At the Wigmore Hall, a delightful concert of songs by Vaughan Williams and Ivor Gurney with tenor Allan Clayton, the Navarra Quartet and pianist Julius Drake proved to be the best of the three in the series commemorating 50 years since the death of Vaughan Williams. Gurney is so neglected and I’d only just realised [...]
Archive for December, 2008
The Rest of December
Posted in Classical Music, Contemporary Music, tagged Classical Music, Contemporary Music on December 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
August : Osage County
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on December 31, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Sam Shepherd and David Mamet have both produced modern American plays about dysfunctional families, but both in a minimalist way rather than with the dramatic sweep of Tennessee Williams or Eugene O’Neill like this.
It’s humour is very dark and at times it veres too far into melodramatic implausibility, but it’s a proper play (my usual hobbyhorse!) [...]
Christmas in Florence
Posted in Architecture, Art, Food & Wine, Travel, tagged Architecture, Art, Food & Wine, Travel on December 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve got to like avoiding the excesses of a British Christmas and this was the 8th escape in the last nine years; the third to Italy. After a very busy two months, the sleep, fresh air and walking were particularly welcome (not that the food and drink were exactly unwelcome!).
I’d only been to Florence once before, [...]
Putting It Together
Posted in Contemporary Music, Theatre, tagged Contemporary Music, Theatre on December 19, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Another Sondheim compilation show, but one we haven’t seen on these shores before.
Culled largely from Merrily, Follies and rarities from the movie Dick Tracy with a smattering of Night Music, Sunday, Frogs, Forum, Company and others; this is a good selection.
Any professional company would be proud of this amateur production where the musical standards are [...]
Wig Out!
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on December 16, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A ‘play’ about the black drag house culture of Harlem!
The transformation of the Royal Court into a catwalk venue is a success. The idea and subject matter is both original and intriguing. The execution is outstanding, with some fine performances.
But it’s a ’slice of life’ rather than a play and it all just doesn’t add [...]
In A Dark Dark House
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on December 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I never leave a Neil LaBute play feeling I’ve wasted an evening, but I never leave feeling satisfied either – and so it proves again here.
Great performances, surreal set, a few intersting ideas and some good dialogue…..but a play that doesn’t really go anywhere and takes an uninterrupted 110 minutes not to get there.
Sam Shepherd [...]
Maria Friedman Rearranged
Posted in Contemporary Music, Theatre, tagged Contemporary Music, Theatre on December 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Trafalgar Studio I doesn’t have the intimacy of the Menier Chocolate Factory (where this was first seen) and the steep rake makes it particularly challenging for this type of show, but when you’ve got the greatest interpreter of songs from musicals and a magnificnet
11-piece band, you can overcome anything.
I preferred this (shorter) selection [...]
Sunset Boulevard
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on December 7, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
By the interval, I’d decided the Watermill Newbury’s trademark actors-doubling-up-as-musicians approach was just too small scale for a show that’s all about Hollywood stardom; it certainly doesn’t work as well scaled up to a West End theatre as it did with Sweeny Todd & Mack & Mabel.
It improved in the second half, where the stylised [...]
A Little Night Music
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on December 6, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
I’ve always thought Follies and this are Sondheim’s most accessible but least inventive shows.
This benefits from a chamber staging and the musical standards are simply stunning, showing off the great if conventional songs.
Maureen Lipman does a great turn and Alexander Hanson, after The Sound of Music & Marguerite, continues his run of excellent musical performances. As [...]
Poppy
Posted in Theatre, tagged Theatre on December 5, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
This Peter Nichols show from 1982 got a rare staging at RADA, so we had to go! I saw the first production twice and the only revival I’m aware of at the Half Moon in Stepney Green 10-15 years later.
It’s a musical satire on colonialism, and in particular the poppy wars, in a form popular [...]
