Last night we went to see the ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue‘ tour at Reading. This was a ‘not for radio’ show - probably best thought of as the ‘Tim Brooke-Taylor retirement fund’ (Humph isn’t likely to retire!)

As might be expected it was very entertaining (though, heretically, Mornington Crescent doesn’t do it for me).

I loved Jeremy Hardy singing (’Thank you for the Music’… and as Abba fades out, Jeremy continues….), he also did one song to the tune of another - singing ‘I tawt I taw a puddy tat’ to… ack, can’t recall. It may have been ‘Jerusalem’.

In the ‘re-written nursery rhyme’ round, Graham Garden managed a nice reference to Bill Oddie… it’s frustrating. With comedy, I know if I enjoyed it, and at the time I think ‘I’ll remember that’ - but within a minute the next few gags have come along and it all becomes a blur.

The perfect audience member for ‘Clue’.

My favourite game had to be when the audience used the kazoo to play a song, and the panel had to guess. Hundreds of people trying to play ‘Feelings’ or ‘I like to go a-wandering The Lonely Goatherd’ was just chaos. (memory is such a fallible thing!)

The highlight of the evening, as always with ‘Clue’ was Humphrey Lyttleton. The man is a legend, with a sense of timing that’s superb. After a hilarious stint by the panel, Humph will pause, say ‘mmm’ in a resigned way… and move on. The best bit of the show was the finale - after the kazoo and swannie-whistle round, Humphrey’s trumpet came out, and we were treated to ‘We’ll meet again’. Accompanied of course, by kazoo and swannie-whistle.

After the show, I really wanted to wait by the stage door - mainly to meet Humphrey, but also to see the Goodies (sorry, Jeremy, Barry and Colin). Unfortunately we had a little drive to get home, and needed to get home safely with tiredness creeping up - so it wasn’t to be.

Update: Post from someone else who was there

Last night we went to see Cats at Woking’s New Victoria Theatre.

We’d never seen Cats before - despite it being in the West End for many years. We were familiar with much of the music, as well as the book of poems by TS Eliot.

The first thing about Cats is that the plot is thin. Paper thin - but knowing the plot won’t spoil the show for anyone, so I’ll lay it out here.

The Jellicle cats have an annual ball, at which various cats are introduced (such as The Rum Tum Tugger and SkimbleShanks the Railway Cat). At the ball, Old Deuteronomy picks a cat to ascend to the Heaviside Layer and be reborn. Grizabella, and old and decrepit cat is chosen.

(The Heaviside layer is an atmospheric layer of ionised gas, about 90-150km up, used in the musical to symbolise death)

The musical frankly isn’t about the plot. It’s about the spectacular that is Cats, and it’s very enjoyable. I particularly liked Skimbleshanks the Railway Cat - it gave me a big grin, as my cat is named for this cat (by the RSPCA). I also enjoyed Rum Tum Tugger and The Magical Mr. Mistoffeles, both big showstoppers, though some of the flashing pyrotechnics in Mr. Mistoffeles were so bright that they were uncomfortable.

Rum Tum Tugger in particular went down well with the audience, with the characters tendency to say ‘look at me, aren’t I fantastic?’ every time he appeared on stage, even if just in the background. That man could strut.

Some of the supporting cats were simply excellent, ooziing cattiness. There was one woman, a ginger and black striped cat on a white body who really let loose, and just captured the eye (she reminded me vaguely of a young Lulu, made up as a cat) - she just seemed to be really in the moment. She’s (currently) shown on the second image on the introductory page from Lloyd Webber. On the other hand the actress playing the white cat, though very good, did appear to relax a little too much when not centre stage. A few times when she was away from the focus of the audience her face dropped and she just looked bored. I think she had a bit of a cold, which can’t have helped.

For me, the only real disappointment is the famous ‘Memory’, it’s not from TS Eliot (though Grizabella is a TS Eliot creation) - and to me it sticks out like a sore thumb - it somehow doesn’t ‘fit’ with the rest of the show. It’s the only thing giving the show structure though - otherwise it’d be just a series of cats being introduced - but I wouldn’t have minded that too much.

It seems that I was in the minority on this, it got one of the biggest rounds of applause (superceded by Rum Tum Tugger and possibly Mistoffelees).

