The last few weeks I've been sitting around trying to work out how to write about my month away. It's been difficult to sum it up without sounding like an advertisement for laundry liquid. It was amazing! It was fantastic! My colours are now brighter than bright! And my whites are now generating their own electricity.
I had a great time; as a result all stories from my time are all rather boring. There were no disasters, me losing my wallet, my passport or my mind. There weren't even really many odd "did that just happen?" moments along the way; apart from the time when I arrived for my luggage at Heathrow and I was surrounded by orthodox Jews looking at me very suspiciously in my black fedora. I was right….it did make me look like Yentl.
I had been to the UK before but I had never spent a great deal of time there, choosing to bypass it for Europe. The point of this trip was to actually to stay more than two days in London and explore the rest of the UK. I spent the first ten days in London staying at the Arran House Hotel in Bloomsbury just off Tottencourt Road and ten minutes walk from Soho and the West End. The hotel, like most Bed & Breakfasts in London, was in an old city mansion. It was clean, crisp and appeared to be straight off the set of Upstairs Downstairs all except that the South African manager would often fight with the Eastern European help. There were often arguments over the way the Ukrainian chef prepared the English breakfast buffet. I loved the breakfast…..in fact it was the best breakfast I had throughout the Union but the South African thought otherwise. There would be a fight every morning over the way the tomatoes were cooked and the mushrooms displayed. It was like watching a Prussian Antipodean version of Love Thy Neighbour.
As I said in my entry, Ten Random Moments in London, the best part of this city is the people watching. And that's what I did most of the time. From the lady in her late 60s trying to explain in very bad French the wonders of sitting in front of a photosynthesis machine each morning to her very confused French friends to Mary giving advice in her broadest Belfast accent to Leonie on how to leave her husband; I think there is a different accent in London every two minutes. Coming from such a mono-lingual country such as Australia, it is a vocal feast.
So where to start….well I think I will break it into five categories
1. Entertainment
2. Catching up
3. Nightlife
4. On the Road Again
5. Encore
Entertainment
1. Dame Edna Experience: Royal Vauxhall Tavern on a Sunday Night.
· I've heard about the Dame Edna Experience for years and I missed it the last time I was in London. I finally got to see it. It is the best Cabaret I have seen in years …..and yes better than Dame Edna herself. I have never laughed so much in my life. The RVT is one of the few buildings that survived the blitz in Vauxhall and inside it is shaped like an old fashioned cabaret theatre. It had a real vaudeville feel and with it jampacked with hundreds of screaming queens…the atmosphere was electric.
2. La Cage aux Folles ( Musical) at the Playhouse :
This is one of my favourite shows (book by my hero, Harvey Fierstein) but I've never had the opportunity to see it staged. Based on a french play, the musical focuses on a gay couple: Georges, the manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin, his star attraction - and the adventures that ensue when Georges' son brings home his fiancée's ultra-conservative parents to meet them. The show's best known song performed by countless drag queens all over the world is " I am What I Am" and the story line was famously adapted in the movie The Bird Cage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
I loved the production; it was good old fashioned cabaret romp with more double entendres than twists and turns. If you're in London, I thoroughly recommend it.
3.Goldfrapp: Brixton Academy:
This was an unexpected surprise. Frenchi asked if I wanted to come with him and a girlfriend of his. To be honest I only knew one Goldfrapp song, Blackcherry which I have played numerous times after a rather large weekend. It turned out though I actually knew a lot more of their songs than I thought……I knew half the set played that night. There was such a great vibe. Alison Goldfrapp is a rock goddess…she kept reminding me of Stevie Nicks. This combined with art décor magnificence of the Brixton Academy, the concert was absolutely sensational.
I was a little embarassed though when I claimed to Frenchi that the band was doing a Blondie cover when they broke into the song "I'm In Love"
Frenchi : "No it's a Goldfrapp song….just sounds like Blondie"
Determined to keep digging that hole.
Me: "No this is Blondie."
French: " Just sounds like them"
The song then veered away from what sounded like 'Rapture'
I then realised I was completely wrong. His parisian girlfriend looked at me as if I had a second head. I tried to find an available opening in the earth to swallow my embaraassment. Frenchi laughed and gave me a big kiss.
