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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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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...
Theatre: Grand Hotel

Grand Hotel was a fabulous little diversion for the evening, the weekend, the month... The run at the Donmar has completely sold out and for good reason since the show is so stylish and cleverly put together with a great cast.

There is not much set just the back of the hotel sign and a few props. The blanks are filled in with songs and dancing. So who could fault that? The history of this musical is that it was based on the 1938 film, but also on a failed musicalised version in the 1950s by the collaborators on Kismet. Half the songs were replaced in this version and it probably was for the best as while the shift in music styles is noticeable it also helps keep things moving. There is no interval but the one hour and 45 minutes just breezes by.

This production tells a much darker story than the film, but that probably suits modern tastes. Best of all was the Baron, played by Julian Ovenden - who was eye candy and ear candy with his looks and tenor voice. Even better was the scene in which he was on the couch underneath Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio looking into her eyes (and the rest). Sitting front row in the circle you could be forgiven for mistaking that he was making eyes with the audience... That's part of the intimate experience of live theatre that they don't always tell you about...

Housekeeping

As I drag this blog site out of mothballs, I will be looking at the format of the blog over the next few days. As more new postings go online the ones from 2003 will disappear as well I expect. The rest I will make up as I go along. And the blog will be more about me. Actually come to think of it, I am not sure if anyone will see any noticable changes!

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Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

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