Scenes from the Victoria and Albert Museum Friday 19:34

DSC04490, originally uploaded by Pauly_.

Learning how to dance "Bollywood style" in amongst the Raphael Cartoons...

Overheard at the café Thursday evening

Lady dog owner: Her dog ended up in the kennel, and my dog was raped... On Valentines Day...

Theatre: Coram Boy

I overheard one woman leaving the theatre tonight complaining that she had just seen a three hour epic about infanticide and pedophilia. Well that was partly what Coram Boy is about. It is based on a bestselling (and award-winning) novel set in the eighteenth century.

It starts out telling the tale of a man who for a fee takes away unwanted babies and promises to take them the Foundling Hospital. It becomes quickly evident that he is working for his own profit. Soon little graves are found everywhere...

There begins an epic tale full of spectacle and the music of Handel. Even with a dark tale as this, there is a lot to enjoy over the three hours and it is not surprising both of its runs have been sellouts (and popular with young people).

The music of Handel (and additional music in the style of Handel) underscores the drama and it helps overlook some of the more convenient turns in the plot. In a way it was a shame that more music wasn't used.

What is particularly interesting is the backstory about the Foundling Hospital, its connection to Handel and the relevance a story about people trafficking has in modern London.

Overheard under Waterloo Bridge after the play...

Lady in black: Well, the salad was okay...
Man in red trousers: Never mind that, I need to pee...

Theatre: Thérèse Raquin

An advised that I could learn a lot from Thérèse Raquin in a similar way that I learned a lot from Belle Du Jour. Well after finally seeing this production I suspect the central message is not to live with your mother in law.

Adapted from Emile Zola's play, it is a great story about a woman and her husband's friend who conspire to kill the husband so they can be together. In the opening minutes of the first act, Charlotte Emmerson as Thérèse mostly pouts and isn't given much to do. I was wondering what was the appeal of the pouter. I was also starting to get a little bored with this production. That was until Ben Daniels (as Laurent) stuck his hand up Emmerson's dress. Neither actor is particular attractive but there was this electricity that suddenly made the audience snap to attention.

It was a pity there weren't more touches of this throughout. It felt at times to be a bit too polite and mannered as if were a play about herbal teas and dominoes instead of murder and adultery. I would have much preferred a more gruesome and atmospheric fare and less of the standard issue bland sets the National is famous for... Fortunately there were more tears before bedtime and the second act moved swiftly to its sensibly bleak end. It finishes its run soon...

Bar tips 101

Chinese New Year was as good an excuse as any to have a few celebratory drinks this weekend, but:

• Try not to make too much of a scene when encouraging intoxicated friends to sing key songs from Dreamgirls (although helpful to keep unwanted punters at bay)
  
• Don't confuse old blonde woman in bar for Jessica Lange post Glass Menagerie matinée
  
• Beware that slightly-familiar yet good looking guy in the bar who is checking you out... He may be the star of a children's programme you avidly watched 15 years ago...

Scenes from Leicester Square Tube Sunday 00:24

DSC04470, originally uploaded by Pauly_.

Missing the last tube from central London after one too many drinks...

Scenes from WC1 Friday 13:55

DSC04465, originally uploaded by Pauly_.

Quiet lunchtime at the recently refurbished Brunswick Centre... Cinema, chain shops and a Waitrose which goes down very well for the Bloomsbury types...

Idle office chatter...

Paul (eating): These Sainsburys donuts taste like poop...
Colleague 1: That's the second time you have said that word today, is that a favourite word?
Paul: Maybe...
Colleague 2: I bet you also like using the word... Plop...

The day that was...

Today was Valentines Day and the only valentine I got was from an email from a creepy consultant that facilitated the office away day a few months ago. He sent it to everyone that went on the course. But that wasn't widely known until I let out a yelp upon checking my email and much discussion ensued. I was just relieved to know that the message from creepy consultant wasn't all about about me...

But the fashion for this years VD if you were single was to go out to dinner with friends. It makes sense. If you are going to blow £50 or more on a dinner you might as well spend it with somebody you don't mind hangin' around...

I had to work late so I was having none of that. But I did catch up with An later in the evening for some cheap champagne in a straight bar in Balham. Strange, but I had seen this bar before. It was back in those heady days of 2003. The fish were still there... So were loads of women. I don't think they were all lesbians. I have it on authority from an ambiguously straight male that VD night is the best time to go cruising as the women are eager for it... He must have been talking about the bars in Balham...