It was a great first date.
PIAF :
This play/musical of Edif Piaf's life has been produced all over the world winning awards everywhere it has appeared. Sadly I missed Caroline O'Connor in the Australian production a number of years ago. Most likely due to the biopic La Vie En Rose earlier this year on Edith Piaf's life, the play has been revived in London starring Argentinian musical theatre star, Elena Roger who got her big break playing Eva Peron in the UK and Argentinian revivals of Evita. I enjoyed the production but didn't love it. The music is fantastic and Roger sounds eerily like Piaf when she sings; it's unfortunately when she opens her mouth to speak dialogue that she doesn't. Her strong Argentinian accent makes her Edith sound more like a Colombian drug lord than the famous french sparrow. That aside, it's worth seeing the production just for Roger's singing Piaf.
WICKED: The Musical at the Apollo
This Broadway musical has been wildly successful since it's opening on Broadway some five years ago. I remember I was actually in New York the week it opened but I opted to go and see Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz instead. Even though The Boy From Oz was largely slammed by the critics and has long since closed on Broadway, after seeing Wicked on the Westend, I'm still glad I saw The Boy From Oz first. Wicked is essentially a prequel and tells the story of the unlikely friendship between Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Wicked Witch of the West all before some girl from Kansas fell down in her farmhouse killing the Wicked Witch of the East ( West's sister). I LOVED the story and I definitely am going to read the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire on which the musical is based. The actual music though I found a bit 90s talent show. The only song that had me hooked was "Popular" by Glinda. The rest of the songs were quite vacuous. The dialogue in between and of course the actual story is what saves the production. It's fast and snappy….like an episode of Will and Grace. Being a musical though the songs do dominate…and not in a good way; it had me thinking that in the movie version Beyonce will play the Wicked Witch of the West and Britney will play Glinda. Need I say more.
More of my travels to come soon…..
C
I had a great time; as a result all stories from my time are all rather boring. There were no disasters, me losing my wallet, my passport or my mind. There weren't even really many odd "did that just happen?" moments along the way; apart from the time when I arrived for my luggage at Heathrow and I was surrounded by orthodox Jews looking at me very suspiciously in my black fedora. I was right….it did make me look like Yentl.
I had been to the UK before but I had never spent a great deal of time there, choosing to bypass it for Europe. The point of this trip was to actually to stay more than two days in London and explore the rest of the UK. I spent the first ten days in London staying at the Arran House Hotel in Bloomsbury just off Tottencourt Road and ten minutes walk from Soho and the West End. The hotel, like most Bed & Breakfasts in London, was in an old city mansion. It was clean, crisp and appeared to be straight off the set of Upstairs Downstairs all except that the South African manager would often fight with the Eastern European help. There were often arguments over the way the Ukrainian chef prepared the English breakfast buffet. I loved the breakfast…..in fact it was the best breakfast I had throughout the Union but the South African thought otherwise. There would be a fight every morning over the way the tomatoes were cooked and the mushrooms displayed. It was like watching a Prussian Antipodean version of Love Thy Neighbour.
As I said in my entry, Ten Random Moments in London, the best part of this city is the people watching. And that's what I did most of the time. From the lady in her late 60s trying to explain in very bad French the wonders of sitting in front of a photosynthesis machine each morning to her very confused French friends to Mary giving advice in her broadest Belfast accent to Leonie on how to leave her husband; I think there is a different accent in London every two minutes. Coming from such a mono-lingual country such as Australia, it is a vocal feast.
So where to start….well I think I will break it into five categories
1. Entertainment
2. Catching up
3. Nightlife
4. On the Road Again
5. Encore
Entertainment
1. Dame Edna Experience: Royal Vauxhall Tavern on a Sunday Night.
· I've heard about the Dame Edna Experience for years and I missed it the last time I was in London. I finally got to see it. It is the best Cabaret I have seen in years …..and yes better than Dame Edna herself. I have never laughed so much in my life. The RVT is one of the few buildings that survived the blitz in Vauxhall and inside it is shaped like an old fashioned cabaret theatre. It had a real vaudeville feel and with it jampacked with hundreds of screaming queens…the atmosphere was electric.
