January 9-10th
Day 7: Thursday Jan 9th
Day seven was a dream come true for me, and it was hands down my favorite day of the trip. We checked out of Stratford early in the morning and began our day with the Warner Bros Studio Tour of The Making of Harry Potter. I am a huge fan of the books and movies (and a Ravenclaw for those curious), so it was an amazing experience seeing all of the costumes, sets, props, and most importantly all of the movie-magic which brought everything to life. Unfortunately, it seemed as though every elementary school in England had the same idea and were having their field trips that same day, so I was unable to fully appreciate everything that the tour had to offer. That said, it was still a heck of a lot of fun!
One of the most interesting parts of the tour was learning about the transformation of Filius Flitwick’s design from the first two movies to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Supposedly, Flitwick’s character was cut from the third movie, but they decided to bring the actor back to play the role of frog choir master. The director liked the look of the choir master so much, however, that this new character became known as ‘Flitwick’ instead. I have always associated Flitwick as being the frog choir master, so it was interesting to learn that they were initially meant to be two separate characters. The addition of the Weasley twins, a nice glass of Butterbeer, and some unique Ravenclaw merch made this stop a memorable one for sure! I would love to return to The Making of Harry Potter one day because I’m sure there were things that I missed out on the first time. One can never have too much magic in their lives after all!
We later checked into our third and final hotel of the trip, a Holiday Inn located in North Acton. It was a ways out from the city area of London, but it was a short distance from the nearest tube station which made traveling about really easy. We were then given time to settle into our new rooms before heading out to our third performance. I was excited to ride the tube, or underground train system, for the first time, and I was happy to learn it was surprisingly easy to navigate too.
& Juliet was by far my favorite performance of the trip — with its amazing choreography, beautiful costumes, and funny yet intriguing story-line, & Juliet at the Shaftesbury Theatre was a phenomenal experience. This jukebox musical cleverly asks “what if” Juliet hadn’t died at the end of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet and instead choose her own fate? Set to the tunes of familiar pop songs such as Since U Been Gone and Oops! I Did it Again, this musical found a compelling way to remix and modernize a classic tale while still staying true to Shakespeare’s original style. My favorite aspect of the show had to be the costumes! I loved the use of Elizabethan clothing elements mixed with more modern styles; it was an intelligent choice, especially considering what the show is all about! Each of the ensemble members had their own unique aspects to their outfits as well which were then maintained throughout each of their costume changes, which I really appreciated. My favorite actor was actually one of those ensemble members, and his outfits always included cut-off overalls. After the show I learned that his name was Josh Baker, and he was actually the Assistant Dance Captain for the show. Props to him! He did an amazing job, even if he was often in the background.
At one point, there was a technical difficulty when Romeo made his grand revival from the dead, coming down from the ceiling. We actually didn’t realize there was something wrong until a stage manager came out onto the stage and the dancers retreated mid-song. The actor playing Romeo actually looked out at the audience and smiling said, “This has never happened before.” Everything was fixed rather quickly, and it made for a unique and memorable experience. Even though there was this brief disruption to the show, it was handled so well that I still left the theater knowing that & Juliet was going to be a difficult show to beat as my new favorite. Overall, as an English major who has studied Shakespeare’s works dozens of times, I really appreciated the inclusion of William Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway (yes, that was actually her name) as major characters. The underlying plot of Anne wanting William to change the story’s ending because Romeo and Juliet was the only play he ever wrote which reminded Anne of herself, was extremely touching. It also allowed the musical to maintain that sense of Shakespearean DRAMA! and confusion which he oh-so loved to include in his plays. It was definitely a show I would go see again; in fact, I am listening to the soundtrack right now as I write! I highly recommend this production, and hope to see it rise in popularity and acknowledgement over the following months.
Day 8: Friday Jan 10th
The next day brought us to the Tower of London, where we learned a lot about the tower grounds, the crown jewels, and the royal family. At one point in history, there were many exotic animals kept on the grounds. These animals included monkeys, a lion, a polar bear, an elephant, some tigers, and many more; they were all able to wander about the tower grounds freely too. Supposedly, the lion actually mauled a female visitor to death right after she had been petting its paw; there was even an old news article reporting the event and everything! While animals are no longer present at the tower, there is still an aviary for the Queen’s ravens. And, just as the other animals were once able to do, the ravens roam freely about the tower. We were actually able to get fairly close to some of them. We then watched a video of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation and saw many of the crowned jewels. Often times the jewels from one crown would be passed on to the next one. I had a really chill time exploring the Tower of London.
Later, we got to attend a really cool interactive experience of The Great Gatsby. Many of us got dressed up for the performance, because the audience was meant to be a part of the show acting as guests at one of Jay Gatsby’s famous parties. What better way to welcome in the new year, but with a taste of the original roaring 20’s! The decor was really beautiful, and truly set the mood for the rest of the evening. The only downside to the interior setup, was that there were limited places to sit throughout the experience. At one point, Gatsby himself invited Zack, Elise and I (along with a couple other people from our group) to his office where he offered each of us a complimentary glass of gin and a business card inviting us to partake in some illegal gambling activities. It was here that we were able to witness a special scene, one which many others where not able to witness. Throughout the night, audience members could be invited to see special scenes such as this one which took place in side rooms separated from the main room of the party. This was a fun element to the interactive theater experience, because while the major scenes always took place in the main room when everyone was present, there were enough side scenes offered that would warrant attending multiple showings in order to witness them all.
By the end of the night, several of the actors had lost their American accents, but crowd favorite Nick Carraway (played by James Lawrence) was still going strong and it honestly didn’t bother me all that much. Apparently some of the actors were actually nervous about doing American accents because they knew that there would be Americans in the audience; they really didn’t have to worry though! The acting was so charged with emotion that I barely even noticed when or if the accents were lost. Unfortunately, there were some moments during the show where it was obvious that certain audience members had been there before and therefore posed a distraction when trying to get to the side rooms. While I don’t think interactive theater is really for me, it was my first experience of this style and I still really appreciated all of the work that went into it — from the 1920’s atmosphere, to the improvised audience interaction, to the creatively adapted story-line, it was a truly unique and fun production!
All the World's a Stage 