After just ten days I was back on the railways to London in what must be a personal record of crazy. But at least this trip had long been planned, mostly because it finally gave me the opportunity to see my dear friend Jodie Jackson again, who's turned from performing in musicals to a very successful career as a Madonna tribute act and is now touring the country with "Material Girl - The Madonna Story" with Madonna's greatest hits from the 80s and 90s (which had the additional lure that I was actually a big Madonna fan when she and I were both young in the 80s and I knew most of these songs!). At last the tour did a stop in the Greater London orbit on a day that worked for me, so after the usual schlep across Belgium, France and Kent on the Eurostar, I immediately headed on to Crawley in West-Sussex, just south of Gatwick Airport - a place I hadn't even known existed a few months ago! Thanks to the proximity to the airport it has a great selection of hotels and I opted for the cheapish Holiday Inn Express just a few minutes down the road from The Hawth where the show would take place.
I feel it would be unfair to hold "Material Girl" to West End standards or anything - it's a small show with a single stage set with a huge boom box in the background. A screen in the middle of it was often used to show video clips and press reels of various moments of Madonna's early career, bringing back long-forgotten memories of stuff like her movie "Desperately Seeking Susan" and other stuff from the 80's. Jodie herself appeared in many of Madonna's iconic outfits of the period like the long robe from "Material Girl" and a copy of THAT Gaultier corset. Her act was backed by a chorus of six young and excellent dancers. I can't really be neutral about a friend on stage, but I can definitely say that I had a fantastic time with this wonderfully performed trip down memory lane and while the venue wasn't sold out, the Madonna fans were out in full force (some even dressed up) creating a fun atmosphere. Needless to say it was also wonderful to catch up with a good friend afterwards at the hotel bar.
Despite the lateness of the evening, I was up again early for the next leg of this curious trip: The mighty Arundel Castle, which had been on my bucket list for quite some time and handily seemed to lie just en route to my destination for the day, Chichester. Of course it wasn't that easy and the English weather decided to be terrifically English, bringing storm, rain and sunshine almost at the same time, so sadly it all became a rather soggy affair. The castle has been the seat of the Earls of Arundel since 1141 and since these Earls are also the Dukes of Norfolk, the most important Dukes of the lot and hereditary Marshals of England. You'd think they're stinking rich enough, but they still charge you a whopping £22 to pootle around their castle. At least it was somewhat worth it, because there's an awful lot to see, so here are a few pictures. Above is the actual castle and the oldest part, the Keep from 12th century where Empress Matilda once came to stay in 1139. Since the Norfolks actually still live in the castle, only some parts are open to the public, so here are some fancy rooms and the lovely gardens (in not so lovely weather):
The storm that soaked me in Arundel had also played havoc with the railway lines, so I spent a good hour waiting at tiny Arundel Station until finally a train came to take me as far as Barnham, where I could change to a train for Chichester, just one stop down the line. Chichester, which had been founded in Roman times already, is a pretty little down in West Sussex close to the coast and known among theatre lovers for the annual Chichester Festival. Each summer, a few new shows are staged here to later transfer to the West End, so I had been as curious to see the city as the theatre. This year they did me a huge favour by finally reviving "Me and My Girl", a show which I had been waiting to see for many years. It first opened in London in 1937 and is one of the very few classic musicals originating in England. A big revival was staged in the West End in 1985 and ran for an impressive eight years until 1993 - just the years when I got interested in musicals. But while I had been aware of its existence, I was too young yet and fixated on a handful of blockbusters to try and see it. So now I finally got the chance and hoped for something akin to "Half a Sixpence" which also originated at the Chichester Festival and turned Charlie Stemp into an overnight star. But alas.
