Yesterday, my friends and I had tickets for the Westend show ‘Wicked.’ We were so pumped to be seeing this show. It was my first time to see ‘Wicked’ and I had heard nothing but extraordinary things about the show.
Show time was at 7:30PM and even though the Apollo Victoria theatre seemed super easy to get to, my friends and I left an hour early just to ensure we would get there with plenty of time to spare.
If only we knew what totally wicked things we were about to encounter.
We boarded the District tube line from the Northern tube prepared for a nice quiet ride from the Monument station right to Victoria station where our theatre was literally right across the street from. However, as we approached the Temple station, a siren started screeching on our tube. At first no one really worried because we couldn’t see any flames or smell any smoke, so we began to wonder if maybe some mischievous kid had pressed the alarm button. Then I saw some people running frantically about crying that someone had collapsed on the train. Then the train conductor came on the loud speaker and said that someone had indeed collapsed on the platform and the train would be grounded until the ambulance arrived and took him away.
My friends were horrified. Here we were, still very far away from where we needed to be for our show in twenty minutes, and our train had been grounded. But I said not to worry because there are buses that run all over London. So my friends agreed it would be a good idea to try the buses. As we got off the subway tube and walked along the platform towards the ‘Way Out’, we saw the poor bloke who had collapsed on the ground. I’ve never seen someone look so red before. It was a scary sight. People were crowding around him to see if he was okay. One lady was checking to see if he was still breathing. It was chaotic.
My friends and I climbed the stairs to the ground level and searched for the right bus to take us to Victoria Station. It was not about fifteen minutes to curtain. And we were still a ways away. We checked the bus stop nearest to us. No luck. The Victoria bus didn’t run through that stop. We were starting to get anxious. I went to the information desk at the tube to ask where the Victoria line was and he told me it was up the road…at the top of a very large San-Francisco-like hill. As my friends and I began the hike up the hill several ambulances came racing around the corner to pick up that poor fellow.
After a five minute hike up the hill, we found the right bus. We were so ecstatic that we literally began dancing in the street, something that the bus driver found extraordinarily funny. The bus took off down the road. Yay! We were finally making progress. Or so we thought.
The bus creeped down the road stopping at every corner to let people on and off. And the closer we inched towards where we needed to be, the heavier the traffic got. It was now about 5 minutes to curtain call and we were starting to panic. I began to wonder if we might get there any faster if we got off and walked. Two English ladies sitting in the row in front of us overheard our conversation and told us that the Apollo Victoria station was about a fifteen minute walk down Constitution Road towards Buckingham Palace. Not a bad place to walk down. And if we ran, we just might make it. Maybe. So we asked the bus driver to pull over and let us off and my friends and I took off like crazy women running down Constitution Road. It was now 7:30 and we were just embarking on the long walk. Then it started raining.
Here we are, six girls all dressed up for what was supposed to be a relaxing night at the theatre running through the rain while trying to navigate the unfamiliar roads of London to make a show that had already started. The fifteen minute walk the ladies on the bus had told us about was actually more like a half hour mad dash. By the time we finally made it to the Apollo Victoria theatre, the show had well already started. The lobby was empty except for the few ushers hanging out in the foyer. We begged them to let us in…some of us borderline ready to cry if need-be. We had worked too hard to get to this show and we would not be easily turned away.
Luckily, begging and tears were not needed. The kind ushers let us in without any hassle at all. We were so thrilled. Despite being tired and wet, we found our way to our seats. And though it was 8 o’clock and the show was already half an hour underway, we were so proud of everything we had persevered through to make it and were able to enjoy the rest of the play.
Wicked far surpassed all the rave reviews I had heard about it. It was definitely the best play I had ever seen. The music was phenomenal, the acting—spectacular. The costumes were gorgeous and the story was fabulous. The twist Wicked put on the Wizard of Oz story was much much better, in my opinion, than the original story. It seemed to be very Tim Burton-esque in its plot and even more so in the stage design. I was blown away by the show. Well worth the totally wicked way adventure to get there.
Til next time,
Cheers y’all.
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