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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

Theatre: Betty Blue Eyes



Finally caught Betty Blue Eyes at the Novello over the past weekend. It is an excellent looking production with a great cast and star performance by a pig that gets wheeled about with what looks like a very long extension cord. The music is fine too. But watching this show is almost as unsatisfying as post-war rations.

What should be a very cracking musical comedy gets bogged down with subplots and misplaced sentimentality. And when the farce finally gets going it is quickly jetissoned as if fun can't be had at the theatre. The central message at the end (and a very English one at that) seems to be by conniving with the corrupt townsfolk you can enter into society...

Perhaps if part of the creative team that managed to suck the life out of Mary Poppins (and drag it out for three tedious hours to boot) could trot off and come back with a shorter funnier version of this show down the line... All the ingredients are there for a smashing show... There is just a bit of swill there too...

Still it is worth a look as it has to be one of the better new musicals to come around these days. Good seats are available from the usual discount venues... There may not have been fare shares for all in post-war austere Britain, but cheap tickets to the theatre have to be the next best thing...? The Novello is one of the better theatres too with its comfy seats and mildly glamourous refurbishment...


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