London + Becca + Kendall + $$$ = shows
No words of wisdom here, just bringing people up to date on things that most of you have already seen through scattered photos and posts...
Life in London brings with it many changes. One of the most evident of these, in our early days here, is the proximity of the West End. ("West End" is to London as "Broadway" is to New York.) We are within 45 minutes of watching any of approximately 40 musicals, professionally done, in relatively small theaters (very small, compared to places like the Wharton Center or DeVos). Along with eating food nearby that is amazingly wonderful.
Now I think that spending $50+ on two hours of entertainment is a hefty price; I can get dozens, and often hundreds, of hours of gaming entertainment for that. But I do understand that live shows are a different kind of experience, and they are reasonably priced when one looks at what all goes into this quality show in a small theater. And often one can get tickets for closer to $20. (And even more often for closer to $200, but we don't do that. I don't think. Not very often, anyway.)
Kendall and Becca, however, think that live theater is something that should be patronized often, especially when they, and I, and Gregory are all in the same place, which doesn't happen very often. All of which means that we went to four live performances over the course of 8 days when we arrived.
First up: Sir Ian McKellen, in a delightful one-man show. (Pictures are not allowed during shows, so I'm afraid you just get before & after shots, or intermissions.) For those who don't know him, he is known recently to mass audiences as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings films and as Magneto in the X-Men films. But he has been world renowned for serious work long before the turn of the century; he is listed in over 200 roles on IMDB.
The show started with him reading Gandalf's most dramatic scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, and he read it the right way. The rest of Act I was his story of growing up in England and discovering acting, delightfully told.
Act II consisted of his pulling out all of Shakespeare's plays, and challenging us (the audience, as a group) to name them all. Someone would shout out a play, he would find it from the pile, move it to the other side of the stage, and either do a soliloquy from it, or act out a short scene (we got Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene, of course), or tell a story about the play or a performance he had been in. We managed to name them all, and he spoke about all but two (I forget which ones, he said something like "Some plays are better remembered by name only" and tossed them aside.) This went on until about midnight, so of course we went out the following night too...
...to hear Handel's Messiah at St. James Church in Piccadilly. This beautiful ancient structure has wonderful acoustics, gorgeous woodwork, and a delightful congregation, at least to judge by their bulletin boards - and especially by the Christmas Eve service we celebrated here several years ago. In addition to the usual glories of the work, we got to enjoy an actual unvalved trumpet, the type played when Handel wrote the music. (Apparently they cheat on modern ones by at least putting a little hole you can cover or not, so playing different notes involves (a) covering the hole or not, and then (b) pursing your lips just right and blowing.) The Trumpet Shall Sound is always a great piece, but even more so when played on the original instrument.
To ensure that we were plenty tired before hearing Messiah, we went ice-skating first. If you think that Michiganders are, in general, terrible ice-skaters, you have clearly never skated in London. Michiganders are Olympians in comparison. People were having fun, but about 95% of them were horrific. It was very exciting; I got a lot of practice in suddenly adjusting my speed.
The following week was... Christmas! We celebrated Christmas Eve by taking Becca's boys* to the London Zoo, where we saw many, many animals and got very, very tired. Becca normally has all three of them to herself, which she can manage just fine, but having to also take care of me, Kendall, and Gregory made it rough even for her. My favorite part: the carousel.
*Re: Becca's boys. Becca has children everywhere. She hasn't given birth to any that we're aware of, but they seem to appear out of nowhere whenever she moves to a new location. The current crew consists of an insanely competent three year old (he will, for example, ask Becca for her credit card and pay for his own items at times) and his twin baby brothers. Becca generally watches the three of them by strapping one twin on each hip and holding the elder's hand, but for this trip she allowed me to carry one of the twins and Gregory to occasionally carry the elder. (Names are not listed because I'm not sure whether I'm allowed in this setting.)
Christmas Day brought Christmas presents, which naturally meant show tickets. Many Wesley band members will be happy to know that I will finally see Hamilton, in good ol' King George's town, which should make it doubly fun. Tickets to Harry Potter and the Cursed Child have also been procured, but both of these shows are later in the year. None the less, Becca did want to see at least one actual musical while the four of us were in town, so the day after Christmas we all saw Dear Evan Hansen. None of us knew the music or the story, though I did recognize one song (On the Outside Looking In) from the Wesley Fall Spiritual Retreat. It's very powerful in context. I thought the show was great, both the story and the cast. The story is not always fun, but very relatable for anyone who has struggled with relationships in high school - which means pretty much everyone who has ever been in high school. Regarding the cast, it was the first professional show where I saw the actors as people - both as the characters in the play, but also as real people acting in a play. This happens frequently in local productions where you know some of the actors, but it was really fun watching it happen with experts. I found myself rooting for both the characters and the actors, somehow inhabiting both the story world and the stage world simultaneously. This might have been due, in part, to being so close. Becca got us a box for Christmas and we were practically standing over the stage (it's not obvious in this photo due to the angle, but we are as close to the stage on our side as the man standing in the box on the far side). Dear Evan Hansen is an intimate show anyway - most of it takes place in indoor rooms with two to four people - and being so close meant that we could very clearly see the actors, their expressions, their excitement and their effort and their exhaustion (and their spit - I was glad we were in the box rather than the front row!)
