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Showing posts with the label Leicester Square Theatre

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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

Shameless tricks: Musik @lsqtheatre

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A trip down memory lane with Billie Trix takes on many dimensions in Musik. The jokes fly fast in this piece written by Jonathan Harvey. And in between the gags, there are songs by the Pet Shop Boys. Frances Barber, as the under-appreciated artist Billie is incredible. But as fast as Billie explodes on stage with her anecdotes and antics, it ends. And while more a series of gags and songs than a story, it’s hard not to like given Barber’s intensely funny and gripping performance as this hard-living star. It’s currently playing at the Leicester Square Theatre . Billie opens on stage wearing an eye patch claiming that Madonna stole her look. And that she is now stalking her by taking the theatre nearby and cancelling her shows so she can secretly watch and her act. It sets the scene for an hour of musing about her career as an artist. And those who stole her ideas. Andy Warhol when she gave him soup in a can. Trump when she put up a wall and so on. The character of Billie first a

DIY whodunit: Murder, She Didn’t Write @lsqtheatre @degreesoferror

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Improvised comedy can be hit or miss, but Degrees of Error might be onto something with this do-it-yourself whodunnit. It’s currently at the Leicester Square Theatre on the last Sundays in February, March and April. It could be described as what Agatha Christie might have written if she hit the sherry a bit too much.  Audience suggestions set the scene for the murder and the murder weapon. One person in the audience gets to choose both the murderer and the victim by picking their name from a deck of cards.  The Leicester Square Theatre with its range of bars inside the theatre sets the scene to loosen up the audience with ideas. It seems to work. Much is up for grabs, in this unscripted murder mystery. Not only is the victim unknown until part way through the show to the cast, but so is the murderer.  The end result of this in February was it was at a hen night when the future Bride was murdered by her friend. The murder weapon was a wet tea towel.  It’s fascinating and hilarious to w

A broad range: Jinkx Monsoon Sings Everything @lsqtheatre

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Thanks to Ru Paul’s Drag Race being one of the shows available to stream for some time on Netflix, series five winner Jinkx Monsoon is a bit of a star over here. Now she’s here in London for a few days at the  Leicester Square Theatre  singing songs, improvising and doing stuff. For the few people that don’t have a Netflix subscription, Ru Paul’s Drag Race is a hilarious send up of the reality show format. But it’s also given rise to a new breed of drag super stars. They sing, they strut, they teach you how to throw shade. In this show, with her combination of improvised comedy and a relentless voice, Jinkx Monsoon gives you a night to remember.