Tag: theatre

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: A Midsummer Night’s Dream

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Actual proper culture from me this week with some Shakespeare. Although to be fair, Conclave got a bunch of Golden Globe nominations this week so maybe it’s two weeks in a row.

The RSC are back at the Barbican this winter with A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This had a run at Stratford earlier in the year and has transferred in and as you can see from the programme, the big name here is Matthew Baynton (of Ghosts fame) who is playing Bottom. When I started writing this, I thought this might be the first time I’ve seen Dream done professionally* but I had totally forgotten that I saw the Michael Grandage Company’s production with Sheridan Smith and David Williams in it a decade or so ago. This is much better than that one. Much.

This isn’t one of my favourite Shakespeare’s (that’s Twelfth Night) but this production is a bit like a minimalist fever dream – with 80s inspired costumes in a big black space where lights and ladders can appear and the actors at times seem to materialise from no where. Baynton and the mechanicals are genuinely funny and their final performance capped a riotous evening that seemed to go by in a flash.

It always feels like A Decision to go and see some Shakespeare – so long, such language, not always funny when its meant to be but this was an excellent choice for a wintery evening – and as I happened to be there on press night, I also spotted several of the other Ghosts stars in the audience (to be fair I mainly spotted them in the bar at the interval) to support their colleague. A very satisfactory night out.

*although technically it was the first Shakespeare I ever saw – because Class Six did it as their leavers play when I was in Class Five, but I don’t think that counts. In case you’re interested, I spent two years in Class six (village primary, only six classes for seven years of school when I was there) and we did Bugsy Malone – I was a dancer at Fat Sam’s, and Twelfth Night – I was a recorder player at the court of Duke Orsino. As you can tell acting was not my forte

tribute

Remembering Dame Maggie Smith

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I’m not going to lie, I had a different post planned for today, but then the news broke on Friday afternoon that Dame Maggie Smith had died and I changed my plans.

There’s been a lot of talk of her two great late-in-life roles – Professor McGonagall and the Dowager Countess in Grantham Abbey – but I’m that little bit older, so for me the first time I saw her was in The Secret Garden and then in the Sister Act Movies. And she was as perfect in those as she was in those later roles, and in fact in everything else she did. You all know my tastes by now – so it’ll be no surprise to you that I’ve seen more of her comedic performances (I’ve got Death on the Nile on the TV as I watch this) on film than I have of the serious stuff, but five years ago I was lucky enough to see her performing in what turned out to be her final stage role in A German Life.

I’ve been really lucky in my theatre-going life to see a lot of the acting greats – and great performances. When A German Life was announced – more than a decade after her last stage role, I bought a membership to The Bridge Theatre just to get the priority booking – and the trip was not just me and Him Indoors, but also my sister and her now-husband and my parents too. And it was so worth it.

In A German Life, she played Brunhilde Pomsel, a German woman who had been a secretary to Goebbels during the Second World War. She spent the whole show alone on stage, sitting a chair telling you about her life – and I think it was the most mesmerising thing I have seen on stage. You couldn’t drag your eyes off her – in fact it was only right at the end, that I realised that her chair had been moving forward and the set receding the whole time. She was that good – and she was in her mid 80s. It was just astonishing.

I should also say that I’ve seen her son Toby Stephens live on stage too – twice in fact because I thought he and Anna Chancellor were so good in Private Lives that I went back for a second visit – with Him Indoors and my parents. So as well as being sad for the loss of one of the greats of British acting, I’m also thinking of him and his brother Chris Larkin and the rest of her family. Their statement announcing the death on Friday was very touching.

I’ll be checking the TV listings to see if any of her film performances pop up over the next week or so as a tribute, but in the meantime as well as Death on the Nile I have both Sister Acts on the TiVo, so I’m sure I’ll find a chance to watch that at some point in the coming days.

theatre

Not a Book: Hello, Dolly!

