Category: Entertainment
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THEATRE REVIEW | Treasure Island, the Curse of the Pearl Necklace, Above The Stag
Well it’s almost Christmas and the silly season has started, and what better way to spend a couple of silly hours than at the Above the Stag theatre in Vauxhall at their yearly pantomime Treasure Island and the Curse of the Pearl Necklace?
Though this is the first of their pantos I have seen, over the six years since their first one in their old home in Victoria, they have played to sell-out audiences each year and it’s easy to see why. Definitely not the show for the family outing with mum, dad, grandma and the little ones, this is the show you creep out to enjoy with your mates.
I’ll have to confess pantomime is not really my thing. I usually go out of my way to avoid it, but maybe if they were more like this one I’d go more often. The script by Jon Bradfield and Martin Hopper abounds in witty one-liners that come so fast and furious it’s almost impossible to keep up. They have retained most of the pantomime traditions that we have grown up with, and the audience catches on quickly, shouting out “behind you”, “oh yes you are” and joining in the community singing with gusto.
Another of the panto traditions they have retained is the character of the dame, here in the guise of Jim Hawkins’s mother, Sally and Philip Lawrence gives quite the stand-out performance of the night. Whether it be delivering the naughty dialogue, joking with the audience or delivering the odd ad lib, he is the master (mistress?) of every situation, and frequently had us all in fits of laughter. Hugh O’Donnel as Ethel, the Merman (get it?), who acted as our narrator and guide, was equally hilarious, delivering all his lines with his tongue firmly lodged in one cheek. In a fairly large cast, though, absolutely no one let the side down.
In the past I have been known to criticise Andrew Beckett’s direction (in The Gay Naked Play and You Should Be So Lucky) but here he is obviously in his element. My problem in the other plays was that too much of the action was played out front, encouraging the cast to mug too much to the audience, but that is exactly what is required of pantomime, and here it works splendidly. Aside from a section at the beginning of the second act, which flags slightly, the swift-moving action holds one’s attention throughout and moves seamlessly from one scene to another.
One should also mention the superb set by David Shields and Daniel Johnson’s excellent musical direction.
If, like me, you can be a bit allergic to the usual Christmas fare, then this irreverent, naughty, adult orientated gay romp is definitely for you.
Treasure Island and the Curse of the Pearl Necklace plays until January 10 at Above the Stag and I’d advise you to book early, as it will no doubt sell out completely.
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THEATRE REVIEW | White Christmas, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
★★★★★ | White Christmas, West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds
Army pals turned song and dance men, Phil Davies and Bob Wallace, are on their way to Florida for Christmas, when they stop by at Jimmy’s Nightclub to audition Betty and Judy Haynes, a sister act, for their new show. For Phil and Judy, it is love at first sight, but for Bob and Betty, it is a frosty start. Phil secretly swaps their train tickets and the pair follow the sisters to Vermont, where they are booked to play at the hotel which is owned by Phil and Bob’s former Army General, and, which is on the brink of closing. Calling in favours from their showbiz contacts and their old army pals, Phil and Bob try to put on a show to save the hotel and make it a Christmas to remember, but, as Bob Wallace discovers, falling in love can be very distracting.
Written by Irving Berlin, and containing a number of classic songs, including Love And The Weather, Love, You Didn’t Do Right By Me, Sisters, You’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm and, of course, White Christmas, this feel-good Christmas story is welcomed back to the stage in a simply brilliant production by West Yorkshire Playhouse.
The production contained a well-rounded and consistently solid cast throughout, with the vocal performances across the board being of a very high quality. Melanie La Barrie belted out Let me Sing and I’m Happy, somehow seeming to channel the spirit of Ethel Merman into her performance. Darren Day was much better vocally than expected in his understated performance, but the standout cast member was Oliver Tompsett, whose charisma filled turn as Phil Davies showcased his ability to sing, dance, act and take on the comedy aspect of his role superbly.
The set allowed the stage to open up into an abundance of space to undertake the well-choreographed and enthusiastically performed set pieces. There was a real tinge of 1950’s Americana in the costumes, certain aspects of the set, and the large set pieces; which were reminiscent of the old MGM Musicals. The on stage orchestra were spot on and the sound in the theatre was crisp, clear and well balanced between vocals and orchestra.
