THEGAYUK

Tag: London News

All the latest from London, the capital of the UK, home to the UK’s largest gay community.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Radiant Vermin, Soho Theatre, London

    ★★★★ | Radiant Vermin, Soho Theatre, London

    “I want this house. Oh, yes, I know there’ll be problems. But at least we’ll have the hope of things getting better. Isn’t that the least we owe our child? Hope.”

    Jill and Ollie: a seemingly ordinary couple, trapped in poor housing on a rough estate, unable to get on the property ladder. They want to tell you about how they found their dream home and some of the things they did in order to get it. It’s a beautiful house. They know you might find some of the things they did shocking and horrible but they want to explain. They deserve that chance, at least. It may well be that you understand more than you initially think you do, too.

    Philip Ridley’s plays are often visceral and dark with skilful humour leading the viewer subtly down dark routes too often brutal and sharp conclusions. This play is no exception with a hilarious and seemingly light-hearted satire on consumerism and the lengths we’re willing to go to acquire things. That’s till things get nasty and the gruesome secrets come out with Jill and Ollie’s suburban niceties peeling away to reveal deadly secrets.

    The sublime Gemma Whelan, star of Ridley’s last play, “Dark Vanilla Jungle”, puts on another brilliant performance as the seemingly naïve and sweet, Jill. She’s ably supported by hapless and sweet Sean Michael Verey (Pramface) as wholesome Ollie and Amanda Daniels as the Mephistophelean Miss Dee.

    A stark white set supports the raw action in this play that is perhaps one of Ridley’s most accessible. It’s a piece that’ll make you laugh, squirm and shudder and ultimately question your own motivations and desires. What would you do for a rapid induction hob, a four-man Jacuzzi and a flat screen TV? The Soho Theatre has yet again managed to put on something truly original and contemporary that suits beautifully in our current cultural landscape.

    Radiant Vermin runs until the 12th of April 2015

    Buy tickets here: http://sohotheatre.com/whats-on/radiant-vermin

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Beautiful

    ★★★★ | Beautiful

    Will you Still Love me tomorrow. I feel the Earth Move. You’ve got a Friend. These are just a few songs written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin that are included in the new West End Show Beautiful – The Carole King Musical.

    While Carole King might not be known to the younger generation, anyone 50 and older know her, and her music, very well. In the 1960s she, along with her husband Goffin, wrote dozens and dozens of hit songs including The Locomotion, You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling, and Up on The Roof. Beautiful tells the story of King’s life, how when she was a young girl and sold her first song to music producer Don Kirshner, to meeting her songwriting partner, and partner in life, Gerry Goffin, to being a single mother as well as a very very successful singer and songwriter. In Beautiful, King is played by the energetic Katie Brayben, from the piano playing right down to the curly hair, the resemblance is very good.

    Beautiful covers King’s life from age 16 to the age of 29, when she’s at Carnegie Hall performing So Far Away – a hit single from her mega-selling and multiple grammy winning album Tapestry. It’s just Brayben and the piano on stage. The show then goes back in time, the time when teenager King (Brayben) is at home in Brooklyn wanting to go into Manhattan to sell songs to Kirshner, but her mom tells her that she’s not going into Manhattan all by herself. When King does get to Kirshner’s (played by Gary Trainor) office, she meets people there who will be the key players in her life. She meets Cynthia Weil (Lorna Want) and Barry Mann (Ian McIntosh), a songwriting couple, but more importantly she meets Goffin (Alan Morrissey). They start a romance, but King gets pregnant so her and Goffin (played by Alan Morrissey) get married. He loves her, and they literally make beautiful mussic together – they are at their best when writing songs, and they write some of the biggest hits of the 1960s. But over time Goffin starts to feel like he’s being tied down and wants to take advantage of their new celebrity status, while King wants them to go home at the end of each day and spend time as a family. It’s a stressful situation for King, and it doesn’t help that Goffin is having mental problems to go along with his infidelity. And this is the plot of Beautiful – the relationship between King and Goffin and their very close friendship with Weil and Mann.

    But in between this storytelling we get great musical performances by the ensemble in the show – the actors who play the musicians that King and Goffin write songs for. And this is when Beautiful comes alive. The ensemble really lets it rip, and brings life and colour to the show when they perform songs such as 1650 Broadway Melody, Some Kind of Wonderful and On Broadway, among others.

