A Wicked weekend

You never need an excuse to spend more time with a best friend, so in between witchcraft and show-tunes in the West End, I indulged in plenty of girly time...

My heart sank when I put the phone down to my best friend. Oh no, I thought to myself. Had it really been two months since our last big blow out night out? Surely not. The summer with its onslaught of baby showers and weddings had prevented us from engaging in our most simplest of pleasures: hanging out.

This can happen in our jammies with a bowl of Pringles, in a crumbling, draughty pub, in a nightclub toilet cubicle so small you’d think the builders only owned one bum cheek or in a bedroom folding the other’s ironing – basically anywhere we get to silently and inwardly scream ‘we wanna be togevaaaa!’  in our proudest Brummie accents.

Also, living in the countryside - miles away from her and my beloved West Midlands - has changed me. There aren’t any bar booth conversations with friends over careers and David Cameron anymore. Mostly because no one is interested in leaving their homes in the evenings for vodka and wine.

The nearest decent pub is a 15-minute walk from my house but you can’t walk to it because there isn’t a footpath. Sure, you can carry torches and hope the occasional speeding 4x4 doesn’t make roadkill out of you like those unfortunate foxes. But whenever everybody’s up for drinking, it can’t happen. Because the local cab firm says it’s not worth the fare. And so my point is, someone has to stay sober to drive and that person is usually me. Of course I don’t need to drink to socialise – but I miss girly bar and pub chats and I thought that was part of the country living deal.

I’m in the middle of an unhealthy oestrogen-dependant social drought and I need my bestie, and for us to go out and dip our brains in something that will literally flood us with fun.  We need a double-whipped-creamed-and souffléd dosage of excitement.

So I book us tickets to watch Wicked at The Apollo Victoria in London. I’d read it’s the first show in a long time to have great strong female leads and with a story based on female friendships - I believe we’ll appreciate it wholeheartedly.

The Broadway musical is now ranked one of the biggest attractions in London and is bound to offer us a new way to discover the capital.  Over the years we’ve done the vintage shopping trail, the blowout department store credit-card bashing, the dancing eating and drinking. We’d not – at least not together anyway – done a West End show. And this was one neither of us had seen, read the book it is based on, watched a Youtube clip of or downloaded an iTunes album for.

It’s the back story of The Wizard Of Oz and how two friends became legendary rivals; Elphaba became the Wicked Witch of The West and Glinda the Good Witch. 

While I’d heard friends rave on about the show, I had a belated introduction to its surrounding fanaticism via Glee.  

A lot of theatre weekends involve scouring the internet for the best deals, then working out itineraries and hotels and restaurants near enough to make the pre-bar queues at the foyer before a show. They can take some military precision.

Theatre tour operator Show and Stay specialise in tailor-made breaks to suit all budgets. Set up by entrepreneur Simon Haggar, the company features a wide collection of West End shows and cool places to stay with an online magazine and video blogs filled with content and tips on all the latest news from the West End.

The company is passionate about giving customers that personal touch with all bookings done in-house rather than being outsourced to other tour operators and regular deals and room upgrades are part of the service. They’ve also recently added other London attractions to its packages with passes for The London Eye, London Zoo and Royal Historic Palaces.

We’re booked in for a pre-show dinner at B Bar which really is a five-minute walk from the theatre and where the pavements might be overcrowded, but there are pavements nonetheless. 

Our hotel for the night is the five-star Andaz in Liverpool Street. We’re both in high spirits as a huge firing dragon sets the stage and scene as we take our seats in the front row of the upper dress circle. (Tip: I would hugely recommend this as the effects of the shows staging and lighting from here is simply magical.)

And while the show’s been on at the Apollo for four years, and I missed the cute-as-pie Lee Mead playing leading man Fiyero, the current cast took our breath away with their all-acting, singing and dancing performances. 

The show is clever, post-modern and very touching with themes on stereotyping misfits, social ostracism as well as friendship, power and love. It’s also downright hilarious – those witty in-jokes and clever referencing to the original story in the Wizard of Oz will have you smiling to yourselves long after you’ve left the theatre.

Rachel Tucker, who I remember loving on TV’s I’d Do Anything reality show, is excellent as Elphaba, an underdog you’ll truly root for. The moment where she belts out those crazy notes in the show’s standout song, ‘Defying Gravity’ is a bonafide highlight. During the interval, I literally dragged my excited fallen jaw to the ladies washroom…to the ice cream vendor…the bar… and then back to my seat before act two commenced.

Later that evening, back at the hotel bar, having been wowed by Wicked’s sensational shocks and surprises, the urge to throw out my arms and shake my hair into my wine glass while singing ‘Because I Knew You’ to all and sundry becomes so overwhelming, my friend whispers ‘fly my pretty’ as she sends me promptly upstairs to bed.

Eat

Opposite Buckingham Palace Mews and before our show, we went for a light bite at B Bar – a modern South African-themed bistro serving international food. The atmosphere was perfect for après-theatre and after work (office workers sipping on cocktails filled the low lit bar area at the front of the restaurant) and the odd bit of Royal spotting (Prince Harry has visited with friends).

The pre-theatre menu offers easy and fuss-free chicken schnitzels, Thai fish cakes and burgers with A la carte choices of Windhoek lager battered hake and Boerewors sausages served with spicy chakalaka.

Stay  

There are two reasons to stay at Andaz Liverpool Street.  One: the super courteous and can-do attitudes of the staff. Two: the large and stylish rooms with equally large beds. Rooms overlook Bishops Gate or the more peaceful inner courtyard and feature chaise longues, oversized floor lamps, LCD TV flat screens and retro style bathrooms with rainhead showers.

The big bonus comes at 10am the following morning at 1901 (the hotel’s spacious restaurant with a dome ceiling) when we experience one of the city’s most generous spreads of breads, pastries, artisan cheeses, international meats, fresh smoothies and fruits.

A theatre break to watch Wicked at The Apollo Victoria booked with Show and Stay (0800 0832 841 www.show-and-stay.co.uk) starts from £169 per person including hotel, breakfast and show tickets.