Tuesday 31 May 2011

Review - Much Ado About Nothing



“Sigh not so, but let them go and be you blithe and bonny. Converting all your songs of woe, into hey nonny nonny!”

There has been great excitement ever since the announcement was made that David Tennant and Catherine Tate were set to play two of the principle characters in Shakespeare’s much loved comedy Much Ado About Nothing.  Now, currently showing in the West End, this show is playing to sell out audiences daily and judging by the reviews, the hype was well deserved and definitely not as the title of the play suggests, a fuss about nothing.

As this is by far my favourite Shakespeare play, I was determined to see for myself not only how well these two actors would portray their respective roles but how well this production would compare to the one starring Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh (film).

For anyone unfamiliar with the plot, it is perhaps one of the easiest plays to follow. The Prince, Don Pedro, recently reunited with his illegitimate brother Don John, returns from battle to Messina and is a guest at the house of his friend Leonato. One of Don Pedro’s company, Claudio is in love with Leonato’s daughter Hero and the prince agrees to help Claudio to win her hand. Don John, still embittered with his brother despite their recent reconciliation determines to ruin the plan and so convinces both Don Pedro and Claudio that Hero is not a virtuous woman. Claudio denounces Hero on their wedding day and refuses to marry her. Meanwhile Benedick, another of Don Pedro’s company continues his battle of wit and words with his old sparring partner Beatrice, the niece of Leonato. Unbeknownst to them, Don Pedro also plans to bring these two seemingly ill-matched people together – a Herculean labour indeed considering their past history towards one another. But, just like in any romantic comedy, all works out well in the end and we celebrate the wedding of not one, but two happy couples.

The attraction of this play for me is in the writing. It is full of clever witticisms, remarks and put downs that even put in a 20th century setting seem equally as funny and offensive as they would have done back in Shakespearean times.“ I would rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loved me!” or “Had he been a dog that would have howled thus, they would have hanged him!”

The play has everything you could want from it; a brilliant plot, great speeches and dialogue, your romantic couple, your villain – Don John, your fools - the constable and the guard duty, mistaken identity and of course a happy ending. Add to this the modern interpretation from this production, the music and dance routines and you have a play that entertains from start to finish!

David Tennant played an outstanding Benedick and owned the stage from the moment he drove onto it in his golf buggy. The delivery of his lines together with his expressions really captured the essence of his character and you were totally captivated by him every time he was on stage. He had great chemistry with the other cast members too particularly with Catherine Tate who played his nemesis / love interest Beatrice. Watching David play the role of Benedick it was as if the role had been written specifically with him in mind – he played to every emotion of the character, engaging with the audience and his fellow cast with even the slightest glance or gesture. He was fascinating to watch throughout the entire play.




Catherine Tate as previously mentioned played the role of Beatrice, and apart from a few occasions when I thought she sounded like some of her other characters from TV, portrayed the character wonderfully well . Not only did we see the feisty side of Beatrice, but in this production and through Catherine’s interpretation of the character, we see a more vulnerable, emotional and loving side.

There were also some strong performances from many of the supporting cast and I particularly enjoyed that of John Ramm as Dogberry whose most infamous line “Do not forget to specify masters when time and place shall serve, that I am an Ass!” had the audience in stitches. Also worthy of a mention were Sarah Macrae and Tom Bateman who played Hero and Claudio respectively  and who in making their West End and indeed professional debut in Tom’s case both gave outstanding performances and will definitely be ones to look out for in the future.

The entire production was from start to finish a breath of fresh air. There were many occasions when the audience literally erupted in laughter and the actors would have to time their lines well to allow for the audience to stop before they delivered their next dialogue. The music was cleverly arranged to include a few bars of well known songs from the 80’s set to the text of the play and this complimented the setting of the play. It was a joy to watch and the time certainly did not go “dully by us”. The enjoyment of both cast and audience was clear to see at the end as the delighted audience gave a full standing ovation to an appreciative cast.

Much Ado About Nothing is showing now at Wyndhams Theatre. For more information and to book tickets http://www.delfontmackintosh.co.uk/Tickets/MuchAdoAboutNothing.php

Saturday 28 May 2011

Secret London


Being London born and bred I guess I have an inbuilt love and appreciation of the city. It is one place I could never tire of visiting and love exploring and finding out about places and the stories behind them. The main tourist sites of London always draw the crowds and I love them, but I like to go one further and find out about the parts of London that are off the tourist track or that offer a little bit extra to those who seek them out.

