And the Best Of's just keep on coming!

It's been a busy year for gigs - 31 all told - so it's been a difficult choice!

Constant Reader and Equity, you can all now relax.

The Chrissies are here:

Best Drama/Comedy:

Best Musical:

Best Actor (Drama/Comedy):

Best Actress (Drama/Comedy):

Best Actor (Musical):

Best Actress (Musical):

Best Supporting Actor (Drama/Comedy):

Best Supporting Actor (Musical):

Best Supporting Actress (Drama/Comedy):

Best Supporting Actress (Musical):

Ah well... 2008 is all over bar the drinking as I have been to my last theatre outing!

Step forward William Shakespeare... You ushered in the year with MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING and you saw it out with TWELFTH NIGHT at the Wyndhams as part of the Donmar in the West End season.

Michael Grandage has had a great year with his sold-out productions of IVANOV, THE CHALK GARDEN, OTHELLO and PIAF and TWELFTH NIGHT is continuing that success.
Shakespeare's romantic comedy of love and confused identities belies it's 407 years and continues to provoke laughs as Viola, shipwrecked on the shores of Illyria, disguises herself as a young man Cesario and is soon employed by Count Orsino to woo Olivia, a titled woman who mourns her dead father and brother and refuses Orsino's advances.
Olivia, far from being an ice maiden is soon in love... with Cesario. Further confusion spins the plot along with Viola falling in love with Orsino and Olivia's pompous and puritanical steward Malvolio being tricked into believing that she is secretly in love with him. When Viola's identical brother Sebastian appears after surviving the same shipwreck as his sister, the scene is set for happy endings for all... except one.

The one thing I felt was missing from Grandage's production was any feeling of sexual ambiguity. Veronica Hamilton - with her honeyed Jean Simmons voice - at no time suggested a boy, a Principal Boy maybe but not a boy. But I enjoyed her performance, she spoke the text with a real intellegence. Indira Varma also made a great Olivia, langorous and mocking at first but melting with love for Cesario, she also had a nice bit of business when yelping with erotic delight when confronted by both Sebastian and Viola. The feeling that the darker elements of the play were brushed over was also felt in the character of Antonio who frequently voices his love for Sebastian, enough to make him put his life in danger by returning to Illyria where he is suspected of piracy.
Ron Cook and Guy Henry made a great little & large comedy team as Sir Toby and Sir Andrew and they were matched by Samantha Spiro's fiesty Maria. For once the sub-plot characters didn't outstay their welcome, but it helped that they shared the story with Derek Jacobi's sublime Malvolio.

Shadowing Olivia in his black suit and wing-collar he was the essence of disdainful superiority to his lessers and unctious civility to his lady and Jacobi succeeded in making him the centrepiece of the production.

The letter-reading scene where Malvolio is tricked into believing Olivia loves him was a masterclass in high comedy - even going so far as to suggest Frankie Howerd in his outrageous response to the double-entendre "and thus makes she her great P's"! His painful efforts in keeping a smile on his face, his revelling in his soon-to-be exhaulted state and his boastful walk wearing his outlandish blazer, shorts and yellow socks was comic gold. But he also made you feel for Malvolio when, as the couples are celebrating at the end, he appears among them, angry at being locked in an asylum. His parting lines "I'll be revenged.... on the whole pack of you" guaranteed not everyone would live happily ever after.

It was definitely a good way to end a year of quality theatregoing. More on that later in the week!

I suspect I will not finish my current book in two days time as I still have about 500 pages to go so here are my 10 favorite reads of 2008:

Joyeux Noel Constant Reader, Feliz Navidad 'n' all.

I still have one big cultural event until 2008 can be put to bed but we saw the festivities in with a few more visits to the cinema and theatre.

I have seen WHITE CHRISTMAS countless times but it's one of those films that I suspect I have never seen from credits to credits... even when Owen played the dvd I remember drifting off in the middle somewhere. So the news the National Film Theatre was showing a brand new print was a way of

1) seeing it all the way through
2) giving Owen a treat as the film brings back happy memories.

NFT3 looked fairly full as the lights went down for the afternoon screening with grown-ups and a few kids in attendance and soon it seemed all were captivated by it's classic storytelling.

