Ted Lasso Finale…

Ted Lasso finale. Everything Succession finale wasn’t (which I also loved); sweet, cheesy, emotional, and heart-warming. Fantastic. ❤️

Oh, and it has a fabulous musical number!

(Funnily enough Harriet Walter plays the main protagonist’s mother in both Succession & in TL!)

#TedLasso #HarrietWalter #Succession

Arsenal Matchday Programme : 28-05-23 - Final Game Of The Season

Arsenal 5-0 Wolves. ⚽️🔴⚪️

A fantastic last game of the season. We sang, we danced, we thought about what could have been. 

@Arsenal have had a fantastic year. We so nearly made it over the line against the City juggernaut. But who would have thought we were even in with a chance last summer. Upwards and upwards for next time. We go again. This time for the win #COYG

Arsenal Fan Poster…

So the @Arsenal fan poster is finally up. And I couldn’t be more thrilled. I feel honoured, flattered, excited, and proud. ❤️

Happy in My New @Arsenal Shirt…

Brokeback Mountain @SohoPlace "sexy, moving, and full of grace"

Last night Stuart and I went to see Brokeback Mountain at @SohoPlace in London's glitzy West End. Based on Annie Proulx's short story this version by Ashley Robinson was sexy, moving, and full of grace.

 

There were excellent performances by the two leads; Mike Faist as Jack and Lucas Hedges as Ennis, both making their West End stage debuts. However, the night went to Emily Fairn. Playing Ennis's wronged wife, her note perfect performance brought a lump to the throat and a tear to the eye.

 

The show was billed as a 'play with music' and indeed the action was interspersed with Eddi Reader (joined by her onstage Country and Western band) singing beautiful songs penned by Dan Gillespie Sells no less.

 

Of this version Proulx says, "Brokeback Mountain has been recreated in several different forms, each with its own distinctive moods and impact. Ashley’s script is fresh and deeply moving, opening sight lines not visible in the original nor successive treatments" And I couldn't have said it better myself.

 

A great opening production for this new theatre.

 

(Our only niggle was the building itself. It's all brand new - but the place is too tightly packed. The passages in and out of the spacious auditorium were too small, the staircases too narrow, the bars too short, and the facilities also too small.)

Bleak Expectations @ Criterion Theatre...

Dire. Avoid.

 

(Lovely to spend the evening with Steve though!)

Honoured to be in fan banner outside @EmiratesStadium @Arsenal

Really honoured to be one of the fans featured on this external stadium artwork (below ‘r’ of ‘Gooner!’) 🏳️‍🌈✊

The banner is going up now. Centre and right half going up today. I’m in the left half going up tomorrow. 

Luckily seems I won’t be obscured by the Emirates sign! 😂

Poor Myrtle. Panic in Paris…

My darling mother is in Paris visiting one of her sisters. She thought she’d missed her London train returning back from Paris just now (she hadn’t). She panicked. And got a little cross with the Eurostar Assist team for not getting her onboard on time.  Then I pointed out to her the times on the train ticket were actually local times and she was actually an hour early! Bless her. She apologised to everyone who would listen at Gard du Nord. Twice. 

She’s now safely on board. I’ll meet her at St Pancras and get her on her Welwyn train. 

Still, good to be doing the trip alone aged 86. Many wouldn’t. 👏

The Music of Zimmer vs Williams @ Royal Festival Hall…

Last Saturday afternoon Darce and I went to see The Music of Zimmer vs Williams at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s glitzy South Bank. 

Live music. Film music. 160 strong choir and orchestra. Cos play. Happy people. Oh, and a steak lunch 😂 Great fun. 

Alison Goldfrapp @ HERE at Outernet... @alison_goldfrapp

MLast night Simon, Darren, Stuart, I (and what seemed like a dangerously large number of other people) packed into the four-floor down underground 'let's not call it a firetrap' that is HERE at Outernet to watch the sublime Alison Goldfrapp perform her maiden album The Love Invention along with a bunch of up-tempo Goldfrapp tracks.

 

Alison was in fine form. The sound was great. The songs top notch. It's just the venue... the pushy crowd, the slow bar service, the poor sight lines, the chatting that left something to be desired. 

 

I suspect her gig at Somerset House in early July soon will be far superior.

