24th Jun2018

Kiss Me Kate

by timbaros

A scene from Kiss Me Kate by Cole Porter @ Grand Theatre, Leeds. An Opera North and Welsh National Opera Production. Conductor, James Holmes. Directed by Jo Davies. (Opening 23-05-18) ©Tristram Kenton 05-18 (3 Raveley Street, LONDON NW5 2HX TEL 0207 267 5550 Mob 07973 617 355)email: tristram@tristramkenton.com

A revival of ‘Kiss Me Kate,’ the Cole Porter musical that’s been around for more than half a century, is now being performed at the London Coliseum for two weeks only.

Taking over the space which was briefly occupied by the show ‘Chess,’ ‘Kiss Me Kate’ takes a musical look, of the misconstrued shenanigans that take place behind the scenes of a musical. For a show that’s two hours and 50 minutes long, that’s quite a long haul to get from the beginning of the story to the end, and in the middle it’s all a bit of silliness and nonsense.
The cast within the show are performing ‘The Taming of the Shrew,’ and ‘Kiss Me Kate’ has as it’s plot the conflict between the show’s stars Fred (Quirijn De Lang) and leading lady Lilli (Stephanie Corley) – who used to be married, and Lois (Zoe Rainey) and her gangster boyfriend Bill (Alan Burkitt).
Fred writes a love letter intended for Lois, but it’s Lilli who receives it. Lilli is actually engaged to someone else but is actually still in love with Fred. Meanwhile, Bill has signed an IOU to gangsters, in Fred’s name, and the gangsters come to the show to retrieve their money. But it’s Lilli who ends up paying for it as when she reads the note and sees it’s not actually for her, she wants to leave the show, but the gangsters (John Savournin and Joseph Shovelton) prevent her from leaving so that they can get their money from Fred (who is also the producer of the show). All this leads, as you can image, to lots of mayhem and madness – cue the laughter.
‘Kiss Me Kate’ is not really well-known for any memorable songs nor as a really great musical (‘Oklahoma’ is ‘Kiss Me Kate’s’ contemporary, and it’s a classic). While all the actors soldierly slog through such a long show and sing their hearts out in a show that’s more operatic and less razzle dazzle, it’s a bit difficult to keep one’s attention, especially when one of the final songs – ‘Brush Up Your Shakespeare’ – goes on and on and on, and is repeated endlessly. So if Cole Porter is your thing, then you have very limited time to catch this show. If he is not your thing,  it’s OK to give it a miss.
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24th Jun2018

Beirut (Theatre)

by timbaros

Rob Rees (L), Louisa Connolly-Burnahm (R) - Photo Credit Loranc SparsiA disease is wiping out the human race, and those unlucky enough to be positive will die a slow death. This is the premise of the hard-hitting and surreally erotic play ‘Beirut.’

‘Beirut,’ now playing at the Park Theatre, imagines what would happen, in New York City, where a disease is wiping out some of the population.  Meanwhile, one positive man called Torch (Robert Rees), and a negative woman called Blue (Louisa Connolly-Burnham), are in love with each other. How do they express their love? The disease is spread via bodily fluids – any fluids – including saliva, sweat, and kissing. So what do they do?
Torch lives in a small underground bunker, and Blue sneaks in to be with him. But she’s breaking the law; negatives are not allowed to be with positives, but they clearly love, and lust, for each other. The two gutsy actors spend all of the time in the play (60 minutes) in their underwear, or sometimes less, but it’s not sexy, it’s hard-hitting, with raw intensity both actors convey in the emotions their characters are going through. Torch will definitely die and Blue will almost certainly live, that’s if she doesn’t give in and contract the disease from Torch.
The backstory to this play has to be mentioned. It was written by Alan Browne, from San Francisco, in the mid 1980’s, at the height of the AID’s crisis when gay men were dropping like flies. It was first performed at the Bay Area Playwrights Festival in 1986, and three years later Browne would die of the disease himself, at the age of 44. So we can assume that the unmentioned disease Browne alludes to is AIDS.
But since Browne’s original intention was to not write a story about HIV and AIDS (perhaps he thought the future was going to be just like the plot of his play), it, in my opinion, would work much better as a play about that dreadful disease. However, it still is a brutal in-your-face show that is perhaps not as relevant now as when it was written, but it still makes for explosive, and well-acted, theatre.
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17th Jun2018

