Category: concerts

concerts, not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Typsy

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Back at the theatre this week – this time for a one man show. And if you want to see it you’ll have to be fast because it’s a one week run and it ends tonight. Also, it was mostly sold out, so you could be out of luck anyway. But still, here I am, being timely.

Typsy is Trevor Ashley’s latest cabaret show where he’s playing Liza Minelli – and also Judy Garland, sometimes in the same song. This isn’t limited to songs that you think of as being performed by Liza, it expands out to other musical theatre standards. There are witty lyric changes, chat at the audience between them and plenty of jokes. And I really liked that it’s not just relying on all the old Liza cliches – it’s referencing the newer stuff too – from the documentary, to the appearance on Drag Race to Michael Feinstein. It’s also got a wonderful seven piece band – including what may be the hardest working winds player I have recently seen – swapping between clarinet, two saxophones, flute and piccolo at a rate of knots.

Ashley was recently at the Menier playing Roger de Bris in their wonderful production of The Producers, and is transferring with the cast to the West End for the run this autumn (yes, I’m going again), but that was the first time I had seen him in anything. He’s an Australian and has a string of musical theatre an cabaret credits down there – and that experience really showed in this. I saw it on the first night of the one week run and it felt like he really knew what he was doing and what the plan was. There were a couple of rough edges, but they only made it feel spontaneous and unrehearsed. And the Menier is a really nice space for a show like this – intimate enough that you feel close to the action, but big enough that there’s space for a good sized band and still for a bit of dancing.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see this pop up again somewhere in London – it sold very quickly when it was announced, and Liza-related shows are always popular especially when they’re done well. And this is done well.

Typsy is at the Menier Chocolate Factory until tonight, The Producers is at the Garrick Theatre from September. You can find out more about Trevor Ashley on his website

concerts, not a book

Not a Book: Patti LuPone

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Happy Sunday everyone, and I’m back in the theatre for this week’s post. And I’m writing this a few weeks after the actual concert, but as it was a sold out, one night only type thing, this is more a reflection on a night out than anything else.

Patti LuPone, for those of you who have never come across her, is somewhat of a legend of the theatre. If you’re not a theatre fan, but you are a Marvel fan, you will have recently seen her in Agatha All Along but trust me when I say that she’s Broadway icon. She has three Tony Awards, two Oliviers and a couple of Grammys. She was the original Eva Peron in Evita on Broadway, the original Fantine in Les Miserables when it started at the Barbican and the original Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard. She’s played Reno Sweeney in Anything Goes, Rose in Gypsy and Joanne in Company. She’s also in her mid-seventies now, so you don’t know how many more chances you’ll get to see her sing live. So of course I bought myself a ticket for this as soon as it went on sale.

Now I saw her do a concert in London more than a decade ago – with Seth Rudetsky playing the piano and in conversation with her and I was interested to see how this show differed from that one. In fact, I still have the set list from that Leicester Square Concert in my phone – where she did the big hits from her career – including for the first time in nearly 20 years some Sunset Boulevard in London (which was a whole thing given how badly that ended) and which I still can’t believe that I was witness to. A Life in Notes does still have songs from the musicals that she’s been in, but is mostly Patti singing songs that are important to her or make her think of a moment in her life. Now some of these were a little obscure for me – and could potentially have used a little more explanation – but I would have paid the whole ticket price just to for the songs from the musicals – which included Some People, On Broadway, Don’t Cry for Me Argentina, I Dreamed a Dream, Anything Goes and The Ladies Who Lunch.

She’s still in great voice – probably in better shape vocally than Bernadette Peters, although you could argue that Bernadette’s voice was quirkier to start with – and when she does talk she’s witty and fun. It was a totally sold out crowd at the Coliseum – more than two and a half thousand of us turned up for it, including a few celebs, although probably not as many as if it hadn’t been the same night as the Baftas. But I spotted her Company co-star Mel Giedroyc in the foyer along with Marianne Elliot. And once again it was a delight to be at a concert where there were no queues for the ladies – although there were for the mens! All in all I had a ball even if it did make me wish she’d do another show in the West End soon.

Happy Sunday – as a treat before I go, here’s a recording (not mine) of the Sunset Boulevard from that 2013 concert. Totes Emosh.

comedy, concerts, not a book

Not a Book: Bill Bailey

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It’s been a bit of a run of theatre the last few weeks, but this Sunday it is comedy – but at a theatre (not a club or a stadium) as I had a last minute trip to see Bill Bailey’s residency at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket this week.

If you haven’t come across Bill Bailey before (which I find hard to believe if you’re in the UK because he’s won Strictly) he’s a stand up comedian and musician who is also known for acting in the TV comedy Black Books and the movie Hot Fuzz among other things. I was trying to count how many times I’ve seen him live and I think this is the fourth or fifth time – and he’s always incredibly funny and inventive.

