June? Where have you gone?

'Um, Ann? Where have you been for the last month? You've disappeared.'

Theatre. I read about theatre. I write about theatre. I think about theatre. And when that's done for the day, sometimes I go to the theatre. And on the weekend? I go to an exhibition of theatre.

In the last month, I've seen three different productions of Shakespeare at the Globe in three different languages: The Comedy of Errors in Dari, Hamlet in Lithuanian, and Henry V in English (less exotic). Next week I'll see The Taming of the Shrew (also in English). To complement these highbrow entertainments, I also saw Noel Coward's Hay Fever (a favourite) and The Mystery of Edwin Drood (I love that show).

Lest you think these will make me far too pretentious (more pretentious), I then saw Rock of Ages - possibly the dumbest show on the planet (even though I do like 80's hair bands). It does acknowledge its own ridiculousness, though. The meta-theatre dialogue where the narrator talks about his role and pulls out a program to show the other characters is priceless.

The two frontrunners in my recent excursions, however, have been One Man, Two Guvnors and Matilda the Musical. Loved, loved, loved both of them. (Matilda is coming to Broadway in 2013, so you'll get your chance to see it, Americans.) Thursday night I'm going to see The Woman in Black - a show I've attempted to see on every trip I've made to London since 2001. This time it's happening. IT'S HAPPENING.

Look at the size of that crowd!

But perhaps the most surprisingly delightful theatre experience lately was West End Live. Last Saturday and Sunday, every single West End musical (there are 39 at present) performed a song or medley for free on stage in Trafalgar Square. I had known this was happening, but had sort of put it out of my mind. One of the things that has really disturbed me this year is how very similar Broadway and the West End look at present. I know there's a whole study that could be done on this dealing with the corporate and capitalist nature of the mainstream theatre industry, but I'm busy with another one at the moment - so I'll register my disappointment with this state of affairs and move along. My neighbour Matthias reminded me of these performances and was quite keen on going, so I figured we might as well.

Matthias fell a little bit in love with Dorothy.

I underestimated the popularity of this idea in London. I find something so heart-warming about having to queue for over half an hour merely to enter the enclosure around Trafalgar Square and stand at the back of a massive crowd all gathered to enjoy musical theatre. Some of the shows (the jukebox musicals) were obvious crowd-pleasers with their flashy performance medleys: Mamma Mia, Thriller Live, Rock of Ages, Jersey Boys, and We Will Rock You all had the crowd moving and singing along with the familiar songs. But the crowd were equally mesmerized by solo performances from Matilda, Billy Elliot, The Wizard of Oz, and The Lion King (not a song from the film). Even when it started pouring rain on Sunday, the crowd gamely put up their umbrellas (brollies) and kept right on singing and dancing. It was really marvellously good fun.

Most of the time these days, I'm occupied with reading (and attempting to write) about The Commodification of Feminism in Contemporary Mainstream American Theatre. Only two weeks left to work here before I get swept back into the distractions of my real life.

Brandon and Sunny's meeting

Side note: theatre is also a useful distraction from the sadness of friends leaving. Instead of sitting in a very quiet dorm, I get to go places with lots of people and singing and dancing. There's a constant balancing act in my head these days between things I'll be really glad to see when I get home and things and people I'll be heartbroken to leave behind in London. When it's a little bit grey and rainy, I tend to lean towards the more melancholy reflections. Yesterday I was delightfully jolted out of that when I got to have dinner with a former student who's here on a summer program through Wheaton. Brandon Wold and I enjoyed fish and chips and conversation, and he helped to remind me of some of the amazing people I'm looking forward to seeing again very soon. (Incidentally, Brandon is also writing a blog of his experiences in England: read it here.)

And a special treat: Andover Theatre peeps on the 2006 trip to London, I took this little video for you. I think you'll know why, even if the quality isn't great.

The woman standing next to me was super impassioned with singing along to this one. Why do Brits love this show so much? (The world may never know.)