Review – Dear World, Charing Cross Theatre

It’s potty time for the Whingers.

In the whiffy wake of The Captain of Köpenick and its distinctive USP (a woman performing her number twos into a chamberpot live on the Olivier stage) we are now granted another form of potty: madness.

Dear World, falls between two, err, stools with its lunacy. On the one hand there is the cuckoo Countess Aurelia (AKA Jean Giraudoux‘s The Madwoman of Chaillot) and on the other the brave decision to stage Jerry Herman‘s decidedly barmy 1969 “musical fable” (original book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee, new version by David Thompson) at all. This is a show that flopped badly on Broadway despite a Tony Award-winning turn from Angela Lansbury.

The Very Worst Musicals – No 1. Carrie (an appreciation)

With Andrew traipsing round former Yugoslavia (getting himself in the mood for another Eastern European Eurovision Song Contest victory), the Whingers are on a much needed break from bad theatre. This leaves Phil free to mull (inspired by the satisfying panning of Gone With the Wind) over the very worst shows he’s had the pleasure to experience.

It’s a long list, among the mouth-watering contenders: Jean Seberg, Leonardo the Musical: A Portrait of Love, Metropolis and Jeeves (the original 1975 version), but standing like a beacon of kitsch above the rest is that now legendary spectacle of Carrie – The Musical. (Dubiously ambiguous poster right)