Merrily We Roll Along

This afternoon Chris took me to see a staged concert version of Stephen Sondheim's 'Merrily We Roll Along' at the Queen's Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue as part of the Donmar's Sondheim at 80 productions. It was on the stage normally used by 'Les Miserables' so there was no scenery, no costumes or props, men in suits and open-necked shirts and the women in cocktail frocks. The interesting thing was that it brought so many of the original 1990 Donmar Warehouse production cast together, including the three leads of Julian Ovenden, Daniel Evans and Samantha Spiro.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect but they seemed to play the musical straight, moving from microphone to microphone with their folder of music and lyrics, reading the lines between the songs as if they were playing them. Scenery and costumes would have added to the production but they fully told the story of the musical as it was without them, which is a credit to the cast and the play they were performing.

The play is made up of a series of scenes that go back in time from 1980 to 1955, telling the story of a group of friends who are successful in 1980 in literature, music and theatre and look at how they become successful, the sacrifices and compromises and how they started out as wide eyed and naive, hopeful of the future. The penultimate song, 'Our Time' seemed to sum up youthful hopefulness for me, looking forward and how we can change the world before cynicism and world-weariness spoils everything.

I've come across some of the actors before. The main character is played by Julian Ovenden who I saw at the Donmar in 'Grand Hotel' in which he played the flawed Baron whose songs made me cry particularly 'Roses At The Station'. I've seen Daniel Evans in a few things before, most notably Sondheim's 'Sunday In The Park With George' at both the Choccy Factory and at Studio 54 in New York. Chris reminded me that I'd also seen Samantha Spiro as the servant in 'A Winters Tale' last year, so she doesn't just do musicals.

It was great fun and a very thoughtful production. I'd like to see it 'properly' one day.

Happy Dresden Dolls Bandiversary

The Dresden Dolls, those lovable ragamuffins Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione, are ten today. They first met at a Hallowe'en' party ten years ago and are celebrating with a sold out gig in New York. They've been apart for a couple of years but now is the perfect time to get back together. They're also saying a big 'thank you' to you, me and the world by giving away copies of their very first album, a collection of live performances on the record, 'A Is For Accident' and you can download it here: http://bit.ly/aisforTHANKYOU .

My love affair with the Dolls began in 2005 when they were part of Patti Smith's Meltdown on the Southbank. They performed a couple of songs at the 'Stand Bravely Brothers' concert of Brecht songs at the Royal Festival Hall and then did a free gig in the ballroom area. After that gig I bought their first studio album, 'The Dresden Dolls' from the merch stand and Amanda signed it with a flourish of her gold pen. And I lost my heart. I've seen the Dolls on every visit to London since then and, in the last couple of years, Amanda's solo shows. I've even bumped into her by accident with Neil Gaiman and still been the happy recipient of a trademarked Amanda Hug.

I also went to see Brian when he played drums on the Jesse Malin tour a few years ago and was lucky enough to meet him after the show - of course, it was Brian I went to support, not some random American, and he was, of course, excellent. How many times have you been to a gig to see the drummer? Ah, but Brian is no ordinary drummer.

Sadly, I didn't make it over to Boston to see 'Cabaret' and I'm not in New York for the Hallowe'en show, but it's going to be filmed so I expect it'll be available somewhere at some point. The Dresden Dolls make me happy and will continue to do so. All I can say is...

PUNK CABARET IS FREEDOM!

Poly Styrene Has Returned!

The most marvellous Poly Styrene has surfaced on Twitter and Facebook with news of a new single and an album. How did I find out about this phenomenally important news? Because Ms Styrene started following me on Twitter, that's how - je suis stunned! I have, naturally, instantly followed back and signed up for her email updates. Some things are important, y'know.

According to NME.com:

The singer will return with a free download, 'Black Christmas' on December 20, with the record following in March 2011. The album, 'Generation Indigo' was produced by Youth.

