Wicked

So I FINALLY got to see Wicked the Musical yesterday.  It was fantastic.  I absolutely loved it.  Rachel Tucker's tomboy, tormented Elphaba (wonderful with her slightly gruff voice) was perfectly balanced with Louise Dearman's girly, "toss, toss" of the hair Glinda.  I was told Kerry Ellis was the best Elphaba ever but as I didn't get the chance to see her I can't really compare.

Ellis is actually now starring in Oliver so there's another chance to see her in London yet.  However, after assisting in a children's version of Oliver (lasting three weeks) and also appearing in it myself I'm afraid I wont' be going to see her as Nancy.  I have well and truely had enough of Oliver.  Please, no more!

There was one thing slightly wrong with Wicked.  (Shock horror with my raving so far?)  Fiyero.  A very attractive Prince I had pictured someone masculine yet amazing when it comes to singing and dancing.  Well...I got the good singing (though I wasn't as impressed by the dancing) but masculine?  NO WAY!  Lewis Bradley is currently playing Fiyero until Lee Mead takes over in the second week of May.  You only have to look at the pictures below (Mead and then Bradley) to realise Bradley is second best here.  Again...

I didn't realise most of the cast was sourced from Andrew Lloyd Webber's television shows, with Bradley and Mead from Any Dream Will Do (Bradley was third to Mead's win) and Tucker from I'd Do Anything, if I had I might have done some research and waited until May.  I would have known then that Bradley's camp tendencies do not lend to an attractive, gobstopping Prince.  Sorry Bradley, you just need to man up a bit.  Good performance, good voice, rather unbelievable love story.  Though I suppose that's the point...

London for mothers?

On Saturday I'll be having a mother daughter day (awww bless) journeying to London with my mom to see Wicked at the Apollo Victoria.  I love London, especially when I'm not there for meetings, and so I can't wait to go as a tourist again...it's been well over six months since I've done that.  Too long.

So I asked my mom today what she'd like to see/do before the show: Harrods, Buckingham Palace, Towers of London, London Eye?  "I could do with a new summer coat.  Can we go to a few shops and have lunch?  I don't really know what's there."

Everything mom!  Everything is there!  My usual haunts of Topshop, Portobello Road and various markets will not suffice.  Please someone advise me where you're supposed to take your mother, who is not rich, to find a summer coat.  "Oxford Street" is too broad an answer.