Having already seen this tour live (Click here to read my review) I'm not going to go over old ground and talk about the gig which, if you read my review, know I really enjoyed.
For those of you who now have read that review pretty much all the excellent jokes of that set have come across onto the DVD with perhaps one or two extra laughs as well. There are a few changes that do impact on the overall feel. Firstly the jokes customised to the area of the gig obviously changed, and there's little that can be done about that, but with the moving of Milton's grandad from the beginning to the middle of the set, you do lose the great opening joke of late comers turning up. I can only assume that, with the setting of the night, this wasn't possible.
What you do get in replacement is a few extra filmed sections of Milton's grandad backstage with some jokes thrown in.
Though no DVD is ever going to replace the experience of seeing an act live this DVD includes most of what was in the performance I saw with those laughs now yours to treasure on tape.
Well worth a pick up for a subdued and easy-going but hilarious 70 mins of one-liners.
Monday, 26 December 2011
A Quick Review of Christmas TV Part One: Christmas Day
Up there with family, presents and food is television on Christmas Day, a day when the television networks bring out their big guns with one-offs, festive specials and big budget versions of their hit shows. But how did this year’s Xmas shows stand up?
Obviously between unwrapping presents – 12:30, eating dinner – 3pm, and falling asleep – 11pm, it’s impossible to watch everything but, hey, I managed to catch most of what I wanted to see, starting with the Top of the Pops Christmas Show, the now annual look back at the preceding year’s music after the mainly weekly show was axed by the BBC several years ago. Though to be hypocritical and say that I rarely watched the show, I think it was a massive shame for live music that the show was dropped but I can understand their reasons as more acts are now American or are DJ based and require a bit of, er, assistance in the live department.
It was always well known that TOTP used to have the artists lip-synching but didn’t in its noughties shows but it was difficult to tell what was or wasn’t live in this show. I’m not convinced it was all live but it could have gone either way. ‘Rizzle Kicks’, performing ‘Down with the Trumpets’, certainly were as they changed some lyrics to Christmas ones, and did it well, also excelling on their appearance out of two presents on Olly Murs ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ which was equally live, Murs recreating the DJ effects of skipping well live.
Appearances by Example, Pixie Lott, Noah and the Whale and Jessie J, an earlier recorded acoustic version of ‘Price Tag’ sung beautifully, were all welcome, a tedious performance of the tedious ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran, not a patch on the great ‘Lego House’, less so. ‘Little Mix’, this year’s X Factor winners, also dropped in to perform ‘Cannonball’, thankfully not the festive number one, and it was as average as you expect. And then, much to Radio 1’s annoyance I imagine, TOTP got to reveal this year’s Christmas chart topper with the promo video for ‘Wherever You Are’.
Overall a welcome return for the TOTP and aside from a few dodgy acts and some countdowns of the big tunes of the year which including songs that were so big I’ve never heard of them, it was well worth watching. They even managed to throw in a fitting tribute to Jimmy Saville. Now then, now then.
After a lovely Christmas dinner – thanks mum! – and with the power of Sky Plus we watched The Queen, helpfully revealed at the end to be a Sky News production, possibly their first of the year that doesn’t include ticker tape banners or phone hacking. Ooh.
Her speech was as great and rousing as usual and for an 85-year-old woman she can still hold the screen and stand for a considerable length of time. Obviously this year it was backed with the knowledge that her husband was in hospital having undergone a heart operation whilst she continued on with life as usual, so the message of family being important might not have been as strong as it would have been. At least she had Mike Tindall there for all her dwarf-tossing needs.
As I said to my parents, not everyone is lucky enough to have a Phil with them at Christmas dinner this year.
After the Queen’s speech it was a break until the next programme, a break I filled with Milton Jones on one of my Christmas DVDs and a scout around the music channels, one of which was showing ‘Queen at 3’ against her majesty with him Mercury. But, at 4:50 it was time for Ratatouille.
Being the penultimate Pixar film I had to see to complete the set – just Cars 2 to see now – I was eager to watch it. ‘Up’, one of their most recent efforts, is one of the best films of all time and I hoped that ‘Ratatouille’ from a similar era would be up to it. Sadly, it’s not one of their best films. The premise and animation are as clever and well implemented as ever, and the last half-an-hour of the film was an exciting mixture of chases, emotion, drama and a fitting conclusion to the story. It’s just a shame that the first hour wasn’t as exciting as it could have been and was just missing some sparkle that I can’t put my finger on. We’ve been spoilt recently with some cracking CGI films – ‘Arthur Christmas’ being the most recent example – and this seemed to be missing something. The premise seemed to take a while to set up and it took a while to care about the characters.
Still, it was an animated film well worth watching but not up there with ‘Up’ or ‘Toy Story 2’ from the Pixar stable.
With telephone calls to family members filling up the next half an hour, it was next onto Doctor Who and the Christmas special ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’, a loose – very loose – take on the Narnia story.
It’s well documented on my blog that I much prefer the Steven Moffat / Matt Smith era of ‘Doctor Who’ over the RTD / David Tennant one. However, I didn’t much enjoy last year’s Christmas special even if it had one of the most sad, touching ends to the story ever. I think the combination of a flying shark, Michael Gambon’s shockingly tedious acting (ala his work in Harry Potter) and a so-so story did it for me. Though I do admit to sobbing a little at the fate of Katherine Jenkins’ character.
This year’s special was still very much tugging at the heartstrings. Starting with the Doctor blowing up a spaceship and landing on earth in an ill-fitting space-suit to be rescued by Claire Skinners’ war-time mother and taken to the TARDIS was a funny opening including getting the wrong Police Box, but seemed a waste of CGI with blowing up a spaceship that was only in for less than a minute. Following the Doctor’s departure we learn that her husband, played by Alexander Armstrong, has died three years later whilst in a bomber over the English Channel, but she hasn’t yet told their two children.
So, at Christmas, off they go to their uncle’s house which is deserted, apart from the Doctor as the Caretaker, who has turned the house into a magical playground with moving furniture, a kids bedroom stuffed with toys, tricks and, of course, two hammocks, and a Christmas tree with a mysterious blue parcel under it.
A special Christmas treat for the kids, Cyril, the young boy, opens it early and finds it takes him to a planet where decoration-covered Christmas trees grow naturally and there is a mysterious tower in the centre with strange wooden men in it. It’s not long before the Doctor with the daughter in tow find out where he’s gone and, instead of the safe forest he’d planned, there’s something remiss and they find the tower with none of them suitable to carry the spirits of the forest, who are to be killed by an extreme form of deforestation about to occur with acid rain, a plot stand found out by the mother who stumbles across the group of deforesters (is that even a word?) led by Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir who bring some great comic relief to the piece and are sadly underused in the story. I could have watched Bill Bailey all day in this story.
With the family all reunited in the tower the mother is found to be the perfect carrier for the souls and seemingly a lot of hair to hide the gold ring which quickly disappears from her head in possibly a prop malfunction and they head off through the time vortex to save the forest and get back home and, in a piece of lucky serendipity, become a guiding light for her husband in the fighter who survives the journey home to be reunited with the family. All that is left is for the Doctor to realise the importance of family and head over to the Pond household to join them for Christmas dinner, a tear coming to his eye.
Now, I’m going to be the first time to say that the storyline of this year’s Doctor Who wasn’t the best. Moffat once more refuses to kill off a character again and brings him back in a rather contrived way; it’s very sickly sweet in how they save the trees; and there’s a lot of tears. That said, however, I found the story very touching and a tear did come to my eye just like the Doctor’s. God, I must be getting more sentimental as I get older, but the combination of storyline, music and acting got to me.
Sure, it wasn’t the most original storyline ever and Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir deserved more screen time, but the locations and eye to detail were beautiful. Matt Smith was as spot-on with the Doctor as ever during the spacesuit sequence and the house-tour sketch, and managed to cover a whole range of emotions throughout the piece, cementing him as my favourite Doctor so far. Steven Moffat is proving to be a good writer of the series and though the storyline did once more hit the big reset button that plagued RTD’s era as well as his, there was a fair bit of emotion in it.
Now from one end of drama to the other and we come to Coronation Street. Now I’ve not watched this soap regularly for eight years now so I only really watch it when I’m seeing my parents or for big occasions like last year’s impressive fiftieth anniversary train crash plotline. This year’s big storylines involved a Nativity-birth parallel (tres original!) and the evil Tracy Barlow once more cooking up some lies, this time that Becky pushed her downstairs causing her to miscarry. This plotline also led to Becky almost killing herself in a drink-fuelled fire and her swearing revenge on Tracy, whilst Tracy’s mother knows that the truth that she lost the kids before meeting Becky.
