Sista Blog

From a traditional play to something a little less traditional but no less entertaining. The Boom Boom Club is a cabaret show that is hosted in The Bath House. Finding the venue was an adventure in itself. Jo, James, Lana, Mikey and I must have circled the streets of Liverpool street a few times before we finally found the entry. We’d missed it because it was this small little almost booth at the top of some stairs that lead to the real thing.

Upon descending the stairs you’re met by a dark, but not dingy, area. The stage is quite small so the venue is very intimate. We started off with some dinner (pizza and a beer) before taking our seats for the show. Though the show is scheduled to start at 9pm its pretty informal and runs to its own schedule. Seating is unreserved and there is space for about 20 or so people to sit so if you want to sit you’re advised to get in and grab a spot. However, the venue is small enough that you could easily stand around to see the show easily. The other patrons of the show seemed happy to stand and watch. In fact, from the comments I could gather from around me, they all seemed to be regular visitors, all seeming to know each other or the acts at least.

As a cabaret you get a mix of all sorts of acts to support the headline burlesque dancing of Miss Vicky Butterfly. The acts change every week so you never know what you can get. Tonight we had the strange gyrations of Agent Lynch (another burlesque dancer), to the comedic sensations of Sarah-Louise Young (after the compere I thought she was the best act of the night), to Tom Baker – both of whose acts totally confounded me. At one stage he donned this alien/sea creature outfit and sung some sort of ditty. It had most of the audience giggling and joining in but I just didn’t get it.

The absolute stand-out of the night however was Dusty Limits. This singer comedian was perfect as the MC for the night – he had perfect timing, great improvisation skills and was just overall entertaining. Loved him and I’d come back just to get more of him! (Not THAT way – I suspect he’s not available for us ladies )

Don’t you just love wallpaper in the toilets:

It was an interesting show though less “skin” was shown than I was expecting. All pertinent bits and pieces are kept safely under guard though there is a risk of a wardrobe malfunction which nearly happened tonight. heh heh.

We witnessed some theatre magic tonight.

Cat On A Hot Tin Roof is a transfer to the West End from Broadway and after tonight’s performance I could understand why it was a sold-out run. This play by Tennessee Williams is the story of a Southern family delivered with a twist – an all black cast. The play is told over the course of one evening and focuses on the rocky marriage between Brick and Maggie and their interaction with his family. Supposedly the family has gathered to celebrate his Brick’s dad’s birthday however they are hiding a big secret – that he is dying of cancer. In the mean time relatives scramble around trying to ingratiate themselves with Big Daddy.

Five great names: James Earl Jones, Phylicia Rashad, Adrian Lester and Sanaa Lathan play Big Daddy, Big Mama, Brick and Maggie respectively and Debbie Allen, you may recognise her from Fame, directs. What an awesome formula and it produced a great result.

From the outset you are drawn into the drama of Brick, the former college football player now alcoholic, and Maggie, his frustrated and beautiful wife, fighting against the memory of Brick’s dead (male) best friend. Add to this element the rest of the cast, including the age-old father-son conflict, the tension with his own brother and greedy sister-in-law, and the loneliness of his mother it all makes for a rather moody but moving few hours.

Cast-wise though everyone delivered their characters perfectly – I loved James Earl Jones. He was by far and away the star of the show though Sanaa Lathan was not too far behind him. As soon as Jones hit the stage it was like – wow – that’s some stage presence. He hasn’t lost any of his mojo that’s of sure.

Rache and I really had idea what to expect from this show. For a start we didn’t expect that it would be a one-man show. Impressively, however, that didn’t stop Arturo from delivering what was a charming and engaging show because in fact we must have seen easily hundreds of “cast members.” What do I mean by this? Well, a quick-change artist is literally that: an artist who can change his or her clothes (and consequently character) rather … well … quickly. For example, in the space of about ten seconds and with the use of a disc shaped object he was able to create ten different characters. It was amazing and something to be witnessed first-hand.

That’s not to say it was 80 minutes watching Arturo changing from one costume to another. Spun into the background of this talent is his story which takes us from his current self, to you his younger self, to his older self and all around. For this he takes advantage of a lot of hi-tech stuff – all seemingly contained in this giant box which rotates around on stage and also with the aid of multi-media projects. Its almost indescribable.

Next to his quick changing skills he also demonstrates his hand at being a magician, his puppetry skills, his comedic skills, his story-telling skills and even his skills as a ventriloquist (I suspect it was harder for me to work out the spelling than for Arturo to throw his voice …). Its clear that this is an act that means a lot to him and it showed in every energetic presentation he brought to the stage.

