A Right Royal Trip up London.

When I was young, I was gifted a DVD player by my parents along with a variety of films to watch, including The Prince of Egypt. Now, I'm not particularly religious, in fact I agree with George Carlin on religion; however, I can admire the wonderful talent and artistic value of the film, especially Ralph Fiennes (aka Lord Voldemort), as well as the message of the film.

One of my favourite songs throughout the film is "The Plagues" -

When I saw the musical was being performed at The Dominion Theatre, I thought it would be wonderful to see it in person and treat my mother at the same time, so I booked a Royal Box experience for us both and away we went.

On the way to our hotel, I took Mum on a bit of a detour to find some buildings that I'd identified as being connected to espionage. For example -

St. Ermins is a luxurious hotel but is steeped in Intelligence History. It was used as a meeting place and operational base for MI6 (then SIS) in the early 20th century.

During World War Two, the Special Operations Executive - Winston Churchills secret army tasked with sabotage and guerrilla warfare was headquartered at St. Ermins.

St. Ermin's was also frequented by double agents and spies during the cold war, including figures such as Guy Burgess and Kim Philby who are members of the Cambridge Five who spied for the Soviet Union.

Having completed the detour, we eventually got checked in and got ready to go for some pre-show drinks.

Then it was show time!

As part of the "Royal experience" we were met by our own host and taken straight to the box, skipping all of the queues and given complimentary champagne.

The show was wonderful, although they had changed some of the songs and narrative from the film adaptation which was unexpected but not unwelcome. Both the acting and the vocal skills in the singing were fabulous.

Our train home was somewhat delayed, but that allowed us to have a few cocktails as we waited. Silver linings and all.