It was quite a good episode of Corrie but there are several things to note. Firstly it started with the musical accompaniment of Shakin’ Steven’s ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ over a montage of happy and sad scenes. Since when did it become ‘Home and Away’? Secondly, is Steve an idiot? Tracy has already murdered her boyfriend, served time for it, tried to take Steve’s daughter off him and done all sorts of other unhinged things. Why would he get back with her? And thirdly, are all the men in soaps stupid? Why is Peter Barlow having an affair with Carla? Does he not learn after the whole bigamy things years ago?
Surely me criticising the reality of soap operas is an insane thing to do but the characters seem to change so wildly in their actions and motivations?
Coronation Street’s Christmas Day show wasn’t a patch on last year’s human drama, but it was never going to be. However, it is slowly turning into Eastenders with far less of the humour it once enjoyed and far more miscarriages, fires, hospital-isation, affairs and all that malarkey. Ho ho ho indeed.
After a trip to Manchester, which was covered in snow according to Corrie when nowhere in this part of England has had anything more than a light covering, it was back to the PVR to watch Strictly Come Dancing, a one-off light-hearted version of the show featuring Simon from Blue, Charlie from Eastenders, Barry the boxer, Debra the impressionist (not sure who she was dancing as), and my favourite Su Pollard. Now I didn’t see all the show as I was doing other things but what I did see was some pleasant Christmas Day night fun, with Craig dressed very well as the Grinch, some cheesy jokes from Bruce and a poor, but funny, dance routine by Su “You Rang M’Lord?” Pollard. It’s not a show I regularly watch but it was amusing to dip-in and –out of.
Earlier in the night we’d also taped The Gruffalo’s Child, a sequel to last year’s CGI adaptation of the first kiddies book. Worried that this was going to be a shameful cash-in of taking the original story and shoe-horning a sequel out of it, I realised at the end it was based on a second book. Having never read the Gruffalo as a kid – it’s 1999 release meant it was well out of my childhood – there was no emotional connection to watch either the first or the second film – and also being about twenty years too old for its target market, it would be a strange thing to watch but, like the first, the slow, pedestrian delivery of the story mixed in with some gentle humour and beautiful animation make it a joy to watch.
It’s often the little things that make these short animations and in this case it was bits like the hedgehog’s two cute appearances, and the detail of the footprints in the snow. The voice acting, style and detail were as impressive as last year and though, yes, it’s not the most dynamic of short films, well stretching out how long it should last for, it was a fun piece of story for kids and “big kids” too.
Last but not least was the festive edition of Have I Got A Bit More News For You and, thankfully, not a hastily cobbled together compilation of best bits as I thought it would be. With all fresh material, Christmas decorations and a great lead from one of the best guest presenters Martin Clunes, it was forty-minutes of great topical laughs, showing how great the programme is as it enters its twentieth year on air.
Overall, Christmas Day 2011 was a good day for television programmes with a good cross section of shows, and I didn’t even get a chance to re-watch Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ or McIntyre’s Christmas Comedy Roadshow but hopefully will soon!
Obviously between unwrapping presents – 12:30, eating dinner – 3pm, and falling asleep – 11pm, it’s impossible to watch everything but, hey, I managed to catch most of what I wanted to see, starting with the Top of the Pops Christmas Show, the now annual look back at the preceding year’s music after the mainly weekly show was axed by the BBC several years ago. Though to be hypocritical and say that I rarely watched the show, I think it was a massive shame for live music that the show was dropped but I can understand their reasons as more acts are now American or are DJ based and require a bit of, er, assistance in the live department.
It was always well known that TOTP used to have the artists lip-synching but didn’t in its noughties shows but it was difficult to tell what was or wasn’t live in this show. I’m not convinced it was all live but it could have gone either way. ‘Rizzle Kicks’, performing ‘Down with the Trumpets’, certainly were as they changed some lyrics to Christmas ones, and did it well, also excelling on their appearance out of two presents on Olly Murs ‘Heart Skips A Beat’ which was equally live, Murs recreating the DJ effects of skipping well live.
Appearances by Example, Pixie Lott, Noah and the Whale and Jessie J, an earlier recorded acoustic version of ‘Price Tag’ sung beautifully, were all welcome, a tedious performance of the tedious ‘The A Team’ by Ed Sheeran, not a patch on the great ‘Lego House’, less so. ‘Little Mix’, this year’s X Factor winners, also dropped in to perform ‘Cannonball’, thankfully not the festive number one, and it was as average as you expect. And then, much to Radio 1’s annoyance I imagine, TOTP got to reveal this year’s Christmas chart topper with the promo video for ‘Wherever You Are’.
Overall a welcome return for the TOTP and aside from a few dodgy acts and some countdowns of the big tunes of the year which including songs that were so big I’ve never heard of them, it was well worth watching. They even managed to throw in a fitting tribute to Jimmy Saville. Now then, now then.
After a lovely Christmas dinner – thanks mum! – and with the power of Sky Plus we watched The Queen, helpfully revealed at the end to be a Sky News production, possibly their first of the year that doesn’t include ticker tape banners or phone hacking. Ooh.
Her speech was as great and rousing as usual and for an 85-year-old woman she can still hold the screen and stand for a considerable length of time. Obviously this year it was backed with the knowledge that her husband was in hospital having undergone a heart operation whilst she continued on with life as usual, so the message of family being important might not have been as strong as it would have been. At least she had Mike Tindall there for all her dwarf-tossing needs.
As I said to my parents, not everyone is lucky enough to have a Phil with them at Christmas dinner this year.
After the Queen’s speech it was a break until the next programme, a break I filled with Milton Jones on one of my Christmas DVDs and a scout around the music channels, one of which was showing ‘Queen at 3’ against her majesty with him Mercury. But, at 4:50 it was time for Ratatouille.
Being the penultimate Pixar film I had to see to complete the set – just Cars 2 to see now – I was eager to watch it. ‘Up’, one of their most recent efforts, is one of the best films of all time and I hoped that ‘Ratatouille’ from a similar era would be up to it. Sadly, it’s not one of their best films. The premise and animation are as clever and well implemented as ever, and the last half-an-hour of the film was an exciting mixture of chases, emotion, drama and a fitting conclusion to the story. It’s just a shame that the first hour wasn’t as exciting as it could have been and was just missing some sparkle that I can’t put my finger on. We’ve been spoilt recently with some cracking CGI films – ‘Arthur Christmas’ being the most recent example – and this seemed to be missing something. The premise seemed to take a while to set up and it took a while to care about the characters.
Still, it was an animated film well worth watching but not up there with ‘Up’ or ‘Toy Story 2’ from the Pixar stable.
With telephone calls to family members filling up the next half an hour, it was next onto Doctor Who and the Christmas special ‘The Doctor, The Widow and the Wardrobe’, a loose – very loose – take on the Narnia story.
It’s well documented on my blog that I much prefer the Steven Moffat / Matt Smith era of ‘Doctor Who’ over the RTD / David Tennant one. However, I didn’t much enjoy last year’s Christmas special even if it had one of the most sad, touching ends to the story ever. I think the combination of a flying shark, Michael Gambon’s shockingly tedious acting (ala his work in Harry Potter) and a so-so story did it for me. Though I do admit to sobbing a little at the fate of Katherine Jenkins’ character.
This year’s special was still very much tugging at the heartstrings. Starting with the Doctor blowing up a spaceship and landing on earth in an ill-fitting space-suit to be rescued by Claire Skinners’ war-time mother and taken to the TARDIS was a funny opening including getting the wrong Police Box, but seemed a waste of CGI with blowing up a spaceship that was only in for less than a minute. Following the Doctor’s departure we learn that her husband, played by Alexander Armstrong, has died three years later whilst in a bomber over the English Channel, but she hasn’t yet told their two children.
So, at Christmas, off they go to their uncle’s house which is deserted, apart from the Doctor as the Caretaker, who has turned the house into a magical playground with moving furniture, a kids bedroom stuffed with toys, tricks and, of course, two hammocks, and a Christmas tree with a mysterious blue parcel under it.
