THEGAYUK

Category: Entertainment

  • FILM REVIEW | Love Or Whatever

    Like most Therapists who spend their working day advising people how to get their act together, Corey was not that hot at getting his own life on the right track. When he finally proposed to his muscle-bound airhead personal trainer boyfriend, Jon just freaked out and ran off into the arms (and bed) of the nearest woman. He had finally come of out of his gay closet to discover that he was bisexual, or maybe straight even. ★★★

    Corey crying his eyes poured out his woes to his best friend who was his lesbian sister Kelsey, who insisted that there was only one way forward for him viz. Grindr. And soon as she had taught her brother how to use this Gay dating app. the first man he spotted was the Pizza delivery guy. Pete is hotter than hell: handsome, intelligent, articulate and is running the pizza store whilst caring for his sick Uncle the owner. He’s a saint and too perfect to be true, but this is the movies after all.

    The two men have a very successful date and geeky Corey now has another muscle-bound super-fit boyfriend, but before they can even think about even living happily ever after, they must get through a couple of melodramas first. It turns out that Melissa, the woman who the newly proclaimed bisexual Jon is dating, is also a client of Corey’s and she insists on telling him every intimate detail of her new relationship not knowing that he was her predecessor. Eventually he tells her that his appointment book is full and she should go find another therapist.

    Meanwhile Jon decides he really prefers Corey after all so he comes back and they immediately jump in to bed only to be caught in flagrento by saint Pete. Before they can even get their underwear back on, in storms Melissa who had given Jon a lift and had been waiting in the car outside. And just before they can all say scream ‘How could you ? etc’, then into this now rather packed house comes Kelsey to say that she is broke and her coffee shop business is in Foreclosure and she’s leaving town.

    It’s a romantic comedy so you know that in this very lightweight fluffy piece it will work out in the end so everyone will have big smiles on the faces and a hot body to share their beds. Well most of them anyway. This one is cute, thanks mainly to a good cast, and not just the ex-underwear models who play two of the leads.

    As fun as it is you and perfect for a date night, you may still cynical just opt for the ‘whatever’ rather than ‘love’!

    Available to by from Amazon

  • FILM REVIEW | The Way He Looks

    FILM REVIEW | The Way He Looks

    The lazy summer is over and Leo and his best friend Giovana are back in High School for the new term when curly headed new boy Gabriel joins the class for the first time.★★★★★

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  • THEGAYUK Gardeners Call In Monty Don

    Tune in next week to see our very own GayUK gardening duo join forces with the legend that is Monty Don!

    In “Big Dreams Small Spaces” Monty helps couples with small gardens make the most of what they’ve got. For Adam and Andy the challenge was to turn a small scrap of land next to the house into a useable garden – perfect for parties, eating out and entertaining.

    Adam says,

    “We’re so lucky to be living in such a beautiful part of the world, so we always want to be able to spend time outside. The land we have here in Wales is all being used for smallholding so it’s always full of animal feed, sheds and equipment – not to mention the animals themselves! We wanted to claim some of the space for us so we can spend time outdoors together and with our friends.”

    “The camera crew followed us for a year as we worked on achieving our goals. We’d always been growing food but over the course of the show we’ve discovered a passion for all elements of gardening especially growing beautiful flowers that are purely for enjoyment!”

     

    Andy added,

    “We got involved in the show inadvertently by responding to a Tweet about small gardens – the next thing we knew Monty Don was coming round for a cuppa and a chat! He was such a nice guy and really helped us turn our modest project into something wonderful.”

    “We’ve been so lucky to have found a special village to live in, full of amazing people. We’ve only been here three years and have fantastic friends, a working smallholding and now a tidy little garden too – sometimes we really do pinch ourselves!”

    Andy and Adam’s episode of “Big Dreams Small Spaces” airs this Wednesday 22nd of October on BBC2 – and you can watch a sneak peak of the episode here (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p028ncxr)

    If you want to keep an eye on what the guys are up to search ‘Helpless Homestead’ on Facebook or follow@homesteadsos on Twitter.

  • FILM REVIEW | The Fault In Our Stars

    16 year old Hazel Graze is permanently attached to an oxygen tank that now keeps her alive after her most recent bouts of cancer. If knowing that her days on earth are severely limited isn’t bad enough, she has to cope with her well-meaning parents and their enforced sunny dispositions to just get through each day. It’s no wonder that this sweet teenager is so depressed as she is dragged from counsellor to group therapy because the adults in her life tell her this is what she needs.

