Out of the darkness and shadows, three characters emerge. Lit only with candlelight or flashlights, a gripping tale by writer and performer Ché Walker about crime, punishment, love, and loss emerges. The fast pace conveys a sense of urgency to make up for lost time, lost opportunities, and what might have been. It’s currently playing at the Finborough Theatre . We first meet Mac (Ché Walker) in prison, serving time for a crime he committed. With only a photo of his young daughter, Scratch, to keep him company, he looks for her upon release. But Scratch (Joanne Marie Mason) isn’t the teacher, lawyer or dancer Mac imagined while incarcerated over the years she might be. Instead, Scratch is in and out of trouble, on the edge, angry and violent. A chance encounter one night with JayJayJay (Alice Walker) forms a loving bond and gives her a moment of stability. But Scratch’s demons and restlessness mean trouble does not seem far away. Scratch's random act of thoughtless violence against
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Pillow talk: Jeepers Creepers @lsqtheatre
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Life is a series of bedroom scenes in this tribute to comedian Marty Feldman, Jeepers Creepers. It's playing downstairs at the Leicester Square Theatre through to 20 February.
And while you learn a bit about the man from East London who found fame in Hollywood, you never really understand what made him so funny in the first place.
Feldman was part of the troupe of British comedians who drank hard, played hard and wrote some memorable comedy in the 1960s and 1970s. Although you might have trouble understanding this in this mostly serious account of three parts of his life.
His big break was playing Igor (that's pronounced EYE-gor) in Young Frankenstein. This piece opens with him in a hotel room with his wife as the movie has premiered and he is on the brink of stardom.
It flashes forward a few years when his career has peaked, he managed to direct a film and spends most of his time chasing starlets and drinking. The piece flashes forward to 1982 when he is in a third rate hotel room in Mexico City having been fired from the film Yellowbeard.
As Feldman, David Boyle doesn't quite look like him (he looks a bit more like Gene Wilder), but he does imbue him with some of his mannerisms. But for a man who died at the age of 48 of a heart attack you don't ever get a sense of a man living hard and on the brink of collapse.
And as his pushy and long-suffering wife, Rebecca Vaughan doesn't get much to do other than sit in bed and look suffering.
The piece has some comedic moments, although only a few audience members found funny. This included the recreation of the not dead scene from Young Frankenstein at the opening of the piece. Or when stumbling in late from a night of drinking and with another woman his wife asks, "What time of night do you call this?" An inebriated Feldman replies, "Ethel?". Cue hysterical laughing from two people in the audience...
But perhaps fitting for the life of man who had a career that was full of promise never realised, this piece squanders much of it.
Jeepers Creepers runs downstairs at the Leicester Square Theatre until 20 February.
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.
