Category: not a book

theatre

Not a Book: Crazy For You

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I actually saw two shows in the West End in four days last week, so I guess I could have written about either of them, but as Dr Semmelweiss is a limited run ending at the start of October (and has been selling well so if you don’t already have tickes you might not get them) and Crazy for You is under two months into a six month run, I’ve gone for the musical. Also much as I think Mark Rylance is the greatest actor I’ve ever seen live, I just love Gershwin’s music.

So this is a revival of the early 1990s musical, which in itself was based on the 1930 Ethel Merman vehicle Girl Crazy. The original Broadway production won the Tony, the original West End production won the Olivier, and I suspect this one will probably get some nominations this year. It originated at the Chichester Festival (one year I will make it to Chichester, so much good stuff starts there!) and has come into town with the four leads intact (although I saw the Standby Bobby who was performing for the first time and who was excellent).

To the plot – which feels like it could have come straight from a Fred and Ginger film to be honest: Our hero is Bobby,a wannabe dancer who is working in his family’s bank because he hasn’t been able to persuade any one to give him a role on stage. At the start of the show he tries to convince theatre impresario Bella Zangler to give him a chance without any success. Then his mother appears to tell him that he needs to take over her share of the bank and to do this he needs to go to Nevada to foreclose on a theatre in the town of Deadrock. Deadrock is a mining town that has seen better days, filled with cowboys and one woman – Polly – daughter of the theatre owner. Bobby arrives in town, falls in love with Polly at first sight and comes up with a plan to save the theatre, but when she finds out he’s the man sent by the bank, she suspects it’s a trick and won’t give him the time of day. And so Bobby decides to pretend to be Bella Zangler and sends for his friends the Zangler chorus girls to put on a show to save the theatre. It’s all going reasonably well – I mean except for the bit where Polly thinks Bobby is someone else, until the real Zangler turns up in town to see what his dancers are up to.

And that’s a rough outline of some of the key points of the first act, and as much as I’m going to tell you so I don’t ruin all the fun of anyone going to see it. It’s got a bunch of Gershwin’s most recognisable songs – pilfered from all over his catalouge – like Embraceable You, Someone to Watch Over Me, I Got Rhythm and three from my favourite Fred and Ginger movie Shall We Dance – the title number, Slap that Bass and They Can’t Take That Away From Me.

It’s quite an old school plot and it’s a quite old fashioned musical in many ways and there were what sounded to me some fairly ropey American accents , but it’s directed by Susan Stroman so the dance routines are absolutely on point – with some wonderful tap dancing – as well as some great physical comedy and obviously the music is wonderful and they’ve got a nice big band to play it (in West End terms). If you like shows like Anything Goes, or the recent stage version of Top Hat, then this is a show for you.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

not a book

Not a Book: Freddie Mercury

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Oh boy. I’m not even sure I can explain how excited I was about seeing the Freddie Mercury auction exhibition at Sothebys. Honestly. It was the one thing my sister and I wanted to do together this summer and it absolutely was everything we were hoping it would be.

I may have mentioned before that I am a big Queen fan, and I’m also too young (or not old enough?) to remember them when they were still performing. So I’ve done pretty much all of my fandom through the music and the documentaries (and the musical), which meant that when Mary Austen announced that she was selling basically everything Freddie had left her it was a Big Deal. Mary was his girlfriend during the early days of Queen and was one of his closest friends for the rest of his life. And now for about a month, you can go and look at what is up for sale.

I saw the David Bowie is… exhibtion at the V&A back in the day and had always vaguely wondered why there had never been an equivalent exhibition for Queen. This auction sale is the answer: Freddie himself kept hold of all of his stuff- and passed it on to Mary and she’s been looking after it ever since. Things like the jacket from the Bohemian Rhapsody keep when he sings “I see a little silhouetto of a man”:

And basically every other outfit you’ve ever seen him wear on stage, in a video or at a public appearance. The only exceptions I can think of are the yellow jacket from the Wembley 86 tour and the harlequin leotards. But everything else is here. The “prawn” costume from Its a Hard Life, the leather jacket from Radio Gaga, the suits from Barcelona and Great Pretender, the winged cat suits. The cat waistcoat.

And then there’s all the ephemera – white label pressings of singles and albums, hand written lyrics, photographs and contact sheets, the tour handbooks, the paperwork for Live Aid. My sister and I were wandering the the rooms with our mouths hanging open. It’s truly astonishing.

