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Brief awakenings: White Rose The Musical @MaryleboneTHLDN

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A fascinating and daring act of defiance in Nazi Germany by a group of university students in Munich is given a slightly perplexing rock musical treatment in White Rose, the musical. Something seems amiss in this earnest and occasionally tuneful show. It lags more than it inspires, which is surprising given the tragic and compelling history of the real-life characters the show depicts. Given that young people are increasingly likely to vote for far-right parties across Europe, it’s an opportunity to look at a time when they had a different perspective on the future. Perhaps something has been lost in the translation or the larger space of the Marylebone Theatre where it plays.  The White Rose were a group of university students in Munich who sought to undermine the Third Reich through publication of a series of pamphlets urging passive resistance to the Nazi regime. Over a brief period between June 1942 and February 1943, they distributed their pamphlets across campus using ...
Things the guidbooks should tell you to take while riding the tube:

* Torch. You never know when the power is going to go out and you are stuck somewhere dark and unpleasant.
* Water. Not just for drinking but washing off all that tube dust when you get stuck in a tunnel and have to walk out.
* Steel capped boots. So the mutant mice dont bite your feet while you are walking in the tunnel back to the station.
* Crash helmet. No trains have derailed today but they seem to be happening every second day of late...
* Padded clothing. You may be secure in your position but Betty next to you might be too engrossed in some tawdry magazine to be holding on to the handrails.

The Northern Line has been out of action in Central London for today while they figure out how to get the train out of Camden Town station... Lets hope it doesn't take them too long to figure that one out...

Squidgy knew she would get squashed is the fun news of the day... The Daily Mirror (not known for delivering news so it runs this as its headline on the day of a tube derailment and Blair's health scare) broke the news as part of ex-butler-and-minder-of-her-things-and-not-a-thief Paul Burrell's tell all book.


Handwriting experts have confirmed she wrote the letter (hell I have seen copies of letters from Diana so I could have said that), but that doesn't confirm whether she was out of her tiny little mind. The conspiracy theories will linger forever, but she was the silly one who didn't wear a seatbelt...

Odd bits
* David Blaine is out and he isn't dead.
* Tony Blair is not dead either. He was having an irregular heartbeat and reports indicate it wasn't over the price of a flat.

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