It was an opportunity to relish the subtle interplay between Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye as successful song and dance team Bob Wallace & Phil Davis who met serving in the same army unit during WWII under the stern but fatherly command of General Waverley. Left with a few hours to kill in Florida after their show closes they go to see the cabaret routine of sisters Betty & Judy Haynes whose brother was also in their unit. Through various shenanigans the four find themselves on a train to Vermont where the sisters have an engagement booked at a ski-lodge - and in best Hollywood tradition it's run by their General, now retired and attempting to find a life in civvy street. Due to the non-appearance of snow the business is struggling so in an attempt to help Bob & Phil stage their Broadway show in the restaurant - which is luckily the size of an aircraft hanger. Bob has one further idea to help the General's self-esteem but Betty, who has been falling for his charms, is led to believe that it's for all the wrong reasons - and quits the show for cabaret in New York.

Will Bob be able to save the situation? Will Betty return? Will the conniving Phil and Judy have to go through with their pretend engagement to get the feuding Betty & Bob back together again? Will we get our happy ending? And will it snow?

It was great to see the film on a big screen as it was intended to be seen, now in a restored version in eye-popping Technicolor. Directed by Michael Curtiz - who also directed CASABLANCA - this is a great example of classic Hollywood film-making, all departments coming together to make a seamless, entertaining film.

And talking of seamless... special mention must be made of the great Edith Head's costumes, in particular the lush jet black gown Clooney wears for her solo cabaret turn which makes her the absolute centre of attention in these scenes. It's also fun to spot future Academy Award-winner George Chakiris as one of the 'mood' dancers in her sultry solo "Love, You Didn't Do Right By Me".

Clooney's one solo number is a bit unfair when balanced against the many frantic dance sequences which spotlight Vera-Ellen. There is something strangely antiseptically all-American about her dancing, I found myself pining for something that raised the temperature, a bit more along the lines of Cyd Charisse.

Special mention too for the subtle underplaying of Dean Jagger as General Waverley who in relatively few scenes conveys a man trying to come to terms with life outside the military and the scene-stealing Mary Wickes as his caustic but loving housekeeper Emma.

By the time the two couples are together in dazzling red costumes singing Irving Berlin's timeless title song, there were definitely snuffles heard in the auditorium. Not from me tho'... I went earlier during Bing's solo performance at the start of the film!Mind you any heart-warming good cheer to mankind was soon dissipated by Tracy Letts' savaging of the American family in AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY which we saw in the evening.

I went in maybe expecting a bit too much as although I enjoyed the performances of the ensemble I found Letts' striving to make it A State Of The Nation address was hampered by it's soap-style revelations. At times it felt like a stage adaptation of a dvd boxed set of DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES or BROTHERS & SISTERS.

When the alcoholic poet patriarch of the Weston family goes missing, the family gathers to await news in the sprawling family home and keep an eye on their pill-popping neurotic mother Violet.

With a nod to Chekhov the family incorporates three sisters each struggling with their own problems - Barbara is separated from her husband although he has accompanied her with their dope-smoking teenage daughter, Ivy has been secretly sleeping with her cousin Charles Jr. and hopes to start a new life in New York, and younger sister Karen arrives with her fiancee Steve who makes a pervy beeline for the young girl.

Violet's sister Mattie Fae and her husband Charles complete the seething, argumentative family and when news arrives in the middle of the night that the father has been found drowned, the family implodes in recriminations and the loud crashing of skeletons emerging from closets.

As I said, as enjoyable as the cat-fighting and vicious bitching that erupts from the father's suicide is, trying to marry this to the breakdown of America is fairly lame. It was as if Letts had to pitch his dysfunctional family tragi-comedy thus to make it relevant.

Despite my misgivings of the play the performances of the Steppenwolf company gave depth and conviction to the text. The play is dominated by three magnificent female performers: Deanna Dunegan as Violet the drug-addled mother who is as viperous sober; Amy Morton as Barbara the oldest daughter saddled with a failed marriage and at risk of being sucked into the Weston family Hell and Rondi Reed as the loud, blowsy aunt who holds a dark secret. Dunegan and Reed both won Tony Awards and deservedly so.

