Review – Jesus Christ Superstar, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Some things you may not know about Jesus Christ Superstar:

It was the first show Phil saw in the West End. He came up from Wiltshire with friends to see the original London cast at the Palace Theatre. A theatre he is now unlikely to ever see the interior of again.

He recorded the original JCS album on his reel-to-reel tape recorder. A microphone placed between the speakers of his friend’s stereo. A household forced into silence for an hour and a half.

He typed out the entire lyrics using his sister’s Brother typewriter, bound the sheets with Sellotape and created a cover reproducing the album artwork using felt tip pens. Quite an achievement for a 25 year-old.

He went to see this revival at Regent’s Park on the night the show was cancelled.

Review – The Hothouse, Trafalgar Studios / This House, National Theatre

We are of course far too indolent to check, but this is possibly our first conjoined review.

It’s a time thing really. We’re all behind, but in our defence there are parallels between these plays: both are “house”-titled, have on-stage, set-specific audience seating and are boisterously over-the-top comedic satires set in institutions run by dangerously potty people.

The Hothouse features John Simm, Simon Russell Beale, Indira Varma, John Heffernan, Clive Rowe and Christopher Timothy and the aforementioned chance to be up there with them. You’d be forgiven for assuming Andrew would have been there wouldn’t you?

Easy come, easy go

According to his column today Baz Bamigboye has “donated £100 to the Actors’ Charitable Trust, which runs the Denville Hall care home for elderly actors”.

That sounds very generous of him but let us be clear: the Whingers won this money fair and square.

In January 2010 Mr Bamigboye bet the Whingers that Legally Blonde would not be running a year hence. It is. Yet somehow he hoodwinked us into believing that the decent thing to do would be to give the money to charity.

Baz Bamigboye’s Big Blonde Bet

If you don’t read veteran showbiz scribe Baz Bamigboye’s “It’s Friday” column on, er, Fridays in the Daily Mail you won’t have seen a piece mentioning a £100 bet with the West End Whingers.

And for those of you who did see it, the Whingers wish to set the record straight.