I am a pretty mediocre musician – when I was at my best I was about Grade 6/7 but music theory is my bete noire, so I really enjoy the way that he deconstructs how music works and makes it funny. But it’s not all music theory, some of it is just funny – in the current show he’s got some bluetooth music balls that are set up to make drum noises, and a laser harp. What’s not to like. He’s also got a new Kraftwerk parody – and the original one was one of my favourite skits on the Part Troll DVD that I rented from LoveFilm back in the day – so I’ll finish up today by posting that original.

Bill Bailey: Thoughtifier continues at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket until the 15th February.

concerts, not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Avenue Q

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Something a bit different this Sunday – some thoughts about a show, but not really a review because it’s a bit more than that but also there’s nothing for you to book right now.

I took this photo at the end of the Avenue Q 18th birthday concert last month. I said on my Instagram that I think it might be the best photo I’ve ever taken – the cast looking back at their younger selves at the end of the show. That it’s a good photo I know because most of the cast have used it in their Instagram posts about the show, which made my theatre nerd heart happy. That I was in the position to take such a good photo is down to being quick on the booking fingers when the tickets went on sale – and snagging us prime seats in the middle of the middle of the stalls for the matinee show.

Who is us in this context? Well it’s me and my little sister. The West End production of Avenue Q opened just as I was finishing university, and as she was doing her A Levels. I think every theatre geek has a couple of shows that are formative in their development as a theatre fan, and this was one for us. It wasn’t the one that got us into the world of theatre message boards, but it resonated with us at the points in our lives that we were at at the time. If you’ve never come across Avenue Q, it’s a comedy musical that tells the story of a new graduate, Princeton, who moves to New York to start his adult life and ends up living on Avenue Q – a sort of grown-up Sesame Street and through the show he learns life lessons from people and puppets. One of the writers went on to write Book of Mormon, and the music for Frozen (and Frozen 2). It premiered on Broadway in 2003 and it actually beat a little show you might have heard of called Wicked to the Best New Musical Tony in 2004.

I saw the original cast three, maybe four times, and then saw it on Broadway with Little Sis on our five days seven shows trip a year or two later, and again in London with Him Indoors a few years after that. One of those times I saw the original cast I took my then boyfriend, who subsequently blamed it as a factor in our break up for “giving you ideas about needing a purpose”* which was… a stretch. Anyway. Moving on. It’s a show that has a special place in my heart. And it was wonderful to go back to it and see it again, with the actors we loved that first time. Twenty years after its first production there are some things that haven’t aged that well – they did a disclaimer at the front to that end, which felt sensible – but there’s so much that’s wonderful and the nostalgia factor was great too.

And the other thing about Q is how well the original cast have gone on to do. Jon Robyns who played Princeton has just finished up a run as The Phantom in Phantom of the Opera. Simon Lipkin is about to play Fagin in Oliver! in the West End after a successful run Chichester in the summer. Giles Terera has pack of awards for his theatre work – including an Olivier for originating Aaron Burr in the West End production of Hamilton. The only original cast member who couldn’t make the reunion was Clare Foster – and that was because it was opening week for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button in which she’s playing the female lead.

Sometimes its hard to tell if seeing a show that you have such fond memories of will enhance your memories or detract from them – we actually avoided seeing a revival of one of the other shows that was seminal for the two of us a summer or two ago because we were worried that it would taint our memories of it – but I’m not sure we ever really worried about this one because it was the original cast and it was billed as “in Concert” although it was more staged than that suggests. So it was great to see the band back together and be reminded how good they are and how fun the show is. And for me and Little Sis it was great timing too – this was our last theatre outing before she has a baby and so seeing a show that means so much to us but that is also about new beginnings and new possibilities was a great way to mark a bit of a moment in both of our lives.

I hope you have a show you have as happy memories of as I do Avenue Q, and that you get the chance some day to have a moment like we did at the Stephen Sondheim for this.

*Other things he blamed: “those books you read and films you watch for giving you ideas about happy endings”. I hope your eyes are rolling as hard as mine are.

concerts, not a book

Not a Book: Bernadette Peters

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I usually try and write here about things that you can go and see. This is a bit of an exception, because it was a one night only thing. But I had a great time, so I’m writing about it anyway.

Bernadette Peters only made her West End Debut I. Sondheim’s Old Friends, but she is an absolute Broadway Legend. If you go on a streaming service and look for Stephen Sondheim songs or cast albums you’ll find her there. And now in her mid-seventies she’s still touring and sounding pretty darn good.

The set list for this included a lot of Sondheim – and pretty much all the stuff that I hoped she would do: Losing Mind from Follies (and Buddy’s Eyes), Send in the Clowns from A Little Night Music, Children Will Listen from Into the Woods, You Gotta Get a Gimmick from Gypsy (with special guests Joanna Riding and Bonnie Langford) and Move On from Sunday in the Park with George. But on top of that she also threw in a couple of songs from Hello Dolly – given that she’s played Dolly and Imelda Staunton is currently headlining that show elsewhere in the West End and things like Nothing Like a Dame, Johanna and Being Alive. It was a wonderful straight through hour and fortyish minutes and from my perch up in the balcony it was amazing. And I think the rest of the audience was as spellbound as I was.