A roarin' good time in London! Our Lion King trip report... About This Page:

[chezp]

A roarin’ good time in London



Date: Saturday 28 February

Adventurers: Me, Cheryl and DH Mark

Event: We go up to London’s West End to see the Lion King at the Lyceum Theatre

Celebration: the tickets were my birthday present in December from DH!



This trip started on Sunday 21 December 2003, when I unwrapped DH’s birthday present. I was supposed to think he’d just got me Eeyore socks, but of course I didn’t fall for that one and worked out something else was wrapped up in the socks – and sure enough, there they were – two top priced tickets to go and see the Lion King musical in London’s West End on Saturday 28 February, the first Saturday night of the new year which had seats available when DH had booked it!



Anyway, fast forward to Saturday 28 February. We’ve decided we’ll go up to London a bit earlier, as we don’t often the chance to visit the capital, although that’s changing, thanks to all the wonderful PassPorter meets we’ve both enjoyed and are still planning with people visiting London! We were aiming to leave at 2.30 p.m., meaning we should be in London an hour later, but almost as we were about to leave, our neighbour rang to ask if DH could help him with something. He’s a lovely guy and I hate to say no, but I had to tell him we were about to walk out of the door to head up to London to see the Lion King – nothing was going to delay me a minute longer!



Our trip up to London was relatively quick. We live about 35 miles south east of London, but you do tend to travel slowly from the outskirts of the city into the centre, even on a weekend – there are just so many sets of traffic lights, that as soon as you speed up, you’re slowing down again. We did fine with directions, until we were about half a mile from the car park and then we spent the next 20 minutes trying to find it, passing the road it was in by accident, finding roads we wanted to go down were one way – you know the sort of thing!



Finally we made it and found a parking space with no trouble and we were off. As we were quite close to Covent Garden, we headed for there. Covent Garden is famous for its street entertainers and is home to many interesting shops and restaurants. For more information, check out these sites: Covent Garden and Covent Garden Life The fact that I’d discovered it now has a Disney Store just before we left also had something to do with my strong desire to visit the area as well!



The area has changed from the last time I visited – probably about six or seven years ago now. There seem to be a lot more shops there and a lot more mainstream shops, although the quirky, more unusual outlets that Covent Garden’s famous for still remain. I know the last time I was there, it didn’t have a Disney Store, HMV or Gadget Shop, but to me, these were all good additions, as it gives you a wider breadth of shops to visit – and that’s always good, right?



The place was packed and the problem was a lot of people were just wandering and kept stopping in the middle of the pavement, meaning we had quite a few near misses, where we almost walked into them. There was a huge crowd at one end, watching one of Covent Garden’s street entertainers – the crowd was so big and so deep, we couldn’t see what it was, but it appeared to be one, or possibly two, guys on a unicycle. I figured if there were that many people watching, it was probably a good time to go inside and browse.



We wandered through a couple of bookshops and a Peter Rabbit shop – it did have some Eeyore items, but not that many and when it came to the personalised keyrings, they didn’t have one with Cheryl on it. We headed outside again and I took a couple of shots of the area, while DH went and got some money out from a cashpoint.





The inside of Covent Garden market





The exterior of Covent Garden





One of the new parts of Covent Garden – and this part also includes the Disney Store!



Now I appreciate this next part will not mean anything to most of you, but as he got some money out, I looked at the guy standing near me, who was carrying a baby girl on his back. I did a double take and thought “that’s the actor who plays Marlon on Emmerdale” (probably the third most popular soap opera over here) and then he walked up to me and asked for directions to Bond Street – his Yorkshire accent confirmed who it was, but of course I couldn’t help him find Bond Street. I didn’t say anything to him, as I couldn’t remember his real name and I think there’s nothing worse than calling someone by their character’s name. Off he walked just as DH returned – it took him a while to register what I was saying and I’m not sure he believed me, but I know who that guy was – and he was famous (at least over here he is!)