    Beautiful is a female singer, songwriter, mother, daughter, an American, and British-born Brayben does a fine job in portraying King. Recently seen in American Psycho, Brayben can sing and act, and can hit all the notes, and like King, Brayben writes her own music. Her hairstyle changes throughout the course of the show, most of these styles, however, make her look much older than the character she is playing.

    Morrissey is fine as Goffin, excited about their love yet still not sure that’s he’s happy or not in their relationship. Want and McIntosh are excellent as their best friends, and even more so when they provide emotional support after King’s breakup of her marriage. The staging of the show is fine, moving from living rooms to recording studios to Kirshner’s offices – but it’s Peter Kaczorowski‘s lighting that literally and figuratively lights up the stage. If only the book of the show was as good. By Douglas McGrath, the book is very mundane and not very dramatic – sure we care about King’s life but give us more of the music and razzle-dazzle and less of their bickering and conversations.It’s a musical that should be a musical, yet Beautiful plays more like a drama show with bits of music thrown in. But the show redeems itself when near the end, Brayben (as King) and the ensemble bring down the house with the song ‘You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman” – it’s a moment when you realize that King really is the greatest female songwriter of all time.

    Beautiful The Carole King Musical plays at the Aldwych Theatre,  until 5th August 2017

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Bathhouse, The Musical

    ★★★★ | Bathhouse, The Musical

    For their second production of 2015, Above The Stag have chosen to revive their hugely successful production of Bathhouse The Musical.

    It comes with a few changes of cast and new choreography by Carole Todd, a choreographer of some renown, who comes with an impressive list of credits which includes West End musicals as well as work at the Royal Opera House and Sadlers Wells.

    What was always a hugely entertaining and hilarious show now emerges slicker, tighter and cleaner.

    In case you missed it last time, the show is set for its entirety in a Bathhouse, with the cast wearing nothing but towels throughout. The story (such as it is) revolves around the adventures of young Billy, who starts out a bathhouse virgin, but finishes a lot more experienced. He is guided through his adventures by the disembodied voice of Giles Brandreth.

    The score is a wonderfully witty amalgam of styles ranging from hoedown to full out Broadway ballads with quite a few other musical references between. With song titles like I’m a Bear Chaser, the hilarious Penises Are Like Snowflakes, Clickin’ for Dick and Seduction Tango, the jokes aren’t exactly subtle, but nor are they meant to be.

    In a show that is such an ensemble piece, it would be invidious to single out any one individual. Each and every one gets their moment to shine and they are all excellent, so kudos to Will Ferris, Matthew Harper, John R Harrison, Ryan Lynch, Luke Webber and Tim McArthur, who also directs the fast-paced production, which doesn’t flag for one second.

    Great entertainment, not so pure and simple.

    Bathhouse the Musical runs at Above the Stag until 29 march 2015.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Yarico, London Theatre Workshop

    ★★ | Yarico, London Theatre Workshop

    Yarico, an Amerindian beauty, is a young woman with a fierce, independent spirit. Bored of the monotonous routine of small island life, she longs to escape. When Inkle, the third son of a British merchant is shipwrecked on her island, he faces certain death at the hands of the islanders. Yarico intervenes and saves him from his fate, marking the beginning of a story that ultimately takes them to the island of Barbados where fate has a horrific surprise in store for her.

    This new musical is based on a true story that fired the world’s imagination and contributed to a social movement against the slave trade. It’s a story of great historical significance that has been told from the 17th century onwards and one that caused a change in attitudes towards slavery.

    Sadly, the musical doesn’t quite do justice to the power of the underlying story. Performing a musical in a small space has inherent difficulties and the staging of this piece doesn’t lend itself to an intimate theatre. The performers are bawdy, expressive and, at times, brash. In a larger venue this would work but in this case, it made the action seem like a pantomime at times. There are some very powerful musical numbers but equally, there are some incredibly weak ones and the dialogue is also very hit and miss, leaving a mixed bag of a show. The humour is often juvenile, dated and laden with double-entendres; failing to raise more than the occasional titter and a few tumbleweed moments on the night I saw the show.

    Credit to the leads though: Newcomer Liberty Buckland as Yarico gives an exceptional performance in a vehicle way beneath her fine acting and vocal talents. The very able Tori Allen-Martin does her best to enliven a weak role as Yarico’s friend Nono and Alex Spinney shows fine vocal performances if slightly less polished acting skills at times.

    Ultimately this felt like a musical that had potential but failed to deliver. It didn’t seem to know what it was: an educational story, a love story or a bawdy romp? None of these elements quite worked and they certainly didn’t gel in a story that was at times rushed and unconvincing.

