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...
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Theatre: Into the Woods (and out in the elements)
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Once upon a time, I went to Regents Park Open Air Theatre and sat in the rain to watch HMS Pinafore. There was barely any audience, it was freezing and I got wet.
Five years passed and all had forgotten this incident. And then one Friday evening we got ready to see a preview of Into the Woods. It was raining and it was freezing. However we did not quite get so wet. This time we made use of seat covers and fashioned them into smart little outfits with bonnets. It may have looked like we had just been to the dry cleaners, but "dry cleaner chic" abounded on Friday night. It was awfully sensible but it made it a bit harder to applaud the many fine performances we saw (unless you punched out holes for the arms)...
And so under the weather, we started watching this fantastic show. There probably isn't a better setting than the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre for this show. The dampness and the chill added to the atmosphere and the set just blended into the park's trees. After initially being thrown by the narrator being a young boy (which makes sense at the end of the show), the cast emerge from the shadows of the woods and show off some very fine ensemble singing. You also had to admire the breath control involved in spitting out some awfully complex lyrics on a cold wet night where bronchitis surely was a possibility for all.
The show itself interweaves several of the fairy tales of the Brother's Grimm with an original story about a baker and his wife who wish to have a child. The second act continues from when everyone lives happily ever after taking a much darker turn. This production doesn't shy away from the more adult nature of the story (and carries a disclaimer of being unsuitable for young children). Sexual appetites, abandonment, death, murder, alcoholism and abandonment all feature. The last time I saw this musical I thought the second act went on forever (and the actors seemed forever out of time with the music), but this time around it seemed to be brisk with pacing like a roller coaster ride that once you were strapped in (or huddled up) it had no lulls or dry patches.
Special mention has to go to Hannah Waddingham as the witch who wears a fabulous costume and a sounds as if this role was written for her. The cast that also features Jenna Russell and Too Close to the Sun'sHelen Dallimore. Why none of these ladies have solo albums is a mystery (and a lost marketing opportunity). This show runs until September 11 and is worth catching (with or without bronchitis). Just remember these smart tips for going to Regents Park Open Air Theatre:
Bring jacket, sweater and scarf. Unless a heatwave develops in the next few weeks it is bloody cold there
If it is starting to rain ignore the bells telling you to go and take your seats as they don't start the show until it stops. There's no point getting wet
Buy the cheap seats, as the views are fine back there and you can always upgrade yourself to an empty seat
Seat covers on sale for £1 are perfectly fine to keep you dry.
Youtube has a fabulous preview of this production below...
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...
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 ...
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.
