We usually go out for the day on Wednesdays and Saturdays, but hadn't planned anything for Wednesday 11th January. We hadn't been to the London Theatre for ages, we knew there were good deals about, the trains were running again, and so we thought why not give it a go. A search of discount tickets for a Wednesday matinee revealed two possibilities, Orlando, and Mother Goose. Reviews for Orlando were not very encouraging - at only an hour and a half performance, not enough fun for the price - and so we opted for Ian McKellen in Mother Goose at the Duke of York Theatre. We got two very good seats in the Royal Circle, D12 and D13, for only £37.50 each. Reviews here were very mixed, and the Guardian 2 star review was more than a little discouraging, but it was a day out, only £37.50 each, and if we didn't expect too much we might end up pleasantly surprised. Sadly I mostly agreed with the Guardian - it wasn't a panto but a musical show with panto themes and scenes, there wasn't much of a story, various pop songs seemed randomly chosen, but to be fair, were performed very well by an excellent cast, etc. etc. I would give it 2.25 stars but add a half star for Ian McKellen's stage presence, making it somewhere between two and 3 stars, say not quite 3 stars.

We remembered that we had been to the Duke of York Theatre before, but when I looked back I discovered it was some 6 years ago, in 2016. As you walk away from Trafalgar Square, along St Martin's Lane, the theatre is about 100 yards along, on the left hand side. It's a lovely little theatre, but as with ever so many others, could do with more toilets. For me, there was no Gents toilet near the Royal Circle, and the nearest was up the stairs to the Upper Circle, through the bar, and up some more stairs. There was room for three, so quite a queue. However the seats in the Royal Circle were steeply raked, and so we had an excellent view. Leg room was very good.

As with so many musicals, there was not much of a story. Mrs Caroline Goose (Sir Ian McKellen) is married to Vic Goose (John Bishop) and runs an animal sanctuary in an empty former Debenhams store, where Caroline is Mother to the animals, Mother Goose. Money is tight, but she can never turn any animal away. A passing Goose comes off worse in a mid air collision with a helicopter, and falls into the animal rescue centre. A year's rent is unpaid, and a cruel landlord is about to evict everyone. Fear Not ! Eviction is avoided when the Goose starts laying Golden Eggs, and now everyone is rich. They buy a new house - the Tower of London. There are two fairies in the story, a good one, Encanta, and a bad one, Malignia. Malignia promises Mother Goose fame, but wants the Golden Goose. Mother Goose agrees. In the second half, Mother Goose realises fame does not mean happiness, and so she and Vic go to Goose Land to rescue the Golden Goose, held prisoner by the King of Goose Land. Asked to plead her case, Mother Goose (Sir Ian) says actually, she does know a little Shakespeare, and gives a faultless rendition of the "Quality of Mercy" speech. The Golden Goose is rescued, and not to be outdone, Vic Goose wins back his wife Caroline by also lapsing into Shakespeare - the "Shall I Compare Thee" speech. Normal life is restored, son Jack get his bride, and they all live happlily ever after.

It was a very good cast. I especially remembered Cilla Quack the duck, played by Anna-Jane Casey, and the strong voices and excellent singing of the two fairies - Sharon Ballard as Encanta, and Karen Mavundukure as Malignia. Costumes were good, and all the cast sang, danced and performed very well. John Bishop was funny and Sir Ian McKellen was excellent - a master of his craft with great stage presence. They did sort of follow the panto story, and we did have some favourite panto scenes - a "messy bake a cake" kitchen scene, and a "he's behind you" "bench in a wood" ghost scene, but overall it was all a messy hotchpotch, neither one thing nor the other, and every so often punctuated by some unrelated diva pop song. All in all, good performing but somehow overall only a disappointment.

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Sometimes we are disappointed when a show is not as good as the critic's reviews, but sometimes we are pleasantly surprised by the opposite. Pretty Woman, the Musical, at the Savoy Theatre in London got very poor one star and two star reviews. When we booked a discount deal we didn't expect much, but actually we thought the show was pretty good. I started off giving it about 2.5 stars, but soon stopped comparing everything to the film, enjoyed the music and the dancing (no songs in the film) and ended up giving it about 3.5 stars.

Let's start with a brief note about the plot. Edward Lewis is a rich company asset stripper in Hollywood to takeover a ship building company. He has just flown in and borrowed his company lawyer's Lotus sports car, but is not used to driving cars with manual gear sticks, gets lost and finds himself in the red light district. He stops and asks the nearest person, hooker Vivian Ward, for directions to his posh hotel - the Regent Beverley Wiltshire. Vivian says that will cost $5. He argues and Vivian easily out negotiates him as the price rises to $20. Not many people get the better of Edward. He settles on $100 for an hour of her time, if she will drive him there. The hour becomes a day, and then a week - he needs a partner for a business lunch reference his ship building takeover deal. Vivian is out of her depth at the posh hotel, but as Edward is a valuable customer, she is helped by Mr Thomas, the hotel manager, and Giulo, the bell boy. They get her the right clothes, get her hair styled, and teach her to dance. There is humour, music, and dance and misunderstanding, but inevitably they fall in love. Vivian wants to abandon her life of prostitution, but Edward wants to have her as a kept woman, and deeply hurt and insulted, she leaves. He chases after her and so we have a happy ending - cue the Pretty Woman Roy Orbision song.