    In spite of all of this, it’s worth going along just to see Liberty Buckland who is surely bound for great things.

    Yarico runs until the 14th of March 2015

    Buy tickets here: http://londontheatreworkshop.co.uk/yarico/

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Superman The Musical, London

    ★★ | Superman The Musical, London

    It’s a bird, it’s a plane, no – it’s Superman the Musical.

    Playing until this weekend at the Leicester Square Theatre, Superman is not just a musical but it is also a comical look at the man we all know and love as the saviour of Gotham City, preventing disasters and capturing criminals.

    Originally produced for the Broadway stage in 1966, and coming directly from Ye Olde Rose and Crown Theatre where it played last year, its transfer to the West End brings with it a set made up of cardboard props, and a cast who mostly struggle with the all-encompassing singing, dancing and acting.

    Craig Berry plays Superman. Sure, he’s got the look down – the black gelled-back hair and the chiselled chin, but Berry just doesn’t have much stage presence for playing such a larger than life character. Sure, the costume fits him, but that’s about it. Michelle LaFortune doesn’t fare much better. Her Lois Lane is bland. LaFortune can sing, but it doesn’t help when she forgets a line or two.

    So what’s the plot you ask? We should know it as we’ve all seen those Superman movies. Lane is in love with Superman but not with Clark Kent, who works with her at the Daily Planet, and you see Clark Kent is actually Superman! Another man in the office – Max Mencken (a good Paul Harwood) – is the office lothario and vies for Lane’s affections, though he’s with Sydney (a good Sarah Kennedy), a clueless co-worker who’s looking for love in all the wrong places. However, when Mencken teams up with Dr Abner Sedgwick (an excellent Matthew Ibbotson) to devise a plan to turn Superman into an ordinary mortal, one who would obey Dr Sedgwick’s every command, things don’t look too good for Superman, and it is Lane who happens to fall in love with Dr Sedgwick’s assistant Jim (Charlie Vose), and forgets all about Superman.

    Superman plays like an amateur production (a high school production) with a few talented members of the cast (Harwood, Kennedy and especially Ibbotson), but it’s the ones who aren’t as talented that bring this show down. And the backup dancers do their darndest, all trying very hard to keep things moving (especially the adorable Christine Harris), but they just can’t save this production. Music by Charles Strouse with lyrics by Lee Adams help the show move along, but the end just doesn’t come soon enough.

  • Small Penises To Get Their Own Festival

    Entry fee is 50p per inch…

    Hold on to your junk fellas – as those of you who are packing a little less than the average have the opportunity to have your own festival and it’s a bargain too. Just 50p per inch.

    Attendees will be asked on entry how many inches they are sneaking in and charged accordingly according to the Mirror. The festival has been launched by poet Ant Smith who said, “For too long, men who perceive their penises to be small have been made to feel inadequate. It’s time to stand up and say there’s nothing wrong with having a little nob,

    “It’s an open invite to everybody, male or female. We’ve all been touched by a small penis in our lifetime, now’s the time to give something back.”

    Ladies will be charged on how many inches they actually like – so size queens expect to pay through the nose for entry. As the average erect penis is 6 inches, the average cost of entry would be, £3.

    The Big Small Penis Party will be held on March 7 at The Rhythm Factory in Whitechapel.

  • THEATRE REVIEW | She Loves Me, Landor Theatre

    ★★ | She Loves Me, Landor Theatre

    Mistaken identity has long been the theme of love stories. This love story centres round a perfume shop in Budapest where two sparring employees unwittingly exchange love letters via a lonely-hearts advertisement. Sound familiar?

    The musical was based on a play that inspired “The Shop Around the Corner” and the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan film You’ve Got Mail.

    Staging a musical in a small space like The Landor is fraught with difficulties and is a challenge that the team always rise to. One of the issues is that in a fringe venue there isn’t the scope for a huge dazzling set, scores of dancers and big choreographed routines. This puts the focus back onto the musical itself. In the case of their previous triumphs, such as “Damn Yankees”, this isn’t a problem. Where the musical is as weak as this one, with lacklustre and forgettable songs, lame comedy and a tedious plot, it simply doesn’t work at all and makes for dull viewing.

    There are lots of positive aspects to the production. “Britain’s Got Talent” finalist Charlotte Jaconelli makes a dazzling stage debut and has a superb voice as well as a lot of acting talent. Equally, Matthew Wellman is a singing sensation with a beautiful voice and Emily Lynn also puts in a great performance. Indeed, the whole cast work incredibly hard to make this work. The Art Nouveau inspired set is well thought and cunningly used.

