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 and perspiration: Roadshow
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The tennis at Wimbledon at the moment is getting really exciting, so it was great when walking into the Menier Chocolate Factory to see Stephen Sondheim's Roadshow that the seats were arranged like you were at Wimbledon - comfortable but a bit hot and forcing you to turn your head to see the action as it moved across court the stage.
Staging (and heat) aside, this is an interesting piece of theatre about two brothers who have various scams and schemes and in the process end up building a town in Florida, writing a screenplay (or at least being in the room when it was written), and developing an architectural style that (for better or worse) persists to this day. It is all interesting enough to have you wanting to locate the source material, or at least looking up the history of Boca Raton on the internet.
Amongst the twentieth century history lesson is a show that is part drama, part comedy and part music. Even though it has Sondheim's name to it, it doesn't feel like a musical, even if there are a few numbers with mild razzle dazzle. The mix of realism and showbiz sometimes proves to be a bit jarring and comes as a surprise to the audience, judging by surprised faces I saw on the audience sitting opposite.
I remember Sondheim at a National Theatre talk in 2004 mentioning he planned to take another look at the show (then called Bounce) to see if it could work better. It was an interesting discussion in the context of how he has made changes to improve shows and the torturous process of it all. The opening is snappier and things move at a pace. But perhaps maybe some diversions, like the brothers often took, might not have been such a bad thing after all...
The cast are excellent and deliver a lively set of performances. While I had hoped for more banter between the Mizner brothers (played by David Bedella and Michael Jibson) things move at such a pace that there isn't much time to stop... Even for laughs... Jon Robyns as Hollis, was a particular highlight. He has a great voice (he has a solo album coming out shortly) and gets some of the best songs...
It runs through to September but is selling out quickly... It helps to brush up on the history of the characters before going as I felt there is an assumption that you know (and possibly care) about these two guys already... Although a show about property booms, scams, homosexuals and wasted talent surely cannot be too much of a stretch for Londoners...
Oh and dress cooly if its a heatwave... Even the bar was warm and sticky which didn't bode well for lingering around... Fortunately the show only runs 95 minutes without and interval. It has just started previews and the views of the hot and bothered including @Johnnyfox are boo'd 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.