The whole show went so quickly its difficult to remember everything he did. The first thing I recall is that there is a splash zone. So consider yourself warned!

One of the pieces involved his moving through the seasons: autumn, winter, sprint and summer. Another, and favourite of mine, was when he did finger puppetry on to the back wall. Simple but the shapes he formed, like this really cool elephant, were very imaginative. The Hollywood scene where he morphed into one Hollywood legend, such as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, into another, King Kong. Featured also are characters from Star Wars, Jaws, Titanic, Lord of the Rings, E.T, Shrek, Bond movies, Spiderman and Harry Potter even dropped in. The soundtrack was very good in particular for this part of the performance.

All of the whole show revolved around Arturo’s character being nervous about the “final transformation” and as such it was a little self-indulgent. Sadly too such a big deal is made of the “final transformation” that when the time comes for it, and I won’t ruin it too much, I could note nothing too remarkable about it though it was moving and beautiful to see.

It was a truly remarkable show and if there is one thing that really grated on me about the show, and Rache agrees with me, was the fact that we spent the entire show trying to work out how he managed his tricks – and we are still none the wiser. Damn! LOL.

A fabulous and unique show.

Rache has been trying to organise a group outing to Stomp for some months now but something has always gotten in the way like lastminute losing the booking, dates clashing, tickets not being available etc. but finally we made it. Our tickets were in the nosebleed section but we still felt like we were part of the action. In fact any closer and I think I would have come away with a really big headache from the noise.

And Stomp is certainly noisy but in a good way.

Stomp is a dance group whose signature move so to speak is to use the body and objects to create a musical and rhythmic performance. Starting in Brighton nearly 20 years ago Stomp has toured all over the world and spawned numerous productions. I could understand the success having witnessed tonight’s show. It’s the type of performance that can be universally enjoyed. You don’t have to try to understand anything and in fact there is hardly any speaking to even listen to so all you have to do as an audience member is to sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

Stomp is composed of a series of pieces innovatively using all sorts of ordinary items including brooms, buckets, chairs, inner tubes, garbage pails, dust, poles, rubber tubes (not just rhythm but also musical tones), voices and even kitchen sink (or three!) There was also matchboxes, lighters, rubbish, and plastic bags. Somehow it all worked though I don’t know how.

There is high energy throughout with some crowd involvement, humour, and jumping all around the stage. Impressively no one person had a specialty and they all seemed to be able to pick up the rhythm and movement as required (though the really hot black acrobatic guy and the dance leader did have special roles.)

Though Stomp for the most part is an explosion of sound the ability of the cast to modulate the sound levels is pretty remarkable. But it wasn’t just sound – it was a very physical performance with things being slid across the stage, people sliding across the stage, items being thrown from one person to the next. The perfect sense of timing was astonishing to witness.

If there was one negative to Stomp it was that despite the ingenious use of items and the great physical aspect of the pieces each set had a sort of sameness to the performance. Its not that it all looked or sounded the same but there was an almost monotony to the show as we moved from one piece to another. Normally there will be a natural break – in musicals it will be a bit of speaking, in plays a scene change etc.

Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable show and great for a night out.

Straight from the airport to the Royal Albert Hall I met up with Rache to attend the Women of Rock concert. The concert was being held in support of the annual PINKTOBER program to raise money for breast cancer research. This year’s recipient was the Caron Keating Foundation. With a giant cast of performers we were very surprised to find that the Hall wasn’t full at all. We were seated in the upper circle but usher came along to ask if we wanted to upgrade our seats. We decided to stick to our seats as we had the “front” row so wouldn’t have anyone in front of us to block the view.

Performers and presented tonight included Jamelia, Gloria Hunniford, Nerina Pallot, Zoe Lucker, Bananarama, Vanessa Phelps, N – Dubz, Lilia Kopolova, Escala, Kate Thornton, the Cast of Mamma Mia, Caprice, Joss Stone, Melinda Messenger, Carrie Ellis, Janet Ellis, Sharon Corr, Angela Rippon, Mel C, Hamish Dodd, and of course the legendary Bonnie Tyler.

It was a fantastic night. Great performances especially from Joss Stone (she performed with no shoes!) and Mel C. Bonnie Tyler was a bit rought at first but soon hit her stride. Escala were dramatic and Jamelia brought it – what a hot outfit, what nice legs!

