Featured Post

Wine time: The Frogs - Southwark Playhouse

Image
For a show called The Frogs, there isn’t much amphibian activity in the piece. But being a show with music by Stephen Sondheim, you could be mistaken for thinking it’s a critical theatrical piece. But like Sondheim’s final musical playing at the National Theatre, while it may not be a musical that fills you with provocative thoughts, it’s a fast-paced romp through hell and back to save the world for the sake of arts. With rousing choruses, thrilling choreography and plenty of cheap laughs, what more can you want from the theatre? It’s currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough) . There isn’t much to the plot, except that Dionysus (Dan Buckley), disillusioned by the state of a divided world, and his sidekick and slave, Xanthias (Kevin McHale), cross the river Styx to the underworld to find a great writer who they can return to the world to teach the world about life. He has his mind set on bringing back George Bernard Shaw until he hears the poetry of Shakespeare.  This v...
Back in London...

Found a link to Kingsgate Castle. The road is a bit better now than it was then and the beach has a lot more litter on it nowadays but you should get the general idea. That's what I spent a lot of time on the weekend looking at when I was down at the beach.

Trying to master the local dialogue... Offie, the minicabs the underground or the tube (not the subway or the train)... Its all good as they say... I felt better yesterday when I saw the cover of this week's Economist magazine. The article was titled The world comes to London. Amen to that!

Things to do today.

1. Try not to stare at people with flabby bodies and man boobs even though it is hard not to! Yesterday a man took off his shirt in the Victoria Station mall and continued eating. I was eating too and the sight of his pasty white skin and inverted nipples was a bit off putting. Really. Maybe Australians are way too modest and too high maintenance. I would have to Veet and Clip before feeling comfortable about doing that. Well maybe it is just me. Havent seen any handkerchiefs on top of heads yet though...
2. Drink plenty of water as I am delicate... Still haven't found San Pelligrino much around the traps. The punters prefer to go for some Scottish mineral water, which is almost as good.
3. See the sights around Covent Garden... including the
Donmar Warehouse
4. Try not to eat fish and chips for too many meals. Haven't yet eaten it out of a cone shaped paper thing though so I am going to have to do that soon.
5. Have fun and cheap laughs (well I can do that wherever I go)
6. Bought my own music. Listening to March of the Falsettos right now. It has nothing to do with London but works for me anyway.

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...