A special Christmas treat for the kids, Cyril, the young boy, opens it early and finds it takes him to a planet where decoration-covered Christmas trees grow naturally and there is a mysterious tower in the centre with strange wooden men in it. It’s not long before the Doctor with the daughter in tow find out where he’s gone and, instead of the safe forest he’d planned, there’s something remiss and they find the tower with none of them suitable to carry the spirits of the forest, who are to be killed by an extreme form of deforestation about to occur with acid rain, a plot stand found out by the mother who stumbles across the group of deforesters (is that even a word?) led by Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir who bring some great comic relief to the piece and are sadly underused in the story. I could have watched Bill Bailey all day in this story.
With the family all reunited in the tower the mother is found to be the perfect carrier for the souls and seemingly a lot of hair to hide the gold ring which quickly disappears from her head in possibly a prop malfunction and they head off through the time vortex to save the forest and get back home and, in a piece of lucky serendipity, become a guiding light for her husband in the fighter who survives the journey home to be reunited with the family. All that is left is for the Doctor to realise the importance of family and head over to the Pond household to join them for Christmas dinner, a tear coming to his eye.
Now, I’m going to be the first time to say that the storyline of this year’s Doctor Who wasn’t the best. Moffat once more refuses to kill off a character again and brings him back in a rather contrived way; it’s very sickly sweet in how they save the trees; and there’s a lot of tears. That said, however, I found the story very touching and a tear did come to my eye just like the Doctor’s. God, I must be getting more sentimental as I get older, but the combination of storyline, music and acting got to me.
Sure, it wasn’t the most original storyline ever and Bill Bailey and Arabella Weir deserved more screen time, but the locations and eye to detail were beautiful. Matt Smith was as spot-on with the Doctor as ever during the spacesuit sequence and the house-tour sketch, and managed to cover a whole range of emotions throughout the piece, cementing him as my favourite Doctor so far. Steven Moffat is proving to be a good writer of the series and though the storyline did once more hit the big reset button that plagued RTD’s era as well as his, there was a fair bit of emotion in it.
Now from one end of drama to the other and we come to Coronation Street. Now I’ve not watched this soap regularly for eight years now so I only really watch it when I’m seeing my parents or for big occasions like last year’s impressive fiftieth anniversary train crash plotline. This year’s big storylines involved a Nativity-birth parallel (tres original!) and the evil Tracy Barlow once more cooking up some lies, this time that Becky pushed her downstairs causing her to miscarry. This plotline also led to Becky almost killing herself in a drink-fuelled fire and her swearing revenge on Tracy, whilst Tracy’s mother knows that the truth that she lost the kids before meeting Becky.
It was quite a good episode of Corrie but there are several things to note. Firstly it started with the musical accompaniment of Shakin’ Steven’s ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’ over a montage of happy and sad scenes. Since when did it become ‘Home and Away’? Secondly, is Steve an idiot? Tracy has already murdered her boyfriend, served time for it, tried to take Steve’s daughter off him and done all sorts of other unhinged things. Why would he get back with her? And thirdly, are all the men in soaps stupid? Why is Peter Barlow having an affair with Carla? Does he not learn after the whole bigamy things years ago?
Surely me criticising the reality of soap operas is an insane thing to do but the characters seem to change so wildly in their actions and motivations?
Coronation Street’s Christmas Day show wasn’t a patch on last year’s human drama, but it was never going to be. However, it is slowly turning into Eastenders with far less of the humour it once enjoyed and far more miscarriages, fires, hospital-isation, affairs and all that malarkey. Ho ho ho indeed.
After a trip to Manchester, which was covered in snow according to Corrie when nowhere in this part of England has had anything more than a light covering, it was back to the PVR to watch Strictly Come Dancing, a one-off light-hearted version of the show featuring Simon from Blue, Charlie from Eastenders, Barry the boxer, Debra the impressionist (not sure who she was dancing as), and my favourite Su Pollard. Now I didn’t see all the show as I was doing other things but what I did see was some pleasant Christmas Day night fun, with Craig dressed very well as the Grinch, some cheesy jokes from Bruce and a poor, but funny, dance routine by Su “You Rang M’Lord?” Pollard. It’s not a show I regularly watch but it was amusing to dip-in and –out of.
Earlier in the night we’d also taped The Gruffalo’s Child, a sequel to last year’s CGI adaptation of the first kiddies book. Worried that this was going to be a shameful cash-in of taking the original story and shoe-horning a sequel out of it, I realised at the end it was based on a second book. Having never read the Gruffalo as a kid – it’s 1999 release meant it was well out of my childhood – there was no emotional connection to watch either the first or the second film – and also being about twenty years too old for its target market, it would be a strange thing to watch but, like the first, the slow, pedestrian delivery of the story mixed in with some gentle humour and beautiful animation make it a joy to watch.
It’s often the little things that make these short animations and in this case it was bits like the hedgehog’s two cute appearances, and the detail of the footprints in the snow. The voice acting, style and detail were as impressive as last year and though, yes, it’s not the most dynamic of short films, well stretching out how long it should last for, it was a fun piece of story for kids and “big kids” too.
Last but not least was the festive edition of Have I Got A Bit More News For You and, thankfully, not a hastily cobbled together compilation of best bits as I thought it would be. With all fresh material, Christmas decorations and a great lead from one of the best guest presenters Martin Clunes, it was forty-minutes of great topical laughs, showing how great the programme is as it enters its twentieth year on air.
Overall, Christmas Day 2011 was a good day for television programmes with a good cross section of shows, and I didn’t even get a chance to re-watch Disney’s ‘Aladdin’ or McIntyre’s Christmas Comedy Roadshow but hopefully will soon!
Friday, 23 December 2011
The York Family Robinson [York Theatre Royal Review]
The York Family Robinson
York Theatre Royal, Tuesday 20th December 2011
It’s been seventeen years since we started going to the pantomime at the Theatre Royal in York, quite possibly one of the most unique pantos in the country. Though it doesn’t contain any celebrities, soap-stars or big names that will sell tickets, it does contain Berwick Kaler (lead actor, writer, dame), Marin Barrass, Suzy Cooper and David Leonard, who have become big names in the York area, attracting people from all over the country and the world to the annual pantomime, this year taking the story of the Swiss Family Robinson, as loosely as always of course, giving it a York makeover and delivering it to packed out audiences over seven weeks.
The storyline involves villain Zantanus Junior, son of the devil, attempting to find the horns of his father which will give him the ultimate power of evil, but only if he finds them within twelve months. Whilst attempting to find Devil’s Island, he stumbles across the Robinson family who, with Man Friday knowing where the island is, are kidnapped by him and land in Australia, only to find the island and ultimately stopping Zantanus from retrieving the horns. This is a very quick summary of what is, as usually, a twisty-turny mad-cap pantomime that puts humour over plotting.
If I’m being honest to myself I have found the pantomime going downhill over the last few years with the humour feeling a little tired even if the feel was as good as ever. However I feel that this year was very much a return to form.
The backdrops of the production were as glorious as usual with Whitby, Australia and Devil’s island all beautifully recreated with great use of lighting, moving parts and, of course, visual jokes. All the great trademarks of the panto were there from Berwick’s wacky dresses, to the blacked-out UV sequence (these year a dancing bones sequence), to the pre-filmed video bit which, this time, kicked off the second act, and was a well produced section on a boat filmed in Scarborough which has, year on year, get more ambitious and more funny. Plus, Harry Gration was back in it.
There was, however, something missing and that was the usual water sequence where Kaler and Barrass end up covering each other in water in a series of contrived, but funny, water sequences. Though there was a brief bit involving tea and some in the filmed section, this funny slapstick bit was missing and I missed it.
But it was somewhat made up by the ambition of the lead dame. Not exactly a spring chicken, I thought over the last few years Berwick had been calming down his energetic role, but the amount of high-wire work he did in this production, including a sequence over a bridge involving a skateboard and a unicycle that involved him hanging in the rafters for a considerable time, plus a hilarious rendition of Swan Lake, showed he was pretty much up for anything the younger cast members would do.
Song wise they were as varied as ever and thankfully lacking some of the more cheesy sentimental tunes they’ve included in recent years. ‘England’, a riff on Westlife’s ‘My Love’, ‘Whatever Happened To My Part’ and ‘Colour My World’ were all great songs with funny lyrics and well sung by the cast even if, as usual, the words from the chorus songs got lost in the music, which was a professionally played as ever by the four musicians. Only ‘Rock-A-Hula-Zumba’ I feel wasn’t up to the other songs, but that was just one out of over a dozen classic panto tunes.
The panto was as ambitious as ever this year. The sequence with the moving boat was very impressively done as well the slapstick bed sequence with moving parts, cast members disappearing and re-appearing, plus loads of quick costume changes. What they manage to pull off each year live on stage is always worth seeing and this year was definitely no exception.