    This production tries really hard but ultimately; the source material is so weak that the efforts of the team can’t revive this dated corpse of a show.

    She Loves Me is at the Landor Theatre until the 7th of March 2015.
    http://www.landortheatre.co.uk/index.php/booking-office/musicals/she-loves-me-93/

  • RESTAURANT REVIEW | Pennethorne’s – At Somerset House

    There is something rather enchanting about Somerset House, and what a lovely setting it makes for Pennethorne’s Café Bar. Just standing in their courtyard you feel removed from the chaos of the city. Situated in the New Wing, Pennethorne’s is adorned in dramatic décor that seems to be ever so in right now. Black walls, brassy tables and dim pendant lights lined in rows. Unsurprisingly the majority of the crowd appear a little bit swanky-socialite.

    The staff are a bubbly bunch (shout out to Phoenix & Paulo for looking after us so well). Speaking of bubbles, their champagne menu is small but comprises of three carefully selected essentials; Brut (£33), Prosecco (£27), and a Cuvee (£66) made in Sussex.

    Seven PM and we appear to be the only guests eating, our waiter confirms most dining trade is over lunch period. Good to know if you prefer a quiet eat in the evenings.

    The menu consists of breads, tinned and potted dishes, salads, meat and cheese selections and items served on toast. Probably why this attracts a lunch-time crowd- but the dishes are sophisticated enough to translate into dinner. As some of the dishes are on the small side it makes good for sharing- just be aware of what and how many of your dishes come with bread as we found ourselves looking like a bakery at full swing.

    The bread was really well made (freshly baked by their in-house baker) and the menu boasts some lovely combos such as; Fig & Apricot, Bacon Brioche, and Walnut & Raisin.

    Kale was on the menu in the form of Crispy Curly Kale & Ham Hock Salad (£6). Of course we felt the need to order the kale, as much as most restaurants feel the fear that their menu without kale on it will deem them as non-foodie-friendly. Although that looks set to change with cauliflower soon to be the new kale, as said by someone as insignificant as this very sentence. A pleasant dish of warm kale, salty ham with small jewels of onion run through it. Bringing a much welcomed lightness amongst the richness of the other dishes.

    Potted Beef (£8). The meat appearing as pulled pork would, but in a cute little pot. Like the best bit of an amazing pie, tender flesh nestled amongst it’s own garlic, black pepper and red wine gravy. Sod the pot, bring me a trough. This was gorgeous.

    Another favourite of mine was from the Mortadella as part of the Selection of Meats (£16). Rosette, Mortadello and Iberico Ham all being of fantastic quality- no yucky plastic textures that a lot of restaurants tend to fob you off with. Both Mortadella and Rosette cuts had great marbling. The Iberico was smooth and melt in the mouth, but my least favourite out of all three.

    The favourite dish of our servers, and apparently a popular choice from diners, was the wild Mushrooms (£5) atop softly toasted bread. A good handful of wild mushrooms that still retained their lovely earthiness but amongst garlic and wine, and with a hint of something almost balsamic. I can see why this is popular as it all works very well together and is served in a perfectly sized portion.

    For those unfamiliar with Nduja – traditionally, is an Italian spicy pork pate and is also set to be one of our food trends for 2015. No doubt it will be popping up on menus everywhere shortly! Pennethorne’s Nduja (£4.75) smells like it will blow your mind, and it will. Expect hot lips. If you like a chilli hit, then this is your dish. We found ourselves going back for more and more of this one- addictive.

    Pennethorne’s have some real gems on their menu, and I really love the fusion of simple British traditions “…On Toast” and the tinned/potted dishes mixed with Italian influences. A bonus for garlic lovers, as Pennethorne’s love it too. The quality of ingredients you receive is great value for money.

    Sad to see no desserts on the evening menu, their breakfast menu does list pastries/muffins/doughnuts/sticky buns/bakes etc; sounds delicious! It could be well received for them to also have these appearing on the evening menu.

    Any fashion freaks visiting Somerset House for London Fashion Week this year, be sure to say hello to Pennethorne’s and go for the Mushrooms on toast, or Potted Beef.

    REVIEWED BY: Jordan Lohan
    ADDRESS: Pennethorne Cafe, New Wing, Somerset House, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA
    VENUE PHONE: 020 3751 0570
    PRICE: £££ (explained)
    STAR RATING: ★★★ (explained)
    TIPPING POLICY:

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Gods and Monsters, Southwark Playhouse

    ★★★★★ | Gods and Monsters, Southwark Playhouse

    It’s the late 1950s and ageing Hollywood director, James Whale, best known for his iconic Frankenstein films, is languishing in his Los Angeles house.

