THEGAYUK

Category: Review

  • FILM REVIEW | Mission Impossible: Fallout

    ★★★★☆ | Mission Impossible: Fallout

    MISSION IMPOSSIBLE: FALLOUT – The sixth high octane spy thriller of Impossible Missions
    Nutshell – The IMF based loosely on the 60’s TV show this time have to find some missing plutonium that they let slip through their fingers in Berlin at the start of the film. An old adversary wants to blow up the world again, so Tom Cruise jumps out of planes, crashes motorbikes, falls out of helicopters and fights everyone in sight on a global action odyssey. This time he has the man mountain Henry Cavill shadowing him all the way and also has some women problems and half decent twists.
    Running Time – 147 Minutes – Cert 12A. A very long movie that does fly by.
    Tagline – ‘Some Missions Are Not A Choice’
    THEGAYUK Factor – Tom Cruise is now 57-year-old and looks great for his age but the gay sex appeal is not what it was, but he does make great movies. Ving Rames, Simon Pegg and Alec Baldwin are never going to make it onto anyone’s wank bank list, but we do have one fantastic saving grace Mr Henry Cavill is stunningly hot, built like a brick shit house and looks like everyone’s dream fucking top.
    Cast – Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Alec Baldwin, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rames, Angela Bassett, Sean Harris, a very very hot Wes Bentley and the straight face of CNN, Wolf Blitzer as opposed to the silver fox himself Anderson Cooper.
    Key Player – Although this is Cruise’s show he is not really giving us anything new here. The director Christopher Mcquarrie is the first guy to be invited back for his second Mission as previously a new director was employed each time. This is not quite as good as his last film Rogue Nation and lacks that one signature stunt that we expect from this franchise but he is solid and holds it all together nicely.
    Budget – $178 Million but it has the lowest opening of any Mission to date and is struggling to get the right number of bums on seats which is strange as it has good reviews and decent word of mouth perhaps its the same old same old feeling or the Worldwide heatwave.
    Best Bit – 0.27 mins; A great well-filmed HALO (High Altitude Low Open) parachute jump which goes wrong is genuinely exciting but why they have to be so clandestine jumping out of a plane over Paris to avoid radar is anyone’s guess and a figment of the writer’s mind.
    Worst Bit – 1.48 mins; The over contrived endless double-crosses hit full speed, and logic goes out of the window with the twists and irrational happenings that make Harry Potter or Star Wars look realistic but never mind just enjoy the action which is very good indeed.
    Little Secret – These Missions are now largely all about Tom doing his own stunts, and it works because they do look real. Here he has four major ones; the HALO jump he spent a year training for, an extended helicopter action set piece where he did most of the flying, a Paris motorcycle chase without helmet including an against the traffic scene around the Arc de Triumph and that London-based foot chase where he busted his ankle and closed the movie down for months. Let the stunt guys do what they are good at fella maybe as the next Mission you will be in your sixties.
    Further Viewing – Missions 1 through 5, Anything with the words Jason and Bourne in, The Man From Uncle, Spy, Kingsman, the more recent James Bonds.
    Any Good – This is just a few points down on the last two Missions, and it is the longest, so there is a lot of story to wade through here. The action is as good as anything out this year and almost Fast & Furious level, and there are many positives especially the addition of Henry Cavill. You do get the feeling of deja vu though, fake interrogations again, a surprise mask wearer, The CIA infiltrated yet again, bosses being killed, and countdowns to explosions all so predictable why do bad guys have countdowns anyway they just exist so as the good guys can save the day with less than 10 seconds to spare. If you want to destroy the world why take your time?
    Rating – 72/100

  • THEATRE REVIEW | The Play That Goes Wrong

    ★★★☆☆ | The Play That Goes Wrong

    There is an old saying in theatre that “the show must go on” and nowhere is that old adage put more to the test than in The Play That Goes Wrong, a comedy of errors which collates every actor’s worst nightmare and throws them at the cast who are determined to carry on regardless.

