It was a bucket list trip attending London’s Royal Ascot races. After spending a day there, I spent the rest of my week exploring the historic city. I saw two West End shows, shopped at the Portobello Market and, of course Harrods, and then visited the Royal Academy of Arts and Serpentine North Gallery, where our beloved former Mayor Michael Bloomberg is chairman of the board.
The West End of London is our Broadway. Shockingly, nearly all of their shows are now playing in New York.
In fact, the play I saw, “The Play That Goes Wrong,” is being produced by the same group who is doing “Peter Pan Goes Wrong,” which I saw recently on Broadway. They are both farces, not my favorite genre, but the staging of the people falling, flipping and outrageously flopping down sets was remarkable theatre, if you like that kind of acting and humor.
I did love another play that was at Lincoln Center, but I missed the totally reimagined classic “Oklahoma.” The music is as magical as I remembered it, but the dancing and electric guitars were remarkably “today.” I was enthralled by every minute of the production.
One night, we dined at Wiltons Restaurant, family-operated for more than 280 years, and the Dover Sole was the best I ever ate!
Having been to London decades ago with my first husband Murray, I had purchased ornate sterling silver picture frames at the Portobello Market, but had to give him half of them in the divorce, so I wanted to go back and replace the ones I lost. I found them!
What fun it was to go from stall to stall, see the interesting people shopping and selling and find some unique things!
I then joined my friend Ted Vassiliev, who had invited me to the Royal Ascot and owns DTR Modern Galleries with locations in Boston, Nantucket, SoHo, Palm Beach and Washington, D.C. I met Ted and his wife in Palm Beach, where his artists grace the front covers of our Dan’s Papers Palm Beach editions.
He took me to the Serpentine North Gallery, where he created the Americas Foundation of the Serpentine Galleries, whose chairman is Michael Bloomberg.
The gallery featured extraordinary visual artist Gabriel Massan, whose visual artwork is an experimental exhibition derived from video games and was shown across four TV screens. A new world of art is upon us!
London was a great “play time” for me. After all, what is life with all work and no play? Then again, I’m blessed that my work is my play, too!
