Review – Gone With The Wind – The Musical! (Act 1) at the New London Theatre

The London Marathon arrived a few days early for the Whingers. Standing in freezing weather watching people run past dressed as rhinos would have been a doddle compared to this.

Thankfully the Whingers and their plus-eight (remember that – it is important later) had come prepared: thermos flasks of coffee, energy drinks, sports chocolate, pillows and hot water bottles were all smuggled into the auditorium. Beneath his smart evening-wear Andrew was sporting a natty and almost fresh set of his favourite jim-jams.

Most shockingly of all, Phil had broken his “no caffeine after 5pm” rule (one of the conditions of his ASBO) in a determined effort to make it through to the very end of the four-hour (but getting shorter) marathon that is a preview of Gone With The Wind – The Musical!

The big question on everyone’s lips, of course, was: “How can they possibly squeeze the thousand-odd pages of Margaret Mitchell’s epic novel into “just” four hours? The answer is simple…

West End Whingers to be taught in schools

And you thought education standards were in terminal decline?

In which de Jongh receives support from an unlikely quarter

Oliver’s duff media diary in today’s Independent viewspaper “exposes” the propensity of the Evening Standard’s chief critic to nod off during plays:

More of this, thank you.

Many thanks to Natasha for alerting us to Lyn Gardner’s latest addition to the Zero Stars Hall of Fame. This time the accolade goes to An Audience with the Mafia:

Hearing voices. Or not. As the case may be.

The West End Whingers are always happy to support expressions of disgruntlement aimed at sloppy stagecraft and are happy to be able to commend to you two articles in today’s The Times.

When did theatre audiences get so wussy?

One of the Whingers’ new year resolutions is to pose more questions. Not because we don’t know the answers (we do) or are interested in the opinions of others (we clearly aren’t), but because it seems to be a popular device beloved of Guardian blog sub-editors – you know the kind of thing – What theatrical experience are you dreading this year?, What were your productions of the year?, Why are UK ovations on the rise? – so we thought that we would give it a go.

Review of the Year 2007 – the worst and the less so

The general busyness of Christmas is at last on the wane – Phil has finally delivered his yule log and Andrew has put all his gifts onto ebay.

So now at last the Whingers have the time to look back over some of the horrors they’ve had the misfortune to witness during 2007 and – on the rare occasions on which praise is due – to hand out a few Whingies.

The West End Whingers’ Christmas Card List

Yes, of course the Whingers have a Christmas Card list: it contains the names of people expected to send us Christmas Cards and woe betide those who don’t.

We were thinking about publishing it, but it’s very, very long.

Anyway, we were delighted to receive this unexpected Christmas card apparently from Mark Shenton, Nicholas Hytner, Kevin Spacey and Michael Billington. Turn up the sound on your computer and click on the photo to see it in all its animated glory.

Unfortunately the Whingers are unable to send any Christmas Cards due to laziness, poverty, meanness and general absence of Christmas spirit.

But we wish all our readers a Merry Christmas nonetheless.

Yet more Box Office poison

The latest in our ongoing series of general whinging vis a vis shoddy box office (BO) experiences.

And for once it isn’t just the Whingers complaining.

Eight reasons why the West End Whingers don’t really do Shakespeare

There were a few raised eyebrows and no small amount of eye-rolling at our recent revelation that the Whingers’ outing to watch Mr Ejiofor and Mr McGregor perform in Othello at the Donmar Warehouse was, in fact, the West End Whingers’ very first joint experience of a play by Mr Shakespeare.

We have been asked to justify why we’ve all but barred the Bard from our repertoire.

Grey Saturdays – rare West End Whingers video footage

Ho hum. Christmas is coming, it’s a grey, rainy Saturday and the Whingers don’t know what to do with themselves.

South Bank confusion

The horrible thing about the South Bank is that you can’t tell what’s junk and what’s art.

The West End Whingers hate it.

This picture was taken this evening behind the Royal Festival Hall.

It’s utterly genuine.

We have no idea.

We’re rich I tell you! Rich! Rich! Rich! Othello at the Donmar

According to the London Evening Standard tickets to see Ewan McGregor in Othello at the Donmar Warehouse are changing hands for more than a grand.

This presents the Whingers with something of a dilemma.

A Broadway Diary: Saturday – flights and strikes

Phil needed new underpants. Desperately.

And given the pound’s current exchange rate against the dollar, the only sensible thing to do was fly to New York and buy some. And maybe take in some shows at the same time.

But who could have thought Broadway would have reacted so vociferously to the news?

Is it coincidence that on the day the Whingers arrive in New York, the Broadway stage hands go on strike?

Box Office Poison – Chita Rivera at the Shaw Theatre

Chita Rivera is coming to town. Or is she? Who knows? She was supposed to be coming “for two weeks only” to the Wyndham’s Theatre in September but never turned up. Anyway, this isn’t about Chita and her unreliability.

Despite that previous debacle, Phil decided to purchase 10 tickets (the Whingers like to have five seats each so they have somewhere to put our coats, picnic baskets, wine cooler, typewriters, in trays etc) to see the no-show diva at the Shaw Theatre where she claims she will – allegedly – be appearing for three nights in February 2008.