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Two Ladies: La Bella Bimba at Barons Court Theatre / Canal Cafe Theatre

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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...

Overheard in SW9 on the weekend...

Woman on phone (with handsfree): Wellaaavebincallinyou... Wellaahdon'givafuck...

Scenes from Hyde Park Saturday afternoon

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Picture 364 , originally uploaded by Paul-in-London . Well, people should try something new on sunny days...

Scenes from rehearsal

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Crap flower arrangement 101 was beforehand... Posted via email from paulinlondon's posterous

Hot news this week in London...

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Boy Of 13 Becomes a Dad , originally uploaded by LinkMachineGo . East Sussex is pretty grim , But it may not be so grim after all... The boy may not be the father as the girl may have been the town bike ...

Theatre: On The Waterfront

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If there was too much sex on stage at the opera on Tuesday, there didn't seem enough of it on Wednesday in this engaging stage adaptation of On The Waterfront at the Theatre Royal Haymarket. There is a lot of excitement and dramatic tension in this tight production directed by Steven Berkoff ... Assuming you overlook some unintentionally hilarious moments such as when the actors play pigeons (the effect is funnier than the scenes of singing birds in The Producers ). But with all that tension and bitterness, I thought perhaps a bit of roughing up of the actors could have helped. Well at least in the climatic fight scene, it would have been nice to see Simon Merells (who plays the Brando character), have some of his clothes ripped off... Alas it wasn't meant to be. Still there is enough violence implied in this shadowy story of corruption and mob violence on the New Jersey docks in the 1950s. Berkhoff sees the story as relevant for any age. Whatever the case is, it is a great...

Opera: Rigoletto

Tuesday night I found myself watching full frontal nudity and simulated sex at the Royal Opera House during the opening few minutes of Rigoletto . Now normally I would not have such a problem with seeing this, but I found myself preoccupied trying to work out if the actress having sex with a reasonably endowed actor had a Brazilian or a French. After much checking... It was definitely French. By the time the first act closed, I was distracted so much that I had to read the synopsis to work out what happened. It is a pity that this production (which has only been around since 2001) seems now to be full of distractions, but the performances made up for it. The last few operas I had caught had singers that were at times a bit suspect - both vocally and in the acting department - but this was not the case on Tuesday night. The audience reserved its most cheers for Leo Nucci in the title role. Rigoletto is a great story as well so there is so much going for this production... Even if on Tu...

scenes from around haymarket Wednesday evening

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...or maybe not... Posted via email from paulinlondon's posterous

scenes from a rehearsal

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A random helium balloon... Posted via email from paulinlondon's posterous