Speaking of XANADU's glitter-ball frenzy.... here is mine!

Three see-through rubber superballs filled with pink, green and white glitter - how could I forget them when I was doing my purchases blog?

They were bought at the MOMA shop in New York.

Museum shops aren't my favourite entity at the moment. Today I heard that my second attempt to work in a museum shop has come to nothing. First the National Army Museum, now the Museum of London. Despite both acknowledging my wide range of retail experience they both wanted people who had Museum retail experience.

On my two visits to the National Army Museum both times there were no assistants to be seen on the shop floor. On my recce of the Museum of London there were noticeable areas - postcards, bookshelves, gift shelves - where the stock had been sold and just left empty.

If that's what denotes museum shop experience I am willing to drop my experience to their level.

Our second show was a last minute one. Owen suggested the day we arrived that we could see if XANADU was at the TKTS booth. It wasn't but I went online and found 2 stalls seats for Saturday matinee. I had heard it was a fun show but I wasn't sure if I would like it or not, as a knowing production can sometimes be irksome. It was GREAT! Within minutes of the lights going down I was laughing and I didn't stop for it's 90 minutes playing time.

God knows it's easy to laugh at the film - it's clueless, empty plot with a hopeless leading man and heady whiff of naff make it one of the clutch of musicals - CAN'T STOP THE MUSIC, THE JAZZ SINGER, PENNIES FROM HEAVEN and yes even FAME - that made the musical such a busted flush for years. So when word got out that XANADU was skating onto the Helen Hayes Theater stage there was total bafflement... had the screen to stage idea sunk THAT low?
What had not been taken into the equation was gay playwright Douglas Carter Beene who has taken the initial plot - street artist is helped by a muse of the arts to fulfill his dream of opening a roller-disco! - and treated it with the ridicule it deserves. No opportunity is passed up to lampoon the plot and the book also has a post-modern spin where the characters are in on the joke. However even when this attitude is applied within the songs it is done with such affection that it's never distancing. There are also nice little touches like the CHICAGO rip-off seen above.
The score is of course one of the reasons for the show's success: "Evil Woman", "All Over The World", "Suddenly", "Strange Magic", "Don't Walk Away" and of course XANADU are all socked over the footlights and Jeff Lynne's slightly theatrical pop sensibility finds it's perfect setting. The inevitable encore 'mega-mix' for once had me clapping and singing along with gusto. The Greek amphitheatre set involves a few lucky punters who get to sit on the stage but are not really utilised, the design is fairly simple - until the finale when every shape and size of glitterball appear from the flies.... it was so wild!

The main success for the show is the cast who give it their all. Kerry Butler was a real delight as Clio the muse who in human form changes her name to Kyra, wears legwarmers and rollerskates - oh and sports the worse Austryliene accent eevah. When she sings she channels Olivia Newton-John's breathy vocals but has a neat voice too. I liked her version of "Suspended In Time" - the fact she sang it sitting side-saddle on a floating large Pegasus was all the more fun.

She was matched every skate of the way by Cheyenne Jackson as the good-looking but thick-as-two-tube socks Sonny. He looks every inch the Californian beach dude - and how nice to have a dumb leading-man. He never overplays this though and so you laugh with him rather than at him. He also has a nice voice and a great stage chemistry with Butler. Now I must admit "Suddenly" has always been a bit of a secret pleasure of mine - are you reading this Michael Wilson? - and they did a great version of it with him 'magically' acquiring some skates while in his phone box. All this talent and a happily 'out' actor too!

Clio is forbidden by Zeus to use her own talents to help the mortal and falling in love with one will see her put to death. Her jealous sisters Melpomene and Calliope see to it that she does both these and they are played by the scene-stealing twosome of Mary Testa and Jackie Hoffman. They are a riot with some of the best lines in the show - "This is like children's theatre for 40-year-old gay people"! One tall and buxom the other small and thin - they are like Disney cartoon villains come to life and their duet of "Evil Woman" is a real hoot.
The other main part is played by Tony Roberts, best known here for his performances in early Woody Allen films up to ANNIE HALL. He plays the role Gene Kelly played in the film as the property magnate who owns the theatre that Sonny wants to use as his roller-disco. It turns out he designed and built the building in the 1940s when he was inspired to by a mysterious blonde girl who vanished when he eventually doubted his vision. Now who could she have been....? Roberts gave a charming performance with a great line in laconic asides. He also appeared as Zeus in Clio's trial scene and warns her that it is 1980 - the year when the arts died on earth and that in the future Broadway would be populated by jukebox musicals and shows based on third-rate movies!

