Link Letter - March 2002

01963 32368

VISIT TO MAMMA MIA JANUARY 19TH

Covent Garden! What a place to shop! Bargains at the covered marked and u-market goodies in the shops in the piazza itself. We discovered the wonderful toy shop devoted to puppet theatres and lost ourselves amongst the miniature Punch and Judy shows and model theatres. Shadow play books had to be bought for future use at school and we promised ourselves a return visit. The street entertainers were the best yet with one inspired maniac recruiting members of the unwitting audience to play a pantomime horse to his Don Quixote tight-rope walking act. Street theatre at its best! Then it was off to the Prince Edward theatre to see Mamma Mia. Now I am too old to have really rated Abba, but the show was a hoot with middle aged women too like me for comfort and songs that made your feet tap and proved that you had absorbed the words years ago without realising it. My daughters (ex-pupils and keen Abba fans) had me dancing in the aisles during the finale while Liz Fuller, Abba aficionado extaordinare, was an unwilling prisoner in her seat! A great show and highly recommended for stress release.

VISIT TO MY FAIR LADY FEBRUARY 2ND

Another terrific day out! Why haven’t I discovered the theatre museum at Covent Garden before! What a fabulous place! Emma Fletcher and I elected to round with the students when our party divided into two, leaving the grown ups to fend for themselves! And we had a great time watching the wannebes try on costumes and make up and turning themselves into puppets. If you love theatre go and try it. The show starred Dennis Waterman and Jonathan Price, someone we last saw as the engineer in Miss Saigon (strangely at the same theatre - The Theatre Royal in Dury Lane). He was magnificent and Waterman made a splendid Alfred Doolittle and the costumes were every bit as magnificent as those in the film. I enjoyed it immensely, not least because the songs were so hummable, and I was not alone because the students enthused about it too afterwards. It also gave us an opportunity to discuss a musical production next year and we hope to begin rehearsals in September.