    It isn’t of course, but as stoic and brave as she is, Hazel is not sure that anything beyond her favourite post-modern novel (about cancer), will ever remotely make her happy. That is until one day in the Youth Cancer Group she meets Augustus. A clever tall and handsome 18-year old whose potential career as a baseball player was cut short when cancer took his right leg. He’s a carefree optimistic soul with a very quick acerbic wit who takes an instant shine to Hazel and pursues with an energy and enthusiasm that totally throws her.

    He takes her out on a few very chaste dates, reads the novel that she is addicted too and starts courting her with long late night phone conversations and they gradually morph into a couple in love. A few weeks into this budding relationship Augustus springs a surprise. He’s fixed it with the ‘Make a Wish Foundation’ for the two of them to take a trip to Amsterdam where Hazel can meet Van Houten the author of the book she will not put down. The elusive writer never produced the sequel he promised and Hazel has always been desperate to know what happened next in this unfinished story.

    Meanwhile, before she can go she has another close call with death when she suddenly gets very sick again. It turns out that she will recover to fight another day only to realise that Augustus’s cancer has reappeared and this time there is going to be nothing to stop it being terminal, and soon.

    If that is not enough grief, Van Houten is a major disappointment and breaks her heart too, and just to ensure that we use up at least two boxes of Kleenex watching this high-octane tearjerker, when the young couple are in Amsterdam they visit the Anne Franck house, giving us another reason to sob out loud.

    However what makes this melodrama work and keep our sympathy remaining high throughout is a beautifully understated and mature performance by Shailene Woodley who so carefully avoids any temptation to milk the part and make Hazel a tragic figure. She imbues her with such a serenity and a dignity, makes her warm and funny and never once makes this poor dying teenager a pathetic figure. She is a sheer joy to watch. Ansel Elgot has a slightly easy task as Augustus and he does it exceedingly well demonstrating such great chemistry with his co-star.

    Based on the best-selling novel by John Green who used his past experiences as a chaplain in a children’s hospital for the groundwork of his story. Adapted for the screen by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber, who previously wrote ‘The Spectacular Now’ together, and it is director Josh Boone’s sophomore feature.

    Highly recommended.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Blood Brothers, Birmingham Hippodrome

    ★★★★★ | Blood Brothers, Birmingham Hippodrome
    Sensational, Tear-Jerking and Nostalgic

    “Blood Brothers” celebrates its ninth visit to the Birmingham Hippodrome. Willy Russell’s dramatic yet effervescent musical marks twenty-nine years of existence, and its energy and emotion is still true to the performance today.

    I was heavily drawn to Maureen Nolan’s portrayal of Mrs Johnstone. Nolan conjured feelings within the audience that were so unique and precious that led to the well-deserved standing ovation at the very end. Maureen stands out for her tremendous ability in showcasing a wide range of emotions, especially with the way she talks of her children; contrasting with the unpleasant discourses with Mrs Lyons (Mother of Eddie), but most sincerely for the nostalgic effect that she summoned in the audience. The motherly manner in which she coated Mrs Johnstone and the tangible affection she had with her children drove a good few to memory lane.

    Another actor who created some ripples in the audience was Kristofer Harding, as the Narrator. It was one of those roles that, when present, an atmosphere is formed, atmosphere of which helped sew the emotion together. Harding’s voice resonated danger and mystery, which left audience members on the edge of their seats with anticipation.

    The most astonishing acting witnessed in the whole show was of Sean Jones, Mickey. His incredible imagination in portraying a seven-year-old to then later taking on the same role but as an adult, fascinating! His playfulness as a child was endearing and it felt as though the audience did not want him to grow up. The story is a little like Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” but instead of love, it is a friendship that is denied to them.

    A great effect, which I thoroughly enjoyed, was the actor doubling. Two actors that doubled throughout and stood out were Graham Martin and Daniel Taylor. Graham’s wit and creativity shone at the Birmingham Hippodrome: he brought the house down with laughter, as the teacher and as the judge. Daniel’s interpretation of Sammy was a treat. Not only did he capture the older sibling so perfectly well, he became a symbol of the time. Daniel demonstrated energy like no other, and though Sammy was not the lead role, he played every second of that stage with a spirit of a protagonist.

    The set was otherworldly. The houses were as real as the one I am sat in now. The effortless changes between scenes were an effect in their own right. The artwork on the back wall of the stage was something extraordinary; it made it look as though we were peering out of a window with the view to Liverpool.

    There is a reason why “Blood Brothers” has been running short of thirty years. I was ready to watch it again, but they asked me to put my wine down and leave.

