Tag: not a book

film, not a book

Not a Book: The Phoenician Scheme

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Happy Sunday everyone, I hope you’ve all had a good weekend so far, and I’m back with another suggestion of something to watch – this time at the cinemas because it only came out last week.

The Phoenician Scheme is the latest film from Wes Anderson. Written by Anderson and from a story by him and Roman Coppola, it’s a black comedy about a wealthy businessman who appoints his daughter as his heir after the latest of (many) assassination attempts against him sees his plane crash (again). The two of them set off to try and save his latest business venture where they are targeted by more assassins, tycoons and terrorists.

Anderson is known for his distinctive visual style and ensemble casts featuring regular players as well as the dark comedy, nostalgia-inspired worlds and quirkiness. My first Wes Anderson was The Life Aquatic, which I saw at the cinema in my year in France. Now that is not one of his more critically acclaimed movies, but which I really enjoyed – because of that crazy aesthetic and style. I loved Grand Budapest Hotel when that came out and have been to the last couple at the cinema because I like seeing them on the big screen. I’ve never had a bad time watching them – but some of them I think I will definitely watch again when they come around on the TV and others I probably won’t. This one I think is in the former category – whereas Asteroid City is probably the latter. But his films can be a bit of divisive – I’ve put Mark Kermode’s review here because he explains the situation very well.

Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

comedy, not a book

Not a Book: Greg Davies

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So I’m finishing off Brighton/seaside week with one of the other things we did while we were there – which was see Greg Davies’s latest tour: Full Fat Legend. And before I get to that, it should be noted that we saw him in the Brighton Dome – aka the site of Abba’s triumph at Eurovision in 1974. So that was a) very cool and b) also a sign of how much Eurovision has grown because this is a capacity of about 1,500 people – and 30 years on last year’s contest was held in the15,500 capacity Malmo arena that’s the second largest venue in Sweden. Anway, to the comedy…

This is Greg’s first tour in seven years, and while we had definitely seen him before, I can’t tell you if it was that tour, or the one before. But either way, it was a long time ago. And since then Taskmaster has got even bigger (we have done a recent binge) – which I’m assuming is (along with Covid) the reason for the big gap between tours. In Full Fat Legend Greg is telling stories of the things that have happened to him in the last year and I’m not sure how much more than that I can tell you without ruining it, but it’s been *quite* a year.

I laughed so hard I cried my eye make up off and even if I had realised ‘d done that (which I didn’t) I wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it without leaving the show, and by the time I did realise I was back at the hotel having walked a mile and a bit though central Brighton and along the seafront with mascara marks all over my cheekbones (how? I don’t know). It got a little bit close to too embarrassing for me to bear, but only very briefly. And it’s a big long set that Greg is doing too – we had a support act who did about 25/30 minutes and then there’s an interval and then it’s 90 minutes of Greg.

We were incredibly lucky to get tickets very last minute – because looking at the tour website writing this, a lot of the venues are a lot bigger and every other date this year is sold out – except for a “last few” for Wembley Arena in June. But the goodness is there are arena dates in March 2026 which have tickets. And so if this sounds like your thing, plan ahead!

Have a great Sunday everyone.

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

not a book, streaming

Not a Book: Scamanda

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I’m back with another documentary this weekend – but this time it’s the documentary version of a podcast that I binged when it came out a couple of years ago.

Scamanda is the story of Amanda C Riley, who was a blogger who documented her cancer journey. She was a wife, a mum and a Christian and raised tens of thousands of dollars from supporters who wanted to help her. Except as you can tell from the title of the podcast and documentary – it was a scam. None of it was real. The four part documentary series digs into her story – what she did, who she conned and how she was found out. The podcast series was eight parts – with another five bonus episodes, so there’s more depth in the original version, although the documentary will bring you more up to date.

As long time readers of the blog will know, I love a podcast and I also love a scam story. I usually prefer my scams to be the large financial, slightly less personal ones, but this is at the intersection of scamming and family blogging so it’s very much in my wheelhouse. And this is a really intriguing scam – partly because why would you doubt someone who says they have cancer – but also how do you fake something like that especially over such an extended period of time?

I binged all four episodes of the new series over a weekend – and I would have watched them quicker if I could, but you know real life is a thing that happens. And I had a pretty similar experience with the podcast when that came out – I binged it across a few days during my commute and my lunchbreak wanderings around central London.

The podcast is on all the usual podcast platforms – but the documentary is on Disney+ in the UK, so if (like me) you rotate your subscription services through you can add this to the list for next time you have an offer!

Happy Sunday everyone.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Operation Mincemeat

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It’s Olivier Award Sunday everyone and although I have everything crossed for Simon Lipkin in the Best Actor in a Musical category for his turn as Fagin in Oliver and for Ballet Shoes in some of the other categories, I thought today was a great opportunity for me to talk about last year’s Best New Musical winner Operation Mincemeat, which I saw in the West End in mid-March.

Operation Mincemeat is a comedy musical devised by the group Split Lip, based on a deception operation carried out by British intelligence during World War Two. The Allies want to invade Sicily, but the island is swarming with Nazi troops. So they need to come up with a plan to disguise the invasion plans. There is a five person cast who all play multiple roles across the course of the show, with quick changes coming out of your ears.

This got total rave reviews when it opened – but I’ll admit that their Olivier Award performance left me more confused than enthused. Add in a complicated ticketing policy and it’s taken me a while to get around to it which is a bit of a more fool me situation because it’s so good. It’s funny and clever and it’s going to point out a few issues going on with the plan as well as highlighting some of the people that tend to get forgotten about in the history books.

I saw the new cast – because the original team have just opened the show on Broadway (press night was actually the same week that I went to see it in London) and they’re all giving cracking performances in what must be quite indimisating circumstances- given that the original cast was the four creators and the winner of the Olivier award for best supporting actor for his role in the show.

