Theatrically speaking ...

Passions come in all shapes and sizes ...... easy tiger - not THAT kind of passion!  It could be someone from history or literature perhaps. Someone from the world of television or film?  Food (mmm ... food!)  But while I've never knowingly turned down a tiramisu or three, today's topic is a 'passion' of the Theatrical kind.






I feel the need to explain that I inherited this passion from my father, whom I fondly remember taking me to see Swan Lake and Nutcracker, or sitting in the 'gods' with him at The Colliseum for a performance of The Pearl Fishers.  I can still hear him singing along at home, word perfect, to his adored operas only to have me break the mood with "That's a nice song dad", to which he'd respond "It's an aria darling, an aria".


Thanks to my folks I also have a great admiration for the Golden Age of Cinema, but the objects of those particular affections are alas now running lines at that great sound stage in the sky: Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Bette Davis, Bogart, Cagney.  I can't leave out my heroes of French cinema, Tati, Gabin, Barrault, Fresnay ... so many that fall into the 'they-don't-make-'em-like-that-any-more' category.


Since l've mellowed into an ever so slightly more sedate woman (well, sort of), I restrict my passions (a) to my hubby and (b) to the London stage (and not necessarily in that order!)  Today, being in a reflective mood, I hope you'll join me in a little retrospective of the productions I've been lucky enough to have witnessed over the years.  However the theatrical world will be relieved to know that I am not a critic (although everyone seems to be one these days, so why not join in, in a small way?!)  No, I'm just humble old me, a member of the theatre-going public, although the kind who knows how to switch off a mobile phone prior to curtain-up.


The early days (AKA from the sublime to the ridiculous)

• American Buffalo (David Mamet play, but at the time I didn't care.  It had Al Pacino starring and that's all that mattered.  I sat in the front row and he spat all over me.  Fabulous).
• Long Days Journey into Night (Eugene O'Neill at his best, and Jack Lemmon live in person!  I hope I'm not remembering wrong but I am convinced it was a little known Kevin Spacey playing the younger Tyrone).
• Veterans Day (Jack Lemmon again, with Michael Gambon.  I never understood why someone in the audience heckled, but it was great watching Gambon tell him to eff off!)
• Guys & Dolls (The revival with Ewan McGregor, he fluffed his lines that night.  Aw)
• Acorn Antiques (Victoria Wood and the team.  Daft and good / good and daft)
• Chicago (meh!  Great music.  Wish I'd seen the original though)
• Aladdin (Ian McKellan as Widow Twanky.  Our nephew could not quite get is head around 'Gandalf' having boobs - but he's a great fan!  Sir Ian had a jolly good time too)
• Les Miserables (God was it THAT long ago!!  I suddenly feel old, but the music was rousing!)
• Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Well it's a must for the little'uns isn't it?)

Mrs P On Broadway

• The Producers (The mind of Mel Brooks is a wonderful place).
• The Boy from Oz (Crikey! Hugh Jackman!  There's a man who can command a stage.  I still think it's one of the best performances I've seen)

