My Glasgow - Aladdin Adventures or...
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or how I saw John Barrowman's Aladdin Panto Five Times but only saw John Twice!
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Our trip to Glasgow was interesting to say the least - Wednesday evening we left Chicago late, we landed in Newark NJ late (traffic back up), we left Newark late and landed in Glasgow late! Only to get to the hotel and the theatre to find out after we were seated that John Barrowman was ill [flu and a touch of plursey] and that his 18 yr old cousin Greg Barrowman was doing his part. Poor Greg - people were very much unhappy - especially as there was no notification of this at the front where we came in and picked up tickets. - So we watched from the second row - as Greg strutted his stuff and sang his way thru the part of Aladdin in the Panto. We had tickets for the following day [Friday] and went - fingers crossed that John would be there - once again - second row - we didn't find out until just before the performance after we'd been seated that John was still ill and that Greg was still standing in. We had tickets for Sunday - hoping against hope that John would be there and from the second very center section - we once again saw Greg. SIGH
So hoping against hope we went over on Monday - to see if John was to be performing and were told yes!!! So we got the only available tickets in the nosebleed section row Y - sigh but we got to see John and hear him sing - even if he was a bit rough and hoarse - no one minded! Of course at this point I was starting to feel really crappy. We had tickets for the evening performance and went even though I was pretty miserable. We were in the back on the main floor for the first half and at the intermission - we were able to move forward into the front section into unclaimed seats and saw John quite a bit closer in person! sigh! The man is gorgeous and talented and obviously cares a great deal about the production and his cousin did a damned good job under less than ideal circumstances.
Honestly I think there would have been a hell of a lot less criticism and anger IF they'd only put a notice up that John wasn't up to performing in the lobby. People could have made their decision to stay or go before being seated.
Anyway - I was pretty miserably sick by the time the evening performance is done and we're scheduled to leave early in the morning to following day. 'Course we get up early, eat a very quick breakfast only to get to the airport to find there's been a 3 hour delay because of fueling issues in Heathrow. Finally we leave Glasgow - with a 2 hour layover in Heathrow [was originally supposed to be a 5 hour layover - done on purpose as we were worried about the weather and it turned out a good thing as it wasn't weather but fuel issues] and then are finally off to Chicago.
We get into Chicago O'Hare almost an hour early only to find my friend's luggage didn't make the trip with us. The airline is still looking for it. We go to dinner and home to her condo and we crash - we get up early to drop me at the airport so I can go home to Rochester, NY and she can goto work. I got home fine - luggage intact. I'm exhausted and taking my meds and hope to feel better soon!
Update - the luggage was located and is in the same city as my friend - she's just waiting to make delivery arrangements.
Final thoughts - it was worth it - sick or not - Greg or John - it was worth it. We enjoyed Greg's performance and hope to one day say "I saw Greg when he substituted for his cousin John!"