The cast, together now for many years, naturally work well off each other. Berwick Kaler, as Annie Robinson the chief dame, was as enthusiastic and funny as ever and Marin Barrass as son Jim was the perfect foil as usual. Even though ill – more on that shortly – Suzy Cooper as Rosie was as bubbly as usual, and my favour cast member – David Leonard – once more played the villain with relish.
AJ Powell, Sian Howard, Julie-Anne Castro and Jamie Harris, the latter a very welcome return, all filled out the cast well and I’m sure AJ Powell will be a future replacement for one of them when the time comes for someone to retire.
Though the best year of the pantomime there has been in the past few years, the showing I attended was also hit with problems like I’d never seen at the York one. Firstly, unavoidably, Suzy Cooper was suffering from a chest infection so had to step out of singing, performing her tune to a backing track but using a ventriloquist dummy to great effect which added more to the song than there probably would have been without it. Though, to be honest, if it hadn’t been mentioned as part of a joke, I probably wouldn’t have noticed due to her still great delivery of her lines and the puppet explanation for the song.
Elsewhere, and I label some of these as mistakes warily as the productions are known for ad-libbing mistakes in, but Berwick missed a cue early on, there were some mic problems at a couple of times and the extendable leg near the end failed to extend, but all were used as spring boards for more jokes so added to the production, it’s just unusual to see a series of such problems in a usually flawless production, but we did see it only six performances in this time so is early in the run.
In ‘The York Family Robinson’ the ‘York Theatre Royal’ has once more got a great asset in a production with some fantastic sets, great characters, fantastic jokes and songs and a panto that attracts people from all over the country. An improvement on the last few years, if you can still get a ticket it’s well worth catching for a great night of jokes. I’ve managed to get tickets for the last night this year for the first time so it’ll be interesting to see how that turns out, and how mad the final show will be!
7/10
York Theatre Royal, Tuesday 20th December 2011
It’s been seventeen years since we started going to the pantomime at the Theatre Royal in York, quite possibly one of the most unique pantos in the country. Though it doesn’t contain any celebrities, soap-stars or big names that will sell tickets, it does contain Berwick Kaler (lead actor, writer, dame), Marin Barrass, Suzy Cooper and David Leonard, who have become big names in the York area, attracting people from all over the country and the world to the annual pantomime, this year taking the story of the Swiss Family Robinson, as loosely as always of course, giving it a York makeover and delivering it to packed out audiences over seven weeks.
The storyline involves villain Zantanus Junior, son of the devil, attempting to find the horns of his father which will give him the ultimate power of evil, but only if he finds them within twelve months. Whilst attempting to find Devil’s Island, he stumbles across the Robinson family who, with Man Friday knowing where the island is, are kidnapped by him and land in Australia, only to find the island and ultimately stopping Zantanus from retrieving the horns. This is a very quick summary of what is, as usually, a twisty-turny mad-cap pantomime that puts humour over plotting.
If I’m being honest to myself I have found the pantomime going downhill over the last few years with the humour feeling a little tired even if the feel was as good as ever. However I feel that this year was very much a return to form.
The backdrops of the production were as glorious as usual with Whitby, Australia and Devil’s island all beautifully recreated with great use of lighting, moving parts and, of course, visual jokes. All the great trademarks of the panto were there from Berwick’s wacky dresses, to the blacked-out UV sequence (these year a dancing bones sequence), to the pre-filmed video bit which, this time, kicked off the second act, and was a well produced section on a boat filmed in Scarborough which has, year on year, get more ambitious and more funny. Plus, Harry Gration was back in it.
There was, however, something missing and that was the usual water sequence where Kaler and Barrass end up covering each other in water in a series of contrived, but funny, water sequences. Though there was a brief bit involving tea and some in the filmed section, this funny slapstick bit was missing and I missed it.
But it was somewhat made up by the ambition of the lead dame. Not exactly a spring chicken, I thought over the last few years Berwick had been calming down his energetic role, but the amount of high-wire work he did in this production, including a sequence over a bridge involving a skateboard and a unicycle that involved him hanging in the rafters for a considerable time, plus a hilarious rendition of Swan Lake, showed he was pretty much up for anything the younger cast members would do.
Song wise they were as varied as ever and thankfully lacking some of the more cheesy sentimental tunes they’ve included in recent years. ‘England’, a riff on Westlife’s ‘My Love’, ‘Whatever Happened To My Part’ and ‘Colour My World’ were all great songs with funny lyrics and well sung by the cast even if, as usual, the words from the chorus songs got lost in the music, which was a professionally played as ever by the four musicians. Only ‘Rock-A-Hula-Zumba’ I feel wasn’t up to the other songs, but that was just one out of over a dozen classic panto tunes.
The panto was as ambitious as ever this year. The sequence with the moving boat was very impressively done as well the slapstick bed sequence with moving parts, cast members disappearing and re-appearing, plus loads of quick costume changes. What they manage to pull off each year live on stage is always worth seeing and this year was definitely no exception.
The cast, together now for many years, naturally work well off each other. Berwick Kaler, as Annie Robinson the chief dame, was as enthusiastic and funny as ever and Marin Barrass as son Jim was the perfect foil as usual. Even though ill – more on that shortly – Suzy Cooper as Rosie was as bubbly as usual, and my favour cast member – David Leonard – once more played the villain with relish.
AJ Powell, Sian Howard, Julie-Anne Castro and Jamie Harris, the latter a very welcome return, all filled out the cast well and I’m sure AJ Powell will be a future replacement for one of them when the time comes for someone to retire.
Though the best year of the pantomime there has been in the past few years, the showing I attended was also hit with problems like I’d never seen at the York one. Firstly, unavoidably, Suzy Cooper was suffering from a chest infection so had to step out of singing, performing her tune to a backing track but using a ventriloquist dummy to great effect which added more to the song than there probably would have been without it. Though, to be honest, if it hadn’t been mentioned as part of a joke, I probably wouldn’t have noticed due to her still great delivery of her lines and the puppet explanation for the song.
Elsewhere, and I label some of these as mistakes warily as the productions are known for ad-libbing mistakes in, but Berwick missed a cue early on, there were some mic problems at a couple of times and the extendable leg near the end failed to extend, but all were used as spring boards for more jokes so added to the production, it’s just unusual to see a series of such problems in a usually flawless production, but we did see it only six performances in this time so is early in the run.
In ‘The York Family Robinson’ the ‘York Theatre Royal’ has once more got a great asset in a production with some fantastic sets, great characters, fantastic jokes and songs and a panto that attracts people from all over the country. An improvement on the last few years, if you can still get a ticket it’s well worth catching for a great night of jokes. I’ve managed to get tickets for the last night this year for the first time so it’ll be interesting to see how that turns out, and how mad the final show will be!
7/10
Sunday, 18 December 2011
A Trip to Chiquitos and Arthur Christmas (Movie) – Review
I am afraid to say that I am disappointed in myself. As a massive fan of Aardman films I have only just got round to seeing their latest and fourth appearance in the cinema “Arthur Christmas”, their second CGI offering and the first of their new deal with Sony Pictures.
Today I finally righted the wrong of me not seeing it and I’m so glad I did.
But first there was the meal and a little side to this review. Today was the first time I tried a meal at Chiquito, a Mexican version of Nandos with less of an obsession with chicken. Having picked up the tickets early from Vue - £8 a ticket???? and they tell you where to sit??? – I wandered over to the restaurant and grabbed a drink whilst I waited for my parents. After the barman decided to spill the first attempt at the Mexican Milky Way - Amaretto, Baileys, chocolate liqueur, Eristoff Vodka, milk & cream, topped with whipped cream and a dusting of chocolate as their website says – knocking the blender over and covering himself in milky goodness (steady!) I managed to enjoy the £4.99 drink which was as nice as any of the Baileys-based cocktails you get at the chains and reasonably priced and sized.
With my parents having now arrived we could sit down to enjoy the meal. We were treated to some complimentary tortillas with tomato salsa that were like over-sized Doritos but obviously more home-made, but perhaps not enough salsa to really make it fair on the whole party, with every spooning up of salsa seriously depleting the pot.
For starters I remained as boring as ever and went with loaded potato skins but for £4.99 there was just a disappointing two skins, though they were tasty and the topping of bacon and sour cream was delicious, with a pot of barbecue sauce on the size. They were, ultimately, not as generous as the equally tasty skins you get at, say, Frankie and Bennys. The similarly priced chilli poppers and slightly cheaper duck taquito that my parents had were equally as tasty but equally as titchy.