 

Setlist

 

Hotel (Suite 23)

Love Invention

Believer (Goldfrapp song)

Digging Deeper

In Electric Blue

NeverStop

Number 1 (Goldfrapp song)

The Beat Divine

Impossible (Röyksopp cover)

Anymore (Goldfrapp song)

SLoFLo

Gatto Gelato

Strict Machine (Goldfrapp song)

Rocket (Goldfrapp song)

 

Encore:

So Hard So Hot

Ride a White Horse (Goldfrapp song)

Fever (This Is the Real Thing)

Fabulous Ted Lasso “La Locker Room Aux Folles” (Season 3, Episode 9) - they tackle coming out, homophobic abuse from the terraces - sensitively and with humour.

Popular streaming Apple TV show Ted Lasso (rightly) wins lots of awards. About a Premiership football team it’s funny and touching. It’s great in my humble opinion. 

In their recent episode “La Locker Room Aux Folles” (Season 3, Episode 9) they tackle homophobic abuse from home fans on the terraces during a Brighton game, a fan being expelled, and a gay premiership player coming out to his team. It’s sensitively handled and I’m sure an eye opener for many of the global audience.

Animal @ Park Theatre “it's great. It's full of vim, zip, pep, and w*nking”

Occasionally something comes along that you think might be one thing, but actually takes you somewhere unexpected. And looking back you perhaps knew that's where is was going all the time.

 

Animal is a play about sex. And it's great. It's full of vim, zip, pep, and wanking. And it's very funny. And Kevin, Roger, and I went to see it last night at the Park Theatre in London's glitzy Finsbury Park.

 

David (Christopher John-Slater) is a horny disabled 25-year old gay man looking to lose his virginity with all the associated challenges that come with that - the personal, the practical, and inevitably the prejudicial. 

 

OK, I say ‘disabled’ but David puts it better...

 

David: "I don’t have a disability" 

His date: "That’s the spirit!"

David: "No. I don’t have a disability. I have a medical condition. I have cerebral palsy."

 

Playwright Jon Bradfield (with a story co-created with Josh Hepple, who has cerebral palsy) sets out his stall well. This new play covers a lot of serious subjects; virtue signalling, accessibility issues, conscious and unconscious bias, informed consent, body dysmorphia. But ultimately, it's a play about getting your end away complete with lots of knob gags. 

 

David lives with his generous, caring flatmate Jill (Amy Loughton) and is assisted by an optimistic, struggling actor called Derek (Matt Ayleigh). And we meet a cast of other flamboyant, funny, and downright sexy characters as the action progresses.

 

What David lacks in conventional mobility he makes up for in better-than-average dick pics. So Animal begins by following him as he negotiates the unforgiving and relentless world of app dating.

 

Disregard all your assumptions about what such a play might entail. The combination of Bradfield’s propulsive, fat-free dialogue and Slater-John’s brooding, hormone-charged performance ensure that Animal never drags, preaches or befuddles. Yes, it’s hard-hitting, but Bronagh Lagan's lively production feels more like a feature-length, live episode of an award-winning sitcom. A really good one at that.

 

And that unexpected turn? Well in the second act David starts to behave like a bit of a dick. He messes up, crosses a line or two, he gets over-keen, makes a ton of bad choices, can't apologise, and throws his toys out of the pram. That is to say, it is the behaviour of anyone new of the dating scene. So perhaps not so unexpected after all.

 

Gregor Donnelly's set does exactly what you want it to do. It's simple and highlights the drama with a satisfying amount of eye-catching pizzazz while never diminishing the work done by the cast. Among the supporting players, Loughton deserves significant praise for her arrestingly dignified portrayal of Jill. A performer of obvious strength and versatility, Loughton turns a character that could have felt cypher-ish into an undeniable moral linchpin.

 

If the above sounds appealing, I urge you to go and check out this punchy play. It closes this Saturday.

 

In a world that’s increasingly held static by the stultifying effects of identity politics, it’s marvellous to find something that deals with so many 'Big' and 'Important' themes in such a breezy, confident, and funny way.

 

Best line? Jill is about to leave David for the weekend and go on hen do.

 

Jill: "It’s a hen. All women. Oh, and one gay guy. He’s meant to be the 'live and soul of the party'. So, you know he’ll be utterly insufferable" :-)

Liverpool Cathedral...

It wasn't all Eurovision craziness in glitzy Liverpool last week. Tim, Andy, Stuart and I actually found some time to sightsee!

 

So last Friday - in-between all the dancing, singing, and all the general mucking about - we went to take a look at the enormous Liverpool Cathedral - and climbed up to the roof. Two lifts and 108 stairs.

 

The building is huge - it's the largest cathedral and religious building in Britain, and the eighth largest church in the world.

 

Fab views from the top. Recommended if you're in that neck of the woods.