Paul in London

It's the tail-end of panto season. School is back, Christmas and New Year have come and gone and the holidays are over. But fortunately the New Wimbledon Theatre's Dick Whittington is a welcome hanger on from the period. Its funny, sharp and varied enough to keep people of all ages entertained. There's even a 3D film segment in the second half to scare the children. But top billing for this show is Dame Edna as the Spirit of London fairy helps Dick (and the show) along. The show gives and opportunity for Dame Edna to fly through the audience, riff on old routines and muse about the genre of the pantomime. It is hilarious stuff. The jokes about empty seats being the result of subscribers to the theatre from the posh parts of Wimbledon, who have since died, are comedy gold... Of course when Dame Edna isn't around there is the good looking Sam Attwater as the hero and Anna Williamson as Alice along with a host of supporting characters that work so hard it is exhaus...

January in London doesn't have to be grey and miserable. It can be crisp, sunny and green with a dog mid-distance wandering around for no real reason...

Cirque Du Soleil's journey of the origin of the species - Totem - returns to the Royal Albert Hall for a limited run. Directed by  Robert Lepage , it is a thrilling and beautiful show. People fly through the air, juggle, unicycle, play tricks and clown around. It is all spectacular stuff.

2012 looks set to be delightfully grim if this teaser trailer for the Sweeney Todd musical is any measure... It opens at the Adelphi in March 2012... But it won't be all blood and murder... I'm off to see Cirque du Soleil's Totem tonight... More later...

The Importance of Being Earnest, The Musical currently playing at the Riverside Studios Hammersmith , turns out to be a nice little Christmas surprise. The show with a book by Douglas Livingstone and score by Adam McGuinness and Zia Moranne takes Oscar Wilde's play and turns it into a brisk and witty affair that captures the essence of the comedy while feeling like a distinct show in its own right.

In case you missed it, Millbank Tower earlier this week served as a showcase for a light show and performance by Deadmau5 to mark the launch of the new Nokia Lumia smartphone . Maybe this landmark building is getting a new groove (albeit through a phone and operating system that is a bit boxy)...

After a successful run at Regents Park Open Air Theatre this summer, Crazy For You is now at the Novello Theatre. I saw it at Regents Park and was not so crazy about it then . Now in a theatre and away from evening chills, planes flying overhead and the occasional moth, it is a chance to ignore those distractions and focus on the vibrant singing and dancing, and spectacular costumes. There is so much energy on stage conveyed through a series of spectacular dances. Legs kick, flip and dance their way through nearly three hours of entertainment.  You will be exhausted just watching it.

A Round-Heeled Woman has just transferred from the Riverside Studios to the Aldwych Theatre. It is an opportunity for Sharon Gless (of Cagney and Lacey fame) to portray through part monologue / part drama the true story of Jane Juska. Juska is a woman who placed an advertisement in the The New York Review of Books that read: "Before I turn 67 – next March – I would like to have a lot of sex with a man I like. If you want to talk first, Trollope works for me."  The play, which is based upon Juska's book, goes through some of the encounters that lead to love, heartbreak, rejection and laughs. The audience on Friday night was not prepared for the humiliation arising from this situation. There were audible gasps when one of her male suitors tells her why she needs to get some lubricant.  But the sharp wit and brutal incisiveness is frequently undermined by a superfluous supporting cast that have little to do, and a set so distracting that it has your mind wondering to ask q...

It was a bloody night at the Courtyard Theatre Hoxton where I finally managed to catch Theatre of the Damned's Revenge of the Grand Guignol. Well it is not all blood and gore, but these four stories all have enough thrills, laughs and shocks to have you and the ice within your favourite beverage all aquiver... So much so that when the lady in front of @johnnyfoxlondon and I blew her nose, we both jumped. Last year's show in Camden was great, but this year was even better with stories that are even more compelling and some great performances. There is a melodramatic story about a mad doctor, a pensioner with a buried secret, a long distance relationship gone wrong and a beautiful woman trapped in a munitions factory. All of the stories have in common the ability to turn something ordinary into the unusual. And through some rather clever lighting and sound effects, even when things seem fine, you were on the edge of your seat. The show is part of the London Horror Festi...

 Thursday evening I found myself at the launch event for The Show Must Go On , which is a rather nifty little game that brings together opera, cheap laughs and the iOS platform. Given all three are favourites of mine I downloaded it . It is very cute and quite amusing little game, recreating Covent Garden and backstage at the Royal Opera when everything goes wrong. The game puts you in the shoes of a stage manager and includes a series of mini games. Within these you have to undertake a variety of back stage tasks in order for the show to go on. I particularly liked running over the rooftops of Covent Garden chasing sheet music and dodging pigeons. Depending on how well you do, depends on how good the show is. So far I have only created rubbish shows... The game might be trying to tell me something but I will ignore that for now and keep practicing... An interesting collaboration between the Royal Opera , including its sound technicians singers from the Jette Parker Young Arti...