Onto the main course and I’d definitely hit lucky with my choice of my favourite Mexican dishes, fajitas. I plumped for the sirloin steak version which was delivered on a sizzling plate at my chosen medium-rare with onion, tomato and pepper salad-thing, and was matched up with three pots of sour cream, tomato salsa, half-a-dozen fajita wraps, a plate of lettuce and cheese and some coleslaw I’d ordered as a side as I was a pig. Though a hefty £15.99 the amount of food there did justify its price and the amount of food was just right for a hefty appetite. Perhaps I would have liked a little bit more cheese and lettuce but it wasn’t a deal breaker. The food was served sizzling hot and at the end I was more than satisfied with the amount. The burger that my mum enjoyed seemed a fair size but my dad’s southern fried chicken perhaps not so much, but they were all very tasty.
Overall the bill came to just over £65 which for three people including drinks isn’t bad. The atmosphere of the restaurant was pleasant with enough Mexican pictures to convince you the brand has been anywhere near the land of Tequila – as much as Frankie and Bennys tries to make itself look like an Italian-American diner, but thankfully Chiquito doesn’t try to teach you Mexican in the loos – with some Christmas songs slotted into the more Mexican offerings, plus the service was friendly and relatively prompt considering it was reasonably quiet, plus for those who want to delve further, the toilets were immaculate.
I think if they could plump up the size of the starters and learn not to pour cocktails over themselves then it would be almost a flawless meal.
Now onto the main reason I’m writing this review: ‘Arthur Christmas’. So it’s over to Vue, where they charge a lot for the showings (though, to be fair, not much more than Cineworld, my hang out in Bradford) and assign you seats (unlike Cineworld). However, with the screening being relatively quiet, we moved seats to a better sitting position mid-film so as not to damage our necks staring up at the screen. And for once the kids in front of us were well behaved and quiet, which made for a refreshing change in a kids screening.
Before we could get through to the actual theme there were obviously the adverts to endure. Vue, it seems, may be wanting you not to record the film. At least 1/3rd of the slides of the opening slide show were about not recording and then some disc jockey from Minster FM came onto repeat the message. Fine, got the message. Not that I’d be recording a film that’s been out for six weeks anyway; it will have already been torrented to hell.
Also before the feature presentation there was some more Aardman goodness with a new trailer for Pirates!, their next feature film, this time stop-motion, coming out next year. I’d only seen the first trailer and this one certainly expanded the premise of the movie and it looks hilarious, so can’t wait for that. They also did an extra advert to promote – yes, you guessed it – not pirating films, which was a great addition especially with the extra work it would have been of stop-motion.
So, ‘Arthur Christmas’. It tells the story of the latest in the line of the Christmas family with Malcolm Christmas approaching his seventieth festive delivery but it’s his son Steve who is the main contributor to the delivery of presents to children all around the world, a military-minded man voiced by Hugh Laurie, masterminding a hi-tech team of elves launched from an ‘Independence Day’-style spaceship sleigh who deliver the presents. Malcolm’s other son, Steve’s brother, Arthur – voiced by James McAvoy - is a clumsy, but well-meaning person who deals with the letter writing. When an elf drops a present after the completion of Christmas it’s up to Arthur, Malcolm’s father - the oldest living Father Christmas - and an old sleigh to get this one present to the only child not to receive a gift on Christmas Day before sunrise when she wakes up.
What follows the early exposition is a top-form pastiche of military, spy and alien films. Scenes are captioned by locations, times and witty statistics, with an over-arching focus on gadgets, military spoofs and tongue-in-cheek action pieces. And, as with any Aardman film, the attention to detail is immense with some many on-screen and background visual jokes it’s a shoe-in for DVD purchase to catch them all, with everything from funny notes, to background signs, to even a Shaun The Sheep on the floor.
The 97 minutes of the film shoots by. The script is as inventive as anything we’ve had so far from Aardman with the opening Christmas delivery montage fast-paced and incredibly tight and choreographed as the elves deliver the presents, with many tongue-in-cheek nods to mobile phones and modern living in the pursuit of delivering the presents. The use of gadgets as seen in the Wallace and Gromit serious is prevalent here and the sheer Britishness of the movie shines through, but without it seeming as forced as in, say, ‘Chicken Run’. And, as far as realism goes with a team of hundreds of elves, it does offer a plausible and well-thought-out explanation of how so many toys get delivered in such a short space of time.
Much of the film is taken up with Arthur and his grandfather attempting to deliver this one last present on the original sled, with some great pastiches to alien films, rolling news and the same modern-but-retro technology employed in the Wallace and Gromit films.
There are a few jokes here and there that fall flat and it does seem about thirty minutes in that the film has lost its direction (but it soon regains it) and is coming to a premature conclusion but in the most it’s a laugh-out-loud film with some great unexpected twists in the plot. The voice acting is superb and the animation very high quality, especially with the massive scenes of elves at times. The CGI also captures Aardman’s style of characters, but perhaps not as much as in ‘Flushed Away’. Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy and Ashley Jensen in particular all do some great voice acting but the whos-who of famous names all contribute to an excellent film. The film does wander close to sugary-sweet sentiment at its conclusion but it is genuinely touching and I’m not afraid to say that a tear did nearly come to my eyes at the end.
Filled with the Aardman magic we’ve come to expect, it’s a funny, touching, clever family film that is suitable for all ages with some very inventive set pieces and more visual jokes than you can shake an elf at. Sure, the plot line isn’t the most inventive in that Christmas has to be saved when something goes wrong, but it’s so well delivered you can forget this and enjoy the film and the scenes within it.
I’m not sure if it will become a Christmas classic but it’s a film that all the family can enjoy and there’s so much detail to enjoy in the CGI and visual jokes. I think at times it might be a little too uninteresting for very young kids but it’s a film not to be missed. A top festive film from Aardman and Sony and it bodes well for Pirates! next year.
Today I finally righted the wrong of me not seeing it and I’m so glad I did.
But first there was the meal and a little side to this review. Today was the first time I tried a meal at Chiquito, a Mexican version of Nandos with less of an obsession with chicken. Having picked up the tickets early from Vue - £8 a ticket???? and they tell you where to sit??? – I wandered over to the restaurant and grabbed a drink whilst I waited for my parents. After the barman decided to spill the first attempt at the Mexican Milky Way - Amaretto, Baileys, chocolate liqueur, Eristoff Vodka, milk & cream, topped with whipped cream and a dusting of chocolate as their website says – knocking the blender over and covering himself in milky goodness (steady!) I managed to enjoy the £4.99 drink which was as nice as any of the Baileys-based cocktails you get at the chains and reasonably priced and sized.
With my parents having now arrived we could sit down to enjoy the meal. We were treated to some complimentary tortillas with tomato salsa that were like over-sized Doritos but obviously more home-made, but perhaps not enough salsa to really make it fair on the whole party, with every spooning up of salsa seriously depleting the pot.
For starters I remained as boring as ever and went with loaded potato skins but for £4.99 there was just a disappointing two skins, though they were tasty and the topping of bacon and sour cream was delicious, with a pot of barbecue sauce on the size. They were, ultimately, not as generous as the equally tasty skins you get at, say, Frankie and Bennys. The similarly priced chilli poppers and slightly cheaper duck taquito that my parents had were equally as tasty but equally as titchy.
Onto the main course and I’d definitely hit lucky with my choice of my favourite Mexican dishes, fajitas. I plumped for the sirloin steak version which was delivered on a sizzling plate at my chosen medium-rare with onion, tomato and pepper salad-thing, and was matched up with three pots of sour cream, tomato salsa, half-a-dozen fajita wraps, a plate of lettuce and cheese and some coleslaw I’d ordered as a side as I was a pig. Though a hefty £15.99 the amount of food there did justify its price and the amount of food was just right for a hefty appetite. Perhaps I would have liked a little bit more cheese and lettuce but it wasn’t a deal breaker. The food was served sizzling hot and at the end I was more than satisfied with the amount. The burger that my mum enjoyed seemed a fair size but my dad’s southern fried chicken perhaps not so much, but they were all very tasty.
Overall the bill came to just over £65 which for three people including drinks isn’t bad. The atmosphere of the restaurant was pleasant with enough Mexican pictures to convince you the brand has been anywhere near the land of Tequila – as much as Frankie and Bennys tries to make itself look like an Italian-American diner, but thankfully Chiquito doesn’t try to teach you Mexican in the loos – with some Christmas songs slotted into the more Mexican offerings, plus the service was friendly and relatively prompt considering it was reasonably quiet, plus for those who want to delve further, the toilets were immaculate.
