good thing ghosting

 

Just thought I'd share a picture of the Piccadilly Line today. All these people think they're getting on the next tube. They aren't!

 

Now that I’ve seen all three Henry VI plays, which is about as likely as seeing a unicorn up Provo Canyon, I only have a few Shakespeare plays left to see before I’ve seen them all. At this point I’ve only not seen:

King John

Antony and Cleopatra

The Two Noble Kinsmen

Will someone please do these? Grassroots, get on it! Similarly, I have a goal of seeing every Stephen Sondheim musical, and after today’s matinee of Merrily We Roll Along, I am only lacking:

Assassins

Anyone Can Whistle

Passion

Follies

Pacific Overtures

 

I’ve heard the music from Merrily We Roll Along many times, and played the songs on the piano all through college for auditioners. I could probably play “Good Thing Going” blindfolded. But I’ve never seen it. So It was wonderful to be able to. This revival was really beautiful. One of the best directed musicals I’ve ever seen. Everything was tight and crisp and specific, and I realized that I need to raise my game as a musical theatre director. I'm proud of my work, but it’s never been this clean or professional. And maybe that’s the real advantage of coming over here; I recharge my batteries, definitely, but I also see how much growth I still have to do. Despite the occasional bad American accent, this show was face paced, beautifully sung, and flawless. Kudos especially to Jenna Russell who played Mary. I saw her play Dottie in Sunday In the Park with George a few years ago, and she’s fantastic.

My proudest moment at this show came when I smuggled in a McFlurry after the intermission. Sondheim? A McFlurry? Match made in heaven!

 

We all loved Simon Whitehouse so much that we scheduled another tour with him. This one, however, was called Ghosts of the Old City, and you can probably guess it was just a tour with ghost stories. Most of the ghost stories weren’t that scary, but I loved walking through the Old City. You go down these little back alleys and lamplit streets and you hear creakings and sighs and, despite being just blocks from St. Paul’s Cathedral, it’s pretty quiet and still back there. Simon did tell us about the following:

Some witches who sang “Hey niddy-niddy, ho niddy-niddy!” while they murdered a baby.

The ghost of a nurse who fatally prescribed the wrong medicine to a patient and now wanders a hospital pointing at the correct medicine.

A king who was murdered by having a hot poker stuck up his bum.

At one point Simon went into a trance and channeled the spirit of a man who had been buried alive. He shook and hummed and his eyes rolled back. It was very convincing! He then informed us that we were all standing on thousands of dead bodies. I was thrilled. I mean, I guess I just feel like we paid for a tour guide but we didn’t pay for a medium, so it was a really exciting bonus. Thank you, Simon Whitehouse!