Last updated on April 22nd, 2018The first thing I will say about James Graham’s Quiz at the Noel Coward Theatre is that the stage looked a heck of a lot like the set of Network which has just had its final curtain call over at the National Theatre. And whilst I’m a big fan of James…
Caroline or Change | Hampstead Theatre
Last updated on April 22nd, 2018Last night was one of firsts. The Hampstead Theatre gave me a singing washing machine, a purring dryer, a trio of serenading radios and yes, a harmonising bus. And as I’m not much of a soap-opera fan, I had never heard of Sharon D. Clarke, so this was my first…
Review: Jubilee at Lyric Hammersmith
Last updated on April 22nd, 2018If you lived in Paris during the 1970s, it was easy to bypass the whole punk thing the Brits had going on over here. To we Frenchies, “punkness” seemed a bit of a London cliché, something you saw on a postcard: a menacing miscreant standing next to a red phone…
My top once in a lifetime experiences
This month’s travel link up is all about those once in a lifetime experiences. My intrepid exploration list includes navigating the underbelly of Paris, watching Pink Floyd in the world’s most beautiful palace, listening to the thunderous roar of waterfalls, having lunch in the Côte d’Azur rain (twice) and treading the boards of La Scala…
Portrait of an Art Addict
Last updated on April 22nd, 2018One of my recurring fantasies is the Dinner Party where the living and the dead, my gods and goddesses, come together for dream dinner banter. My table is a large one, admittedly, and it includes Peggy Guggenheim. I’m not even sure I would have liked Peggy, but boy did she…
Review: The Birthday Party
Last updated on February 3rd, 2020Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party is very, very funny, but it’s also totally doolally. The play had its London premiere at the Lyric Opera House (now the Lyric Hammersmith) in 1958. It was shut down after eight performances, thanks to a raft of disastrous reviews. It’s now considered a classic and has…
I’m MAD AS HELL and I’m not going to take it anymore
Last updated on February 3rd, 2020In 1976, a film called Network cleaned up at the Oscars, winning four Academy Awards. Written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by the great, late Sidney Lumet, the black comedy was written and released during the Watergate Scandal and the Vietnam War, poking fun at the lengths to which the…
Venus in Fur at the Theatre Royal Haymarket
Last updated on March 14th, 2018Aphrodite is in the house at the Theatre Royal Haymarket in a hair-raising erotically-charged production of David Ives’s Broadway hit, Venus in Fur. Natalie Dormer treads the boards as the feline Vanda Jordan, and David Oakes of Victoria fame has parked his Prince Ernest to reveal a magnetic Thomas Novachek…
Theatre Review: Labour of Love
Last updated on March 14th, 2018Love is all around us at the Noël Coward Theatre this autumn. It’s Labour intensive and dirty, and you can catch it in James Graham’s latest blockbuster, the political romcom Labour of Love. Starring Martin Freeman and Tamsin Greig, the play is not just a history lesson of the Labour…
The Real Ladies of London
Last updated on April 23rd, 2023What does a real Londoness like to do in the world’s greatest city? Discover what it’s like to really live and love London: from magical walks and secret gardens, to food markets, theatre, museums, afternoon tea, local restaurants and bars…come and enjoy a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day with the Real Ladies of London!…