Photos from the red carpet:

Photos from the performance:

The 2003 film of the same name brought to the main stream attention the story of a group of Yorkshire women who produced a calendar to raise money for cancer research. The reason it generated so much interest was the fact that these ordinary middle-aged non-model women posed naked for the calendar! The film has many awards … I’ve never seen it but I’m really hoping the film was more engaging than the stage production.

That’s right – I was a little bored by the play. I thought I was being a little insensitive to the subject matter but apparently I wasn’t the only one that thought that – all of us who saw it tonight agreed!

However that’s not to take away from any of the actresses (including Jerry Hall, Jill Halfpenny, Jill Baker, Anita Dobson, Sara Crowe, June Brown and Gemma Atkinson in tonight’s incarnation) and actors on stage. Lines were beautifully delivered, characterisations were spot on and the posing for the calendar was handled very professionally. I just can’t understand what it was about the play that failed to engage me – maybe it was just too sad and sentimental? I think it was wondering throughout the whole production how the on-stage presentation differed from the movie and also thinking why did they bother?

I love the dancing performances at the Peacock Theatre so I thought I’d introduce Rita and Rache to something a little different. Insane in the Brain is the title of the dance unit Bounce’s interpretation of a hip hop version of the classic story “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” The story, set in a mental asylum, and its characters provide a rich backdrop for a number of creative interpretative pieces. It was so popular it came around the first time last year that it was back at the Peacock Theatre for another telling.

Bonce is a dance collective recently responsible for a Michael Jackson tribute in Stockholm. You can catch it here:

Its pretty cool!

But back to Insane in the Brain. The show opens with five dancers who are identity-less but for the white masks on their faces. Playing with our perceptions the dancers deliver a number that has them presenting their backs as their fronts and their fronts as their backs. This way we are slowly introduced to the mental hospital and its inmates who are struggling to find a way to rebel against the mean head Nurse Ratched and her crew of “heavies.” Entering the scene is a man who has faked insanity to escape a prison term and after this the hospital is never the same again.

The show is a bit hit and miss but mainly hit. And when the dance numbers hit you will be amazed and impressed. Not only are the cast supremely talented but the pieces, choreography and use of the set, are innovative, brilliant and great fun.

It would be difficult to explain the dance pieces but they ranged from what appeared to be a simple set up but actually required an amazing amount of skill and concentration – people in their bed dancing but the moves required and muscle control and strength required to keep the timing right and energy up must have bee incredible – to innovate use of the set – such as the dancing down a leaning wall and nearly falling to their faces on the ground. For example, for most of this last dance the dancers were practically 90 degrees to the ground! There was another dance piece which involved a guy dancing on crutches, there was a bollywood scene, there was this amazing rock and roll segment which was WAY loud but high impact. The dancers at one stage even “escaped” into the audience to “watch a film”. The film was one of the misses of the show I thought. Although it was cool to see the dancing on the film it went on for way too long.

Over all Insane in the Brain was entertaining and worth the ticket entry. Fantastic soundtrack too!

I’m not going to pretend that I came to see Naked Boys Singing for any reason other than what it says on the box – to see nekkid boys … singing! Heh heh. Naked Boys Singing has been a huge off-Broadway hit in New York (apparently its into its 10th year now) and even spawned a movie in 2007 (though I don’t know recall it being publicised much.) I can’t recall exactly when it was brought across to London but it started with a run at the Kings’ Head theatre in Islington and then was transferred to the West End after apparent success.

Unlike the New York version the London version of Naked Boys Singing does not feature naked boys in the show from the get go. All the boys start the show fully clothed and, except for some moments of shirt lifting or shirtless-ness, they remain so until about 50 minutes into the show and then all is revealed and I mean ALL. The show lasts about 70-75 minutes and I’m actually glad that they weren’t naked for the whole show because actually it was more than just about gratuitous nudity, despite the cheeky opening number. I’m not sure how much I would have absorbed if the flesh was revealed early on because, and I can admit it, after the great reveal I did lose my concentration and train of thought for about five minutes so I have no idea what was sung or said in that five minutes (I couldn’t help it – the boys had such different “talents” …) but a while I got the hang of being able to watch AND listen again

Nudity aside I truly enjoyed the musical. It was smart, funny, had engaging show tunes (loved “Nothing But The Radio On” and characters you could genuinely like. For the most part the performances were very engaging and remember at this stage they still had their kit on. The musical starts off with an audition process, then rehearsal, then finally the great reveal. Through the rehearsal we hear the stories of how they all come to like being naked – whether it was the “naked maid”, the Jewish boy who loved the thrill of the brisk, the porn star, or the boy trying to attract his neighbour all stories were witty and fun to listen to. There were five core characters plus the Stage Manager running the auditions and the Piano Player. One of the more moving moments was the romantic piece about the boy getting his man as represented by a ballet piece which required another two of the cast to get very up close and personal.

