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Tuesday, August 09, 2016

Day 9 - London - Monday - Eva Schloss at Royal Albert Hall - Then Kinky Boots

Drag Queens in Kinky Boots



Eva Schloss - half sister of Ann Frank - reads a
portion of her book about Auschwitz


A quick free talk at Royal Albert Hall

How is this for a roller coaster ride. First we went to Royal Albert Hall to listen to Eva Schloss - holocaust survivor and step sister to Anne Frank. Eva was taken to Auschwitz by the Nazis as a young girl of 15. She had the horror to be paraded in front of Dr Josef Mengele and be passed over for several of his experiments. She experienced the women "playing for time" forming an orchestra in the prison camp and survive by playing for the pleasure of the Nazis. After the war was over - her mother married Ann Frank's father. 



The lady next to me asked Eva Schloss a question.

After just being in Germany for 3 months - and seeing the new Ann Frank movie in downtown Berlin - it was fantastic seeing someone who live through the action. 


Eva said while they were in the concentration camp - they were well aware of the killings. They could smell the burning flesh in the air all the time. They did anything an everything they could to survive. The Russians freed Eva from her prison camp. 


Ann Frank and her sister Margo died from Typhus just two months before their camp - Bergan-Belson was liberated. 


The talk went on for an hour - in the Royal Albert Hall complex on the Imperial College campus. Then we caught a cab and rushed to the Adelphi Theatre to see Kinky Boots - a very popular play in both London and New York right now. 




From wikipedia - Kinky Boots is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Tony, Emmy and Grammy-winner Cyndi Lauper and a book by Tony-winner Harvey Fierstein. Based on the 2005 film Kinky Boots by Geoff Deane and Tim Firth, which was inspired by true events, the musical tells the story of Charlie Price, who inherits a shoe factory from his father. To save the business, Charlie forms an unlikely partnership with cabaret performer and drag queen, Lola. With Lola's help, Charlie develops a plan to produce a line of high-heeled boots. In the process, he and Lola discover that they are not so different after all.


We were lucky to land two tickets in the 5th row for 35 pounds each. 


Lulu really liked Kinky Boots. I am not sure whether I liked it or not. There were some funny parts - there were lots of colorful costumes - cross dressing - etc. I guess the message was - we are all the same inside. The show is politically correct right now with all the talk in the USA about bathrooms and sexual preferences


After the show - it was a short bus ride home. 





The cast of Kinky Boots


Kinky Boots stage form our 5th row seats


I took this picture out of the taxi's back window on the way
between the two event


The factory made boots for drag queens - true story


These young men were fantastic dancers

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