Steve On Broadway (SOB)

London: The Show Must Go On

London: The Show Must Go On

UPDATE (1:00 p.m. EDT): STEVE ON BROADWAY HAS LEARNED THAT SEVERAL PERFORMANCES HAVE BEEN CANCELED FOR THIS EVENING: Today’s 5:00 pm matinee of Mamma Mia! has now been cancelled (although the 8:30 pm performance is taking place as usual), as have the evening performances, at 7:30 pm and 8:00 pm, of The Phantom Of The Opera and The Last Confession, respectively.


Early this morning, London was spared what could have been a devastating terrorist attack when a car bomb outside a popular West End nightclub "apparently failed to detonate."

While the car in question was at the top of Haymarket (see top map), the Theatre Royal Haymarket where I recently saw The Lady From Dubuque is not in the immediate vicinity. In fact, as the second map shows, it's situated a couple blocks down from the Tiger Tiger-London nightclub.

The current occupant of Theatre Royal Haymarket is The Last Confession. Directly across the street from that theatre is Her Majesty's Theatre, which of course is home to the long-running Phantom Of The Opera. According to various sources, Friday evening performances will go on as planned.

While it would appear that London's theatres were not directly targeted, The Times provides a chilling caution for partygoers, particularly those who are female:

Terror groups like al-Qaeda are believed to have been planning attacks on nightclubs, which are considered by Islamic fundamentalists to be symbols of Western decadence. Earlier this year, a number of Islamist extremist terrorists were imprisoned for planning several major terror attacks, including a bomb attack on London's Ministry of Sound nightclub. Islamist extremists have in the past talked about particularly targeting women, whose attendance at nightclubs they say they particularly loathe. In that regard, the fact that Tiger Tiger was holding a 'ladies' night,' complete with female DJ, would have meant a particularly large number of women were inside the club.

It was nearly two years ago that terrorists proved deadly in London. With the United Kingdom's new Prime Minister Gordon Brown barely in office for 48 hours, could it be that terrorists were seeking to grab hold of his attention? Even in failing in their attempt, they certainly still did.

This is Steve On Broadway (SOB).

Related Stories:
Remembrances of London’s 7/7 (July 7, 2007)

Labels: London, Special Messages, Terrorism

posted by Steve On Broadway (SOB) @ Friday, June 29, 2007