Tag: London News
All the latest from London, the capital of the UK, home to the UK’s largest gay community.
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GIG REVIEW: John Cale – Ecletic Ecstasies, The Roundhouse
★★★★★ John Cale | Gay icon Andy Warhol was a furious, non-stop workaholic. Perpetually partying, even more fiercely than the similarly manic-for-inspiration Alexander McQueen, Warhol had one, pathological pet hate – laziness. Famously, he called Lou Reed – the amphetamine cranked, 24-7 sensation junkie – ‘a rat’, the most poisonous put-down poor tongue-tied Andy could manage.
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London’s Most Gay Friendly Neighbourhoods Revealed
Vauxhall, Camden and Dalston have been revealed as the most gay friendly neigbourhoods in London.
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THEATRE REVIEW | 5 Guys Chillin’
Five gay, short-sporting, horny promiscuous guys with gobs of liquid G, copious consignments of crystal meth, in a smog of monotone club beats opens up a whole production-line of tinned STI’d-worms. ★★★
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London’s Largest Gay Sauna To Be Demolished
CREDIT: © Artmim Depositphotos London’s biggest gay sauna is to be demolished to make room for hotel, retail and offices. (more…)
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Squares Above The Rest: The Box, Seven Dials
The London gay scene, much like Wayne Rooney’s hairline, has fluctuated, mutated and diminished since the millennium. A plethora of happening gay drinking holes and night clubs have appeared, done a stint – then poof! Disappeared.
One bar that stood out, due to her lengthy sentence and touch of the David Bowie’s – her unique edge – is The Box.
The Box bar was perched on the edge of Covent Garden’s Seven Dials, a good distance away from tempting forbidden fruit trees and tricker-ous serpents of Soho. Faraway enough you didn’t end up attempting a Grey-Goose-infused suspended pirouette on the pole, attached to the plinth in the Shadow Lounge in the wee hours on a school night – we’ve all been there.
The Box had abundant fundamentals, she was an ever-changing art gallery – local and other UK based artists would cake the walls with their creative wares. She was a relaxed café during the day, somewhere you could pop by for a decaf skinny mocha, Bloody Mary or a cold-as-Sarah-Palin’s-love-organ pint of Stella – even a spot luncheon with chums, or indeed on your Jack, and without feeling as though you were sporting last season’s spring/summer.
At around 6pm the after-work-dollies would flock into bitch about their colleagues, moan about their boyf’s or simply lift spirits from a hard day’s vaporising from behind the Lancôme counter at Selfridges, or boast about a successful pick-up at the gym.
During the summer said swarm would spill out on to Monmouth street thus making Seven Dials and its lagoon-life your canvas.
Thursdays to Saturdays at around 9pm the tables in the centre on the bar were whisked away, the tunes were pumped up and The Box became the first anchor-drop of the night for the beefy-singlet donors, disco-bears and glitter-ball-swinging brigade.
The Box didn’t fit the stereotypical gay bar box – she was squares above the rest.
For moi and my compadres from 2000 up until The Box closed in 2009, she was the Rovers Return of our lives.
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THEATRE REVIEW | Wonder.Land at The National Theatre, London
Alice’s Wonderland has had a major upgrade to version 2016 and it’s good. ★★★★
Wonder.Land comes to us via Rufus Norris, Blur’s Damon Albarn, who wrote the score, and playwright Moira Buffini, who have taken Alice and Wonderland and brought it right up to date for 2016. If you liked the original then you will not be disappointed, if you can get past the online element to the new wonderland. The usual characters survive such as the mad hatter, the rabbit, the twins and of course the Cheshire Cat, but as you have never seen them before.
Alice or Aly, played by Lois Chimimba and brilliant, is a teenager growing up in a suburban city dealing with a mother’s attention focused on baby brother Charlie, the feeling of responsibility for her parents’ separation and being bullied at school. Her only means of escaping the life she hates is a new online game ‘Wonder.Land’ where she can be who she wants and find answers to the ‘who are you’ question which is asked throughout.
It’s in this online world where Alice creates her online avatar persona, who is the complete opposite of herself, and follows the white rabbit through various online levels, meets other like minded gamers and battles against the red queen, who happens to be Aly’s head teacher in the real world with a hint of Cruella De Vil thrown in the mix.
The songs, which are easily recognisable as written by Damon Albarn, are great, each character having their own unique song that is the personification of that character. From the sad and desperate songs of Alice and her mother, the hypnotic and soothing song from the caterpillar and the mad and hectic song of the hatter all play their part in this wonderland on stage.
The staging itself is a mix of contemporary theatre, digital displays, weird and wonderful costumes and characters that all fuse seamlessly into one. The real world is grey and dull, even down to the costume which is in complete contrast to the colourful online world, and when they collide on stage, almost creates a hallucinogenic experience for both the stage characters and audience alike (not that I know what such an experience is like of course).
The only downside were the three school girl bullies who, when combined, reminded me a bit too much of Catherine Tate’s “am I bothered” sketches and I wasn’t sure if I should of laughed at their bullying or not.
That aside it was still worth a watch.
The modern musical story creates laughs, wonder, glitter, self driving sofas, and a baby throwing up, yes I did say a baby throwing up. So if you are a fan of Alice in Wonderland then you will not be disappointed by this modern take on the classic if you dare enter Wonder.Land at The National Theatre.