The download, which will not feature on the album, was written by Styrene and her daughter Celeste who features on the recording and is an anti-Christmas song inspired by news about a killer in Los Angeles who was dressing up as Father Christmas. For more information head to www.poly-styrene.com

This news makes me really happy and gives me a big smiley face. This blog is named in honour of one of Poly's songs from the days of X-Ray Spex, I've tracked down all her solo work and even badgered the National Portrait Galley into letting me see the rare photograph of her by Pennie Smith from 1977 that is in their archive collection.

My world turned day-glo on 6 September 2008 when I finally saw Poly Styrene live for the very first time in 30 years at The Roundhouse. And I was overjoyed later in 2008 when she released 'City of Christmas Ghosts' with Goldblade - a Christmas single from Poly and here she is, releasing another one. My cup runneth over.

I will, of course, keep you informed of any news about Poly, the single and the album. You *need* to know these things and you *need* to follow her on Twitter, like her on Facebook and, of course, download the single and then buy the album. This is The Law.

'Passion' at The Donmar

After I'd promised not to nod off or sigh loudly Chris took me to see 'Passion' at the Donmar Warehouse, another Sondheim 80th birthday celebration production. The Donmar is tiny but has a reputation for delivering productions that most theatres would kill for, and this is no exception.

The story of the play starts out as quite straight forward, of our hero, Giorgio, who is a captain in the Italian army in the late 19th Century with his lover, Clara, in Milan. He is transferred to an outpost in the mountains where his commanding officer's female cousin, Fosca, lives in the same mansion as the officers and, gradually, the two get to know each other through little acts of kindness. Then she obsesses, stalks and generally makes our hero's life miserable with her love. Or is it obsession? He escapes to Milan to resume his light and airy love with Clara and then... I'll leave that a secret so I don't spoil the plot.

'Passion' is a study in just that - passion. It explores the extremes of love and human relationships and how far we would go for the one we love if, indeed, it is really love. This is all quite brave for a musical, it's not upbeat or positive at all, but a serious examination of what might happen if love or passion escalates beyond all reason. I've no idea why it's set in 19th Century northern Italy but there was more facial fur on display on the army officers on the stage than I've seen in ages (and I'll be terribly disappointed to learn that most of it was stuck on half an hour before the start of the show).

I was deeply impressed by this production. The first half hour acquainted me with the characters and then slowly, ever so slowly, started to drag me into it, deeper and deeper, taking Fosca's stalking personally until understanding dawned. All credit to James Lapine and Stephen Sondheim for writing such a powerful piece of theatre. It ends incredibly sadly with a death but that is the only way it could end. And with understanding and enlightenment.

It's a triple-header production, with Scarlett Strallen as Clara, all blond and light-coloured clothes, Elena Roger as dark and plain Fosca and, the centre of their attention, David Thaxton as Giorgio in a rather ill-fitting uniform. I haven't come across David before but he'll be worth watching, with good acting and singing. I've seen Elena before as Edith Piaf at the Donmar. She has a voice worth listening to.

Although it's sold out, if you get the chance to see this show I'd recommend it. If you aren't ever so slightly choked by the end then you either aren't human or haven't felt love. Thank you Mr Sondheim and Mr Lapine for penning something so powerful.

'Design For Living' at The Old Vic

Last week we went to see Noel Coward's 'Design For Living' at The Old Vic. There's some background you need to understand before I launch into a review. A few days previously I'd attended an 'audience' at the Royal Festival Hall with Stephen Sondheim as part of his 80th birthday celebrations and he slagged off Mr Coward. We'd also been to see 'Krapp's Last Tape' by Samuel Beckett at the Duchess theatre the day before, with Michael Gambon as Mr Krapp and I, um, nodded off during it. The shame. One of the highlights of the 50 minute play was Mr Gambon eating a banana so, after a hard day at work, can you blame me? So. Both of those recent events meant I not only had to stay awake, but I had to pay attention.

'Design For Living' is a tale of the eternal love triangle in which two young men love the same woman and they also love each other. At the start of the play, Gilda is the partner to artist Otto in Paris, then she becomes the partner of playwright Leo in London after which she runs off to New York and marries an old friend of her mothers' while Otto and Leo presumably console themselves with each other before tracking their love to New York and ... well, that would be telling.

