Added 22/10/2006:
Pictures (not mine) from the do:
http://www.broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=12998
Original post:
It is often said that people with a limited vocabulary resort to swearing as a means to get their point across. But I'm here to tell you that that's obviously a load of complete bollocks and that everybody (except some weirdo from The Guardian) had a right f*****g laugh at the opening night of Spamalot on Tuesday 17 October 2006.
Tamsyn and I were extremely lucky to be there, having been given the golden opportunity of being guests of my Uncle, David Sherlock who even, very generously, put us up in The Covent Garden Hotel for the night. It was worth the trip to London just to stay in such a lovely hotel but I have to say paying the bill the next morning made my eyes water (and I wasn't even paying!).
The night was great with the only disappointment being that out of 4 chances to speak to somebody famous (Bill Oddie, Michael Palin and Brian May) I bottled it completely using the excuse I would catch them at the after show party. However, that was so packed we never saw them again :(
The one person I did get to speak to was Eddie Izzard who was sat immediately behind me and was kind enough to scrabble round the floor helping me pick up the things that fell out of my jacket during the standing ovation. Cheers Eddie, you're now officially a very nice man.
The show itself was fantastic and Tim Curry even more so - I'm not a fan of musicals but the speed and skill that this one was delivered kept me spellbound throughout. I would recommend that anybody who can should go and see it immediately (whether you're a fan of Python or not - it really doesn't matter). The added bonus of sitting on the front row also gave me the chance to eye up the dancers and their very short skirts (I figured this would stop me getting bored, but the show was so good I never did :)
The after-show party was a bit of a let down for us as it was so busy we couldn't find anybody we knew, though we did spot Gary Linekar, Michael Ball, Eddie Izzard again and the girl who won Finding Maria, Connie something-or-other. The champagne was free and plentiful (thankfully I managed to track down a beer or three) and the hall was fantastic (see Wikipedia entry for the Freemasons Hall).
So back to the hotel at 2:30 in the morning and unable to sleep until about 4am as I was buzzing from it all, and then back to reality with a bang the day after when, an hour after getting off the train we were straight back into the school run, after school activities, washing, feeding and generally trying to figure out whether the previous 24 hours was real or whether we had dreamt the whole thing. My only regrets from the whole evening is that I had declined to be introduced to Bill Oddie thinking I would see him later and that I didn't approach Brian May and Roger Taylor to thank them for getting me through my teenage years.
So a great big thank you David for inviting us and apologies if we wondered round looking like star struck fruit-cakes all night.
Here's a picture of Tamsyn and I in front of the Spam castle in the very expensive forest:
Thursday, October 19, 2006
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