Paul in London

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Sunday Venturing to Zone 6

May 31, 2010

It isn't quite a trip out of town, however on Sunday a trip to zone six to see friends in Ruislip felt almost like one... Still it was a chance to see suburban London, its wide open spaces, and the many tube stations it takes to get there...

Theatre: Eurydice

May 31, 2010

Vox Pops Dr 3 F9 480p (16x9) from David Newell on Vimeo . Eurydice takes greek mythology and gives it a twist focusing on the loss, memory and redemption in this production at the Young Vic . Maybe all this death and loos has been putting people off from seeing it as Saturday night's audience could have been larger. The play itself is not bad at all and full of mildly surreal scenarios with water that can leave a lot to your imagination. The play opens with Eurydice and Orpheus about to go for a swim and then off to get married. Meanwhile her father is writing letters of advice to her for her wedding to her but she is not getting them. On her wedding night she leaves the party lured away by a man who says he has one of his letters... Soon she is in the underworld and Orpheus is trying to get in touch with her... One of the problems with this play is that there is no sense about how much Eurydice and Orpheus like each other... Sure they are practically naked with swimming gogg

Opera: La Fille Du Regiment

May 30, 2010

The production of La Fille Du Regiment at the Royal Opera is in its first revival, and Thursday night's performance included Colin Lee in the role of Tonio, which earlier in the run was filled by Juan Diego Flórez. Having seen Juan in a passable but hardly thrilling recital at the Barbican earlier in the month, I was happy to miss him in the opera. The audience were thrilled after his performance of "Ah mes amis" with its nine successive high Cs and Lee himself looked awfully pleased as the audience cheered and applauded... The same applied after singing the tender declaration of love in his Act 2 aria, ‘Pour me rapprocher de Marie’. It was all great stuff... Laurent Pelly’s production, first staged in 2007 is a lot of fun and the performance by Natalie Dessay as the tomboy daughter of the regiment, who falls in love with Tonio gives the show its heart. The rest of the cast round out this great opéra comique (a slightly silly one)... There are two more performance

Theatre: The Fanta sticks

May 26, 2010

The Fantasticks (which I mis-pronounced Fanta sticks thinking it was some sort of ice lolly) is now playing in the West End. It's a fifty-year old musical with whimsical songs and and tells an allegorical story that forces actors to run about and inflict injury on themselves for laughs. It played for forty years in New York and again has been revived again there recently, so there has to be something going for it. None of our party that included Johnnyfox and the West End Whingers had seen it before and the so it was as good an excuse as any for catching the second preview of this London revival... It is great they are offering stage seats for the show. Not only are they cheaper tickets, it is more fun watching it sitting on stage, assuming you can stay awake for the full two hours (not everyone in our party could do this)... Plus you get a special little tour backstage to get to your seats (well not so much a tour but just a walk down some narrow stairs and past the props

Theatre: Paradise Found (or at least something to pass the time on a warm night)

May 26, 2010

On Friday evening when it was warm and too nice to be indoors, Gio and I were indoors taking in a very early preview of the new show Paradise Found at the Menier Chocolate Factory . The audience consisted of Americans, the elderly, homosexuals or a combination of these. Given that it was a full house and the chocolate factory has only bench seating, you had no choice but get very acquainted and slightly sweaty with your neighbours. We knew nothing about the show and only the poster and programme art suggested it was going to be some warm loving sex show... Possibly set to music. What I did know was that it had a great cast of talented people in it... A cast that includes Mandy Patinkin , Nancy Opel , Judy Kaye, Shuler Hensley and John McMartin. It is directed by Hal Prince and Susan Stroman, and has music arrangements by Jonathan Tunick. You would think it is surely is worth a shot. As the show got underway, the story is about the Shah (John McMartin) and his trip to Vienna to fin

Cocksucker Theatre hour: The Habit of Art

May 22, 2010

Note: this post was updated in December 2022 in an attempt to comply with Google content guidelines - however if a phrase used in the play about cocksucking violates these guidelines it still may have a content advisory… 🤷‍♂️ I caught the penultimate performance with the original cast of The Habit of Art on Tuesday, Alan Bennett's latest play which has been running since late last year at the National Theatre (and been broadcast in cinemas around the world recently). It's had great reviews and been hard to get a ticket... Afterall, it is an Alan Bennett play so you know it is going to have some great dialogue and something about 🐓sucking in it. There will be a new cast returning in July and a tour, but this cast had a bit more star power with Richard Griffiths and Frances De La Tour... Since the play does talk about devices, there is only one thing worse than plays within plays, which often seem to be a device to make a show that doesn't work slightly more palatable (

Staycation: The Cotswolds

May 21, 2010

Last weekend I ventured out of London to the Cotswolds for the first time. The Cotswolds seems to consist of many cute little towns that all look the same and that offer an array of antiques, clothing for the elderly and places to eat lunch. It is all rather civilised. Lunch in the Cotswolds turned out to be a very cruel sport. Establishments were either offering a one hour wait, or menu boards outside saying they were full and didn't want you approaching them. Once inside one of these sought after establishments, no menu could be considered complete without deep fried brie and some form of lasagne. With menus like that on offer it was no surprise everywhere we turned we saw fat people, such as Gloucester at sunset... Incidentally, the trip to Gloucester was accidental after being frightened out of Cheltenham by chain restaurants and loose women amongst the regency terraces. It was a chance to take in the cathedral, the various shopping arcades built circa 1970/1980, and a ra