The play is charming and intelligent, engaging and, rather sadly, doesn't have every sentence ending with the word 'darling'. It's very worldly wise and was initially banned in London, presumably due to the free love and gay themes. My reading of the play is that it is about the nature of love and art, not of sex. However, since it was The Old Vic then there were the obligatory school-kids-on-a-trip to the theatre and the girls couldn't help but giggle out loud when the lads snogged on stage.

The production is getting great reviews but I found it a bit hit and miss. The sets were great and justified the two half-times so the sets could be changed, but I found some of the acting to be a bit so-so. Lisa Dillon was great as Gilda, flitting from man to man and disdaining marriage until the final act, a free woman with personal wealth at her disposal so she can be and do as she pleases. I also liked Andrew Scott's Leo, the playwright, who has some great extended and breathless lines, but he was a little bit whiny at times. I was less keen on Tom Burke's Otto, the artist, who seemed to be playing it lazy since he has floppy hair and therefore we must automatically love him. I didn't. His delivery and approach sometimes just seemed to be rather lazy and by numbers rather than putting any real effort into it.

I (thankfully) didn't have any problems in staying awake during the play, it was light and airy, we had a Coward witticism every few lines and it was nicely paced. And the sets were great - have I mentioned that? If anything, it's made me want to see more Coward plays. Go and see it while you can.

Poems On The Underground - 'Whalesong'

In my usual meandering way, I missed my train this morning so headed for the Tube for work. I've never been a big fan of the Tube or any underground system but I do quite like the trains in Barcelona that actually have proper handles to open the doors. One thing I do like, though, is reading the 'poems on the underground' with poems filling the usual advertising space. You can see all sorts of stuff projecting culture at you rather the the latest advert for hair products or insurance. And this morning I read 'Whalesong' by Sophie Stephenson-Wright:

Whalesong

I boom-mumble I bass-blow

I hull-heavy I big/slow

I boat bump I limpet-skin

I soft-sink I sky-swim

I sea-search I salt-swallow

I bone-backed I fluke-follow

I gulf-cross I listen-talk

I moon-map I wave-walk

I tail-turn I time-keep

I ship-wreck I song-seek

I blue-blood I grumble-sing

I fish-heart I dream king

This tickled me in all the right places so I made a note of it and then tweeted it into the wide world when I was above ground. Read it. Say those words out loud, slowly, feel them with your tongue and lips and be a dream king.

Then, coming home tonight after a performance of a rather intense 'Passion' (by Sondheim) at the Donmar Warehouse, I got on the Tube at Leicester Square and, looking up from my book for a moment, what did I see? The 'Whalesong' poster again. Twice in one day, on different trains on different Tube lines - I am obviously meant to do something with this poem. I tweeted about it this morning and now I'm blogging. Read it please.

I've just Googled Sophie who is, it seems, 19 years old and has just won a 'young poets' prize. There's even a video of her on YouTube (not reading 'Whalesong', sadly). I'm not sure if there's a 'young poets to watch' list, but it'll be interesting to see if she continues with her poetry. I hope so.

'Hamlet' at the National Theatre

This evening we went to the National Theatre to see the new production of 'Hamlet' with Rory Kinnear in the title role. I saw the production of 'Hamlet' with Jude Law last year and this was far better. Mind you, I'm not sure if it was better than the version I saw in 1978 with Derek Jacobi as the troubled prince (yes, me and the Dane go that far back).

The set was bare, the walls of a Baroque palace which were moved around to create different spaces for different scenes, sparse use of furniture and props but lots of lighting, not always to best effect. A glimpse at the set and you know you're no going to see a happy-go-lucky version of the play (now there's an idea Mr Producer) but something grey and stark. And that's what we get. Except it's in modern dress for some reason that never became obvious to me. So we had smart suits, hoodies, trackie bottoms and earphones for eavesdropping. Um, why?

While I'm on a roll, can I also mention the strange direction of the 'mad' scenes, particularly Hamlet standing on his bed with his duvet pulled over his head and Ophelia in a bra pulling a shopping trolley around. Um, this is meant to be a palace y'know, so how come she gets a stolen shopping trolley past the guards and up all those steps we all know exist in every palace or castle? Another irritant were the night scenes in the first act with virtually no lights on the stage so I couldn't see what was happening very well and the actors who seemed to forget their stage school training on enunciation and projecting - I had difficulty hearing some of the actors and I was in the stalls. What else? O yes, the odd police state visuals of men in suits with guns wandering round every so often being generically menacing - reminded me of seeing 'Assassins' earlier in the summer at that little theatre under the arches somewhere not exotic.

Okay, I got that out of my system all in one rush of annoyances, so why did I think it was a good production? Rory Kinnear, that's why. I saw Rory in 'Burnt By The Sun' last year and, unusually for me, remembered him from it, so I must've seen something in his performance that stuck in my mind. Rory is the son of Roy Kinnear (yes, *that* Roy Kinnear for readers of a certain age).

Something you can't help but notice in any reading of 'Hamlet' is how many of the phrases have made their way into popular culture and Rory has a great way of delivering them. I particularly liked his 'Alas poor Yorrick, I knew him Horatio' which was almost a whispered aside that had us (well, me) riveted to what he was saying. He breathed new life into some of the lines, made them fresh and new again and, in doing that, conjures up all sorts of images with the words. That is a powerful talent and skill and it influences anyone with an ear to listen. Anyone who can do that to Shakespeare's age-old words needs to be listened to and I'd be happy to hear Rory take on more Shakespeare.

It's not a one-man show, though, and I'd also give credit to Clare Higgins as Gertrude (Hamlet's mam) who played the role with a love of booze from champagne at the start to the poisoned tipple at the end, and Giles Terera as Horatio who seemed to grow into the part as the play progressed. I liked his 'Flights of angels' speech at the end. Chris (the fount of all knowledge) reminded me that I'd seen Giles in the role of Gary Coleman in 'Avenue Q' a few years ago (yay for my mates, the Bad Idea Bears!) so here's where he shows he's a 'serious' actor. I thought both actors were very good.

For once I caught a show at the start of its run rather than at the end, so I'd encourage everyone to go to see this production. Apparently it's also going on tour after the National Theatre season closes, so book tickets early.

The Banker: Robinhoodtax.org

Gavin Creel at The Jazz Cafe

On Wednesday we headed up to Camden to see Gavin Creel play a set at the Jazz Cafe. I've seen Gavin sing a few times in his role as Claude in 'Hair', but not seen him perform his own songs before, so I wasn't entirely sure what to expect.

On he came with a guitarist and percussionist (who also played the air trumpet) and launched into two new songs before alternating between songs from his album and ep, new songs and a smattering of covers (including a fun cover of 'I Kissed A Girl'). Gavin has a good stage presence, chatting away to the crowd, telling us his personal history with London, joking how some of our pubs are older than his country and then back into a song. His band were excellent too, creating a big sound with just the two of them. Gavin has a very natural and versatile voice, not stage-y at all, and his songs are what I can only think of as gentle. Here's a video of him singing 'Hot Ohio' at the Jazz Cafe:



We met him briefly after the show and he talked about the new record he was planning for late next year - the songs sound excellent so it should be good. He seems a very nice lad, willing to stay and chat to the many fans hanging around to meet him afterwards. It'll be interesting to see what he does next with his career.

Ari Up

I can't let today pass without recording the death of Ari Up of The Slits. I remember taping The Slits first John Peel session back in the '70s and playing 'Typical Girl', 'Shoplifting' and 'New Town' endlessly - they still bring a warm fuzzy glow of listening to the radio in my bedroom and thinking that these girls were the same age as me and they were up there doing something. Arianna was a couple of years younger than me so it's sad to realise she's gone.

'Cut' is their classic album but I like the EP that the rejuvenated Slits released a few years ago, 'Revenge Of The Killer Slits', and the latest album, 'Trapped Animal'. I am now, of course, kicking myself for not seeing The Slits last year when they were on tour, but they will always have a place in my punk heart.

Farewell Arianna and give 'em hell wherever you are - you never were a typical girl.