Next we headed over to the London Transport Museum, which is also based in Covent Garden. I have an odd fascination with the London Underground – I don’t know what it is, it’s something to do with the fact it’s all built underground and I never cease to be amazed by the whole underground city beneath London and how on earth they built it without everything above collapsing! So into the shop we went and I was able to pick up a book about all the disused stations on the Underground – another fascination of mine, after I covered the closure of one of those stations as a journalist. Seeing it being closed down made me wonder what happened to all the other stations which have closed in the past… now I can find out in my book!



... continued in next post

[chezp]

After a quick stop at the Disney Store – where yet again we failed to find the Eeyore beanies I’ve been hunting for over the last few weeks! – we headed off supposedly to Soho, but our directional sense isn’t that great in London any longer (just as well I didn’t attempt to direct that actor to Bond Street!) and we ended up in the Strand, which leads down to Trafalgar Square. As we walked, it got colder and colder and then I could feel freezing rain, not quite snow, but very close.



I kept ducking into shops for a minute at a time, just to warm up a bit and to dry and mop my nose, which by then was streaming in the freezing conditions. Of course, when we left home, it was dry and sunny, albeit cold, and we hadn’t thought to bring an umbrella with us. By the time we made it to Trafalgar Square, I managed to grab a couple of photos, before the freezing rain turned to hail – it felt very surreal to be standing in the middle of a London landmark, with hail raining down on us at the end of February, not something I expect to experience again in my lifetime!





Trafalgar Square





Trafalgar Square just before it began to hail – look at the colour of the sky in this photo!





We took photos of each of us in the hailstorm – if you look carefully, you can see specks of white on each of us and that’s the hail!



As we left Trafalgar Square and tried to head back to our original destination of Soho, the hail stopped as suddenly as it had started and it was dry again. Very odd weather. We found ourselves heading up towards Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, the home of all the major London film premieres. As we walked through the centre of the square, we read the inscription on the statue there and discovered that it has to stay as a square, as an ancient law says the square itself can’t be built on. You learn something every day…



We carried on walking and came across the Trocadero, a big entertainment complex housing, amongst others, Planet Hollywood. By this time, it was about 5.15 p.m., so we thought we’d go in and see how long the wait was for a table. We went upstairs and the first thing which hit me was the smell of smoke – not nice and when we were told that we were looking at 20 – 30 minutes for a table, I decided I didn’t want to wait.



Instead, we headed over the road to TGI Friday’s. The wait there was estimated to be around 10 – 20 minutes, a big improvement, so we decided to wait. We were sent in the general direction of the bar and that was when I found the cocktail menu and DH groaned. He knew, from previous experience at WDW, what was coming next. I spent ages scouring the menu, trying to decide what I wanted and eventually the Key West Cooler caught my eye – as it included three of my favourites, Archers, Malibu and rum. I was a bit worried that it might not be sweet enough for my tastes, but the bartender Silvia (either Spanish or Italian – I couldn’t quite work it out) told me she’d make it slightly sweeter and it was wonderful.



If you remember the Tom Cruise film, Cocktail, all the bar tenders were exactly like that – it was something to see and they even made a big deal out of serving a glass of Coke! Silvia was very good at her job and customer service, she promised to give DH free refills (not something that usually happens over here) provided he didn’t tell anyone – and she was as good as her word.



We waited about 15 minutes and then decided to go and ask how much longer our table would be. Just as we got there, we heard our name being called – talk about good timing! We decided to just get entrees, as it was still quite early – I went for the vegetable fajitas and DH went for the chicken and seafood skewers. I couldn’t believe how they turned up – and I just had to take a photo of them for posterity!





DH peeking out from behind his dinner!



By now, my Key West Cooler had become just ice and I felt I needed something else to keep me going, so it was back to the cocktail menu again. This time, I spied Pina Colada – ooh, my favourite! Sold…





Me with my Key West Cooler cocktail – the Pina Colada I had afterwards was the same size…



to be continued...