If pushed to find fault with the production, the dancing in the set pieces could have been slightly tighter and the set did seem a touch sparse at times, but with a production that was so enjoyable, such quibbles seem slightly unfair.
This is certainly one of the theatrical highlights of the year for me, and notwithstanding the twee nature of the show itself, you can’t beat a bit of good, old fashioned, family friendly and feel good entertainment at this time of the year.
Irving Berlin’s White Christmas is currently playing at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds until the 17th January 2015. For information, to book tickets or for details of their new season, visit their website at http://www.wyp.org.uk
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FILM REVIEW | Eastern Boys
★★★★★ | Eastern Boys
Filmmaker Robin Campilio’s disturbing new thriller sharply contrasts two different sides of society in contemporary France with a very chilling effect.
The first chapter of his four-part story is a near cinéma vérité scene of the Gard de Nord where a gang of Eastern European youths is trailing the platforms and aimlessly but obviously set on something illegal. One of them is a skinny baby-faced hustler who catches the attention of a 50 year-old businessman with whom he plays cat and mouse game throughout the station environs. When the youth allows himself to be cornered, they strike up an arrangement to meet at the man’s apartment the next day.
What wealthy Daniel thought would be a hot date with this young Ukrainian turns out to be a frightening home invasion when the entire gang arrive and strip his luxury apartment completely bare. Taunted by the cocky Russian ringleader Boss with some overtly sexual advances, Daniel seems both terrorized and aroused at the same time.
The third chapter opens with the surprising return of Marek the hustler … the time on his own … who offers to have sex as they originally had arranged. Despite the boy’s total indifference as he lays naked and motionless on bed Daniel still penetrates him, but the moment that it is over Marek quickly dresses and leaves without uttering a word. What is assumed would just be a one-off visit, is in fact repeated. At first its infrequently and then quite regularly but just as the youth starts to experience real feelings for Daniel, the older man decides that he wants to develop what they have into a non-sexual friendship.
It is obvious that both of them are still threatened by the hold that ‘Boss’ and the gang have over Marek, who still lives with them in a hotel full of other illegal immigrants in the suburbs. The only way for them to ever be free of the menace is to move away, but Boss has Marek’s only papers … his passport …. stored away in his safe. Their concern that trying to retrieve this will be nigh on impossible and extremely dangerous proves to be well-founded.
The relationship between Daniel and Marek is powerfully erotic especially as this sharp-suited savvy business man who has been viciously robbed by the boy and his thuggish pals, is yet somehow still attracted and is prepared to expose himself to potential danger again. And the different relationships that both of these men have with the charismatic but completely scary and unhinged Boss is both mesmerizing and unnerving.
The movie, which picked up the prestigious Horizons Award at the Venice Film Festival, was beautifully filmed, and had stunningly convincing performances from all three protagonists. (Olivier Rabourdin who looks like he could be Kevin Spacey’s twin played Daniel).
The morality of portraying all the immigrant boys in such a stereotypical manner is questionable, but that aside, this excellent drama will definitely rank as one of the best gay themed movies of this year.
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FILM REVIEW | My Old Lady
★★★★ | My Old Lady
Mathias Gold thinks his luck has finally changed when he inherits an imposing apartment in the centre of Paris from his late father who he was estranged from for decades. Approaching his 60’s, Mathias is a recovering alcoholic and after three failed marriages and three unpublished novels, he hasn’t a cent in the bank, and had to scrape around to find the airfare to fly in from New York to claim his property. What he finds in the Marais is a large two-floor apartment with a private garden that is worth several million euros, but it comes with an unexpected catch.
There amongst the once grand salons is a 92 year old Englishwoman Madame Girard who had sold the apartment to his father 40 years prior but under an archaic French property law as he paid less than the going rate, she not only gets to live there for the rest of her life, but also gets a monthly stipend too. Horrified and pleading poverty Mathias persuades Mde Girard agrees to let him stay in exchange for paying rent whilst he tries to think what to do next. A plan that doesn’t meet with the approval of Chloe her daughter who also lives in this rambling dilapidated house.
