Musicals and Other Shows

[IceMaiden]

I remember watching the Sound of Music Live when it aired a few years back. It wasn't bad but I'm afraid Julie Andrews is that film to me, nobody else can or will ever come even halfway close .

[Anita Bensoussane]

Just watched Hairspray Live! which was great fun and had me tapping my feet.

https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-the ... 51655.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Anita Bensoussane]

The other day I watched the musical The Hired Man (the 2019 Queen's Theatre Hornchurch, Hull Truck Theatre and Oldham Coliseum Theatre production) which is currently being streamed on YouTube. There's a link below but I think it's being taken off tonight or tomorrow, unfortunately. A gentle but interesting and very watchable story of farming and mining folk in Cumbria in the late 1800s - early 1900s. The music got into my head immediately and I found myself singing snatches of it afterwards. It's really lively and folksy, full of rhythm and harmony, and I've got the show playing in the background now just to enjoy hearing it again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwTOX_At62Y" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Anita Bensoussane]

Has anyone else watched any more of the free theatre shows that have been made available online in recent months? Two of the best for me were the musicals Falsettos and The Grinning Man, which I've watched over the last few days. I saw both on stage in London with Tony and it was fabulous to have the chance to view them again online.

Falsettos (the Broadway production) was only up for 48 hours and has now been taken off but I managed to catch it and I'm glad I did. The show deals with emotional upheaval in a Jewish family in the late 1970s - early 1980s and the songs are catchy, the staging is simple but interesting and the story is delivered with panache, humour and pathos.

The Grinning Man is available until 6 pm on Friday (link below if anyone is interested). It's a phenomenal show in my opinion, being a quite complex folk-tale which explores the grotesque and the exquisite. The main character is a man with a disfigured face but it's a rich story with many strands and the production is stunning, with colourful costumes and clever use of puppetry As for the music, it's haunting. A real feast for the eyes, ears and mind. The plot is based on The Man Who Laughs by Victor Hugo. Les Misérables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame by the same author have also been turned into musicals, of course.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqdjO3UUU3k" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Anne Gracie]

Just watched Hairspray Live! which was great fun and had me tapping my feet.
https://www.whatsonstage.com/london-the ... 51655.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Me too Anita! I’ve never bothered with it before, but that was so captivating right from the start! Now I have downloaded the album and will watch the DVD movie version as well.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I haven't seen the film of Hairspray yet either, Anne Gracie.

I recommended The Grinning Man to my daughter and son. My daughter watched it last night with her three housemates and they all thoroughly enjoyed it. I meant to say that when I saw it in London there were a number of actors who had been in the Bristol cast (shown online) and I was particularly impressed with Louis Maskell, who played the 'Grinning Man', and Julian Bleach, who played Barkilphedro. Louis Maskell can be seen here, singing a song ('Labyrinth') from the show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiDBheSXrUM" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Wayne Pyer]

I liked that a lot Anita. Really want to see it now.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Hope you get the chance to watch it, Wayne.

[Anita Bensoussane]

This afternoon I watched the play of The Railway Children, which is available on YouTube until about 2 pm on Tuesday. It's the York production, but several of us from the Enid Blyton Society saw the same show in November 2010 when it was on at Waterloo Station. I'd prefer to see a version with Bobbie, Peter and Phyllis played by children rather than young adults, but it's a cleverly-staged show nevertheless and watching it brought back happy memories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwLyo1ktDPs" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lucky Star]

That was a wonderful day out Anita. I must take a look at the link later. It seems so long ago now.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Over the last few months Tony and I have been to a number of musicals, some of which were booked a couple of years ago but postponed because of Covid restrictions.

We were very impressed with Anything Goes at the Barbican, a polished, classy musical set on a cruise ship which benefitted from stunning dance sequences and, of course, toe-tapping tunes by Cole Porter. The fact that it starred Felicity Kendal, Robert Lindsay and Sutton Foster was the icing on the cake. In the grounds of the Barbican beforehand, we enjoyed watching a heron, a moorhen and hundreds of carp in a pool (the carp have huge, gaping mouths and made quite a spectacle!) The architecture of the Barbican may be Brutalist but the ponds, greenery and medieval church in the middle of the complex soften the overall look of the place.

Back to the Future at the Adelphi was immense fun and brilliantly staged. The car (the DeLorean) looked magnificent and even flew out over the audience and spun upside down at one point. A cracking story, cleverly told. Before going to the show we walked around Leicester Square and I bought Shirley Hughes' autobiography A Life Drawing from Any Amount of Books in Charing Cross Road. A beautiful volume containing a wide variety of artwork.

Next came Pretty Woman at the Savoy, in which Aimie Atkinson did a sterling job as Vivian. We had Danny Mac's understudy as Edward, which was a little disappointing as we've seen Danny Mac before (in Sunset Boulevard and A Little Princess) and he has great stage presence. Nevertheless, it was a lively production with nifty choreography - very watchable. We spent the morning wandering around Covent Garden, where there is always plenty going on.

Last Saturday we saw Andrew Lloyd Webber's new musical, Cinderella, at the Gillian Lynne. It's a quirky interpretation of the Cinderella story and I must admit that some of the humour struck me as rather pantomimish. After a somewhat static start, the pace quickened and I appreciated it more as it went on. The same goes for the music - I felt that the opening songs were only so-so but things improved and there were some glorious tunes in the second half. The sets, lighting and costumes were beautiful. One of the highlights was when our section of the auditorium, together with a platform where the actors were performing (which had looked like an extension of the main stage) started revolving slowly, continuing until we'd gone through 180 degrees. The main stage (empty at that point) was directly behind us and we were looking out into the rest of the audience. Quite an experience! A little later, we revolved back the other way. Tony and I knew that function had been used for Cats back in the 1980s (when the theatre was called the New London Theatre) but we didn't realise the facility had been reinstated so it came as a complete surprise. Before the show we walked around Seven Dials and Drury Lane and also went to Cecil Court (Leicester Square), where we spent some time in Marchpane Books but didn't buy anything (the prices are on the high side, though they have got some truly gorgeous books).

Covid lockdowns and restrictions have made things extremely difficult for the entertainment industry and we may not be out of the woods yet but it feels great to be able to see these productions and enjoy the tremendous talent and creativity that go into them.

[Katharine]

They all sound great Anita.

I was interested to read you walked around Seven Dials - I wonder if that's the same district Agatha Christie used in her book 'The Seven Dials Mystery'? I've always assumed it was a fictional place.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I haven't read The Seven Dials Mystery but I would guess that Agatha Christie had the real Seven Dials in mind, though of course she may have used some poetic licence when describing the area.

[Katharine]

From what I remember, the district was described as being a bit 'dodgy', or at least not one with the greatest of reputations.

[Anita Bensoussane]

And to think we risked walking through it!

I suppose parts of it have been "gentrified" in recent decades.