The show could have been awkward but the clearly the cast are very close-knit and extremely professional so they handled it, so to speak, quite well.

Quite a charming show though note the audience is likely to be 90% male, 5% hen night and 5% random curious others, like Rache and I.

So earlier this week Rache tried to get us standby ticket to Hamlet at the Donmar but it proved too popular and we missed out. This time she got there for 7.45am! over an hour earlier than on Tuesday. She STILL wasn’t the first person in line! Two friends of Rache’s were also supposed to turn up to get tickets (each person can get a maximum of six tickets and there were five of us planning to go) but they never did. Rache did some fast talking and managed to get a person in the line to nap an extra ticket so she had three in total. Thankfully that meant that Rita and I could go along with Rache.

Hamlet, the season, at the Donmar has I think been sold out for quite a while and with a draw card such as Jude Law its no wonder. The tickets we were going for, there are about 30 released every day, are literally standing tickets with about ten in the Stalls and twenty Upper Circle which is where we ended up. To say that to stand for over three hours was going to be tough work was a bit of an understatement.

This is the view that we had:

Actually, it wasn’t too bad in the end. Yes it was a bit uncomfortable to be standing for the whole play (shoes came off within about ten minutes of the play starting) and yes the people in the back row of the upper circle could get in the way but there is actually a freedom to be standing. It was kind of cool.

As for the play itself – let me just say that I was sooooo glad that I read a cliff note’s version of Hamlet to refresh myself on the story. The language of Shakespeare is not exactly something I read or listen to everyday and so takes absolute concentration on my part to keep up. I did find myself drifting off now and then during the play but luckily it didn’t interrupt the feel or flow of the play at all. It was a very good production but mostly I was impressed with Jude Law. He was absolutely amazing. I think it was because he absolutely threw himself into the role – physically and emotionally. As a result he kind of outshone the other actors but I forgive him that.

Utterly charmed.

A big giant tent, or two (one for the bar), sits in Kensington Gardens this summer to host a new stage production of Peter Pan. I’ve never really thought about why there’s a bronze Peter Pan statue in Hyde Park. Apparently it was gifted to the park by J.M. Barrie who wrote Peter Pan, inspired by his relationship with a family that began in Kensington Gardens. And now the circle is complete with the production of Peter Pan.

First the positive points. The theatre itself is cool, very cool. The stage is in the round so the audience sit pretty much all the away around it like a traditional circus. However, also wrapping around the upper half of the tent is a 360 degree screen on to which is projected the relevant background scene whether it’s the sky as the kids and Peter fly off to Neverland over London (truly spectacular), or the water as they sink to the depths of the ocean or the greenery of the jungle in Neverland. With the circus-theme to the tent there is also lots of acrobatics as the cast bounce up and around the tent.

My favourite cast member? The puppet dude especially his crocodile (remember the one with the clock as its heart and who eats Captain Hook’s arm) and the dog. Hilarious.

The negatives. Unfortunately, overall Peter Pan the play was a bit disappointing. I felt like it was filled with amateurish, obnoxious acting characters none of whom I felt any sympathy for. Maybe the only character I could feel any sympathy for was Captain Hook – and he’s supposed to be the bad guy. The opening scene, where Peter Pan is supposed to inspire the kids to fly with him to Neverland, was just a yawn-fest. After that at least it
became a bit more animated with the screen, changes of scenery and more flowing characters and, of course, the crocodile.

In addition to truly unlikable characters the story line felt quite bleak and nearly black. I’ve not read the original story by J.M. Barrie but if this production was a direct interpretation then it’s definitely not a story for kids. I found it a little hard to follow and felt it bordered on some very adult topics. The worst character was Tinkerbell who was a real b!tch I’m sorry to say, and Wendy and Peter weren’t exactly lovable either. In fact it was the relationship between Wendy and Peter which bordered on uncomfortable and weird. Then there was Tiger Lily – what the heck was up with that sexy dance she did for Peter – even Peter Pan looked perplexed!

For all the technology put into the tent it was surprising that the sound got lost a lot up in the tent ceiling so we didn’t always hear everything. It also didn’t help that there was a festival/concert going on nearby.

Did I hate it? No – that seems a bit extreme but I’m not really sure I could say that I particularly liked it either. Still, if you can find discount tickets, the theatre itself and the 360 degree screen is pretty cool.