    Borrowing heavily from The Mousetrap, The Play That Goes Wrong is a scattergun comedy set around the fictitious Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society, who is performing The Murder at Haversham Manor, a murder mystery set in the roaring twenties. Despite the best endeavours of the cast, nothing quite goes right for them, as scenery collapses, actors are knocked unconscious, props break and unprepared understudies stand in.

    With a varied blend of visual gags, slapstick, farce, wordplay, one-liners, missed cues and a rather more animated corpse than one would expect, the gags come thick and fast; some hitting the bullseye and others missing the target; but the whole thing is so fast-paced, that there is always another gag heading your way imminently. Garnering some genuine laugh out loud moments, the show has a sensible one hour forty minute runtime meaning that even if a few of the gags begin to outstay their welcome, the show does not.

    Whilst there is plenty of fun to be found and a lot of chuckles, guffaws and belly-laughs to be had, the ending of the show descends into a rather shouty and chaotic handful of closing scenes which, unfortunately, slightly takes the edge off of what has come before. But that said, the cast is delightful, in particular, Kazeem Tosin Amore; and there is some excellent split second comedic timing and plenty of physical dexterity on offer as the fictional cast try desperately to keep their faces straight, their upper lips stiff and prevent the performance collapsing into a catastrophe.

    The Play That Goes Wrong is currently at Sheffield Theatres until the 4th August 2018 before continuing on its national tour.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Titanic, The Musical, Liverpool Empire

    THEATRE REVIEW | Titanic, The Musical, Liverpool Empire

    ★★★☆☆ | Titanic – The Musical – Liverpool Empire

    Titanic - The Musical - National Tour review

    **This review was taken from the Sheffield production**

    Despite it being over 100 years since Titanic slipped under the waves, the fascination with the ship and those on board hasn’t faded, as evidenced by the packed house of this revival of Moury Yeston’s musical. The story of the ships maiden voyage and, ultimately, its demise is told through a wealth of characters from all classes of passengers and from the crew on board.

    The set, all sheet metal and rivets, towers above the audience instilling in them the impression of the sheer scale of the ship whilst a simple two-tier stage evoked an image of the decks and worked effectively. But from the off, the cast were on top form, as the magnificent ensemble belted out the opening numbers with such gusto that it reverberated in the chest, like the sounds of the engines of the great ship itself.

    And therein lays the strength of this production. Its cast was outstanding, and whether singing alone, in small groups or as an ensemble, the whole thing was beautifully sung and more akin to an opera than a musical. The three leads Philip Rham, Simon Green and Greg Castiglioni bounced off each other nicely as the Captain, owner and designer of the ship, and Niall Sheeny impressed as the stoker Fred Barrett. Whilst the direction was fairly minimal, the cast switched between their multiple roles seamlessly, spilling out into the aisles on occasions to engage the audience; whilst on a technical level, the lighting and sound design, the costumes and the balance between actors voices and orchestra were all absolutely spot on.

    Sadly, an overly long runtime, a handful of similar-sounding songs and a few too many story threads anchored down the first act to an extent, but the second act picked up the pace as the race to abandon ship took hold.

    What comes out of the production is an underlying theme of love between the characters, from the newlyweds to the eloping couple to the elderly husband and wife, and it is this which packs the emotional punch and brings the human cost of the tragedy sharply into focus.

    Book tickets to see Titanic, The Musical at Liverpool Empire until 4th August 2018

  • FILM REVIEW | Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again

    MAMMA MIA: HERE WE GO AGAIN – The sequel and a much more accomplished movie to the 11th most successful film of all time. Everyone is back bringing you over 20 Abba songs and a much better story with added Cher class.

