(no subject)
Today we bring you a brief interval from sport to return to my first love THEATRE <3
Mum asked me last night why we'd decided Torch Song Trilogy was a thing we wanted to see and once I'd stopped boggling her I pointed out 1) the Menier Chocolate Factory is always worth a try 2) it's by Harvey Fierstein which is a REALLY good start 3) it's directed by Douglas Hodge 4) it has Joe McFadden in it (which might just be for me) and 5) DAVID BEDELLA
Then we established she couldn't remember who David Bedella was, once she'd remembered things were a lot clearer *rolls eyes*
Torch Song Trilogy @ Menier Chocolate Factory
It's one of those shows that takes you from heartbreak to laughter and back again in 30 seconds flat several times over the course of the evening (because I needed more emotional turmoil in my life :-P) and it's BRILLIANT and only on for about 3 or 4 more performances sadly.
David Bedella plays the central character, Arnold, a female impersonator who starts the play with a monologue about love and his past love life and how people who fall endlessly in love with hopeful cases keep the sellers of gothic romances & toch songs in mink *g* and then we see him meet, fall for and break up with Ed (Joe McFadden). There's a lot of both characters talking to the audience as if they were another character who isn't ever seen and Joe McFadden really did remind me endlessly of when he played Mark in Rent.
In Act two Ed & his fiancee Laurel(Laura Pyper) invite Arnold and his new boyfriend Alan (Tom Harries) to visit them in the country and there's a beautiful muddle of various pairs talking and fighting and having sex and in this production it's all set on a giant bed so two people would vanish under the covers or there would be a pause as they rolled into new positions... it sounds stupid but it looked great! (I think this is where a lot of the cuts came? It's a 4 hour play I believe and we got about 3hours)
Then right at the end there was one of those scenes where with very little they say a LOT. Alan was sitting on the bed as Arnold started to sing.. oh I forget but something about being his baby and the bed started to move backwards and Alan stood up and the music went all echo'y and a figure with a baseball bat entered and swung and BANG out went all the lights and my heart lept into my mouth.
Then in the third part of the "trilogy" Arnold is living in an appartment with a 15 year old called David (Perry Millward) who he's trying to adopt and the recently seperated Ed sleeping on his couch and his mother (Sara Kestelman) about to visit. It's all very domestic and yet with an edge that it isn't quite right and when the motehr arrives and starts fighting with Arnold... well David Bedella & Sara Kestelman both broke my heart several times over as she talked about losing her husband and he screamed back that he only had 5 years with his and he was killed on the street and you KNOW the mother is in the wrong (and quite frankly awful to him) but you can sort of udnerstand where she's coming from and that she does love him and it's that awful thing where loving someone can bring so much pain.
Perry Millward was brilliant as this very camp teenager with a very obvious shell of toughness (though it never broke) and by this part Ed is much more stable and reaching out to Arnold but Arnold is so very obviously mourning Alan still...
If I had a criticism it would be that in part two it wasn't enormously obvious to me that Arnold & Alan really were going to stay together and be happy and so it took a moment to settle into the emotions of part three BUT that's aver minor quibble.
All the cast were pitch perfect as far as I could tell and they all have wonderful voices (Sara Kestelman has such a gorgeous smokey voice and I hope to see Tom Harries in an actual musical soon!). It was LOVELY to see Joe McFadden back on stage and he didn't seem to have aged a day but really the show is David Bedella's all the way and his jumps from fragile to tough to brokehearted to lighthearted to trying to hold it together to losing it altogether all felt natural and had me captivated.
It's very sad in places but very funny too, often in the same places which is generally the sign of something I'm going to love. I am SO glad I got to see it before it closes.
Mum asked me last night why we'd decided Torch Song Trilogy was a thing we wanted to see and once I'd stopped boggling her I pointed out 1) the Menier Chocolate Factory is always worth a try 2) it's by Harvey Fierstein which is a REALLY good start 3) it's directed by Douglas Hodge 4) it has Joe McFadden in it (which might just be for me) and 5) DAVID BEDELLA
Then we established she couldn't remember who David Bedella was, once she'd remembered things were a lot clearer *rolls eyes*
Torch Song Trilogy @ Menier Chocolate Factory
It's one of those shows that takes you from heartbreak to laughter and back again in 30 seconds flat several times over the course of the evening (because I needed more emotional turmoil in my life :-P) and it's BRILLIANT and only on for about 3 or 4 more performances sadly.
David Bedella plays the central character, Arnold, a female impersonator who starts the play with a monologue about love and his past love life and how people who fall endlessly in love with hopeful cases keep the sellers of gothic romances & toch songs in mink *g* and then we see him meet, fall for and break up with Ed (Joe McFadden). There's a lot of both characters talking to the audience as if they were another character who isn't ever seen and Joe McFadden really did remind me endlessly of when he played Mark in Rent.
In Act two Ed & his fiancee Laurel(Laura Pyper) invite Arnold and his new boyfriend Alan (Tom Harries) to visit them in the country and there's a beautiful muddle of various pairs talking and fighting and having sex and in this production it's all set on a giant bed so two people would vanish under the covers or there would be a pause as they rolled into new positions... it sounds stupid but it looked great! (I think this is where a lot of the cuts came? It's a 4 hour play I believe and we got about 3hours)
Then right at the end there was one of those scenes where with very little they say a LOT. Alan was sitting on the bed as Arnold started to sing.. oh I forget but something about being his baby and the bed started to move backwards and Alan stood up and the music went all echo'y and a figure with a baseball bat entered and swung and BANG out went all the lights and my heart lept into my mouth.
Then in the third part of the "trilogy" Arnold is living in an appartment with a 15 year old called David (Perry Millward) who he's trying to adopt and the recently seperated Ed sleeping on his couch and his mother (Sara Kestelman) about to visit. It's all very domestic and yet with an edge that it isn't quite right and when the motehr arrives and starts fighting with Arnold... well David Bedella & Sara Kestelman both broke my heart several times over as she talked about losing her husband and he screamed back that he only had 5 years with his and he was killed on the street and you KNOW the mother is in the wrong (and quite frankly awful to him) but you can sort of udnerstand where she's coming from and that she does love him and it's that awful thing where loving someone can bring so much pain.
Perry Millward was brilliant as this very camp teenager with a very obvious shell of toughness (though it never broke) and by this part Ed is much more stable and reaching out to Arnold but Arnold is so very obviously mourning Alan still...
If I had a criticism it would be that in part two it wasn't enormously obvious to me that Arnold & Alan really were going to stay together and be happy and so it took a moment to settle into the emotions of part three BUT that's aver minor quibble.
All the cast were pitch perfect as far as I could tell and they all have wonderful voices (Sara Kestelman has such a gorgeous smokey voice and I hope to see Tom Harries in an actual musical soon!). It was LOVELY to see Joe McFadden back on stage and he didn't seem to have aged a day but really the show is David Bedella's all the way and his jumps from fragile to tough to brokehearted to lighthearted to trying to hold it together to losing it altogether all felt natural and had me captivated.
It's very sad in places but very funny too, often in the same places which is generally the sign of something I'm going to love. I am SO glad I got to see it before it closes.