Posts Tagged ‘Sheridan Smith’
Tuesday 8 December 2015
Yes, we were the luckiest people in the world. We got tickets!
This was the Menier‘s fastest-selling production (entire run sold out in a few hours) and an announcement of a transfer to the West End well before Funny Girl – the story of Broadway star Fanny Brice – had even started previews. People who need tickets needn’t panic.
Andrew was fastest finger first and nabbed some for the last preview (yes, we are a bit behind). So expectations were absurdly high. Would we be drooling over Sheridan Smith‘s Fanny? Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 8 Comments »
Tags: Bob Merrill, Darius Campbell, entertainment, Fanny Brice, Funny Girl, Gay Soper, Harvey Fierstein, Isobel Lennart, Joel Montague, Jule Styne, London, Lynne Page, Marilyn Cutts, Mark Henderson, Matthew Wright, Maurice Lane, Menier Chocolate Factory, Michael Mayer, Michael Pavelka, musical, off-West End, review, Savoy Theatre, Sheridan Smith, theatre, Valda Aviks, west end
Friday 13 September 2013
In which David Walliams offers us his Bottom and his ass.
The penultimate play in the Michael Grandage season, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, comes in niftily, at this early preview, at just over 2 and a quarter hours (including interval). Impressive really since Walliams’ deliberately overdone play-within-a-play death scene seemed to take up almost half of Act 2. Milking it was not the word. The milk was turning to cheese with thick slices of Frankie Howard ham on the side and, depending on your take on Walliams, also very funny. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 6 Comments »
Tags: A Midsummer Night's Dream, Christopher Oram, David Walliams, entertainment, Gavin Fowler, Katherine Kingsley, London, Michael Grandage, Noel Coward Theatre, play, review, Richard Mawbey, Sam Swainsbury, Sheridan Smith, Stefano Braschi, Susannah Fielding, theatre, west end, William Shakespeare
Wednesday 12 September 2012
Mark Shenton must been wearing a turban and fingering his crystal ball when he wrote in his Stage blog on Monday “I always say there is no true objectivity in reviewing; we inevitably bring who we are to what we write and it is sometimes (though we try to make adjustments for personal circumstances) dictated by just how we are feeling that day. You’re not always in the mood for Chekhovian or Ibsenite misery.” Indeed.
Poor Mr Ibsen didn’t really stand much of a chance coming the night after the Whingers had been so overly-entertained at the Hackney Empire’s Golden Years of Variety.
As Andrew had mused “If only all theatre could be like this; I’d be there every night”.
What was not to like? Roy Hudd, Melvyn Hayes, Tony Hatch on the old joanna with his ‘Downtown’ and ‘Messing About on the River’ by way of his Crossroads/Neighbours/Emmerdale themes, Barry Cryer, Sharon D Clarke, Paul Zerdin’s brilliant vent act, Clive Rowe and a stage crammed with pantomime Dames, Rick Wakeman playing nursery rhymes in the style of classical composers (and Les Dawson), the hilarious – it’s a live thing, trust us on this – Joe Pasquale, 89 year-old bird song impersonating legend Ronnie Ronalde and plate-spinners Andy Van Buren and Allyson to name but a few. Yes, plate-spinning! Now that’s what we call entertainment. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 1 Comment »
Tags: Anna Mackmin, Anne Reid, Brian Friel, Daniel Lapaine, Darrell D'Silva, entertainment, Fennella Woolgar, Hackney Empire, Hedda Gabler, Henrik Ibsen, London, Mark Shenton, Old Vic, play, review, Sheridan Smith, The Golden Years of Variety, theatre, west end
Friday 30 December 2011
Yes, the Whingers’ much coveted trophies are lined up to be divvied out again.
Artistic excellence? Possibly. Realistically most of of our glittering awards would go north of the border after our uncharacteristically enthusiastic response to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, an unusual period where we packed in so much entertainment we feared we were turning into Mark Shenton.
