Paul in London

Well, at least there was Nina Söderquist

It isn't often that I am put off seeing a show just because I have heard the cast album. But when I heard Spamalot a few years back I thought it was such crap that I waited until the ticket prices dropped through the floor before going to see it. Perhaps the show is on its last legs. The show has been a huge hit on Broadway but seems to be struggling here. Monty Python wrote some hilarious music in their day, but you wouldn't know it with this lamely written show that serves up lines like:
We're going off to war
We'll have girlfriends by the score
We'll be shot by Michael Moore
Because we're not yet dead

Sitting in the front row you can just smell the stench of stale satire. It was a very tame night and hardly the bloody and silly enjoyment of the film that this musical "lovingly rips off". Anything slightly risqué seems to have been cut or toned down (so no oral sex jokes) to the point that instead there are stereot…

240420085075, originally uploaded by Paul-in-London. The bears are hotter in Paris...

23-04-2008, originally uploaded by Paul-in-London. Still on holidays this week and soaking up the sights of Paris for a few days... The great thing about French street theatre is that it is so bad you don't mind not giving them any money for it. This one I caught yesterday afternoon basically involved a woman wearing a fox fur (I had to correct my sister who thought it was a beaver) shouting profanities. Every once in a while the man in the white shirt would slap her about a bit. Bearing this in mind I thought I was watching it again tonight when a man started attacking another man with an iron (the kind you use on shirts). It was only when the police started to appear on rollerblades that I started to think that maybe this wasn't so avant garde afterall...

Woman #1: What about Mr Whippy?
Woman #2: Mr Whippy!!
Woman #3: I hate Mr Whippy!

19-04-2008, originally uploaded by Paul-in-London. Hmm... Nice camel toe...

180420084784, originally uploaded by Paul-in-London. Apparently the French were to blame... Easterly winds bringing their smelly cheese and their smelly dogs over the south east...

Man on mobile: I wanna know who's been saying these things about me so I can sue their f----- pants off!

WELCOME TO SUNNY SOUTH LONDON, originally uploaded by the_moog. It isn't true that all of South London is in the clutches of this... Just Crystal Meth Palace...

Man #1: You see I told him... You come to this company... You do some time here and those that really make their mark are the ones who get the networks running... Get the contacts...
Man #2: Yeah... And...
Woman #1 (interrupting): You're not all talking business here are you?

West End Whingers Party, originally uploaded by Paul-in-London. I went to the West End Whingers Party and all I got was smarm... That's about right...

Man #1: What would you say if I called you skinny boy? Would ya like that? Would ya?
Man #2: Uh... No...

One of the fun things about going to the theatre and blogging about it is that you can pick up the buzz and excitement about new productions as they hit town. Sadly this was not the case with Gone With the Wind. When asking around about it over the last month, the only responses I got back about it were forced smiles and phrases like... "Well... It's innnnteresting". Well now after seeing a preview of it on Tuesday night I can confirm what they are saying. It is innnteresting... And for those that don't know theatre-speak... That means it is rubbish.

First of all starting with the leads. It was a curious choice to put Darius Danesh and Jill Paice in the lead roles of Rhett and Scarlett. Despite the efforts of Darius to make his voice boom and disguise with sideburns the fact he is in his twenties, he still looks like he is playing dress-up and wearing his dad's clothes. Paice doesn't fare much better either and together to pair give the show the kind of earnes…

Tomorrow night I am going to the theatre and the production is so long who knows when I will get home... Such is the odyssey that one particular production is currently enduring in the West End. Bearing that in mind I plan to use twitter as my means of communication to the outside world... Oh and I will stay awake if I can find a new energy drink called Pussy... Now that's a drink with a name that's going to take off...

Stoolball and Secrets, originally uploaded by dayglowill. Stoolball and secret children... It all happens in London...

Despite the snow, Londoners give the Beijing Olympics Torch relay the welcome it deserves...

Lady #1 (to woman on a mobile phone blocking a doorway): Excuse me... Oh that's a lahvely ring
Lady #2: Oh thank you dahling... Thank you...
Lady #1: No it's lahvely
Lady #2: Thank you dahling...

From the Tony Awards 2006

I caught Jersey Boys at the Prince Edward Theatre Monday night. I saw it with Grant and we must have looked like a right pair of luvvies as a lady in front of us from Cincinnati asked us if we get to the theatre all the time living in London. I wasn't quite sure if that was a question asking us whether we liked musical theatre. Whatever the line of questioning was, I wasn't going to admit that I had just bought on DVD Show Business. Besides it had been over a week since I had last been to a theatre. And that was fringe theatre...

Jersey Boys - a show about some workin' class boys from New Jersey makin' good - was was all class. Rather than the usual trick of being a juke box of hits strung together for an unbelievable story, or weaving a string of b-side songs into a nights entertainment because that is all the rights that were available, this show tells the story of the boys rise to fame using their music. Their story moves at breakneck speed a…