Then there’s the art and furniture. I’m going to predict that this is going to be popular not just with the Queen fans and music collectors but also the art collectors. Freddie was an art and design student and he loved beautiful things and had an eye for it. He was buying pieces from Sothebys himself back in the day. So there’s a Picasso and a Chagal and a wall of Goya drawings. Plus beautiful pieces of Japanese art and so much more. However much they think it’s going to make, I think it’ll be more.

So if you’re in London before the start of September, this is very much worth a visit. And it’s free.

Happy Sunday.

audio, not a book

Not a Book: I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue

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Every now and again I write about a radio programme instead of a film or a show or a TV programme, and this is one of those weeks – although as I went to a recording in a theatre does it also count as a show? Anyway, the new series of I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue starts on Radio Four this week, so I get to tell you about my night out watching them record two episodes in my home town back in June.

I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue started in the 1970s as a parody of TV and radio panel games and has been running ever since. My parents were very much Radio Four people – and it was one of the 6.30 in the evening programmes that I started listening to when I was getting ready for bed when I was little (along with Just A Minute and The News Quiz) and I’ve been listening to ever since. There aren’t many of the original panel left now – it’s Jack Dee giving the panel silly things to do instead of Humphrey Littleton for example, but they’ve managed to replace them with people as funny as the originals.

I tried to figure out a way of describing what’s going on, but I couldn’t do it justice, so I’m just going to settle for giving you this clip from One Song to the Tune of Another because it’s always been one of my favourite rounds and it just sums up the whole show:

There are no winners, some of the games make no sense at all (Mornington Crescent for example) and despite the fact that there are singing games there is always at least one panelist who cannot sing at all (at my recording it was Milton Jones). As children we used to play the completely unconnected word game in the back of the car on the way home from after school lessons – with much complaining from my mum as my sister and I descended into lavatorial humour. Basically it’s one of the silliest ways you can spend half an hour and I’m really looking forward to hearing what makes the cut for the broadcast episode as each recording was at least an hour long.

If you’re in the UK you can listen to I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue on BBC Radio 4, or on the BBC Sounds app – the Northampton episodes start tomorrow, and several of the episodes in the series are already available. If you’re outside the UK, I’m hoping it appears on Sounds for you – but it may also be on some of the other podcast providers too.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

theatre

Not a Book: A Strange Loop

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This week has seen at the Proms to hear Beethoven and Elgar but also to the Barbican to see a new musical. I have more Proms to come – and they’re one offs – so today we’re talking about A Strange Loop.

A Strange Loop is a musical about a queer black Broadway theatre usher writing a musical about a queer black theatre usher writing a musical. Still with me? Good. Usher’s story is told by him and his six Thoughts, who are the inner voices in his head and also play all the other characters in the play. It’s very meta. It also won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 2020 and the Tony for best musical in 2021.

It’s a really powerful piece – and although I wasn’t sure where it was going or how it was going to end, it did come back around (yes, that’s a loop reference!) from a very bleak point about 20 minutes from the end. The music is great – I came out humming some of the songs and the cast are giving stellar performances. It is definitely not a show for younger audiences – there’s a warning that it’s not suitable for under 16s because of the themes it’s dealing with. So I’m not surprised that it’s on a limited run at the Barbican rather than in the West End. It’s definitely worth seeing if you’re a musical fan though – and I’m not sure when it will come around again. And of course there aren’t that many musicals that have won the Pulitzer – it’s the first since Hamilton, and one of only ten total. It runs until September 9.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

film, not a book

Not a Book: Bombshell

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A film this week and one that features Margot Robbie, but sadly not Barbie as I haven’t managed to get to the cinema to see that one yet. I’m sure I will though. Probably not as a double bill with Oppenheimer though because I’m not sure I can cope with Christopher Nolan at the moment.

So this is a dramatised version of true events – and is inspired by the real life sexual harrassment allegations made against Fox News boss Roger Ailes by women who worked there. Nicole Kidman plays Gretchen Carlson, who was the first to sue Ailes and Charlize Theron plays Megyn Kelly, who we see at the start of the film being insulted by then-presidential candidate Donald Trump for asking him about his offensive comments towards women. Margot Robbie plays Kayla, a composite character who is a young journalist who joins the newsroom and faces unwanted attentions fromAiles.