Theatre: Happy Days

The first thing you notice when walking into the Lyttelton of this production of Happy Days at the National Theatre is that where there should be a stage there is a huge mound of dirt and a surrounding desertscape. The set is lit by such bright lights that the little old ladies in the row in front were covering their eyes for the first half hour of the production. It was a pity that the ushers didn't offer sunglasses out of a large black handbags. It could have easily been in keeping with the mood of the show...

I get the impression Happy Days by Samuel Beckett is the play that is trotted out every now and then to get a great actress to strut her stuff on stage. This time it is Fiona Shaw's turn and she was great to watch as Winnie, the middle-class housewife who has minor worries in life, but is always concerned about whether it will be a happy day. All the time in the first act, she is up to her waist in a mound of dirt. In the second act she is up to her neck in dirt. I have to admit my mind tended to wander a bit as I kept thinking, how does Fiona manage to act surrounded by all that dust??

Still, it was helpful having a discussion earlier today about the play with a colleague who studied it as part of her A levels... That whole mound of dirt thing could have been a little unexpected. Then again, you probably can't be too ready for seeing the mound of dirt on such grand scale. Director Deborah Warner (whose last production I saw was the equally large scale production of Julius Ceasar at the Barbican) obviously doesn't do small scale.

At the end of first act as if a nod to some of us postmodern to confuse our Beckett for our sitcoms, the theme tune from Happy Days played us out to the bar. These days are ours indeed...

Overheard in line at the National Theatre Cloakroom

Lady #1: Oh I'm still a bit jet lagged...
Lady #2: Jet lagged?
Lady #1: Yeah I was in Miami for two days for work and just got back this morning...
Lady #2: Oh...
Lady #1: You know how it is... You're expected to be the party girl out until 1am; then you have to show up the next day at a meeting and say something intelligent...

The week that was...

Looking back over the week it was striking the number of single people who in the cold, opted for sleeping with their cats. Maybe I just know a lot of cat people, but what is wrong with sleeping with a hot water bottle with a faux fur cover? It was the week for the cat people I guess as one by one they all proudly announced how their cat kept them warm to anyone who wanted (or didn't want) to hear.

Overheard at Saturday Brunch in Clapham

Abbeville Man (to woman): ...And worse than that, she is a complete lesbian. And I had to baby sit her boyfriend the other night...

Culture Shock

The phrase "run dead" is not commonly used here. As in, he was ambivalent about the ethical treatment of animals so he decided to run dead on the issue in the campaign. Add that to the list of other words including Scuttlebutt and Cassandra...

Scenes from SW4 Thursday 08:38

DSC04419, originally uploaded by Pauly_.

The neighbours got into the seasonal spirit as more than 5cm of snow fell overnight... Snow continued to fall throughout the morning. This evening while snow still remained on cars and a heavy frost was moving in, the snowman had moved out... A bit of carrot and a few twigs were lying on the ground nearby...

Theatre: Rock and Roll

Finally caught Tom Stoppard's play Rock 'N' Roll before it closes at the end of this month. It has been playing since last summer and has caught the imagination of the critics and the punters. The background of the story is the velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia, and the links a family in Cambridge have to the country. The central message is that there is no freedom without creative freedom and that's something that I could agree with. There is a wonderful scene where an old British communist after the collapse of the old regimes in 1990 smashes a plate. Was it all just a waste of time? Or do the new democracies appreciate what they have more than those in the west? Who can say but plenty of food for thought...

The original cast have moved on but even with the second cast headed by Dominic West (who is terrific) kept the pace going, even when it was a bit on the long side. I get the impression that even though the play finishes its run in February, it's going to be around for some time...

Walking out of the theatre afterwards, there were plenty of people wondering what it was all about they had seen, not to mention where they were when they first heard the many music clips peppered throughout the production...

Overheard at the Palladium...

Lady #1: So it is... Good times, and bum times, I've seen it all...
Lady #2: ...And my dear... I'm still here.
Lady #1: Plush velvet sometimes... Sometimes just... Just wha?
Lady #2: ...Pretzels and beer. But I'm here...

Concert: Follies

Sunday evening I caught the Starlight Foundation's Charity Concert of Follies. Some jaded theatregoers had warned me over the weekend it would be a bit dire with its stunning array of B-list stars front lining it, but actually it was quite entertaining. There was something perversely amusing watching the punters in the packed-out Palladium go ape over a series of world famous (well, world famous in Britain) ladies in the 55 plus age bracket. Most I didn't recognise.

The show lends itself well to a concert version, as (much as I expected) while the music is great, the story is dire. Two hours of two couples - middle-class, middle-aged has-beens - bickering does not make a night of entertainment, even if that is the point. As a concert version it feels easier to ignore the story. But fortunately the piece has , and with the full orchestra on stage and even the odd cameo by ITV newsreader Sir Trevor McDonald...

