“You go so deeply and intensely on holiday,”
said a colleague and friend.
By late 2022, my
travel bug had not yet stirred from its pandemic slumber. I did have a distant eye on North America,
but no concrete plans. One evening, surfing YouTube, which has lately been my primary source of
entertainment, news and education, I stumbled upon the Royal Variety Performance 2022,
hosted by Lee Mack. I’ve known for some
time that the winner of Britain’s Got Talent gets to perform
in this show, but I’ve never been interested in watching it. I'd assumed that such a show would
be for the benefit of the Windsors only, as it would have been in medieval times.
Nevertheless, my mood led me to give it a chance, partially
because of Lee Mack, who I love in Would I Lie To You. Colour me surprised to learn that
the Royal Variety Charity, who puts on the performance, in fact takes care of
sick and elderly entertainers. Now this was much more
palatable.
The performance included the opening sequence of Cabaret, which was being performed in London at that time, and would continue its run well into 2023. I was enraptured. I’ve known the music for decades, and I’ve watched a film version on YouTube. The musical is based on a play called I Am a Camera, which is itself based on the book titled Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood. Cabaret featured as a theme through the fifth season of the multi award winning TV show Schitt’s Creek. I loved Schitt’s Creek, and I had read Goodbye to Berlin, but I had never enjoyed Cabaret on stage. There was no question: I HAD to see it.
I wasted no time contacting Katja, who lives in London, and Kathy, who lives in Amsterdam, inviting them to join. Very soon, three tickets had been purchased. My itinerary grew gradually fleshier, and soon I also invited my sister and her husband to meet me in the British capital. They were reluctant – their 2017 UK honeymoon had been thwarted because they’d failed to check visa requirements. Should I add a quick trip to Switzerland? Eventually, we settled on meeting in Vietnam in April.