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Christmas Mysteries: A Sherlock Carol @MaryleboneTHLDN

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A mash-up of Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol and Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes would seem an unlikely pairing. Yet it provides a surprisingly fun Christmas-themed adventure. These two Victorian tales (albeit separated by about 40 years) provide the basis for an inspired adventure at Christmastime that just also happens to turn out to be a murder mystery as well. With lavish costumes, a few spooky set pieces and some good old-fashioned stage trickery with lights and a lot of smoke machines, it is hard to resist. It returns to the Marylebone Theatre for Christmas after a run there last year.  The premise is that after Holmes sees off the criminal mastermind Professor Moriarty, he is left adrift in London. People thought he was dead, and he might as well be. Disinterested in the misdeeds of other Londoners, Holmes has even given up on his friend Dr Watson. It's almost as if he has become a Scrooge. Or half a Scrooge, moping about shouting, "bah" in respon
News: The waiter did it

A waiter has been charged with the murder yesterday. The Evening Standard website had photographs taken from a neighbour's house that showed a man on the street face down in a pool of blood, which have disappeared this evening... It has been alleged that the waiter described the motivation behind the killing as all very long and involved...

Movie: Kinsey

Finally managed to catch Kinsey last night. Whether it is true to life is another matter (it only briefly touches on some of the more bizarre things that Kinsey performed on himself as "research" - and it is a movie biography), but it does make for a smashing film about a pioneer of his time, who created the scale of one-to-six long before we started using such terms as metrosexual, fauxmosexual, straight-acting, and all those other euphemisms... Amazing how science could be infused with such drama as well...

It was worth waiting around until the end when the footage of animals humping was played over the closing credits as well.

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Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

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Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

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Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

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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.
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