As the story unfolds we learn that Mde Girard’s relationship with Mr Gold Snr was not confined to the property transaction as they were lovers too for some decades. As the plot thickens we get to appreciate that this frail looking ancient widow is a wily old bird who has a very full and happy past, something which seems to have completely eluded the icy unmarried Chloe or the bitter and self-loathing Mathias.
As Mathias tries against the odds to scheme to take control of the apartment he falls off the waggon and starts rapidly working his way through Mde Girad’s impressive wine cellar, and at the same time Chloe is plotting to try and keep the status quo. They are both such unlikable characters that it’s impossible to have empathy for either of them even when they clumsily fall into a too convenient happy ending.
The playwright Israel Horovitz adapted his own play for this his movie directing debut and has left some of the very speechy monologues in which actors so love. Kevin Kline giving a beautiful performance playing the unhappy Maurice makes the most of the rants he gets to give, whilst the sublime Kristin Scott Thomas as Chloe does well with the little that she is given to work with. The movie, of course, belongs to the old lady, as it should, as played so beautifully by Maggie Smith, the grand dame herself a mere 80 years in real life. It is one of her quietest and most understated performances for years but it is still so powerful and compelling. Her character is the only one who enjoys life and Dame Maggie subtlety ensures that we definitely know this.
It’s this ‘A’ list acting and the location of Paris exquisitely shot in a dim dusky light that makes this otherwise ‘thin’ story jump on to a ‘must see’ list. Dame Maggie alone is worth the price of the movie ticket.
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FILM REVIEW | The Circle, Der Kreis
The Circle (Der Kreis) is a Swiss docudrama written and directed by Stefan Haupt. The film depicts the social scene that revolved around Der Kreis, a gay publication in Zurich in the 1940s and 1950s, which was used as a scapegoat for the murders of several gay men in the city. Der Kreis (The Circle) was a Swiss gay magazine that was published from 1932 to 1967 and distributed internationally. ★★★★
CREDIT: The Circle -
REVIEW | Transparent
★★★★★ | Transparent
After Netflix’s phenomenal success creating original content for its streaming service with two Award winning television series, now Amazon has also stepped into the area which was once the sole territory of network and cable television with the launch of Transparent its very first own series. If you haven’t caught it yet (it’s free for AMAZON PRIME subscribers) then you’re missing out as it is one of the most innovative and enjoyable family dramas that has been seen on television for years.
It’s the story of Mort Pfefferman who has indulged and spoilt his grown-up children for years and now that he has retired he wants to share with them something that is important to him. When he asks them to gather to hear his news, they all just assume that it’s going to be something very tragic, like having terminal cancer.
What they are not prepared to learn is that Mort is going to become Maura. This is the female who has been trapped inside him since he was a kid, and now he wants to be true to him (or rather her) self.
The news doesn’t go over too well as these three self-absorbed siblings are all wrapped in their own lives, none of which are going too well. Sarah the oldest one feels trapped in an unhappy marriage and when Tammy her old college roommate with who she had a serious fling with shows up again, she finds an escape route.
Jay the middle one is a successful music producer and probably the most selfish of the three. He is used to dating girls young enough to be his daughters, although that goes a little sour when one of them double crosses him at the record company where he works. He finds salvation in religion. Well to be more precise, in dating the female Rabbi. His past will catch up with him in the end as is revealed in the final episode of this first series.
Then there is Ali the directionless brainy one who is too bright to hold down a day job so still relies on her father for handouts that she euphemistically calls ‘loans’. Her love life is equally impossible to define and when she starts dating a trans man, her brother Josh jokes that there he is now no longer the only one in his family that still likes ‘pussy’. Except his mother, but the mere thought of even contemplating his aged mother’s sex life is rather stomach turning.
She remarried soon after divorcing Mort years ago and her ancient new husband is now fading fast. A fact that Shelly is annoyed about as not only is looking after him as his sole career a great deal of hard work, but it interferes with her own life.
