A Matter of Black and White

I had a day off parenting duties on Saturday so Clare and I went to the theatre to see the new touring production of Chess. Clare had never heard of it (born in the 80s, you see) and the only time I saw it was more than 20 years ago so I didn't remember much of it, other than the action revolves around the World Chess Championships in 1979 and 1980 (racy, I know) and its most famous song is I Know Him So Well.

I have good memories of it the first time round, but having seen it again I'm not entirely sure why. I remember the song One Night in Bangkok at the beginning of the second half, but I'm fairly sure that most of the plot must have passed me by the first time I saw it. It relies on a certain amount of understanding of what conditions in Soviet Russia were like at the time, and at least a passing knowledge of the Hungarian Revolution of 1956 against Soviet-imposed policies. Which obviously we all had before we arrived.

Actually, the reason this particular rendition of this particular show isn't up there among my all-time favourites is precisely because it required a knowledge of those things, and the reason knowledge was a prerequisite was that the singers were, as ever, largely drowned out by the music and it was extremely difficult to hear what they singing. If it weren't for the fact that the female lead was almost always understandable, I would have blamed the sound desk entirely, but as she was much clearer, my conclusion is that the other actors were simply not enunciating. Which was a real shame, because I'm pretty sure we missed a lot of what was going on, and came away feeling a bit underwhelmed.

This production was choreographed by Craig Revel Horwood of Strictly fame, and this side of the performance was very well done. A lot of the instruments were played on-stage by the supporting cast, which was very unusual and worked really well, but all in all, my impressions were that one of the male leads behaved like a spoilt child, the other was totally flaky and it didn't take much to turn his head, and the female lead, whilst a great singer, was just a bit of a cow. I'm sure if I had been able to hear the words being sung I would have come away with a lot more than that...

New York: Saturday and Beyond

On Saturday's agenda: shopping!

We made a list of the stores we wanted to visit around 5th, then plotted a route round them all that didn't involve too much doubling back. We had a great time browsing, but an even better time purchasing :). I got some beautiful special-occasion jewellery; it will look great at Christmas with my LBD. I left it at the store until Monday as I won't need it while I'm here. The store even cleaned all of my other jewellery for free!

We made time for a gym session in the afternoon, then headed off to Madison Square Garden for a hockey game in the evening. It was New York Rangers vs Florida Panthers and we really enjoyed ourselves. The Rangers lost, unfortunately - and by that I mean unfortunately for us, as it didn't please anyone sitting near us - but it was a great night. We bought the obligatory hot dogs, enormous drinks and, of course, a foam finger :).

Sunday was a busy day: gym first thing, then Rob went to a barber's down the road for a haircut and shave while I spent a couple of hours in the spa having a facial and manicure. We just had time for a delicious lunch at the hotel (which was free - part of our package) before going to the Gershwin Theatre for the matinee performance of Wicked. I needed the loo before it started and the queue was really long, but we were in plenty of time. A lady behind me in the queue remarked that there were only two stalls in the toilets, and something about it being because this theatre was so old, so I looked it up when we got back. It was built in 1972! I guess someone's idea of 'old' is all relative...

It was my third time seeing this show in just over two years, but the first time I'd seen it on Broadway. It was fabulous; the fact that the stage was so much wider than the one at the Apollo Victoria in London meant that the view from almost any seat was unobstructed. Great cast, great songs, great show.

After the show we had a quick stop at the hotel to change then we got a cab to the Upper West Side to meet Mark, Daniela and David for a meal, which was lovely. The last time we saw Daniela was in 2005 and she was 6 months' pregnant; they've got two boys now. We had some really good food in good company.

Monday was a slow day: just a trip to the luggage store to buy a new suitcase (we planned to buy one all along as we need another one, but it's a good job we did as our purchases from just four days almost filled it), a walk up to the jewellers to pick up my bling and a quick stop at a shoe store for some Fitflops. Just as we were waiting for our car to pick up us to take us to Newark, it started raining. I couldn't believe we'd spent all weekend in New York in November and the only rain we saw was in the cab on the way in and for 5 minutes before we left. And it wasn't even all that cold - incredible. Shame the weather hadn't been this nice when Mum, Jen and I were here in May...

Rob commented that if a 6- to 12-month work assignment came up in New York, he would volunteer to do it. I think I could live with that.

Two consecutive weekends at home now - that hasn't happened since mid-September. In fact, we haven't even had one weekend at home since mid-September ;).

A Steady Rain

We flew to New York today for a belated birthday weekend trip. Rob planned it all, and he did a great job of it. We flew Virgin Upper Class from Heathrow to JFK, and we were like two kids in a sweet shop both in the lounge beforehand and particularly when we got on the plane, what with the fully flat bed, free toiletries, free food etc. :).

We got a cab into the city at around 5pm, which made the journey quite long, but not too bad. Our hotel gave us an upgrade - in fact, we worked out that we were upgraded by two levels of room, not just one. Our room was stunning, with a lounge area, big dining table, separate bedroom, even a mini-kitchen - but the best part about it was the view. Here it is, overlooking St Patrick's Cathedral.


We had just enough time to order some room service before we headed out to the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre to see A Steady Rain starring Hugh Jackman & Daniel Craig. The play started at 20:00 and ran straight through for 90 minutes with no interval. I think of all the times I could have benefitted from an interval, this was it. Despite the fact that the play was excellent, by 21:00, which was 02:00 our time, my eyes were closing and I was struggling to stay awake. An interval, and a chance to walk around and stretch my legs, would have been most welcome!

Still, I woke up good and proper after the show finished when Rob and I met Hugh and Daniel backstage :).


I loved this play. It was quite shocking in places, but absolutely riveting (despite the overwhelming urge to sleep). Just the two of them, with very little in the way of a set - just two chairs and a lamp, really. Fantastic. And very lovely in real life too :).

I Am What I Am...

The final show on our West End weekend itinerary was La Cage aux Folles, which we decided to see as John Barrowman was starring as Albin. I've been a fan of John Barrowman for years, since I saw him in Sunset Boulevard at the Adelphi over 15 years ago, long before Captain Jack and Torchwood and brought him into the mainstream. He was playing a limited run in this show so we decided to see it while he was still there.

This is a great feel-good musical. If you've read my previous reviews you'll know that I like my shows to give me something more than just a few hours' entertainment, and while this show didn't move me in the way others do, the fact that the acting, songs, dancing, costumes and humour were all of such a high quality gave it the extra something I needed. The part of Albin was made for John Barrowman (well, not literally; it was made for Harvey Fierstein, but you know what I mean), and Simon Burke, who is a famous theatre actor but who I don't think I'd seen in anything before, was excellent as Albin's partner, Georges. The music is very melodic and easy to listen to, and the six-packs on the Cagelles, the dancers in the 'La Cage aux Folles' club, werea sight to behold... :).

This show must also be the only one I've seen where the number of men in the audience at least equals the number of women, and is certainly the only one I've seen where it's acceptable for men-only groups to attend!

You Don't Fancy Us, Do You Miss?*

After some shopping on Oxford Street for a Christmas present for Jen, and a thoroughly unimpressive lunch at the cafe in John Lewis, we headed over to the Victoria Palace Theatre for the matinee performance of Billy Elliot: The Musical.

This is a show that Jen and I have overlooked in the past because there was always something else that we wanted to see more. Mistake - this musical should be at or near the top of any theatre-goer's list; it's incredible. Being a show about dancing, the choreography is amazing, but what makes it amazing is that it's all done by a 10-year-old boy. It obviously wouldn't be nearly so impressive if it were a performance of some ballet troupe or other.

The language was unbelievably blue, although we knew to expect that. As it's set in the North East of England, and being a North-Easterner myself, it made me strangely proud of my roots - something I don't say all that often.

This show has everything. I laughed, I cried (a lot), I was blown away by the choreography. I just wish I hadn't waited so long to see it.

* The title is a line from the show - after Mrs Wilkinson suggests that Billy audition for the Royal Ballet School and tells him she will give him free, private coaching. Brilliant.

It's Show Time...

Jen and I just went on another of our crazy 3-West-End-shows-in-a-weekend-plus-shopping-and-eating-too weekends. We arranged it fairly recently, and having just watched this video for about the thousandth time since seeing the show last year, I stipulated that one of the shows had to be Jersey Boys, not only because I was desperate to see it again, but because I knew Jen would love it too.

After an initial confusing few minutes before we realised there were 2 H&M stores at Oxford Circus, our meeting point, we finally found each other and just had time to drop Jen's bags off at the hotel before heading over to the Prince Edward Theatre.

I would live in the dress circle of the theatre if I could. I love shows so much that I don't think I'll ever tire of them. And while I wish Rob liked them more, as long as he doesn't force me to go and see horror films with him I won't force him to see musicals, plus I've always got a willing companion in Jen.

I've written about this show before so I won't repeat myself again, but suffice to say that it didn't disappoint. Again, the language was a bit blue, but it certainly wasn't the worst we would hear this weekend, and all four principals were fantastic. Actually, one was a little off, but it didn't detract too much. What did annoy us slightly was the woman sitting next to Jen, who clearly thought people had paid good money to hear her sing. Despite that, we both enjoyed ourselves immensely, and after a lovely post-show Italian meal in the restaurant next-door to the theatre, we headed back to our hotel.

I Heart the Big Smoke

Rob & I spent this past weekend in London. We got the train up on Friday afternoon, checked into our hotel and went straight out to meet Brent, Joe & Tara for a meal. It was amazing - it called itself 'Healthy Meal' but there was so much of it; I'm not sure it was all that healthy to eat such a large amount of food in one sitting :).

Saturday was our shopping day. I mentioned at work last week that I was looking to buy a ring in London and one of my colleagues told me to call her friend, who owns a jewellery wholesale business. I spoke to him on Friday, and he gave me the name and address of a jewellery shop in London that they supply. When we got there on Saturday, they had been told to expect us, and they gave me about 17% off the price of the ring I chose, plus a bottle of champagne to take away. Result! It's not what you know...

I also got a watch and a handbag, and two separate opportunities to speak some Italian. Rob got a key ring. But it's a nice key ring.

In the evening we met up with Joe and Tara again and went to see The Shawshank Redemption at the Wyndhams Theatre. I don't know how faithfully the West End production sticks to the original play, Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption (or even how the film fares against the original, for that matter), but as a stand-alone piece it was pretty good. By no means as good as the film, but there's only so much you can do with a play about a prison escape when you can't actually portray the guy crawling through miles of sewage pipe. There were some noticeable differences between the play and the film, but as I said, taken in isolation it was a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday night.

On Sunday we got up early and walked down to HTB for the 09:30 service, then afterwards we made our way back towards the hotel, walking past Harrods just as it was opening :). We had a quick browse around before going back to the hotel to check out and get the train home.

The more I go, the more I love London. I couldn't live there, but it's great for a few days.

Do You Hear the People Sing?

6 of us went to see Les Miserables on Saturday in the West End. I love living just over an hour from London! Only one of us had never seen it before, and by the time we came out of the theatre, between us we had seen it 24 times...

It's over 4 years since I last saw it, so it was about time I saw it again. It really was just as good the sixth time as it was the first! The guy playing Valjean was the understudy (we saw the matinee performance) but he was absolutely awesome - when he sang his diction was really clear so you didn't miss what he was singing, which as you may know is one of the things I look for. Javert, on the other hand, was less articulate, and I was worried that Cathy, who was the Les Mis rookie, would miss what he was singing about, but she said she followed everything OK.

Having listened to the music countless times over the past 20 years, I have to say I'm a bit fed up of most of the better known songs in this show. What I love, though, are the not-so-famous songs and interludes, in particular One Day More, the Act I Finale, and the Epilogue from Act II. [NB: Don't click these links if you don't want to know what happens! But if you haven't seen it, rectify that as soon as you can!] One Day More is possibly my favourite ever song: it combines the 'theme tunes' of all the main characters into one song and took months to write, but it was well worth the effort.

It turns out most of the people I work with haven't seen Les Mis either. I feel another trip to the Queens Theatre coming on...

Waiting...

Ben, Jill, Rob and I went into London yesterday to see Waiting for Godot. Actually, we didn't go to see that play - we went to see Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart star together in a play, and it just so happened that the play was Waiting for Godot.

Having got home and read the wikipedia entry on the play, it appears that there are numerous ways you can interpret it. The most obvious interpretation to me was that the play is a metaphor for life (although not my view of life) - nothing of consequence happens in the play, and the point of it is that there is no point - we're born, we go through life one day after another and we die. As I said, not my opinion at all, and it made me feel quite sad in parts.