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Another week, another trip to the theatre, and this time to see this summer’s most anticipated and most hyped musical: Hello, Dolly! with Imelda Staunton.

This is the story of Dolly Levi, a widowed matchmaker and meddler who travels to Yonkers to try and find a match for the grumpy and miserly “half a millionaire” Horace Vandergelder, who she’s actually plotting to marry herself and so in the process needs to detach him from his other options whilst also helping his niece marry an artist – a match with Horace is against. Meanwhile Horace’s two clerks at the feed store, who have bene left in charge while their boss is away meeting potential brides, decide they would like to get out of Yonkers for the day and go to New York.

So this is the point where I admit that I had neither seen the whole film of this one before, let alone a live production. I’ve seen bits of the film and I know some of the songs, but nothing had stood out to me enough to get me to watch the whole film and I’d never felt inspired enough to look out a production. In fact I think the only song I’d seen live before was Put on Your Sunday Clothes, which I saw the John Wilson Orchestra do at the Proms which doesn’t feel like that long ago but was actually the summer of 2011. Goodness I feel old. Anyway, I’ve put the link to that at the bottom and now I’m going to talk about this production.

This is the summer musical at the Palladium, which is the biggest theatre in the West End, and I think it’s pretty clear that this wouldn’t have been put on if it wasn’t for Imelda Staunton in the lead role. Yes it’s a classic, but when you’ve got more than 2,000 seats to fill every night, and a show with more than 20 piece orchestra and sets that include a moving train (that is used once) and a street car, you need a big name. And it doesn’t get much bigger. I have seen her previously do Sondheim in both Follies (which I adored and saw three times across its two runs) and Sweeney Todd, but missed her Gypsy because I had loved the production of that that I had already seen (with Caroline O’Connor in the lead) and didn’t want to pay the prices and was hoping for discounts which of course never materialised. I learned my lesson and I bought these early. And I am glad I did because she is giving an absolutely barnstorming performance – she’s funny and touching, but also hard where she needs to be and she sounds great.

The supporting cast is similarly strong – with Andy Nyman (who I saw be amazing as Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof a few years ago), Jenna Russell (who I’ve never seen do anything bad) and Harry Hepple (who was in the same production of Follies as Staunton, but who I also saw in Pippin more than a decade ago) doing fine work in the key supporting roles, but really there is no one giving a bad performance.

Now I don’t think Hello, Dolly! will ever be my favourite musical – to be honest, if it comes back around again I probably won’t go unless it’s got a really stellar name as Dolly because Imelda is enough – but if you do love the show (and the stalls this week was clearly full of people who do love it) and you’re in London this summer then you should really try and see it. And if you’ve never seen it before, I can vouch for this being worth your time – a work colleague who also went this week and wasn’t expecting to love it also really enjoyed it – and the good news is, there are still some reasonably prices seats available.

Enjoy your Sunday!

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Kiss Me Kate

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I’ve got another theatre trip to tell you about this Sunday – because I had a fabulous night out at the Barbican on Friday night.

In case you haven’t encountered it before, Kiss Me, Kate is about a warring couple who are working together on a production of a musical version of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew. Fred and Lilli are divorced, and their relationship dynamic somewhat mirrors that of the characters they are playing in the musical. There’s also subplots with the show’s young ingenue, newly arrived from nightclub singing, and her boyfriend Bill who is also in the cast and has a gambling problem that has led him to sign a $10,000 IOU with Fred’s name on it – leading to the arrival of a pair of gangsters at the theatre.

Kiss Me, Kate premiered on Broadway in 1948 and has music and lyrics by Cole Porter. I saw the last London Revival, which was in 2012 at the Young Vic and starred Hannah Waddingham and Alex Bourne, and really enjoyed it so I had high hopes for this production at the Barbican which has Tony-award winning Broadway powerhouse Stephanie J Block as Lilli and Adrian Dunbar as Fred. The Barbican has a good track record of producing big productions of musicals (see Anything Goes with Sutton Foster a couple of summers ago) and this is a show that repays a big production.