Amazon has billed this as a ‘downbeat comedy’ but what it is, in fact, is a wonderfully warm and funny series about the extraordinary journey that Maura is taking with such spirit and determination and how her choices are playing out with her family. It’s an astonishing career-defining performance from veteran actor Jeffrey Tambor who imbues the character with empathy, dignity and resilience even through the transitioning process is not always easy or comfortable. Maura may not be the most natural or charming of women, but somehow Tambor compels us to be so completely drawn to her and so wanting her to succeed.
Great supporting cast that includes Jay Duplass, Melora Hardin, Gaby Hoffman, Kathryn Hain and Amy Landecker. However, the only other scene-stealer in the piece (besides Tambor) is veteran actor Judith Light playing the classic Jewish mother/widow to the hilt.
The series is created and directed by Jill Soloway (Producer ‘Six Feet Under’) whose father revealed his own transitioning to her just three years ago. Although she claims that this is not at all autobiographical, she does nevertheless handle this potentially controversial subject superbly showing both remarkable insight and understanding. They were a few mumblings when the idea was initially announced that they not going to cast a transgender actor in the lead but no-one could possibly have portrayed Maura as superbly as Tambor. (Soloway did, however, make this a trans-friendly production hiring 20 in the cast and crew, and more than 60 trans men and women were employed as extras.)
Transparent is both bold and groundbreaking and is sophisticated quality programming that is usually the Hallmark of BBC or HBO, and I cannot wait for Series 2 to arrive.
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Coco Has Advice For You – Lose Weight And Wear Lippy
Have you got the Sunday blues and feel like you have made poor choices in your life?
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FILM REVIEW | Southern Baptist Sissies
★★★★ | Southern Baptist Sissies
Fourteen years ago writer Del Shores followed his gay cult classic play ‘Sordid Lives’ with another dramedy that takes a hefty swipe at the conservative Baptists stance on homosexuality.
Since its premiere, it has been very successfully performed extensively in regional theatres throughout the USA, but unlike its predecessor it has never found its way on to the silver screen, either big or small. Until now that is. Last year rectified Shores this omission when he directed a theatrical production in LA which he filmed in front of a live audience to make Southern Baptist Sissies the movie.
The action is set in Shores’s beloved Texas and it follows four ‘good Baptist’ boys from childhood to their early twenties as they all struggle with their sexuality in varying ways. Mark is the most outspoken (and acts as the narrator) and questions how their Church can preach love and forgiveness whilst passionately decrying homosexuality; Andrew was the first to embrace Jesus as his saviour and men as his potential partners and is the one who wrestles most with the conflicting pressures that they bring. Benny is the most open of the group and has not only fully embraced his gayness but has welcomed it with open arms as he develops his career as a drag queen entertainer. On the other hand T.J. a real jock is in complete denial of his deep attraction to Mark and would rather marry a woman than accept who he really is.
There is a great deal of melodrama with each of the young men all getting more than a couple of moments in the spotlight to say their heartfelt pieces, some of which come off as preachy as one of their Pastor’s sermons. Shores certainly knows how to get his cast to use the Bible like Google where there is an answer for everything.
Then asides from this there are a couple of hardened and embittered bar flies, an older gay man and his new best lady friend, both hardened drinkers and chain smokers, who humorously dissect their lives with a constant flow of funny stories and comments on the proceedings as they sit in a gay bar.
It’s an odd mix of highly emotional soul-bearing and chest beating on the one hand which is blended in with some really gloriously funny passages. It’s not always 100% successful but its very talented young cast that play alongside several veteran actors who are regulars in Shores productions deserve credit for their impressive performances which make the piece gel as well as it does. They include actor/producer Emerson Collins (‘Sordid Lives: The Prequel’), William Belli (‘Rupaul’s Drag Race’) doing all his own singing as Benny, Luke Stratte-McClure (‘All Together Now’) as T.J. and Matthew Scott Montgomery (‘So Random’) as Andrew. However, even the combination of cute appeal and talent still couldn’t stop them all being upstaged by Leslie Jordan and Dale Dickey with their scene-stealing outrageous bar gossip routines.
It was definitely a bold decision to film it as a staged play, and for the most part, it works very well indeed. With simple interlocking sets the action flows quite naturally but whereas a running time of 140 minutes works well in a theatre, it drags on the screen and could have comfortably lost at least 30 minutes with ease.
