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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

Seven observations on Megan Mullally's First Night in London

  1. Not counting the West End Whingers and friends, the audience for Megan Mullally and Supreme Music Program appears to be a mix of gay men and their mothers. And lesbians. Some lesbians even brought banners to unfurl during an opportune moment. Here's hoping this is a new trend in the West End for lesbians with banners amongst the audience, particularly if they help performers feel less nervous...
  2. When she sings George Jone's The Grand Tour, a song about a man who finds his wife has left him and taken their child, it brought the house down. She sings the song from the point of view of the man, as originally written which went down well with the audience... It's not really lesbian music, but it could be.
  3. The band sounds great and the choice of music is refreshing with a mix that isn't old standards or songs from shows she has been in...
  4. The show promotes her Will and Grace fame to get the punters through the door, and then delivers an evening of great and lacklustre performances of songs of death and despair. So it was understandable that some in the audience felt cheated. The voice is always there though even if Megan isn't...
  5. Given nowadays you're lucky to have performers on stage sober and singing in tune (last night's Brit Awards spring to mind), I had lower expectations than to think we would be getting music with a performance, a nice outfit, flattering lighting or coherent explanations about the origins of the music.
  6. Could somebody please can listen to her anecdotes and then write them down in a script that she can learn?
  7. I must learn how to pronounce her name at some point... particularly if trying to make Audioboos while holding a gin and tonic...

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Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

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