Wizard of Oz, London Palladium 14/8/11

A sunny Sunday morning in London town saw me head up to the Palladium to see if there were any tickets available for that day's performance of the Wizard of Oz. Whilst I am not a big fan of TV talent shows in the main, I was hooked on the BBC's 'Over the Rainbow', and had been quite keen to see the stage production ever since. A lovely member of the box office team sold me an excellent seat in the centre of the second row of the circle (the advantage of lone theatre visiting is that you often get great seats!) at a bargain price. Sunday is obviously a family day at the theatre (one advantage being no queue at the bar!) as I was surrounded by very excited small people ready for a bit of theatre magic!

The show itself was great fun, although at times the clever set design almost upstaged the cast. I assumed that for Sunday performances the swings would take the roles, but it was the main cast with Danielle Hope, the winner of the BBC show, in the title role. For someone in her first professional stage role she did excellently, although to be honest the rest of the cast is so strong that her's was not the most memorable performance. Hannah Waddingham, as the Wicked Witch of the West, blew me away, what an amazing and powerful voice that lady has! And the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion (Edward Baker-Duly, Paul Keating, David Ganly) made a brilliant team. I however, was the only person in my bit of the auditorium who laughed when the lion stepped forward and declared himself 'proud to be a friend of Dorothy' getting some strange looks from my fellow audience members!

The actual staging of the show was very clever. There was a two piece central revolve that was also able to tilt and disappear below stage level, which meant it was able to seamlessly transform into the various settings. Characters swooped down from the full height of the auditorium (meaning at one point I was almost face to face with a witch), and it even snowed on me!

The songs you know from the film are all executed well, and there have been some new additions which really add to the show, rather than just padding it out. All in all, I, and all my small companions, had a very enjoyable afternoon at the theatre, but if you are a big kid reading this, I would really encourage you to also see Wicked, which will add to your whole Ozian adventure!

Much Ado About Nothing - Wyndhams Theatre 13/8/11

So, off to the Wyndhams Theatre with my pal Bronya for the much anticipated pairing of Catherine Tate and David Tennant as Beatrice and Benedick in Much Ado. I say much anticipated as I think I've had the tickets for about five months, but I wasn't convinced I was actually going to see Mr T in the show as the last time I booked a play months ahead to specifically see him (Hamlet) he very selfishly sustained a back injury a few days before, how dare he! Although, the RSC's Hamlet was a brilliant production, and his understudy, Ed Bennett, was fantastic as were the rest of the cast.

Anyway, Mr T made it to the stage this time, along with Ms Tate and an excellent cast. The setting for the play was 1980's Gibraltar, which was a great excuse for cheesy disco, dodgy eighties fashion and the odd rubics cube!

I think this is probably one of the most accessible, and fun, productions of Shakespeare I have had the pleasure to see. It stayed true to the text, but incorporated some hilarious slapstick (especially the Beatrice and Benedick 'eavesdropping' scenes, which I won't spoil here just in case anyone reads this who is going to see it), riotous stag and hen do's, dance numbers, and even a bit of eighties style 'hey nonny no' thrown in for good measure!

As for the cast, well T & T were a fabulous partnership, as expected, but the production had brought together a terrific ensemble - I was particularly impressed with Hero (Sarah MacRae, making her West End debut) and Claudio (Tom Bateman, who I was amazed to read in the programme was making his professional debut) - but all the performances were well realised and you could tell the cast were having fun with the roles.

All in all a production that was definitely worth the wait, an extremely enjoyable afternoon of Shakespeare, and dare I say it, worth every penny of the astronomical London ticket price! And I got to see David Tennant in a miniskirt and fishnets - what's not to like!

Top Girls - Trafalgar Studios 12/8/11

I went to this show knowing very little about it. I had seen an interview where Suranne Jones mentioned the eighties setting, and I knew it was by Caryl Churchill, and that's it really.

Trafalgar Studios have been renovated since I was last there, and you actually enter at stage level now, which gave me a bit of a shock as I thought I'd got lost in the theatre and taken a wrong turn! But it makes for a nice theatre space where you feel very close to the action.

The first act of the play is a fantasticly clever concept, although it took me a little while to realise what was going on! Marlene (Suranne Jones) is hosting a dinner party for some other 'Top Girls' from various points in history. It's realistically played out, guests talking over each other, trying to outdo each other's stories, more than one conversation going on at the same time, and the whole mood getting increasingly loud and raucous as the Frascati flows. The cast do an incredible job, the timing on its own must be a challenge, but each of them gave an finely observed performance and it feels wrong to single anyone out. However, I especially loved Olivia Poulet as Dull Gret, who initially does not have much to contribute 'lines wise' but had the audience in stitches. There is a lot going on in this Act, I would love to see it again as its quite a challenge as an audience member keeping up and knowing what to focus on. Its also a very moving piece, there are elements of high comedy, but also some extremely tragic stories unfold. Lucy Briers as Pope Joan, desrcibing the 'end' of her story in a very matter of fact way is quite shocking and you could hear the collective intake of breath from the audience!