The rest of the company also give committed performances and have a genuine ensemble feel. The 3 hour 20 running time slips by thanks to Anna D. Shapiro's well-paced direction and the magnificent set by Todd Rosenthal of the Weston family home is almost a character in itself. I can imagine it having a life beyond the National Theatre and it would be interesting to see how a British company would fare with it. Mind you, if it didn't I wouldn't be too surprised.

On Broadway I have seen plays such as PROOF by David Auburn and DOUBT by John Patrick Shanley which like AUGUST... won both Pulizer and Tony Awards for Best Play and had huge critical and audience success which over here were given one-off performances at the Donmar and the Tricycle Theatres respectively and never made it into the west end.

Have a good one Constant Reader!

Saturday night saw more Xmas eventing with our debut appearance at the rather odd Bloomsbury Ballroom in... um.. Bloomsbury. Descending the staircase was like going into a government building until you enter a large deep ballroom with a pre-war feel. It's a very peculiar experience to be only one of 15 there! But there was method in our madness... we were there to see the one and only Martha Reeves and The Vandellas!

We had seen the ladies last year at the Jazz Cafe where they put on a great show so when I saw this appearance mentioned on a Yahoo Motown site, tickets were nabbed ASAP - very ASAP as our ticket numbers were 18 & 19!

The ballroom was worryingly slow to fill - not surprising as there seems to have been scarce publicity but by the time the band trooped on around 9pm it was busyish - the good thing about that was there was room to get close to the stage and still have a bit of sway-space too! Now I know I'm biased here... but they were great! They rattled through some of their greatest hits - NOWHERE TO RUN, THIRD FINGER LEFT HAND, MY BABY LOVES ME and A LOVE LIKE YOURS (DON'T COME KNOCKING EVERYDAY) during the introduction of which Martha mentioned "my good friend" Dusty Springfield who covered it in the late '70s. They also sang a few covers: Van Morrison's WILD NIGHT, a soulful version of WHAT'S GOING ON? served to highlight the good musicians, and Kim Weston's GO AHEAD AND LAUGH.
The three best though were the ones I guess we all came to hear - JIMMY MACK, (LOVE IS LIKE A) HEAT WAVE and DANCING IN THE STREET - all of which featured Martha, Lois and Delphine - and a hundred-odd amateur Vandellas who clapped and sang along word perfect. It was great to be part of a whole room singing and dancing along and so paying testimony to the enduring magic of Motown and one of it's greatest stars.

After they finished their set it was time to do the meet and greet. I had printed a 6"x4" copy of the photo Owen took of Martha and I at the Jazz Cafe so it was nice to get that signed, the added treat was this time Lois and Delphine were with her so I got a group photo signed too. Owen also pursuaded me to pose with them for a new photo - no, Constant Reader... that is a special one that I won't be blogging.As Owen said, they must do hundreds of these after-show signings, but they still were very friendly and genuinely welcoming. They were happy to chat away and Lois and Delphine both said that since they arrived a few days earlier they had been busy filming the "Later" Hootenanny show so that will have to be watched! We told them we had booked tickets to see them as part of a big Motown tribute night next year at Wembley Arena but that they must come back soon and play their own show too which they say they would love to do soon. With big handshakes and Christmas wishes exchanged I floated off homewards, happier than the happiest thing.

On Friday we continued the Xmas treats with a visit to the Menier Chocolate Factory with Angela to see Trevor Nunn's production of Sondheim's A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC. While not the best production, it still sparkled and the intimacy of the auditorium suited the show's atmosphere of stifled love and whispered indiscretions. In fact the intimacy at times was frightening as we were in the front row which is on stage level. The benches are low - and purgatorially hard - so during the opening waltz number as they swished dangerously close to us at times it felt like I was kneeling in the middle of a dancefloor. At it's conclusion I was not so moved as to give a standing ovation - luckily so as otherwise I would have been nose-to-nose with the cast.

