Posts

Showing posts from July, 2011

Featured Post

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

Image
"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 ...
Read more...

Theatre: Four Nights in Knaresborough

Image
A play about the men who assassinated Thomas Becket , the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1171 seems an unlikely source of an entertaining night. But this production at the Southwark Playhouse of Four Nights in Knaresborough is so sexually charged, so pumped up and full of machismo and so bloody and funny that it is hard to resist.
Read more...

Opera: Madama Butterfly

Image
Madama Butterfly (appropriately subtitled "Japanese tragedy in three acts") is a little too dramatically obvious, and musically unsatisfying. But the performance by Kristine Opolais as Cio-Cio-San is the sort of dramatic and powerful performance that this piece needs and she had the audience cheering for her on Saturday night. It is all high melodrama and her transformation from a meek and feeble fifteen year old girl, to a woman rejected is incredible and really fleshes out this minimalist production.
Read more...

Comedy: The Worst of Late Night Gimp Fight

Image
It is possible that the title of the show The Worst of the Late Night Gimp Fight at the Soho Theatre, is one of the funniest things about this show. The singing is patchy, the clothes are a bit scrappy and most of the men look like they need a wash. But gradually over an hour they do kind of win you over with their show. The Godfather sketch (featured above) is indicative of their antics. There are plenty of gimps, and a few piss-weak fights. They could have also worked on the front row a little more as they seemed to be making their own entertainment... The material is good but you get the feeling they could take the comedy a little further and a little darker... Here's hoping they keep pushing those boundaries beyond the obvious... They are at the Soho Theatre until 8 July.
Read more...

Gay: Pride London

Image
It is Pride London parade today. Lesbians, drag queens, gay boys, drag queens, muscle men are in town so expect delays in Soho at the bars. And don't feed the bears. They seem to have packed lunches... Location: London,United Kingdom
Read more...

Lesbian scenes underground

Image
A poster ad on the underground for an upcoming television show set in a Soho bar. No cliches here perhaps except for the advertising... Maybe a follow up show could be set in a sauna. Passing out drunk and towels on fire could be obvious plot lines...
Read more...

Theatre: The Beggar's Opera

Image
Thankfully it was a clear night on Wednesday to see this new production of The Beggar's Opera  at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre. It is a smart looking production with a great cast and music performed by The City Waites . But although authentic, the sum of it feels more like an embalming of a great work than a ripping night out.
Read more...