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Wee liberties: Beauty and The Beast: A Horny Love Story at Charing Cross Theatre

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It may not be a tale as old as time, but it’s still the same old story, almost, with Beauty and the Beast: A Horny Love Story currently playing at the Charing Cross Theatre .  As the title suggests, this is not family holiday entertainment, but neither is it all gay gore. And a surprisingly large number of clever gags, a gorgeous-looking production, costumes, and an ensemble make for a classy night out with the occasional lashing of sluttiness.  It’s been a while since I have seen an adults-only panto. Like many things at the theatre—ticket prices, opening nights, age of social media influencers—things have changed. Happily, things have changed for the better here. The show focuses on assembling an excellent cast. Elaborate costumes by Robert Draper and David Shields’ set pieces help give this adult panto a touch of class. There are the usual lewd jokes and a quick flash of buttocks.   The setting of the story is in the northernmost village of Scotland, Lickmanochers. Not...

Things I have not covered

While waiting for broadband to be connected by Wanadoo (I have been waiting six weeks now), I can confirm that I have yet to cover
  • Seeing Stockard Channing and Aiden Quinn in The Exhonerated. It has an extended run at Riverside studios with a revolving cast. They were fantastic. A brilliant play which is staged as a simple reading telling the true tales of people wrongly sentenced to death in America.
  • Going to the Australian Film Festival at the Barbican and seeing "The Illustrated Family Doctor", "Opal Dream" and "Three Dollars". Of the three, Opal Dream is worth catching. It is set in Cooper Pedy and actually paints the town as a nice place so it was a monumental feat of film-making and storytelling there.
  • Caught Capote which was another great film. After seeing the film one should try to speak for as long as possible like Truman Capote until it drives you and your friends insane. I think it should be a new game.
  • I have written another dirty letter to Wanadoo. I used bigger words like "incompetent" and "fools" and "fraudsters" - sometimes in the same sentence! Can't wait to read what their reaction will be. Pity that I have to still pay for their rubbish service, but we'll see.

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