aaaaaaaaages ago, erin text me and asked if i wanted to go and see matilda the musical. uhhm, heck to the yeah i do! that show has had nothing but great reviews, and i'd been wanting to see it since the mother was about (one whole year ago!) and so this seemed as perfect a time as any - oh, did i mention the discount? there was some. it was a lot.
so after work on wedensday, boyfriend and i hit up planet hollywood for some quick food before i was due to meet erin and her mates in covent garden. i'd never been to the london branch, but i had been to planet hollywood in mexixo and l.a. so kind of sort of maybe knew what to expect...
yes, mammoth meals! boyfriend got the ribs and i the sizzling enchilladas, and - apologies for the crap pictures, but the lighting was terrible. as was... pretty much everything in the restaurant. there was a gajillion kids running about with chicken nuggets and sauce and cokes and argh! it was gross. the lighting was bad, the noise was loud, it was like.. a high-classed mcdonalds. and worse still, th e food wasn't even that good. it was rushed and thrown on a plate with little enthusiasm. my tortilla wraps had quite obviously been microwaved to warm them, and had gone a little stale. i informed our waitress, who apologised and said "oh yea, that happens a lot". hey, here's an idea, figure out a way to fix it.
i was full really quickly - i suppose it was rather early for dinner, but.. necessary as i knew i wouldn't be home til after 11 and didn't want to be eating that late. my chicken and beef was lovely - perfectly cooked, as were boyfriend ribs, but a lot of my meal remained untouched as it was full of onion - despite not being listed on the menu. (you might remember my allergy?) so dinner was pretty disappointing, but with the taste card we scored 50% off the meals, which tends to always make up for the standard a little... bottom line: would i go back? no. there's far too many great restaurants in london to waste time trying this one again.
after dinner i met up with erin and her mates nitya and jane, and we took our seats in the cambridge theatre in covent garden. the show was spectacular. i hate kids, but these kids were simply fantastic, with just the right amount of cheesiness to not make me hate them too. the whole cast were fantastic in fact, and the show was really funny. but, considering the music and lyrics were written by comic tim minchin, it was never going to be anything but. the staging itself was really, really impressive, and we had some great seats, so we were really, really lucky.
i hadn't seen the film (or read the book) in such a long time, but i suppose a story like matilda does kind of stay with you. parts of the show were not from the film, and i couldn't say whether they're in the book at all, but i thought they gave the show something a bit more dramatic. i thought it wasn't too dissimilar from the film - sometimes the live shows are quite far removed from what you know to be 'real', and that can be a bit of a bummer. all in all though, i would definitely recommend the show. it a really funny, fun-for-the-whole-family type show, and you definitely won't be left wanting more. the whole audience gave the girl who plays matilda a standing ovation - not even just because she is a child who solidly performed in front a room full of strangers for two hours. because she was pretty much the best performer i've ever seen live. and i've met brad pitt. and seen a shakespeare play. and thriller. so, i'd know.
have you seen matilda? what did you think?
