We Interrupt This Travelogue for an Arts Announcement

Thursday night meant it was time for my new favorite past time: visiting the West End and taking in a show. Tonight was Sunset Boulevard, an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical based on the 1950 movie of the same name. It was an uneven show. The first act left me a bit underwhelmed, as much of the music was the lead doing a singing monologue as he wandered through the plot. The second act contained much more of the heart pounding confrontations that Webber did so well in Phantom of the Opera, and left me satisfied overall. The staging was quite abstract, as the cast was its own orchestra, nearly every member playing an instrument, from trombone to cello to flute to xylophone. Which really made me wonder: did they go find musicians who could sing, or actors they could teach to play an instrument?

Best of all, of course, was the price and the seating. For 35 pounds, we bought tickets on orchestra level, row 11, dead center. Original price: 65 pounds. Thank you magical half price ticket booth of Leicester Square!