Wax Factor (Madame Tussauds)

Name: stoffy

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Product:	Madame Tussauds
Date:	09/09/03 (1475 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: some good waxworks, nice extras like the taxi ride and Chamber of Horrors

Disadvantages: overpriced, probably not enough waxworks

Located just a short walk from Baker Street Tube Station in the heart of London, Madame Tussaud’s is one of London’s more quirky and renowned tourist attractions and is not to be confused with some of the more adult entertainments available in nearby Soho...

Admittedly, Saturday afternoon is not the best time to visit any busy London tourist attraction, although the 20 minute queue wasn’t too unbearable. Advance tickets are also available for the impatient, it’s worth pointing out. Fortunately, there was a video screen to keep the queuers entertained, featuring world events from the television age. Bizarre image juxtapositions, such of that of Liz Hurley at a film premiere and the Twin Towers crumbling down, gave rise to a somewhat baffling compilation although it was a nice touch rather than having to look at the bare walls.

Admission is fairly steep – a fraction short of £18 for adults and £13 for children over the age of 5. However, the thrifty can look out for vouchers which are often obtainable in products on the shop shelves (mine were courtesy of some camera films in Boots - £5 off for up to 4 people to Tussaud’s as well as discounts for 4 other attractions!).

After being greeted by some hologram paparazzi and Shirley Bassey (“champagne!”), Tussaud’s opens out into a big room full of the waxworks of the rich and famous complete with lounge chic. The quality of the waxworks are extremely variable. From the excellent Barbara Windsor and creepily accurate Jean-Paul Gaultier and Kylie on a piano seemed to be a crowd favourite too. However, there was a perplexingly unrealistic Robbie Williams and I would also question the inclusion of the talentless bint Tara Palmer-Tomkinson as one of their centre-pieces.

To its credit, the waxworks are arranged in random poses and positions in the large square room, and you can feel free to mill about and take as many photos as you l
ike. A walkway featuring the stars of film including Marilyn Munroe and Harrison Ford is followed by another large room featuring political and historical figures. Bush and Blair are there, although their depictions are amongst the worst there.

Arguably the greatest attraction there at present is the Simon Cowell and the Pop Idol display. Compared by a young lady keeping the children entertained between performances (no doubt sick of hearing 14 year olds murder Bette Midler’s ‘Wind Beneath My Wings’), the ‘interactive’ waxwork of Cowell passes comment at the end of every performance. Fun, but surely of limited appeal in the long-run.

Disappointingly, the main celebrity waxwork display ends there. I was expecting about twice as many waxworks and was a little dismayed given the entrance price. However, MT’s has more going for it than a couple of sculpted celebrities.

There is a Chamber Of Horrors section, where you can walk around a dungeon inhabited by impaled waxworks and wounded live actors who will try and jump out and scare you at every opportunity. Nowhere near as frightening as having to ride the Tube after dark, but cheesily entertaining, if only for knowing that it’s a great stopgap for actors in between playing car-crash victims in Holby City.

There is also a mini-amusement ride in ‘London Through The Ages’. Built with the tourist most definitely in mind, it features everything you’d expect… black taxis, the plague, Queen Victoria and more surrealy, the Queen in the middle of a Merry-Go-round. Again, not exactly informative or substantial but entertaining in a peculiar sort of way.

The ticket price also includes entry into the next-door Planetarium. Alongside facts about planet (did you know, for example, that the sun is quite hot? Slap my thigh and call me Ethel…), there is also an auditorium where you can lie back in your reclin
able chair and watch an animation about the solar system on the massive domed ceiling. However, it’s designed more for the under 10’s rather than the adult in mind and whilst graphically it’s fairly good, I think there is potentially for something more substantial and informative given the impressive platform.

Although Madame Tussaud’s and the Planetarium are a good couple of hours entertainment, the entrance price is too expensive, especially for large families. There seems to be an absence of people organisation, which must get confusing on busy days, not to mentions dozens of photos by people unwittingly stepping into other people’s photos.

Best one to try when you’ve got discounted tickets, it nonetheless one of those rare attractions that has genuine appeal right across the board and is a great place to use up a reel of camera film.

Summary: