This is a short one due to new job, an important birthday, and a weekend out of town:
I Bought A Blue Car Today
The Pitmen Painters
Forbidden Broadway (if I can get seats on the day, as it is sold out)
Talent
The Mysteries at the Garrick (since I loved Impepe Yomlingo so much)
Jordi Savall (classical music performance)
Shockingly, there are several days left to July and I have not a single show in store. That said, I do have some things scheduled for August, but not much yet due to going out of town a few times. (It’s summer, what can I say, I hear the call of the sea.)
August Theater Plans
5 (Tuesday): Wizard of Oz at the Royal Festival Hall. This is a birthday present and I’m looking forward to it! UPDATE: This was miserable.
6 (Wednesday): Pygmalion at the Old Vic. Hey, better late than never, and you can’t get much later than closing week. What’s amusing is that I actually won tickets to this show early in the run, but it was on a night when I was hosting a party so I couldn’t go. Ah well. I’m sure it will be much better now that the Old Vic’s lack of AC will be heating up the action on stage that much more. UPDATE: Brilliant, too bad it’s closed now.
12 (Tuesday): Three-Penny Ring Cycle at the National Theatre. It’s one act, it’s musical, it’s based on two classics, what’s not to love? UPDATE: Bah, we were rained out, or had a rain delay, so we got refunds and went home.
13 (Wednesday): All-male Mikado at the Union Theatre (Southwark). This will mean I’ve seen the Mikado twice this year, but the Union Theatre has won my heart and thus will get me to make the bet this one will have ten times the charm of the first. UPDATE: Bah again, this was sold out. Why didn’t I buy my tickets sooner?
15 (Friday): West Side Story at Sadler’s Wells. They’re about the cheapest seats I could get but they’re still a lot – but I’ve never seen this before and it had to happen.
23 (Friday): Naughty cabaret at The Roundhouse. With friends. Naughty friends.
Also, I’m aiming to fit in the Victorian Music Hall thing at Wilton’s and Into the Hoods – it should make for a busy month all in all even though eight shows makes me feel like I’m kind of sleepwalking my way through it.
To regular readers: an apology in advance for the lack of posting you’ll be getting until about May 12th. I spent the last weekend in Barcelona and will be in Florida for a conference for all of next week. That said, this Friday I’ll be off to see home town favorite Dina Martina at the Soho Theater, then catching up for my lost week in Orlando with a fury, hitting the Young Vic for Jane Horrocks in the Good Soul of Szechuan with the West End Whingers, the Royal Ballet in a mixed rep program (new work by Kim Brandstrup, ooh!), then “The Only Girl in the World” and “The Lady from the Sea” at the Arcola Theatre the week of May 12th. I think I may toss in an article on the best places to eat near Covent Garden while I’m in Florida just to keep the flow going on the site, though – I’ve certainly become an expert, at least if you’re dining on a budget.
Over the last few years I’ve been lucky enough to see the Bolshoi in London for many performances – Spartacus, The Pharaoh’s Daughter, La Bayadere, and Le Corsaire among them. And I’ve been kind of … surprised by how different Russian ballet seems to American (and now English) ballet. The dancers seem … more … showy. Perhaps even egotistical. Everything is very over the top. Now, I LOVE the shameless overindulgence and all, but it’s been kind of hard for me to put a finger on what makes it so very different.
Fortunately, a wonderful article has appeared in the New York Times this week explaining why Russian ballet is such a completely different experience from American/English ballet. It’s not just the noisy audiences or the endless rounds of applause – it’s the very way a ballerina will push her body a little further to emphasize her technical brilliance – at the expense of the production of actual art. It’s really well written (even though I don’t know ballet well enough to follow some of his descriptions) and really good reading.
For those who follow this blog, this week we’re off to see Ballet Black at the Linbury, Carlos Acosta at the Coliseum, and Wayne Macgregor at Sadlers Wells. April is really a dance heavy month, but I can’t really apologize for it – there are two shows I’d like to see (The Last Days of Judas Iscariot and Punch and Judy) conflict with nearly everything else I’m doing … but who knows, maybe I can squeeze another show or two in somewhere.
Well, after the frenzy of the holidays, it’s almost no surprise that I’d start the year exhausted – only it’s been a cold that’s taken me out. I managed to drag myself to the extremely charming Les Patineurs at the Royal Ballet on January 8th (I also saw the, er, cutesy but rather too long Tales of Beatrix Potter, what can you say about it but, “Yeah, those are world class ballerinas wearing squirrel costumes”), but haven’t been able to hold my head up long enough to write about it.
I have, however, cast my eyes toward the future. Coming up next is Othello at the Donmar, then hopefully Human Steps at Sadler’s Wells. In the next few months, I’m looking forward to seeing Chroma at the Royal Ballet (and hopefully Sylvia), Speed the Plow at the Old Vic, The Good Soul of Szechuan at the Young Vic (Brecht!), Dealer’s Choice at Trafalgar Studios (thanks to the ten quid tickets on Last Minute), Shen Yun at the Southbank Center, and the Pinter double feature at the Comedy Theatre. I’ve also got my eyes on The Mikado at ENO and the yum yum City Ballet at the same venue (two of the shows, the new choreographers and Jerome Robbins pieces). I want to buy tickets for them all NOW (oh, and the Chinese Opera at Sadler’s Wells this June) but post-Christmas finances are forcing austerity on me for now. Soon, my pet, soon!
Life in the Cheap Seats - Webcowgirl's London theatre reviews 