Bucket List: Watching Musicals at the West End

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London, England, United Kingdom

The West End is located north of the River Thames and as its name suggests, west of the city of London. Most of London's major tourist attractions and entertainment venues are found here.

Watching musicals at the West End can fairly be said to be one of the most common entertainment experiences sought by tourists visiting London. And I was no different. However, I only managed to find the time to watch my first musical at the West End after numerous visits to London; although this was not the first musical I had watched, having attended performances of musicals back in my home city as well as in other cities around the world. But my first time watching a musical in the famous West End was only during my 8th visit to London and that musical was The Lion King.

On subsequent visits to London, I caught performances of Phantom of the Opera and Les Miserables amongst others.

Posters featuring the Les Miserables musical at a West End theatre, London, England, United Kingdom (2017)

In my early adulthood, one of my dreams was to visit London and watch a musical at the West End. This became a travel bucket list item as I started work and had the money to travel, even though my travel budget was rather limited due to my relatively low starting pay as an engineering trainee. But as I progressed in my career, I started to earn more. As a result,I was able to  travel more often and to further geographical locations from my home city. But it would take eight visits to London before I actually got to enjoy a West End musical. Still, it was an awesome experience and a well-deserved tick on my travel bucket list.

Watching musicals has since become a regular itinerary item on my subsequent London visits and I hope to catch more performances in the coming years whenever I visit London.

So whether it is watching the same musicals that I had watched before or others that I had yet to watch, stories such as that of the lion cub who can't wait to be king or a phantom that haunts the opera will continue to fascinate me and provide great entertainment.

The performing stage of a West End theatre before the commencement of performance, London, England, United Kingdom (2017)

London's Chinatown is located in the West End, London, England, United Kingdom (2017)


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