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Wine time: The Frogs - Southwark Playhouse

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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...
Theatre: What the Butler Saw

The opportunity arose on Thursday to see the Hampstead Theatre production of Joe Orton's What the Butler Saw with A. After a day of near-miss bombings on the public transport network it seemed like a sensible antidote. Or a silly one anyway. I thought the cast were great and it is such a great play full of witty one-liners about sex, incest and psychiatry so who could ask for anything more on a night like Thursday night was?

It was press night as well so there were all sorts of press reviewers there with their little notebooks (including former Tory MP Michael Portillo - who we made stand twice because we had to get past him to get to our seats in the theatre). The production kept the story set in the 60's which was a good idea since the story while witty and fully of funny lines does tend to go on a bit and all the psycho-talk is very out of date. After the show there were some murmurings about how it was a little amateurish but I thought the story was more at fault than anything else. All the actors did remarkably well screaming and running around in their pants if you ask me...

Incidentally it was a warm day yesterday too and I arrived feeling a little perspired having had to take three tube lines to avoid all the network closures. It was a bit of a tense commute yesterday with everyone checking out everyone else - especially if you had a backpack or bag. By the time I reached Swiss Cottage I was a little bit hot and bothered. Fortunately somebody shoved a drink in my hand shortly after arriving and after a glass of wine I never have to look back...

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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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