I think if they could plump up the size of the starters and learn not to pour cocktails over themselves then it would be almost a flawless meal.
Now onto the main reason I’m writing this review: ‘Arthur Christmas’. So it’s over to Vue, where they charge a lot for the showings (though, to be fair, not much more than Cineworld, my hang out in Bradford) and assign you seats (unlike Cineworld). However, with the screening being relatively quiet, we moved seats to a better sitting position mid-film so as not to damage our necks staring up at the screen. And for once the kids in front of us were well behaved and quiet, which made for a refreshing change in a kids screening.
Before we could get through to the actual theme there were obviously the adverts to endure. Vue, it seems, may be wanting you not to record the film. At least 1/3rd of the slides of the opening slide show were about not recording and then some disc jockey from Minster FM came onto repeat the message. Fine, got the message. Not that I’d be recording a film that’s been out for six weeks anyway; it will have already been torrented to hell.
Also before the feature presentation there was some more Aardman goodness with a new trailer for Pirates!, their next feature film, this time stop-motion, coming out next year. I’d only seen the first trailer and this one certainly expanded the premise of the movie and it looks hilarious, so can’t wait for that. They also did an extra advert to promote – yes, you guessed it – not pirating films, which was a great addition especially with the extra work it would have been of stop-motion.
So, ‘Arthur Christmas’. It tells the story of the latest in the line of the Christmas family with Malcolm Christmas approaching his seventieth festive delivery but it’s his son Steve who is the main contributor to the delivery of presents to children all around the world, a military-minded man voiced by Hugh Laurie, masterminding a hi-tech team of elves launched from an ‘Independence Day’-style spaceship sleigh who deliver the presents. Malcolm’s other son, Steve’s brother, Arthur – voiced by James McAvoy - is a clumsy, but well-meaning person who deals with the letter writing. When an elf drops a present after the completion of Christmas it’s up to Arthur, Malcolm’s father - the oldest living Father Christmas - and an old sleigh to get this one present to the only child not to receive a gift on Christmas Day before sunrise when she wakes up.
What follows the early exposition is a top-form pastiche of military, spy and alien films. Scenes are captioned by locations, times and witty statistics, with an over-arching focus on gadgets, military spoofs and tongue-in-cheek action pieces. And, as with any Aardman film, the attention to detail is immense with some many on-screen and background visual jokes it’s a shoe-in for DVD purchase to catch them all, with everything from funny notes, to background signs, to even a Shaun The Sheep on the floor.
The 97 minutes of the film shoots by. The script is as inventive as anything we’ve had so far from Aardman with the opening Christmas delivery montage fast-paced and incredibly tight and choreographed as the elves deliver the presents, with many tongue-in-cheek nods to mobile phones and modern living in the pursuit of delivering the presents. The use of gadgets as seen in the Wallace and Gromit serious is prevalent here and the sheer Britishness of the movie shines through, but without it seeming as forced as in, say, ‘Chicken Run’. And, as far as realism goes with a team of hundreds of elves, it does offer a plausible and well-thought-out explanation of how so many toys get delivered in such a short space of time.
Much of the film is taken up with Arthur and his grandfather attempting to deliver this one last present on the original sled, with some great pastiches to alien films, rolling news and the same modern-but-retro technology employed in the Wallace and Gromit films.
There are a few jokes here and there that fall flat and it does seem about thirty minutes in that the film has lost its direction (but it soon regains it) and is coming to a premature conclusion but in the most it’s a laugh-out-loud film with some great unexpected twists in the plot. The voice acting is superb and the animation very high quality, especially with the massive scenes of elves at times. The CGI also captures Aardman’s style of characters, but perhaps not as much as in ‘Flushed Away’. Hugh Laurie, Bill Nighy and Ashley Jensen in particular all do some great voice acting but the whos-who of famous names all contribute to an excellent film. The film does wander close to sugary-sweet sentiment at its conclusion but it is genuinely touching and I’m not afraid to say that a tear did nearly come to my eyes at the end.
Filled with the Aardman magic we’ve come to expect, it’s a funny, touching, clever family film that is suitable for all ages with some very inventive set pieces and more visual jokes than you can shake an elf at. Sure, the plot line isn’t the most inventive in that Christmas has to be saved when something goes wrong, but it’s so well delivered you can forget this and enjoy the film and the scenes within it.
I’m not sure if it will become a Christmas classic but it’s a film that all the family can enjoy and there’s so much detail to enjoy in the CGI and visual jokes. I think at times it might be a little too uninteresting for very young kids but it’s a film not to be missed. A top festive film from Aardman and Sony and it bodes well for Pirates! next year.
Saturday, 10 December 2011
A Small Piece on Cats and Christmas
Just a quick blog post to catch up on events over the weekend. It's been a mish-mash couple of days.
Friday was a laugh with the UBU staff / sabb Christmas part in the Midland Hotel with a meal that was very nice and just the right amount of food, though the dance that followed was unintentionally hilarious with the, lets say, older people elsewhere in the room preferring waltzes to Weezer. But, with games in the City Vaults after, it was a cracking night though I was in bed for ten thirty as I'm a lightweight!
Today was not so good. It's been coming for a couple of months but finally we had to make the decision to put one of our cats - Katie - down. Two months ago she was diagnosed with liver cancer and, though medication has helped her, she was in pain and struggling so the difficult decision had to be made. It was emotional to say goodbye and we buried her in the back garden. Only time will tell what impact it will have on our other cat, her sister, as she adapts to not having another cat with her.
I think the most eye opening part of the day was that the medication to put her down - an injection that took less than twenty seconds - cost £80. That's a lot of money for a short space of time. Not that I wouldn't have paid it but it's a lot for what it is.
So after ten years it was sad to say goodbye to Katie. It's true what they say about pets becoming part of the family.
Friday was a laugh with the UBU staff / sabb Christmas part in the Midland Hotel with a meal that was very nice and just the right amount of food, though the dance that followed was unintentionally hilarious with the, lets say, older people elsewhere in the room preferring waltzes to Weezer. But, with games in the City Vaults after, it was a cracking night though I was in bed for ten thirty as I'm a lightweight!
Today was not so good. It's been coming for a couple of months but finally we had to make the decision to put one of our cats - Katie - down. Two months ago she was diagnosed with liver cancer and, though medication has helped her, she was in pain and struggling so the difficult decision had to be made. It was emotional to say goodbye and we buried her in the back garden. Only time will tell what impact it will have on our other cat, her sister, as she adapts to not having another cat with her.
I think the most eye opening part of the day was that the medication to put her down - an injection that took less than twenty seconds - cost £80. That's a lot of money for a short space of time. Not that I wouldn't have paid it but it's a lot for what it is.
So after ten years it was sad to say goodbye to Katie. It's true what they say about pets becoming part of the family.
BUSOM – Around The World (And Beyond) in 80 Minutes (Or More*) *Probably Less
BUSOM – Around The World (And Beyond) in 80 Minutes (Or More*) *Probably Less
Escape, Student Central
Thursday 8th December 2011
As the snow began to fall in Bradford – well, sort of sleeted – it was time to grab a drink and head to Escape for the latest BUSOM – Bradford University Society for Operettas and Musicals - production, which was good as it meant I didn’t have to leave the same building that I work in and risk getting wet as I would have done if I’d had to dash across to the theatre.
Now, I’m going to get a reputation for giving BUSOM positive reviews but, once more, the ensemble put on a cracking show that entertained on the Thursday evening, with Escape being a good, intimate venue for the performance. A delayed start to the production benefitted the atmosphere with the venue, which was quite empty at the due start time, filling up completely within the following ten minutes, with a good fifty people down to enjoy the concert.
The concert, loosely themed around places of the world, opened with ‘Portabello Road’ from ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’, a strong effort from all the singers who sang perfectly in time, with some great solos from Judith Mbanisi and Cartina Lodge. The segway into the next song, ‘Barcelona’ from ‘Company’ (not, sadly the Freddie Mercury version, as we’re no longer in Movember!), featured singer Dave Jennings pretending to sleep, which I assume must be something from the musical else I’m confused, so was a little unusual but was punctuated by a wild-eyed Bill Harding (or Studley McFingerman as he is credited in the programme) pointing out locations to songs as the show progressed on an inflatable globe, even if his Geography was a bit off as Spain appeared to be relocated to North Africa. His little inserts, bouncing well off Emelie Ollila, were great throughout the performance, especially as he appeared strangely demonic under a strong lilac light.