    Nutshell – A movie released exactly 10 years after the first film tells us what the characters are doing also a decade on with parallel flashbacks to the origin story of Meryl Streep’s Donna character in the 80s from the first time around. So we get mother and daughter’s stories filled out and then grandmother Cher rolls in but its all about the tunes and we get some huge production numbers right from the outset with a vastly increased budget and Richard Curtis added to the writing team.
    Running Time – 114 Minutes – Cert PG.
    Tagline – ‘Thankyou For The Music Again’
    The Gay UK Factor – Well we only have a couple of lines but this is as gay as Lady Gaga doing a Madonna medley at an Elton John used buttplug auction. It was the gays that took over Abba’s back catalogue about 8 years after they disbanded leading to the stage musical. We have kept them close to our glitter covered hearts since whilst Cher became queen of the gays straight after she climbed on board a battleship with 500 sailors in just her knickers belting out ‘If I Could Turn Back Time’ with a 40-foot cannon between her legs. It helps that two of the young leads in this movie are hotter than Tom Daley’s popper collection also.
    Cast – Amanda Seyfried, Lily James, Meryl Streep, Cher, Dominic Cooper, Pierce Brosnan, Julie Walters, Andy Garcia, Colin Firth plus Benny & Bjorn from the greatest pop act of all time.
    Key Player – This is a love affair to Abba and with the same production team as before much credit also needs to go to the brains behind it all Julie Kramer, Phyllida Lloyd and Richard Curtis. That said there is no question that the breakout performance here is that of Lily James (Baby Driver, The Darkest Hour, Cinderella) playing the young Meryl character she is a great actor and lights up the screen and boy can that girl sing.
    Budget – $70 Million already made double that so, on to week two and the obvious second stage play.
    Best Bit – 1.12 mins; With a great life-affirming opening number ‘When I Kissed The Teacher’ and two great bits at the end one which will make you weep and the other that will make you sing at the top of your voice there is plenty of high points here. Yet when the opening blast of ‘Dancing Queen’ hits at a real key moment you will be flying as high as a bird on the wing. Pure joy in a bottle.
    Worst Bit – 0.18 mins; With any musical, you are going to get a couple of numbers which don’t work even the great Les Mis has that high pitched kiddie song. Here we get a rough as a dog’s ass version of ‘Kisses Of Fire’ but even that surpasses ‘Waterloo’ sung badly in a Napoleonthemedd restaurant sung by TV’s Hugh Skinner (ITV’s The Windsors & BBC’s W1A) and he makes Brosnan sound like Pavarotti on a good day here.
    Little Secret – How popular are musicals at the moment? The Greatest Showman soundtrack just had the longest run at number one of 27 weeks for 51 years since Julie Andrews was spinning around on an Austrian hilltop. Now it’s been knocked off the chart summit by this juggernaut. Through Chicago, Frozen, Les Mis, Beauty & The Beast, La La Land etc. we cannot get enough of musicals and there are many more in the pipeline.
    Further Viewing – Mamma Mia 1, Mermaids, Chicago, Phantom Of the Opera, Grease, Into The Woods, Evita, Dreamgirls, Summer Holiday, Blue Hawaii and the original beach musical classic South Pacific.
    Any Good – If you are a fan you will lap this up if not, then go see the boy’s own Mission Impossible or Dwayne Johnson films instead. This is really great, it is better than the original, partly due to the fact that it can break even further away from its stage origins and also because it can pick lesser known songs which fit better rather than having to be a greatest hits and forcing them into a story whether they like it or not and yes ‘Money, Money, Money’ & ‘Chiquitita’ we are looking at you. This just works, will make you feel joyous for a day or two after you have seen it and many times more when you buy the CD and DVD by the millions.
    This should have been a car crash in all honesty but it is full on Formula 1 massive success.
    88/100

  • RESTAURANT REVIEW | Plate, London

    ★★★★☆ | Plate, London

    Who wants to have a heavy meal when it’s hot and muggy outside. Well, Plate restaurant offers a light menu that might satisfy you.

    Plate Restaurant, located on City Road minutes from old Street station and in the flashy M by Montcalm Hotel, Plate, the first restaurant by acclaimed Chef Arnaud Stevens, adds to the re-invigoration of the neighbourhood by offering classy French/English dishes in a classy venue.

    When you walk into the Montcalm, you enter into a world of elegance and sophistication.  Head to the restaurant, located upstairs, and it’s even more elegant, refined, and luxurious.