The remaining four members of the cast were all given moments to shine - a special mention to very tall, very black, very camp Andre Ward as a bitchy Hermes "Bitch I don't know your life" and a strutting centaur with platform hooves!

Owen and I left the theatre and flew on invisible skates to Virgin for the cast recording cd which has been on heavy rotation ever since. Weighing up the pros and cons of the 5 productions we saw I have to say XANADU was my favourite for sheer enjoyment. A London transfer is supposedly on the cards so fingers crossed!

NY Chums and Yums...

It was nice to meet up with my people out there... not so nice having to have constant autopsies over the job going south. The food on the table always helped!

Dezur met us outside CURTAINS and we went for a lengthy talk and meal at Rachels on 9th Avenue between 43rd & 44th. Um. Maybe a bit too lengthy... we were the last to leave the restaurant while the manager cashed up and the staff sat in the semi-dark at the front of the restaurant. Three days later we met up for Sunday brunch at our old favourite Pigalle to bat some more breeze before seeing the wonderful SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE.

Dame Nicola Blackman, Star of Stage Screen and Bowling Alley, was in New York at the same time. Not too surprising as she has had her green card for a while now - but she seems to be in demand in the UK now more than ever!! Anyway Sunday evening was spent with Owen, Nikki and her delightful NY flatmate Grey in the intimate, historic lobby of our hotel The Algonquin sampling their cocktails and having a great evening.

I had lunch on Monday with Karen Moline. Karen immortalised me in print for her 1988 biography on Bob Hoskins with my anecdotes on the National Theatre's GUYS & DOLLS. I lost touch with herself for a few years but found her on Facebook so we had a lot to talk about over the tasty food at La Petite Abeille, a nice Belgian bistro near her apartment on East 20th and 1st. Afterwards I went with her to meet Emanuel, her 7 year-old Vietnamese adopted son.

Later on Monday was the first time I could get to meet Suzanne, the good lady Golden. My damn job and the state of Broadway were picked over as we took no prisoners with the food at the Chelsea Grill on 9th & 47th - couldn't find no picture on the damn internet though!

On my last day I had breakfast bought for me by the owner of Posteritati Poster Gallery and all-round good-egg Sam Sarowitz for yet another round of picking over the carcass of Flashbacks while making fair weather of my lovely breakfast.

One day I'll remember to take photos of my mates! Thank you all for a lovely time.

The first show we saw in New York was CURTAINS the last musical written by the great team of John Kander & Fred Ebb at the Al Hirschfeld Theater. It was the best way to immerse yourself into a run of Broadway shows: big, splashy, colourful and a trifle forgettable.

The show has been running for just over a year and we were lucky to still get most of the original cast. The show won David Hyde Pierce last year's Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical and it is easy to see why as he plays his character with a charming ease and a palpable sense of giddy excitement as his character's dreams come true. But despite him and a top-heavy cast of Debra Monk, Karen Ziemba and Edward Hibbert the show remains a curate's egg.

1959. ROBBIN' HOOD is playing Boston in a pre-Broadway tryout when it's talentless leading lady collapses during the curtain calls. A few hours later after the negative reviews come in there is more bad news... the star was murdered. Enter Lt. Frank Cioffi to solve the murder but he is more excited about being backstage at a musical comedy. Soon he's not only solving the murders but also solving the production team's problems with the show.

ROBBIN' HOOD's internal problems are mirrored by CURTAINS genesis. The original book writer Peter Stone & lyricist Fred Ebb both died while the show was in pre-production and both were supplanted by Rupert Holmes and I think the stop-start birth of the show has affected the final production. There are show-stopping numbers, there is a gag-filled book, there is a big colourful production but number follows number, scene follows scene with no noticeable inner motor. It is fun to sit through but with the talents involved it's lack of spark is odd.

