Featured Post

The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

Image
We’re warned at the start of the show with an upbeat number that this is not the usual sort of musical. And it turns out to be just that. But with boundless enthusiasm and energy from its two leads, who deploy a range of voices and breathtaking energy to create a series of voices for puppet characters, a bedtime story becomes a silly oddball tale about four souls stuck in purgatory. With puppets. And various toilet humour references. It’s currently playing at Upstairs At The Gatehouse . The piece starts as a bedtime story. Daddy (Mark Underwood) is about to read a bedtime story for Louise (Sarah Louise Hughes). But her stomach felt funny, and soon, she went to the bathroom. Then, for reasons that seem to only make sense in the confines of the show, they start telling the story of four people who died in unfortunate circumstances in the bathroom. Depicted as puppets, they’re stuck in purgatory as St Peter doesn’t have enough space for each of them in the afterlife. And so begins a puppe...
Streetlife and XXXX

Things to do on a Saturday when you have time:

*Visit the Royal Park at Greenwich and see your first squirrel. I had no idea that there were deer there however. There were thousands of people at the park but you would not have known it. One also took in the views from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich. On a clear day you really can see forever. Well at least past St Paul's Cathedral.

* Spend time around and about Canary Wharf. Apart from the lovely tube stations in this part of the woods there were plenty of sensimible shops to have a wander and a browse through. Resisted the temptation to purchase anything for now but made a mental note to return.

* Have a drink at The Gloucester at Greenwich... just because it was in the film Beautiful Thing. Also managed to pick up a copy of the Pink Pages which details sensible accomodation and jobs to look for...

Other things to do on a Saturday:

* Go with (straight) friends to Club Aquarium. Apart from the standard issue club setup and faux-bamboo walls (maybe Gilligan and Ginger did the interior dec), this club in Old Street boasts an indoor swimming pool complete with spa etc. They were having a 70s Carwash night which meant that we all had to dress in 70s style. Well almost all of us. We arrived at the club early for a private function and that helped. It was only £10 cover and £3 drinks then...

When the club opened and the music started one by one things started to remind me of Brisbane. Whether it was Randy Crawford's Streetlife or the promotions for XXXX there was a distinct Australian feel to the evening. It could have also been the other expats in the group as well.

I ended up leaving before midnight and missing the pool opening. When the pool did open after midnight it apparently was clothing optional. Through the glass doors to the pool the non-swimming punters could see women baring their beavers and breasts to the delight of the local lads (especially those there for a swim). At least it answers that question commonly asked by some folk... can straight saunas happen? Well at least they can in Old Street in London...

Up for today
* An aussie barbeque...

Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Image
David McVicar's oddly modern production of Rigoletto is back at the Royal Opera House . This modern and minimalist dark production has evolved over the years. It is better lit now but there is still an orgy and full frontal nudity within the first thirty minutes. This enables anyone not in the stalls an excellent view of a flaccid penis and a nicely shaved bush. But as time goes it seems more and more superfluous to the main focus of this tragedy of a court jester who seeks revenge. Here is hoping that the production continues to evolve... Conductor John Eliot Gardiner keeps the music well paced. Dimitri Platanias in the title role sounded great and received a rapturous applause for his interpretation of the role. You get a sense more of the doting father rather than the court jester or cursed man here. Vittorio Grigolo plays the Duke and sounds too lovely to be the cad the role calls for, but it is hard not to like when he is on stage anyway. And it is easier to understan...
Read more...

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Image
Nowadays no self-respecting gay play can be staged without full frontal nudity of some kind. It feels like the default response for the modern gay play now that gay rights are no longer an issue .   Afterglow, currently playing at Southwark Playhouse , serves it up in spades. From the beginning, three men are in a bed, naked. There’s what appears to be a very brief exhalation of ecstasy, before the obligatory rush to the shower. But the gratuitous nudity and excellent performances can’t conceal this is a pretty conventional and predictable story about a fantasy couple.  The three men in the simultaneous orgasm at the start of the piece are Josh, Alex and Darius. Josh and Alex seem to live in a New York world where they can afford a rooftop apartment in Manhattan while holding jobs as a theatre director and a grad student in chemistry. As writer S. Asher Gelman based it on his own experiences, perhaps gay plays with full frontal nudity are the way to achieve financial ...
Read more...

Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

Image
Damn Yankees at the Landor Theatre is one hell of a fun, sexy show. A great cast of dancers and singers give this show about a man who sells his soul to get on his beloved baseball team (and give them a chance of winning) new legs and balls. It also helps to up the ante with the sexiness with some healthy doses of cleavage and legs (and that's just the men). The musical is a retelling of the Faust story set in the 1950s when the New York Yankees dominated the game.
Read more...