McKellen played Estragon (with a fantastic Lancashire accent - just how he would have sounded if he'd never left Burnley) and Stewart played Vladimir, while Simon Callow played Pozzo and Ronald Pickup played Lucky. I would have paid to watch such great actors just stand on a stage and do nothing, so it was nice that they put on a play while I was there, but I can't say I would be desperate to see this play again. Apparently it's one of the most influential plays of the 20th Century - which only solidifies my view that the enjoyment factor of a play/film/TV show etc is inversely proportional to the amount of critical acclaim it receives. Remember The English Patient? And Gone with the Wind? And Casablanca? And Cabaret? And Children of a Lesser God? And... you get the idea.

As we were standing in the lobby before the play started I felt something sharp on my thumb and wondered how on earth I could have been burned by a cigarette while indoors. I raised my hand to see what it was and there was a wasp attached to my thumb. I shook my hand up and down to the point of hilarity and when I looked again only the wasp's stinger and half its body were still there. We were half an hour early for the play, so I had time to remove the stinger and hot-foot it to the nearest Tesco for some TCP and cotton pads. So if you were sitting in the balcony of the Theatre Royal Haymarket yesterday afternoon and wondered what the awful hospital smell was, that would be me.

The Little Mermaid

On Saturday night, after our early dinner, we went to see The Little Mermaid. We picked this show because, like 9 to 5, it was something we couldn't see in the West End.

We thoroughly enjoyed this show too, although slightly less so than 9 to 5, but possibly only because jet lag had begun to set in by half-way through the first act and we had trouble keeping our eyes open.

The story wasn't very sophisticated - it's a Disney film at the end of the day - but I'd read the book and seen the film and I wasn't expecting anything elaborate. What was elaborate, though, was the set - they used very cool effects to differentiate between underwater scenes and land scenes. They also put the mermaids and fish on roller blades (or maybe even Heelys?), so they would glide across the stage, looking much more like they were swimming than walking.

Another really good show. Plus we got a third off the face value of our tickets by buying them via nytix.com - a good website to be aware of if you're going to New York in the future. Beats queuing in the rain at the ticket office in Times Square...

New York: Friday

I flew up to Manchester on Thursday night and spent a lovely evening with Nikki and Clare, then stayed over at Nikki's house and she gave me a lift back to Manchester Airport this morning where I met Mum and Jen for our flight to New York. The flight was fairly uneventful, just the way I like them. I watched Benjamin Button (very good, if a bit long - 2hrs 45mins) and Marley & Me (liked it better than I thought I would - and for a non-dog lover I still cried at the end), and our plane landed on time at 14:30.

Typically, we managed to pick the immigration line with the slowest immigration officer in the world, but we finally made it out of the airport and got our taxi into the city. Trying to get to Times Square at 16:00 on a Friday is not the easiest of tasks, but our driver made it in the end - just as the rain turned from a light drizzle into a heavy shower, and we got fairly soaked just getting from the taxi to the door of the hotel. The hotel was lovely; I had paid for a room on the 11th to 30th floors, but the lady behind the desk had us down for a room on the 31st to 50th floors. We didn't complain - the higher up we were, the less noisy it would be. In the end we were on the 50th floor of 57, but even so the noise from Times Square was still audible, so I was glad we weren't any lower down.


We just had enough time for a quick nap (although none of us slept; just rested our eyes for an hour) before going out for something to eat then going to see 9 to 5: The Musical. When we were looking at shows to see, we decided we should see things that we couldn't see in the West End - it seemed pointless going to see Jersey Boys or Billy Elliot when we can see them any time up the road (figuratively, at least) and it costs less to see them here. 9 to 5 has been showing previews for most of April but it only had its official Broadway premiere yesterday, so if we had come a day earlier we would have seen Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin, Jane Fonda etc. But we didn't, so we didn't.

Despite the absence of Dolly et al, the evening was fantastic. I'd never seen the film (although I recorded it off the TV a couple of weeks ago; haven't had chance to watch it yet), and in my opinion the storyline was a bit weak - I wanted the girls to be plotting a bit more and playing catch-up a bit less, more Home Alone-style, but I suppose there's not much to be done there when the show is based on a film which is based on a book. Still, what it lacked in that area it more than made up for in others, in particular the songs and the staging.

Dolly Parton wrote another dozen or so songs for the musical - the theme tune was the first song - and they were all really, really good. Surprisingly good. Judy and Doralee (Jane Fonda and Dolly in the film) were played by Stephanie J Block and Megan Hilty, who've recently played Elphaba and Glinda respectively in Wicked on Broadway, and they were superb. Violet, the main character (Lily Tomlin's part in the film), was played by Allison Janney, and she was the reason we chose to see this show over the others, because Jen and I loved her in The West Wing. It was clear that she didn't have the voice training that the other two girls did, but even so, her singing voice was not too shabby at all. And man, she was funny.

