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Wine time: The Frogs - Southwark Playhouse

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For a show called The Frogs, there isn’t much amphibian activity in the piece. But being a show with music by Stephen Sondheim, you could be mistaken for thinking it’s a critical theatrical piece. But like Sondheim’s final musical playing at the National Theatre, while it may not be a musical that fills you with provocative thoughts, it’s a fast-paced romp through hell and back to save the world for the sake of arts. With rousing choruses, thrilling choreography and plenty of cheap laughs, what more can you want from the theatre? It’s currently playing at the Southwark Playhouse (Borough) . There isn’t much to the plot, except that Dionysus (Dan Buckley), disillusioned by the state of a divided world, and his sidekick and slave, Xanthias (Kevin McHale), cross the river Styx to the underworld to find a great writer who they can return to the world to teach the world about life. He has his mind set on bringing back George Bernard Shaw until he hears the poetry of Shakespeare.  This v...

Theatre: Spamalot

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Well, at least there was Nina Söderquist It isn't often that I am put off seeing a show just because I have heard the cast album. But when I heard Spamalot a few years back I thought it was such crap that I waited until the ticket prices dropped through the floor before going to see it. Perhaps the show is on its last legs. The show has been a huge hit on Broadway but seems to be struggling here. Monty Python wrote some hilarious music in their day , but you wouldn't know it with this lamely written show that serves up lines like: We're going off to war We'll have girlfriends by the score We'll be shot by Michael Moore Because we're not yet dead Sitting in the front row you can just smell the stench of stale satire. It was a very tame night and hardly the bloody and silly enjoyment of the film that this musical "lovingly rips off". Anything slightly risqué seems to have been cut or toned down (so no oral sex jokes) to the point that instead there are ...

Not in London: Paris Orangina

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240420085075 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . The bears are hotter in Paris...

Not in London: Street Theatre Paris

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23-04-2008 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Still on holidays this week and soaking up the sights of Paris for a few days... The great thing about French street theatre is that it is so bad you don't mind not giving them any money for it. This one I caught yesterday afternoon basically involved a woman wearing a fox fur (I had to correct my sister who thought it was a beaver) shouting profanities. Every once in a while the man in the white shirt would slap her about a bit. Bearing this in mind I thought I was watching it again tonight when a man started attacking another man with an iron (the kind you use on shirts). It was only when the police started to appear on rollerblades that I started to think that maybe this wasn't so avant garde afterall...

Overheard at the Tate Sunday...

Woman #1: What about Mr Whippy? Woman #2: Mr Whippy!! Woman #3: I hate Mr Whippy!

Scenes from a deli in South Kensington Saturday...

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19-04-2008 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Hmm... Nice camel toe...

Hot news this week in London...

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180420084784 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Apparently the French were to blame ... Easterly winds bringing their smelly cheese and their smelly dogs over the south east...

Overheard at Waterloo Station

Man on mobile: I wanna know who's been saying these things about me so I can sue their f----- pants off!

Hot news this week in London...

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WELCOME TO SUNNY SOUTH LONDON , originally uploaded by the_moog . It isn't true that all of South London is in the clutches of this... Just Crystal Meth Palace ...