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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
Politics in Britain... The little things that are different

Its a bit gay (except for the BNP)
Stayed up late on Thursday night watching the election results (as one does, although I wasn't wearing an anorak)... Fell asleep at one point in front of the television only to wake up to see lovable Schools Minister and Member for Enfield and Southgate Stephen Twigg concede defeat. He looked very glum. It was a bit of a shock. Mainly because I was so close to the television and I woke up and saw his glum face in widescreen. I certainly wasn't expecting to see that. I sort of met Twigg at the start of this year (I was in the same room he was and he was talking to a friend of mine briefly). My brush with a man with a red box. Smart man, in politics and openly gay. Being gay and in politics in Britain is expected as politics is pretty gay. And with all those Westminster traditions you can't get much gayer than the oldest democracy of them all.

People here can't believe it when I tell them that you can't be openly gay and in politics in Australia. Well at least not in a major party. I tell them you can wear smart suits and dabble in the Arts, but that's as far as it goes. You must have a show wife, force her to live upstairs from you, trot her out for photo ops, then dump her when you are defeated... Whereas at this election in Brighton, all three candidates were gay and trying to outgay themselves. The Tories were playing up just how gay they really were too...

Paxman takes on the grub
There was much talk today about Jeremy Paxman's "interview" of George Galloway. Journalists here love to be antagonistic, but Paxman is the best at this sort of interview. Galloway ran in the East End against black (and Jewish) New Labour Oona King. This electorate has a high proporion of Muslims and so he made it a referendum on the war in Iraq. It was a grubby and bitter campaign so it was nice to hear Paxman start the interview by asking: "Mr Galloway, are you proud of having got rid of one of the very few black women in Parliament?"

Tactical voting
You are elected by a first past the post system here so voters have learned how to vote tactically - and vote for the person most likely to defeat a candidate - even if that means Labour voters who didn't like Blair ending up voting Tory... Backingblair.co.uk describes the process.

Political tv advertising
It doesn't exist. And the debate seems a bit more intelligent for not having it.

When is a 60 seat margin still not good enough?
When you have a core of 30-40 MPs in your own party who will vote against you at (almost) every turn. They are old Labour, and very few of them lost last night. The new parliament will be very different from the last...

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Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

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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
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Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

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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 security
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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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