Nunn says that he wanted to get the flavour of the source material - Ingmar Bergman's SMILES OF A SUMMER NIGHT - and I think he succeeded, there were times when I was reminded of the film rather than the previous productions I have seen. One area he has not is to do his usual shtick of slowing everything down to a 3 hour crawl so you don't get out till 11pm. It's a long time on the unforgiving benches and also there are some ponderous spells in the pacing - most unforgivably, the 86'd song "Silly People" has been reinstated - a song sung by a minor character which treads water and fully justifies it's original exclusion - you can see why Sondheim wrote it but it impedes the flow of the story.
Hard to believe this is it's first London revival in 13 years but I found myself remembering most of the Hugh Wheeler's knowingly frivolous book, Hal Prince described the show as "whipped cream with knives" which is a good enough take on this witty but resigned look at the many facets of love, it's unpredictability and it's hurt and it's effect on nine characters.

Fredrick Egerman, a middle-aged lawyer has been married for eleven months to the teenage Anne who he knew as a little girl, however the marriage has yet to be consumated! The household is completed by Frederick's son Henrik, a serious Lutherian student who is quietly tormented by lust usually taken care of with knowing frankness by the maid Petra.

The catalyst for change is the appearance of the touring actress Desiree Armfeldt who we discover had a relationship with Frederick 15 years earlier and a meeting in her hotel room after her show rekindles their love. Complications arise when Desiree's jealous lover Carl-Magnus discovers Frderick's existence and plans his downfall with the help of his lovelorn, cynical wife Charlotte whose younger sister knew Anne at school. Matters come to a head when they all appear at the country estate of Desiree's mother, a noted courtesan who despairs for her daughter's life and who has taken charge of the upbringing of Desiree's teenage daughter Frederika.

The performers mostly managed to convey the witty sophistication but quiet desperation of their characters. Alexander Hanson, who I saw as the tormented Henrik in the 1989 production at the Piccadilly, has now grown up to play the father. He gave a charming performance as Frederik, world-weary but with a twinkle in the eye. Gabriel Vick found hidden humour in the frustrated Henrik which can be a hard role to pull off successfully. It appears you cannot stage a musical at the Menier without Kaisa Hammerlund and she brought a real charm to Petra, the maid who is the most emotionally honest of the characters which is why her solo number "The Miller's Son" is the last song of the night. I am sure it helps that Hammerslund is from Sweden!

Petra wakes from a shag with Mme. Armfeldt's butler and muses on what life holds for her - more lovers and eventual marriage to a working class man although she could just as easily snare a richer man. Petra knows her place in the world, what she can expect from it and how you have to enjoy the hand you've been dealt. Lesley Duncan was a delightful Petra in the compromised film version but her song was cut and while not eclipsing the definitive "The Miller's Son" by Diane Langton on the London cast recording, Kaisa came very close
.
The bristling dragoon Carl-Magnus was ably played by Alistair Robins although vocally he was a touch lightweight - bear fans, you will enjoy his surprising stripping off in the second act. The pivotal role of the imperious Mme. Armfeldt was played by Maureen Lipman who wrung every last drop of humour from the role - she was particularly fine in the socially awkward dinner scene in the second act but her solo number "Liaisons" would have been better if more reflective. On the subject of Mme. Armfeldt, I have yet to see a production which manages the final moment as I suspect it was intended to be played as there is usually something else happening on stage to draw the attention.

Jessie Buckley - late of the I'LL DO ANYTHING tv 'Oliver!' audition show certainly got Anne's youthfulness but I found her slightly more annoying than even this character should be. She just seemed to be pushing the ingenue thing too insistantly. Sadly the potentially scene-stealing role of Charlotte in Kelly Price's hands made sure all scenes stayed with their owners. It was a totally 'artificial' performance if that's not a contradiction in terms and strived for an archness that came across as overacting. It has been a triumph for Susan Hampshire and Patricia Hodge in the previous stage versions I have seen and in particular Diana Rigg in the film but this reflects what Nunn has done in aging the characters down. Working from the fact that Anne's age is 18 he has cast younger-than-usual and in Price's case her immaturity shows.

Which leads us to Hannah Waddingham as a younger than usual Desiree.
She took a bit of getting used to - her playing style was a Joanna Lumley/Camilla Parker Bowles mash-up but slowly she seemed to lose the jolly hockey-sticks vibe and in the country house scenes a softer Desiree appeared as she began to realise the consequence of her actions. She won the laugh of the evening when Frederik introduced her to Anne on arriving at the country house for her to reveal Frederika and deliver the killer line "...and this is *my* daughter". Any production of course has to be measured by the handling of *the* song and here it crept up unawares.

"Send In The Clowns" was added during rehearsals for the original 1973 production when Sondheim and director Hal Prince realised that Glynis Johns had a nice voice but not good enough to sustain long notes. Sondheim had deliberately not written many songs for the character as he knew it would be cast for an older star actress who possibly might not be able to sing. So in two days he composed a song with short phrases for Desiree to sing in the scene where she realises that although Frederik and her are ideal for each other he still loves his teenage bride too much.

It's life outside the show has made it now Sondheim's most famous song but to experience it properly you need to see it in the original context. It is the perfect song for that character and scene, immediately understood as the way an actress would use theatrical imagery to describe her feelings of thwarted love. That the song is sung initially to her ex-lover and the final verse alone is hugely important and is what makes it a devastatingly quiet song - not the huge soaring power-note ballad many lesser-composers would have written. Hannah Waddingham sang it wonderfully, with a genuine feeling of loss which was hugely affecting - her relative youth mitigating the feeling of a last chance of happiness lost as embodied in previous versions by Johns, Jean Simmons, Dorothy Tutin and Judi Dench.

David Fairley's design was cleverly evocative and economical - a clever use of a bare wooden stage with large frosted glass mirrors which changed position to suggest the different rooms and unfolded back to reveal the birch tree's in the estate where this comedy of errors is played out, his costume design too had a muted elegance. The score has been orchestrated well for 7 musicians by Jason Carr and was expertly played. So there you are, by no means a perfect production but one which hit some particularly memorable peaks.

Christmas is a strange time if you are a Kirsty MacColl fan.

You cannot escape FAIRY TALE OF NEW YORK as it has entered the pantheon of Christmas classics which are heard blaring out of High Street shops.

It is also currently sitting at #13 in the Top 40 Singles Chart.
For the past three years it has made the Top 10 in December.
Not bad for a song which celebrates it's 21st birthday this month.

But sadly today is another anniversary.

8 years ago today, Kirsty was coming to the end of a holiday on the island of Cozumel off the coast of Mexico and went scuba-diving with her sons Louis and Jamie at 1p.m.
By the middle of the afternoon she was dead, hit by a speedboat that was travelling at high speed through the protected diving area.

Her memory and music continue to be treasured as the injustice of the owner not being properly tried for her manslaughter is frustrating.

http://www.kirstymaccoll.com/
http://www.justiceforkirsty.org/index.htm

Last night saw the start of a rush of shows and gigs in the run-up to Christmas - expect some frantic blogging Constant Reader.
First off the rank was Matthew Bourne's adaptation of the Tim Burton film EDWARD SCISSORHANDS. As usual with New Adventures I missed this the first time round but as our Matthew *works* his children I caught it at it's current residency at Sadler's Wells.

Ultimately I found it a bit disappointing. As you know Constant Reader from previous blogs, I am a card-carrying fan of Matthew Bourne but with the under-heated DORIAN GRAY earlier this year I am beginning to wonder whether the New Adventures team might need a regroup.

What I found to be an irritant for most of the show was the lack of genuine thrilling dance - what makes his earlier work so exciting. Here there seemed to be endless dancing 'cute'. The delightful aspect to his earlier shows was that even in the darkest subject matter - as in SWAN LAKE - there were also witty vignettes that bring the productions that spark of humanity which I suspect is what has made them so beloved. Here it just seemed to be all vignette.

I think this possibly is inherent with working from Tim Burton's source film. For all his vaunted gothic weirdness, there is also a huge sentimental streak in his work that here is ramped up and the underlying dark theme of an outsider destined to remain this way is only felt literally in the last 15 minutes or so.

An initial set-up scene changes the passage of Edward into "reality" - in the film Mrs. Boggs discovers him alone in the old dark house when she calls as an Avon lady, here the kids of the town break into the house scaring his inventor to a heart attack and leaving Edward to wander off into the neighbourhood. All well and good, but then there was one of several ensemble numbers which sought to introduce you to the different neighbours of the Boggs family who have take Edward in.
Once is okay - there is the family next door with the sex-mad wife Joyce, there is the religious family, the slob family, the Mayor's posh family with the nasty son etc. But soon after this set-up there is a second scene where the Bogg's throw a yard party to introduce Edward which again introduces you to the family next door, the religious family etc. etc. So much time seems to be taken up with this scene-setting of minor characters that by the interval I was hard pressed to remember any actual pure dance moments as the stage had been constantly given over to quirky step routines. Surely if you are adapting a spoken piece for dance you need to express what the characters are feeling in solos, duets etc.
The plot-heavy second half however saw the needed change with a fun scene with Joyce attempting to seduce Edward which lead into a nice scene with Edward and Kim, the Boggs' daughter who is slowly falling for this strange boy. For the first time there was a hint of magic as they danced around the ice sculpure Edward was carving in her honour. But sure enough it was time for another ensemble number at a Christmas party which was certainly the best one of the evening but again I felt that it had nothing to do with the central story.

It's at the party that Edward is ostracised by the community after an accident which is misread by the townspeople who chase him back to the old dark house and a final showdown with the young bully who now hates Edward for his relationship with Kim. And here finally, FINALLY there was a pas-de-deux between Edward and Kim that was worthy of Bourne's reputation.
Full of longing and sadness, it finally brought a heart to what had previously felt like a series of 'turns' with overly-broad characterisations. This was carried through to the ending with the now-old Kim returning to the ruin of the old house, remembering her special friend as his shadow falls across the sky. I must admit that this last section made the evening finally worthwhile added to the crowd-pleasing coda when Edward, with a swipe of his blades, magics snow into the auditorium.Apart from a few of the principals the company are given few opportunities to properly shine. Dominic North gave a touching performance as Edward, as the choreography hardly gives him any opportunity to do anything other than make the audience go "ahhh", it is to his credit he at times hinted at the tragedy in Edward's life. Noi Tolmer as Kim was at her best in her two duets with North which she danced beautifully. Two Bourne doyennes gave the best supporting performances: Etta Murfitt was good as Mrs. Boggs who opens her home to Edward and Nina Goldman was an over-the-top Joyce opening more than her home to him. Adam Galbraith also deserves a mention as Bill, Kim's boyfriend and tormentor of Edward.

Maybe now is the time for Matthew Bourne to come up with something totally his own, totally unique.

Loving the new Morrissey cover art... As I turn my mind to this year's Best Of... lists I have to report that Moz at the Roundhouse is quite near the bottom of the gig one.

You can read my review here and I can't say time has been kind to the memory.

I am kinda looking forward to seeing M promote the new album next year but as we are up in the gods at the Albert Hall in restricted view seats... I am not completely sure of enjoying that experience either.

No.

No. No. No.

No.

I have just heard the X Factor winner's first single will be a cover of fucking HALLELUJAH by bloody Leonard Cohen.

The first time I heard that song I thought "Oh that's a nice song, stately and kinda profound".

I went off it when it became alternative music's "My Way" - a prime example of a song being used to give 'depth' rather than for any particular artistic reason. Yes I might be a bit of an out-there performer... but I can do uplifting too.

Now like some musical AIDS its everwhere... primarily on ads and tv trails to signal "This is a weepie... people, you will blub till you plotz!"

And now it will be the synthetic sound of Simon Cowell's cynical cash-cow and even worse, will no doubt be a shoe-in for the Christmas Number One... oh yes... I can hear the full choir coming in on the major key change.

Hate.
Hate.
Hate.

This Thursday will see the opening of the Rodgers & Hart musical PAL JOEY at Studio 54, it's first Broadway revival in 30 years.

Matthew Risch is playing the anti-hero Joey but the big news is that Stockard Channing is playing Vera Charles, the older, richer society dame who falls for him.

I would kill to hear her sing the show's most famous tune BEWITCHED, BOTHERED AND BEWILDERED.

Back in the dark days of 1978 I saw Siouxsie and The Banshees live. The support was 3 blokes & two ordinary looking projection screens for the bizarre slideshows that went with their coldly electronic songs. They were called The Human League.

Thirty years later I returned to see the League... just to check up on how they have fared over the years. The occasion was the Steel City Tour with three acts who made Sheffield famous for more than steel and the Crucible, The Human League, ABC and Heaven 17.