    With a long streamlined bar and tables facing both City Road, Plate has floor to ceiling windows and more tables near the kitchen in the back. We started out with cocktails from their lengthy cocktail list. My dining companion chose the Tom Collins, which was exactly what he wanted – a light and refreshing drink. My Mint Julip sounded good at the time, but the Makers Mark Bourbon in it was extremely strong and powerful – pow! But we were treated to an absolutely fantastic Plate’s Signature Bread Flight Platter. An amazing array of butters (caramelized onion, salted and balsamic), were coupled with three types of bread (marmite, mushroom – shaped like a muffin – and sourdough) – all the butters were divine! This dish is highly recommended. Also highly recommended is the Norfolk Asparagus dish – another amazing array of flavour, which includes bits of warm pork, shallots, and an egg on top, with yummy char-grilled asparagus. Also delicious and fresh was the Sourdough Chili Avocado – and both starters were priced between £7 – £8 each – bargain!

    The mains are a bit thin on the ground. My Creedy Carver Chicken Breast and Thigh consisted of two small pieces of chicken, coupled with two long carrots and lots of kale – with sumptuous gravy. My friend had the Salted Atlantic Hake – served with baby leek and courgette with vanilla mash. It was served in a bowl-sized plate – so all of the food was on top of each other. My friend said it was good, not great. Both dishes were £16 each, quite expensive for what they give you, so not great value for the money. British Isle Rump of lamb, or the Red Kuri Squash Gnocchi, might be better options.

    We were advised by the very nice and professional waiter Amman to order sides, and I’m glad we did. The Caesar salad was topped with a crusty parmesan crouton, and the Agate potatoes were smothered in Cremé Fraiche and dill, both under £4 and both very necessary!

    For dessert I had the recommended Coffee Brulee. It was wonderful, sexy and delicious. My friend had the Caramelised Chocolate Mousse, which was less mousse and more clumps of chocolate, served with a nice soft passion fruit-topped bread. And the topper, however, was the delicious coffee – Musetti – a hard coffee flavour without being bitter.

    For something more relaxed, Plate Bake and Bar – artisanal bakery by day, cocktail bar by night – is located just below Plate restaurant on the ground floor of the M By Montcalm. It is the perfect light and airy space to enjoy a coffee and cake or post-work cocktail.

    Chef, Director and owner Arnaud has worked with some of the world’s most renowned chefs, including Pierre Koffmann, Gordon Ramsay, Jason Atherton and Richard Corrigan, and his unique style at Plate stands out.

    Plate Restaurant is a lovely place to spend an evening with cocktails and food made with care.

    PLATE RESTAURANT & BAR

    At M by MONTCALM
    151-157 CITY ROAD
    SHOREDITCH
    LONDON
    EC1V 1JH

    T 020 3837 3102
    E reservations@platerestaurant.co.uk

    http://www.platecatering.co.uk

    RESTAURANT OPENING HOURS

    Breakfast:
    Monday to Friday: 6.30am to 10.30am
    Weekend: 7am to 11am

    Lunch:
    Daily: 12pm to 3pm

    Dinner:
    Tuesday to Thursday: 6pm to 10.30pm
    Friday and Saturday: 6pm to 11pm
    Sunday and Monday: 6pm to 10pm

  • RESTAURANT REVIEW | Ceru, London

    ★★★★☆ | Ceru, London

    The sun is rising over D’Arbly street in the form of new restaurant Ceru.

    On a street that is probably best known for the street that houses The Breakfast Club and it’s never ending queues, Ceru brings fresh and new light to this street that was once just a pass through from Soho to Carnaby Street and Oxford Circus.

    Ceru, which means blue, is true to its theme in that when while you are sitting in the restaurant, it gives you a feeling of being in the Mediterranean, awash with bright colors and amazing food that mirrors the exact same type of food one can find from Cyprus to Syria and from Turkey to Jordan (Levantine – where the eastern Mediterranean meets the Middle East), with flavours that are literally out of this world.

    Just by having a look at the menu you can tell that you are no longer in Soho Dorothy! Lots of pomegranates, mints, amazing salads, and meat with many spices, not including the amazing vegetarian options will mean that there is so so so much on the menu and that it will require multiple visits.