In the film, Richard Gere played Edward, and Julia Roberts Vivian, and of course they were better and more elegant and more convincing. I thought Julia Roberts an unlikely hooker, but stunning as the elegant high society Vivian. Maybe part of this was more time between scenes for wardrobe changes, makeaup, styling, etc. In the play there was very little time between scenes. The play more of less followed the film plot, but dropped some jokes, and some of the action to fit everything in and incorporate song and dance. Everyone sang and danced very well, as was the orchestra. I thought the actor playing Mr Thomas and multi other parts was brilliant. As part of teaching Vivian social graces, his demonstration dances with the bell boy were a joy. The visit to the Opera scene was also done brilliantly. A lot was done excellently, and overall it was well up to the standard we expect of a West end show. How could some critic possibly only give it one star? We didn't come out of the theatre inspired, but it was good, and we had been entertained and enjoyed it.

The show was on at the Savoy Theatre - walk along the Strand on the right hand side of the street, with Trafalgar Square behind you. The theatre is on the right just beside the famous Savoy Hotel We paid £60 ( a discount price) each for two excellent dress circle seats D8 an D9, and had very good centre views of the stage. Of late we have been travelling by train the Liverpool Street station, and then taking a No 11 bus to the Strand. This time however we got a surprise - as of a couple of weeks ago, the No 11 no longer goes to Liverpool Street Station. For once Google had misinformed us. We ended up getting a No 8 bus to Tottenham Court Road - we got off at Drury Lane and walked from there - and going back we caught the No 26 bus.

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At long last a genuine 5 star musical - the last time we saw one was in 2019 ! Here the music was by George and Ira Gershwin (a guarantee), the immaculate Charlie Stemp played the lead, the solo and chorus dancing, especially the tap, was terrific, choreography fantastic, story goodish (it is a musical) orchestra and singing on top form - in brief we really enjoyed this performance, and the standing ovations were thoroughly well deserved.

We usually keep an eye on what is on in the West End, and book if the prices and availability are good. This show had had 5 star reviews when at the Chichester Festival, and we had been impressed by Charlie Stemp before, and so we booked up, two tickets at £42 each. The show was on at the Gillian Lynne Theatre in Drury Lane (previously called the New London Theatre), and we got two side but perfectably acceptable seats in the dress circle (D68 and D69). Almost all the seats in this theatre are steeply raked, even in most of the stalls, so there is no problem seeing the stage. Unusually we travelled in to Central London by tube - Tottenham Hale to Leicester Square - our first tube journey since pre Covid days. The tube at just after 10 am was busier than I thought it would be, but not packed. We played it safe and returned by 26 bus to Liverpool Street, and hence to Broxbourne where we were parked.

For a musical, the story is quite good. It's set in the 1930s. Charlie Stemp plays Bobby Child, son of an overbearing mother Lottie. Bobby wants to be a dancer, and spends all his time practising at Bela Zangler's Follies, but his mum, on the board of a bank, insists that he become a banker. Zangler is played by Tom Edden. Bobby's childhood friend thinks she is engaged to him - for 7 years - but he denies it - we are different people now. Bobby is send to a hick country town, Deadrock, Nevada, population 17, to forclose on a property. When he gets there he discovers it's a theatre, and he wants to save it by puting on a show with help from his friends, the Ziegler chorus girls. The theatre owner's daughter is Polly Baker (played excellently by Carly Anderson). For Bobby, she is the girl of his dreams. They seem to be getting on very well until he lets slip his name - the name on the threatening bank forclosure letter. Polly storms off. Still trying to save the theatre and be near Polly he dresses up and pretends to be Bela Zangler, and sure enough, Polly falls in love with Bela. There is confusion when the real Bela Zangler turns up. They do hold a show, but only two visitors reach town from the station 2 miles away, and they have come to review the town hotel ! There is comedy aplenty, poking fun at the two hotel inspectors with their upper class English accents, expecting wine lists ( "we have red and white, but we are out of white, and we call the red beer"), fresh croisants, and laundry and ironing services. The "you are standing next to an idiot" joke is well done - no reply, but Bobby takes an enormous step to the side. The mirror sequence was excellent when the real Zangler meets the pretend Zangler (Bobby) and they sit at a table getting drunk, Bobby duplicating Bela's movements for a while, but then a drunk Zangler accepts there are two of him. The course of true love never runs straight, Polly will not accept that she has fallen in love with Bobby dressed as Zangler, then feels humiliated. Bobby returns to his big city home, but after 6 weeks gives it up, to go back to Deadrock, only to find that Bobby has left town 10 minutes ago to look for him. Of course, there is a happy ending for Bobby and Polly, Zangler and his girlfriend, the hotel owner and Bobby's fiance, and even Lottie and Polly's dad. Zangler had stayed on in Deadrock, bussed customers in for his shows, and the theatre and Deadrock were booming. And throughout, it is all action song and dance to the highest West End standards.