The staging was really something - they had a hole in the middle of the stage and all sorts of things came out of it (beds, photocopiers, desks etc) - and every scene change was so slick, really well done.

So if you're in New York with $100 and a few hours to spare, you could do worse than to see this show. Seriously, worth a look.

It's French for Water

I'll do another post about our trip to Vegas generally, but I wanted to dedicate a full post to the wonder that is "O", the Cirque du Soleil show that's in residence at the Bellagio. We saw it on Friday night and it was awesome.

The stage is split into about 6 parts, and can be lowered to about 8 feet below ground level. When it's lowered, it becomes a pool, and the artists do all sorts of amazing dives and synchronised swimming moves. There is a general story throughout the show, although if you don't know it beforehand (we didn't), it doesn't matter. Not only did the 60 performers do loads of water-based acrobatics, they also had fire sequences, Russian swings, trapezes, aerial hoops, and contortionists, amongst other things.

We were sitting in the cheap seats - which were nevertheless still quite expensive - but we had a great view and the show was well worth the money. If I get the opportunity to go to Vegas again I'll make a point of seeing at least one of the other Cirque du Soleil shows - probably Love, which is all set to Beatles music, or Mystère, which is a classic Cirque production with colourful costumes and amazing acrobatics.

Belated Valentine's Weekend

As Rob had only just got back from Sudan last weekend and anticipated that he would need a weekend of not doing much to recover, we postponed our Valentine's Day plans until this weekend, which were to go to London to buy wedding rings. Not actually doing this on Valentine's Day also meant that we didn't have to pay inflated Valentine's Day hotel prices :).

So we went to London yesterday morning on the train. Ben and Jill had gone up to London on Friday night, and had spent yesterday morning at Tower Bridge. They met us off the train and after we checked into our hotel (it doesn't take long to type it, or read it, but the actual act of doing it took ages), we went for a late lunch at a great Italian restaurant nearby. Then we walked across Westminster Bridge (crazy packed with tourists taking pictures of the London Eye/Houses of Parliament), past St James's Park and round the back of Horseguards Parade, pointing out the sights on the way. Then we bought our wedding rings, which took all of about 5 minutes. We walked back to our respective hotels via The Mall, Trafalgar Square and Whitehall, then met up again an hour or so later at the Old Vic theatre where we had tickets to see the last night of Complicit, starring Richard Dreyfuss and David Suchet.

I enjoyed the play, although I had to get Rob to go over the plot with me afterwards to make sure I'd got it all :). The play is 'in the round' (seats on all sides of the stage), which was a novelty for me, and although it was quite short - 45 minutes each Act - that was actually a good thing because we were in the Gods and it was boiling up there. I was wearing a short-sleeved T-shirt over a long-sleeved one and had to go to the toilets at the interval to take the long-sleeved one off...

This morning we went to Holy Trinity Church Brompton, affectionately known as HTB, for their 09:30 service, which was ace - lots of friendly people, free food, a really well rehearsed band (always something I look for) and a great talk. After we left there we met Ben and Jill for lunch at Giraffe on the South Bank (no Giraffe restaurants in Southampton; I miss them!), then we got the train back home. Which was easier said than done, because they were doing maintenance on the line between Eastleigh and Southampton Central today so we had to get a bus from Eastleigh to Parkway, but it was only a minor glitch. What a great weekend!

Tonight, Tonight...

... I went to the theatre with Clare and her sister Sarah. I guess we should have gone to see Buddy in London, given that today is the 50th anniversary of The Day the Music Died, but London apparently can't deal with a smattering of snow and has come to a standstill, so it was a good job that West Side Story was on in Southampton instead.

I really enjoyed this performance, despite other people's best efforts (see next paragraph). I'm not really one for soprano voices - I find them a bit squeaky - but the girl playing Maria had a beautiful voice, really pure on the top notes. As ever, the words of some of the songs were lost because the orchestra was too loud, but I've seen the show enough times in the past to know what was going on. I just think it's such a shame for people who haven't seen the show before to lose half the words.