The score is not one Kander & Ebb's best - indeed some of it's numbers are familiar to some of their other scores - but there are enough songs to keep one engaged. The performances also helped keep one involved.

Apart from Hyde Pierce the best performances were from Debra Monk as the show's hard-as-nails producer. Short, blonde and stout she spits out her never-ending crass knob jokes with the venom they deserve and nails her songs with as deadly an aim as the killer.

Karen Ziemba plays one of the show's composers who takes over the leading role and delights with her smoky voice in the ballads as she does with her energetic dance number at the end of the first act. I saw her Tony Award-winning role in CONTACT a few years and met her afterwards backstage with my friend Dezur. She was charming and it was nice to see her on stage again.

The waspish director was played by Edward Hibbert with extra-added vitriol.

Other fine performances came from Jason Daniely as Ziemba's estranged writing partner, Noah Racey as the show's leading man and Shannon Lewis as the producer's ambitious chorus-girl daughter.

I can imagine this show never appearing over here due to it's inherent Broadway themes and in-jokes so it was good to take this opportunity to see it.

Ok let's get down to cases.... what did I buy in NY?

Two new pairs of shoes, a French Connection cardigan, a Calvin Klein jumper and a nice purple long-sleeved Tommy Bahama shirt. Oh and a "Sunday In The Park With George" t-shirt.

Cd buying was a bit thin on the ground: the new double cd of unreleased tracks from the late and great cabaret singer Nancy LaMott, the cast recording of XANADU (more on that later) and soundtracks for THE HARDER THEY COME (finally! - I have 99.9% of the tracks on other cds but seeing the stage adaption before I left made me want the soundtrack) and VISION QUEST as it's the only cd which has Madonna's song GAMBLER on't. The last two were about £5 each so was ok with that.

Books were also a bit under-populated with only three hardbacks:
the gossipy BROADWAY BABYLON, a new Joan Crawford biography NOT THE GIRL NEXT DOOR and a new biography on Ethel Merman BRASS DIVA. Having just seen Patti LuPone in the role Merman created in "GYPSY" made me realise I had never read a biography on this legendary performer. I had been banking on buying a truckload at Theater Circle on W 44th but the book section was sadly depleted.

The dvds were much more me!
Eleven in all... something to keep me going in the long unemployed weeks stretching ahead of me. Actually I guess it was 16 as the Joan Crawford set is 5 cds and there is the 2-disc-er of ANNE OF THE THOUSAND DAYS / MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS.

Oh and I bought two magazines for reasons that are fairly obvious... although actually both cover interviews aren't all that sadly.

Hello Constant Reader...

I have been back from New York since Wednesday but have spent most of the subsequent days asleep on Owen's couch, anything to forstall getting the cab home thus putting an end to the holiday and being faced with unemployed state.

Sad I know but that's where my head is at the moment.

New York was great fun... it's been a while since I've been there but after ten minutes of being there I lapsed into city mode and was racing the red-hand street signs with the best of them. Maybe it's because of my distracted mind that I never got a particular buzz from the city while I was there. I hope I haven't lost that.

More blogs to follow...

So that's that then, Constant Reader.

My job at FLASHBACKS is over, I finished today. Tuesday is a strange day to be your final one in employment.

Owen and I fly off to NY for a week, seeing good shows and nice people then back to hopefully a P45 waiting for me at home.

One event is very much overshadowing the other, maybe that will change when I see the lights of Times Square.

How weird... another blog inspired by three events!

Since downloading Madonna's new single 4 MINUTES on Wednesday night it is currently up to 15 plays on my iPod. Again she has thrown down with the pop tarts who have the temerity to call themselves divas etc. An inspired Timbaland production, parping marching band horns, a crunching beat and more hooks than a Peter Pan convention.

She has generously given the chorus line to Justin Timberlake who shares the vocals. I was well pissed with him for making such a balls of her induction to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame but he is cool on this. And of course like every great M track... all I am thinking is I can't WAIT to see her do this live!

