‘At this evening’s performance, the title role will be played by …’ Understudy. Somewhere between a trending topic and a dirty word as arguments rage over whether or not audiences should be compensated for missing a favourite star.
Size Queens: Lloyd Webber and Mackintosh measure up
We already know from Sarah Brightman’s confessional on the Graham Norton show that she married Andrew Lloyd Webber not because he was the handsomest boy in the playground but because ‘he did have the biggest willy’. Now he’s head to head with Sir Cameron Mackintosh in another size contest over who will have the prettiest small one.
PREVIEW: Side by Side by Sondheim without Su Pollard
Tonight Side by Side by Sondheim opens tonight at the Brockley Jack studio theatre, without Su Pollard. According to the email sent to reviewers five days ago, she would not be headlining the show due to ‘a sudden indisposition’. Whether that was an illness, or an indisposition to learn the words and music in time wasn’t explained: Brockley executive producer Karl Swinyard said the show’s production team hadn’t been any more forthcoming. Tickets were refunded for anyone who had planned a pilgrimage to Brockley specifically to see Pollard, and her place is taken by Sarah Redmond, who recently played the show in Singapore.
Review: Superman the Musical (Leicester Square Theatre)
Apart from the elegant baritone of Craig Berry in the lead, I didn’t think much of It’s a Bird, It’s a Plane, It’s … Superman the Musical: the sets looked cardboard and so did much of the acting, and the production felt clumsy rather than amusingly quirky. There’s one decent song ‘You’ve Got Possibilities’ otherwise the […]
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Review: King Charles III (Wyndhams Theatre)
This is not so much a review, more a collection of Facebook updates. 15.25 Saturday: “I haven’t paid for a theatre ticket in quite a while, so why am I thinking “bugger me, £59.50 for KING CHARLES III” It sparked a lot of lively conversation about the rising price of West End theatre and some […]
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Review: King Charles III (Wyndhams Theatre)
This is not so much a review, more a collection of Facebook updates. 15.25 Saturday: “I haven’t paid for a theatre ticket in quite a while, so why am I thinking “bugger me, £59.50 for KING CHARLES III” It sparked a lot of lively conversation about the rising price of West End theatre and some […]
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Thatcher’s Child
It’s the day of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and in the past week since she died the press has been almost equally full of eulogy and inchoate rage, more or less divided between those who lived through her era, and those whose were too young to remember the 70s and whose caricatured impressions of her have […]
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Thatcher’s Child
It’s the day of Margaret Thatcher’s funeral and in the past week since she died the press has been almost equally full of eulogy and inchoate rage, more or less divided between those who lived through her era, and those whose were too young to remember the 70s and whose caricatured impressions of her have […]
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Come the Day
Saturday 29.3.14 : Same Sex Marriage Equality in the UK. It’s a lovely, bright slightly misty morning on the river and a moment to reflect on today’s big gigs to celebrate Equal Marriage first at the Royal Festival Hall thence to a Channel 4 recording for broadcast Monday night. Too late for me? Possibly. Although […]
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Come the Day
Saturday 29.3.14 : Same Sex Marriage Equality in the UK. It’s a lovely, bright slightly misty morning on the river and a moment to reflect on today’s big gigs to celebrate Equal Marriage first at the Royal Festival Hall thence to a Channel 4 recording for broadcast Monday night. Too late for me? Possibly. Although […]
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Tipping Point
I think my love affair with New York may have reached a plateau. It’s 35 years since I first visited and in that time, of course, we’ve both changed. Maybe we should see other people. It’s not you, it’s me. But actually it is you. I’ve stayed for weeks, weekends and when I worked here, […]
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Tipping Point
I think my love affair with New York may have reached a plateau. It’s 35 years since I first visited and in that time, of course, we’ve both changed. Maybe we should see other people. It’s not you, it’s me. But actually it is you. I’ve stayed for weeks, weekends and when I worked here, […]
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A Tuesday in Panama
It’s a Tuesday in January and I’m watching a flock of pelicans dive for supper in the fish-rich gulf of Panama: the sun is so blinding I have to retreat into the air-conditioning of the cabin as it’s pushing 90 degrees on the balcony. In England there’s up to a foot of snow and Heathrow […]
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A Tuesday in Panama
It’s a Tuesday in January and I’m watching a flock of pelicans dive for supper in the fish-rich gulf of Panama: the sun is so blinding I have to retreat into the air-conditioning of the cabin as it’s pushing 90 degrees on the balcony. In England there’s up to a foot of snow and Heathrow […]
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A Monday in Mallorca
I’m visiting my friend Jo who’s teaching English in Mallorca. We met one of her host families yesterday and they were kind enough to invite me on their day trip to Cala Mandraga which I couldn’t accept because (a) I went to a similar beach yesterday (b) knew it would rain and (c) it’s my […]
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A Monday in Mallorca
I’m visiting my friend Jo who’s teaching English in Mallorca. We met one of her host families yesterday and they were kind enough to invite me on their day trip to Cala Mandraga which I couldn’t accept because (a) I went to a similar beach yesterday (b) knew it would rain and (c) it’s my […]
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Sunset, Limited
Bobby the cute biotech scientist drives me to the train station in Palm Springs which isn’t really in Palm Springs but set among the wind farms on its wilder northern edge. Amtrak says to check in at least 30 minutes early but not only is there no place to do this at the unstaffed station, […]
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Palm Springs Modern
It’s that unholy hour between breakfast and the time the sun’s warmed the garden sufficiently for sitting out, which encourages either quiet reflection or a small sense of desperation, I’m not sure which. I’m really enjoying the house and its facilities, in many ways it’s like being at home – everything I actually need is […]
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Westfield Stratford Opens To The Sound Of Smashing Glass
Stratford E15 when first encountered by this Londonista in about 1985 already had a post-apocalyptic feel and Ralph McTell’s “have you seen the old man in the rundown market” echoed every footstep through piss-scented underpasses and past frightened shuttered shopfronts and the greasiest of spoons. Despite Newham’s ‘town centre plan’ and various regeneration initatives, it’s […]
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EasyJet To Serve London Southend Airport
In the vicious media war that is the school playground of airline CEOs, EasyJet persistently teased Ryanair for using remote airports and redundant Cold War fighter bases. In its (losing) defence to the Advertising Standards Agency in March 2010, the airline said it was “trying to make the point that EasyJet flies to primary airports […]
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