It is essentially a wonderful play about coming-of-age that shows little sign of becoming dated with time as the situations these young men face are universal and just as relevant today as when they were first written. This especially includes Andrew’s final resolution which sadly is the same decision many troubled souls still reach today.
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FILM REVIEW | The Third One
★★ | The Third One
Argentinian director’s Rodrigo Guerrero’s second feature is a very slight and charming tale about a one night stand that may change a young man’s outlook on life and love.
We first see 22-year-old near-naked Fede at his laptop on a chatline talking to Franco. The conversation soon gets very intimate and graphic and in case we don’t get where this is leading too, Guerrero has inserted some very short clips of gay porn films. Franco is in his early 40s and partnered and when all three men agree they like the look of how this hook-up is progressing they invite the young man over for dinner and more.
There is no ambiguity to the invitation and over the course of the meal, the three men chat at length about their backgrounds, their families and their lives so far. It is all very innocent and so completely friendly in such a way that it actually seems like the couple are looking to adopt the younger man rather take him to their bed and sexually ravish him. But this is what happens once desert has been served but as the action is photographed mainly from the waist up it is sweeter and somewhat wholesome than salacious.
There is a lot of grunting and groaning and smiling and then some penetration.
Next morning with still no genitalia on view the men leave for work and the boy leaves for college after they all say their fond farewells and promise to repeat the night very soon. The closing credits roll as we see young grinning Fede day-dreaming in Class his mind still on the events on last night as if he had just lost his virginity. (Not true).
Sweet film, very good acting, but it really only had the makings of a short, and certainly not a full-length feature to promote this overly optimistic idea that sometimes (!) online hook-ups can be like a fairy tale after all.
Released by TLA on 8th December
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FILM REVIEW | St. Vincent: Grinning From Ear To Ear
★★★ | | St. Vincent: Grinning From Ear To Ear
Vincent with no visible regular means of support and with a not a single friend in the world other than Felix his rather mangy Persian cat, is a cantankerous old drunk. When Maggie a newly single mother and Oliver her 12-year-old son move into the house next door, things get off to bad start between them and him, and it looks like they will be added to the long list of people who Vincent loathes. Then one day when Oliver gets inadvertently locked out of his house when his mother is trapped at work, and Vincent becomes a reluctant babysitter.
Always desperately short of cash, mainly due to his very unsuccessful gambling habit, when Vincent realises that looking after Oliver every night after school will actually earn him some money, he signs up for the job albeit begrudgingly. However unbeknown to Maggie, Vincent sees no reason to change his normal routines and drags the boy around all his regular seedy and totally inappropriate haunts. When he discovers that the boy is being picked on at school he teaches Oliver how to break the bully’s nose, which to everyone’s surprise he successfully puts into practice the very next day.
There are two people in Vincent’s life that he actually likes. One is a pregnant Russian stripper called Daka, and the second is Sandy an elderly woman suffering from Alzheimer’s who lives in a seniors centre. As the story unfolds it slowly becomes obvious why these women warrants special attention. Eventually, Vincent also starts to bond with his geeky charge and their relationship is really cemented when Oliver manages to change Vincent’s losing streak at the race track.
Center strand to the story is that at the Catholic School Oliver attends each of the pupils is encouraged to nominate a person from their everyday lives to be a Saint. Despite his drinking, gambling and hanging out with hookers, Vincent is Oliver’s choice for canonization which seems an unrealistic fit with the Catholic Church, but this is the movies after all.
This debut feature written and directed by newbie filmmaker Ted Melfi is purely a vehicle for the great comic actor Bill Murray who now specialises in playing old curmudgeons. He is unquestionably funnier than the movie itself, which although has some good comic moments, is just a little too sweet and syrupy which is not a good fit with Vincent’s grumpy personna.
Melissa McCarthy has very little to do as Maggie, Naomi Watts as Daka seems as uncomfortable as we are listening to her silly Russian accent, and Chris O’Dowd is painfully unfunny as the school priest.
However young Jaeden Lieberher playing Oliver puts in a fine performance and there was excellent chemistry between him and Mr Murray.
It’s not the laugh-out loud comedy it sets out to be, but it will have you grinning from ear to ear some of the time.
