Weekend in London (Part Two)

On Saturday after we saw Westminster, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey and Trafalgar Square, we received a call from Harriett Thorpe. Beth's brother Russell lived in London when he was younger and went to drama school there. He met Harriett at school and Harriett has become a fairly well know actor in London. She has been in some British TV shows and has performed in many plays and musicals. She currently is starring as Madame Morrible in the hit musical Wicked. Beth had contacted her thanks to Russell a couple of weeks ago and she arranged awesome tickets for us about ten rows from the stage. She was calling to invite us by before the performance to meet some of the actors and see behind the scenes. Monique was beside herself as Wicked is her FAVORITE musical. She could hardly contain herself. We arrived and I first took a picture of Monique next to Harriet's poster outside the theatre. We then got to enter through the stage door and were escorted up to Harriet's dressing room (which was bigger than our hotel room in London) and got to meet Harriet. Beth has met her a number of times, but it was a first for Monique and I. She was absolutely delightful. The second picture is her without her makeup and wig. Harriet said that her two wigs alone cost the production 6,000 pds each which is about $11,000. Her outfits and jewelry were amazing. She then took us onto the stage which is the great picture of Monique in front of the all powerful OZ and under the stage to see where all the sound, costumes and smoke for the production were. It was simply unbelieveable to see everything that went into a major production.(132 people every show) We got to meet the actors that played Boq and Glinda (she was a brunette even though she plays a blond). Finally, after the show, one of the assistants came and got us from our seats and Monique got to meet Fiyero and Morrible (Harriet) right after they had come off the stage at the end of the musical. Of course Monique and Beth thought Fiyero was gorgeous. All and all it was a tremendous afternoon and experience. Thanks again to Harriet for being such a wonderful host.

Cheers