After the last trip at the height of a heatwave in summer it was now back to normal in windy rainy London when I arrived on my usual Eurostar in early afternoon. I had chosen yet another hotel in the Kings Cross area, so it was nice to only have a five minute trudge from train to hotel bed. After a short break there, it was time to head out (down?) into the West End for a bit of shopping and a lovely dinner of Chinese dumplings in Chinatown - something I had really wanted to do to relive some memories of my Beijing adventure in spring (and boy was it nice to have a bilingual menu in London!).
After we were tortured with Pinter's "Homecoming" at school I had sworn to never go anywhere near that man again, but now my first theatre outing took me to the Wyndham's Theatre for Pinter's "No man's land" to see those two grand old Gods of English theatre, Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart who had already taken Broadway by storm earlier. An added bonus was Owen Teale, a constant annoyance during my last five springs at Ser Alliser Thorne in Game of Thrones, the man who tried (and failed) to off Jon Snow, with Damien Moloney completing the cast of four. Since I hadn't wanted to spend all that much and there's been a bit of a cult around the "balcony nests" at the Wyndham's, which cost only £10, I decided to chance it up there in the Gods. While the view was really fine and the stage didn't feel that far away (it's felt much further from the Dress Circle in some of the barns) nobody had told me that the "seat" is basically two boards hammered together. So while legroom and storage space were great, it was also arse-numbingly uncomfortable.
As for the play, I suppose it could be summed up with "Well, it's Pinter". There's no straight story, just a lot of whatifs and maybes as a chap named Hirst (Stewart) takes another chap named Spooner (McKellen) home, who pretends to be an old friend. Cue a lot of waffling about old days (that may or may not be true) and musings about women and poetry and while I didn't get it all, it was surprisingly funny - not to mention it was pure joy to see these legendary actors on stage together - and that for a tenner.
My ass still hurt the next morning, so I was glad I had made plans for a bigger walk that day. More recently I've become really keen on exploring London's "green" areas, so after Kew Gardens in spring and Hampstead Heath in summer I now went for a long walk along the Regent's Canal that links up with the Grand Union Canal which runs all the way to Birmingham (220 km / 137 miles) and was used to ferry goods from the Midlands to the mighty port of London.More and more of the towpath has been spruced up in recent years, so it makes for a lovely walk from King's Cross past Camden Lock (and the markets), along the northern end of Regent's Park to finally end in Little Venice where it meets the Grand Union Canal. Here are some pics of the outing:
I took the tube back from Warwick Avenue for a longer break at the hotel before it was showtime again - an oddly timed matinee at 5pm meant I could squish in "Murder Ballad" a small Off-Broadway show at the Arts Theatre with a decent rock score and an eclectic cast comprised of Ramin Karimloo, Kerry Ellis, Norman Bowman and Victoria Hamilton-Barritt. Sadly the producers priced it so outrageously with good seats £50 at the tiny shoddy venue that it's not selling well at all. Which is a pity because I was perfectly well entertained (having got a discounted ticket at £30 I admit). The story fits on a stamp - girl loves bad boy, girl leaves bad boy for good boy, girl gets bored, girl leaves good boy for bad boy, someone flips a lid, someone dies.
But I actually quite liked the "sordid" angle which makes a refreshing change from all the twee love stories, the weepy girlies pining for a man and worst of all, the relationship woes shows. The cast was all around fantastic, though I admit I did fangirl quite a bit about Ramin Karimloo, less so about his chiselled body (a bit too much for my liking, really, I prefer 'em weedy) but amazing charisma and fantastic voice. What a crime to have hidden this man under the stupid Phantom mask in those limp shows for so long! Funny note on the side: The website had said that Kerry Ellis would be doing this matinee and nothing in the foyer said otherwise, so when the blonde actress appeared on stage, I was all like "Geez, is that Kerry? I thought she looked different. And wow does she look young for her age" - it took me until the next day and checking back with another theatre lover to realize that it was NOT her after all but the alternate Natalie McQueen. Would it have killed the theatre to put 1-2 paper notes on the wall to notify people? Not that I minded, because Natalie was fantastic in the lead.
Still on a high from this surprisingly good show I wandered down to the Charing Cross Theatre where I had booked "Ragtime" for the evening. A show I never really warmed to, but did want to see live at least once. While I calmly chomped on a sandwich outside in lieu of dinner, I was surprised that it was so quiet at the theatre, with few people entering and more people leaving. When I did finally enter myself, I found out that the performance was cancelled due to an actor's "indisposition" - something that's never happened to me in 20 years of London theatre-going before. So I had to think quick on my feet - it was 30 mins to curtain-up everywhere in the West End, but just going back to the hotel was no option. Luckily Cameron Mackintosh's Chichester transfer "Half a Sixpence" was just a five minute walk away in St. Martin's Lane and I had planned to see that one in January anyway.
