Featured Post

Two Ladies: La Bella Bimba at Barons Court Theatre / Canal Cafe Theatre

Image
T hey sing. They dance. They clown around. They even wash clothes! Such is the story of La Bella Bimba, part of the Voila Theatre Festival, which highlights new and emerging artists. A tale of two Italian ladies who land in 1920s New York, trying to break into Broadway without speaking a word of English. It’s harmless, primarily even if a little nonsensical, and is currently playing as part of the Voila! Theatre Festival .  I caught the performance at the Barons Court Theatre , where the intimate setting created an evocative atmosphere reminiscent of dark New York alleyways. The space was almost claustrophobic with a distinct smell of rising damp, making you feel immersed in the story of two Ladies hanging around the theatre doors of Broadway. On the plus side, the theatre has some of the most comfortable seats you will find in any pub theatre in London. As the naive and hopeful singers, Co-creator Lucrezia Galeone as Carlotta and Sarah Silvestri as Cecilia are fine singers with co...

Hummus of death: Positive @PositivePlayLDN @WaterlooEast

Positive, currently at Waterloo East Theatre, attempts to tell an honest and sweet story about an ordinary guy who just happens to be living with HIV.

It's funny and occasionally sweet, and somewhat reminiscent of other coming of age gay comedy dramas, except that along the way Benji, played by Timothy George, just happens to get diagnosed with HIV.

Following his diagnosis and spending a year staying indoors, avoiding people and listening to Britney Spears albums, Benji decides that he should start living life again. He goes out to a club and stays out all night which ends in a bit of a disaster when the young boy freaks out when he learns he is HIV positive. But with assistance from his perky housemate Nikki and her boyfriend, they arrange for him to go on a first date with Matt and appear to connect.


The date with Matt (played by Shaun Kitchener - who also wrote the piece) has some of the best and funniest lines in the show, but the piece is often quite witty and mostly intentional.

In the second half of the piece, while Benji has to find the right time to tell Matt about his HIV status, we learn that all is not quite as well as it seems with Nikki. And Benji's mother, growing tired of him not returning her calls, decides to pay a visit. This sets the scene for a range of views and provides an often refreshing take on what could be a serious and earnest subject.  HIV may not be the death sentence described in Harvey Fierstein's works that were recently presented, it still is life changing and not without its emotional and physical impact.

The piece is nicely acted by the cast, but the strength of the piece is in its refreshing and upbeat message about living life, even if you need Britney Spears to get through it.

And of course the script fires with hilarious lines, which are mostly intentional. The scene with a young boy shouting something along the lines of "I was going to put my perfectly healthy carrot in your hummus of death" was an analogy I wasn't ready for.

The piece has been a work in progress and inspired by true stories along the way. Positive was first performed as a rehearsed reading last March and was then redeveloped for the Edinburgh Fringe. The show has since been redeveloped into a two-act piece which has been reworked.

It currently runs a little under two hours including interval and I think the piece could still benefit from more revisions to bring it under 90 minutes. This might make for a tighter show and avoid any unintentional innuendo (even if it is quite funny, the intended jokes are better).

Worth a look, positive runs at the Waterloo East Theatre through to 1 June.

***

Photo credit: production photo

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 ...
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...