Review – The Importance of Being Earnest – A New Musical, Riverside Studios

Yes, it sounds so wrong in oh so many ways doesn’t it?

The Importance of Being Earnest as a musical? But then again (and we know we really should have tried harder) the Whingers’ curiosity wasn’t even piqued enough by Ann Widdecombe’s panto debut to drag them to Dartford this season. But Gyles Brandreth giving his Lady Bracknell? This proved a USP big enough to brave the trek to Hammersmith’s Riverside Studios.

Dragged-up Lady Bs are of course nothing new. Brian Bedford has recently delivered one on Broadway, Geoffrey Rush is giving his down under. Heavens, Phil saw the brilliant Hinge and Bracket as Miss Prism and Lady B respectively at the then Whitehall Theatre. Mind you, it was execrable.

And this could so easily have turned out to go the same way but remarkably it is in fact really rather good.

Review – Salad Days, Riverside Studios

You see, the thing is, if you looked at the synopsis of Salad Days and thought, “That’s preposterous,” then ran your eye over the list of songs and thought, “Never heard of any of them,” and then picked up the fact that this revival at the Riverside Studios was staged in the traverse and that the seating was unallocated you might very well think that this was a show you could comfortably miss.

But  it turns out you would be wrong.