Last night Owen and I joined the children, harassed parents, girls-on-a-night-out and gayers that constitute the audience of the all-conquering Sugababes at the Royal Albert Hall.
It was great, they sounded fantastic and all had their moments to shine - Keisha poised and controlled, Heidi beaming her smile to the highest reaches of the RAH and Amelle squeezing punters hands' at every moment. And the costumes.... they are bringing mini-crini back! We had ostrich feather ones, glitter-ball ones, red swag-curtain ones which were removed to reveal ones made of bubble-wrap plastic! For a ballad section we were treated to long robes with flowers blossoming from hems, sleeves and necklines... a possibility for cringe but they just about carried it off.
I was surprised there was so little talking to the audience but they had to get 20 songs done! We had them sultry, sexy, playful, rocking, moody and lovelorn. They swept us through 8 years of hits OVERLOAD, FREAK LIKE ME, ROUND ROUND, STRONGER, HOLE IN THE HEAD, TOO LOST IN YOU (magnificent), RED DRESS, UGLY, CHANGE, DENIAL, MY LOVE IS PINK and an excellent cover on En Vogue's underrated DON'T LET GO (LOVE).
The explosive encore was a double-whammy of PUSH THE BUTTON and of course ABOUT YOU NOW - explosive because we had flames shooting up behind the stage, fireworks bursting over the 'babes heads and gold streamers jettisoned over the front of the stage. The babes are girls on a mission... they are planning an album for the end of the year so maybe there will be another tour. I'm there!And finally a word on the passing of the great Paul Scofield.

His idiosyncratic stage career ranged from the greatest classical roles to a Jeffery Archer play. He is known for his dignified and humane Thomas More in Fred Zinnemann's film of A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS which won him an Academy Award but film never appealed to him and his screen appearances were rare events.

I saw him on stage four times, bringing life to the American import I'M NOT RAPPAPORT in 1986 and the afore-mentioned Jeffrey Archer EXCLUSIVE in 1989 which, even co-starring Eileen Atkins, I have managed to erase totally from my mind. Luckily the last two were more worthy of his talents.

In 1992 he dominated the Haymarket stage as Captain Shotover in Shaw's HEARTBREAK HOUSE with Vanessa Redgrave who also co-starred with him in 1996 for his last major stage role as Ibsen's JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN directed by Richard Eyre which also starred Eileen Atkins. It was a towering performance - and not just because I was sitting a few rows from the stage.
He was majestic in a performance that I will remember for years to come. Living the final moments of Borkman's life he stood close to the edge of the stage for his last speech in which he invokes the spirits of the mountain:

"But I will whisper it to you here in the stillness of the night: I love you, as you lie there spellbound in the deeps and the darkness! I love you, unborn treasures, yearning for the light! I love you, with all your shining train of power and glory! I love you, love you, love you!"

and he did whisper it, out into the rapt stillness of the Lyttleton auditorium, as the audience held it's collective breath. Unforgettable.

Hello Constant Reader. Remember me?
It's been a while I know. But then it's been a Hell of a month.

As a few of you know, after March I will be made redundant from Flashbacks as the boss declares himself bankrupt. I somehow knew this credit crunch would be the one to finish us off. Maybe we could have struggled on but the bank reducing the overdraft facility too was the final straw.

I am by turn, depressed, bewildered, optimistic, doubting, confident. I have been for my first job interview in 20 odd years - didn't get it which was a real pain as I would have walked from one job to the next. I called the HR Manager for - the dreaded word 'feedback' - and she couldn't have been more positive about my interview and said she is keeping my details on file in case a job with maybe more superiority turns up. So that has given me a bit of confidence. Off to New York for a week next Wednesday... coming back will be extra-miserable as it's back to signing on.

There have been good things though - some great bolstering e-mails from my peeps and have had three stand-out musical events.