I think whether you followed the story at the time or not this is a compelling look at power dynamics in the work place and the pressures that women can face from men in positions of power. I’m not in the US so I don’t really have enough experience of watching Fox News to comment on how accurate the portrayals of Carlsson and Kelly are – except to say that Charlize Theron is unrecognisable (Him Indoors didn’t realise it was her at all!) but the make up teams won the Oscar and the Bafta for their work – and Theron got an Oscar nomination – as did Margot Robbie.* It is a bit of a tough watch – but it is very good – and if you’re planning on doing some of the other films about famous/powerful men who have faced sexual harassment allegations – like She Said (which I’m waiting to hit the movie channels) then this is definitely one to watch.

And because I hate ending posts on a down note – all the reports that I’ve heard about Barbie so far have been favourable, so I really am going to try and get to see that soon!

Happy Sunday!

They lost to Renee Zellweger’s Judy Garland and Laura Dern in A Marriage Story respectively.

not a book, streaming

Not a Book: Muscles and Mayhem

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It’s the summer here and the Formula One and the MotoGP are in their summer breaks, and some of the other linear series that we watch are on their breaks too. So we’ve been hitting the new documentaries on Netflix pretty heavily – because they’ve dropped a couple of really interesting ones in the last few weeks.

I’m dating myself a little when I say that the British version of Gladiators was Saturday night TV viewing for me and my sister. We were firmly on the side of the Gladiators and had our favourites that we wanted to win (Cobra, Jet, Scorpio) and games that we preferred and complained when new ones were introduced from the US version of the show and we saw our favourites (the Wall, Atlaspheres, Hang Tough) less. And in the summer we would sometimes get cross over episodes with the American show – where US winners and Gladiators would compete against their UK equivalents. But that was the only knowledge I had of the US show: big hair and red white and blue costumes showing up very occasionally and games being imported. This Netflix documentary is the story of how the US show came to be and what happened to the Gladiators who were part of it.

As you can probably tell from the trailer there is sex, steroids, injuries, egos and the whole shebang that you might expect from a show that catapulted a group of roided up body builders to instant stardom, but there are a couple of incredible twists to it too that I’m not going to give away here, but if you watch it you’ll know when you get to them! We watched all five episodes back to back across one Saturday night, that’s how much we enjoyed it. Given that Him Indoors and I both watched the UK series (and he may have watched the US one as well on late night TV) I don’t think that we’re in the best position to be able to judge how well it will work for people who haven’t seen any of the TV shows, but if you like behind the scenes or oral history type documentaries about cultural moments it’s definitely worth giving this a go.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

not a book

Not a Book: The Chicks

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Yes I know you already know that this is where I went last Sunday, but as they’re supporting Bruce Springsteen in Hyde Park this weekend as well I’m going to have a little moment about them here too because: it’s been twenty years!

I’m not a big concert person. I should probably start with that. Well, at least I wasn’t when I was younger – not living in a big city meant the cost of going to them was often too much once you added the transport and then they were so often on a weeknight and that didn’t work for school. I’ve been ticking off a few acts I’ve always wanted to see over the last little while and revisiting some others (hello Darren Hayes) and The Chicks were the big one I wanted to do this year and it was amazing. They did Glastonbury the week before so I can offer you a little taste of the live experience here:

I’ve had Goodbye, Earl stuck in my head all week, which is fine except that you just have to be careful not the sing the lyrics out loud because people might get the wrong idea about you! Anyway, they did everything I wanted them to (bar that one song they never do), they sounded as good as they do on the records and the band is super slick. Just exactly what you want from a gig. There last tour was 2016/17 and I hope it’s not another six years until they come back. I’ll be in line when they are.

film

Not a Book: Asteroid City

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I actually had a couple of things I was noodling about writing about today. But in the end, I’ve gone for the new Wes Anderson movie because it came out in theatres here this week.

So lets do the plot – and it should be said that this may be the most Wes Anderson-y of all of his plots – it starts with a TV host introducing you to a tv production of a play in which a war photographer’s car breaks down in the town where he and his family were heading for the junior Stargazer’s convention. The action from the play is interspersed with the history of the play’s original production complete with recreations of what was going on backstage. Or at least that’s what I think is going on. Have a watch of the trailer.

