T hey sing. They dance. They clown around. They even wash clothes! Such is the story of La Bella Bimba, part of the Voila Theatre Festival, which highlights new and emerging artists. A tale of two Italian ladies who land in 1920s New York, trying to break into Broadway without speaking a word of English. It’s harmless, primarily even if a little nonsensical, and is currently playing as part of the Voila! Theatre Festival . I caught the performance at the Barons Court Theatre , where the intimate setting created an evocative atmosphere reminiscent of dark New York alleyways. The space was almost claustrophobic with a distinct smell of rising damp, making you feel immersed in the story of two Ladies hanging around the theatre doors of Broadway. On the plus side, the theatre has some of the most comfortable seats you will find in any pub theatre in London. As the naive and hopeful singers, Co-creator Lucrezia Galeone as Carlotta and Sarah Silvestri as Cecilia are fine singers with co...
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Theatre: The Children's Hour
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The Children's Hour, which has just started previews at the Comedy Theatre is one of those blockbuster dramas with a fantastic cast that you just have to go see. Lillian Hellman's dated 1934 play gets some serious star power here. With Keira Knightley and Elisabeth Moss in the lead roles, along with Ellen Burstyn, Carol Kane and Tobias Menzies you feel as though you should applaud everyone's entrance just because it is the thing to do.
Despite running at the Comedy Theatre, the play is a drama set in an all-girls boarding school run by Karen and Martha (Knightley and Moss). When an angry student runs away from the school, she tells her grandmother that the two headmistresses are having a... (whispered so you can't hear...) lesbian affair to avoid being sent back to school. Therein lies the drama and questions about why two women are setting up a boarding school in a country town, what is truth and why does Karen keep prolonging her engagement abound.
Of course to make this play interesting it relies on two things. The first is that the shocking secret is actually shocking... And that's... LESBIANISM. The second being the observations about the power of lies. Well nowadays who doesn't have a lesbian teacher in your life, so all we have to propel the drama is how lies destroy people's lives. That's fine but it does not sustain interest in this drama by itself, so it is even more important for the performances to be right.
Alas there appears to be a total absence of any chemistry between the stars. When the final "announcement" is made, the delivery of it and the reaction were so casual and cool you could have been forgiven for thinking they were talking about what they were having for dinner.
There is also the problem with such a star-studded cast that it all seems to be a little too plodding. Scene chewing gets in the way frequently. Hopefully the pacing of this show will improve as the run continues and the actors are given a prod to move things along. There's enough exposition here as it is without the performances grinding the show to a halt.
There is potential here, particularly if some chemistry develops between the characters and the stars act more like an ensemble before press night. Still, Moss and Knightley are so beautiful and this cast of stars so... starry(?) I suspect everyone will be too distracted to care that much... While seats are going to be hard to come by, day seats are available at the box office for £15 if you are quick and / or persistent... Strap yourself in and go along for the ride... But have a coffee first.
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.
