Happy Sunday everyone, and I’m continuing the run of theatre trips from the last few weekends with two other shows that I’ve seen recently and wanted to mention even though they’ve both finished their runs now.
I’ll start with Marie and Rosetta which had its last performance at Soho Place last night. This is a two-hander about Sister Rosetta Tharp and Marie Knight who were stars in the gospel world. This starts in 1946 when established star Rosetta has persuaded young newcomer Marie to join her on a tour in the segregated southern states of the US. Beverly Knight is Rosetta and Ntombizodwa Ndlovu is Marie and the two of them gave amazing performances that transended the material. For me the play itself was just fine – it was two hours including an interval and I thought it would have worked better as a 90 minute one acter, because the break killed any building tension that was going on. But the two performances – particularly when it came to the music and the singing were extraordinary and were worth going just to see them. It was also my first time in Soho Place – which is the newest West End theatre and I thought it was a great venue and I loved the in the round staging. I will be interested to go back and see something else there. And it should be noted that this was the final West End theatre that I hadn’t ever been in so it was nice to tick that off too – especially as I thought I’d completed the list when I saw Operation Mincemeat until I remembered that Soho Place had opened!
And the second show today is Jeffery Bernard is Unwell which had a run at the Coach and Horses on Sunday and Monday nights in March. Jeffery Bernard was a real life journalist and this play was written and originally staged in the 1980s when Bernard was still alive. Bernard wrote the “Low Life” column in The Spectator, and the title refers to the one line apology the paper would print on the column’s page when he was too drunk (or too hungover) to produce his copy and it was too late to find anything else to fill the gap! The play started as a star vehicle for Peter O’Toole with a supporting cast but was adapted into a one man show in 2019 to be performed at the Coach and Horses pub in Soho – which was Bernard’s regular drinking venue – by Robert Bathurst. This is the at least the third time that it has been brought back – to the same venue with the same star. It won a bunch of acclaim and awards and sold very, very well, so when I saw it pop back up I forked out full price (unusual for me!) for a seated ticket (as opposed to the cheaper standing option) to see it and found myself right opposite Bathurst’s main perforamce spot in the venue which was a delightful treat. It’s only an hour but it’s a hell of a performance feat – one man and a pub full of people and no where to hide if it goes wrong, which considering the climax includes a trick involving a glass of water, a matchbox and an egg is quite something. It was a late start (and so a late night on a work night) but it was totally worth it.
Have a great Sunday everyone!
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 