Finally, Sir Ian had mentioned "pantos" in his show as a peculiarly British art form, and impossible to describe. Kendall decided we had to go see for ourselves what this crazy thing was. "Panto" is short for "pantomime," but there was very little pantomime involved, unless you counted the very, very, very broad physical humor. We saw Cinderella, which apparently is a very common theme for a panto. Sir Ian was right - it's peculiar, and impossible to describe. But to give you a brief flavor, imagine you're seeing a Disney version of Cinderella.
Except:
And now it is late, and we have to get up bright and early so we can be at the British Museum at 8:40 to learn all about English culture with all the new study-abroad students from Syracuse.
Next post: probably our trip to Italy.
/charlie
p.s. Re: Sir Ian reading Gandalf "the right way":
A British actor was asked why so many people in England attend the theatre, and so few attend church. They responded
"At the theatre, actors say things that are false as though they were true.
In church, clergy say things that are true as though they were false."
Life in London brings with it many changes. One of the most evident of these, in our early days here, is the proximity of the West End. ("West End" is to London as "Broadway" is to New York.) We are within 45 minutes of watching any of approximately 40 musicals, professionally done, in relatively small theaters (very small, compared to places like the Wharton Center or DeVos). Along with eating food nearby that is amazingly wonderful.
Now I think that spending $50+ on two hours of entertainment is a hefty price; I can get dozens, and often hundreds, of hours of gaming entertainment for that. But I do understand that live shows are a different kind of experience, and they are reasonably priced when one looks at what all goes into this quality show in a small theater. And often one can get tickets for closer to $20. (And even more often for closer to $200, but we don't do that. I don't think. Not very often, anyway.)
 |
| Awaiting Act II of Ian McKellen |
First up: Sir Ian McKellen, in a delightful one-man show. (Pictures are not allowed during shows, so I'm afraid you just get before & after shots, or intermissions.) For those who don't know him, he is known recently to mass audiences as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings films and as Magneto in the X-Men films. But he has been world renowned for serious work long before the turn of the century; he is listed in over 200 roles on IMDB.
The show started with him reading Gandalf's most dramatic scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, and he read it the right way. The rest of Act I was his story of growing up in England and discovering acting, delightfully told.
Act II consisted of his pulling out all of Shakespeare's plays, and challenging us (the audience, as a group) to name them all. Someone would shout out a play, he would find it from the pile, move it to the other side of the stage, and either do a soliloquy from it, or act out a short scene (we got Romeo and Juliet's balcony scene, of course), or tell a story about the play or a performance he had been in. We managed to name them all, and he spoke about all but two (I forget which ones, he said something like "Some plays are better remembered by name only" and tossed them aside.) This went on until about midnight, so of course we went out the following night too...
 |
| Look Ma, no valves! |
...to hear Handel's Messiah at St. James Church in Piccadilly. This beautiful ancient structure has wonderful acoustics, gorgeous woodwork, and a delightful congregation, at least to judge by their bulletin boards - and especially by the Christmas Eve service we celebrated here several years ago. In addition to the usual glories of the work, we got to enjoy an actual unvalved trumpet, the type played when Handel wrote the music. (Apparently they cheat on modern ones by at least putting a little hole you can cover or not, so playing different notes involves (a) covering the hole or not, and then (b) pursing your lips just right and blowing.) The Trumpet Shall Sound is always a great piece, but even more so when played on the original instrument.
 |
| Not Martians. There was a green Christmas-y light. |
 |
| Kendall is attempting to entertain sleeping children. |
The following week was... Christmas! We celebrated Christmas Eve by taking Becca's boys* to the London Zoo, where we saw many, many animals and got very, very tired. Becca normally has all three of them to herself, which she can manage just fine, but having to also take care of me, Kendall, and Gregory made it rough even for her. My favorite part: the carousel.
 |
| Our box - just four chairs and four Farnums! |
 |
| The Farnums at a panto. Not a very informative picture. |
Except:
- it's one of the new productions, so some of the bits are clearly for adults, and you hope the kids don't ask questions afterwards.
- and it seems like maybe it's rated PG-13 for blatant lewd behavior.
- and all of the actors also play instruments and keep hopping in and out of the band.
- and all of the music is recent rock tunes that somehow fit in the story.
- and the ugly stepsisters are played by men.
- and the men dressed as stepsisters clearly have to sing It's Raining Men mid-show.
And now it is late, and we have to get up bright and early so we can be at the British Museum at 8:40 to learn all about English culture with all the new study-abroad students from Syracuse.
Next post: probably our trip to Italy.
/charlie
p.s. Re: Sir Ian reading Gandalf "the right way":
A British actor was asked why so many people in England attend the theatre, and so few attend church. They responded
"At the theatre, actors say things that are false as though they were true.
In church, clergy say things that are true as though they were false."
Well, the idea of blogging semi-regularly about our adventure didn't last long... sorry to those who wanted to keep up! My recommendation for those who want to keep up with our lives: follow https://www.facebook.com/kendall.farnum.5, who is not up to date (no February posts as yet) but is still Facebooking pretty regularly.
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