The slender story is that of Bill Snibson, a working class Cockney from Lambeth, who turns out to be the missing heir of the aristocratic Harefords. His aunt, the Duchess Maria, tries to whip him into shape, while all sorts of shenanigans ensue and Bill doesn't want to leave his Cockney girlfriend Sally behind. Back in the 80s, the role of Bill was a massive breakthrough for Robert Lindsay and I had quite expected them to cast another fresh-faced newcomer like Charlie Stemp here (or the man himself, except that he's still gadding about on Broadway). Instead they went for Matt Lucas, who achieved fame (along with David Walliams) with "Little Britain" on TV and appeared briefly in Les Mis as Thenardier, where I actually saw him and thought he was surprisingly decent. I had misgivings about him in this though and sadly they were more than confirmed. He can't dance, he can't sing, but most fatally, he comes across as an idiotic buffoon and not at all as an irresistible charmer who has the audience eating out of his hand. To be fair, the audience did seem to like him, but I couldn't warm to him at all and it pretty much ruined the whole show for me. Which is a pity, because most everything else was top notch: Great stage sets and costumes (that will delight everyone who was ever glued to Downton Abbey) and some terrific performers such as Alex Young as Sally, Caroline Quentin as Duchess Maria, Clive Rowe as Sir John, Meghan Markle-lookalike Siubhan Harrison as Lady Jaqueline and the lovely Dominic Marsh (last seen in the wonderful "Romantics Anonymous") as Gerald. Another completely idiotic decision, which I attribute to the present obsession with being oh so woke, was to turn the family solicitor Parchester into a woman (Jennie Dale), but leave her in male clothing of the period that made her look incredibly ugly. It also made no sense, as this is not one of those shows with a terrible gender imbalance, with three great female parts available. Oh well, the theatre was sold out and the audience seemed to love it, so I'm sure it will transfer to London. I might give this another chance once a new leading man has taken over or if Matt Lucas is definitely on holiday, because it's a perfectly charming and massively entertaining show, but I don't think I've ever seen anything so completely ruined by a bad leading man.
After two days in the provinces, I was glad to be on a train back to the metropolis, where I had time only to head to my hotel (a brand-new Travelodge in Aldgate that luckily offered luggage storage), dump my bag, find lunch and head to my first show, the matinee of "The King and I" which started at 2pm already. This is a limited season transfer of the acclaimed Lincoln Center production from Broadway and when it was first announced my thought was "naw, I saw 'The King and I' a while ago at exactly the same theatre, no need to bother". But then I realized that "a while" was actually 18 years ago and there was nothing much else to see, so I bit the bullet and availed myself of one of the outrageously priced tickets that seem to have come straight from Broadway along with the cast. It's beyond me why there's a flutter about "The King and I" being racist and condescending towards the East while that Old White Man's fantasy of Asian girls "Miss Saigon" still gets away with parading far more racism and a big old dollop of sexism on top. Rodgers/Hammerstein portray the Siamese court and the King with far more respect, not to mention that Anna is a strong female heroine. I don't feel like going deeper into these issues now, so to stick with the show: It was very well done overall, but dragged in parts, especially the endless "Uncle Tom's Cabin"-Ballet in the second act. The cast was universally fantastic (as is to be expected with these prices), led by Broadway star Kelli O'Hara as Anna and Japanese film star Ken Watanabe as the King.
People have been effusive with praise for Kelli and while she was great indeed, I couldn't help thinking that it's not so much her performance but the fact that you rarely ever hear these fabulous classic soprano parts on musical stages anymore, it's all shouty pop music. I was also pleased to see Ruthie Ann Miles, who created the part of Imelda Marcos in "Here lies love", one of the few cast recordings I keep playing a lot, as Lady Thiang. She had been involved in a terrible car accident and much personal tragedy earlier in the year and only just joined the London cast a week ago or so - and is still using a walking stick. Which didn't stop her from giving a great performance along with Na-Young Jeon as doomed Tuptim and Ex-Aladdin Dean John-Wilson as Lun Tha. Definitely had a good time and glad I persuaded myself to fork out for this from a good seat in the (side) stalls.
From the court of Siam it was back to the Batcave once again, where the fates conspired to make up for the bummer two weeks ago when the two leads were absent. This time I could actually enter the backstage side of the Batcave to meet Rob Fowler, aka Evil Falco for a quick chat and a photo, and he even gave me a poster signed by the leads as a gift. So not evil at all, but an utterly lovely human being who quite made my day! The show itself was back in full form as well, proving (in nice reflection of Friday) just how much it matters to have a strong leading man carrying it. Whatever young Andrew is on, I want some spoonfuls of it, because that kind of energy puts a whole factory of Duracell bunnies to shame and him doing everything 150% made all the difference to Jordan "just performing" two weeks ago. There were some interesting understudies around as well, with Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky ably stepping into the mighty boots of Danielle Steers as Zahara, Hannah Ducharme as Sloane and Joseph Peacock (who looks about 12) as Tink. Sadly I counted more empty seats than before which is a crying shame considering how much each audience I've witnessed is enjoying this, leaping to their feet instantly for a standing ovation at the end. I know that not many shows are selling out at the moment (heck, even "The King and I" had seats available) and the Dominion is a huge barn to fill, but I still hope my beloved Bats will continue strong, winning more fans along the way. I actually had my phone ready this time, so here's also the finale:
