Drama is life with the dull bits cut out.

My only real plan when I got on the plane to London was that I wanted to see some plays. And that I did.

Phantom of the Opera This was fantastic. Beautiful. Only Hedwig and Les Miserables moved me as much as this did. The voices were phenomenal, and the guy playing the Phantom was a great actor as well as a singer.

The most impressive part of this show was the set. It was quite a spectacle. Things were flying in and out left and right. There was fog and fire. There was a moment when an actor jumped off the bridge into the water...and disappeared. Truly impressive, all around.

I don't usually like musicals, but the list of musicals I like it growing longer and longer. What does this mean for a self-proclaimed muscial-hater? To find out, see tomorrow's entry, tentatively titled, "What does this mean for a self-proclaimed musical-hater?"

The Cut A great new play by Mark Ravenhill starring IAN MCKELLAN, who blew me away. What an actor. So natural, believable. The woman playing his wife held her own, but the others were weakened in his presence.

I had good seats for this show, which I was lucky to get as it is sold out through the entire run. It's a small, intimate theatre, which is perfect for this intense show.

While in line for The Cut, I met a woman from Minnesota. Her husband was from Watertown. I saw her that night at the show and two days later in line for another show. While there we discovered we'd been at the same show again the night before. It was kind of fun to see someone you know in a place where you're not supposed to know anyone.

In bonus news: I ran into Ian McKellan on the street two days later. Almost literally. I had to side-step.

The Producers I enjoyed this production, but it's sort of on the list of musicals I don't care that much about. It's a little too Guys and Dolls-y for me. But it was funny. The whole "Springtime for Hitler" bit was especially amusing. I would have preferred to see this on Broadway with Matthew Broderick and Nathan Lane. I think I'll probably like the movie if I get around to seeing it.

I had a "restricted view" seat because it was the cheapest, but it wasn't a big deal. I had to lean forward in my seat the whole time, but as long as I did that I could see just fine.

Embers I was just too tired to watch this from a restricted view balcony seat. Let it be known that serious plays like this should not be watched from a restricted view seat, nor from a seat too far from the stage, no matter how much cheaper it might be. It was a good production of an interesting play. Jeremy Irons was fantastic...he had 95% of the lines, and he kept me captivated. (It was a very, very talky play. They just talked. Sat and talked. Talked it out. Talked.) It was hard to get involved, though, being so far away from the action.

The Night of the Iguana So good. Woody Harrelson was the lead, and for whatever reason I wasn't expecting that much from him, but he delivered. Clare Higgins, who played Maxine, was also excellent, and they were great together. The other lead was weak in comparison. She drove me crazy, in fact. Didn't like her. The German couple and the woman who was the head lady of Shannon's tour group of ladies were a little too character-ish....they didn't quite fit with the rest of the production, but they were funny. The set and effects were nice. It got actually windy, it got actually rainy.

I had a great seat that was also cheap...good timing did that for me.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf One of my favorite plays, and with Kathleen Turner, no less...but I was terribly disappointed. Maybe because another restricted view seat positioned me in a place that cut off the upper 20% of the stage. Sometimes all I saw were feet. The rest of the time, all I saw were the tops of heads. It was also very hard to hear. This made it difficult, again, to get emotionally invested with what was happening. If this had been the first time I'd ever seen this show, I probably wouldn't have liked it. So disappointing.

The highlight was that I saw next to an actor from Manchester, so we talked theatre during the intermissions.