If you’re ticking off Andersonian tricks and tropes it’s got the changes in aspect ratios, the vivid color pallettes, completely stylised universes etc. Not that you see all of that in the trailer – which is entirely of the production of the play. So that was a bit of a shock for me when the film started! If you like Wes Anderson, this is absolutely Peak Wes Anderson and the critical response appears to be: if you like Wes Anderson already, then you’ll like this but it probably won’t convert anyone new. And I would agree with that – I enjoyed it and it was fun, but it wasn’t my favourite. Him Indoors said on the walk home that he preferred The French Dispatch – and Grand Budapest Hotel over both of them. I could have used a bit more plot but I love the whole look of it and I also loved spotting all the regulars and all the quirky weirdness of it. Like the roadrunner.

Basically if you want a Wes Anderson coming of age movie set at an Astronomy convention in the desert, this is that.

Have a good Sunday everyone

not a book, streaming

Not a Book: Shiny Happy People

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My interest in the weirder side of American religion and cults is well known on this blog – see my posts on things like Educated, Unfinished: Short Creek, LulaRich and so much more – so the fact that I’m writing about the new Amazon Prime documentary about the Duggar family and the IBLP should probably come as no surprise to you.

In case you haven’t come across the Duggar family (lucky you?), parents Michelle and Jim Bob believe in having as many children as you can and featured in a string of documentaries and later a TLC docu-series starting with 14 kids and counting, where the number in the title increased as more kids were born and eventually also started to feature the eldest kids marriages. This initial series was cancelled after allegations emerged that their eldest son Josh (all the kids have J names) had molested girls (including some of his sisters) when he was a teenager. But TLC then commissioned Counting On – focusing on the elder daughters as they married and had kids. This ran for a number of seasons until Joshua was arrested and charged with possession of child sexual abuse images. He has now been convicted and is serving a jail lengthy jail sentence. Across four episodes, Shiny Happy People examines all of this and puts it into context of the “church” that they belong to – Bill Goatherd’s Institute of Basic Life Principles – and where it all sits in the right wing American Christian fundamentalist ecosystem.

I was not a viewer of the …And Counting series, but was aware of the series because of the press coverage of it and watched the first episode Counting On to see how on earth they were going to deal with the elephant in the room (spoiler: they did not deal with it) and continued watching in horrified fascination at a world where people got engaged after a handful of dates, were saving their first kiss for the altar and not allowed to be alone with their future spouse until they were married. And that’s before you get into the fact that the Duggar daughters – in their late teens when they married – had spent their childhoods bringing up their younger siblings, and were giving birth on sofas at home with no professional medical help. Horrifying. But no matter how bad you think that sounds, it’s all a lot worse when you’ve watched the documentary and have the rest of the context. It’s bad.

The documentary came out on Friday last week, and I had watched all four episodes before formula one qualifying started on Saturday afternoon. To be honest I could have finished it on Friday night, but it was nearly midnight by the time we finished part three and I was worried I’d have nightmares if we carried on. I was expecting it to take me longer to watch, because traditionally Him Indoors isn’t interested in this sort of documentary – but he came in as I was watching part one and got caught up in the horror of watch he was seeing and wanted to keep watching. He wasn’t fully aware of everything that had gone on and what the family actually believed and so his face as it all unrolled was an absolute picture. There was also quite a lot of ranting.

I’m not going to say this is a fun watch. It’s not. It has child abuse, child sex abuse and possibly the most horrifying public spanking demonstration you will ever see. I definitely came away feeling icky with myself for ever having watched the TV show – even though I was watching because I thought their lives were insane and ridiculous. But the documentary is incredibly interesting and illustrative of a lot of things that you might have seem bubbling along in American culture and wondered what was going on. I recommend it – but pay attention to the warnings at the start of each episode and expect to be horrified by what you see.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Buffy Revamped

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Happy Sunday everyone. Did I spend my Saturday night laughing about Buffy? Yes I absolutely did, and now I’m going to tell you about it!

In Buffy Revamped, comedian Brendan Murphy takes you through all seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer in 70 minutes mainly in character as Spike but he does pretty much play everyone at some point or another. But not Riley. Because there would be no point to playing Riley. He was pointless. Anyway, this is full of 90s in jokes as well as all the in jokes about the show and quotes galore. And you’ll get to do a bit of singing too.

I had an absolute ball – it’s funny and inventive and made me feel just the right amount of nostalgia. It’s fast paced and rattles through the events of the series – at the start you wonder if it’s going to get everything you want it to mention in, but some how it does. It’s not surprise to me that it is off to the Edinburgh Fringe in August because it seems like the perfect fit for it. It’s also touring all over the place before and after that – including a couple of nights in London next week. Well worth an evening if it’s coming near you.

If the apocalypse comes, beep me.