    Whale is incapacitated by a series of strokes that have left him frail and prone to crippling headaches, dark moods and memory lapses. In spite of his infirmity, he hasn’t lost any of his impish ways with young men, persuading them to swim in his pool or pose naked for portraits. Old habits die hard. Unashamedly gay in an era of repression, Whale is a singular and striking personality. Enter pneumatically muscular new gardener, Clayton Boone who becomes the object of Whale’s lust and an unlikely player in the final drama of his life.

    Whale’s life is told in a series of flashbacks that happen alongside the on-going drama; portraying the story of his childhood in a working-class family in Dudley through his horrific World War One experiences to his Hollywood career.

    The play is based on the 1995 novel Father of Frankenstein written by Christopher Bram. The the same source material was used for the 1998 Oscar-winning film, “Gods And Monsters”, starring Ian McKellen, Lynn Redgrave and Brendan Fraser. The story works as well as a stage play also.

    In terms of script, performance and production values this is a triumphant piece of theatre. Seasoned actor, Ian Gelder is magnificent as Whale. His performance hits a fine balance between comedy and tragedy and is subtly nuanced. The script is tight and in spite of the intensity of the subject matter the play never drags and is filled with finely written comedic moments. Excessively muscled newcomer Will Austin takes on the role of Boone with a surprisingly fine performance. He manages to portray a man with unexpected depths with gentle empathy and sensitivity.

    The intimate space of Southwark Playhouse and the cunning lighting, sound and set design add extra dimensions to the performance also. I must also mention that the play contains male nudity (if the fine acting and script doesn’t grab your attention then three different male nudes might).

    This really is a stand out production in London theatre and a must see.

    Buy tickets here: http://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/the-large/gods-and-monsters/

  • THEATRE REVIEW | Between, Kings Head Theatre

    ★★★ | Between, Kings Head Theatre

    Like the majority of plays featuring gay men – this one too has nudity… SURPRISED?

    BETWEEN opened recently at the King Head Theatre Pub and can be seen as a 55-minute monologue adapted to fit the six characters that are played by two male actors. Loosely directed however vividly acted BETWEEN invites us to experience snippets from the portrayed lives of two childhood friends (exploring sexual activity), a couple in a relationship (suffering from sexual dysfunction) and an actor and tutor (where the actor falls for his tutor).

    The three stories are relevant to each other and it’s not that difficult to figure out the outcomes, especially when it feels as though some of the stories have not been fleshed out or evenly concentrated on.

    This short play has a few twinkling moments that these committed actors shine in nicely and I fear that these moments are not being received with the attention it deserves (as I look around the space and see the first three rows of men beaming at the boy’s semi-naked bodies).

    Constant transformations into the different characters demand the actors to change and take their shirts on and off and not tautly done this can be quite distracting; however, it has to be done as the director chose this manoeuvre. To make this play more gripping and to compliment the small performance space perhaps the capable actors should have been allowed to show an emotional change in each character rather than displayed through a physical item (t-shirt).

    May not be off the hook funny, emotional, surprising or unique but intelligence made an appearance when the impressive sonnets did – definitely a highlight and something to look out for.
    I had to go and see BETWEEN after reading the rave reviews and feel this play has so much going for it that you never stop hoping that it will get better.

    BETWEEN
    Directed by: Geoffrey Hyland
    Performed by: Nicholas Campbell and Oskar Brown
    Kings Head Theatre
    until 14th March 2015
    http://www.kingsheadtheatre.com

  • Queer Art From The Tate Gallery

    As part of LGBT History Month, WISE THOUGHTS @ CREATIVE CULTURE HUB (CGH) are hosting a illustrated lecture by MARCUS DICKEY HORLEY Curator of Access Projects at Tate Modern as he looks at 100 years of LGBT art from the TATE collection.

    Mr Horley’s talk will focus on how the vast Tate Collection reflects LGBT diversity and will cover work by LGBT artists, and art dealing with LGBT subjects.

    The Lecture is on Thursday 5th February 2015 from 5.30 pm – 6.30 pm

    @ Wise Thoughts, 2nd Floor, Wood Green Library, High Road, London N22 6XD. Admission is FREE.

    To reserve a seat & for further details check out :

    https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/queer-art-from-the-tate-collection-illustrated-lecture-at-wise-thoughts-cch-tickets-15272450310