I was invited last week to see the Abbey Theatre‘s new play, Donegal, which is billed as a light-hearted play with music.

I think the Irish have a different idea of what constitutes ‘light-hearted’ than I do.

I mean, nobody dies in it, and there are moments that are funny, so I think that’s why it qualifies as ‘light-hearted’. But the play is about ( Read more... )

Wow. I'm just unusually useless today. I got up very briefly this morning, decided that wasn't going to work, and went back to bed for almost two hours. I could've slept another hour, too, but I thought no, I've got a ton of stuff to do today, I need to get up and get going ( Read more... )

So I actually got caught by a reality show. They're doing a series called Any Dream Will Do over here. It's presided over by Andrew Lloyd Webber, and its purpose is to cast a leading man for Joseph & the Technicolor Dreamcoat on the West End. (Last year they did "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria" and cast Maria for The Sound of Music. ( Read more... )

It's late, so I'm intending this to be only a very brief review of Beauty and the Beast, although I have a great deal to say about it and may get carried away ( Read more... )

I'm back! A fine time was had. We walked all over hell and breakfast, saw Tim Curry on the West End in Monty Python's Spamalot (we had no idea he was in it until we got there and I bought a program), or at least, we saw the top of Tim Curry's head, because we were in the nosebleeds, visited the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels, which are ( Read more... )

Fwoosh! Lots of tiredness here at this house tonight! Deirdre and Gavin arrived Friday evening at about a quarter to midnight; as Mom said, "And you went to bed at 10 to midnight?" Pretty much. :) Deirdre got to SLEEP IN all weekend! Woot! :) Although how she slept in through the bloody cats meowing all last night and her boys waking up at ( Read more... )

Ted's on a kick to prove he can cook, or something. Good Lord. He made a stuffed pork loin and braised leeks for dinner and followed it up with chocolate mousse with a raspberry coulis, which I greedily had two servings of. Ye gods. Dinner was one of those wonderful meals where the last bite was as good as the first one. I'm going to have to ( Read more... )

This is radically cool: The Sultan's Elephant, a 40 foot mechanical elephant, part of a four day street theatre story in London. That is *so* *awesome*. I want one. The elephant weighs forty-two tons, and looks like magic ( Read more... )