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The brown word: Death on the Throne @gatehouselondon

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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...

Essential music: Life of the Party @MenChocFactory

For the next couple of weeks, The Life of the Party - A Celebration of the Songs of Andrew Lippa, is playing at the Menier Chocolate Factory. For anyone with the slightest interest in new musical theatre this is a show not to miss.

While Andrew Lippa's shows have not had big West End or Fringe productions (yet), the evening is an opportunity to savour the best of all of them.  

He is joined by Caroline O'Connor, Damian Humbley and Summer Strallen, and it is an opportunity to hear and appreciate his songs, in a more intimate setting and savour the music and intricate lyrics.


The evening ranges from quiet reflection to rolling in the aisles hilarity. But each of the songs are delivered with passion and inventiveness. Over the course of the evening you also get the chance to see Summer Strallen in a dominatrix outfit and Caroline O'Connor playing a jaded lesbian in the show stopping "Old Fashioned Love Story" from The Wild Party.

Lippa's shows include John & Jen, The Wild Party, The Addams Family and Big Fish. There is also an excerpt from his new oratorio I Am Harvey Milk, which was premiered by the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus.

It also seemed quaint for the Spotify / digital download era we live in, but for anyone that still has such a wonderful contraption for playing music, he signs his CDs after the show as well...

A clip from YouTube where he performs his opening song "Mashall Levin" (albeit in less snazzy attire than at the Menier). The show runs until 14 June.

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