"Wicked"

Wicked
Apollo Victoria Thearte

Written by Stephen Schwartz

Based on the book by Winnie Holzman

In a world where it seems every new musical is based on some other form of media (I refuse to believe there's going to be Shrek musical on the West End or a Spiderman one on Broadway) Wicked truly stands out anyway. It's exceptionally clever as well as touching. The love triangle is a little old, but it fills in the gap needed to explain the straw man so I give it a pass. Watching it, I truly felt like I was getting my money's worth while also getting the full West End experience.

As a side note, I bought my ticket too late to take advantage of

lastminute.com, so I called Ticketmaster. Mistake! I realized almost immediately afterwards that as a student, I could have paid the same amount for a much better seat had I only waited for standby tickets. Remember that if you are a student, a registered jobless person, or over the age of 60 you can almost always get excellent standby tickets an hour or so before the performance!

"Ghost Stories"

"Ghost Stories"

Liverpool Playhouse

Written by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman

Ghost Stories was the first play I went to upon arriving in London and as such you'd think it'd be the one I remember least. On the contrary. I could basically tell you all 4 stories contained within it much better than I could summarize The Woman in Black, for example. The irony in Ghost Stories is that none of the so-called "Ghost Stories" are actually about spirits of the dead. Instead we learn about other possible supernatural occurrences. My only disappointment with this play was that I think the opening is just a little too strong to carry the rest of it. Compared with the eeriness of the opening narration which details possible real ghost stories and the wonderful acting by David Cardy in the first storyline, the rest of the play appears crass. Still, it is very worth seeing and at only £15 a seat (only £10 when I went!) it's well worth checking out.