And this is A Big Production – you can see the size of the set from the photo at the top, but what you might need to watch the video to see is that it rotates*, it’s also got a big orchestra to blast out those Cole Porter standards like Too Darn Hot, Always True to You in My Fashion and So In Love. It’s directed by Barlett Sher, who also directed the Lincoln Centre Production of The King and I which came to the London Palladium with Kelli O’Hara a few years ago and has been touring the UK recently, and so has plenty of experience with big, classic musicals. And he’s created a really enthralling evening at the theatre – the show within a show means that there is fourth wall breaking, interactions with the conductor and the audience and plenty of general chaos.

And the cast are all giving great performances. It’s hard to single out anyone in particular, but if you forced me, I might pick out Nigel Lindsay and Hammed Animashaun who play the gangsters, who made me laugh the whole night building to a brilliant and nearly show-stealing Brush Up Your Shakespeare. Which brings me to one thing that I had forgotten about Kiss Me, Kate, which is how equitably the songs are spread out – everyone in the main cast gets at least one brilliant song and there’s plots and sub-plots galore.

I went with my mum who absolutely loved it – and I had such a great time I’m trying to figure out if I can go again before the run ends in mid-September. It’s had excellent reviews from the actual theatre professionals too – but there are some really good deals available on tickets at the moment – I suspect because the Barbican is out of the main drag of the West End so it doesn’t get the passing trade that some of the other theatres do (this is also an issue for the Shaftesbury Theatre – which had a bit of a reputation of being cursed for shows a few years back). I got my tickets from TodayTix who I use quite a lot these days, but you can get direct from The Barbican as well. And if you’re buying last minute they do on the day rush for £30 too.

Have a great Sunday – here’s hoping for an England win tonight…

*I love a rotating set – one of my early London theatre memories is of a production of the Wind in the Willows at the National Theatre where the set not only rotated but it came up from the ground, and more recently I loved the production of Follies – again at the national – which had a rotating set – although that just had a front and a back where as this has three sides.

children's books, theatre

Not a Book: The Secret Garden

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This is a fresh version of the Frances Hodgson Burnett classic children’s story that is on at the Open Air Theatre in Regent’s Park for the start of the summer. The core story – about newly orphaned Mary Lennox being sent to live at Misselthwaite Manor after the deaths of her parents and uncovering the many secrets that the house is hiding remains the same – but there has been some sensitive updating done which makes it work a bit better for today’s audiences as well as providing a beautiful inspiration for the stage design and music concepts.

I really, really enjoyed myself watching this – with the trees all around you and birds flying overhead as the sun went down, the setting is absolutely perfect for a play about the healing power and magic of nature. I saw the fourth preview – so there were still a few technical gremlins to sort out (mostly mic cues) but the show itself and the performances were wonderful. In fact my only real grip was that my feet got cold, but that was my own fault for wearing canvas shoes with no socks!

This would make a great show for the kids this summer – but sadly it’s only on until July 20th, which is just as the schools are breaking up in most places, then Fiddler on the Roof takes over in the theatre for the rest of the summer. You can find more details here.

Have a great Sunday

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Sister Act – the Musical

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I braved the theatre during half term week and lived to tell the tale! I wish I could say I was being strategic with my show pick and picked one where I thought there would be less children, but I would be lying – I went to Sister Act because it’s a short summer run and there’s a cast change coming at the end of this coming week, and the fact that there was a front row ticket in the lottery on the day was an added bonus!