First there was a pungent whaft of musical nostalgia when we saw Linton Kwesi Johnson at the Barbican Hall supported by the mighty Dennis Bovell Dub Band and performers Winston Francis, Jean 'Binta' Breeze and Zena Edwards. Indeed Linton said that for a lot of the audience it would be an exercise in nostalgia but also explained each song before singing it, putting it into the context of the time he wrote it.
I was a big LKJ fan back in the late 1970s and many an ornament wobbled on the sideboards of Enfield as the heavy bass reverb-erb-erbed out of my speakers so it was a genuine thrill to see him perform his back catalogue including ALL WI DOIN IS DEFENDIN, DREAD BEAT AN BLOOD, WANT FI GOH RAVE, SONNY'S LETTAH, FORCES OF VIKTRY, REGGAE FI PEACH and recent tracks like MORE TIME and the mighty LIESENSE TO KILL. Righteous and passionate lyrics actually addressing inner-city situations. It sounded strange for a while because you simply don't hear that now.

Just as exciting was the Dennis Bovell Dub Band who impressed me so much I bought their ALL AROUND THE WORLD cd afterwards and am loving it.

After that was Siouxsie at the Shepherds Bush Empire and she was amazing... much better than when I saw her last year at the Astoria. Mind you, then I was drifting around trying to find a good vantage point but here we were a few rows back in the centre of the dress circle. She taunted, she purred, she kicked, she pirouetted, she rocked!

Tall Paul was also in the circle and suddenly appeared beside me to point out someone who had just walked past him to take his place in the VIP section. A certain Stephen Patrick Morrissey. It goes to show how good la Sioux was that I wasn't staring at Moz for the whole gig. Well the half of the gig he actually stayed for. They had a famous falling out after duetting on INTERLUDE so we can only hope there has been a raprochment.

And last night I had a fantastic time at the Barbican Theatre - and I know I have never said that before - when we saw the transfer of the Stratford East production of THE HARDER THEY COME, based on the Perry Henzell film.

Amazingly I have never seen the film - God knows I've sold enough posters of it over the years - but I knew the outline of the story of Ivan the innocent country bwoi who comes to Kingston, Jamaica to seek his fame as a singer but gradually turns into an iconic fugitive due to the corrupt police and music world - and of course I knew the songs.... the title song, YOU CAN GET IT IF YOU REALLY WANT, MANY RIVERS TO CROSS, PRESSURE DROP, SWEET & DANDY, SITTING IN LIMBO, 007 (SHANTY TOWN)... like wow!

The production burst off the stage with vibrant energy and powerhouse singing and by the curtain call - with the inevitable mega-mix medley - we were up joining the cast in song and skanking. All I can say is the musicals I am seeing on the upcoming NY trip are going to have to be extra-special to top this show.

My only criticism is that the pressure does indeed drop towards the end oddly just when the action should be ratcheted up. With the police hard on Ivan's heels and pressing his friends and girlfriend to turn him in, the production seems to lapse into slow-motion. It's almost as if directors Kerry Michael & Dawn Reid and writer Henzell are trying to delay the fate of their hero.
This aside, the evening is a triumph for the cast with so many stand-out performances. Rolan Bell makes a charismatic Ivan, bursting with energy and with a fine voice, and Joanna Francis is also fine as Elsa, a nice-girl role which could become cloying in lesser hands.

The supporting cast is headed by three perennial stars from the 1980s black performer renaissance: Victor Romero Evans as Ivan's rasta friend Pedro, Chris Tummings as the corrupt police chief Ray Pierre and Marcus Powell as Hilton, slippery godfather of the Kingston music scene. There are eye-catching performances too from Joy Mack as Ivan's hard-hearted mother and Susan Lawson-Reynolds as Pinkie the queen of the dance halls.

A huge contribution is also made by the onstage musicians who lend the score some real heft- one was Alan Weekes who I saw last year at the Jazz Cafe playing for the Queens of Lovers' Rock Janet Kay and Carroll Thompson.

I felt so good after coming out of the show that I thought "I want to blog again", again proof positive of the effect good theatre has on my soul.

All hail the conquering hero...-ish. Why do I get the feeling this all has a vague whiff of propaganda?

The war in Afghanistan has been seen to be spiralling out of control so how better to shore up backing than to have a Royal out there?

Prince Harry has made the headlines for indulging in the usual round of yahoo South Kensington rich kids getting pissed and falling out of clubs so how better to give him a new media profile as the ever-smiling grunt on the frontline?

For all this the media agreed to a reporting ban to purportedly protect him and his fellow soldiers - and here's the good bit... so they could then have full access to him for photo shoots and footage of him playing soldiers.