So I legged it to the Noel Coward, where I asked for a "last minute dayseat offer" (as their pricing is pretty outrageous) and was sold a seat in the back stalls at 50% off for only £25 - which was a bargain as the view was perfect from there. And since the stalls seemed full, I considered myself lucky at having nabbed this seat at such short notice.
It was also unusual for me to not have a clue about a show, since I tend to do my homework before seeing something by reading synopsises, listening to music and so on. Which was something of a blessing though, since it actually made me wonder if he got the right girl in the end. Who, what? Well, "Half a Sixpence" first opened in 1963 as a vehicle for young Tommy Steele and a movie version was made two years later. Based on the novel "Kipps" by HG Wells, it's the story of sweet innocent young Arthur Kipps, a working class lad who suddenly inherits a fortune. He moves up in society, falls for beautiful Helen Walsingham and forgets his childhood sweetheart Ann. Or does he?
It was all marvellously old-fashioned with a big fat heart, great tunes and choreographies and frankly, a perfect show for these times with shit going on all over the world which you just want to forget about for three hours. Newcomer Charlie Stemp plays Kipps with enormous charisma and energy and you just have to love him (and hope he'll see sense). It was lovely to see Emma Williams again (whom I had only seen in Mrs Henderson Presents in the same theatre some months ago), playing posh Helen, while Devon-Elise Johnson plays Ann. Since it had all come about so unexpectedly, I really enjoyed myself and honestly think it was the better choice to Ragtime with its leaden heavy drama.
Saturday morning I spent a while christmas shopping before it was time to see the show I had most looked forward to: Andrew Lloyd Webber's "School of Rock", based on the Jack Black movie. Now I've always been an ALW fan (and not ashamed to admit that) and I had enjoyed the CD from the first moment on, not to mention that the movie is wonderful and one of those where a stage-adaptation actually makes a lot of sense.
What can I say, I enjoyed it even more live. I'm usually firmly in the "I hate kids on stage"-camp, but here they managed to show the kids (much like in Billy Elliot) as actual persons with problems, thoughts and dreams. And while I don't care for cute kiddie warbling on stage, I was absolutely in awe of the kids playing their instruments. Pint-sized Lois Jenkins as Katie was hardly taller than the bass guitar she was rocking and Toby Lee as Zack rocked out like a big'un alright on his guitar.
Speaking of the big ones, not unexpectedly I had alternate Gary Trainor as Dewey Finn, but with this demanding part I really understand that they use an alternate and it's a good excuse to go back some time to see first cast David Fynn as well. Trainor was fabulous throughout and immensely likeable, while Rosanna Hyland (Rosalie) got the big ALW ballad "Where did the rock go?" to belt out, a song I had liked instantly as it spoke to me on a very personal level. Not to mention how nice it is to have a woman sing a ballad about something that's not wanting/loving/losing/pining for a man. On the whole, "School of Rock" and "Half a Sixpence" both reminded me in their own ways why I became a musical lover many years ago and how wonderfully entertaining musicals can be, making you leave the theatre with a big smile (and hug the stuffing out of surprised friends waiting outside...).
Following coffee and a chat in Covent Garden, we had to part ways again as I had to make the trudge down to Elephant & Castle, where the Southwark Playhouse was doing the first UK production of "Side Show". While I've never been a huge fan of the show as such, "Who will love me as I am?", that ode to all freaks, geeks and outsiders everywhere has always been one of my favorite songs and made it worth the trip alone. It WAS the highlight of the show for me too, leaving me a teary mess at the end of the first act, though overall, I get why it's flopped twice on Broadway now. Somehow the story just doesn't work - it takes ages to get going, then goes nowhere fast. Maybe the Hilton twins' lives just weren't all that interesting or it's the storytelling of the musical, I don't know. The music is also not very impressive apart from the two big duets for the girls and I guess it doesn't help having two actresses who are each wonderful but don't look like twins at all and who seem to be conjoined by a pin or two only, giving them an amazing range of movement for what's meant to be Siamese Twins.
Both Louise Dearman (Daisy) and Laura Pitt-Pulford (Violet) were lovely (the latter wearing very flat shoes and the former very high heels to make up their difference in height) but it's just a strange tale overall and personally I just kept wondering why they didn't go for separation considering now little conjoined they were (even in real life). I certainly don't regret having gone to see it, as I also think the small and slighty tatty Southwark Playhouse is the perfect venue for a show about freak shows and burlesques in early 20th century and the intimacy made the audience feel part of everything.
The journey home on Sunday morning took a bit longer than expected with storm Angus tearing through the Channel, forcing the Eurostar to crawl from Calais to Lille and the Intercity from Brussels to the sticks being delayed, but it's still the most convenient way to travel, so I'm not complaining. And only two more months until I'm back to see more exciting new shows in this amazingly busy winter!
