Posts Tagged ‘Matthew White’
Wednesday 27 November 2019
If you’re looking for a joyously silly, consciously dated piece of fluff of a musical with instantly hummable tunes with a plot flimsier than an election promise then this might just be the show you’ve been looking for.
The Boy Friend is about as far from Dear Evan Hansen as you can possibly get (chorus boys’ DEH striped T shirts aside).
Sandy Wilson produced the music, lyrics and book for this 1953 show, a pastiche of 1920’s musicals apparently, although as the show is in its seventh decade now it’s easy to miss that it was a spoof. It is so gloriously un-PC that even the colour blind casting of Amara Okereke as Polly Browne is sometimes turned on its head by a script that even seems to send that up. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 6 Comments »
Tags: Adrian Edmondson, Amara Okereke, Bill Deamer, Dylan Mason, entertainment, Issy Van Randwyck, Janie Dee, London, Matthew White, Menier Chocolate Factory, musical, off-West End, Paul Farnsworth, review, Richard Mawbey, Sandy Wilson, theatre
Tuesday 29 November 2016
You wait for ever for a seductively old-fashioned and tuneful period musical about a shop assistant falling in love, staged handsomely on four turntables and you get two in a row. What are the chances?
Following on the heels of the winning Half A Sixpence comes the Menier’s seasonal offering She Loves Me (book by Joe Masteroff, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and music by Jerry Bock).
Essence It’s based on a play by Hungarian playwright Miklós László that inspired the films The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old Summertime and You’ve Got Mail. Tinder is yet to be invented and Amalia (Scarlett Strallen) and Georg (Mark Umbers), correspond gushingly in old-style ink (hurrah!) despite never having met, until that is, Amalia wheedles her way into a job at Maraczek’s Parfumerie in Budapest where Georg happens to work. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 2 Comments »
Tags: Alastair Brookshaw, and music by Jerry Bock., Callum Howells, Dominic Tighe, entertainment, Jerry Bock, Joe Masteroff, Katherine Kingsley, Les Dennis, Mark Umbers, Matthew White, Menier Chocolate Factory, Miklós László, musical, off-West End, Paul Farnsworth, review, Scarlett Strallen, She Loves Me, Sheldon Harnick, theatre
Monday 2 December 2013
Phil’s 4th Candide, and if he had a better memory he would make comparisons. So a swift read up of the Whingers’ last one (at the ENO) reminded him that, in that case, it was long (3¼ hours), gimmicky and sometimes inaudible.
But that’s what can happen if you let opera companies have their wicked way with it. Thankfully this one is shorter (2 hours 40 mins), the often brilliant lyrics entirely audible and the staging traditional.
Well, one might say traditional if one were not a Whinger. The Menier’s production is off-puttingly staged in the round. But, and swallowing hard, Phil was forced reluctantly to admit that it works. Yes, occasionally there is the discomfort of a little Linda Blair-ish head swivelling to see the performers as they cavort around the auditorium (choreography Adam Cooper), but on the plus side you’re close enough to get a hooped skirt in your face and if seated in the front row may even find yourself becoming part of the show wearing a natty red titfer. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 2 Comments »
Tags: Adam Cooper, Candide, Dorothy Parker, entertainment, Jackie Clune, James Dreyfus, John Latouche, Leonard Bernstein, Lillian Hellman, London, Matthew White, Menier Chocolate Factory, musical, off-West End, Paul Farnsworth, review, Richard Wilbur, Scarlett Strallen, Stephen Sondheim, theatre, Voltaire
Tuesday 1 May 2012
Andrew recently passed a big and significant landmark which, to put it delicately, did not involve sitting aboard the 52 bus and whizzing past the Royal Albert Hall.
No, it was one of those occasions where everyone was coming up with ideas for unusual things he could do on the actual day. Phil suggested he stayed in and blew the dust off that anthology of Harold Pinter he gave him several birthdays ago. Some hope. (In case you’re interested, he ended up spending it with Nancy Lam)
But if Andrew ever feels despondent about his advancing years he can always instantly feel 20 years younger for the price of a theatre ticket – at least for as long as Top Hat runs.
The Whingers were feeling almost nubile amongst the Aldwych crowd. When Phil stood up before the show started to see how many were in the orchestra pit (15 for the record) a shrinking mittel-European lady behind him tapped him on the shoulder and anxiously enquired, “I hope you’re not going to keep standing up during ze show”. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 8 Comments »
Tags: Bill Deamer, entertainment, Hildegard Bechtler, Howard Jacques, Irving Berlin, London, Martin Ball, Matthew White, musical, review, Ricardo Afonso, Stephen Boswell, Summer Strallen, theatre, Tom Chambers, Top Hat, Vivien Parry, west end
Saturday 19 February 2011
What with the endless 8oth birthday celebrations for Stephen Sondheim, revivals of his shows now seem almost as common as gold stars for The King’s Speech with more to come (celebrations to mark Mr Sondheim’s 81st birthday commence on 22 March).
But the latest production of Company at the Southwark Playhouse is billed as “a major new revival”. So that’s different.
The Whingers quite like Company (with a big C, not each others’ company) because it’s sharp, witty and tuneful. But having seen the Union Theatre’s excellent, but presumably only minor, revival less than two years ago we weren’t sure we were quite ready for another.
But then if we didn’t go it would always be gnawing away at us: how was “The Ladies Who Lunch”?
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 8 Comments »
Tags: Company, entertainment, fringe, George Furth, Joe Fredericks, Leigh McDonald, London, Mark Curry, Matthew White, musical, review, Rupert Young, Sam Spencer-Lane, Siobhan McCarthy, Southwark Playhouse, Stephen Sondheim, Steven Serlin, theatre
Monday 23 November 2009
Regular readers of the Whingers’ comments sections may have noticed Sir Andrew Lloyds Credit Crunch complaint that “I pay you to WHINGE, not CRAWL.”
Perhaps this will at least, in part, justify the regular charitable direct debit paid into the Whingers’ joint bank account (Andrew to Phil – what bank account? Do we have a bank account?). But, Sir Andrew, before you withdraw your generous remunerations entirely, you should know that what follows is a perfectly balanced combination of both the W word and the C word. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 19 Comments »
Tags: Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields, Ebony Molina, entertainment, Gareth Owen, Josefina Gabrielle, London, Mark Umbers, Matthew White, Menier Chocolate Factory, musical, Neil Simon, off-West End, Paul J Medford, review, Richard Mawbey, Stephen Mear, Sweet Charity, Tamzin Outhwaite, theatre, Tim Shortall, west end