Featured Post

Heavy meta: Why am I So Single? @sosinglemusical

Image
Being young and single never seemed so fun, full of energy, yet full of contradictions in this high-concept meta-musical, Why Am I So Single? The fourth wall is not so much broken as endlessly pummelled as the cast talks directly to the audience. Frequently. But essentially, it’s about young people with neuroses and smartphone addiction exploring why they can’t find love in present-day London. Told with a series of spectacular songs and dance scenes in this new musical from the creators of Six, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. But while we don’t necessarily get an answer that rings true to the question posed by this show, you are likely to be distracted mainly by the energy and the songs. It’s currently playing at the Garrick Theatre.  A new musical based on an original idea, the premise is that Oliver (Jo Foster) and Nancy (Leesa Tulley) - which are not their real names but names taken from their favourite musical, Oliver - have to write a new musical but are stuck for an idea. So, after e

Driving Miss Marianne: The Grand Tour @finborough


The intimate setting of the Finborough Theatre and some wonderful performances make The Grand Tour a surprisingly enjoyable and sweet romp across France.

Jerry Herman's 1979 show is only now getting its European premiere. While then it was a full-scale musical, the smaller space of the Finborough allows the focus of the show to be on the three leads and the various adventures they run through as they attempt to escape France under Nazi occupation.

At the opening we are introduced to Jacobowsky, a Polish-Jewish intellectual who has always been one step ahead of the Nazi's as he explains in the show's opening number I'll be here tomorrow. As the Nazi's invade France he finds himself with a car that he cannot drive. By chance he meets the snooty and slightly anti-Semitic Polish Colonel Stjerbinsky, who needs to flee France with information for the Polish government in exile. And he can drive. So the Grand Tour begins.
The Colonel won't leave France without stopping to pick up his fiancee Marianne and the three soon set off French coastal village of St. Nazaire where they will travel to England. Along the way Jacobowsky and Marianne develop a connection that leads the Colonel to dislike his travelling companion even more. But after a series of misadventures - on a train, at a circus, at a Jewish wedding and a convent - they realise that they are reliant on each other for survival.

It is a sweet, if predictable show, strengthened by the wonderful performances and a resourceful production where scenes and sets open up, pop up and fold up like an oversized map.


Alastair Brookshaw is delightful as the optimistic Jacobowsky. He is charming enough to entrance Marianne while also keeping things light and occasionally hilarious. During the number We're Almost There which is set in a third class train carriage, he rattles off a series of observations based on little known pieces of French history that had at least some of the the audience in hysterics.

Nic Kyle as Colonel Stjerbinsky is equally strong (and looks very smart in a uniform). He also has an incredible tenor voice. His performance of Marianne, where he sings about his love for his fiancee (and why they must go and pick her up) almost stops the show. It is a song and a performance that lingers throughout the show.

Zoë Doano is terrific as the resourceful Marianne. There is chemistry between the three performers, as they embark on this road trip where danger is at every turn. The comedy is jarringly interrupted at times by murders and peril while perhaps the real love story is blossoming bromance between the two men.

If only Jerry Herman gave Jacobowsky a big number to finish on, it would have been a satisfying conclusion to the piece. Things end ambiguously and quietly which leads to a somber conclusion for the work.

The opening (and closing) number "I'll be here tomorrow" about survival and perseverance took on a greater significance catching this performance on Wednesday evening following the barbaric murders in France of the Charlie Hebdo journalists and police officers.

Another great show from Director Thom Sutherland and producer Danielle Tarento and the Finborough, and a chance to see a lost show looking and sounding terrific.
⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎

The Grand Tour runs to 21 February. Tuesday to Saturday Evenings at 7.30pm Saturday and Sunday Matinees at 3.00pm. Extra matinee on Friday 20 February at 3.00pm.

First impressions with +Johnny Fox follow
listen to ‘Boom on the run: The Grand Tour @finborough with @johnnyfoxlondon’ on audioBoom

Photo credit: Annabel Vere

Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Image
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
Read more...

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Image
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
Read more...

Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

Image
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.
Read more...