There's a bit of a furore over the willingness over our free press to happily play along with this but more annoyingly is this now gives a Royal seal of approval to this rather dodgy tour of duty... 88 soldiers have been killed there since 2001.

I suspect this media love-in however won't last too long as Action Ginger said in a BBC interview "I generally don't like England that much and, you know, it's nice to be away from all the Press and the papers and all the general shite that they write"

Or don't write about...

Last night's Academy Award ceremony garnered the lowest viewing figures for 20 years in the USA.

Could it be because all the odds on favourites and eventual winners were European?

You watch... next year Europeans will only be cast as villains.

Oh no, that was this year - Javier Bardem played a nasty killer, Tilda Swinton played a nasty lawyer and Daniel Day Lewis played a nasty oil baron!

Congratulations to Marion Cotillard who has just won the Best Actress Academy Award for her tour-de-force performance as Edith Piaf in LA MOME (LA VIE EN ROSE). I feared she would lose to the favourite Julie Christie for AWAY FROM HER but as fine as Christie was I was disappointed in the film which suggested that the depth of her character's Alzheimer's Disease was little more than a sweet bafflement.

Cotillard on the other hand gave a performance which was dazzling in it's bravery, depth and commitment.

Bravo!

Owen and I spent a few hours this afternoon with some of the famous people of the 20th Century. I didn't know who to spend the most time with... these people have some serious egos innit? Yes Constant Reader we went to the National Portrait Gallery to see the Vanity Fair Portraits Exhibition and I enjoyed it a lot.

Vanity Fair was initially published from 1913 to 1936 when it closed partly due to the Great Depression and in it's time sought to combine the written word with the work of the finest contemporary portrait photographers Edward Steichen, Baron De Meyer, Man Ray and George Hoyningen-Huene.

In 1983, 47 years after it's closure, the times were right for the magazine to be re-launched catching the 'me generation', a new monied class and the rise of the Celebrity culture. Again the written word has been allied with today's finest portrait photographers Herb Ritts, Mario Testino, Steven Meisel and Annie Leibovitz, the photographer most associated with the magazine.
When you consider the phenomenal talents who were either established or coming through in the first VF 23 year period it's no wonder that the exhibition, as Owen pointed out, starts with innovators, trailblazers and genuine legends and ends with celebrity - a telling tale of our times. Indeed it is rather jaw-dropping that the biggest-seller in VF's history is the edition with Jennifer Aniston on the cover.

I ordered the catalogue when I booked the tickets as I knew it was going to be worth dipping into and I'm glad I did. With iconic images of Vaslav Nijinsky, Isadora Duncan, Virginia Woolf, Josephine Baker, Noel Coward, Jean Harlow as well as the fact that Madonna and Vanessa Redgrave are represented twice in the exhibition I was well pleased with it.


One small quibble is they could have picked a more representative solo portrait of Madonna rather than the Testino portrait of her during the filming of EVITA... she has appeared on the most covers after all... either of the above would have been more to my liking.

Still... along with Jean Harlow, how nice that it is M who is the 'face' of the exhibition.

So what next for Amy Winehouse? I think it's time to move into films... but what could a North London Jewish female singer with a big voice play?

How's about just that?

Amy Winehouse in THE ALMA COGAN STORY... think it'll play?

It's official Constant Reader... I am now excited. O and I are going to NY for a week at the end of March to see Owen's birthday girl Buffy Saint-Marie at the Highline Ballroom.

But we are also seeing shows that have me buzzin' including two in preview that are among the season's most anticipated!.

Thursday: CURTAINS - The last ever John Kander/Fred Ebb score for a musical whodunnit set backstage in a touring show.
Saturday: GYPSY - Patti LuPone takes on one of the greatest roles in musical theatre as Momma Rose.
Sunday: SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE - from London's Menier Chocolate Factory, this has just opened to a rave review from the NY TimesMonday: CRY BABY - the new musical based on a John Waters film and hoping to duplicate the massive success of HAIRSPRAY.
I have just booked CRY BABY... so excited as the J centre stalls tickets were only $54 as it's in preview and it's also the year the show is set.

*skips around room*