Student Blog: My First West End Musical

This semester, I’ve had the privilege of studying abroad in Florence, Italy, through my home university. I arrived in Europe at the end of August with my family, and we spent a week together in Italy before my study program started. It became a whole process to activate my student visa because I arrived in Italy before the date it started. To sum it up, in order to activate the visa, I had to leave the Schengen area of Europe, which is a region of 29 countries that have abolished international borders, and then re-enter Italy on the day my program started. This gave my mom and I the perfect excuse for a quick 24-hour trip to London. 

I'd been to London a few years prior with my best friend Brooke and her family, and my life was changed there by Mike Faist and Lucas Hedges' production of Brokeback Mountain. That was my first West End production ever, and I genuinely haven't been the same since, so when my mom suggested we see a show while we were there for the night, I was elated.  

I’ve wanted to see Wicked forever. It's such an iconic show, and almost every theatre kid I know has the soundtrack memorized; I basically grew up listening to it. But the Broadway tickets in New York City are so expensive I could never really justify it when there were always so many other shows I wanted to see with better ticket prices. It just so happened that the week my mom and I ended up on the West End was London Theatre Week, so tickets were discounted, which felt like fate. My mom surprised me with second-row seats; it was better than I could have imagined.

The costumes and set were unbelievable, and the theatre felt so alive. I really enjoyed how many merch and snack stands they had in comparison to what I am used to in New York. My mom and I had the best night, and I am just so grateful to have gotten to share this experience with my mom before my program started. I won't see her again until December, and I was really struggling with the idea of leaving home for so long, so to be able to see one of our favorite musicals together live in London was such a memorable experience I will carry with me throughout the entirety of my semester abroad. 

London holds such a special place in my heart, and I guess you could say I've been changed for good. I hope that I'm able to make a trip back to the West End while I'm in Europe because there are so many more shows I'd love to experience.