Phantom of the Opera

Friday 21 October

I am very fortunate to be able to say that I have been to many shows in my 18 months in London - plays and musicals - some featuring some great talents such as Kevin Spacey, Val Kilmer, Rob Lowe, Marti Pellow and so on. It really has been one of the great highlights for me of living in London, to be able to just go to one of the numerous shows and be entertained by such wonderful talents, storylines, and surroundings.

When I went to see the theatre production of A Few Good Men recently, I was asked my friend Ger what my favourite show has been over the last 18 months. It was a very good question, and after some thought I could have narrowed it down a little, however all in all there was no winner – I mean how could I choose just one from all the wonderful shows that I had seen?

Last Friday, I had the pleasure of entertaining a Russian girl (Viktoryia) who was in London on business with our company and I decided to take her to one of the all time greats, The Phantom of the Opera. The show has been running since 1986. Well, at half time, I looked at her, and she looked back at me with tears about to fall from our eyes and I realised that I had finally found my favourite show of the last 18 months! The show was simply amazing, the storyline, the singing, the stage and prop work was all of such a wonderful standard that just left you feeling completely part of the show itself and full of emotional. The standing ovation at the end suggested that many in the audience had as wonderful time as we did.

I would absolutely recommend anybody taking the opportunity to see this show!