The Happy Prince (Film)

by timbaros
_MG_8210Rupert Everett has reached a new pinnacle in his career with the release of his new film “The Happy Prince.”
In a film in which he wrote and directed, Everett plays Oscar Wilde in the final years of his life. Everett, if you remember, played Wilde a few years back in London’s West End in the critically-acclaimed show ‘The Judas Kiss’ which won Everett awards. Now, and ten years in the making, sees Everett play the role he was practically born to play. It was ten years of struggling to get funding for this film, and once Colin Firth had signed on (he is an Executive Producer as well as playing Reggie Turner, one of Wilde’s best friends, in the film), ’The Happy Prince’ was finally made, and what an excellent film it is.
In the very late 1890’s, Wilde was a penniless man, living in France, with lots of stories to tell yet not a whole lot to his name. However, three years prior to his death (in 1900), Wilde had been released from prison where he served time for sodomy and gross indecency. Before his prison sentence, Wilde had enjoyed being a member of high society and was usually the centre of attention (we see as flashbacks in the film), and in ‘The Happy Prince,’ we see this side of his life portrayed. We also see the desperate side in the opening sequence in the film where he happily takes money from an old friend in a dark alley while he struggles to come to terms with the fact that his life will never be the same ever again. He does, however, have occasional contact with friends, and with his long-forgotten wife (yes he was married) Constance Lloyd (Emily Watson) – the mother of their twin sons – while he surrounds himself with young men, cocaine, and not much else.
It’s a bravura performance from Everett that makes ‘The Happy Prince’ both an ode and tribute to a man who has been the subject of many a book and show. By making ‘The Happy Prince’ his way, Everett will reap the respect, and the rewards and awards, that he truly deserves for making this magnificent film.
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17th Jun2018

McQueen (Film)

by timbaros

©AnnRay MCQUEEN_C03-016 2mbFashion designer Alexander McQueen was a genius He had an eye for fashion but was also a troubled soul. The new documentary ‘McQueen’ shows the highs, and the lows, of McQueen’s life.

Alexander McQueen, born in London’s East End in 1969, seemed not to be destined to become one of fashion’s hottest and most successful designers in the 1990’s, but according to the documentary, he had talent, talent that can only be described as natural – he was born with it.
‘McQueen’ begins with old footage of McQueen talking directly into the camera, footage that was taken at the height of his illustrious career. He enrolled as a student at Central St. Martin’s College of Fashion, and then moved on to Paris to learn the trade, then became a tailer, but it was when he met Isabella Blow, who happened to take him under his wing and, which is, according the documentary, made him what he was. But McQueen was extremely talented, and not only did he launch his own fashion brand, but at the same time he was also head designer for fashion brand Givenchy all the while picking up various people along the way who became his trusted staff, people who speak to the camera effortlessly and honestly about McQueen and their time together.
But all was not meant to be. McQueen dabbled in cocaine and London’s gay fetish scene, he was under enormous pressure to put together several collections a year, including haute couture, and he had a falling out with Blow, who would commit suicide at the age of 46, which put on more pressure and guilt on McQueen. But it was when his dear mother died when McQueen decided that enough was enough, and ended his pain. He committed suicide at the age of 40 in 2010.
‘McQueen’ is an excellent testament to the man who was also called Lee. Through his friends, associates and sister Janet, we really feel that we get to know who Lee actually was ourselves. But it’s through the footage of his fashion shows where we get to see the real talent that he had. His shows were events, some very dark (which explains how deep and troubled he was), and showed how gorgeous, and emotionally beautiful, his creations were. Alexander McQueen died way too young, but through this documentary you can at least experience his life and work, which was cut way too short.
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17th Jun2018

