[title of show] takes you back to a time before the fast paced social media where word of mouth for a positive show came from chat boards, video diaries or (god forbid) blogs. A simple staging makes it an ideal (and economical piece to stage), but it’s sweet and earnest take on just putting on a show, and putting it out there and taking a chance gives this show its heart. With a strong and energetic cast and endless musical theatre references, it’s hard to resist and it’s currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse . It opens with Hunter (Jacob Fowler) and Jeff (Thomas Oxley) as struggling young writers in New York City. An upcoming New York Musical Theatre festival, inspires them to write an original musical within three weeks to make the deadline. As they discuss ideas, writers block, distractions and endless other good and bad musicals, an idea for a show emerges. Which is about writing a show for a musical theatre festival. Their friends Heidi (Abbie Budden) and Susan (Mary Moor
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Theatre: The Flying Karamazov Brothers
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Friday night, half way through the second act of the Flying Karamazov Brothers when lead Karamazov (Paul Magid) was trying to say something funny, a lady in the second row staggers to her feet and interrupts saying for all to hear, "I just wahnt to saye that theeeshow is aabsolutely wahnderful". At this point Magid offers to give her a kiss. She initially declines announcing that her shoes are off (prompting the audience begin wondering if she was the owner of the shoes that were offered up for juggling in the first half of the show). Eventually she gets up, staggers up to the stage, gets a kiss and staggers back to her seat. It was random acts of humour throughout this show that made it all somewhat worth the while.
The Flying Karamazov Brothers have been performing for years and this time around have brought their vaudeville-like show to London (appropriately to the Vaudeville theatre). You may be familiar with their appearances in an episode of Seinfeld, or further back as a bunch of the misfits in the mildly missable 80s movie Jewell of the Nile.
Here they present a show of juggling, lame jokes and general silly business. It is Marx Brothers meets Monty Python (and possibly the Muppets going by how they look). While not everything hits the mark, it is such a good natured show that it is hard not to like. The jokes are at the level of, "We're doing this without a net!" "Yeah we forgot to invite her!" But young people (and drunk women) particularly seemed to enjoy it and they surely should be able to get children in by the busload as school winds down and teachers are looking for something to do to fill in time...
In the first half there is their scene where "the champ" attempts to juggle three items brought in by the audience. If he is successful the audience gives him a standing ovation, and if not, he gets a pie in the face. If you are going, it would be advisable to bring something sloppy or mushy for this (the best we could come up with as an audience on Friday evening was wet umbrellas and the shoes). As he successfully juggled a sponge cake, tomatoes and a pineapple we had to give him a standing ovation. The rest of this half could probably do with an extra song and shorter sketches. But you get the feeling they are still trying and testing what London audiences go for.
The second half is where things seemed to flow a lot better and the segments of jazz juggling and juggling with the nine objects of terror (which included a plastic fish which didn't seem that terrifying) worked really well. There are loads of juggling and vaudeville acts around these days but once you get into their silly little world it is fun enough and at ninety minutes including interval it doesn't overstay its welcome either. There are matinee and evening performances on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and good seats will be found at the usual discount places too.
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 security
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.