Even sitting in the cheap seats it was a lot of fun, although I didn't hang around for the charity plug at the end of the evening... I had seen enough. Besides the people sitting either side of me seemed to both have a bad case of halitosis... Talk about that ticket being a false economy...

Overheard underground Wednesday evening...

Bland man: Why am I meeting all these people who look great... But have nothing to say?
Bored woman: I dunno...

Scenes from Kennington Monday 22:59

Scenes from Kennington Monday 22:59, originally uploaded by Pauly_.

Waiting for the southbound 155... It never came...

Film: Dreamgirls

DREAMGIRLS, originally uploaded by 浮躁.

Finally caught a preview of Dreamgirls on Sunday (which opens in the UK this Friday officially). I managed to drag Ad, F and S to see it with me based on what was probably about six months of hype that I had been drip feeding (including various podcasts, news updates and songs). Seeing it was closure more than anything else for all of us I am sure.

I thought it was two hours and ten minutes of great entertainment. Ad, F and S were not so keen on musicals it turns out. At one point they were exasperating at yet another song. While I wasn't surprised with their objections, these guys really should have their pink cards revoked. Dreamgirls the show has been a cult, a hit and lost musical in the 25 years since it first premiered. The songs from it and the original Broadway soundtrack have been a staple in drag performances, dance clubs, and it even garnered mentions in episodes of Will and Grace. It's a story about black women made by gay white men. Many of the original creative team (including director Michael Bennett and book and lyrics writer Tom Eyen) have died since its opening. For Bennett, who was the creative force behind A Chorus Line, Dreamgirls was his last show.

Notwithstanding this, This was a film that had to be made. The original score sounds cinematic in the first instance. Numbers cut into each other, scenes blend together, and the music compliments the drama. This is evident in the number most known from the show "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going". Sung by the character Effie before the end of the first act it is more emoted than sung. After discovering this show via the brilliant double CD concert recordingin 2002, what I found amazing about the music and lyrics was how there were continuous variations on the same musical themes throughout. Each repetition reflects the progress of the girls' success and the loss of their unique sound into something more generic and popular. But putting the technical prowess of the score aside, at the heart of this backstage story is the lives of three women, their losses and their successes during the civil rights era. Unlike the story of the Supremes which inspired it, there is a happy ending, but perhaps not the once expected.

Translated to film, director and writer Bill Condon (whose previous films included Gods and Monsters and Kinsey), decided to open out the show by bringing in more story about the civil rights era of the time, and to drop most of the sung dialogue. It is a big task to turn an epic musical about a family struggle to stardom into an epic movie about stardom and civil rights. It is a musical, not a history of America or Motown/pop, so it doesn't quite cut it in this realm of reality. By going for epic scope rather than epic storytelling, it reduces some of the supporting characters to small roles. This movie really needed more attention devoted to developing the characters, not to the world around them. Dropping the sung dialogue also makes the show lose some of its pacing and I don't think helped people who (ahem) aren't familiar with breaking out into song...

After seeing it I am not quite sure whether these are major or minor problems. When you know a story backwards it is hard to be too critical of it. At one point during one of Jamie Foxx's songs it was noted I was grinning through it while my companions were groaning. I guess it takes all sorts.

Condon's admiration for the show was evident throughout, including his homage to the Michael Bennett's original Broadway production's look. And in addition to the look there are the musical numbers (almost thirty of them), brought together with a lot of panache and style for the most part. Eddie Murphy as James Thunder Early was astonishing and Jennifer Hudson gave a terrific performance as Effie. Her presence lifted the movie onto another level. Going for drinks afterwards at the very smart bar at the Young Vic, Ad thought she was a bit stereotypical in her "Mamma's getting tired" routine but I figured if I drank for two years straight, I might be a bit weary walking up several flights of stairs. Besides, I thought she was tame compared to some of the ladies I know... I only had one mojito so I avoided doing my Effie interpretation...

All told, this movie can hold its own. It may try to be too many things for too many people, but it was a pretty darn good effort. And maybe the most interesting thing about this film is the revived interest in the stage production. In the meantime I suspect the film will have legs for some time... And I'm sure when the remixes make their way to the Vauxhall clubs it will grow on some people I know... Some people just need a funky house mix to change their opinion... Personally I can't wait for the Sing-alonga version... You don't need popcorn with this film, you need sub-titles and a bouncy ball...

Scenes from the Bakerloo line Saturday 23:24

Scenes from the Bakerloo line Saturday 23:24, originally uploaded by Pauly_.

A gay reader with a very big book... Must be one of those sci-fi novels...