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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nI came to see the play Barcelona<\/strong>, which brought… Emily in Paris to London. I mean Lily Collins<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And she\u2019s not the only star of the play. She\u2019s acting alongside \u00c1lvaro Morte<\/strong>, the sexy Spaniard many know as the Professor from Money Heist<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For both, this is their debut in London\u2019s West End, and from what I see on social media, they\u2019re both very excited about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The play is running for just a few weeks (October 21-January 11), so I hurried to grab my ticket as early as August! A good enough reason to return, for the thousandth time, to London at the end of November.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Just like last time, when I chose to see Plaza Suite<\/strong><\/em> with Sarah Jessica Parker<\/strong> and Matthew Broderick<\/strong> (an experience I wrote about here<\/a>), I started reading a bit about the play, fearing I might not understand everything they say in English. “At least I\u2019ll know the story”, I told myself…<\/p>\n\n\n\n At midnight, an American tourist goes home with an attractive Spaniard for a carefree one-night stand. However, things take a turn as their dialogue brings unexpected emotions to the surface. I read that “Barcelona is a captivating thriller that keeps the audience in suspense<\/em> \u2013 exploring the fantasy of who we pretend to be versus the truth of who we really are”.<\/em> Okay… Didn\u2019t learn much. But that intrigued me even more! And the autograph hunting was an experience in itself, one I can\u2019t wait to tell you about!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Don\u2019t ask me why, but I ended up seeing the play twice, just a few days apart!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I had a ticket for a Monday evening. But four days earlier, in an attempt to stop wasting money in London\u2019s shops, I stopped by the theater\u2019s ticket office and asked if they had a ticket for that very evening. “Yes, we have one returned ticket, a deluxe package”, <\/em>the gentleman at the counter told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Oh dear, do I really need deluxe?? Fine, fine, I took the ticket because, as they say, “don\u2019t waste money on silly things, spend it on deluxe tickets for the kids” \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n Right after that, this board was placed in front of the theater, confirming that I had indeed bought the last available ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the evening, I arrive on time, a bit awkward with my deluxe ticket, not knowing what to do with it. I show it at the bar in the lobby, and suddenly I am handed a bottle of champagne (not just any champagne, but Mo\u00ebt<\/strong>), a program booklet, and an ice cream! All included in the price of the deluxe ticket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Alright, I can handle the ice cream, but what on earth am I supposed to do with so much champagne?! Especially since I ended up with a glass too. (You\u2019re allowed to take them into the theater, and you\u2019re allowed to consume them during the show, but as I\u2019m always fidgety, I don\u2019t want to risk knocking over the glass or the bottle during the performance.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n So here I am, going to one of the theater\u2019s bars and starting to sip the champagne. One sip, two, three… Wow, I can feel the bubbles dancing in my head. Then I remember I have some salted popcorn with me. I quickly take them out and start munching furiously, hoping the food would help my brain process the alcohol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Unbelievable! For someone who can gulp down half a liter of soda in no time, this 375ml bottle of champagne seams like a barrel of alcohol! It just wouldn\u2019t end!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I take another sip. Then I start imagining scenarios: what if, during the play, I suddenly stand up from my seat and start singing?? What if I laugh hysterically when it\u2019s actually a sad moment??… And other dramatic scenarios that ultimately make me abandon that fancy champagne at the bar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I enter the theater. It\u2019s so small! And the stage is so tiny!<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m in a theater that opened in 1892, where legendary productions with famous names have been performed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I have a seat in row 5. The deluxe one \ud83d\ude42 And on top of that, I got lucky: no one shows up for the seats in front of me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n To my right, two women. Clearly, they don\u2019t share my champagne dilemma, as they\u2019re happily clutching their bottles and glasses, sipping away\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n There\u2019s an eerie music playing in the theater. On the walls of the set, ghostly silhouettes of women are dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I check my phone 100 times to make sure it\u2019s turned off, that I don\u2019t have any alarms set. This is my constant stress at every show. Especially since, in the over 60 musicals I\u2019ve attended, I\u2019ve never heard a single phone go off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I like the play. I like the writing, and I like the two actors. Lily speaks so fast and with a slight lisp at times that I miss a few jokes, the ones most of the audience laughs at. The woman next to me laughs heartily. Could it be from all the champagne she drank?… When it\u2019s time to cry (because, yes, there are moments for that too), she cries \u2013 I can hear her slurping her snot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The play takes you suddenly through different, unexpected emotions. When I see it the second time, I already feel like an expert (in my head) because I know what\u2019s coming\u2026 And I enjoy it even more because I understand more of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s great to see a good play multiple times. The audience is different. The first time, when the two protagonists entered the stage, the entire room broke into thunderous applause. Cheers even. The second time, no one applauded \u2013 they simply let them act out the lines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n At both performances, I had fantastic seats. Row 5 and row 3 \u2013 close enough to see the tears glistening in their eyes. And that little tic of hers, which annoyed me in Emily in Paris<\/em> at first, only for me to later realize it adds a unique charm: that uneven blink with her eyes, a bit crooked, I don\u2019t know how to describe it… And I recognized her “cat-like playfulness” from the series, along with some of her adorably desperate moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some flamenco chords can be heard. Or, as she calls it in the play, flamingo \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n The play has more humor than I expected. A man sitting behind me laughs loudly at every funny moment, and he laughs so long that I miss the next lines \u2013 ugh. That was during the first performance when the audience as a whole seemed more enthusiastic. The second time, I think there were more foreigners in the room…<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.danamladin.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/barcelona-the-play_london-1.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBARCELONA THE PLAY<\/strong><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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