Plus: Wherever you are this Xmas it is possible to enjoy some pantomime mayhem on Cinderella budget. Here are some Fairy Godmother tips and tricks that will take you and your loved ones to the ball.
Brit in the US here (forty-five years and counting, frequent tourer of UK. Recently, an American friend took her first trip to Scotland, a bus tour. In one day, Inverness to Stirling, then St. Andrews, before arriving in Edinburgh. She still hasn't been to Scotland. There are many ways to travel in Scotland. This must have been among the least satisfactory. But she doesn't know that, because it was all new and exciting. She found what she wanted to find.
Reminds me of a visit to Russia in 1994. I was treated to a comically fast tour of the Hermitage in St Petersburg, that felt like some kind of game show challenge. It was as if we had to pick up a different coloured ball in every gallery and the objective was to get back to the coach as fast as possible. A case of vodka, 100 forged Marlborough lights and a vial of military grade plutonium as prize for the coach with the most balls collected at the end of the hour.
I am glad to say I have seen a Rembrandt up close. But only very briefly. And some Fabergé eggs. That's all I can remember.
I always think how spoiled I am by National Trust guides and their ilk. In the US, you occasionally get a guide both informed and generous, but more often a volunteer not that knowledgeable, and on an ego trip, or a paid hack (as here). I've been traveling America for decades, by road, lived all over, and have a PhD in American history. Still learning new and startling things every day. Get testy when UK friends lecture me on "the Americans". 😂
Very entertaining, thoughtful and practical as ever. Somone should market pantomime to genuinely interested culturally curious Americans on Christmas breaks in the UK. I wonder what they would make of it.
We had a sweet intern guide us around the Capitol in Washington (our US friends asked their Representative for a tour) and it was her first time and she had memorised lots of facts but boy was she startled by the probing questions and historical knowledge of the English and US couples she was escorting. We eventually took pity and let her stop trying to answer us without recourse to Google.
So true about not taking very small children to full Panto, they get scared and don't have the attention span and it's always the mum or gran who is desperate to give them the experience, too soon. Whereas the short and infant-friendly shows you mention are a blessing, we have quite a few now in the smaller London theatres and they aren't too dear either.
Brit in the US here (forty-five years and counting, frequent tourer of UK. Recently, an American friend took her first trip to Scotland, a bus tour. In one day, Inverness to Stirling, then St. Andrews, before arriving in Edinburgh. She still hasn't been to Scotland. There are many ways to travel in Scotland. This must have been among the least satisfactory. But she doesn't know that, because it was all new and exciting. She found what she wanted to find.
Reminds me of a visit to Russia in 1994. I was treated to a comically fast tour of the Hermitage in St Petersburg, that felt like some kind of game show challenge. It was as if we had to pick up a different coloured ball in every gallery and the objective was to get back to the coach as fast as possible. A case of vodka, 100 forged Marlborough lights and a vial of military grade plutonium as prize for the coach with the most balls collected at the end of the hour.
I am glad to say I have seen a Rembrandt up close. But only very briefly. And some Fabergé eggs. That's all I can remember.
I always think how spoiled I am by National Trust guides and their ilk. In the US, you occasionally get a guide both informed and generous, but more often a volunteer not that knowledgeable, and on an ego trip, or a paid hack (as here). I've been traveling America for decades, by road, lived all over, and have a PhD in American history. Still learning new and startling things every day. Get testy when UK friends lecture me on "the Americans". 😂
Very entertaining, thoughtful and practical as ever. Somone should market pantomime to genuinely interested culturally curious Americans on Christmas breaks in the UK. I wonder what they would make of it.
We had a sweet intern guide us around the Capitol in Washington (our US friends asked their Representative for a tour) and it was her first time and she had memorised lots of facts but boy was she startled by the probing questions and historical knowledge of the English and US couples she was escorting. We eventually took pity and let her stop trying to answer us without recourse to Google.
So true about not taking very small children to full Panto, they get scared and don't have the attention span and it's always the mum or gran who is desperate to give them the experience, too soon. Whereas the short and infant-friendly shows you mention are a blessing, we have quite a few now in the smaller London theatres and they aren't too dear either.