    “Blood Brothers” is at Birmingham Hippodrome until the 25th of November.

  • THEATRE REVIEW: Urinetown, Apollo Theatre, London

    With a terrible title, something that the writers are keen to point out, Urinetown is the anti-musical- musical and it’s bloody brilliant.

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  • THEATRE REVIEW | This Is My Family, Lyceum theatre Sheffield and National Tour

    ★★★ | This Is My Family, Lyceum theatre Sheffield and National Tour

    Nicky loves her family very much, so enters a competition to win a holiday by describing her family in less than three hundred words. However, her description does not include details of her mother’s boredom at her routine life, her father’s impending midlife crisis, her grandmother’s increasing forgetfulness and her Goth brother’s lovelorn angst. So when Nicky finds out she has won the competition and can chose any location in the world for her destination, she eventually decides on a holiday which none of her family would have ever expected.

    Following its debut last year, this new British musical comedy embarks on its first national tour. Written by Tim Firth, writer of Calendar Girls and Kinky Boots, the quick paced script is delivered at a matching speed and produces a number of genuinely funny one liners, with humour reminiscent of the family sitcoms “Outnumbered” and “”My Family”. The show is akin to a sing through musical, with the songs being part of the narrative and moving the story forward (with the cast, in essence, singing their lines) but with sufficient dialogue in between to break up the numbers and a script and story which balanced comedy, conflict and sentimentality very well.

    Evelyn Hoskins was every bit the star of the show, with her outstanding voice and upbeat performance as Nicky. But she was very closely followed by Terence Keeley, as Matt, whose singing voice had a mature, powerful and almost operatic quality for such a young performer and whose deadpan delivery was spot on. The entire company had good comic timing, playfully cutting across each other and delivering the wordy script with aplomb.

    In the newly refurbished Lyceum Theatre, the sound was crystal clear with every word being audible, despite how quickly the cast spoke. The static set was functional, as was the lighting, but this play is more about the writing than the staging.

    Where the play fell short was the songs; which sounded far too alike each other to ever really stand apart from the previous on, and the repeating refrains somehow making the first act seem very slow. In terms of the story, there felt as though there was very little narrative progression in the first act, and it was more about building up characters and relationships than driving the plot forward. But the second act brought everything together quite nicely, and in hindsight, it was clear why the slow build up was necessary, with the show just managing to keep on the right side of sentimentality to head towards a feel good ending.

    This is My Family is not your usual musical – if you go expecting show stopping routines and big, bold numbers, you will be disappointed. But if you want a sitcom with songs, with plenty of laugh out loud moments, you will no doubt find much to enjoy.

    This Is My Family is currently playing at the Sheffield Lyceum Theatre (www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk/event/this-is-my-family-14/ ) before heading out on its first national tour, visiting Royal & Derngate, Northampton; Belgrade Theatre, Coventry; Liverpool Playhouse and The New Wolsey, Ipswich.

  • FILM REVIEW | Gone Girl

    ★★★★★ | Gone Girl
    When the movie opens on a quiet July morning in a small Missouri town there is no visible indication we are looking at a man who has fallen on hard times.

    It turns out that Nick Frost has been virtually unemployed since being laid off from his job on a magazine in NY and is now penniless. He and his wife live in a large ugly suburban house that they lease using the remains of her depleted trust fund, and this morning on his 5th wedding anniversary he is feeling sorry for himself and sipping a shot of Bourbon in the small empty bar he owns with his sister. As he sounds off about the stale state of his marriage the telephone rings. It’s his neighbour telling him that the front door of his house is wide open.

    That’s not the only thing he discovers when goes back home, as the house is totally deserted and furniture is turned over and broken as if there has been a struggle of sorts. When the police check it out they find signs of blood and enough clues to be concerned for Amy’s safety and decide to mount a Press Conference the next day to appeal for help. Nick is joined for this by Amy’s psychiatrist parents who are famous authors having once made a fortune on a series of books called Amazing Amy that ruthlessly exploited their daughter’s childhood.

    Initially, there is an overwhelming abundance of sympathy and support for Nick from both the police and local community but as Detective Rhonda Boney keeps uncovering further clues that indicate that Nick may be responsible for his wife’s disappearance, the mood rapidly changes. Egged on by local TV pundits who have already declared that Nick is guilty of killing his wife, everybody turns against him. When his young mistress goes public about their affair it seems like now that a motive has been established, they can be no further doubt about his guilt.

