Quote Of The Day

"Victory goes to the player who makes the next-to-last mistake - Chessmaster Savielly Grigorievitch Tartakower (1887-1956)"

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Monday, February 24, 2014

Tell Me On A Sunday...

On Friday night Stuart and I went to see Tell Me On A Sunday at the Duchess Theatre in London's glitzy West End Theatreland.

Starring Marti Webb as 'the girl' she took us bath back 35 years to when it all began - to a zoo, that's got chimpanzees...

Tell Me on a Sunday is a musical with music by Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyrics by Don Black. A one-act song cycle, it tells the story of an ordinary English girl from Muswell Hill, who journeys to the United States in search of love. Her romantic misadventures begin in New York City, lead her to Hollywood, and eventually take her back to Manhattan.

Starting the show with the show-stopper Take That Look Off Your Face we knew we were in for a treat. Marti had lost little of her magnificent voice. As she gamboled through the other songs the memories all came flooding back... I'm Very You, You're Very Me... Come Back with the Same Look in Your Eyes... You Made Me Think You Were in Love...

The show is very short though. Forty-five plus encore meant fifty-five minutes after taking our seats we were back out on the street again. In previous revivals they have had a 2nd half of dancing - Song and Dance starring Wayne Sleep. This time round we didn't particularly miss the lack of Sleep.

So all in all it was a  fun, albeit short, night of nostalgia. As Stuart mentioned to me on the way out she's botoxed to buggery. So ironically she won't be taking that look off her face anytime soon!




Friday, February 21, 2014

A Taste Of Honey...

Last night Stuart and I went to see A Taste Of Honey at the Lyttelton Theatre, part of the National Theatre, on London's glitzy South Bank.

Written by Shelagh Delaney when she was nineteen, A Taste of Honey is one of the great defining and taboo-breaking plays of the 1950s.

The production was a delight - coarse, fun and funny.

When her mother Helen (Lesley Sharp) runs off with a car salesman, feisty teenager Jo (Kate O'Flynn) takes up with a black sailor who promises to marry her, before he heads for the seas, leaving her pregnant and alone. Gay art student Geoff moves in and assumes the role of surrogate parent until, misguidedly, he sends for Helen and their unconventional setup unravels.

A Taste of Honey offers an explosive celebration of the vulnerabilities and strengths of the female spirit in a deprived and restless world. Bursting with energy and daring, this exhilarating and angry depiction of harsh, working-class life in post-war Salford is shot through with love and humour, and infused with jazz.

"We don’t ask for life, we have it thrust upon us."

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Brushing...

While at the dentist last week I got to thinking. If I brushed my teeth as thoroughly every day as I did before going there, I probably wouldn't need to be going there.

Monday, February 17, 2014

Staines...

I was flashed by a speed camera going through Staines Upon Thames today. Don't know why... I was only doing 30 knots.

Friday, February 14, 2014

Valentine's Day...

I asked Stuart if he fancied going away for Valentine's Day.
He took it surprisingly well.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Friday, February 07, 2014

Peter Grimes...

Last night Stuart and I went to see Benjy Britten's opera Peter Grimes performed by the English National Opera. Having seen it put on a few years ago at The Royal Opera House it was interesting to see this production at the London Colesium.

Sadly it wasn't as good. Not least because the lead actor was ill. His understudy was ill. The lead lady was ill. And her understudy was ill too. So with the entire A team ill and the entire B team ill too we got some (admittedly excellent) stand-ins to make up the C team. Not a good start.

The orchestra was fine and the singing good but the production was only OK - bonkers in places and slightly overblown - it just never really engaged. We didn't really care what Peter Grimes did, or didn't do.

It didn't help that the auditorium was boiling hot and the long ponderous pauses did little to keep a few people near us from nodding off. The overlong three and half hour running time could have been snipped a bit.

Thursday, February 06, 2014

Wednesday, February 05, 2014

Tube Strike Day 1...

Few tube trains running today so getting bus to work. Treating it as an adventure.
"Back seat! Back seat!" ‪#‎tubestrike‬

Tuesday, February 04, 2014

Arsenal vs. Crystal Palace...

We beat Crystal Palace 2 - 0 at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. It was a fun game and nice to be able to take the lovely Chewie Baron along for the first time. Although he's a Manchester United fan at heart his 'London team' is Arsenal and he was soon singing along with all the songs. I'll get him to see the error of his ways soon enough!

Monday, February 03, 2014

American Psycho...

On Friday night Stuart and I went to to see American Psycho The Musical at the Almeida Theatre in London's trendy Islington.

Based on the controversial 1991 novel American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis the tale is set in Manhattan during the Wall Street boom of the late 1980s, We follow the daily life of wealthy young investment banker Patrick Bateman whose thoughts turn to murder.

Matt Smith (yes, him) plays Bateman with a suitably (and suited) devilish charm. He can't perhaps hold a tune to quite the same high standard as his colleagues but that aside he carries the day.

The musical perhaps arches its eyebrow rather more than either the book or the film in that it plays it for laughs. But we like a show when the black humour is as dark as the blood is red.

A bevy of original songs are accompanied by a string of 1980s hits; Hip to Be Square, Don't You Want Me, Everybody Wants to Rule the World, True Faith and In the Air Tonight.

If it gets a West End transfer (which is rightly deserves) you should get ticket.