The King and I - London Palladium / Tour / Dominion

I'm not 100% sure whether they allocate them best first, but they don't add any more throughout the day - once they're gone, they're gone. I guess it also depends on what day you're trying. My experience was that I couldn't get near any tickets trying for a Saturday performance, but got in instantly for a Monday performance. It's completely up to you whether, once you've been given a choice, you return them and try again for better seats but just be aware that once you release your seats, someone else will probably snap them up and then other people may have all the others in their basket and you'll then end up with nothing. Or, you may be lucky and if you release them and try and again you may get the same seats, better or worse. It's just the luck of the draw, really. I decided that, since I was looking for 2 tickets, I just accepted the first they gave me and they turned out great. And as another poster commented, that was the right decision as the remaining seats were further back in the stalls than where I was offered. Always good to remember that whatever you get, for £25 they're going to be worth it!

Does anyone know if Ruthie Ann Miles will indeed come to open the show next Tuesday? That will be one helluva emotional evening if so.

I think that the door is open for Ruthie Ann Miles to join the production when she's ready. However, there's no indication that she's been in the UK yet or rehearsing and it wouldn't be surprising if she didn't appear, given the circumstances.

Popped back again last night with a TodayTix Rush Seat (towards the back of the Stalls). Turned out to be Press Night, so was very busy, and also I imagine why the Rush Seats were right at the back. I think there was a celebrity in one of the boxes, but I couldn't tell who (and was too far away to get a good view).

Entrance still busy, but much smoother than at the first preview.

The show view is much better from the rear Stalls than rear Circle, although the rake is terrible, so it can be a challenge to see around heads. The sound was slightly better in the Circle.

Different Louis to last week (and presumably different children as well). He was good, just coming in too early with one of his lines before A Puzzlement, so had to be cut off by Prince Chulalongkorn.

Tiny amount of entrance applause for Kelli. None for Ken. They did get a full standing ovation at the end.

The audience wasn't the best. There was a group of female TodayTix Rush Ticket holders who had separately booked most of the rows behind, who loudly talked about how cheap their seats were, then got people to move around so they could sit together. Thankfully, they calmed down during the show. Lots of coughers and I just don't understand why people have to loudly open water bottles during the quiet songs.

Also had a mum who brought her son, who used a wheelchair, to see the show. They both loved it, which was great to see, although he did have a tendency to yell things at random times (I know he was trying not to). The lack of consideration of others in the same row did shock me. He'd had a lot of difficulty getting from his chair to his seat and couldn't move easily, but people still insisted at going in and out of the row at that end (including people who were much closer to the other end - although that would have meant a brief walk around the back of the stalls to the ice cream). One lady forced him to move several times, including coming back late after the interval, totally oblivious.

Will look forward to seeing the reviews.

Other than

Kelli O Hara

And Lady Thiang

I found this dreadful

Most of what Ken Watanbe says is

Unintelligible

The staging is dull

The acting poor

And it reminded me of a pantomime

Missed you

🤗

But seriously

I went to this and was so upset

Kept waiting for it

To “take off”

Never did

My favourite part was

Uncle toms cabin

Run ElizaaaH!

Press night is on Tuesday dr Tom so must just have been a busy performance. All of them have been thus far!

No they're not. Lots of press are going Monday, that I do know.

Remember, it's their world, as far as they're concerned. Everyone else just happens to live there too.

I'm sure the standard of musicianship is very, very high. In a score like this one, however good the musicians, trying to pass off two violins and one viola as a string section will result in an orchestra that sounds cheap. There is a certain string sound that depends on having more than one instrument playing each part. You will not get that sound with ONE first violin, ONE second violin, and ONE viola. They get credit for not trying to beef it up with a synthesiser, but yes, I'm afraid, cutting the string section that far back will make the orchestra sound cheap. It's the difference between sounding lush and sounding threadbare.