This is the musical version of the 1992 Whoopi Goldberg movie about a lounge singer who sees her casino boss boyfriend have someone murdered and is hidden in a convent for her own safety until she can give evidence at his trial. The first thing to note is that there are a fair few changes between the movie and the musical – the most obvious being that it has an all new set of songs written by Alan Menken, the composer who wrote the music for a string of Disney movies in the early 1990s, like Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin. Do not go expecting to hear any of the Motown hits from the movie – or Hail Holy Queen etc. it’s also set in the late 1970s rather than the early 90s, Doloris’s boyfriend owns a club that he won’t let her sing at – rather than a casino where she does sing at – and it’s set in Philadelphia rather than Reno and Adam Francisco.

I thought the changes really worked – if you can’t have the music from the movie – which I assume would have been near impossible on a licensing front for the Motown front, especially given that there were a few jukebox musicals using some of the artists music at around the same time – then make some changes to make it its own thing. It was obviously going to need more music than the movie had – and more characters were going to need to sing, so it worked really well.

I didn’t see this when it was in the West End originally – I didn’t have the budget for theatre going at the time and I was also working a job where I started at 4 am so late nights were not my friend – but this has got a cracking cast at the moment, so I feel like I might have picked the right time. Beverley Knight is playing Doloris and Ruth Jones is playing Mother Superior – later on this summer Alexandra Burke takes over as Doloris and Lee Mead joins as Detective Eddie Souther. It’s also got Lemar – who I always thought deserved a bigger music career than he got – playing Doloris’ boyfriend.

Basically this is a big, fun, colourful night in the theatre – in fact in a theatre where I spent a lot of time as a teenager, but that’s a story for another day.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Opening Night

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A somewhat perplexing theatre trip this week. Opening Night got 1* and 4* reviews when it opened, and it seems like the audiences have paid more attention to the ones than the fours, as its closing early at the end of this coming week, instead of running though til the end of July.

This is a musical adaptation of a John Casavetes film, with music by Rufus Wainwright, starring Sheridan Smith and directed by Ivo Van Hove. Now I love to go and see a flop – I saw the X factor musical twice, and the spice girls musical to name a few – and I do actually really like Rufus Wainwright’s music, so of course I rocked up to see this before it finished to see what I thought.

And the answer, five days on, is that I still don’t know! It’s not so bad it’s funny. It’s not a misunderstood masterpiece. But it is incredibly confused, and (sadly) the music is ultimately pretty forgettable. I’m not even sure what I can say about the performances – everyone is giving it their all, but I’m still not sure what they were meant to be working towards! But I got a good discount on my seat, and I’m glad that I can say I saw it. And sometimes that’s all you’re after!

Have a great Sunday!

books, not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Spymonkey’s The Frogs

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We finished off our time of work with a trip to the theatre on Monday tonight to see the new show from one of my favourite comedy theatre companies – Spymonkey.

Their latest show is another coproduction with my local – Royal and Derngate. This time they’re doing their version of The Frogs, but with an incredibly Meta twist. The original four monkeys are down to two – Petra is on “ long-term loan” to Las Vegas, where she’s the star of a cabaret show (except when joining the ENO for the Gilbert and Sullivan I saw before Christmas!) and Stephan died (yes, really died) in 2021. So as well as being drama’s oldest double act who go searching for a dead playwright in the under world, the Tony and Aitor double act is also searching for a missing person – and looking to a different future. And while it’s still gloriously silly and utterly bonkers, there is an edge of sadness about it. I was wondering if that’s only because I’ve met the monkeys in real life – I pitched a piece for work about their previous show at R&D and got to interview them and film them rehearsing The Complete Deaths, but Him Indoors hasn’t met them – he’s just come to see that shows with me – and he felt it too.

And because I’ve seen their previous shows is hard for me to judge how someone who hasn’t will see this. There are call backs to their previous shows and the hallmarks of their comedy. And this is the point where I say I’ve sometimes found it hard to work out who to recommend them to, because as well as being quite off the wall in comedy terms, full frontal nudity is a thing that happens in most of their shows, and that isn’t something for everyone! Anyway, we had a great time, I hope non-super fans do too and I’m not ruling out going to see it again when it transfers to The Kiln in London in a few weeks time.

