Posts Tagged ‘Samuel Barnett’
Wednesday 18 July 2018

You have to hand it to The Bridge Theatre for jumping the gun. The publicity tells us that “Alan Bennett’s new play Allelujah! is as sharp as The History Boys and as funny as The Lady in the Van“. Err, we’ll get back to you on that.
Notice there’s no mention of Mr Bennett’s last two offerings, The Habit of Art and People. We can’t imagine why. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 1 Comment »
Tags: Alan Benn, Allelujah!, Arlene Phillips, Bob Crowley, Cleo Sylvestre, comedy, Deborah Findlay, entertainment, Gwen Taylor, Jacqueline Chan, Jacqueline Clarke, Jeff Rawle, Julia Foster, London, Louis Mahoney, Nicholas Hytner, play, review, Sacha Dhawan, Samuel Barnett, Simon Williams, The Bridge Theatre, theatre, west end
Tuesday 26 May 2015

When the Whingers went to see Dion Boucicault‘s London Assurance Andrew had done a little swatting up on how to pronounce Boucicault and had great fun intoning the playwright’s name ‘Boo-see-co’ ad nauseam. Similarly Phil discovered endless pleasure in rolling ‘Farquhar’ around his tongue.
For this was George Farquhar‘s “fabulous carnal comedy” The Beaux’ Stratagem with not inconsiderable help (we suspect) from dramaturgs Simon Godwin (who also directs) and Patrick Marber. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 2 Comments »
Tags: Chook Sibtain, comedy, entertainment, Geoffrey Streatfeild, George Farquhar, Jamie Beamish, Lizzie Clachan, London, National Theatre, Patrick Marber, Pearce Quigley, Pippa Bennett-Warner, play, review, Samuel Barnett, Simon Godwin, Susannah Fielding, The Beaux' Stratagem, theatre, Timothy Watson, west end
Wednesday 10 October 2012
In the general scheme of things it shouldn’t seem that extraordinary that this was Phil’s first trip to The Globe, after all Andrew is still able to boast that his Les Misérables hymen remains chastely intact and probably always will be.
But an all-male chicks-with-dicks Twelfth Night with the starry combo of Mark Rylance and Stephen Fry proved too tempting a theatrical carrot in the slightly theme park-ish Globe. And there was added intrigue; Rylance was reprising his Olivia of 10 years ago while Fry was thesping on a stage again for the first time since he famously absconded from Cell Mates. All that and TN (with Richard III) will transfer for a run in the West End courtesy of Dame Sonia Friedman. A Globe first surely? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 2 Comments »
Tags: entertainment, Johnny Flynn, London, Mark Rylance, Paul Chahidi, Peter Hamilton Dyer, play, review, Roger Lloyd Pack, Samuel Barnett, Stephen Fry, The Globe Theatre, theatre, Tim Carroll, Twelfth Night, west end, William Shakespeare
Wednesday 13 July 2011
Ah yes, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Another thing with regard to which we are way behind the curve so we won’t labour things. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 4 Comments »
Tags: entertainment, Jamie Parker, London, play, review, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, Samuel Barnett, theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket, Tom Stoppard, Trevor Nunn, west end
Thursday 9 September 2010

[Note: this is really not worth reading unless you were there. Sorry. It’s mainly an aide memoire to ourselves]
Biggins must have had other plans. But gosh – even the Whingers had other plans. But happily the first preview of Blood and Gifts at the National got cancelled enabling the Whingers to sweep back to the Noel Coward Theatre for the opening night of Deathtrap. Happily Sir Nicholas of Hytner could now also attend and he did so with Samuel Barnett in tow.
And it seemed that everyone else in showbizzland had a gaping hole in their diaries too. Andrew’s alleged prosopagnosia was stretched further than some of the more “enhanced” famous faces on display. And his recognitions skills were not aided by the fact that he doesn’t do much in the way of telly so it was left to Phil to peer through his lorgnettes to fill in the blanks. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 5 Comments »
Tags: Amy Lamé, Barbara Windsor, Benedict Cumberbatch, Cathy McGowan, Charles Dance, Clare Francis, Clare Higgins, Con O'Neil, Deathtrap, Geoffrey Palmer, John Barrowman, June Brown, Leigh Lawson, Lesley Joseph, Marc Almond, Matthew Warchus, Michael Ball, Michael Grade, Michael Medwin, Nicholas Hytner, Nick Ross, Noel Coward Theatre, Pamela Cundell, Patina Miller, Samuel Barnett, Shirley Anne Field, Sian Phillips, Simon Russell Beale, Stephen Fry, Sue Johnston, Toby Jones, Trevor Bannister, Twiggy
Tuesday 4 May 2010
Oh, it had all been going so well.
The National Theatre
seemed to have been climbing – laboriously, admirably, precipitously – a ladder back into the Whingers’ hearts. London Assurance, The White Guard had almost wiped the slate clean. Then to top it all, last Monday night’s Spring Storm shook off the Whingers’ jet-lag like a quadruple expresso and a wrap of Rooster Byron’s speed – and at the Cottesloe for God’s sake!
But perhaps it’s not fair to blame Thomas Middleton, his Jacobean tragedy Women Beware Women or the director Marianne Elliot for last Tuesday’s disappointment.
We blame the seats. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 4 Comments »
Tags: entertainment, London, Marianne Elliot, National Theatre, review, Samuel Barnett, sightlines, theatre, ThomasMiddleton, west end, Women Beware Women
Saturday 13 February 2010
James Graham’s play at the Bush about a former History Boy with synæsthesia is very much orange – an orange somewhere between Jacobs cream crackers and Flymo. Or perhaps slightly more like a satsuma left over from Christmas 1967 in the first week of February but with the distinct taste of a recently brushed brick. There is the unmistakable aroma of a recently unfolded pacamac.
Graham’s dialogue resembles the leaf of an Antirrhinum but with less of the smell of EPNS cutlery. Kate O’Flynn is like Nesquik. There’s an amusing turn from Simon Merrells (who is in The Wolfman – how periwinkle is that?) which just IS a bottle of Liebfraumilch rolling along a caravan table on the Gower peninsula at Whitsun.
At two and a half hours it begins to feel like the sound of a Bel Cream Maker when brushed up against the tag of a Ladybird t-shirt from Woollies (the Telford branch). But nowithstanding, it’s got that distinctive salty sound one associates with an episode of Oh, Brother! starring Derek Nimmo.
To summarise: it’s exactly like the feel of a Dinnefords bottle through a Findus crispy pancake.
Rating

Posted in West End Whingers | 4 Comments »
Tags: Bush Theatre, fringe, James Graham, Kate O'Flynn, London, review, Samuel Barnett, Simon Merrells, The Whisky Taster, theatre