T hey sing. They dance. They clown around. They even wash clothes! Such is the story of La Bella Bimba, part of the Voila Theatre Festival, which highlights new and emerging artists. A tale of two Italian ladies who land in 1920s New York, trying to break into Broadway without speaking a word of English. It’s harmless, primarily even if a little nonsensical, and is currently playing as part of the Voila! Theatre Festival . I caught the performance at the Barons Court Theatre , where the intimate setting created an evocative atmosphere reminiscent of dark New York alleyways. The space was almost claustrophobic with a distinct smell of rising damp, making you feel immersed in the story of two Ladies hanging around the theatre doors of Broadway. On the plus side, the theatre has some of the most comfortable seats you will find in any pub theatre in London. As the naive and hopeful singers, Co-creator Lucrezia Galeone as Carlotta and Sarah Silvestri as Cecilia are fine singers with co...
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(Silent) Opera: La Boheme
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As part of the Vault Festival, which transforms a series of interconnected tunnels underneath Waterloo Station into something theatrical and fabulous this month, I caught a packed production of La Boheme by Silent Opera with @Johnnyfoxlondon.
Like other companies, Silent Opera is about taking operatic masterpieces and adapting them into modern settings. What makes them unique is that they tap into the iPod generation and use headphones to place the performers and the music in real life and odd spaces. The former National Rail plans and drawings archive must fit the latter. With a mix of levels, false ceilings, grimy floors and porta-loos, it is a far cry from the Royal Opera. After reluctantly parting with jackets, gloves and scarves (as the last time I was in the Old Vic Tunnels it was freezing and it was during the summer) we were given some lovely Sennheiser headphones. They were switched on and blasting with loud music. It was enough to make us want to do some mild head banging.
We soon took our seats in a room that had an unmade bed, torn wall posters and dirty plates strewn about. I could have been in my flatmates room. Despite being encouraged, the audience was reluctant to sit amongst the performers until the room filled up and there was no other choice. Since the space was a little overfilled overfilled we ended up sharing a tight unmade bed with six others.
The opera soon begins and the action takes place right in front of you and all around. In this modern retelling of La Boheme, the action takes place in present day London and Rodolfo is a computer hacker. Mimi arrives at his door just as he is about to masturbate as she is looking for a match for her cigarette.
The music blasting through our ears recorded by the University of London Symphony Orchestra, does make you overlook some of the grittier elements of the story. Most of us have smiles on our faces as this inauspicious tale of love starts to blossom. It soon becomes clear that one of the best things about Silent Opera is that you can chose your own volume for your favourite arias. You can set the volume to quiet and just hear the voices or crank it up so that Musetta's waltz is a deafening belt.
In the second half of the opera the action is moved to outside a club where Musetta and Marcello are working in a tattoo parlour. Mimi is a success in fashion but not eating... She has anxiety and anorexia. In the final scene when they rush out to get drugs we know it is going to be the sort that Whitney would have approved of.
Of course it isn't always successful as even when the young performers are in tune there is microphone interference and static. Perhaps it is from when the performers are getting too close to each other, or there is a stray mobile phone still switched on in search for you a signal. At one point an ear pad fell off mine. They were handy drowning out the noise from the trains rumbling in and out of the station.
It is certainly an event to take part in and savour. Just make sure you familiarise yourself with the technology first. And go easy on the head banging. Performances run throughout February and the festival is a definite must-see for anyone looking for something a little bit different and a lot of fun...
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...
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 ...
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.
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