Also, for those who like that bit extra for their money, turn up a bit early for the fully interactive wonder.land things to do from entering the magical garden, creating your very own avatar to a musical tea party.
Wonder.Land plays at The National Theatre, London until 13 March 2016, 020 7452 3000
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Rainbow Lanyards Promotes Pro LGBT Environment in NHS
A scheme which allows LGBT workers and their allies at a London NHS trust to wear rainbow lanyards has been hailed as a success.
Last year Central and North West London Trust launched a scheme that introduced rainbow-coloured NHS lanyards for staff to reinforce the Trust’s values and promote an environment of openness in all the Trust’s services.
Over a thousand staff members at the CNWL trust now wear the lanyards including 500 straight allies.
Alison Devlin, CN WL’s Equalities and Diversity Manager, said,
“The initiative has been a phenomenal success. Once a few people started wearing the lanyards then they quickly spread across our sites and services.
“The lanyards are completely optional – Staff can choose to wear the rainbow version instead of the standard NHS blue ones to highlight their support for LGBT colleagues, patients and the public and to get people talking about LGBT topics in a more confident and open way.”
Mrs Devlin first came up with the initiative after a Patient Experience Survey, carried out by The Advocacy Project (an independent advocacy organisation) on nine of the Trust’s inpatient mental health wards found that some patients preferred not to be open about their sexuality for fear of judgement from staff and other patients.
Mrs Devlin continues:
“This report really highlighted the importance of creating a more open environment and a better experience for LGBT patients. As a result of the findings we rolled out LGBT awareness training sessions for inpatient staff which, together with the lanyard scheme, has helped to encourage openness on the wards and transform the patient experience. They give a powerful message to people at a time when they might be feeling at their most vulnerable.”
Lanyards are distributed with an information booklet that explains the scheme and includes signposting information to a variety of local, London-wide and national LGBT organisations. Staff are also automatically signed up to receive Straight Allies bulletins and educational links to further educate them about LGBT equality issues.
Claire Murdoch, CNWL Chief Executive, said:
“This was a really good initiative that raised issues in an unusual but everyday way and quite colourfully. We’re a diverse Trust and these small reminders add to a positive atmosphere.”
The lanyards were rolled out in February 2015 during LGBT History Month and are promoted to staff continuously throughout the year.
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LGBT Mental Health Charity Shuts For The Last Time
The mental health charity, PACE has closed due to “local authority budgets”.
The London-based PACE mental health charity aimed at helping the LGBT community is due to close on the 29th January 2016 citing cuts in funding and a tough financial climate.
The 31-year-old company is due to cease all operations from the 29th January.
A statement on the charity’s website said,
“The decision to close the doors on PACE after 31 years of supporting the LGBT+ community is one that we have taken with a very heavy heart.
“The financial climate is very difficult for small charities, especially those delivering services at a local level with continuing cuts to local authority budgets. Sadly despite work to support the charity raising the necessary income needed has proved increasingly hard and it has become clear that it is no longer financially viable for the charity to continue.
“The staff and trustees will work to ensure that PACE’s clients are given as much support as possible during this difficult time and referred to other support services as far as is possible.
“We would like to thank all those who have supported us and worked with us to deliver vital support services for the LGBT+ community. A very big thank you to all the staff and volunteers over the last 31 years wo have provided so much support and dedication to the community.”
In November PACE released findings that showed that 34 per cent of young LGB people have tried to commit suicide in the last year, spelling out how necessary a charity, which focuses on the mental health of lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people in the UK, is at this time.
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Jonathan Larson to be celebrated in a one-off musical
The Life and Times of Jonathan Larson will be celebrated in the one-off show ‘Seasons of Love’.
Who is Jonathan Larson you might ask? He is the Broadway composer and genius behind the smash hit musical ‘Rent.’ ‘Rent’ is one of the most successful and award-winning musicals of all time. It tells the story of a group of young men and women seeking out a living in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. These young men and women have lots of real life issues that dominate their lives; poverty, drugs, volatile romances, and HIV
Larson composed Rent while at the same time waiting tables at Manhattan’s famous Moonstruck Diner. On the first day of its off-Broadway 1996 preview, Larson died unexpectedly at the age of 35. It was a shocking blow not just to the people close to him, but also to the actors and the rest of the crew. The show then premiered as planned and went on to critical and commercial success. ‘Rent’ was moved to Broadway in April 1996 after an extreme demand for tickets and excellent reviews. It went on to win four Tony Awards, including three for Larson (Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Score). ‘Rent’ went on to become the 10th longest running show on Broadway, closing in June, 2008. Various productions have toured around the world, including three different productions in London. It also went on to win the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
It’s not just the story that is poignant and timely for its time, it’s the music that’s most memorable and emotional in telling the story of these young people struggling to survive. Songs such as Seasons of Love, One Song Glory, Light My Candle and Santa Fe all convey the emotion and heartbreak and feelings these young people have and share.
And for only night only, on Monday, January 25th, at London’s Shaftsbury Theatre, several West End performers will sing songs from the show. Debbie Kurup, Krysten Cummings and Damien Flood, all previous cast members of ‘Rent,’ will perform some of the songs and will reflect on their memories of the show. Anton Stephans from the last series of the X Factor will also star in the tribute.
The concert will also include music from some of Larson’s earlier works, ‘Superbia’ and ‘tick, tick… BOOM!.’
For tickets to this one-off show, please visit: www.seasonsoflarson.com