Last year I fulfilled one of my lifetime ambitions - to be a witness to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. It was an incredible event, which takes place every night long after the tourists have gone home and is only available to ticket holders. It is an incredible ceremony to watch and timed with such precision that the conclusion of it with the bugler playing The Last Post starts precisely at the first stroke of 10.00pm. Whilst waiting for the ceremony to start one of the Yeoman Warders will tell you some fascinating stories of previous guests at the Tower and you also get the chance to take photos (not during the actual ceremony).At one point of course you are locked in the Tower, but sadly they do re-open a section of the gate for you to leave afterwards.


If you ever get the opportunity to attend I would thoroughly recommend it – you can get tickets through the official website for The Tower of London. http://www.hrp.org.uk/toweroflondon/whatson/ceremonyofthekeys.aspx

A view from inside the Tower at night



I have also previously enjoyed Walking Tours of London and have loved to see places frequented by Jane Austen or see the street which inspired Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter series of books. These and other tours are available every day and for £8 you can enjoy learning about some of the great places and people in London. For more information see http://www.walks.com/

The street that inspired Diagon Alley



During my most recent visit to London, a friend and I embarked on a tour of Secret London. We visited many of the well known sites in central London but were on the lookout for certain things that are often passed over as we look at the more prominent landmarks around us. I had obtained the details from the website http://www.secret-london.co.uk/ and we set about trying to find as many of the places or items mentioned as possible. It was an educational and entertaining afternoon and certainly gave me a greater appreciation and love of my favourite city.

Here are just a few places we visited......

National Gallery

The National Gallery - from Trafalgar Square, but what Secret lies beneath it?


Sitting on the steps below the National Gallery to eat their sandwiches, many tourists unknowingly rest their feet on the standard Imperial measures of length, set into the granite paving in brass. Here’s where you can check the length of a perch, a pole, a chain or a yard. The UK completed its legal transition to metric units in 1995.



Nelson's Column at the heart of Trafalgar Square, hardly a secret itself, but have you ever noticed the detail at the bottom of the column?

On the south of Nelson’s Column is a relief showing his death at Trafalgar in 1805. On the left of the dying Nelson is a black crewman holding a musket and searching the enemy rigging for the French sniper who shot him. There were 18 nationalities on board HMS Victory, including nine West Indians and one African.

The fountains in the square were installed to stop unruly political demonstrations. Before then, this police box near Nelson’s Column, connected by phone to Charing Cross police station, kept an eye on any crowds. Now a cleaner’s store, the light on top is not from Nelson’s HMS Victory, as some guides might tell you.


Charles I Statue
On a busy traffic island below Trafalgar Square is a statue of King Charles I (oddly, looking towards the place he was beheaded in Whitehall). It’s on a site once occupied by Queen Eleanor's Cross (a replica of which is in front of Charing Cross station). A brass plaque tells you this the place from which all distances to London are measured.

Horse Guards
The official entrance to Buckingham Palace has had a mounted guard for the past 200 years. Anyone can walk and you can  also drive through - provided you have a special ivory token from the Queen.
Horse Guards - The clock has a black numeral 2 - this is the hour at which King Charles was beheaded in the Banqueting House opposite.

Admiralty Arch
Admiralty Arch London. Built by King Edward VII in memory of his mother Queen Victoria, this 1912 arch is actually an office building - for the Cabinet office, among others - and a ceremonial entrance to The Mall - nothing secret about that, but one of the pillars hides a secret....

Spare Nose?
What is that bronze looking thing on the side of the column?This pink nose stuck in the grey granite of Admiralty Arch - look inside the arch taking traffic out of The Mall - is said to be a spare for Nelson in Trafalgar Square, or a tribute to the Duke of Wellington, famous for his large nose.Around Soho there are seven noses and it is said that if you spot all of them you will attain infinite wealth. Sculptor Rick Buckley was responsible for many, leaving casts of his nose in 1966.

Royal Artillery Memorial
The horse of war is controlled by the winged figure of peace in this work by William Robert Colton (1867-1921). The pillars list the 1,078 men who died in South Africa and plaques show the artillery in action. Unveiled in 1920 by the Duke of Connaught, using a electronic remote control from a memorial service in St Paul’s Cathedral.

Guards Memorial
This work by Gilbert Ledward commemorates the five Foot Guards regiments of the 1914-1919 war. Cast from captured guns, the figures were modelled on actual Grenadier, Coldstream, Scots, Irish and Welsh guardsmen. Damaged by World War II bombs, Ledward suggested some of the scars should remain unrepaired.