    Our visit was on a hot and muggy night in July and we were ready for some fresh, and light, food. We had a sampling of all their dips – from the creamy textured and wonderful Hummus to the slightly zingy yet wonderful Ceru Hammara, and also the smooth Fadi (roasted zucchini, garlic, lemon and tahini), while the Pancar (Beetroot) is specific only to Beetroot lovers. Each dip costs £4.50 to £5.50 but please order the three dips in one dish at only £5.50 – a great deal to sample all of them.

    The amazing Crisp Apple, Mint & Pomegranate Salad was to die for – literally. With its tangy lemon and olive oil dressing, it was a dish that was fresh, crisp, cool and perfect for a hot day – brava, and a steal at £6.00! We weren’t too overly keen on theSpice Battered Squid (£7) – our portion, while quite big, was a bit too chewy and not as well cooked as we would’ve liked it. But the Lamb Shoulder more than made up for it. Slow roasted for 5 hours smothered in 12 shawarma spices – it’s a meat lovers delight. It’s one slab of meat covered in pomegranate, fresh mint and pistachio sauce – and every bite was tender, flavourful and totally delicious. And at £11.50 – it’s a steal because of its enormous size.

    If chicken is your thing, then, by all means, try either the Merguez Chicken (£10) or the Shish Tauk (£8.50), which was cubes of chicken breast, sprinkled with paprika and lemon, with herb yoghurt. While good, the paprika was a bit too spicey and the dish itself does not make a main meal. Luckily we also ordered a vegetarian dish – the Grilled Halloumi & Red Peppers with harissa dressing. We were told by the wonderful Karla to eat it as a sandwich, so we stacked up the pepper on top of the halloumi, and added a smattering of the dressing, and boom, it was delicious, bringing new flavours to our palates!

    We could not have overlooked the side orders. My dining companion loved the Spiced Polenta & Feta Fries, with coriander and chili (£3.50) while the Orez Ceru rice (Arabic fried rice with crispy onions, sultanas & parsley) was the starch for our meal, and it might’ve been a bit too much as its a big bowl of rice – but delicious and different nonetheless.

    In the cocktails department, we decided to go for unique and different. The Pistachio Meringue was definitely different – made with beefeater, pistachio, syrup, egg white, lime and cardamom syrup which my companion described as ‘liquid marzepan.’ I had the Turkish Delight – with Russian Standard, strawberry liquor, rose water and cranberry juice – it was sweet and berrylicious! And at only £7.50 each, these and all the other cocktails are good value as in most parts of Soho a £10 cocktail is the norm.

    We didn’t partake in too much of the wine but had sips of the red Kalecik Karasi Turkish wine (which, we are told, is the bosses favourite). it was very grapey, while the Vranec Special Selecti Macedonian wine was full bodied. Other wine regions on the menu include Lebanon, Greece, including whites, roses and more reds.

    And don’t worry about dessert as Ceru has got that covered. Dishes such as the Dark Chocolate Mousse (£4.50), Baklava (£5.50), Honey and Cardamom Panna Cotta (£4.50) and the yummy Galata Sundae (£4.50) are all delightful and yummy.

    Ceru also raises funds for the World Land Trust, of which Sir David Attenborough is a patron, by offering BRITA filtered water for a discretionary £1 per jug. Donations go to the charity’s work in protecting and expanding Armenia’s Caucasus Wildlife Refuge that looks after critically threatened species exclusive to the region like the Snow Leopard, Syrian Brown Bear and Grey Wolf.

    Ceru is healthy eating, with indulgent sharing dishes, an almost wholly gluten and dairy-free menu and lots of vegetarian and vegan options to choose from, in a setting that is rich and warm as it’s staff and food. It’s very very affordable as all the food and drinks we had came to a total of £91 – an excellent bargain!

    Ceru is open for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch.

    Ceru Soho is the Levantine’s brand second site. The first branch is located on Bute Street in South Kensington.

