I saw 11 Broadway, West End, and Off-West End shows in the span of 12 days! Most of these shows I saw in London. It was my first time in London and it was a wonderful experience. I went with a study abroad class through my school.
1. Almost Famous
Location: Bernard B. Jacobs Theatre (Broadway)
Date: January 3, 2023
Seat: Front Row, Left Orchestra
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Drew Gehling signing my newspaper.
It was my second time seeing the show and I specifically bought a front row ticket (left orchestra) just to be able to catch one of the newspapers. Guess what? I caught a newspaper and I was so happy! It was announced last minute that Andrew Poston would be on for William Miller. I’m grateful that I was able to see both Casey and Andrew’s portrayals of William before the show closed. This show is incredible and it means the world to me. I’m going to miss this show so much because I’ve never seen myself in a character as much as I have with William Miller. This show has brought people together through the love of music, writing, and truth telling (not to mention the fact that the music is great too). After the show I got to meet Drew Gehling for the first time and he was so kind. He offered to sign my newspaper and so did a lot of the other cast! I hope it gets the opportunity to tour, but if you want to know more about what I think of Almost Famous, click here!
The Newspaper I caught signed by the cast.
2. Some Like It Hot
Location: Shubert Theatre (Broadway)
Date: January 4, 2023 (Matinee)
Seat: Left Orchestra Row K, 15
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I already wrote a review on this one, so I’ll keep things short. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this show going in, but it was amazing! I recommend you go see it as soon as possible. The cast was phenomenal and this show has done wonders for representation! Also I loved the fact that there was a hidden gem in there for the Smash fans! I wouldn’t be surprised if this show wins a lot of Tony’s. I can already predict it may win for set and costume design. All theatre fans are bound to find something they like about this show!
And now it’s time to fly across the pond and see what shows London has to offer! ✈️✈️✈️ (I’m not counting this travel days out of one of the 12 because it was a long flight and it would kinda be impossible to have seen a show that day because of the time difference)
3. & Juliet
Location: Shaftesbury Theatre (West End)
Date: January 6, 2023 (Matinee)
Seat: Left Orchestra Row N, 30
Rating: ⭐️⭐️
Outside the Shaftesbury Theatre.
In all honesty, & Juliet was not my favorite show. It was a good first show to see on the West End because it was fun and upbeat. However, like many Jukebox musicals the book was subpar. I will be interested to see how it compares to the Broadway version.
4. The Burnt City
Location: One Cartridge Place (West End)
Date: January 7, 2023
Seat: N/A
Rating: ⭐️
This was perhaps the strangest show I’ve ever seen. Unlike your typical theatre experience, one is expected to walk around and follow the actors around a warehouse. At the beginning you’re led into a room that resembles a club and given a playing card. This playing card is meant to separate you from whoever you came in there with, so if you’re planning this for a date night or something I do not recommend. Then you join a group of people who have matched your playing card and go into a dark room. Of course I was picked first in my group to go down the dark abyss of a hallway (I just know the actor sensed my fear and did this on purpose 🥲). If you experience sensory overload, this show may be too intense for you. At one moment I almost had a panic attack because the show is 3 hours long and I lost the people I came in there with. I did not really understand a lot of what was going on because there was no dialogue and the storyline revolves around Greek mythology, which I’m not very familiar with. Basically, there are all sorts of rooms you can and follow the actors into and get lost. At one moment this man was fully undressed standing in front of me and I was so uncomfortable. Trigger warning, if you do not like blood or nudity, this show is probably a bad match for you. It was interesting, but I think I prefer shows in a theatre where you sit down.
5. Newsies
Location: Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre (Off West End)
Date: January 8, 2023
Seat: The Bronx DD, 37
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I had been wanting to see Newsies in London for some time now, so I am so fortunate to have seen it! Newsies is one of my favorite shows, so it was such a treasure to have seen this production. It was in the round and because the Newsies interacted with the audience it became an immersive experience. It was super clever that the creative team decided to split different sections of the audience into different boroughs in NYC and locations mentioned in the musical. The newsies ended up coming close to me, pretending to sell papers. I loved that there was a balcony behind me that the newsies stood on and came down into the audience from the ladder. They ended up throwing strike papers everywhere and I kept one! I also loved that the casting was more diverse than the original production. They also updated the show to add girl newsies and they got to sing a whole song. That was cool, but they took away Katherine’s lyrics in “King of New York”, although she was still in the number. I guess they did this to make the shock value higher when the girl newsies finally appeared. All in all it was a phenomenal performance and I would definitely go back given the chance.