We missed most of Heaven 17 but I was never a fan. They finished off with - no honestly - TEMPTATION which was still great, despite the absence of Carol Kenyon.

We had great seats - front row of the circle, so for once no kvetchs about not being able to see! There was also a palpable sense of good will in the audience too - especially when the blackcloth was raised to reveal a lush red curtain to signal the arrival of ABC... well ABC as personified by Martin Fry.

While watching Martin Fry it occurred to me that, back in the day, I never bought an ABC single! I was happy taping the videos off TOTP and The Chart Show (remember that?), it worked for me. Then I realised that as far as The Human League were concerned, I stopped buying their singles with EMPIRE STATE HUMAN - and it resumed with TELL ME WHEN! Nope... not even DON'T YOU WANT ME. Again I was happy just to tape the videos off the tv... it was an 80s thing.

Martin sadly did not bring his thin matinee idol looks or his gold lame suit. He had a nice charcoal suit instead - he really was the heir to Bryan Ferry's loucheness. He *did* bring his great pop voice and a clutch of classic songs - we were treated to TEARS ARE NOT ENOUGH, POISON ARROW, ALL OF MY HEART, HOW TO BE A MILLIONAIRE, DATE STAMP, a couple of tracks from the new album - with a slight dip in atmosphere - but the tempo was accelerated with WHEN SMOKEY SINGS and the finale was, of course, the majestic THE LOOK OF LOVE - would you believe people are still saying "Martin maybe one day you will find true love".

By then the atmosphere was quite heady and it wasn't long before the screen raised to show a huge digital screen backdrop and a raised platform with large red digital numbers flickering across the bottom of it - it could have been Madonna about to sing 4 MINUTES but in gloomy red lighting there was Phil Oakey in a long greatcoat singing SECONDS - wow what an opener!He vanished and came whizzing back in white shirt and tie - ever the formalist - and up popped the Human League double threat, the Roxie and Velma of Sheffield, dark Joanne and blonde Susan. Susan was always my favorite Leaguette... she always seemed to relish just being on stage dancing and smiling to the music. Well tonight she looked like Edie Sedgwick dressed as an extra from THE RICH MAN'S FRUG number from "Sweet Charity". Black tight mini-dress with a white ruffle neckline and thin, thin, thin. Joanne wasn't. As my Irish relatives might say, she's a fine big lump of a girl.

They were fantastic. Phil is 53!! I know how he keeps looking good - he was rushing about all over the place, he covered every inch of the stage and still sounded on the money.
The songs sounded fresh, shiny and new - and they just kept on coming: MIRROR MAN, THE LEBANON, LOVE ACTION, LOUISE, TELL ME WHEN, OPEN YOUR HEART... and EMPIRE STATE HUMAN - wow! The set ended with the timeless DON'T YOU WANT ME and they then came back with BEING BOILED and a euphoric TOGETHER IN ELECTRIC DREAMS. It was excitement with extra-added joy.
Of course you can't have it all... I would have loved to have heard LOVE IS ALL THAT MATTERS, HUMAN or LIFE ON YOUR OWN but hopefully next time. Oh yes... there will be a next time. Any bottom-lip trembling by the lack of these songs was molified by the fabulous stage show... every song had a totally distinct look and Joanne and Susan had a few changes of costume. And all done with no record contract to back it up. Extraordinary.

I have to thank the fabulous Human League fansite for the concert shots.
http://www.the-black-hit-of-space.dk/menu.htm

Constant Reader, sorry to have been so quiet of late but my three month assessment with the dole office has made me a bit depressed all week... in April when Flashbacks closed I was out of work for 21 days and I thought that was an eternity.
It's now just over three months since I left Borehamwood.

My stats? 89 jobs applied for, 7 interviews.

While I was happy to show them the scant reject e-mails and letters I have received and justify my efforts to find a new job it would be nice if somewhere along the line the people I have sent my c.v.s to could be questioned as to why I have not even been given an interview. It would also have been nice if the woman I saw at the job centre actually listened to what I was saying and stopped staring at her computer screen.

The week has had a couple of highlights... We went to see Estelle at the O2 on Saturday, you could tell it was an 'urban' gig... having to go through a metal detector and be frisked didn't happen at Alphabeat.

