Hello from the heatwave. It’s so hot. And Britain isn’t built for this heat. It’s making it very hard to concentrate on anything. Oh and I did two shows last week – one was The Frogs, the less said about the other the better! I’ve got another super busy week this week and it’s only going to get hotter, so who knows what this list will look like next week…
I did two Stephen Sondheim shows in just over a week and I have thoughts. I mean I always have thoughts, but I particularly do this time. You may remember from my post about Old Friends (which coincidentally has just finished up a run on Broadway) that I have seen a lot of Sondheim documentaries and love a lot of his music.
The first of the duo was Here We Are, Sondheim’s final show which he was working on for about the final decade of his life. It’s based on two Luis Bunel films and is as bonkers as you might expect considering that. It’s also, as you can probably tell from the video below possibly Peak Sondheim. There were a bunch of moments where the music reminded me of other Sondheim shows, which I don’t remember ever thinking at one of his shows before. I would not suggest you pick this for your first experience of Sondheim, but if you like him you will probably enjoy this – even though it has a lot less singing than I was expecting. The production at the NT had a brilliant cast – Jane Krakowski, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Rory Kinnear, Martha Plimpton, Paulo Szot and Tracie Bennett have got five Oliviers, three Tonys and an Emmy between them – and they were great. I am so glad I saw it, but I won’t be running back to see it again the way I did with Follies.
The second show was the Southwark Playhouse revival of The Frogs, which is Sondheim’s musical based on the ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes from 405BC. Sondheim’s version premiered in the mid 1970s and was described as “freely adapted” from the original, and then in 2004 Nathan Lane “even more freely adapted” it to the current book and Sondheim wrote a bunch of new songs for it. The plot is that the god Dionysus and his slave Xanthius are going to Hades to bring back George Bernard Shaw to raise the standard of drama being produced. If you’ve watched the recorded version of the original Old Friends concert or the Sondheim 80th birthday concert, the song from this that you will know is Invocation and Instructions to the Audience.
And it was such a good night. The cast was great, especially the ensemble who were rotating through different roles as well as acting as a chorus and the dynamic between Kevin McHale (of Glee fame) as Xanthias and Dan Buckley as Dionysus was great. I laughed a lot and came away humming the music. I definitely liked it more than I liked Here We Are – if another production of Frogs come around in a few years time I would go and see it again, and this is the one that I would be recommending to people of the two.
From my observations the night that I saw it, there was a considerable amount of the audience who were there to see Kevin McNally, rather than because they love seeing Sondheim shows. But that’s fine. Sondheim can be a hard sell, and a plot based on an Ancient Greek comedy might also not appeal to the casual theatre goer, but this was so good and so much fun hopefully they all went away as happy as me and might give another Sondheim production a go in future. I hadn’t actually been to Southwark Playhouse since it moved to it’s current location (which is more than a decade ago so shame on me) and so I was playing seat roulette a little bit but my front row spot on one of the sides was great and you really were quite up close and personal with the cast!
Both of Here We are and The Frogs finished yesterday, so it’s already too late for you to go and see them so sorry about that. And as ever with Sondheim who knows when they will be put on again. Oh and by the way, I’m still hoping for a DVD of the National Theatre Follies…
Did you read Miffy books when you were little? I definitely did, so I was astonished to learn that she’s 70, but delighted to mooch around the pop up in Foyles!
I was very, very tempted by a lamp, I think it would look great in my home office. Just a lovely touch to make it even more me…
I also loved the artwork inspired toys. Vermeer Miffy or Van Gogh Miffy? No – definitely Degas Miffy for the win.
I mean who knew there was this much Miffy stuff? I could have spent a tonne but luckily for my wallet (and for Him Indoors), I was on my way to the theatre and didn’t want to be taking bags in there and didn’t have any space in my suitcase either!
My willpower was sorely tempted by the Foyles tote though, but I’m banned from more tote bags, so I stayed strong!
I am now up to date on a lot of my regular series, and others have wrapped themselves up – so I’m in the market for some more murder mystery recommendations! I’m particularly enjoying series written in or set in the early 1990s – see the Mitchell and Markby re-read, Goldy Schulz and similar – and I’d love more historicals set in times that aren’t between the wars. So please to let me know in the comments if you have anything!
This week I wanted to mention that there’s a new Sarah Adler out. According to the blurb, Nina is suddenly single, unemployed and back living with her parents. Quentin was her childhood crush and is also back in town. He wants to resume their treasure hunt from years ago – and both of them could use the reward. But the treasure hunt is the reason the two of them fell out in the first place, so their shared past may not be able to stay hidden.
Both Mrs Nash’s Ashes and Happy Medium were books of the week so I’m looking forward to reading this one – and I have a preorder waiting for me when I get home!
