Queen:
Queen was the first musical we went to see in London. The show itself was just okay. I was glad we saw it first because it was my least favorite musical of all the ones we went to. It was mostly my least favorite because I had already seen it a few years prior, at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver, and the storyline was the same. The play itself took place in a dystopian time, where music did not exist. Through the artist Queen’s music, we see two people, named Galileo and Scaramouche, go on this journey looking for an axe, which was actually a guitar. Overall, the play itself was okay, but like I said, I had already seen it and would have rather spent my time in London doing something “new”.
Wicked:
Wicked is a play I had been wanting to see for a long time. I went to New York City five years ago and Wicked was one of the shows we almost went to see but could not get tickets to. I was very happy to finally see this musical in London. Wicked is a musical that shows the childhood and friendship of Glinda and Elphaba and how they became who they are known as in The Wizard of Oz, The Good Witch and The Wicked Witch. Wicked was a great play and I would gladly go see it again. I really loved the soundtrack and the sets they used were amazing. I did have a couple problems with some minor detail changes they made, but if you ignore them, it was not a problem.
Frozen:
Frozen was another musical that you already knew what you were going to see when you bought your ticket. In the show Frozen, during the song ‘Let it Go,’ you can see Elsa’s dress change from her Coronation dress to her blue, ice dress. The highlight of this musical was definitely that scene with the dress transformation. It was an impressive transition. They did the dress transformation right before intermission, so right after change, the lights went out and the crowd applauded like crazy. One thing I would recommend for Frozen would be to not go to a Matinee time. Most plays offer a matinee at 2:00 or a later showing at 7:00 or 7:30. Since kids love Frozen, and it is an appropriate play for them, most parents take their kids to this play. We went to a matinee and the theater was full of children. My guess is that a later play would have less children since it would also get out late at night.
The Wizard of Oz:
Originally we were not going to see The Wizard of Oz, but after seeing Wicked, my mom and I really want to go to this musical. This evening, we were originally planning to do a two hour walk-around-tour of Jack the Ripper, a famous serial killer, however, at the last minute, we decided to check if there were any tickets to The Wizard of Oz (there was) and ditch the tour. It was a great decision. The Wizard of Oz was, like Frozen, exactly what you would have expected from it. It followed the storyline, had great music, and even had Toto in it. The Wizard of Oz was a great musical, but there are a few movies based on the story, as well as books that I feel you can find easily in daily life. Whereas, with Wicked, I feel that it is more known for being on Broadway than for being a popular book or movie.
Mamma Mia:
Mamma Mia was my absolute favorite musical of them all! Everything about this play was amazing. While once again, it is exactly what you would expect of it, for this play, that is part of what makes it so great. They did a great job of following the movie and one of the best parts of the movie, in my opinion, was the soundtrack, which of course this musical had. At the start of the show, it was requested that you not sing along to the songs and that request was followed by the audience. At the end of the play the cast came out and performed a couple songs including, Super Trooper and Waterloo, and encouraged the audience to sing along. I am very glad that this was the last musical we went to see and how we spent our last night in London. Honestly, I would gladly have watched this play every night we were in London, that’s how great it was.
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