Magic - two days in London!

I always feel homesick when I come to London and more so in some places than in others. Waterloo is a favourite place for all sorts of reasons, not least the views up- and downriver from the concrete bridge built by women. My blip is Waterloo mainline station and the extra is the view from Waterloo of the very beautiful and much-blipped Shard - the only high rise building (bar the Gherkin) built in the last 32 years that is worthy of London.

This evening I went to the Old Vic with a spur-of-the-moment ticket to see Sylvia. Friends had recommended it highly but I don't read reviews in advance so I didn't know what to expect other than suffragettes and rap.

In taking a bit of radical history and using music to make it more accessible, I think it's been seen as the UK answer to Hamilton, which I haven't seen. It was clearly hugely popular and got a standing ovation at the end (though that is less and less a marker of quality) but it didn't really work for me. The set, staging and especially the lighting were excellent. The singing, though not all the songs, and most of the costumes were superb and the choreography was very impressive. It was an excellent introduction to a really important bit of history for people who probably know very little about it and I also learnt things. So what is it that niggles? I guess it must be the narrative, or maybe this way of telling the story? I'm still puzzling about why I came out feeling 3-stars rather than buzzing, as almost everyone else seemed to be.