The funniest moments of the evening, though, came from observing just how inconsiderate other people can be. The man sitting in front of me, for example, sat forward in his seat the entire show. If he had only sat back in his seat I would have been able to see round him and wouldn't have missed everything that went on in the left third of the stage. In his defence, however, I think the reason that he was sitting forward was so that he could see round the lady in front of him. This picture is terrible quality because I took it with my phone, but I hope it shows what I mean: -


The lady had really long hair, and she piled it ALL on the top of her head, making her at least 4 inches taller. Seriously? For the theatre??? People pay a lot of money to go to the theatre, and they know that their enjoyment is highly likely to be marred by the sound of phones going off and people unwrapping sweets at inopportune moments (tonight - check and check), and they also know there's a chance they'll be sitting behind a tall person (Clare was), but making yourself unnecessarily taller when you know there are going to be people sitting behind you? That's just rude.

Then we were going up the stairs to get out after the show and a group of 10 women just stopped at the top of the stairs, blocking everyone behind them from getting out. Why do people do that????

So apart from the idiocies of the general public (and let's face it, the woman with the hair was far more funny than she was annoying), we had a great night. And also, I saw our old car in the car park behind the theatre - I almost had kittens when I saw it, I thought someone had nicked it off our driveway, then I realised we traded it in a month ago...

Dancing and Marilyn Monroe

For most of the other entries I've written about theatre productions, I've tried to use a line from one of the songs in the title of my blog entry to sum up my thoughts on the show. But I can't think of anything suitable for this one, so you'll have to make do with two of the common themes in the songs...

Last night was the girls' trip to see Blood Brothers at the Mayflower in Southampton. What started out as just me and Clare turned into a group of 15 of us going - most of the girls from the office, plus wives/girlfriends/daughters of most of the men from the office - and I think everyone enjoyed it. Most of us went for a meal beforehand at the Italian restaurant near to the theatre, then we met up with the others just before the show started.

Marti Webb played the female lead, Mrs Johnstone, and generally was very good, although not as good as Linda Nolan, who played her when I saw the show 5 years ago in Manchester. The two male leads, Mickey and Eddie, and their friend Linda, were all excellent, really convincing first as 7-year-olds, then as teenagers and later as adults.

When I saw the show in Manchester, I lost interest a little bit in the middle of the first half, but not this time; this was probably due to the fact that I've listened to the soundtrack a gazillion times and I know all the words - this time I had to force myself not to sing out loud so the people around me wouldn't complain.

The show is clearly a favourite among English/Drama teachers as it definitely lends itself to a 'what can we learn as a society from this play' discussion. There were lots of school parties there, which made being able to get a good view less of a problem as there were little people everywhere, but it did detract from the atmosphere a bit - there were giggles every time someone dropped a bottle of Coke on the floor, for example, and the entire balcony let out a collective gasp when Mickey told his mother that Linda was pregnant.

The last scene was fantastic. What's amazing about this show is that the first scene is the ending, so you know how the play ends, then the rest of the show is a flashback of how they all got to that point. But even though I knew how the show would end, and even though the kids all around me were doing their best to ruin the atmosphere, I still welled up when they sang Tell Me It's Not True.

Go and see this show. Worth every penny, even the second time around. And it will be worth it when I see it for the third time too, although I hope I won't have to wait another five years to see it again.

Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika

Rebecca and I went to see the African Children's Choir on Saturday evening. I first saw the choir about 15 years ago - a different group of children, obviously. The organisation is now 24 years old and the group we saw on Saturday was the 32nd choir. They currently have five tours going on - four in the US/Canada and one in the UK - and the money raised from the tours goes to help up to 7,000 children in Africa get an education.

The kids in the choir we saw on Saturday were all from South Africa, which was a nice surprise as Rebecca lived in South Africa from the age of 9 to her early twenties, so it brought back lots of good memories for her and made her feel quite nostalgic. Having seen the choir before, I knew that there was a strong possibility that they would reduce me to tears, so at least I went in prepared for that this time round. I didn't turn completely into a blubbering mess, though - I managed to hold it together most of the time. One of the chaperones introduced the choir by saying that almost all of the children had lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS, and a couple of minutes later they came running onto the stage, singing, dancing, smiling, shouting, laughing... It really made me wonder what I have to complain about.

The chaperones who accompany the kids are all volunteers, and one of Jen's friends from university is a chaperone this year. She's one of the kids' teachers during the day and she makes sure none of them wanders off at night at the concerts - which is something that apparently they are prone to do, because they're all usually buzzing after a performance ;). Her husband is the sound and lighting engineer for the concerts, and once this tour finishes in December they will both go back to South Africa with the kids and teach in one of the schools that the choir's parent organisation, Music for Life, has set up.

