London, March 2004 (page 5 of 8)
Culture, Part One: The Theatre
Edie and I met doing theatre in college, and we’ve enjoyed taking advantage of the theatre in New York. We were excited to see some shows in London, but most of the West End shows were also playing in New York. Before we left we got tickets for a show that did have a brief Broadway run, but is no longer here: Stones in His Pockets. Stones in His Pockets is a two man play about extras on the set of an American film shooting in
Ireland. The two actors play a dozen roles between them. It was a very funny show, and the actors did a great job. Various accents were dead on to my untrained ear. The ending was a little weak, but overall it was very entertaining.
The second show we went to see was a bit more unusual. We went to the discount theatre booth in Leicester Square and purchased two tickets to the winner of the 2004 Olivier Award for best new musical: Jerry Springer: The Opera. I had high hopes for Springer. The awards, the accolades, and the irreverence made me think that it might be a really great show. I
think that my expectations were slightly too high. It turned out to be a fun show. The first half is essentially an episode of The Jerry Springer show with songs. It was entertaining, but without much of an arc. It was tough to become attached to the characters when there wasn’t much of a story. The second half kicked the story into gear, but it wasn’t as funny as the first half. Overall a great concept, but a bit uneven in execution. I’ll be interested to see how it’s received when it comes to New York (arriving in October 2005!).