    CERU Soho

    11 D’Arblay Street, Soho, London, W1F 8DS

    020 3195 3002 | www.cerurestaurants.com

    soho@cerurestaurants.com

     

    T: @CeruLondon| I: @CeruLondon | F: CeruRestaurants

     

    Monday – Saturday: Midday – 11pm

    Sunday: 11am – 10pm

    Weekend brunch served 11am – 5pm, alongside All-Day Menu

     

  • FILM REVIEW | Skyscraper

    ★★★☆☆

    | SKYSCRAPER

    The world’s highest paid movie actor in history Dwayne Johnson in a Diehard type update in the world highest building makes sense right? Twice the height of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to make Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible building clinging exploits look like that of a pussy, nothing is small here.

    Nutshell – The big man is doing an insurance appraisal on ‘The Pearl’ a new mega-structure which is about to open. Cue a terrorist-induced fire halfway up the skyscraper, The Rock’s family trapped and in ever increasing jeopardy and a heist plot means the muscle mountain has to rip his shirt off and attempt one death-defying stunt after another to save the day or die trying.

    Running Time – 104 Minutes – Cert 12A and thereby we have the film’s biggest problem it is just too short and rushed – many kid’s cartoons are longer than this.

    Tagline – ‘Don’t Look Down’ & ‘The Sky Is The Limit’ – yes not a lot of thought has gone into this one.

    TheGayUK Factor – Dwayne is his usual hot as fuck self and then halfway through he gets a minor injury and the shirt comes off and the muscles and extensive tattoos come out and screw us, it is hot. The 6’4″ superstud has never looked better all those skinless chicken suppers and gym sweat is paying off but then it is back to the plot and the sweat just keeps coming at ya.

    Cast – Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell in her best role since her Scream franchise ended, Noah Taylor and Orange is the New Black’s ‘porntache man’ Pablo Schreiber.

    Key Player – Let’s not kid anyone this movie would not exist, be financed, reviewed, watched and enjoyed if it was not for Dwayne’s presence and him saying “yes” to it. The man could get a full-length movie about Theresa May’s sex life, a comedy starring Andy Murray, a gay version of Beaches or an epic entitled Brexit The Movie greenlit. He has single-handedly rescued four massive franchises with The Mummy, Fast & Furious, Journey 2 & GI Joe this is unlikely to be the next.

    Budget – $125 Million but will probably only make a minor profit which is disappointing following Johnson’s huge scoring 2017 with Fast & Furious 8, Moana and Jumanji but maybe forget Baywatch and this year’s earlier giant monkey movie Rampage. At least you have to give him the hardest working man in Hollywood title.

    Best Bit – 0.46 mins; Where the Mrs’ and kids are in the proverbial shit as a bridge across the park halfway up the tower collapses. It is a very well done tense scene we just need a lot more of this kind of peril across the other 90 minutes.

    Worst Bit – 0.21 mins; The villain here is just not evil enough and seems just off the shelf. His motive even less engaging and he also doesn’t have a decent sidekick with some super fighting skills or personal defect, so we get knock-off average goons we don’t care about.

    Little Secret – One of the lead collaborators on the movie is the Architect Adrian Smith who worked on the current tallest building the Burj Khalifa and is now working on the one to surpass it, the Jeddah Tower in Saudi Arabia. The fictional tower in the movie was moved to Hong Kong to take advantage of the now massive South-East Asian film market who love Dwayne’s movies. Dwayne Johnson was a hugely successful football star before a back injury made him switch to wrestling. He went back to wrestling after the Mummy Returns and Scorpion King movies as he thought he would not be a success as an actor. He is now the highest paid one of all time.

    Further Viewing – Diehard’s 1-4 which this movie would simply love to be & isn’t, Towering Inferno, San Andreas, Central Intelligence, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Gremlins 2, Entrapment or any Airport, Earthquake, Poseidon disaster flick of the 70’s.

    Any Good – This is a classic high single concept movie. The action is non stop but Dwayne does not get much of a chance to raise an eyebrow, crack a joke or do all the things we love from the guy. He is always engaging and tries hard but has little support and everything is so rushed resulting in the short running time. If there was only room for many of the scenes to breath and create more tension this would be so much better and raise it above standard 3-star territory which it could so easily have been. It is perfectly serviceable until Dwayne brings us Suicide Squad 2, San Andreas 2, Jumanji 3, Big Trouble In Little China and of course his much anticipated Fast & Furious spin-off with another of our great gay jerk off fantasies Jason Statham. The ultimate cockfight is coming in 2019.