We were sat to the right of the 'circle' and at first I thought it would be a good view onto the stage - until someone in the front row leaned forward... which led to a domino effect and for the most part I saw her intermittently. Like.. why doesn't the person behind the twunt in the front just tell him to lean back?
He's in the front row... what's to lean forward for??

This was the first time I had seen Estelle and was a bit nervous as I have been a fan since her first album THE 18th DAY and SHINE is definitely one of my albums of the year... would she be able to do it live?

For all her paling around the US with Kanye West and John Legend it's nice that Estelle is still a West London girl. She was certainly up for a chat with the audience - all in a stream of babbling words "Thisshitisforreal,right?" She did ask first was it all right if she swore - then proceeded with a fuselage of shit and fucks that made poor Owen wince as he was sitting next to a family outing of about seven 13 year olds. I am sure they have heard worse. The ultimate hilarity was when Estelle asked us what we thought of her support act Laura Izibor (who was quite good) who had said her first cd was out early next year:

Estelle: "WhatyouthinkofLaura? Sheisfierce,right.... Ican'twaitforhershittocomeout, right?" I am sure neither can Laura's proctologist.

But apart from that, she was great - a real personality who was genuinely excited to be playing in her hometown and rightly proud of all she has accomplished this year. Like Beverley Knight, an early Estelle supporter, she has had to fight UK record label apathy and it was only after making the bold move of relocating to NY that she luckily met Kanye West and through him, John Legend. Legend was so impressed that, after touring with her, he signed her to his own record label giving her the space and creative foundation for her SHINE album.

She treated us to the whole album but presenting the songs with new slants on them - "Pretty Please" was given a thumping 60s beat while others were presented in bite-size versions as Estelle related her troubles with the men in her life "SoIsaidgetthefuckout, right?" Finishing off with a roof-raising "American Boy" and "1980" I think I would definitely want to see her again.

We also had a second helping of the revival of LA CAGE AUX FOLLES which has transferred from the Menier to the Playhouse where it looks like it will be playing longer than the wonderful THE HARDER THEY COME.
I am definitely mellowing towards LA CAGE... when I saw it first at the London Palladium apart from the performances of Denis Quilley, George Hearn, Les Cagelles - where IS Scott St. Martyn now? - and the outrageous performance of Phyllida Law as Jacqueline, I didn't like the show. Purposefully so as Jerry Herman had won the Tony for Best Musical over Sondheim's SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE and so I was agin it.

But I guess what goes round comes around and I now appreciate the ground-breaking feel to the show - a big splashy Broadway musical, just right for the family, which features a loving gay relationship at it's centre and promotes the idea that gay men are equally adept at parenting. However I think this production is what has won me round to the show - at least in this one George and Albin share a kiss... in the original they wandered off arm-in-arm as I recall.

There are still parts of the show that betray the pull between Herman's out-and-out populism and Harvey Fierstein's hard-edged book and I will never warm to the "Conversation Piece" patter number but an enjoyable time was had and Terry Johnson's production sits better on the Playhouse stage than cramped into the Menier's proscenium.

Douglas Hodge has grown into the part of Albin more and although he appears at various times to be channeling 'Mrs. Overall', and Dick Emery's 'Mandy' he does make the character endearing - I wonder if it was the intention to make him look like Camilla Parker-Bowles as his partner's son's mother (that has to be said very quickly). It is definitely an actor's performance - as opposed to George Hearn's more obvious musical comedy performance. He also ends the first act on a great coup-de-theatre when at the end of "I Am What I Am" he storms off the stage through the stalls exit and - luckily we were sitting close enough to see this - bangs through the fire exit doors into Northumberland Avenue outside. The only way to top that song really!

He is partnered by Denis Lawson who - though his accent hopped from California to the Gorbals - also turns in an excellent performance as the diffident, long-suffering George. His performance of the show's big ballad "Song On The Sand" was marvellous.

There were also nice supporting performances from Paula Willcox as the brow-beaten Mme. Dindon and Tracey Bennett as a scene-stealing Jacqueline... and of course the ferocious Cagelles are worth a show of their own. Their can-can is still one of the wildest numbers seen this year.