"Wicked" was wicked!

What a beautiful autumn day - clear blue skies and warm sunshine. Having decided to make a day of it, we left for London mid morning and arrived at the Natural History Museum around noon. Not exactly making the most of the nice weather but neither of us had been to this museum since we were kids. We both remarked how the diplodocus in the main hall looked a lot smaller than we'd remembered, and I'm really not that much taller than I was back then! We spent just over 3 hours there and then had to quickly think how to use the rest of our time before the show that evening. So we hopped on the tube a couple of stops to St James Park, to have a pleasant walk. The squirrels were everywhere munching on acorns - awww so cute. They've become so tame and come right up to people. Just give me some little animals and I'm away! We walked right around the park in front of Buckingham Palace and then through Horseguard's Parade and ended up at Trafalgar Square. Just to kill a bit more time, we went into the National Gallery to look at a few of the most famous paintings including Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Renoir's Umbrellas (two of my faves). Then it was time to get back on the tube to Victoria, where we grabbed a pub meal and then made our way to the theatre which was just round the corner.

Our seats were good - row R of the stalls, and fortunately no-one was sitting directly in front of us so we had a direct view of the stage. I knew Adam Garcia was one of the stars: the Australian actor who starred in Coyote Ugly and has been in the West End version of Saturday Night Fever amongst others; a bit of alright if you know what I mean! I was also pleased to see that there were three other actors I also knew: Miriam Margolyes, Nigel Planer and Martin Ball. Although not a huge stage, the set was great.

"Wicked" is the untold story of the legendary witches from L Frank Baum's classic, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Set within a fantasy world of wizardry and witchcraft, this magical adventure brings to life the captivating, surprising tale of how a misunderstood, green girl named Elphaba became the Wicked Witch of the West. Starting from when she was born, through her school years when she becomes friends with Glinda (the good witch) and beyond. I won't give away the plot in case you wanna see it.

They all had great voices but the actress playing Elphaba (wicked witch) was exceptional. As with most musicals, you have scenes and songs which are more pleasing to the eyes and ears than others but all in all it was very entertaining and somewhat different from any other I'd seen.