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.

Review – Lady Be Good, Open Air Theatre, Regents Park

When the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park announced that it was to produce George & Ira Gershwin’s Lady Be Good two major questions immediately presented themselves to the West End Whingers:

1. So soon after the remorseless un-stitching of the genre by The Drowsy Chaperone, would it be possible to get away with staging a frothy 1920s musical?
2. What happened to the punctuation?

Elaine “Write That Down!” Paige helps Phil with his dissertation

Although Phil’s forthcoming magnum opus is concerned principally with the consumption of food on stage, he is also interested in the technicalities of on-stage drinking (especially alcohol, of course) so he was thrilled to hear Elaine Paige share some of the tricks of her trade.

Michael Ball’s Beard

The Whingers often think about Hair.

Not the iconic musical of the sixties but the stuff that is prone to sprout from the head and face and other places the Whingers are too polite to mention (nose and ears in Andrew’s case).

But actor/singer Michael Ball has been seen out and about recently – including at the opening of The Drowsy Chaperone and presenting This Morning (right) – sporting a glorious beard.

Apparently he’s grown a full set for the upcoming ENO production of Kismet thus keeping costs down for the wig department. But the Whingers feel that hair if not just on his chin, must be very much on Mr Ball’s mind at the moment.

Top 10 songs from shows within shows

The pastiche of 1920s musical theatre featured in The Drowsy Chaperone reminded us that there’s a terrific revue waiting to be commissioned (Hey, Mr Producer. We’re talking to you, sir.) based around songs from shows within shows or shows within films. Or films within shows. Or films within films. Or just musical performances portrayed in a naturalistic context.

Anyway, anyway. Here are the Whingers’ Top Ten parodies and pastiches.

Review – The Drowsy Chaperone, Novello Theatre, London

Andrew is frequently in a drowsy state when he visits the theatre these days; perhaps it’s the alcohol, or possibly the company he keeps.

But something about The Drowsy Chaperone had titillated his jaded palate. Could it be watching the comedy number “Show Off ” on YouTube? He certainly seemed to have adopted it as his new signature tune.

Elaine Paige gives the West End Whingers a new catchphrase

And we think it will catch on…

Putting the Drowsy in Chaperone

The producers of Broadway transfer The Drowsy Chaperone are obviously desperate to seduce the Whingers. Or just desperate.

In a previous blog the Whingers noted the strange wording in their promotions. Now, presumably having taken heed from WEW, they’ve come up with another tag line in their ads, which have surely been worded specifically to woo the Whingers alcohol marinated hearts.

The Drowsy Chaperone: we know what you mean, but…

Don’t get us wrong.

We’re willing The Drowsy Chaperone to be good, albeit just on the strength of one video on YouTube.

But we’re not convinced that today’s ad in the Evening Standard is going to help.

ticket tip – The Drowsy Chaperone

The last time the West End Whingers hit Broadway (almost four years ago) it was not an altogether satisfactory experience. Although they did get to see two excellent shows – Hairspray and The Producers – a musicians’ strike postponed the opening of the revival of Nine, meaning that they missed it by a week, and the otherwise marvellous Harriet Harris failed to turn up to play Mrs Meers in Thoroughly Modern Millie on the night they went (not an unusual occurence, by all accounts).

But now may be the time to give Broadway a second chance thanks to one little video on YouTube. It’s an excerpt from The Drowsy Chaperone (as performed in the Tony awards). Watch it, and we think you’ll be hooked too.

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ5G6FoX1sg]

See you on Broadway!

18/01/07 Update: The Drowsey Chaperone will play at the Novello Theatre in London, previewing from 14 May 2007; press night 5 June; booking until 23 February 2008. Elaine Paige to star. Bob Martin will reprise his Broadway role as “man in chair”

16 May 2007. Footnote: We saw it and this this what we thought.