San Domino (Theatre)

by timbaros

San Domino 3 The company Photo by Rachael CummingsSan Domino is an island off the east coast of Italy that was once an island where people of a certain ‘way’ were exiled to by the facist Benito Mussolini government. He banished prisoners there to pay for their ‘crimes’ – some of the crimes being speaking out against the government. It was also a place where homosexuals were sent as well.

A new show by the name of ‘San Domino’ beautifully tells this story that very few people are aware of. 
Now playing at the Tristian Bates Theatre in Covent Garden, ten men, in 1939, are having a great time in a bar in Catania, Sicily. They have not committed any crimes, but a knock on the door will change all their lives forever. According to the government, they were degenerates because it is suspected they were homosexuals and thus were sentenced to five years. These men include men from all walks of life, including older Carlo (Matthew Hendrickson) and young handsome Claudio (Alexander Hulme). San Domino tells the men’s stories, through dialogue and music, in a show that is poignant, dramatic and superbly acted, especially when the show moves from the jovial atmosphere of the bar where the men are being themselves to the camp where they share bunkbeds and are kept under careful watch of the prison guard and the very mean chief of police.
Andrew Pepper is just superb as the androgynous Pietro, sensitive and always looking for love in all the wrong place, and Pietro never holds back and says what’s on his mind. The rest of the cast really work well together in a show that really is a must see.
San Domino first previewed to an enthusiastic audience at the Courtyard Theatre in London, then played to a full house at the Arcola Theatre’s Grimeborn Festival in 2014. With Book & Lyrics by Tim Anfilogoff, and music composed by Alan Whittaker, with Direction by Matthew Gould, ‘San Domino’ excellently tells the story of the one night in 1939 when many gay men were rounded up. It’s a story that’s should’ve been told years ago. 
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17th Jun2018

Beautiful Thing (Theatre)

by timbaros
IMG_2586n2-1There’s a fantastic new show at a fantastic new venue where both are drawing in theatre crowds.
The show is the 25th anniversary production of ‘Beautiful Thing,’  the classic gay young love story, and the venue is Above the Stag’s new beautiful home just steps away from Vauxhall tube station (instead of making a right out of the station to the old venue, make a left and it’s just past Chariots Vauxhall).
‘Beautiful Thing’, originally performed at the Bush Theatre, was turned into a hit movie in 1996. The story deals with two young men (Ste and Jamie) who fall in love and happen to live next to each other on a housing estate. In the new play, these roles are performed by the fantastic Ryan Anderson and Joshua Asaré. Their memorable next door neighbor – Leah – who also goes by the name Mama Cass – is brilliantly played by Phoebe Vigor – and she has scenes that she eats up! Kieran Mortell ably plays Tony, the boyfriend of Jamie’s mum Sandra, excellently played to perfection by Kyla Frye. The story, as you already probably know, deals with the ups and downs of Ste and Jamie experiencing first love. The story takes place on the balconies of a housing estate as well as in Jamie’s bedroom – effective for a story where it’s all about the acting, and the cast hit their marks and Vigor and especially Frye rising above and beyond.
Above the Stag’s new venue is the culmination of years and years of having a bigger venue to call home in which to stage their very popular productions. The new venue has two fabulous two theatres – a 110 seat main house and a 60 seat studio. There is also a large bar with plenty of sitting room to enjoy the drinks, and floor-to-ceiling windows that look out towards the embankment. It’s a new beautiful space, and it’s another production that Above the Stag can be proud of. Go see it, both the new venue and the new show. ‘Beautiful Thing’ is a beautiful thing.
Photo provided by Above the Stag
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