We are nearly at the halfway point in the year, so I thought today I would take the opportunity to mention my favourite reads of 2025 so far. Now it should be noted that these are not all new books and I think principally that’s because I’ve had a few absolutely chronic binge reads that means that I’ve just read less other stuff all together so the mix of new to old is very much skewed in favour of the old at the halfway mark of the year.
I’m going to start with the not new stuff, because there is more of it. Lets start with the a murder mystery and A Case of Mice and Murder. This is an edwardian era mystery set in essentially a closed community – the barristers of the Temple. I loved it and have recommended it a few times now. The sequel is out next month and is just as good. Next up is Legends and Lattes, which is sort of Terry Pratchett-esque but with very low takes and a very cozy vibe. I still need to read the second book in the series, which is a prequel and there is a third book coming in the autumn. And then there is On Turpentine Lane a fun romantic comedy with a mystery subplot that had me smiling and laughing the whole way through. And obviously the main binge was that six week period where I read the entire Dr Ruth Galloway series, so I should really mention those as well.
On the new book front, my favourite is probably The Favourites, which is one of the better portrayals of figure skating in fiction. I’ve seen a lot of other skating fans who have enjoyed it too, but really is a melodrama about intertwined relationships that uses the sport as a driving factor – you definitely don’t need to know the difference between an axel and a salchow to enjoy this (particularly as it’s set in ice dance and they don’t do jumps!). I also really enjoyed Curtis Sittenfeld’s latest short story collection, Show Don’t Tell. I remain someone who prefers novels to short stories, but I like Sittenfeld’s writing and ideas so much and this is really good, especially if you’ve read Prep because you get to revisit the characters years down the line. There are a couple more new releases that I’ve enjoyed but that are later books in series which usually means I don’t review them because: spoilers. But the latest Vinyl Detective was a return to form and was a BotW pick and Murder Below Deck, the second Paul Delamere book was also a really fun read.
It’s Tuesday and I’m back with another murder mystery for my book of the Week pick. And it’s a wintery one despite the fact that it’s a heatwave here. Does reading a book about cold weather make you feel better or worse in situations about this? Who knows. Anyway.
The set up here is that Torben Helle and a group of his university friends have been invited for a reunion by the most successful of their group, a man who because super rich after his invention took off. They haven’t really spent time together as a group in the ten years since they graduated but in snowy Northumbria they reassemble. The morning after their arrival they are snowed in and their host is dead in his bed. One of them must of done it – but who? Torben and his knowledge of Golden Age murder mysteries (and his closest friends in the group) set out to solve the crime.
As we all know at this point, I love a murder mystery – and I especially love a country house murder mystery so this was right up my street. The pacing is a little slow, but I liked the characters and the idea of a group of previously close friends brought back together. I saw a few of the twists coming, but I was ultimately pretty satisfied with the way that it all worked out. And I loved all the references to classic murder mysteries – because of course loads of them were books that I’ve read (some of them read multiple times!).
My copy came via NetGalley (yes, I know, I know, I know) but it’s out now in Kindle and Kobo. I’ve seen the sequel in the shops and would definitely give it a read to see if the pacing improves when there isn’t so much heavy lifting to do in the set up.
A really, really busy week. A trip to the theatre, plus the arrival of series 2 of America’s Sweethearts plus a busy weekend means not as much progress on some of the long runners as I would have liked, but I did get one more off the list. Also it’s been so hot and it’s so hard to concentrate (and to sleep) when it’s that muggy. Fingers crossed that it’s warm but not humid this week…
One of my favourite documentary series from last year is back! We have a second season of America’s Sweethearts, Netflix’s documentary about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. I wrote a whole post about last year’s series – and I think you really need to watch that one to get the most out of season two, and I say that as someone who is only two episodes into the new season. So do go and read my post from last year and then go and watch it. As I said last year so many people I know watched it who aren’t into sport but also people who are really into sport but not into dance – the first series was just a really good documentary. I’m not sure how series two can live up to that, but I’m excited to see it try! Oh and in case you’re wondering – the original subreddit still hasn’t come to terms with the fact the change to the series compared to the CMT one…
It’s the end of Independent Bookshop Week today, and given how much I love a bookshop, it would be remiss of me not to mention it, and also to drop some links to my posts about Indies I’ve been to, and also some of the ones that are on my list for a visit!
In my regular visiting spots we have Bookends/Bookcase in Carlisle and then the various Daunts in London near where I work and stay – Marylebone and Cheapside. There are also still a few second hand bookshops on Charing Cross Road, but a lot less than there used to be. London has now got a romance specialist bookshop, Saucy Books, which is over in Notting Hill so I’m going to have to head over there soon.
And of course if you’re in the South West, you need to be going to Persephone.
If you’ve got some more book shop recommendations, whack them in the comments.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 