News reaches the Whingers of the Donmar’s latest announcement. To stem the barrage of enquiries about our official reaction, here’s a summary:
The revival of the cursed musical Parade is most welcome. In 1988 1998, Hal Prince’s original Broadway production of the Alfred Uhry / Jason Robert Brown closed after just 85 performances so we’re salivating over this one. Update: We saw it
Betrayal: On balance we think we’ll skip the Pinter, thank you. A little Pinter goes a long way and having struggled intellectually (and lost) with both Pinter’s People and The Dumb Waiter we happily admit defeat. Update: We saw it anyway
Absurdia will consist of three short absurdist plays: revivals of NF Simpson’s A Resounding Tinkle and Gladly Otherwise plus a new play by Michael Frayn. Our only fear is that three short plays may add up to one very long evening with little time left for drinking and whinging. Our suggestion to the Donmar: if you’re serious about the absurd, why not run them concurrently instead of consecutively? Update: We saw it
A West End Whinger 
Friday 23 February 2007 at 6:13 pm
I enjoyed Parade immensely, but wonder if it will translate well to British audiences given its Deep South American content. Still, the score is wonderful.
Friday 23 February 2007 at 7:06 pm
Well, Caroline, or Change was received very well and we’re up to our ears in Tennessee Williams at the moment. On the other hand, wasn’t the setting of Whistle Down the Wind transferred to the Louisiana by ALW? That was a turkey by all accounts, but I don’t think we can lay that failure entirely at the door of geography. Still, it doesn’t exactly sounds like a barrel of laughs…
Saturday 28 April 2007 at 3:28 pm
You might want to get your facts straight before you start whinging about PARADE. It was not running in 1988, it wasn’t written yet! It opened at Lincoln Center in 1999. Furthermore Jason Robert Brown, who wrote the music and lyrics was still in school in the 1980s! One more thing, it must have won a Tony that June for some reason, eh??
PS: I’m Alfred Uhry’s niece
Saturday 28 April 2007 at 4:15 pm
Apologies, that WAS a typing error. I understand it opened at the Vivian Beaumont Theater (sic) on December 17, 1998 and closed 85 performances later on 28 February 1999 but to be honest that’s just cribbed out of Wikipedia.
PS: My grandmother’s cousin’s son wrote the “Eastenders” theme