Oh very dear... What the good lord of the West End gives with one hand he takes away with the other....

The production of RENT at the Duke of Yorks Theatre is to close two months early after a run of four months. As I blogged when it opened this is the third attempt to inflect this over-hyped musical here.

To quote Thomas Beecham on Wagner RENT has "some wonderful moments but some dreadful half-hours" but hopefully the theatre producers of Britain *might* now get the hint that this show is a non-starter here.

But frighteningly there is a report in the New York Times that a new jukebox musical is likely to appear in London... SIMPLY THE BEST based on the hardly-new story of Tina Turner and her abusive relationship with the currently-dead Ike (which is handy).

"But I saw the film and read the paperback" I hear you cry Constant Reader... but no, the writer (and the person responsible for this has probably never been accused of THAT before) has come up with this:

"The musical goes wacky when it shifts to Ancient Egypt…Tina believes she's the reincarnation of Hatshepsut, whose reign from 1479 to 1458 B.C. was prosperous and peaceful. Hatshepsut prevented her evil stepson, Thutmose III (that's Ike), from assuming the throne (though he seized it when she died). The Egyptian queen watches over Tina. When Ike pulls a gun on Tina, Hatshepsut shields her and the gun 'leaps' out of Ike's hand (special effects!)."

The idea of this being on a stage after the recent stillborn delivery of DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN set to Blondie songs is nine miles of wrong road.