I'm Going to See Bradley Cooper in The Elephant Man in London!

Bradley Cooper as The Elephant Man. 

In the nearly three years of writing for Theatre of Zen, I haven't written about my experience at a theatre production. Well the time has finally arrived and I'm excited to announce that in reference to my previous post about my London trip this spring, I am going to see Bradley Cooper in The Elephant Man! It was just announced officially yesterday (Friday, Jan. 24th) that Cooper's play will be in limited run in the West End starting in May through early August at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

I visited the box office website last night and searched for tickets during the brief time I'll be in London (26 May - 30 May). As per seat availability at the right price and location, I was able to snatch up an orphan seat in the second row of the Stalls from the stage! Seats in the Stalls are £108 or £65, so I was very lucky to find the cheaper ticket so close to the stage. With the exchange rate, it's about $100 - a lot of money for a theater ticket, but this is a unique and rare opportunity to see an A-list three-time Oscar nominated actor. And to think, to my now embarrassment, I ridiculed his Oscar nomination back in 2012, for Silver Linings Playbook, as 'the pretty one from The Hangover movies'. But upon review of Bradley's IMDB page, you know he's not just a pretty face, he's a good actor, and after his stunning portrayal in the divisive film American Sniper, Mr. Cooper deserves some respect. And what's the highest praise a fan can do other than drop some nice coin to see him on stage in London.

Seat highlighted in green is mine for the May 28th evening performance
(stall section as of Jan 24th)

According to his IMDB, he has been mesmerized by the story of the real Elephant Man, John Merrick, since he saw the 1980 film starring John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins. So much so that for his Master's thesis (he's well educated too!), the Elephant Man play was his thesis project... and here he is playing John Merrick on Broadway and now the West End. Talk about having a life long passion for a project!

I'm so excited about seeing this play because I too am very familiar with the Merrick story and saw the movie when I was a kid. Meanwhile, Bradley's American Sniper is going into its second weekend and the film is expected to be number one again with earnings close to $60 million, pushing it well past $200 million. That's an amazing feat for an R-rated film released in January.

Bradley Cooper a Navy Seal sniper, Chris Kyle

If you haven't seen American Sniper yet, this weekend is a good time to go check out what everyone is talking about.