah Stevenson and she played Glinda so well, she was so funny!
Random fun-fact: We didn’t see any Playbill-like programs at the theatre, I’m not sure if they do them here. The only program you could get was the souvenir one that cost seven quid. Interesting cultural difference.
The best part though was probably Syd’s reaction. She was like a kid on Christmas morning, tapping me super excitedly everytime a song she liked started. We had really decent seats, too. They were at like the front row of our section, so no one was in front us. We were in what they call “the dress circle” (like the balcony/mezzanine). We want to take advantage of the student discounts and see a couple more West End shows while we are here, but we’re not sure which ones. There’s a ton of shows playing. We’re open to suggestions 🙂
-Dan
keep calm and hyer on 