    Rating: 49/100

  • FILM REVIEW | Fags In The Fast Lane

    FILM REVIEW | Fags In The Fast Lane

    ★★★★ | Fags In The Fast Lane

    Having headed into Dullsville to counteract a string of gay bashings, handsome hero, Sir Beauregard (aka The Cockslinger) and his trusty companion Reginald Lampoon III find themselves embroiled in a quest to retrieve The Golden Cock, a talisman which you rub to bring “good luck to the f***”, and which has been stolen by The Chompers, a grotesque Burlesque troupe of mutants, led by Wanda the Giantess. Heading off with homophobic hood, Squirt, in tow, and chased by Squirt’s equally homophobic sheriff father, Beau joins forces with a Persian cross-dressing princess and an Indian assassin on an increasingly bizarre road trip leading to Freaky Town with one goal in mind – to get his hands on the phallic wonder.

    Without fitting into any specific movie genre, Fags is a wonderfully distasteful yarn which couldn’t be much gayer if it tried. Knowingly revelling in its gaudy, kitsch, low budget glory, Fags harks back to the late 70’s/early 80’s sexpoltation parodies, in a massive mash-up of trashy, freaky, funny, and downright bizarre. From brothels to Bollywood, and from tiki-tiki huts to trashy townships, the road trip is littered with phallic references, drag queens, knob gags galore and plenty to laugh at. Throw in a handful of musical interludes, puppets, miniature models and practical special effects and you have a film which has its tongue planted so firmly in its cheek that it hurts; and one which you just have to sit back, and let yourself be taken along for the ride. Imagine the kind of film that you would end up with if the lovechild of Russ Myers and John Walters made a Barbarella / Xanadu crossover in the style of Flesh Gordon with added (gay) sexploitation and you are pretty much there.

    But aside from that, Fags also takes clichés and stereotypes and successfully subverts them, by not only reclaiming them, but by celebrating them. It’s not afraid to thrust its camp glory in the faces of the viewers and does so with aplomb; whilst somewhere buried deep in the garishness of it all is a bold statement about being yourself.

    Nestling neatly between parody and homage, Fags in the Fast Lane is brimming with giggly homoeroticism and is quickly heading for camp cult classic status.

    Fags in the Fast Lane is available on DVD , VOD or from iTunes.  You can  also view the trailer on YouTube

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Thriller Live! – Sheffield Theatres

    ★★★☆☆ | Thriller Live!

    Celebrating the music, dancing and performances of the entertainer, Thriller Live is a whistle-stop tour of Michael Jackson’s greatest hits, rolled into a relentless package of iconic dance moves, legendary performances and classic songs.

    From his early days in Mowtown, through the Jackson 5 years and onto his solo success, the show features a quartet of singers who perform against a backdrop of spectacular choreography which is performed with unyielding vigour and energetic enthusiasm by the vivacious cast of dancers who fill the stage; accompanied by a talented bunch of musicians in the live band.

    Cleverly taking the routines, or snippets of them, highlights included music video recreations of ‘Smooth Criminal’ and ‘Thriller’, great renditions of ‘Man in the Mirror’ and ‘I Just Can’t Stop Loving You’ and some tracks you wouldn’t immediately associate with Michael Jackson, including ‘Dangerous’ and ‘This Place Hotel’.

    Despite the vocals not being of the highest order, some forced audience participation and a couple of songs descending into an overblown mess, there is still plenty of enjoyment to be found here. Regardless of the controversy surrounding his life, Michael Jackson’s enduring appeal undoubtedly remains, especially if the shouts, whoops and cheers from the audience were anything to go by.

    Whilst musical revues can often come across as sycophantic, Thriller Live manages to sidestep being the gushing praise-fest that it could be, and instead allows the party atmosphere, music, songs and dance routines to speak for themselves in an undemanding evening of foot tapping, high end cabaret.