[chezp]

Refuelled, we headed out of TGI Friday’s very happy. We both felt we’d eaten enough (and in my case, I’d drunk enough too! ) For many people reading this, TGI Friday’s may not be much of a treat, but for us it is, as there aren’t many of them around and it tends to serve up good American and Mexican food and there aren’t a lot of other chain restaurants that do that. The bill, including tip, came to £39 – not bad we felt, especially as a lot of restaurants in London are expensive.



We headed back towards Covent Garden and the Lyceum Theatre and fortunately the rain, hail and everything else did stay off, although it was still very cold. DH kept joking that he half expected to come out of the theatre after the show and find snow on the ground.



We arrived just before 7 p.m. and the show was due to start at 7.30 p.m. Our first port of call was for a bathroom break and by the time I got back to the foyer, DH had already bought me a souvenir programme and a brochure (one told you about the actors and backstage people involved in the show, the other was more a colour reminder of the show you were about to see) – both were great. As DH said to me, “I had to buy them for you – otherwise it would be like going out for a meal and not letting you eat anything”



We made it up the stairs to the gift shop, which had a selection of T-shirts, CD’s, books, beanies, mugs and pens – that sort of thing. Although it had a small area allocated to it, they had managed to fit a lot in there. I couldn’t resist the CD – I somehow figured I’d love the show and would want to listen to the music afterwards (and that was indeed proved to be true!) and then I spotted a wonderful T-shirt with the Lion King logo in silver glitter over the London skyline on a black T-shirt. I wasn’t sure about it, as I figured it would be a stupid price, but when we found it was only £13, we went for it. At the cash till, I went to get out my credit card, as they were presents for me, but DH wouldn’t hear of it and insisted on putting it on his credit card – “after all it is your birthday”!





Me in front of the Lion King gift shop



Our seats were the top priced ones, £45 each, and were in the Royal Circle. I must admit I was a little disappointed with them when we got to them, as they were a long distance from the stage and I like to be as close to the action as possible, but they did give us a good view all the same. The people next to us were evidently not impressed at the seats at all. I heard them moaning when we arrived, but according to DH who sat next to them, the moaning continued the whole evening, which got to be a bit annoying after a while.



In fact, we didn’t have a great audience surrounding us really. The couple of the left of me were no trouble at all, but I’m sorry to say it, there was a very noisy American behind us, who’d evidently worked in theatre. He spent the whole half hour before the show telling his girlfriend how everything worked, how many people would be employed and what they all did. It got to be very annoying after a while as well… Then we also had problems during the performance with, how shall I put it, someone with Pumbaa-like tendencies. It wasn’t pleasant at times!



As for the performance itself, it was out of this world. We’ve seen two other West End productions – Grease and Cats and in my opinion, the Lion King outshone both of those. The costumes were amazing and the performers were truly stunning. Some of the animals were so lifelike – I’m thinking of especially the hyenas and giraffes. I could not believe how they got the giraffes to move, that took some serious skill!



Most of the animals had head-dresses above their faces, so you could still see their faces. That was certainly the case with the likes of the lions and the hyenas. When it came to the antelope, they were seen to be leaping by means of a clever bicycle contraption and the giraffe saw people perched on top of four stilts to give them the height and an extra long neck and head attached to their heads. Pumbaa was again a man for the head, with Pumbaa’s usual big nose and mouth in front of him and the back legs attached to the man’s back. It’s very difficult to describe, but it did work, which I was pleased about, as Pumbaa is my favourite character in the Lion King and I wasn’t sure a human could carry him off, but he did. Timon was the only one that I felt didn’t work. Having a man dressed in green behind was essentially a puppet didn’t seem to me the best way of illustrating him, especially not when Disney do a better job of it at their parks.



The first scene brought tears to my eyes. It was when the animals started to walk up through the aisles of people below and I spotted the elephant that I could feel the tears. I just could not believe how beautiful it all was and how well human beings could replicate animals. The whole first scene was breath taking and I really couldn’t take it all in – there was just so much happening.



The first half of the show stuck pretty rigidly to the film, even down to the dialogue (having watched the DVD over Christmas, I knew that! ) and some of the actors had even made strenuous efforts to sound like their film counterparts – in particular Scar, Zazu, Shenzi the hyena and Pumbaa. If you closed your eyes, they sounded exactly the same!



