London Day Four: Mamma Mia!

We knew, while planning our London trip, that seeing a musical was going to be a must-do. The questions was which one to see. We had our pick: Hairspray, Les Misérables, Jersey Boys, Phantom of the Opera, Billy Elliot, The Lion King, Sister Act, Wicked, to name just a few. The one we would pick had to appeal to the kids.

We had already seen a short version of The Lion King at Disneyland Paris, so we eliminated that one. I wanted to see Mamma Mia!, but an English-language version was coming to Frankfurt early next year, so we could always see it then. Why not Oliver!? James was familiar with a few of the songs from musical class at school, and so we rented the film to get a feel for it. The kids loved it, David and I liked it, but we both came to the same conclusion. Everyone would love Mamma Mia!. I had to promise James that at some point in his lifetime, he would get to see Oliver!. We would save money, too, by not seeing the show when it came to Frankfurt.

Ordering tickets was an interesting experience. We could be either way in the back or off to the sides for the price range I was planning on, or for 10 extra pounds, we could be near the front. Third row center seats were the best available, but I was worried we would be too close to the stage, looking at the performers ankles the whole time. The patient man taking my order assured me that these were "excellent seats, my dear." And so we were to be three rows back from the stage.

We ate dinner, got Emilie and Rebecca settled in with the lovely babysitter our landlady had arranged for us and it was back to the city.  We were getting to know the public transportation system pretty well.

Picadilly Circus was our Tube stop.

The very touristy area of Picadilly Circus. We wandered around looking for the theatre for a while, but finally found it.

The Prince of Wales Theatre

James and Grandma getting in line. Once in our seats, I looked around and did a sigh of relief. The stage wasn't too high for us, and there was a bit of a dip in the floor behind us. The three or four rows of seats right behind ours were actually lower than our seats. It was good I hadn't asked for seats farther away.

Where was the orchestra? I had thought that maybe the music was pre-recorded as we could see no orchestra pit. But lo! There was the conductor in front of us and the orchestra was under the stage, hidden from view, though we could see some of the players on the conductor's monitor.

There was a short overture and you could feel the energy in the room. People were already clapping along and a gregarious group to our right was already singing along.

The show was fantastic. As great as dramatic shows that make you cry are, like Les Misérables, you sometimes just have to have a show where you're smiling the whole way through.

Donna was fantastic. She was a great singer, but also a great actress. In the touching scene Slipping Through My Fingers where she helps her daughter Sophie get dressed for her wedding, Donna had real tears running down her cheeks.

Our seats were close enough to see that Donna was sweating a bit at the beginning of the show, close enough to see where the flesh-colored microphones were attached to the sides of the performer's faces, and close enough to see spittle shooting out of people's mouths.

Does Your Mother Know that you're hitting on an older women?

Voulez-Vous have a snack? Right after this song it was intermission. The British have the wonderful tradition of eating ice cream during intermissions of play and musicals. And they make it so easy! Several barrels of little Häagen-Dazs ice cream cups were brought into the theatre right to the end of the rows of seats. No waiting in a long lines and you could enjoy your creamy refreshment in your seat. Very smart, these British people.

The orchestra's sudden loud blast of music at the beginning of a short musical interlude made everyone shriek, then laugh, and finally scramble back into their seats.

The nightmare sequence Under Attack was left out of the film version. In this version, Sam the architect was Scottish, Harry the banker was English, and Bill the adventurer was Australian.

And it was surprising to see that there were plenty of people on stage who had more than a little bit of extra meat on their bones. Would we have seen that on Broadway, I wonder?

Dancing Queen

During the encore, plenty of people were standing up, singing, clapping and dancing along, except for in our section. Well, somebody had to be first! I stood up and then everyone around me followed suit.

We all agreed there are worse ways to spend an evening. And we may just see it again in Frankfurt after all.

Another view of Picadilly Circus