It was fantastic to see results from the work that the choirs and Music for Life have put in over the last 25 years - the choir's conductor is a previous choir member, as is Godfrey, one of the chaperones who, as well as joining in with an incredible rendition of O Happy Day, also told us that his involvement with the choir meant that he was able to get good schooling and he's gone on to get a degree in Computer Science.

Check out their itinerary for concerts near you - you won't regret it. Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika - God Bless Africa.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow...

I've realised that there's a pattern emerging with the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. If they get to the week before a performance and there are still quite a few tickets left, they put out a 2-for-1 offer on the top price seats. It was this offer that persuaded Clare and me to go and see Hello Dolly in June, and last week I noticed that the same offer was being made for Annie this week. So we went last night. Clare hasn't seen the film, and I don't think I've seen it all the way through, but we figured it was worth £15 to find out what the play was like.

It occurred to me as we arrived that given the subject matter, there was a high probability that there would be lots of children in the audience, and I was right. Which was great on the one hand because it meant we had no problem seeing everything, unlike last time when the tallest people in Southampton sat in front of us, but it also brought with it its own problems, like the constant sound of sweets being opened and the more frequent than usual trips to the toilet during the performance. It didn't help that the floor isn't carpeted, so the sound of every Mum's high heels tapping on the floor resonated throughout the auditorium.

We didn't buy a programme, so we don't actually know the name of the girl playing Annie, but suffice to say that we got to the interval and Clare said 'I don't know what it is about her, but that girl's quite annoying!' Which kind of summed her up, although I remember from the film that she was a little bit annoying there too. So we gave her the benefit of the doubt, and we actually started warming to her in the second half. She was clearly a young British girl working very hard at a New York accent, so in places it seemed quite strained, but she did very well - no doubt better than most people could do at 12.

Miss Hannigan was played by Ruth Madoc of Hi-de-Hi fame, and I thought she would be pretty good, but she was only OK. That could be something to do with the fact that the part wasn't as big as the one in the film, but even so I thought she could have made a lot more of the part than she did.

But truly the star of the show was Sandy, the stray dog that Annie takes in. Again, this part in the play was reduced compared to the film, but for obvious reasons - what is it they say? Never work with children or animals? Well, this show had both ;). The dog was fantastic, sitting perfectly still when people were singing into his ear, and obeying every command - except the last one, when the cast came on stage to take their bows and he decided he was going to sit with his back to the audience, and no amount of coercion from Annie would persuade him to turn round.

As ever, I thought that the orchestra was amazing, but too loud for the voices, meaning the words of the songs were often lost, but the dog made up for all that. All in all, not bad. Not worth a full-price ticket, but a good night's entertainment for £15.

Welcome to the Sixties

The last call on the whistle-stop tour of the West End was Hairspray on Saturday night at the Shaftesbury Theatre. We deliberately picked Spamalot as the one we would see at the matinee performance because we knew that understudies tend to play the matinees, and out of the three shows, that was the one we would be least disappointed to see the understudy in one of the main parts. As it turned out, the only understudy we saw all weekend was Charlotte Riby in the role of Tracy Turnblad on Saturday night, in place of Leanne Jones, who won the Best Actress Olivier Award for this part earlier this year, but we needn't have worried - Charlotte was fantastic. And besides, the most important thing was seeing Michael Ball in the role of Edna, and he didn't disappoint. I guess you could say that Michael Ball is the British equivalent of someone like Donny Osmond - he has large fan club, mainly composed of middle-aged women, but I think seeing him in 3-inch heels and wearing a fat suit would probably take the edge off the attraction, even for die-hard fans :).

Although on the surface it's a 'bubblegum' musical full of feel-good music, it does deal very honestly with the issue of segregation in 1960s America. The show also challenged me on a level I never expected: the first song is 'Good Morning Baltimore', where Tracy sings about the fact that she wakes up every morning excited about the day ahead and eager to find out what might be in store for her. It made me wonder why I don't get up and say 'Good Morning Southampton', at least if not literally then metaphorically. There's loads in my life to be thankful for, and yet I invariably start the day cursing that I have to go to the gym, or complaining about the weather, or wishing I could stay in bed an hour longer. I should start looking at things more positively: half of the world's population has to make do with living on less than a dollar a day, but I'm part of the half that doesn't, and I don't stop and think often enough about how many good things I have in my life. Of course, I don't expect an opportunity as life-changing as helping to eradicate segregation will come along every day, but perhaps I could keep an eye out for the smaller opportunities and take advantage of them more often...

