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Somewhere that's green: Potty the Plant at Wiltons Music Hall

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"I'm Potty the Plant," sings a potted plant in this odd little fringe concept of a show. It's hard not to get the tune out of your head, even if the show is brief. It's an earworm for a show that features a worm-like plant as a puppet. And given the show's brevity, running at only an hour, it's hard to get too annoyed by a lack of a coherent story, even if it still seems like the show could use a bit more development (which is underway). It has made its London debut at Wilton's Music Hall. The premise is that Potty, the plant, lives in the hospital office of Dr Acula (geddit?) and dreams of a life with the cleaning lady Miss Lacey (Lucy Appleton). But Dr Acula might be responsible for why all these children are disappearing while trying to romance Miss Lacey for her family's money that she doesn't have. Three nurses are on the case, trying to solve the mystery.  If the show settled on a convincing plot, location and set of characters, it could ...

Theatre: La Clique



Saturday night I found myself at La Clique at the Hippodrome. It is a bit burlesque, a bit of acrobatics and a bit of theatre. While there is no thematic link and it isn't some creepy French-Canadian famtainment, this dirty and rough show is intriguing enough to not want to miss.

Alas the German acrobat in the bathtub is not with the show at present, but the other acts had equal novelty value. Although there was a bit of an edge to Saturday night's performance after the hula hoops woman managed to hit some girl in the front row in the mouth with a stray hoop. Tissues were passed along the row and it was obvious she had a cut lip. For the rest of the act everyone in the front row sat slightly terrified (and covering parts of their face). Hoops split and other hoops went flying so the fear was real... In the second half the front row were warned not to lean forward with the skating act... And they took note. They were very, very obedient. And again very terrified.

The second act also had a woman who managed to play a kazoo in a very unusual way as well. It was a marvellous exercise in breath control, albeit not exactly the most sophisticated act to have graced the West End. Still the audience enjoyed all this filth...

The show has had its run extended to June. There are various discounts to have and I would suggest standing (or at least avoiding the front row) would be most advisable...

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