London in December

Rebecca thought we had keys for the house in London when we returned from South Hampton.  We didn’t.  That is the day I stayed for a few hours with 6 suitcases in the dental surgery apartment  across the road, waiting for her to come home.  The next day, we went off to the theatre and we  thought Rebecca had keys for her own house to use when she returned from her pottery class.  She didn’t.   That is the day she climbed over the fence to break into her own house.  How can Rebecca go to the locksmith, have 10 keys made, and soon there aren’t enough to spread around.  The only person who is safely able to get into the house here is Duncan, who carries his key as the fob on his winter jacket.  So he is good for entry into the house, as long as he is wearing his ski jacket when he goes out.

We have two more full days here.  Two other full days have passed.  We split up and go our separate ways when our interests diverge.  Greg went off to have lunch with old colleagues.  Rebecca, Wyona and I went to see Legally Blonde – not that Rebecca doesn’t know this play.  She teaches it in Law and Film.  But this is musical theatre and has the camp that the movie misses.  She was not the only one in the theatre laughing, nor the only one in our row.  Some jokes are like the old Laurel and Hardy movies.  No matter how many times you see the sequence, you still laugh.  When she asked us afterwards, which are your favourite parts, we begin to list them and can’t stop.  The opening scene where the possible engagement of the protagonists is being celebrated, the scene in the restaurant where Emmett and Elle Woods are having conversations with cross-purposes (him about moving on, and her about finalizing their relationship), Elle’s work studying the tome, LSAT for Dummies .... there isn’t a scene that doesn’t have the charm that keeps people coming back to that show again and again.  “How could this piece of musical theatre beat out Love Never Dies in he Olivier awards,” we ask you other over and over.  But when you wipe all other musical theatre off the map by taking 7 out of 8 awards – there doesn’t need to be more evidence than that for the reason people.

That night, Greg and I split up again.  Wyona went to see the musical, Backbeat, about the early Beatles and Greg and I went to Three Days in May, an exploration of Churchillian politics and Hitler’s attempted take-over of England. 

Ah, sweet London theatre.