8 Jan

Woke up late again, went to lunch at The Fox with Lainey, Gregg, Katie, and Liane. Lainey and Liane had Belgian waffles with bananas and ice cream which looked really good and apparently was extremely sweet and covered with sugar. Yum. I just had a tomato+mozzarella+pesto panini with a side of chips which was pretty decent. Katie told me about a pantomime show playing tonight with SIR IAN McKELLEN for just £10!! Her friend from Wash U who is also here told her about it. I promptly told her I would definitely be joining them. Katie and LeAnn decided to go shopping up at Tottenham Court Road and such while Lainey, Gregg, and I headed back to the dorm. We met Bambi at the desk and I persuaded him to teach me snooker since we had nothing else to do that night. Back in the room I straightened the place a bit and updated by blog. Bambi was running quite late and by the time he arrived I had already gotten a call from Katie saying they were ready for dinner and wanted to give me an hour’s head start so I could meet them there. I immediately started getting ready and left within minutes. I had the choice of continuing with the original plan or staying around to meet newcomers, play snooker with Bambi and Lainey, and go to the opening of the bar at 6:45, and I chose to stick with the McKellen plan. Turns out, it was one of the best decisions I’ve made so far. I rode the bus in silence during the 40 minute ride up to Tottenham Court and at first headed in the wrong direction before I consulted my map and reoriented myself in the right direction. I walked up the road for just a couple of minutes before running into Katie and the group. Katie introduced me to her friends Liz (who goes to Wash U with her and is also studying at King’s) and Grenada (sp, didn’t quite catch her name) who is going to another UCL (University College of London) school. We were all hungry and walked for a bit until we found a cheap noodle bar where I got a ton of vegetable noodles for £3.50. Just like Golden Dragon, Saket. Just like it. We ate rather quickly since we had a show to catch and I didn’t get to finish my noodles. Consequently, I got hungry about halfway through the show (but as Sachi will tell you, I’m always hungry). After an agonizing wait in the cold, we finally caught the bus for the theater and got there in about 10 minutes. The ticket guy told us that the £10 tickets had practically no good view of the stage (just like R+J guys) while £20 tickets were better. We decided Ian was definitely worth £20 and so we all shelled out the money. After going to the ladies room (Liane commented, “We’re such girls!”) we made it our seats just minutes before the show started. Grenada pulled out her camera but a woman by the aisles immediately rushed over and informed her that photography was forbidden. Good thing I didn’t bring my camera. Grenada was upset by this later when a woman during intermission stood up in plain sight with her camera and took pictures and didn’t get caught, while Grenada tried again and was again immediately warned. Weird. The show was “Aladdin” and was done in pantomime format, which means it would involve over-the-top performances, ribald humor, elaborate sets and costumes, and lots of audience participation. The villain opened the show and everyone booed and hissed at him. He was a terrific actor and, expecting the crowd reaction, acted appropriately. Aladdin then appeared onstage chased by a couple of clownish coppers who were funny and acrobatic. Everyone, of course, was waiting for the knight. He appeared in the role of Mrs. Twankey (yes, a woman…Sir McKellen in drag) who is Aladdin’s mum and a laundress by profession though she was a former actress. As soon as Ian appeared on stage the crowd erupted in applause and he had to wait for us to quiet down. He looked fabulous in his dress and seemed to just love being in his role. I don’t know if I took my eyes off of him the whole time. IAN McKELLEN was fewer than 150 feet away from me…He’s a funny man and delivered many of the more raunchy lines of a play full of double entendres and bawdy jokes. The story followed the basic plotline of the Disney movie and the acting was great from everyone. McKellen paraded about in various dresses, each wilder than the one before and him looking fantastic the whole time. It’s amazing how a 73-year-old man can still cavort and dance about like that. At one point there was an obligatory LOTR joke in which Aladdin is talking about the princess’ ring that has magic powers and where Ian says “Not another ring!” And goes on in his fantastic Gandalf voice “One ring to rule them all!” with the lights going dim and the music all dramatic. Another character had to soothe him and say, “Not that again Twankes!” while McKellen puts on this perfect Gandalf face and look. It was a brilliant moment. I tell you, there’s nothing quite like seeing him dressed as a woman, prancing about on stage, and singing at the same time. Near the end of the show, Twankes had a premiere performance in which she soloed with just a piano for accompaniment. Ian appeared in a stunning lounge singer gown bedecked with sequins and a sort of silver cape/sash. (After a previous scene and during audience applause I shouted “I love you Ian!” and was the only one to do so the entire night. The girls I was with must have thought I was crazy but I was having fun. When he walked out in this scene someone hooted “Sexy!” which he just smiled at). His song was appropriately bawdy though he took it so seriously and it only got wilder when a group of younger men dressed in tight sequined shorts, top hats, and canes pranced on stage and became his backup dancers. Ah, such a spectacle. After dancing with the boys for a while, Ian trotted to the back of the stage where he cast off the cape and then sauntered back to the front of the stage for the final verse. He of course received some catcalls and more cheers from the audience. At the very end, when the cast was presented in order of importance (as happens at the end of all plays), I gave Ian a standing ovation which apparently no one in my line of sight felt he deserved. Oh well, at least I can be fairly confident that he noticed me. When the lights finally came on again, all of us girls left feeling happy and thrilled. At the bus stop, we couldn’t stop commenting on how amazing Ian is and how funny the show was. We joked that it’s too bad we saw something this good at the beginning of our semester since everything else will seem so boring! Though, since this is London, I’m sure it can only really get better (especially if I can call this merely an introduction into the culture). Our ride home was fairly quiet and since we were all a bit tired, we just went to bed.