I traveled to London on Thursday, but I've had some mysterious nausea bug ever since so I didn't feel like writing about it until now. I mostly went to see &Juliet, and I also stopped by the Jack The Ripper museum which I'll put behind a cut at the bottom because, you know, murder.
I didn't know a whole lot about &Juliet before going other than that it was some kind of riff off of Romeo & Juliet and it's had some polarizing reviews. It's a jukebox musical that literally opens with a Backstreet Boys song though, so it's really not anything to be taken that seriously. And I had a lot of fun seeing it! It's just the right amount of silly and very lighthearted, and to be honest I felt like it was the jukebox musical that Moulin Rouge wishes it could be and failed (the musical, not the movie). The score and book worked together really seamlessly, and the music always matched the tone of what was happening on stage. I guess I can understand not liking it if you're a Shakespeare purist, but it's not supposed to be that deep and there's enough straight Shakespeare adaptations out there already. Romeo's introduction to Jon Bon Jovi's It's My Life absolutely killed me, and I really loved the sets and costume design. The costumes were a blend of Elizabethan and modern street wear which sounds like it could be a hot mess but worked really well. I would absolutely go see it again!
Otherwise I mostly did a whole lot of nothing and enjoyed every single second of it. I ended up doing about 20,000 steps and I'm not even sure how? I just had a really chill time looking through my favorite clothing stores and trying on a bunch of stuff I had no intention of buying, browsing the art and book stores, and just really taking my time with it. It was really nice not to be in a rush or have anywhere to go and just enjoy the city.
Some of the things I did buy. I spent ages in the Disney Store trying to find a new everyday mug, and came away with a doll, pin, and Stitch plushie instead. They had a whole bunch of Haunted Mansion stuff that I really liked the look of, but the prices were stupid so I left it (and I'm always kind of bitter it's not Phantom Manor as that's what we have in Europe and it's better). I've never seen a doll of Esmeralda before and I'm part Romani so she's always been really important to me and as representation goes it's not terrible. I expected to want to give her a face up, but I actually really like the paint job. Just a few screen accurate tweaks to her costume (like the coins on her sash) and she'll be perfect! Snow White and the Prince are my favorite canon Disney couple so I had to get this pin, and I liked that the Stitch plushie actually looks like Stitch! It's rare!
They had some blind box Animal Crossing keychains in Forbidden Planet, I don't usually like these things as I like to know what I'm spending my money on but I took a chance and was pretty happy with KK Slider. I was hoping for Blathers or Tommy/Timmy, but I'm just glad I didn't get Porter 💀 My Gudetama keychain broke on my backpack, so this can replace it now. I also picked up some inserts for my new Traveler's Notebook, and spent the weekend putting it all together.
In the morning I started the day by going to the Jack The Ripper Museum, which I'd actually never heard of before but I was looking for anything to do beyond the usual. It's located in Whitechapel in an old Victorian house, and has recreated scenes from the time period along with information about the cases (I spent 1.5 years living in Whitechapel, which is why this stuff is interesting to me! I know the area really well.) It's set over 5 floors and it took me about 45 minutes in total, so it's not something that eats away at your whole day, and I thought it was a good insight into English social history rather than the sanitized upper class Victorian London that's usually emphasized.
The focus of the museum was almost entirely on the victims instead of anything gratuitous, and it does a really good job of emphasizing just how poor these women were, that they were not "just prostitutes" to be scorned at, but women with lives and faces and names who lived in such abject poverty that most of us can't even begin to imagine. It even ends with a mortuary/chapel shrine to each of their names. I wasn't expecting it to be so respectful honestly, it's weird to me how Jack The Ripper has become so romanticized when he was truly heinous and I'm glad it didn't take that route.
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