Last night we went to see The Car Man at Sadlers Wells in Islington (on the way seeing a Banksy)

The piece uses Bizet’s music, but doesn’t follow the plot of Carmen. It’s set in the mid-west, and tells the story of a garage (car-man… gettit?) An odd-job man comes to town, and has his way with the owner’s wife… and also one of the guys who works in the garage.

The owner discovers his wife and the new bloke in flagrante, and ends up being killed in the ensuing struggle. The chap who works in the garage is blamed for the crime.

There’s more to it than that, it’s really hard to explain a dance piece…

There are some really comic moments, and some great set-piece dances - the introduction of the odd-job guy is astounding, he dominates the stage. The guy who works in the garage has an admirer, and they work well together.

As the Independent says:

The best dance inspiration comes in the solo numbers, including a tour de force for Alan Vincent’s Brando-esque stranger, wheeling off tables and chairs while swigging beer and wagging his bum to Bizet’s famous “Seguidilla”, landing back in his seat on the triumphant final chord as the waitress plonks down the food. Another highlight is the randy dance for Meazza’s Lana, slapping the floor in her waitress pinny like Barbarella on Viagra.

It’s also a little cheeky - in a way that is more likely to please the ladies, with a shower scene at the end of a sweaty working day.

In the second act, the action starts in a local nightclub (with what looks like an avant-garde cabaret act - which is quite funny). One of the chaps with a little bohemian goatie reminded me of ‘Going Live’ with some of the characters of ‘Trevor and Simon’. The nightclub didn’t really ‘fit’ the location, but it didn’t matter - the set doubled as a gaol, and by changing the lighting moved from one to the other smoothly.

It’s a good little show, and I haven’t explained it well. Catch it if you can.

As is often the case with opera, ballet and dance, they milked the applause way too much for my tolerance. First the general claps for end of show, then the claps for each individual or each pair, then the line up, then the conductor, then the conductor with the lineup, then the lineup again…..

I’d agree with the Times review in every respect, which said:

In Bourne’s tight and lucid scenario the action is set in a down-at-heel garage-diner in a sleepy Midwestern American hamlet (Harmony, pop 375) in the early 1960s. Lana, wife of the garage’s owner, and her lover, the drifter Luca, kill her husband Dino and set up the hired help Angelo to take the rap. In the second half, the guilty lovers start to fall apart (and fall out) while the wronged man seeks a bitter and violent revenge. Bourne even adds a bisexual twist to his tale in the person of Luca.

Part film noir and part Grand-Guignol horror – with a dollop of Carry On-style humour – The Car Man reveals a wealth of references (both filmic and balletic) as it tries to play both sides of the comedy-tragedy divide. Sometimes it works startlingly well, at others the jokes (especially those involving the husband) diminish the drama.

The husband as a character was a weak spot. That said, the rest of the production is pretty good, and worth seeing.

The Car Man is touring in the UK, and it has yet to visit The Milton Keynes Theatre, Theatre Royal in Glasgow, Alhambra Theatre in Bradford, New Wimbledon Theatre, Regent Theatre in Stoke, Theatre Royal in Newcastle, New Victoria Theatre in Woking, His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen, Festival Theatre in Edinburgh, The Lowry in Salford and Birmingham Hippodrome (second source of tour information)

Last night we went to see The Northern Ballet’s ‘A Sleeping Beauty Tale‘, with music by Tchaikovsky. Obviously it was based upon the Sleeping Beauty fairytale.

This is Tchaikovsky’s ballet re-imagined as a story of the people of the red and blue planets. There are spacecraft (I kid you not) and at one point, laser guns.

I recognised several of the dancers from The Three Musketeers, but it didn’t really have the same energy as that excellent production. The thing seemed to plod a little. There was an opening introductory speech, followed by several minutes of curtain down whilst they did things to scenery.

The main set seemed to be in a tunnel, the flats were cut circularly. The concentric rings tended to make me think ‘Tha.. tha.. that… that’s all, folks!‘, which I don’t think was the intended effect.
(more…)

I have already been to see The Lord of the Rings Musical, but the BBC now has a piece on the official start of the run (video) which might help to show some of the effects used.

There is a nice piece of time lapse photography for the stage itself.

(The show leaves a better impression that this footage does).