Some, of course, were very different – I felt that having a woman to play Rafiki worked far better than the cartoon character we’re used to and boy did she have a powerful voice on her! It really sent tingles through my spine every time she sang anything. Although many of the cast had superb voices, the other two who really stood out for me were Nala and Simba, both of whom had beautiful new songs in part two of the show. Nala’s song, “Shadowland” and Simba’s song about his father, “Endless Night” quickly become new favourites of mine and then I knew I’d done the right thing in getting the CD – if only to hear both of those songs again.



The second part of the show did move slightly away from the storyline of the film and I thought the way it did was interesting. One song highlights Scar’s interest with Nala, as Zazu suggests to him that he needs a mate. An idea which I’m surprised hadn’t been explored before – after all, it gave a bit more weight as to why Nala then went on to leave the pride, another slight difference to the film.



Every scene was very well constructed, even the stampede scene. I really couldn’t work out how they were going to make that work on stage, but they did, even to the extent that you could feel the stampede coming towards you! An excellent effect. Some of the scenes, particularly for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” and “I Just Can’t Wait to Be King” were extremely colourful, but this was offset by the foreboding elephant graveyard and the effect of the water drying up in Pride Rock was very well done.



Understandably, the cast got a rousing reception when they took their final bows – I couldn’t believe it was 10.15 p.m. We’d just sat through two and a half hours and it didn’t feel like it at all. The show had transported us to a completely different place – a truly magical place, just like everything else Disney does. I would love to go back and see the show again – hopefully we will one day, as to when, we’ll have to see.



When we came out, the pavement outside was crowded with people, most of them going the opposite direction to the way we wanted to go, so I felt a bit like a salmon swimming upstream, but eventually we were able to cross the road and get away from the crowds – and take a final couple of photos:





The Lyceum Theatre – home of the London production of the Lion King



We were relieved to see no snow on the ground and if anything, it felt warmer now than when we’d gone into the theatre. We made our way back to the car park and were fascinated to see all the street cleaning machines on our way back, readying themselves for action. We were in the car by 10.35 p.m. and home by just after 11.40 p.m. A lovely, but long night and one I hope we’ll get a chance to repeat someday.





One final shot of me in my Lion King T-shirt, with my souvenir brochure, programme and CD!

[joyjoy]

Excellent report, Cheryl, thank you! Sounds so wonderful, thanks to your great details.

How cute, you have on your Eeyore socks, too.

[statelady01]

I knew it would be a great time for you both- thanks for sharing!

[loobyoxlip]

Cheryl, thank you so much for taking the time to post this. I bet you are still on a high from having gone Sounds like an absolute blast! I so cannot wait to see if this summer.

[boBmouse]

Great report Cheryl,

I love all the pictures. I saw a show on the learning channel last month about using one of the unused under ground tunnels to store the artifacts from the British Museum during WWII.

<font color="green">Bobºoº </font>

[MickeyMAC]

Thank you for sharing. You really made it come alive. I'm so glad you had a good time.
Linda

[Colexis Mom]

Great report Cheryl Thanks for sharing Love the pictures as well!!

[goofy4goofy]

Excellent trip report Cheryl!!! Thank you so much for sharing this with us!!! I just have to see the show now!!!

Kelly

[rescuesk]

Sounds like a great show, and a great time! Thanks for sharing your TR!

Sue

[LilMarcieMouse]

<font color="blue">thanks for shareing Cheryl. I tmkaes my 18 days seen like for ever. Oh the stress of waiting. </font>

[GoofyMom]

Wow, what a great day you had, aside from the weather, of course! Sightseeing, meeting a tv star, slurping down a couple of yummy sounding &amp; yummy looking drinks, a good dinner, and then The Lion King to top it off! I think that was a birthday gift worth waiting for!

[Smiley]

Wow!

It sounds like a fantabulous time!

Everything looks so beautiful in the pictures!!!

Maybe someday we will get a chance to visit...

Your report is certainly a good way to go on a virtual trip!

Thank you!