Review – Twelfth Night, The Globe Theatre

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?

Review – Liberace: Live From Heaven, Assembly George Square, Edinburgh Fringe

You can’t say the Whingers aren’t taking risks on the Fringe.

Bobby Crush in Liberace: Live From Heaven (the place people supposedly go after death, not the 80s nightclub you understand), now you really wouldn’t have expected us to take a punt on that now would you?

Well the clues in the title. Liberace is poised at the gates of heaven and has to convince St Peter (voiced by Stephen Fry) and God (voiced by Victoria Wood) why he should be admitted through the Pearly Gates or take the elevator to hell. And then we the audience ultimately vote to seal his fate.

But the big mystery for the Whingers was why a party of about 10 people walked out 15 minutes into the show. Didn’t they know what they were coming to? L:LFH does exactly what it says on the tin.

We get a potted biography as he takes us through his life, arguing his case and of course plenty of delightful piano playing from Crush’s Liberace and that’s when the show is at its best. Crush has the twinkling mannerisms down to a “T” and they’re hilarious to watch even if he did remind Phil of a brunette Pat Butcher (now Pat Evans previously Harris, Beale and Wicks) at times.

But the highlight comes towards the end when he plays a medley of six songs which Crush invites his audience to shout out.

This should have been the Whingers’ moment, but our minds went even blanker than usual. All Phil could think of was “Jesus Christ Superstar” without realising how appropriate that would have been.

The show is good fun but at 75 minutes it is rather overextended on what is, after all, something of a chestnut of a device.

For the record we voted Liberace into heaven.

Rating

Deathtrap – The Opening Night

[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.