Back to the music and Dave’s duet was beautifully sung. They brought the song to life and punctuated the funny lines with some great acting.
‘Merano’ from ‘Chess’ was next and showcased some more great choral work with some great sections from Jon, Joel and Colin and a really nice soprano line from the female side. The more I hear from this musical the more I think I need to watch it. Certainly a well-performed song.
Next was ‘I Am Africa’ from the ‘Book of Mormon’ and the first big highlight from the conference even if it did suffer from a little mis-timing. Emelie and Lyndsey were great but the star was Stuart, whose voice shone and his acting made the song.
Suiting the nature of ‘The Producers’, ‘In Old Bavaria’ was introduced with a dodgy stereotypical German accent from the excellent Anna Garlick, who once more lit up the stage with her eccentric and comedic acting, and great singing of the track, aided by an enthusiastic backing.
Lyndsey’s solo of ‘What’s New Buenos Aires’ from ‘Evita’ was well done but the song itself wasn’t a particularly exciting choice, especially after the one that was before it.
The arrival of Joel and Jon on stage is always something to look forward to because of their comedic potential in the material. And though their rendition of ‘Santa Fe’ from ‘Rent’ wasn’t the strongest performance of the night their vocals complimented each other but there wasn’t so much opportunity for their personalities to come through. Stuart’s appearance in the song, though, was fantastic once more, leading well into ‘You Won’t Succeed On Broadway’ from ‘Spamalot’ which, with his plumy English accent and facial expressions, truly brought the madness of Monty Python to life, with Jon and Joel also coming alive in the performance of this really funny song.
‘America’ from ‘West Side Story’ was up next and saw a great singing battle between the male and female sides of the chorus and was a very tight performance.
It was the final two songs of the first half, though, that would be the ones that would define the performance. For the first – ‘Girlfriend in Canada’ from ‘Avenue Q’ – Bill jumped from the piano to take centre stage, channelling a version of his character from ‘Fame’ earlier in the year, tackling the hilarious and, at times, rude lyrics with relish and some great acting and delivery, with support from the ever reliable Anna Garlick. With the audience in stitches, Bill successfully captured the attitude of the puppets from the musical it is taken from.
This was followed by ‘Blame Canada’ from the ‘South Park’ movie which is possibly the only way you could follow such a song that ends on the line it did (YouTube it!) and was played with relish by the whole chorus, with Dave, Stuart and Zoe Howe all bringing their own bits to it for maximum humour, and even adapting the song to throw in a reference to Justin Bieber.
This track brought the first thirty-minute set to a close, allowing for a twenty minute interval where I could chat to some people and fail to get served at the busy, but slow, bar, meaning I had to return to my seat without refreshment ready for part two, which is where the show went further into fantasy with ‘Welcome To Duloc’ from the film ‘Shrek’ being the opener, nicely labelled on the globe with a post-it note, with another great piece of interlude from Bill and Emelie. The song was well delivered by the chorus with a marvellous key change, and good delivery of the intentionally missed out swearing, if you remember that from the film.
With some more ad-libbing from Bill (“Stop kicking my world”) it was onto a Disney double, with ‘Under The Sea’ from ‘The Little Mermaid’, performed by new-comer Catrina Lodge with backing from Emily, Zoe and Catia. Catrina suffered from a few nerves, missing out a few lines, but after a shaky start grew in confidence and performed the song well, aided by the good backing singers, capturing the feel of the song even without tackling the challenging distinctive Caribbean accent.
Speaking of challenging, the next song of ‘A Whole New World’ from ‘Aladdin’ is a song often performed and often performed badly, due to its challenging notes. Just ask Jordan and Peter Andre, though in fairness she does find even writing a book herself difficult. Mike Alborough took the male lead and was superb and with Naomi excelling on female vocals, but not quite up to Mike’s level. It was song that could easily sound horrible but was performed really well, and there was a lot of character in their voices, particularly from Naomi, and their chemistry on-stage worked during the number.
‘One Short Day’ from ‘Wicked’ continued the fantasy theme with Poppy and Sarah-Jane dressed up for the parts. It was a great, strong rendition from them both and their voices suited each other very well.
The ‘Wizard of Oz’ theme continued to the next song with ‘Merry Old Land of Oz’, with the four singers doing a very good version of the song but it was Anna Garlick again who stood out with some more great character acting.
A festive-ish feel was brought to the performance after with ‘This Is Hallowe’en’ from ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’ and was as good as ever, with Colin and Dave adding in some fine sections and a massive evil cackle from everyone.
It was great to see the return of Colin Fine next to the stage for a performance of ‘Stranger In Paradise’ from ‘Kismet’. A member that hasn’t been in any productions for a while, it was a restrained but well done performance that nailed the feeling of the track.
It was also great to see Zoe Howe step up for the penultimate track of ‘A Million Miles Away Behind The Door’ from ‘Paint Your Wagon’. Often recently being in the background, it was great to see her tackling a solo, and one she performed magnificently, and we even got treated to a member of street dance doing an impromptu ballet piece to her work.
Finally the show came to an end with the appropriately titled ‘No Cure Like Travel / Bon Voyage’ from ‘Anything Goes’, which once more showed off the male / female sides in competition, both sides performing well, bringing the second thirty-minutes of music to an end.
Once more BUSOM proved to be good value of money once more with a score of great songs performed really well, with a good cross section of musical classics and more modern, comedic ditties. Stuart Sellens and Anna Garlick proved to be the stars of the show from an acting point of view, and many proved to be on top form with their singing, with a nice mix of returning faces and new members. Another enjoyable evening from the boys and girls of BUSOM.
7.5/10
Escape, Student Central
Thursday 8th December 2011
As the snow began to fall in Bradford – well, sort of sleeted – it was time to grab a drink and head to Escape for the latest BUSOM – Bradford University Society for Operettas and Musicals - production, which was good as it meant I didn’t have to leave the same building that I work in and risk getting wet as I would have done if I’d had to dash across to the theatre.
Now, I’m going to get a reputation for giving BUSOM positive reviews but, once more, the ensemble put on a cracking show that entertained on the Thursday evening, with Escape being a good, intimate venue for the performance. A delayed start to the production benefitted the atmosphere with the venue, which was quite empty at the due start time, filling up completely within the following ten minutes, with a good fifty people down to enjoy the concert.
The concert, loosely themed around places of the world, opened with ‘Portabello Road’ from ‘Bedknobs and Broomsticks’, a strong effort from all the singers who sang perfectly in time, with some great solos from Judith Mbanisi and Cartina Lodge. The segway into the next song, ‘Barcelona’ from ‘Company’ (not, sadly the Freddie Mercury version, as we’re no longer in Movember!), featured singer Dave Jennings pretending to sleep, which I assume must be something from the musical else I’m confused, so was a little unusual but was punctuated by a wild-eyed Bill Harding (or Studley McFingerman as he is credited in the programme) pointing out locations to songs as the show progressed on an inflatable globe, even if his Geography was a bit off as Spain appeared to be relocated to North Africa. His little inserts, bouncing well off Emelie Ollila, were great throughout the performance, especially as he appeared strangely demonic under a strong lilac light.
Back to the music and Dave’s duet was beautifully sung. They brought the song to life and punctuated the funny lines with some great acting.
‘Merano’ from ‘Chess’ was next and showcased some more great choral work with some great sections from Jon, Joel and Colin and a really nice soprano line from the female side. The more I hear from this musical the more I think I need to watch it. Certainly a well-performed song.
Next was ‘I Am Africa’ from the ‘Book of Mormon’ and the first big highlight from the conference even if it did suffer from a little mis-timing. Emelie and Lyndsey were great but the star was Stuart, whose voice shone and his acting made the song.
Suiting the nature of ‘The Producers’, ‘In Old Bavaria’ was introduced with a dodgy stereotypical German accent from the excellent Anna Garlick, who once more lit up the stage with her eccentric and comedic acting, and great singing of the track, aided by an enthusiastic backing.
Lyndsey’s solo of ‘What’s New Buenos Aires’ from ‘Evita’ was well done but the song itself wasn’t a particularly exciting choice, especially after the one that was before it.