2. La Cage aux Folles ( Musical) at the Playhouse :
This is one of my favourite shows (book by my hero, Harvey Fierstein) but I've never had the opportunity to see it staged. Based on a french play, the musical focuses on a gay couple: Georges, the manager of a Saint-Tropez nightclub featuring drag entertainment, and Albin, his star attraction - and the adventures that ensue when Georges' son brings home his fiancée's ultra-conservative parents to meet them. The show's best known song performed by countless drag queens all over the world is " I am What I Am" and the story line was famously adapted in the movie The Bird Cage starring Robin Williams and Nathan Lane.
I loved the production; it was good old fashioned cabaret romp with more double entendres than twists and turns. If you're in London, I thoroughly recommend it.
3.Goldfrapp: Brixton Academy:
This was an unexpected surprise. Frenchi asked if I wanted to come with him and a girlfriend of his. To be honest I only knew one Goldfrapp song, Blackcherry which I have played numerous times after a rather large weekend. It turned out though I actually knew a lot more of their songs than I thought……I knew half the set played that night. There was such a great vibe. Alison Goldfrapp is a rock goddess…she kept reminding me of Stevie Nicks. This combined with art décor magnificence of the Brixton Academy, the concert was absolutely sensational.
I was a little embarassed though when I claimed to Frenchi that the band was doing a Blondie cover when they broke into the song "I'm In Love"
Frenchi : "No it's a Goldfrapp song….just sounds like Blondie"
Determined to keep digging that hole.
Me: "No this is Blondie."
French: " Just sounds like them"
The song then veered away from what sounded like 'Rapture'
I then realised I was completely wrong. His parisian girlfriend looked at me as if I had a second head. I tried to find an available opening in the earth to swallow my embaraassment. Frenchi laughed and gave me a big kiss.
It was a great first date.
PIAF :
This play/musical of Edif Piaf's life has been produced all over the world winning awards everywhere it has appeared. Sadly I missed Caroline O'Connor in the Australian production a number of years ago. Most likely due to the biopic La Vie En Rose earlier this year on Edith Piaf's life, the play has been revived in London starring Argentinian musical theatre star, Elena Roger who got her big break playing Eva Peron in the UK and Argentinian revivals of Evita. I enjoyed the production but didn't love it. The music is fantastic and Roger sounds eerily like Piaf when she sings; it's unfortunately when she opens her mouth to speak dialogue that she doesn't. Her strong Argentinian accent makes her Edith sound more like a Colombian drug lord than the famous french sparrow. That aside, it's worth seeing the production just for Roger's singing Piaf.
WICKED: The Musical at the Apollo
This Broadway musical has been wildly successful since it's opening on Broadway some five years ago. I remember I was actually in New York the week it opened but I opted to go and see Hugh Jackman in The Boy From Oz instead. Even though The Boy From Oz was largely slammed by the critics and has long since closed on Broadway, after seeing Wicked on the Westend, I'm still glad I saw The Boy From Oz first. Wicked is essentially a prequel and tells the story of the unlikely friendship between Glinda the Good Witch of the North and the Wicked Witch of the West all before some girl from Kansas fell down in her farmhouse killing the Wicked Witch of the East ( West's sister). I LOVED the story and I definitely am going to read the novel of the same name by Gregory Maguire on which the musical is based. The actual music though I found a bit 90s talent show. The only song that had me hooked was "Popular" by Glinda. The rest of the songs were quite vacuous. The dialogue in between and of course the actual story is what saves the production. It's fast and snappy….like an episode of Will and Grace. Being a musical though the songs do dominate…and not in a good way; it had me thinking that in the movie version Beyonce will play the Wicked Witch of the West and Britney will play Glinda. Need I say more.
More of my travels to come soon…..
C
2 comments:
I know how you feel Colin. I had a life-changing overseas trip this year. If I ruled the world overseas travel would be much cheaper... :)
I agree with your take on Wicked...the music was rather ho hum as far as I was concerned. Just didn't draw me in.
Ummm Frenchi...was this one of your conquests whilst in fair Britania??? ;-)
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