I can't beleive that I wrote my little piece without name checking some of the wonderful Gershwin songs, the stars of the show :-

Embraceable You
Shall we Dance ?
I got Rhythm
Someone to Watch Over Me
Bidin' my Time
But not for me
Nice Work, if you can get it

Each one passes the IWT - Iain whistle test - i.e. I am liable to come out of the theatre whistling it.

In brief, of course I liked the show - 5 stars definitely.

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For a combination of reasons our trips out in recent months have been badly curtailed, but we were determined to get back to the West End before Christmas. Happily, on google, I found a couple of excellent seats - only £40 each - in the front row of the dress circle (A8,A9) for a matinee performance at the Apollo Theatre. This was to see "The Time Traveller's Wife, the Musical". I was sort of aware that the show hadn't had the best reviews, but just clicked on buy. I then read some 2 star and 3 star reviews, but we set off with open minds, and ended up quite liking the show. It was OK - I would say 2 star for the first half, but 3 star for the second half, and 3 star overall. So it's not a must see, but it was enjoyable, and not a waste of time.

We had been in the Apollo theatre before - a lovely theatre in the middle of theatre land on Shaftesbury Avenue, just up from Leicester Square. Nowadays, we travel to the theatre by train from Broxbourne from where we can use our Oyster card, to Tottenham Hale, and then by Tube to Leicester Square. We usually have a wander round - tea at the Crypt, St Martin's, a look at Trafalgar Square, visit Waterstone's, cross the Jubilee Bridge, take in the London Eye and Big Ben, and then have a sandwich lunch at the Southbank Centre. To avoid rush hour Tube congestion in these post Covid days, we usually return by 26 bus from opposite Charing Cross station to Liverpool Street station, and then train back to Broxbourne.

I think everyone knows the terrific "Time Traveller's Wife" story, probably from the film. I will describe it in linear time order, but it doesn't unfold in this order - time traveller Henry has no control, and disappears randomly to reappear as an older or younger self in a different time and place. Unpicking it though, 6 year old Henry is in the back seat of his mum's car when she crashes and is killed, but Henry at that instant time travels, and survives. Sadly, later he will keep returning to that place / time, but cannot do anything to save his mum. His dad blames Henry for his wife's death, thinking he time travelled / disappeared, then she was amazed / distracted, and so crashed. Thus Henry and his dad are estranged. Gradually though, he starts returning to visit another person, his soul mate, Clare, an artist and paper sculptor. They fall in love, they marry, he sets her up by buying a winning lottery tcket (an easy task for a time traveller), and against the odds and after many miscarriages, they have a daughter Alba, who can also time travel. The story does not unfold in this order, and in this version, it was very random indeed, more random than in the film. When he time travels Henry can take nothing with him, and so leaves his clothes behind to reappear naked. Somehow a grown naked man, meeting a young girl ( is it grooming ?) does not cause us any offence - he has "already" met her older self many times before. This is explained well. He also has a rule not to tell anyone of their future, although he lets slip to Clare that they will have a daughter Alba. He also admits to Clare that he will die in a shooting accident, but she has worked it out. She is constantly visited by young, or middle aged Henry's, but never by an old Henry. So, either, he cures his time travelling, or dies before getting old. It's a very strong story, both comic and tragic. It's amazing that poor Clare never gave up on Henry, found someone else, and opted for a happier life. He keeps disappearing leaving her to have to carry on alone.

Some of Henry's vanishings were well stage crafted and they used a body double and stage distraction to fool us in one scene, but mostly, in the first half, all that happened was that Henry muttered "Oh no, it's happening again" and then rushed off stage, where there would be flashes of light and a loud bang. Also in the film, an older Alba visits her younger self to console her on her dad Henry's death - but that wasn't done here. The music was OK, and a strong cast sang and danced well. But there was no show stopper song for me to exit whistling. The first half seemed very random, but the second half better and more orderly. Henry was played by David Hunter, and Clare by Joanna Woodward - with a young actress playing Alba / young Clare. I liked the reveal that Clare makes paper bird sculptures. These were hanging up in the theatre, and seemed to take flight with the clever use of white light. Clare has multiple miscarriages, and Henry, worried at Clares's suffering, has a vasectomy. No problem, Clare waits until she meets a young (i.e. pre vasectomy) Henry, makes love to him, and becomes pregnant.

Overall it was all done quite faithfully, and reasonably well, with a strong cast and good musicians, but mostly I wished it had been done just a little bit better, especially better special effects. So 5 stars for the brilliant story, 2 stars for the first half, and 3 stars overall. I did like the musicians appearing on stage to take a bow - more shows should do this.

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