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Bit parts: Garry Starr Performs Everything @swkplay

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Garry Starr Performs Everything is a bare-bones (and bare buttocks) tribute to the theatre. Theatre may be in trouble, and audiences are down, but Garry Starr aims to save the theatre and bring back to the masses every style of theatre possible. As long as each style involves wearing a transparent white leotard or a skimpy thong. And tassels. It's part comedy, part physical comedy and part perv at Gary's physical prowess. The sentiment "if you've got it, flaunt it" applies here. So here we are with a show that has been around for some years and is having its first proper London run at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough) through Christmas. The premise is that Garry Starr (played by Damien Warren-Smith) has left the Royal Shakespeare Company over artistic differences. He is now on a mission to save the theatre from misrepresentation and worthy interpretations by doing things such as a two-minute Hamlet, recreating scenes from a Pinter play using unsuspecting audience

Opera: Faust

Friday night I caught the opening night of Faust, featuring Angela Gheorghiu and Piotr Beczala. It is a fantastic production, although at three and a half hours it did test not only one's concentration but one's glutes. Gheorghiu reprising her performance from 2004 was probably better suited to this role than the one she attempted earlier in the summer with Tosca, but the jury has to be out on the blonde wig she wears in the role. It was however Beczala's night and the audience saved the most applause for him…

I did get the feeling that the best parts of the opera are all in the first half. Particularly in this production the ballet dancing through hell in the fifth act felt way too literal. All told however the production was lavish and there was plenty to take in…

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