Di and Viv and Rose...

Last night Stuart and I went to see Di and Viv and Rose at The Vaudeville Theatre.

The play tells the story of three eighteen year old friends - Di (Tamzin Outhwaite), Viv (Samantha Spiro) and Rose (Jenna Russell).

The women meet at university and Amelia Bullmore’s popular play follows the next 30 or so years of their lives, loves, ups and downs as friends. It's funny, moving and fantastically acted.

This brilliantly directed production deserves many accolades - not least to its actual director Anna Mackmin.

Go see.

Sweet Charity...

Last November Stu and I went to a preview of Sweet Charity at the Menier Chocolate Factory and had felt at the time that a West End transfer would be coming. Sure enough, last night Paul, Allegra, Suzie and I went to see the show at the Theatre Royal Haymarket.

The transfer itself wasn't a surprise as the creative team behind this show has propelled Little Shop of Horrors and La Cage aux Folles in the same direction.

So did it travel well across the river? You betcha.

The show follows the misadventures of love encountered by the gullible and guileless Charity Hope Valentine, a dancer at a dance hall called the Fandango Ballroom in New York City, who always gives her heart and her dreams to the wrong man. Again and again.

And it was just a great production. Tamzin Outhwaite made a simply superb Charity - she can sing, she can dance (and I guess we knew this already) she can act. The rest of the cast were spot on too. Bob Fosse would have been proud. It was funny, entertaining and energetic. As at the Menier, the staging was simple but affective.

Best songs of the night: I Love To Cry At Weddings, Big Spender, If My Friends Could See Me Now and There's Gotta Be Something Better Than This.

Highpoint of the night: The Rhythm Of Life

Go see.