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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

Let the blood run free musical: Sweeney Todd



Stephen Sondheim's Grand Guignol musical-opera Sweeney Todd is back in the West End. This time it is with the versatile (and somewhat unrecognisable) Michael Ball in the title role and Imelda Staunton as Mrs Lovett, his partner in crime. The tale has been told in many forms, and the last time it was on the West End was in John Doyle's wonderfully claustrophobic production where the cast doubled as the orchestra. This time around, this Chichester Festival transfer provides a slightly more traditional staging of the production with a grand set and elaborate set pieces. Of course, it is still probably Victorian London as the story does not make sense in any other period, but you could be forgiven with the odd car, costuming and set decoration that it could also be the 1930s...


Anachronisms aside, what makes this show a thrill is the interpretation Imelda Staunton gives as Mrs Lovett, the woman who owns the pie shop below Sweeney Todd's barbershop. If you ever wondered what Vera Drake the musical could be like you get a sense of it here. She gives the material a fresh perspective with a combination of a matter of fact EastEnder-ness and brilliant comic timing. Also worthy of a mention is James McConville in the role of the boy Tobias who manages not only to sing very nicely but also pull off some difficult crowd scenes while singing Sondheim's notoriously elaborate music...

The cast has a great time, and by the end of it, many in the audience were on their feet applauding. Mind you, there was someone behind me who was a bit squeamish about blood... I wondered if they thought they were going to Matilda... It's now playing at the Adelphi Theatre on The Strand. Sweeney Todd tickets available at the usual outlets, and the Dress Circle seats are excellent for taking it all in... And if you're too squeamish it's far back enough so you can think it is all just tomato sauce...

Boo musings with @johnnyfoxlondon follow...

listen to ‘Serial boo: Sweeney Todd’ on Audioboo

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