Over the last few years 

• Avenue Q (Naughty naughty puppets!  Well you need a laugh sometimes!)
• A Doll's House (Updated to Edwardian London, and with a curiously timely script given the MPs expenses scandal that was brewing, all snuggled into The Donmar with Toby Stephens)
• August: Osage County (Great drama from Steppenwolf)
• Waiting for Godot (Will anyone who truly understands it, please raise their hand) 
• Phedre ("Dame Helen Mirraculous" but whoever cast Dominic Cooper as Hippolytus, needs a slap)
• Breakfast at Tiffanys (Bravo Anna - despite the fact most men were there to see you get your kit off)
• La Cage Aux Folles (Barrowman being .... well .... Barrowman) 
• The Woman in Black (When you've run out of other options .... not bad but not spooky) 
• Inherit the Wind (Exellent turn from Kevin Spacey, although I kind of missed Spencer Tracey.  Go figure)
• War Horse (So magical, and that ending got me - all 3 times)
• Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (James Earl Jones - need I say more?)
• Jerusalem (How does a man that short and softly spoken become a giant on stage? Earth shatteringly incredible)
• Enron (Speaking to USA friends, it was no surprise that NY didn't take to it.  However it was a masterful satire with a masterful Sam West)
• The Misanthrope (Another ginger god: Damien Lewis.  OK I'll say it - I thought Keira did well for her maiden voyage! **ducks for cover**) 
• Macbeth at the Globe (More blood and guts than you can shake a stick at.  Eye-poppingly stunning design)
• The Late Middle Classes (Ahh - feeding another great passion for the late, and very great Simon Gray)
• The Real Thing (Wonderful Stoppard revival .... and Toby Stephens too) 
• The White Guard (Russian Revolution brought to life. Fan-bloody-tastic) 
• Danton's Death (A Guillotine that very nearly upstaged Elliot Levey, Alec Newman, oh and Toby Stephens)
• Prisoner of 2nd Avenue (I wasn't buying Mercedes Ruehl & Jeff Goldblum as husband & wife.  They looked like mother and son.  Enjoyable though, and who doesn't like Neil Simon?) 
• La Bete (All hail the phenomenon that is Mark Rylance .... when's that knighthood coming?)
• Blood & Gifts (Making the Afghan war humorous.  A triumph of a play)
• Or You Could Kiss Me (Certainly different but an exercise in vanity by its Creators.  I don't care if they gave the puppets genitals, or that they created War Horse)
• Krapps Last Tape (A masterclass by Michael Gambon, once I'd recovered from travelling over an hour each way for a 50 minute performance!) 
• The Railway Children, (a Christmas pressie for our niece and nephew, so naturally that day would be the worst snow storm ever - but we got there.  Absolutely charming production at Waterloo)
• The Rivals (We wandered into The Haymarket, got front row tickets for a tenner and had a blast.  Penelope & Peter - hilarious)
• An Ideal Husband (Oscar Wilde's words and Elliot Cowan in a natty moustache - very nicely done)
• King Lear (Sir Derek ... author stunned into silence PLUS we sat near Gabriel Byrne.  I didn't know where to look.  All my Christmases ... who cares that it wasn't Christmas!)
• A Flea in Her Ear (Tom Hollander and a bit of a farce .... Genius)
• The Children's Hour (Yes I willingly purchased tickets for another Keira performance!  Great ensemble including Ellen Burstyn.  Yup I liked!)
• Frankenstein (Benedict as The Creature and Johnny Lee as Victor.   Dumbstruck ... me that is!)
• Rocket to the Moon (Clifford Odets, great drama extremely well acted. Bravo Joseph Millson and Keeley Hawes - shame it's closing early)

There appears to be a pattern here.  The answer, if you know your theatre, is that I appear to have set up home (and probably spent more time using the **ahem** 'facilities') at The National Theatre than my own home. But why not when this national treasure houses so many wonderful things to see it makes your head spin.  Surely the most hardened protester can't turn their nose up at £12 subsidised tickets or evenings of poetry readings, talks with performers, writers, directors all for 'fluppence'.  One of the best evenings I spent at The National was watching John Lithgow in a one man performance, acting out Bertie Wooster stories absolutely masterful and hilarious and all for less pounds than the fingers on one hand.  Added to all this, what's not to love about strolling along the South Bank, gazing at the River or rifling through the book and picture stalls, having a meal or a drink in the cafes and restaurants, or just sitting on a bench watching the world go by.


Forthcoming trips to Theatreland include what has become our annual family trip to the Open Air Theatre for another of their Shakespeare play 're-imagined for children'. Pretty damn clever of them to come up with the idea of abridged, interactive productions while remaining pretty faithful to Shakespeare's language, and what better way to get kids into The Bard.  Those who know me have heard me banging on about these productions plenty of times, and now that I have the luxury of my own blog, humble that it is, I can bang on even more!  We started with A Midsummer Night's Dream which was a magical toy box-styled production.  Since then we've seen Macbeth and The Tempest.  This year's interesting choice is Pericles.  Possibly not wholly written by Shakespeare, it will be interesting to see how they tackle the nod towards incest when the plays are aimed at 6 years upwards. Now there's a challenge (gulp).


I love the audience participation for the children.  For The Tempest we were given different coloured wrist bands representing elements of the storm:  hurricane, rain, thunder ..... you get the idea.  The crash of Prospero's staff, was our cue to start our sound effects.  Was it fate that I was the wind?  Hubby would say that was perfect casting.