Stage door first for Will

Will came to London with us to give Jim a break. At 11am while waiting for C's pilates 121 I had the mad idea of looking at the Royal Opera House website and found three tickets left for today's matinee. Two were in the slips so I asked Will if he'd like to go. Yes was his immediate answer, so the tickets were bought.

After C's lesson we were walking back to the tube when Will realised that ballet meant no speech! But that's like a book without words he moaned. No, I said, panicking slightly about the whole idea, it's like a book without words but with beautiful pictures. Oh, said he.

So we arrived with 10mins to spare, dropped C in the cafe/bar area and headed in. Will, was of course wowed by the auditorium. I forget what an impact it has the first time you see it. The first act is an hour long, so I worried, but there was no need. He loved it, he loved the fighting, the swords, the score, the humour of Romeo's companions.

Ice-cream in the interval and one of two quotes of the day 'Gary is a bit fiesty, good job Lord Capulet is keeping him under control!'.

Act 2 was more swords as well as a bit of romance, he didn't like the kissing! Gary died! Sorry that's a spoiler. Second quote as Romeo was lifting the skirts of Juliet's nurse "I hope she has knickers on Mummy!" (Kristen McNally, who played nurse, confirmed at stage door, that she was in fact wearing pants! Phew!)

And so to Act 3, well this was the test as there was no swords, but importantly, the body count increased! All in all he really enjoyed it and asked when he can go again. Not sure how to match this show though with it's gorgeous score, swords and dead bodies?

Of course not to be outdone by his sister, he insisted on going to stage door. He met Kristen and Valentino, who was Mercutio and had his photo with Matty Ball (Romeo) and Yasmine Naghdi (Juliet). Carys had arrived from her class at the Royal Ballet School in time to see Yasmine and then they both saw Gary. Carys was very cross that Will got to see Gary as Tybalt (see extras) she hasn't managed this yet. Gary gave her a big hug to make up and shook Will's hand, saying how nice it was to meet him. Then had a photo with Will and both them together.

All in all it was a really good afternoon. Will has a cast list with a number of signatures and some pretty special photos to remind him of today.