London Day 3 - Hollywood and Ballgown exhibits at V&A, Tower of London, Phantom of the Opera

Westminster Abbey

Again?!

10/29/2012

Marks and Spencers has a really good fruity flapjack. Angel found the last bar… no other M&S has it and this was the last bar at the M&S we went into. It was sooo good. Like a very moist flapjack, with cranberries, raisins, pumpkin seeds… makes you think you’re eating all healthy when you’re really not. 

We went to V&A for the 10am Hollywood exhibit. There were so many people there! We knew from last time that you need to buy the tickets ahead of time. Last time, the Grace Kelly exhibit sold out on the day we wanted to go, so we had to go back the next day. The tickets are pretty pricy and they don't allow you to take pictures inside the exhibit-BOOOOO!

The Hollywood exhibit had costumes from a lot of famous movies, and explanations for a lot of the costumes and how they came about, the designer’s inspirations, collaborating with the director, etc. They had: Scarlett O’Hara’s green velvet dress, the burgundy velvet dress, the iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s black dress, My Fair Lady’s Rex tweed suit and Eliza’s flower girl costume. Dorothy’s red shoes and blue gingham dress, Marilyn Monroe’s white dress from Seven Year Itch, a lot of Meryl Streep and Robert de Niro costumes from their movies, Star Wars (Darth Vadar), Superman, Catwoman, Avatar, The Birds (Edith Head created a green Eau de Nile green specifically for this movie… Hitchcock only wanted blues and greens in his movies).

An interesting tidbit: They were making a costume for Samson and Delilah. Edith Head drew out a green and blue dress to mimic peacocks. Cecil B. DeMille asked her, “Why not use real peacocks?” After a weekend had passed, he drove into the studio in a station wagon chockfull of peacock feathers. He had a peacock farm and he spent the weekend picking up feathers after his birds.

Afterwards, we went to the Ballgown exhibit, which had a lot of debutante dresses from the 1950s onward. It wasn’t really worth the money, as a lot of the ballgowns are somewhat tame compared to the standards of today. They had couture dresses on display from Stella McCartney, Alexander Wang, Zandra Rhodes (all British designers) but they were all pretty ugly.

Outside the ballgown exhibit is a free period exhibit with amazing dresses that people donated throughout history. Women actually dressed like this in the Victorian times:

Sigh. Beautiful dresses, no? Although the corset must be a bitch...

While we were at the exhibits, Mom and Dad went to the Tower of London. Here are some of their photos:

I like this one... quite ominous, no? 

We still had a bit of time before we had to meet up with our parents, so we rode the tube to the Salvation Army near Oxford Street. It was billed as where all the rich people donated their clothes, but we saw nothing but crap. Disappointing. We went to Primark, where I bought a navy jacket I really wanted the day before (it was 25 pounds!).

My new jacket! Yay!

We met Mom & Dad at the front door of Westminster Abbey, where it was the afternoon to take touristy pictures. Big Ben, Buckingham Palace... 

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

London taxi!

Buckingham Palace

Can you spot The Phantom? Little rat :P

Oh, you two. They start throwing hissy fits when they get hungry so gotta keep a snack on hand at all times!

Fortnum & Mason’s—we found salted caramel sauce on sale for 1 pound (usually 4 pounds). It was the cheapest thing there and we bought two because Angel likes the F&M bags. I asked them to double-bag. They sold a white truffle pie for 4 pounds that looked really yummy, but we were going for Indian food, so needed to save room.

Masala Zone is a chain restaurant that does a lot of advertising. They have specials before 6:30pm—you can get a whole sampler platter as an entrée for 10 pounds. But we didn’t want the veges and rice that came along with it, so we just ordered a la carte. The butter chicken meat was soooo tender and juicy. While I liked Sainsbury’s curry flavor more, Masala Zone’s chicken tenderness is outta this world. Mom got the lamb curry and we had naan to go with it. Delish!

We bought Phantom of the Opera tickets 4 months ahead of time to ensure we'd get the best seating. A lot of the seats were sold out even then, and it was a full house tonight. We had to pay a surcharge for buying online, but there was no other choice. Coming all the way to London to see it and not have good seats? Nope. Not for us. I gotta say, our seats were pretty damn good and the production itself... awesome! The theatre is a bit small, but this is where it’s been playing since its inception in 1986. 

The singing, the acting was marvelous and they made do with how small the stage is. It’s actually a very deep stage, but the width makes it look small. I can’t emphasize enough how well they sang. Loved all the actors! Angel said she likes Phantom, Christine and Raoul of this production more than the ones in the 25th Anniversary version. Firmin, Andre and Madame Giry are the same actors in both productions-we were shocked and delighted when they each came on stage... the same ones we've been watching on the DVD for so long, and here they are, in the flesh! This particular pairing of Firmin and Andre is my favorite (Barry James and Gareth Snook). We're still not too sure if Meg Giry is the same... it looks like her, and it doesn't. But the Raoul (Simon Thomas) in this production... sigh. The hottest I've ever seen and Angel even agreed! Raoul's usually blond, but he's brown haired; it can all be forgiven because his shirt is half-ripped open in the scene where Phantom's got his rope on his neck... fan my hands HOT.

The staging was also marvelous and very inventive. The chandelier does, in fact, fall—and it’s a massive chandelier. Vegas triumphs them on staging, if only because they can do it on a grander scale—they had 4 chandeliers rotating on the ceiling! But Vegas’ singing and acting wasn’t very good, so I’d say London’s production is much, much better.

"Not another chandelier..."

During intermission, they sold mini haagen-daz pints. Almost everyone bought one! It was so weird! It was freaking cold in the theater… no idea why people were buying it! But I noticed that in London, lots of people were eating ice cream and popsicles on the streets… and it’s like 5 degrees C. A lot of people bought the programs as well. That was crazy expensive… it’s 8.5 pounds for 2 booklets that you’ll probably throw away later on. And a lot of people bought 2 programs! 

I find that in England, people are more willing to spend on reading material. They actually read, which is why Waterstone and WH Smith are so popular here. People read books while walking on the street!