The second and third acts were more 'normal' in terms of storytelling, looking at Marlene's life and background, although moving back a year in time between the two acts. Again there was a lot of comedy, but at its heart a some quite hard questions about what it is to be 'successful' and what can be lost. Suranne Jones as Marlene was fantastic, and the final scenes between her and her sister Joyce (Stella Gonet) were brilliantly played by both actresses.

I really enjoyed this play, it was unusual, clever, made me think, and had an very strong cast. If I lived nearer I would definitely be tempted to see it again.

London Town!

I'm on a jaunt down to London for a few days. Its been arranged around a show I already have booked - but being a complete theatre obsessive I am hoping to fit a couple more shows in whilst I'm down here. But which, that's the question! That's the problem with London, too many things to do and too little time (and funds!). I was talking to a London taxi driver a while ago and he was saying that he never went to see shows because they were so expensive, and I can see his point, some of the shows in London are priced so high its only tourists that ever go to see them. That's a real pity with so much fabulous entertainment on the doorstep. Manchester prices look extremely good value in comparison.

However, my top tip is the tkts booth in Leicester Square. This sells discounted tickets for many London shows, and often they are brilliant seats. I've randomly chosen shows from there a number of times and seen some amazing stuff, and quite regularly I've been in the first few rows, in fact Dominic West once fell off the stage at my feet! Ticket prices are generally (but not always) 50% off, quite a bargain.

Anyway I did some reasearch on the train on the way down and had a shortlist by the time I got to the tkts booth and saw what was available. I plumped for Top Girls in the end mainly because Suranne Jones is in it and I know she is a fabulous actress. I remember about six years ago going to see 'A Few Good Men' in London that she was starring in. It was one of her first big stage roles after leaving Coronation Street and I thought it might be 'stunt casting' to increase ticket sales. But her performance in that was pitch perfect and I've been a big fan ever since. Other than that I knew nothing about the play, but that's sometimes where the best theatre experiences start.......

Perspective

I know that this blog is mainly supposed to be about the arts, but in view of the scenes across the country in the last few days, including Manchester last night, I feel like I want to write something so indulge me blog readers (if there is anyone other than me!)

I, like many people, sat horrified looking at pictures of what was going on in 'my city' last night, and the thing that shocked me the most I have to say is the age of a lot of the people involved. Young kids out on a wrecking spree, smashing property, stealing - it was all very upsetting and scary. I don't know what the answers are for these problems, its certainly not simple, and I'm not informed enough to even be able to suggest where we start.

But the one thing that I think is really getting lost in all this, scary as it seems, is that the trouble was caused by the minority and it really is not typical of young people, or of the citizens of Manchester. This is a city I am still proud to call home and it has so much going for it.

Even this year I have seen that first hand so many times. I volunteered for the Manchester Shine nighttime marathon in May, lots of great volunteers, many of them young people, gave up their time to make that happen. And 10K people walked 13 or 26 miles across Manchester at night to raise funds for Cancer Research, many of whom had personal experience of the way cancer touches lives, it was an awe inspiring night.

In June I helped out with the preparations for the Manchester Day Parade, where community groups were working with artists to realise their own ideas for entries in the parade. I had the pleasure of working with three different community groups over the two weekends, many of them young people, who were funny, creative, and taking a real pride in helping to make their ideas become a reality. I even joined in with one group on the parade which was great fun. I was able to talk to them and their leaders about the type of activities they get involved in, and it was brilliant to see the way they were all supporting each other. And witnessing the people of Manchester come out to support the event in their thousands was awe inspiring.

In July I worked on the Manchester International Festival and many of the volunteers I worked with were young people - who were hard working, articulate, great to be around and talented. I also got the chance to chat with many kids and families who visited the two shows I worked on, who came from all walks of life, and it was a pleasure to meet them and talk with them.

I also know there are countless brilliant things being done for and by young people in our area every day. Some of the ones I know about through my arts connections are work that the Royal Exchange are doing with young people as part of The Truth About Youth programme ; The Norfox young actors company at the Library Theatre Company, who are just about to put on their latest production in Manchester, and The ReClaim project, a leadership and mentoring project based in Manchester, one of whose participants was on the news tonight being asked for her views on the riots and was really impressive. And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I suppose what I am trying to say is just because we see all this shocking stuff on the TV, we need to keep in mind that these acts were undertaken by a very small minority and we shouldn't write off all the brilliant things that 'my' city and its people have to offer, which far outweigh the depressing minority.

The King's Speech

I have a huge pile of unwatched DVD's in the house including five series of The Wire (watched 1

one so far), a Being Human box set and The Complete BBC Shakespeare (watched three so far). Anyway I finally got round to reducing the pile slightly by watching The King's Speech tonight (well actually it came with a free DVD of 'The Madness of King George' and I've never seen that so actually the pile hasn't physically shrunk at all!)

I really enjoyed this film, excellent performances from the leads, Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter, and beautifully shot, although Guy Pearce as Edward never really convinced me. Glad I finally invested the time in watching it.