    Things are far from what they seem in this latest movie from the master of suspense director David Fincher who excels at complicated thrillers such as this. By using a series of flashbacks he has shown that this once fairytale romance is now on the rocks, but even so, it’s impossible to comprehend the depths that Amy will go to resolve it in a manner that will try and exact such diabolical revenge on her unfaithful husband.

    It is one of those movies that is best enjoyed knowing little beyond these bare bones of the plot because what follows is so astonishing it will certainly stupefy you. Just when you think you have it all worked out, the story will twist another 360 degrees to confound you yet once again. It is however unquestionably one of the BEST movies of 2014.

    Ben Affleck is superb as put-upon Nick who you may dislike for wanting his own way, but even he doesn’t deserve the punishment Amy wants to exact on him. The movie, however, belongs to the British actress Rosamund Pike who, in an Oscar-worthy performance, is nothing less than outstanding as Amy. It’s an amazing revelation to see her being so brilliantly devious, manipulative, demented and stunningly seductive when she wants her own way. She is such a sheer joy to watch (apart from all the bloody bits naturally).

    Lest I should forget, there are also some great supporting turns that deserve mention too. Kim Dickens (TV’s Sons of Anarchy) as the Detective, Carrie Coon (TV’s The Leftovers) as Nick’s sister Margo, Neil Patrick Harris as Amy’s stalker boyfriend, and Tyler Perry for once playing it straight as Nick’s hot shot lawyer.

    The script, the first ever written by Gillian Flynn, and adapted from her own novel gave Fincher a great canvass to work with, but it is his superb attention to the most minute detail that makes it such the spectacular roller-coaster ride that it is.

  • FILM REVIEW | This Is Where I Leave You

    ★★ | This Is Where I Leave You

    The ‘leaving’ in the title of this rather frenetic comedy refers to death and divorce and a few other departures in between. Everybody in the Altman family has both issues and secrets and the set up for us (and them) to discover them all is when the patriarch dies and his widow (their mother) insists that they must all sit the traditional Jewish Shiva even though none of them has been inside a synagogue for decades.

    Shiva means sitting there together for 7 days without exception or excuse and talking about life and death, and this family have a lot of it on their minds. Four days prior Judd just discovered his wife in bed with his boss and had walked out on both his marriage and his job. Judd’s eldest brother Paul has been trying to get his wife Annie pregnant for some time now and maybe firing blanks, so she looks for an alternative ‘donor’ in her ex-boyfriend, who just happens to be Judd. The youngest brother Phillip who is still just a big kid at heart shows up with his older cougar girlfriend/future fiancé who he met when she was his therapist. The 4th sibling is Wendy, the mother of two, and whose workaholic husband has a cell phone attached to his ear permanently, whilst she is still carrying a torch over Harry the man next door who was her childhood sweetheart and who she dumped after a serious car accident which left him with brain damaged.

    The only one who seems prepared to talk openly and frankly is the mother who proudly flaunts her new breast implants and incessantly hawks the best-selling book that she wrote some years ago based on all her children’s secrets. Naturally, it turns out that she has a big secret too, but this, the most surprising one is not revealed until almost the end.

    It’s all a little too much with an over-abundance of clichéd plot strands that are at best mildly amusing but in reality, give the overall feeling of an ill-conceived TV situation comedy that is too eager to please. Its one big saving grace is the stunning array of talented actors that make up the cast and do the very best with the script that they have been served up. Jason Bateman as Judd stoically takes most of the heavy load as the main character, and Adam Driver, Corey Stoll and the wonderful Tina Fey play his siblings. Timothy Oliphant is the man next door, Dax Shepherd bares all as the cheating Boss, Kathryn Hann is the motherless sister in law and Connie Britton as the put-upon cougar girlfriend. Mother is played by the great (and elegant looking) Jane Fonda but there are moments when you are convinced that she has just phoned her performance in.

    It’s one of those movies you will be happy to watch on a wet Winter evening when there is nothing else that grabs you on the TV, as its really not bad. It’s just that it could/should have been so much better

    Opens on the 24th October 2014

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Tempest, Waterloo East Theatre

    ★★★ | The Tempest

    The cover of the programme for Waterloo East Theatre’s new production of The Tempest shows Big Ben toppling under a flood of water. As we entered the theatre, Ariel was suspended in a hammock above the audience. Whilst on stage, various detritus that may have been salvaged from a flood was scattered around, Miranda sitting reading in an empty bath, and Prospero, seated on a crate, quietly talking to her. The press release tells us that the year is 2080, but no other allusion to the year or to London was made, and as the text continued to refer to the courts of Milan and Naples, I doubt many would have got the reference anyway.