But after momentary deliberation and decidedly tepid debate we have eventually settled on some worthy winners. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 5 Comments »
Tags: awards, Bertie Carvel, Covering McKellen: An Understudy's Tale, David Weston, entertainment, Flare Path, Frankenstein, Ghost, Jonny Lee Miller, Juno and the Paycock, London, Matilda, Nigel Harman, Oliver Chris, One Man, review, Sheridan Smith, Shrek, The Ladykillers, theatre, Two Guvnors, west end, Whingies
Wednesday 23 March 2011
It’s an perfectly understandable but misheld conception that the Whingers are difficult to please. Actually it’s deceptively untroublesome.
It’s the little things really: alighting at a theatre and ascertaining the show is 90 minutes with no hiatus; finding enough wine in the bottle for another couple of glasses when we thought we’d drained it; hearing on the wireless that another actress has been glorified as a Dame Commander of the British Empire.
But there’s nothing quite like discovering a new salutation with which to raise one’s pre and post show libations. And believe us, we’ve been practising diligently after inspecting this revival of Terrence Rattigan‘s Flare Path.
“Tinkerty tonk!”
Try it. It trips off the tongue in the most profoundly satisfying manner. No other shibboleth is nearly as agreeable.
So even if there had been little else to fancy in Sir Trev of Nunn‘s first production of his season at the Theatre Royal Haymarket we would have still emerged deeply obliged, our lives enriched. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 9 Comments »
Tags: Clive Wood, Emma Handy, entertainment, Flare Path, Harry Hadden-Paton, James Purefoy, Joe Armstrong, London, Michelle Piper, play, review, Sarah Crowden, Sheridan Smith, Sienna Miller, Terrence Rattigan, theatre, Theatre Royal Haymarket, Trevor Nunn, west end
Tuesday 15 December 2009
OMIGOD! The Whingers’ biggest ever outing!
OMIGOD! 20 of them. 20 different opinions including one who famously “doesn’t do musicals”. How could one show possibly please this disparate bunch?
OMIGOD! Over the last few months Phil had been bombarded with pink envelopes with that irritating expression embossed in silver upon them as the publicity for Legally Blonde went into hyperdrive. The envelopes each contained a CD featuring (presumably the best) four songs from the show. Phil played a CD once and only once and passed onto Andrew with the words OHDEAR!
As the Whingers and their crew started the long trek down the stairs into the beautiful Art Deco Savoy Theatre they spotted signs telling them that the performance was being recorded and that if they didn’t want their images filmed they should have a word with the management. Would the Whingers’ cover be finally blown? Would they have to adopt their signature poses for the entire evening? How could they possibly find and tell the management in time?
Well they probably could have as the packed house (capacity 1,158) took some seating. Despite urgent entreaties that the performance would start in one minute the curtain went up 10 minutes late. Even worse, programmes were an absurd £6.50* and the show features Phil’s theatrical pet hate park benches – yes two of them! – it was going to take an awful lot of theatrical magic to turn the evening round for the Whingers. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in West End Whingers | 21 Comments »
Tags: Alex Gaumond, Aoife Mulholland, Chris Ellis-Stanton, Duncan James, entertainment, Heather Hach, Jerry Mitchell, Jill Halfpenny, Laurence O'Keefe, Legally Blonde, London, lottery, musical, Nell Benjamin, Peter Davison, review, Savoy Theatre, Sheridan Smith, theatre, west end
Wednesday 7 May 2008
Why, oh why, oh why don’t people just ask us before they go around putting on plays willy nilly?
It would save an awful lot of strife, time, expense, trouble and suffering in the long run. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Bryan Dick, Bush Theatre, entertainment, fringe, James Farncombe, Jamie Foreman, Josie Rourke, London, Lucy Kirkwood, Lucy Osborne, Nigel Betts, review, Sartaj Garewal, Shepherds Bush, Sheridan Smith, theatre | 7 Comments »
Tags: Bryan Dick, Bush Theatre, entertainment, fringe, James Farncombe, Jamie Foreman, Josie Rourke, London, Lucy Kirkwood, Lucy Osborne, Nigel Betts, review, Sartaj Garewal, Shepherds Bush, Sheridan Smith, theatre