Unfortunately my usual Sondheim companion wasn't available for this show; doubly unfortunate as Into the Woods is vanessaw's favourite. As we'd seen a much smaller-scale production less than a year ago I wasn't particularly intending to see the Open Air Theatre's version, but since Andy and Ian were planning to go it seemed like a good trip for a Friday ( Read more... )

So last week's Twitter roundup had me tweeting about being in a sudden bad mood, this week's has me tweeting about being in a sudden good mood. See, bipolar does have an upside (er, pretty much by definition, actually.) Elsewhere there's my comments on X Factor winner Joe McElderry coming out as one of those gays, and the Sondheim Prom where Dame ( Read more... )

Gah, it's been a miserable Easter weekend hasn't it? It has here in That London anyway, the sun's barely made an appearance. And it's back to work tomorrow. To cheer us up, here is a song celebrating Dame Judi Dench, who probably needs some cheering up herself after all those bad reviews (yes, yes, including mine.) Roughly to the tune of Vic & Bob' ( Read more... )

Well now we know - some things even Judi Dench can't save. The third of Michael Grandage's productions in his Donmar West End season is a major mis-step, as Yukio Mishima's play takes a potentially fascinating subject and then reduces it to 105 minutes of people making speeches. Madame de Sade focuses on the women surrounding the notorious Marquis ( Read more... )

I'm not a huge fan of costume dramas - honestly can someone explain to me why this Christmas' big TV "treat" is yetabloodynother adapatation of Oliver Twist? Didn't we have a big movie version about five minutes ago? "Oh but this one's got Timothy Spall as Fagin." Great, I like Timothy Spall, but I'm not sure the fact that there's a famous alive ( Read more... )