Back to the show. As I mentioned, the songs are all so uplifting that it's hard not to like it, even if you're not a fan of musicals. We thoroughly enjoyed the show and I would definitely pay to see it again.

I'm a vegetarian - not that keen on Spam

After a morning of looking round Camden Market and bridesmaid dress hunting on Oxford Street, Saturday afternoon saw us at the Palace Theatre for the matinee of Spamalot, which describes itself as 'lovingly ripped off from the motion picture; sets musical theatre back a thousand years'. The title comes from a line in one of the songs, where the knights sing 'we eat ham, and jam, and Spam a lot.'

It's the story of King Arthur (played by Sanjeev Bhaskar, who was excellent) and his Knights of the Round Table as they set out to find the Holy Grail - which turns out to be in a very interesting place, but I won't say where in case you go and see it. There are lots of laugh-out-loud moments in the show, like when King Arthur rides onto the stage with his servant Patsy, who's making clip-clip noises with two coconut halves because they don't have an actual horse, which gives rise to a discussion about where a Briton in the year 932 AD would get a coconut from (perhaps two swallows carried it from warmer climbs while migrating back to Britain for the summer), and there are some very blatant yet very funny digs at established Broadway/West End musicals, including 'The Song That Goes Like This', which includes all the elements of a Broadway song between the romantic leads - a sickly-sweet tune, lots of key changes and high notes, furtive looks and a kiss at the end.

I enjoyed this show, am glad I saw it and would recommend it if you're looking for the lighter side of West End musicals, but I wouldn't see it again. A musical has to move me in some way - either to tears, as in the case of shows like Blood Brothers, Les Miserables or Miss Saigon, or to a greater appreciation of someone or something, as Evita, Jersey Boys and Buddy do, or else it should uplift me, like The Lion King, Joseph and Hairspray (more on that one later) do. Spamalot did none of those things. It succeeded in its primary goal, which was to make me laugh, and it didn't pretend to do anything more than that, but for me, I'd need something else to make me see it again. But if you are looking for a less hardcore introduction to the West End, this is definitely right up your street.

Go, Go, Go, Joseph

Last weekend was Jen's birthday present from me - we met up in London for the weekend and saw three shows: Joseph on Friday night, Spamalot on Saturday afternoon and Hairspray on Saturday night.

I arrived in London about half an hour before Jen did, so I had just enough time to get to the hotel and check in before walking up to Leicester Square tube station to meet her. We had a quick meal at Bella Italia and walked over to the Adelphi theatre. When we were at school we had both been involved in a production of Joseph, and even 20 years later (yes, something else I just realised was 20 years ago already) I found that I could remember most of the words - including all the colours of the dreamcoat ;). This actually turned out to be quite a good thing for me, because in my opinion the orchestra was a bit too loud for the singers and the words were lost in places. This was particularly obvious in the second half when Pharaoh sang a song that wasn't in the original show, so I didn't know the words, and I barely caught any of them. I thought that was a real shame, particularly for the people in the audience who hadn't played Naphtali, one of the twelve brothers, in a school production (there weren't enough boys...) and didn't already know the words, but everyone seemed to enjoy themselves anyway.

Joseph was played by Lee Mead, who got the part through 'Any Dream Will Do', one of those awful 'reality TV' talent shows that seem to have permeated every echelon of society. I absolutely despise those shows - anything that involves people being eliminated or call-in phone numbers for people to vote does not go down well with me - and I felt that I was paying a premium for the tickets because the 'People's Joseph' was in it, so I would love to be able to say that he was only OK in the role, but in all honesty he was very good indeed (and of course, if I had wanted to protest my disgust at TV talent shows, I could always have boycotted Joseph and booked tickets for something else entirely, but the truth was I was looking forward to hearing all the songs again). But my favourite people in the show were the 30 or so school kids who sat at each side of the stage and sang all the chorus parts. The set was great - it looked a bit like a giant picture frame tilted slightly backwards. I would definitely recommend the show - although if you're not bothered for seeing Lee Mead, wait until he's finished his run and they have a less famous actor in the role; the ticket prices will probably go down...