Forbidden Broadway...

Last Friday night Stuart and I went to the Menier Chocolate Factory in London's not so glitzy London Bridge Quarter (sic.) to see musical satire Forbidden Broadway.

It's a show that has been running off-Broadway for well over 30 years putting new lyrics to songs from living musicals. This long-running hit is relentlessly, cleverly, breathtakingly funny. This is precision-engineered ridicule. I had tears rolling down my cheeks.

Despite never seeing the Irish musical Once, I loved Forbidden Broadway's vicious skit about it - and I'll be sure not to catch it.

There are numerous highlights - Les Mis comes in for a particularly vicious (and funny) attack as does Miss Saigon.

My fear that all in-jokes are thin jokes was utterly unfounded. The sparkling quartet of Anna-Jane Casey, Sophie-Louise Dann, Damian Humbley and Ben Lewis make this a most consistently funny show.

Go see before it closes.

Les Misérables (My Review)...

In a word the Les Misérables film was excellent. All the leads acted their socks off. Anne Hathaway particularly so (Oscar winning I imagine.) I burst into tears 7 times. The first occasion was at the ticket prices!

And let's get this out of the way, Russell Crowe singing isn't that bad actually. But expectations were low!

The strongest element in the production for me was the brave (and ultimately triumphant) live singing / close-up camera work. It was very effective. You could see every emotion playing across their 40ft high faces as they sang which really had you in the palm of their hands. You could almost see into their minds.

I thought Eddie Redmayne was fabulous. Empty Chairs and Empty Tables had me at the first line. He was convincing, handsome and tuneful. And Amanda Seyfried was a revelation. Never really rated her in stuff I'd seen her in before - especially Mamma Mia. But she really carried it off well. She sang beautifully, wasn't too coquettish, and above all carried off that love-at-first-sight thing that the love interest in musicals generally have to go through.

Samantha Barks as Éponine was good too. Had me in tears - twice.

But we do need to talk about Hugh Jackman. He was... er... well... 'good'. He acted well. But.. he did have a few duff lines in some of the songs and didn't quite carry off the part as I had hoped. I wanted a better singer I think. Our Hugh kept singing vibrato which was a tad annoying! Hold a note man!

Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham-Carter as les Thénardiers were great too. Funny, wicked and actually able to sing!

The producers could have so messed it up this film as many stage to film musical adaptations do (yes I'm looking at you Hair, Evita, Phantom et al) but they didn't. Faithful yet innovative.

If you do go take tissues. (And in this case it's not a euphemism - really take them!)

Les Misérables...

Last night Stu, Fay, Andy and I went to see Les Misérables at the Barbican Theatre. Oh, my giddy aunt - what a show! We are all big fans but nothing had quite prepared us for what we saw. It was breath-taking. We cried with joy and pain.
It was the brand new 25th anniversary production of Boublil and Schönberg's legendary musical with glorious new staging and spectacular reimagined scenery inspired by the paintings of Victor Hugo. The musical actually started out at the Barbican Theatre way back in 1985. And apparently this is the first time anywhere in the world that two productions of the same musical are playing in the same city.
Well we just loved it - from the moving (both senses) back-projection to the great set, from the fabulous acting to the great singing. There were show-stoppers aplenty (including one perhaps not on the running order).
We had great seats too! If you get a chance, go.