This has just extended again in London – so there’s plenty of time to go and see it – and as I said they run a range of schemes for tickets. Find the details here.

Operation Mincemeat is at the Fortune Theatre in London

Side note: I thought that this was the only West Emd Theatre I hadn’t been inside – it was previously the home to The Woman in Black for about 30 years and I don’t do horror – but then I realised that I haven’t been to the new Soho Place theatre yet so I haven’t actually completed my set yet. Still at least it’s an excuse to go and see something else…

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Dr. Strangelove

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It’s a theatre in your cinema pick this week – and I actually only saw this yesterday, but because there is a very small window to see these in cinemas I’ve bumped it straight to the top of the list.

This is the stage version of Stanley Kubrick’s movie Dr. Strangelove, with Steve Coogan in the starring role as not one, not two, not three but four different characters. If you haven’t see the original movie, it’s a political satire and very black comedy about nuclear war, when a general goes mad and orders a preemptive nuclear strike on the Soviet Union and the efforts to try and stop the attack happening.

It’s been a long time since I saw the movie – when I was at uni I think – but despite the fact that this is set in the Cold War, there’s a lot about this that feels quite applicable to the world we live in today. And the staging is really well done too, with a clever use of screens to create various different things including the iconic big board in the war room. As well as Steve Coogan, this also has Giles Terera who I first saw back in Avenue Q days but has now had a long career with plenty of dramatic roles as well has his Olivier award winning performance in Hamilton.

It’s basically a really solid two and a bit hours of theatre with good performances and a clever adaptation of a movie classic. Definitely worth a look if it’s coming near you.

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.

streaming, tv

Not a Book: Jonathan Creek

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I did go to the theatre this week, but given that I’m going again next week and that show is on a much shorter run that this week’s one, I suspect we may be back at the theatre again next weekend, so I thought I’d mix it up and go with a retro TV series this week. I have to say I did struggle to get a video for this post because my favourite era of the series is from the pre-YouTube era…

Jonathan Creek is a mystery drama series that started in the late 1990s on the BBC. The titular character played by comedian and current QI stalwart Alan Davis and is a designer of magical illusions who is dragged into solving crimes by pushy investigative journalist Maddie Magellen, played by Caroline Quentin. Maddie is willing to lie and be devious to get what she wants, Jonathan is not. Jonathan also works for stage magician Adam Klaus who is flamboyant and often provides comedy subplots. Over the course of the nearly 20 years covered by the original series and then the subsequent specials, Maddie is replaced by ambitious TV exec Carla Borego (Julia Swalha) and then Joey, a paranormal investigator played by Sheridan Smith and finally Sarah Alexander’s Polly.

Although at the start of the series Jonathan is pretty antisocial and reclusive, over the course of the early series he gains in confidence and social skills to become fairly witty and charming in an offbeat sort of way – which continues in the specials. However, there is not a lot of running plot strands in this – they’re basically murder of the weeks, where the emphasis is on the actual mechanics of the crime being investigated. There is a will they won’t they with Maddie in the early years, but it’s never anywhere near the main focus of the series.

There are a few bits that haven’t dated that well – and if you’re under 30 the fact that at least one of the plots involves a video recorder is going to be novel to you. But the mysteries are tightly plotted and very hard to work out when you watch the show first time around. But at this point I’ve seen all of the early series a couple of times and they still hold up even when you know the solution. And they have the advantage of having a lot of interesting guest stars – the writer is David Renwick who has as long and storied history in British comedy and that brought in people. And so there are a few Easter Eggs here if you’ve watched a lot of British TV over the years – but also if you watch the pilot episode you’ll see that Adam Klaus was originally played by Anthony Stuart Head – who couldn’t continue with the series as he got a role in a little American show called Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Jonathan Creek is on the iplayer if you’re in the UK, and if you’re abroad it’s also available on various streaming service.

Have a great Sunday.

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.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: The Play That Goes Wrong

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Here I come again with another play on another Sunday. Although to be fair, this is one I saw a fair few weeks ago now and has had to wait its turn. And given that we’re into 2025 now, it’s not even the tenth anniversary year any more – which was one of my reasons for revisiting the show.

The Play That Goes Wrong follows an amateur dramatic group as they attempt to put on a performance of a murder mystery as their latest show. And as the title suggests, it just keeps going wrong. Then even more wrong. Each actor is playing a character in the drama club who is playing a role in the show. And if you’ve ever spent any time around an am dram group you may recognise some of the types that seem to turn up in amateur productions. And then there’s the show – it’s sort of Mousetrap-y but it doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen the Mousetrap, because it’s a murder mystery play where anything that could go wrong does go wrong.

The first time I saw this – on the original UK tour in 2014 I laughed so hard that I couldn’t breathe and my sides hurt. I saw it again in London with maybe the second cast and so I think this was my third trip. And it’s still hilarious. The cast make it look easy but it’s really not – so much depends on the timing of all the physical comedy – and it’s impeccable. The company behind this are Mischief Theatre and they’ve gone on to do another show featuring the same characters from the drama group – Peter Pan Goes Wrong – which I saw for a second time this time last year when it had a Christmas run in the West End with many of the original cast returning. And they’ve done several other shows – several of which I’ve seen – and they have a new show coming into the West End later this year which is definitely going on the to-see list.

I struggle to think of anyone this isn’t suitable for – it would definitely make a great first grownup show for older kids (and I think there were a few families doing that when I was there) as well as people who maybe don’t speak as good English – because there’s so much physical comedy in it as well as the puns. And because it’s been going a decade it’s usually pretty easy to get sensibly priced tickets too if that’s what you’re after as well.

Have a great Sunday.