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Life upon the wicked stage: Already Perfect at Kings Head Theatre

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Performing two shows a day on a Broadway run sounds exhausting enough. But when you’ve just had a not-so-great matinee and are having a crisis of confidence, I would assume the last thing you’d want is to confront your past. Yet that’s the situation in Already Perfect, writer-performer Levi Kreis’s slightly autobiographical journey of confronting the past and his younger self. With a series of toe-tapping and emotional songs in a sleek production, you’re invited to experience someone else’s therapy session. And with a show title called Already Perfect, you know what kind of session this is going to be. It makes for a show where nothing is left unsaid, even if it is unnecessary,  unbelievable or best left on a greeting card. It’s currently playing at the King’s Head Theatre .  The story begins in his dressing room after a matinee, with Kreis alone. The show didn’t go so well. Struggling after being dumped by a lover, pressure mounting on the evening show being filmed for poster...

Theatre: Elaine Stritch at Liberty



I thought it might have been anti-climactic to finally see Elaine Stritch at Liberty, which is on a limited return run at the Shaw theatre. I have had the album of the show for about many years, and the DVD of it too. But to see it live... Well... That was still something else... Ok so the show is a tightly scripted piece of work, but it also is the gold standard now for solo shows; self critical, great anecdotes (including the above one about working with Ethel Merman) and hilariously bitchy... It was worth seeing the 82 year old broad in tights belt out songs and show how a real pro does it... And she does it for two-and-a-half hours.

Going with Mark was interesting as (unlike me), he was well aware of Stritch from her television work in the UK, but normally we have totally different taste in theatre. He hated Sunday in the Park with George for instance and has taunted me about it ever since. So I was surprised that he was speechless at intermission, and it wasn't just because he had been sitting in the theatre for ninety minutes without a cigarette...

For me, being so familiar with the work it was almost tempting to want to help prompt her with "Agnes De Mille!" while she was struggling with the name of who choreographed the musical Goldilocks... I left the audience participation to others however... My only quibble with the show was the fat queen behind me who decided that "Why do the Wrong People Travel?" from Sail Away was a sing-along... That's the trouble with these shows... It isn't the performers but the audience you have to be wary of...

Stritch had an afternoon session today with Elaine Paige as well which surely must have been fascinating to have witnessed and hopefully somebody has blogged about it. Stritch's show runs through to Sunday at the Shaw... And it is worth seeing more than just once...

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