Going to London to see Jeeves and Wooster

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Last week I headed into town to see the comedy Jeeves and Woosterat the Duke or York's Theatre on St Martin's Lane.

So onto the train and 40 minutes later I am in the big smoke. Sometimes it is cheaper to use an Oystercard, others it is cheaper to use a travel card. This was an Oystercard day - it is only the matter of a £1 but every bit helps.

I went with my good friend Harry who works in town so the first job was to meet up.

When I was 22ish I used to work in nearby Bedfordbury just three doors down from the London Coliseum stage door and 2 doors down from the Lemon Tree pub. In those days it was a rather run down place but the landlord was friendly and, because of its situation it always had a lot of interesting people pass through its doors. Well today it is a much smarter affair and not really the pub I remember and the landlord has gone but to relive my youth I generally pop in here if I am in the area. So we met for a rather large glass of tasty house white before heading of to La Roche restaurant just opposite the Duke of York's because my friend likes Lebanese, for some pre-theatre dinning.

It wasn't quite Lebanese, more of a Mediterranean hotchpotch but it served us well and had the single quality every pre-theatre restaurant should have: you can see the theatre from your table! This means you can time your arrival perfectly and without too much fuss.

So onto the show. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as we were led to believe. We were invited to see the new cast but the cast didn't really seem to "get it" and so it came over as a rather disjointed affair.

In the interval my friend met a work colleague and rather than having the rather delicate conversation about whether we were to return to our seats for the second half we chatted to him and his wife. Consequently we ended up seeing the second half too which was no better.

A drink followed, this time at the rather elaborately fronted Salisbury just up the road and then home to bed!

I never forget that I am so lucky to live close enough to London that I can just pop in and enjoy this wonderful city. It takes 40 minutes on the train, station to station, with about 20 minutes either side but I would travel much further - but obviously that would cost more. I guess that is why theatre trips become a "special occassion" for some - sad but understandable.

I don't pay for my tickets because I am lucky enough to work in the theatre industry, but the rest of it costs around £40 for the evening - not bad really!

Next trip: Forbidden Broadway

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