6. Best of Enemies
Location: Noël Coward Theatre (West End)
Date: January 9, 2023
Seat: Left Orchestra, Stalls L12
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Part of the set of Best of Enemies.
I was very excited to see this play because I knew two things about it: that it was political and that Zachary Quinto would be starring in it. I thoroughly enjoyed this show. I liked the theme of television and the projections of old TV shows and ads from the 1960s. This play kind of reminded me of Days of Rage by Steven Levenson because it took place during the Vietnam War protests and they were mentioned in the show.
Prepare yourself for a two show day… on the 10th I saw both The Mouse Trap and My Neighbor Totoro.
7. The Mousetrap
Location: St Martin’s Theatre (West End)
Date: January 11, 2023 (Matinee)
Seat: Orchestra Row A
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
There is a counter inside the theatre! I saw the 28,972 performance of The Mousetrap!
This classic story has been running as a play on the West End for 70 years. I got to sit in the front row for only about 20 pounds! It was a good mystery show and of course it takes place in only one room because they want to up the intensity and allow the audience to hone in on the fact that the killer is in the house. I liked the characters and how different they were from one another. I liked being able to try and guess who did it as well. It was fun and I would consider seeing it again, but it wasn’t my favorite show. With Agatha Christie stories you always know the killer is the person you least expect, making it easier to narrow down who did it.
8. My Neighbor Totoro
Location: Barbican Theatre (West End)
Date: January 11, 2023
Seat: Stall S, 43
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Inside the theatre.
I’ve never seen the Totoro movie before, but I have seen other Studio Ghibli films and this adaptation was very reminiscent of the style of the movies. I’m not the biggest anime fan, but this show was sweet and they really took the opportunity to fill the entire stage. The puppets were so massive, I don’t even know how they were maneuvered. I’m not going to lie, I fell asleep for a bit during this show. It’s not that the show was bad, just that jet lag was hitting me hard at this point and I was so tired. From what I did see it was a really cool show and I liked that the cast and creative team was diverse.
9. Othello
Location: The National Theatre (West End)
Date: January 12, 2023
Seat: Stalls, Row U, Seat 19
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Video of the Actor cleaning up blood before the show started.
I wasn’t too familiar with Othello going in as I have never read the book, but from what I understood this was a good production of it. I wish the set had offered more, I found it to be a bit boring as it was basically just gray stairs that filled the entire stage. I also wish there had been more props because it would have given more context to understand the dialogue. This specific production was supposed to take place in 2022, but other than the projection that explicitly said “2022” at the beginning of the show, none of the show felt like it was taking place in the current day. None of the costumes, set pieces, or lighting design reflected that. However the acting was strong, so the “2022” thing didn’t really hinder the experience at all. I was told during a tour at the National Theatre that the creative team was trying to take a race angle for the show, but isn’t that already the point of Othello?
10. Mandela The Musical
Location: Young Vic Theatre (West End)
Date: January 13, 2023
Seats: Row C, Seat 15
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Posters outside The Young Vic Theatre of Mandela.
This is a fresh new musical about the life of Nelson Mandela. I was surprised to have enjoyed it as much as I did. I learned a lot about Mandela’s life through this show and it was ultimately an upbeat musical for such a serious topic. The casting was well picked with Michael Lluwoye as Mandella (he has played Hamilton on Broadway). And Stewart Clarke really stood out to me, portraying the warden (he has also played the SQUIP in West End’s Be More Chill).
Read More on my Mezzanine account: https://www.theaterdiary.com/user/self/?id=JFojx44TbK
11. Arms and the Man
Location: Orange Tree Theatre (London)
Date: January 14 2023
Seats: Front Row
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The setting for this show was very interesting. To start, the theatre was very small and intimate. It was in the round and at pretty much any place you were sitting (despite there being a balcony) everyone was close to the actors. At times the actors walked right by me and I could reach out and touch some of the set pieces if I wanted. The show was a comedy with 2 intermissions (this was likely to change out the set pieces as there would not have been a quick way to do this in between scenes). Other than the set there is not much to say about it. I liked this show, it was more interesting than I expected, but again it wasn’t my favorite show.
Overall, my favorite show I saw was probably Best of Enemies or Some Like It Hot. I would most likely spend money to see those again (this is not counting Almost Famous because that was my 2nd time seeing it and it’s no longer running). I am grateful to have seen so many shows in such little time, but I must admit it took a lot of energy to go from show to show (and I was only watching them). That being said, this experience has only made me respect actors and those who work in the industry even more. Putting your entire energy into something is difficult and doing that every single day is astonishing.
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