Featured Post

Wine time: The Frogs - Southwark Playhouse

Image
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...

Movies: Sex and the City


Sex and the City the movie, originally uploaded by annalyn.

I nearly didn't catch Sex and The City on Thursday night with Fliss as the first three cinemas I tried, it had already sold out... It is obviously the movie of the week. Fortunately the O2 centre had some seats and so that is where we caught it. With around 700 die hard fans of the series. Who were mostly women. With a smattering of self-conscious boyfriends... And a few gays... Fliss had to explain to her men-folk that she was going to this movie with her gay friend because she knew they wouldn't want to see it. One of them is jealous of our relationship but that's just because he doesn't have a filthy mind or a sense of humour...

Actually I was disappointed with the gay turnout for a movie about (to borrow from a Simpsons episode) four gay men living in New York city... Played by women... But then again this is North Greenwich... As the film started people started cheering. I don't understand the cheering. I think these women need to get out more...

Anyway is the film any good? Well being a fan of the series (having watched every episode at least twice) I guess I could forgive its flaws such as:

  • Lack of credible plot and ludicrous dialogue
  • Really unflattering lighting of the leading ladies (is this a trend nowadays to make ladies on screen look as bad as possible? Like they are getting on, but do we need to see how the plastic surgery and botox is desperately trying to work?)
  • Wondering if Kim Cattrall was wearing horse hair (was this SJP's revenge for the fact they hate each other?)
  • Two overlong clothing montages that lacked the style of The Sweetest Thing
  • A collection of the most dreary pop tracks ever inflicted on a chick flick. When Al Green starts singing as two characters meet on the Brooklyn Bridge, you will want to reach for an (empty) popcorn bucket
Still there were some funny moments, and it was nice to see Jennifer Hudson on screen again (even if she just breezes in to fix Carrie's website, give pat advice and get her a decent mobile phone). And while the other male characters are sidelined to bit parts, at least David Eigenberg as Steve manages to prove on the big screen he can still look good naked. Alas one can't say the same for Big, Harry or Smith... And I can't recall seeing a movie before which so trashes a leading man character to the point that you leave the film thinking, "Eeew... she ended up with him!"

All these flaws with the movie don't really matter much however. Even Sex on a bad day is better than nothing . This movie is also going to be huge because all we have had to watch for the past four years are episodes of Desperate Housewives... Interestingly on screen, the year is missing from any dates that are shown (such as emails, newspapers etc). It does feel like the film is trapped in a time warp. It even backs the wrong Democrat... There are references to Hilary on the film but none about Obama. Things have changed since 2004, even if the writers and producers assumed they had not... Anyone who isn't a fan or the series should steer well clear (and girls who drag their boyfriends to this movie will owe them big time)...

Popular posts from this blog

Opera and full frontal nudity: Rigoletto

Image
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...
Read more...

Fantasies: Afterglow @Swkplay

Image
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 ...
Read more...

Play ball: Damn Yankees @LandorTheatre

Image
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.
Read more...