    Thriller Live is rounding off its national tour at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre until 21st July 2018, but you can still catch the show in the West End.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | It Happened in Key West, Charing Cross Theatre, London

    THEATRE REVIEW | It Happened in Key West, Charing Cross Theatre, London

    ★★★ | It Happened in Key West

    A true story of a man who dug up the love of his life is a musical called It Happened in Key West.

    Yes, it did happen in Key West. In the 1940s, Count Carl Von Cosel fell in love with a woman, Elena, he was treating for tuberculosis . She died, but von Cosel was so infatuated and in love with her that he dug up her body and, for over 7 years, lived with her, well not really with her but with her body, in his house, in Key West.

    Now playing at the Charing Cross Theatre, with book, music and lyrics by Jill Santoriello, book and additional lyrics by Jason Huza, and book and original content by Jeremiah Janes who all collaborated together to create this musical, while a bit on the funny side, is too morbid and too silly to be taken seriously, and not funny enough to be camp and over the top.

    Having said that, Wade Mccollum is great as the Count. He’s got a great singing voice, especially in a song where he pines for Elena (‘Undying Love’ and ‘I’ve Never Felt This way’) are two standouts. He commands the stage and surely belongs in the West End but in a better show. Alyssa Martyn is just fine as Elena, who surprisingly dies before the first half is finished – it might’ve made more sense to have her die after the first half, but she does sing ‘I Feel Love,’ while dead, in the second half, and comes ‘back to life’ at the very end to sing, beautifully, in the finale. Director and Choreographer Marc Robin doesn’t have a whole lot to work with, it seems like the same 12 boxes remained as the set the whole way through the show. ‘It Happened in Key West,’ billed as a New Romantic Musical Comedy, is not much of a musical nor a romance.

    http://www.charingcrosstheatre.co.uk

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Dusty: The Dusty Springfield Musical, Sheffield Theatres and National Tour

    ★★★★☆ | Dusty: The Dusty Springfield Musical

    It wasn’t just her voice that made Dusty Springfield so distinctive. In 1964, she was deported from South Africa for refusing to play to segregated audiences. She stood up against male musicians who wouldn’t be told how to play their instruments by a woman. She was the first singer to be open about their bisexuality and had a long-term relationship with a black woman at a time when both sexuality and race were incredibly sensitive social issues, and she championed black artists breaking into the UK mainstream. But behind the beehive and eyeshadow was a tragic individual brimming with self-loathing and doubt, and one who struggled with her mental health, sexuality and substance misuse.

    During one key scene, when asked whether she had any regrets, Dusty says “I wish I’d been more open”, and with her troubled private life, her own issues and guilt around her sexuality, and her willingness to stand up for what she believed in, it is easy to see why Dusty became, and remains, a gay icon. Written by Jonathan Harvey (Beautiful Thing; Gimme, Gimme, Gimme), the play nestles somewhere in between musical biopic and jukebox musical, and looks at Springfield’s life from her first solo hit to her death in 1999, without shying away from her darker years and the troubles which blighted her in private.

    Katherine Kingsley not only carries the show, but is quite simply outstanding, with a performance that captures the look, sound and emotions of the iconic performer to perfection, particularly in the show’s denouement, with a powerhouse performance of “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me”; whilst Joanna Francis stands out as Lois, Springfield’s long-term partner, with a voice which drips with pure soul. Harvey’s script handles Dusty’s bisexuality and lesbianism with sensitivity, and the show provides many touching scenes between Dusty and Lois. It is refreshingly pleasing to see such a positive and tender portrayal of a lesbian relationship in mainstream theatre.

    Harvey’s script is warm and instantly accessible, although a little clumsy at times in its integration of high drama and sitcom humour; and whilst the songs are undeniable classics and span the length of her career, they are perhaps not abundant enough. Whilst the set is over-reliant on projected images and the production values overall require a lot of spit and polish, the enthusiasm of the cast and some outstanding performances elevate Dusty to a suitably heartfelt and, ultimately, very enjoyable tribute to a classic artist.

    Dusty: The Dusty Springfield Musical is at Sheffield Lyceum Theatre until the 14th July 2018 before continuing on its national tour.