Bucket List: Watching Musicals at the West End

By -

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)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Singapore, Horsburgh - Deep Sea Fishing

By -
Image
Horsburgh Lighthouse (or Horsburgh) is located on an outlying small island (a.k.a Pedra Branca meaning "White Rock" in Portuguese) near the entrance to the east of the Straits of Singapore. The lighthouse was named after Cpt James Horsburgh, who was a hydrographer with the then East India Company. Horsburgh is located about 54km (34 miles) east of Singapore. It was raining in the morning as we set off for the long anticipated trip which was planned as far back as 3 months ago in August 1998. There were four of us; YK, Kenneth, CC and myself.  
 Soon, we were on our way to the suppossedly rich fishing grounds near Horsburgh Lighthouse. This locale is considered a good fishing ground for recreational fishing because commercial trawling is supposedly not permitted.  
 We reached our first fishing spot at exactly 5.00 pm local time. Looking around, we couldn't see actually any lighthouse but who cares, it was the fishing that we were coming for, not a visit to so
Read more

Cambodia, Siem Reap - Wall Sculptures at Angkor Wat

By -
Image
In many places of great historical and cultural significances around the world, wall sculptures left by generations before us convey messages of events past. Such messages are recorded versions of history of the places where they are found.  I have always been fascinated by how our ancient ancestors were able to faithfully convey events that would otherwise require many pages of descriptive words, through a series of wall sculptures. The creative ingenuities, stone masonry skills and storytelling talents of our ancient forebears were translated into these beautiful and amazing wall sculptures that allow us of later generations, to learn and study the civilisations that preceded us. Are these wall sculptures from the past simply just art? Or recorded history? To me, they are both and more. In my previous visits to Cambodia's renown Angkor Wat in 2015 and 2022, I spent time studying the many wall sculptures that still remained in this ancient site. The experience has made me more awa
Read more

Estonia, Tallinn - Palace of Ungern-Sternberg

By -
Image
I was awestruck by the grandness and magnificence of this building during my walking tour of the Old Town of Tallinn. While there, I had no opportunity to enter the building itself. Thus, admiring its facade and photographing its structure as I walked around its perimeter had to suffice.  The  Palace of Ungern-Sternberg, Tallinn, Estonia (2017) Without knowing what this building was, its history and its name, the photographs I took allowed me to conduct basic research on it after the trip.  Based on my rudimentary research into the building long after my trip to Tallinn, I was to discover that it was built in the year 1865 by the German architect, Martin Gropius. Also known as the Palace of Ungern-Sternberg, the building is today the home of the Estonian Academy of Sciences. The Academy is a group of scientists whose aim is to promote research & development and scientific cooperation as well as knowledge dissemination.  The main building housing the Academy is a
Read more