    The play opened in a burst of energy, with passengers on the ship that is soon to be caught up in the eponymous tempest, dancing and drinking and generally making merry before the storm disperses them on Propero’s island, which is when Prospero starts to have his fun, directing events almost like a puppeteer. Indeed many have sought to find something of Shakespeare himself in the character.

    Sarah Redmond’s production was swift moving, managing seamlessly the transitions from high to low comedy, from darkness to light. I’m not quite sure I understood why Miranda and Ferdinand’s marriage should have been celebrated with a lap dance, and I would have welcomed a little more of “the sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not”, but the score did provide us with “a thousand twangling instruments”. In fact, music was used most effectively throughout.

    Would that the text had been delivered with a deal more musicality too, for poetry was somewhat lacking, except in the performance of Guy Wolf, who gave us a Ferdinand of charm and innocence, bringing out both the humour and the beauty of the poetry. It was there too in Chipo Kureya’s mercurial Ariel, and I will not easily forget the radiant happiness that spread over her countenance when Prospero finally set her free. Rebecca Hazel caught well Miranda’s wonder at a “brave new world”, if a touch too lasciviously at times. Though there is no doubt a venal side to the attraction between Miranda and Ferdinand, it should still have a childlike innocence about it, which is exactly where Wolf was so convincing.

    I’ll admit that I often have a bit of a problem with Shakespeare’s mechanicals and The Tempest is no different from any of his other plays in that respect. Here their scenes were managed as well as they can be, I suppose, ably led by Matthew Harper’s boorishly bullish Caliban, but still nobody was rolling in the aisles, as presumably they would have been in Shakespeare’s time.

    Over all presides the problematic figure of Prospero, and for me the performance of Tom Keller revealed a major problem at the heart of the play. Admittedly, there is not much to like about Prospero for the first half. He is cruel to both Ariel and Caliban, and to Ferdinand, at times dismissive of his daughter. This makes him a difficult character to like, though he redeems himself in the last two acts. Prospero does have a good deal to be angry about, but to succeed in the part, the actor needs to bring out his benevolence as soon as possible. Tom Keller was pretty irascible from the word go, and remained in a pretty bad mood throughout, his delivery of the text unmusical and perfunctory.

    The Tempest plays at Waterloo East Theatre until October 26th.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Damn Yankees, The Landor Theatre, London

    ★★★★ | Damn Yankees, The Landor Theatre, London

    Perpetual losers, The Washington Senators, are failing to win at baseball yet again and fanatic Joe Boyd is tempted into a Faustian pact when he sells his soul to the devilish Mr Applegate in return for a series win. Joe soon realises what he’s leaving behind and is torn between the wife he’s left behind versus the chance to take his team to victory and the distraction of the devil’s sidekick, beautiful and vampy Lola.

    Adler and Ross’s multi-award winning musical may have one of the silliest plots around but that doesn’t matter at all. Coming straight after their success with The Pyjama Game and a string of chart hits, Damn Yankees was well received and was even made into a film starring Tab Hunter and Gwen Verdon. Sadly, at the height of their success, Ross died aged 29 from complications of lung disease.

    This production has already been nominated for an Off West End award for Best Choreographer for Robbie O’Reilly. It’s not hard to see why. The dance routines are breath taking. The production values of the show are up to the standards of a West End production and tickets are a fraction of the price. O.K., The Landor is a fringe venue and has fewer frills in terms of special effects and scenery but is well worth a trip to Clapham North. The lighting, set and costumes are all well put together especially given the constraints of a smaller venue.

    The cast are especially strong with wholesome and handsome Alex Lodge putting in a stellar lead performance as Joe Hardy, showing dazzling dance moves and a powerful voice, which considering that he’s a recent graduate shows a considerable talent. He’s definitely one to watch and not simply because of his boyish good looks. Poppy Tierney and Jonathan D Ellis are both hilariously camp as Mr Applegate and his sidekick Lola and give well polished performances. Ellis’s cabaret turn in Act Two was especially waspish and funny and Tierney gives a good rendition of “Whatever Lola Wants”.

    Did I mention the boys? I haven’t seen so much bare male flesh in a musical in quite some time. As well as being a stage presence due to their singing and dancing, their abs and pectorals are worthy of some kind of award, surely? The supporting female cast are equally good but with less flesh on show.

    This is definitely worth checking out for an entertaining few hours.

    Damn Yankees runs until the 8th of November 2014

    Buy tickets here: http://www.landortheatre.co.uk/index.php/booking-office/musicals/damn-yankees-90/