Review – Mischief Movie Night, Arts Theatre

If you pick up a copy of Mischief Movie Night‘s “Special Rehearsal Edition Script” (Bloomsbury) in the Arts Theatre foyer you’ll find it’s blank.

Of course it is. This is Mischief Theatre‘s (AKA The Play That Goes Wrong team) latest foray onto the West End stage. A show starring most of TPTGW‘s original cast (Bryony Corrigan, Dave Hearn, Charlie Russell, Jonathan Sayer and the Henrys Shields and Lewis etc)  returning to their improv comedy roots in a show “starring them, directed by you!”

Review – The Tailor-Made Man, Arts Theatre

The Whingers had only the vaguest memories of the story of William Haines (Phil was sure he’d read about him in Kenneth Anger’s Hollywood Babylon but wasn’t certain), the Hollywood leading man turned interior designer-to-the-stars. But then most of the Whingers’ memories are vague these days.

Haines (Dylan Turner) came to fame in the twenties after winning a talent show (perhaps X Factor winners should consider enrolling in interior design courses to ensure they have a fall-back) and was what we used to call a homosexual, but one who wouldn’t stick to convention or studio rules and lived for 50 years with his ex-marine partner Jimmie (Bradley Clarkson) in an relationship so open that his second home was the docks and his film career (which included Tell It to the Marines, Navy Blues and The Marines Are Coming) ended when he was arrested for picking up a jolly jack tar. The Whingers are tempted to stop sniffing their Magic Marker pens for a moment and use them to alter the posters for The Tailor-Made Man, a musical about Haines’ nautically nuanced life, to the equally apt The Sailor-Mad Man.

Review – The Killing of Sister George, Arts Theatre

It will come as little surprise to hear that the Whingers can be very slow on the uptake.

As Andrew and Phil surveyed Ciaran Bagnall’s set for Frank Marcus’ 1964 lesbian drama The Killing of Sister George, they found themselves in deep discussion (don’t panic, we’ve not gone all American tourist. The play hadn’t actually started; there is no front curtain) as to where it was supposed to be taking place.

Could it be Captain Nemo’s submarine Nautilus in Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea? We don’t remember that from the Beryl Reid film. Or the lair of some Gotham City criminal overlord? Ditto. Could it be a huge ladybit? How would we know?

It took some time before we cottoned on that we were probably inside a giant wireless (in the old sense of the word).

Review – Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy in Concert, Arts Theatre

Goodness. What with Jerusalem missing out on the Olivier Award for Best Play, there’s only so many shocks the Whingers can take in 24 hours.

But who would think that sweet, adorable Partridge Family mom, “legendary Hollywood and Broadway leading lady” and Academy Award winner Shirley Jones and her son Patrick Cassidy making their UK stage debuts would provide another?

There are of course people without the advanced seniority of the Whingers who have no idea who Shirley Jones is, but if they turned up at the Arts Theatre, (and let’s face it why would they if they hadn’t heard of her?) they would be in no doubt by the time Miss Jones finally stepped onto the stage.

Because helpfully Shirley Jones and Patrick Cassidy in Concert kicks off with her greatest moments through the medium of film clips projected onto a screen only slightly bigger than a tea tray. Highlights include Oklahoma!, Carousel, The Music Man, a montage of screen kisses with Hollywood greats (Cagney, Lancaster, Hope etc), duetting with Sinatra and beating Janet Leigh (for her role in Psycho) to the Best Supporting Actress Oscar (for Elmer Gantry), and receiving the award in a frock large enough to house the entire Partridge family.