The arrival of Joel and Jon on stage is always something to look forward to because of their comedic potential in the material. And though their rendition of ‘Santa Fe’ from ‘Rent’ wasn’t the strongest performance of the night their vocals complimented each other but there wasn’t so much opportunity for their personalities to come through. Stuart’s appearance in the song, though, was fantastic once more, leading well into ‘You Won’t Succeed On Broadway’ from ‘Spamalot’ which, with his plumy English accent and facial expressions, truly brought the madness of Monty Python to life, with Jon and Joel also coming alive in the performance of this really funny song.
‘America’ from ‘West Side Story’ was up next and saw a great singing battle between the male and female sides of the chorus and was a very tight performance.
It was the final two songs of the first half, though, that would be the ones that would define the performance. For the first – ‘Girlfriend in Canada’ from ‘Avenue Q’ – Bill jumped from the piano to take centre stage, channelling a version of his character from ‘Fame’ earlier in the year, tackling the hilarious and, at times, rude lyrics with relish and some great acting and delivery, with support from the ever reliable Anna Garlick. With the audience in stitches, Bill successfully captured the attitude of the puppets from the musical it is taken from.
This was followed by ‘Blame Canada’ from the ‘South Park’ movie which is possibly the only way you could follow such a song that ends on the line it did (YouTube it!) and was played with relish by the whole chorus, with Dave, Stuart and Zoe Howe all bringing their own bits to it for maximum humour, and even adapting the song to throw in a reference to Justin Bieber.
This track brought the first thirty-minute set to a close, allowing for a twenty minute interval where I could chat to some people and fail to get served at the busy, but slow, bar, meaning I had to return to my seat without refreshment ready for part two, which is where the show went further into fantasy with ‘Welcome To Duloc’ from the film ‘Shrek’ being the opener, nicely labelled on the globe with a post-it note, with another great piece of interlude from Bill and Emelie. The song was well delivered by the chorus with a marvellous key change, and good delivery of the intentionally missed out swearing, if you remember that from the film.
With some more ad-libbing from Bill (“Stop kicking my world”) it was onto a Disney double, with ‘Under The Sea’ from ‘The Little Mermaid’, performed by new-comer Catrina Lodge with backing from Emily, Zoe and Catia. Catrina suffered from a few nerves, missing out a few lines, but after a shaky start grew in confidence and performed the song well, aided by the good backing singers, capturing the feel of the song even without tackling the challenging distinctive Caribbean accent.
Speaking of challenging, the next song of ‘A Whole New World’ from ‘Aladdin’ is a song often performed and often performed badly, due to its challenging notes. Just ask Jordan and Peter Andre, though in fairness she does find even writing a book herself difficult. Mike Alborough took the male lead and was superb and with Naomi excelling on female vocals, but not quite up to Mike’s level. It was song that could easily sound horrible but was performed really well, and there was a lot of character in their voices, particularly from Naomi, and their chemistry on-stage worked during the number.
‘One Short Day’ from ‘Wicked’ continued the fantasy theme with Poppy and Sarah-Jane dressed up for the parts. It was a great, strong rendition from them both and their voices suited each other very well.
The ‘Wizard of Oz’ theme continued to the next song with ‘Merry Old Land of Oz’, with the four singers doing a very good version of the song but it was Anna Garlick again who stood out with some more great character acting.
A festive-ish feel was brought to the performance after with ‘This Is Hallowe’en’ from ‘A Nightmare Before Christmas’ and was as good as ever, with Colin and Dave adding in some fine sections and a massive evil cackle from everyone.
It was great to see the return of Colin Fine next to the stage for a performance of ‘Stranger In Paradise’ from ‘Kismet’. A member that hasn’t been in any productions for a while, it was a restrained but well done performance that nailed the feeling of the track.
It was also great to see Zoe Howe step up for the penultimate track of ‘A Million Miles Away Behind The Door’ from ‘Paint Your Wagon’. Often recently being in the background, it was great to see her tackling a solo, and one she performed magnificently, and we even got treated to a member of street dance doing an impromptu ballet piece to her work.
Finally the show came to an end with the appropriately titled ‘No Cure Like Travel / Bon Voyage’ from ‘Anything Goes’, which once more showed off the male / female sides in competition, both sides performing well, bringing the second thirty-minutes of music to an end.
Once more BUSOM proved to be good value of money once more with a score of great songs performed really well, with a good cross section of musical classics and more modern, comedic ditties. Stuart Sellens and Anna Garlick proved to be the stars of the show from an acting point of view, and many proved to be on top form with their singing, with a nice mix of returning faces and new members. Another enjoyable evening from the boys and girls of BUSOM.
7.5/10
Sunday, 4 December 2011
Have A Very Educated Christmas or What Has Happened to the Schott's Almanac Series?
Today's blog post is a little bit of a whinge, a moan and a complaint about this year's absense of one of my favourite Christmas gifts.
No, it's not novelty socks or the Beano annual, but an annual publishing occasion we've enjoyed for the past few years in the form of Ben Schott's Almanac, featuring a year of facts, news, figures and general trivia that really satisfies the fact hunter inside of me, following on from his excellent miscellany series.
Not only that but the almanacs make a great Christmas present for other people and, most importantly, are collectible. I imagined when they began coming out that they would be an annual occurrence until I was old and grey when I would have the space and the money to be able to afford some old antique bookshelves for all my books with fifty years of them all appearing in chronological order.
Sadly it looks like now it'll be copies of the Private Eye annual instead, though that's equally good to appear, but not as intellectual looking as, say, the nicely put together and serious looking almanacs.
Why they have stopped is unknown at the moment: Has Ben Schott tired of doing them? Are they not selling well and Bloomsbury have pulled the plug? Are they seen as too dry for people to read?
I've tweeted the author to ask and await the response, but I think it's a real missed opportunity why ever they have stopped. Maybe compared to the Top Gear annual (containing a handy public-service-worker-shoot-guide) or something written by a random author but branded as by Katie Price are what more people want in their stockings?
But they are not the only collection that have stopped. I'm a big fan of the series QI - surely the televisual form of Schott's book - and they stopped releasing DVDs after series three when we're now on series nine. It's a really popular series; the shows can be watched again and again (yes, I know you can on Dave but, like, not when you want!) and they're both funny and useful. Why have they stopped releasing those? You don't find a magazine company stopping their 100-part 'build the Titanic' magazine collection part-way so you're missing the funnels, lifeboats and iceberg!
Though the absense of the almanac won't keep me up or night or get me into a flood of tears over the brussel sprouts come Christmas Day I will miss it this year and miss having a record of the time for when I'm older, like a more interesting and accurate Wikipedia that you can dip in and out of.
Instead I'll have to go and by my grandad Frankie Boyle's new book. I'm sure he would love that.
RIP Ben Schott's almanac
No, it's not novelty socks or the Beano annual, but an annual publishing occasion we've enjoyed for the past few years in the form of Ben Schott's Almanac, featuring a year of facts, news, figures and general trivia that really satisfies the fact hunter inside of me, following on from his excellent miscellany series.
Not only that but the almanacs make a great Christmas present for other people and, most importantly, are collectible. I imagined when they began coming out that they would be an annual occurrence until I was old and grey when I would have the space and the money to be able to afford some old antique bookshelves for all my books with fifty years of them all appearing in chronological order.
Sadly it looks like now it'll be copies of the Private Eye annual instead, though that's equally good to appear, but not as intellectual looking as, say, the nicely put together and serious looking almanacs.
Why they have stopped is unknown at the moment: Has Ben Schott tired of doing them? Are they not selling well and Bloomsbury have pulled the plug? Are they seen as too dry for people to read?
I've tweeted the author to ask and await the response, but I think it's a real missed opportunity why ever they have stopped. Maybe compared to the Top Gear annual (containing a handy public-service-worker-shoot-guide) or something written by a random author but branded as by Katie Price are what more people want in their stockings?
But they are not the only collection that have stopped. I'm a big fan of the series QI - surely the televisual form of Schott's book - and they stopped releasing DVDs after series three when we're now on series nine. It's a really popular series; the shows can be watched again and again (yes, I know you can on Dave but, like, not when you want!) and they're both funny and useful. Why have they stopped releasing those? You don't find a magazine company stopping their 100-part 'build the Titanic' magazine collection part-way so you're missing the funnels, lifeboats and iceberg!
Though the absense of the almanac won't keep me up or night or get me into a flood of tears over the brussel sprouts come Christmas Day I will miss it this year and miss having a record of the time for when I'm older, like a more interesting and accurate Wikipedia that you can dip in and out of.
Instead I'll have to go and by my grandad Frankie Boyle's new book. I'm sure he would love that.
RIP Ben Schott's almanac
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