The day after the Mika concert I traveled down to London, and for my actual birthday I went to see Next To Normal. Next to Normal is not a new show to me as an Aaron Tveit girlie (he originated the role of Gabe) but it IS my first time actually seeing the show and I knew I couldn’t pass up the opportunity while it’s in London. Especially as it has Caissie Levy!!
Seeing this show was a bit of a strange experience for me personally, so I don’t feel like I have a whole lot to say about it other than how good it was. And it is good, I can’t even begin to imagine how hard the cast are working each night, they all looked completely emotionally rung out by curtain call! It’s just a very difficult show for me to watch as I grew up with mental illness, grief, domestic abuse, and addiction in my household, and I suffer with C-PTSD and have attempted suicide in the past so it does hit a bit too close to home. But it was a very good show and I’m so glad I saw it! It did make me realise that usually theatre is an escape and that’s what’s so special about it for me, I like the fantasy and ridiculousness of musicals and this was a little too realistic for me and I think that's an important distinction to realise. Like I said I do know the show and knew what I was in for, but that’s why I don’t really have a lot to say about it but I still wanted to say look at this cool thing that I saw and enjoyed! And Caissie was even more incredible in real life - I know her as the first Elsa in the Broadway production of Frozen, but she’s was unfortunately off when I went to see it in New York (which isn’t a bad thing - I saw Charissa Hogeland instead who was amazing!) But it’s always great to see someone you’ve admired perform with your own eyes!
I spent most of my time in London shopping, which I used to feel bad admitting but I'm from London, I used to live there, so I'm really not interested in going to the tourist spots. Sometimes I like to go to a museum or art gallery, but mostly I just want to get stuff in person that I don't otherwise have access to at home. I was supposed to go to another Mika show on the second day and it's the whole reason I had two days there, but the night before I started to feel like maybe I didn't want to? And then there was a torrential downpour and standing in a wet muddy field was the last thing in the world I wanted to do, so I decided to skip it and hopefully I can get my money back for the ticket.
Anyway, I had a lot of fun in London! I didn't do much other than loiter around Covent Garden and Oxford Street, but I haven't been to London for a few months so I enjoyed looking around at a relaxed pace. There's lots of unique stationery stores, I enjoy spending time in the bookshops, and there's the only Disney Store left in the UK. I don't neccesserily buy much, I just like having a little look at everything.
I've heard of Choosing Keeping on YouTube from one of my favourite channels This Jo Journals, and every time I go to London I completely forget to check it out so I wrote it down this time so I wouldn't forget! It's a lot more central than I realised too. It's full of unique little stationery items, mostly Japanese or vintage styled ephemera, and I was enchanted. It could be so easy to lose myself and spend a fortune! I got a small pair of scissors, a ruler, and some stickers, but I'll definitely be back in the future now I know where it is.
I really like the vintage vibes of this Steif Snow White, but at £1200 I can only dream! Although I did really like this rabbit, it's so hard to find a realistic looking rabbit plush and this looked like Hazel-rah to me (still way more than I would ever spend though!).
I don't usually frequent Hamley's and I guess it shouldn't really be a surprise that they upcharge but the Loungeflys were what tipped me off. I like Loungefly but I'm by no means a collector so this is the first time I've seen these Donald bags released for his 90th birthday. Oh! Donald is my favourite of the classic characters (along with Chip n Dale, they're a trio to me as I grew up watching the shorts). I love the nautical theming, and the Donald on the front switches between current and vintage Donald depending on the angle.
I had to stop by the Disney Store too! I didn't buy anything, but I did love this Alice ornament (Alice is my favourite Disney movie ) and was kind of horrified by these Mickey and Minnie dolls.
The second day was starting to draw to a close, but I wasn't ready for it to be over just yet. I just happened to be crossing through Leicester Square when it occured to me that the cinemas would be staying open so I made the snap decision to go and see MaXXXine as I'd wanted to see it anyway (and shockingly it didn't cost much more than my local cinema!) The film was so-so, I didn't enjoy it as much as Pearl but I'm glad I saw it. There's a lot of good horror films coming out this year, I could just about explode with excitement for Longlegs and Nosferatu.
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