I’m off to watch my DVD of Cooped aka Hysteria. Have a lovely Sunday everyone.

not a book, theatre

Not a Book: Another week in theatre…

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Two more shows this week and I just can’t stop myself from telling you about them! But that’s pretty on brand for me at this point, so I’m sure you’ll forgive me.

First up was Peter Pan Goes Wrong, which has had a Christmas season in the West End. I saw the original cast when they were touring the UK back in 2014 (I was shocked when I realised how long ago that was). Since then the Mischief Theatre Crew have done all sorts of things – many of which I’ve seen (Groan Ups, Magic Goes Wrong, the TV series) and now fresh from a run on Broadway some of the original crew are back in the show before it goes out (with a slightly different cast) on a 2024 tour. Having been asked to explain panto earlier in the week on a Discord group I treated myself to a trip to this not quite a panto but based on a panto. I was worried that it wouldn’t be as funny as it was the first time, but I shouldn’t have. It’s still side achingly funny in the first half and when it takes a turn in the second it brings it all back around in true panto style.

Heres the trailer for the TV version of Peter Pan Goes Wrong on YouTube- although I think the TV version doesn’t do the theatre experience justice.If it’s coming to your local theatre, and you like comedy based on physical humour, then this might be your thing. I think if you’ve seen and enjoyed shows like Noises Off then it will work for you.

And then on Thursday night we were at my local for Yipee Kay Yay – which is a one-man retelling of the classic Christmas movie Die Hard. I would suggest having seen the film before you go – we did a refresher the week before to make sure we were ready for it, but I think Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber is nearly well known enough that you’ll get some laughs out of it even if you haven’t. I bought the tickets for Him Indoors for Christmas because he loves a cheesy action movie and he laughed consistently the whole way though (so did I). I asked him to sum it up for you all and his response was: “one very enthusiastic man’s poetic take on the Die Hard movie and how it’s affected his life”. In case that doesn’t make any sense, here’s the 30 second trailer!

Now I’ll admit this is harder to see than Peter Pan Goes Wrong, unless you’re reading this in Oxford on Sunday or live in Adelaide – because it’s going to the festival there in March. But it was a hoot and he said at the end that word of mouth was important- so it’s the least I can do. Here’s the Website in case they add more dates.

Peter Pan Goes Wrong has a week left in the West End, then it’s touring til April. Here’s their website to check if it’s coming to you.

Have a great Sunday everyone.

theatre

Not A Book: Another Week in Theatre

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Ok, ok, this is starting to look a little like boasting, but these were the last things I had in the ticket box before Christmas so I’m going with it!

The first show of the week was Noises Off – again! Yes I only saw it at the start of the year, but it’s back in the West End for Christmas, with a slightly tweaked cast – with Tamzin Outhwaite, Matthew Horne and James Fleet joining Felicity Kendal, Alexander Hanson and the gang. This time I booked steaks tickets on the side that Lloyd-the-Director hangs out in during the first act, so that added a little some thing – and it’s still hilarious.

Tuesdaynight was a really last minute trip to see Private Lives – not the production that I saw at the Donmar Warehouse but one that had older leads with Nigel Havers and Patricia Hodge as Elyot and Amanda before it closed this weekend. I still love the play – but this was the least favourite of the three productions of it that I’ve now seen ( and it should be noted that I loved the Anna Chancellor and Toby Stephens so much I went twice) but it was interesting to see it done with a different age of cast.

And finally, no photo but on Thursday night we went to see some comedy – Dave Gorman at my local theatre’s and that was so, so, so funny. I nearly cried laughing at one point. If you’ve never seen Davec and his PowerPoints I thorough recommend him. I think this is the back end of this tour, but we’ve seen him before and he’s consistently very funny.

And that’s the lot, but it spreads feel like quite a lot – have a great Sunday everyone!