Ms. Knightley

There are hot tickets and there are hot tickets.  When my cousin John first mentioned that Keira Knightley was starring in Molière's "The Misanthrope," I got excited, but kept myself restrained.  He sent me the link to the show's website and I skimmed through it.  The Comedy Theatre....OK..Ten seconds later I had Google-mapped (a technical term) directions from the flat to the theatre.  In the west end? Brilliant! .....sounds expensive..annnnd that's really as far as it went.

Despite hearing everyone talk about how easy it is to secure inexpensive tickets the day of a show, I never thought the opportunity would arise and we would actually get them after nine days in London.

Well the opportunity did arise as Bri, Rainey, and Zach all agreed to get up early and wait for tickets in front of the theatre.  Great. We arrived with time to kill before the theatre opened and fought a huge line that consisted of one middle-aged man with a newspaper.  Even better, he was going for tickets that were WAY out of our price range. Win! This meant there would (hopefully) be some standing-only seats available in the balcony.  After making some small talk about the death of J.D. Salinger, he told us "The only thing I remember about Columbus, Ohio is that they arrested me for j-walking and almost threw me in jail." What a good guy..

We went for the "Lower balcony, standing-only" seats and celebrated.  From that point on, nothing could phase my euphoria.  I was seeing KEIRA KNIGHTLEY that evening...Ahhh!

This picture is actually from my mobile. It was taken (illegally) at the National Portrait Gallery off Trafalgar square.

Enough about getting the tickets, how was the actual show? To sum it up: she is much more beautiful in person (phenomenal bone structure, Steph), needs to eat about four Ghirardelli Earthquake "Family Favorite" sundaes, has a so-so American accent, and (at least from my point of view), is a great stage actress.  The other theatre majors in our group didn't have great things to say about her performance, but I loved it.  What a showstopper.

Overall, it was worth every pound. Next time, I will confirm that she is playing a role that requires her native tongue. 

Photo Credit: Zach Westhoven

One final note...For those of you that are not familiar with the colossal creation that is the Ghirardelli Earthquake Family Favorite; it consists of eight scoops of ice cream, eight toppings, fresh bananas, whipped cream, chopped almonds, chocolate chips, and cherries. 

Cheers!!!