August 11 and 14 – London Theatres

In between trips to Dover and Canterbury, we worked on our West End Theatre fix. We had seen Jersey Boys when we were in London in April, but otherwise we were not all that impressed with the shows available. We fixed that by seeing “Dirty Dancing,” “Sweet Bird of Youth” (seen at The Old Vic one of London’s most famous theaters staring Kim Cattrall (from ”Sex in the City”) in a magnificent performance, “The Mousetrap,” “ Fences” (which we had first seen in 1987 in New York City staring James Earl Jones) and “Once” (a stage adaptation of the movie).

Dirty Dancing stage.

St Martin's Theater where The Mousetrap has been playing continuously for 60 years. Below, we saw performance number 25,308! That is an average of more than 400 performances per year for 60 plus years.

Taking photographs inside the theatre was forbidden, but when did that stop Elaine? We had to get the stage setting for “Once.” The setting is an Irish Pub and before the show the audience can go up on the stage for a drink in the pub set and see what it is like to look into the auditorium from the stage. Just before the performance begins, the actors come enter the pub and begin playing instruments and singing songs. The audience returns to their seats and the show begins. Very interesting.

Exterior of the Phoenix Theater where “Once” is playing.  Why is it called “ONCE”???  We never got a good explanation of that title.