Next time you are in London, why not look out for some of these secret landmarks yourself.


(All descriptions of photographs are taken from the website http://www.secret-london.co.uk/)

Monday 16 May 2011

Review - Classic Brit Awards 2011

The annual Classic Brit Awards are a reflection and celebration of the critical and commercial successes within the classical music industry. For me, it is also an opportunity to see some of the greatest names in the industry perform on stage – for a fraction of what it would cost in an Opera House.




Now in its twelfth year, the awards ceremony itself has evolved not only with its change of name (formerly known as the Classical Brit Awards) but also in the areas of music it covers. Previously this ceremony had been exclusively for classical music and opera – and in fact any album up for consideration for an award had to be at last 60% classical in content – now the category has been expanded to include musical theatre and orchestral music written for soundtracks. The aim being to appeal to a wider section of music fans and hopefully make classical music more accessible.

All Angels



This would probably explain therefore, the high number of what are termed Classical Crossover artists that appeared and performed on the night. They are artists who combine both classical and popular music in their performances and who appeal to a broad cross section of the audience.

Il Divo



Whilst I enjoyed many of the performances on the evening; particularly Alfie Boe & the cast of Les Miserables, Anne-Sophie Mutter and Eric Whitacre and the Eric Whitacre singers, I would have liked to have seen more classical and operatic performers take to the stage. Last year’s awards were heavily dominated by the world of opera with performances from Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Rolando Villazon, Angela Gheorgiu and Bryn Terfel which for me was a dream come true. This year, the programme appeared to be more Crossover and I feel that a more balanced programme between the two genres would have been better received.

Part of the problem within the classical music industry, at least in my opinion, is that the industry itself want to appeal to as broad an audience as possible and thereby sell more albums, but the purists within the industry want to maintain the exclusivity of the classical and operatic genres and see the introduction of crossover artists as effectively dumbing it down. It was interesting to note though, that in the past three years when I have attended, the hall has been completely sold out. This year there were still many seats available in the higher levels. Now whether this is due to the economical climate, or the fact that the awards have changed to appeal to a wider audience is difficult to say, but for me, this year it lacked the splendour and excitement of former years.

That’s not to say that the evening wasn’t enjoyable as I did enjoy it immensely. I arrived in time to see many of the artists arrive on the red carpet and enjoyed watching the reaction of both the crowds and artists as they took to the red carpet. One criticism of this would be that some of the artists didn’t spend time with the fans and yet again, the placement of the Classic Brits backdrop meant that many fans had an obscured view of the artists arriving. What I found interesting is that whilst all eyes were on the red carpet, just behind the crowds were other musicians just walking up and down almost unrecognised. I took the opportunity to talk to my friend, tenor Thomas Spencer Wortley who was attending the awards for the first time. Thomas is relatively new to the music scene but is incredibly talented and with any luck will be nominated in the Best Newcomer category next year. As we chatted we started our own alternative commentary to the arrivals on the red carpet which proved quite entertaining and if the organisers are short of people to interview next year, we’d be more than happy to oblige! I also had the opportunity to meet Gareth Malone, the genius behind projects such as The Choir. Gareth has also attended for the last four years and yet despite his huge success on TV, mingled happily with the crowds and was a delight to talk to being as he is genuinely charming and funny. He and Thomas were sitting on the same table during the awards and I would dearly loved to have joined them for I’m sure the conversation would have been highly amusing all evening.


Alfie Boe arriving at the awards.Photo courtesy of Hilary Sargeant




Gareth Malone & I watching the arrivals on the Red Carpet


My own seat though afforded an excellent view of the stage and the orchestra. There is nothing quite like the sound of a live orchestra and The London Chamber Orchestra under the superb direction of Christopher Warren-Green performed spectacularly. Indeed at times it felt like I was part of the orchestra I was sat so close, and the sound that we experience d was truly spectacular. It was also a thrill to be so close to the stage and to see the emotion and effort that each singer or performer put into their performance. You could see the nerves of some and yet also the excitement and anticipation of others. Thanks to a technical fault following the performance of Alfie Boe and the Les Mis cast we also got to hear their reaction as their mics stayed on and we heard the backstage shouts and squeals of “that was so much fun”, “amazing”, “let’s do it again”. This provided a huge response from the audience who had also clearly enjoyed their medley of songs from the show.

As mentioned before, the highlight for me was Anne-Sophie Mutter’s performance of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons (Winter).She seemed to play so effortlessly and we watched in wonder as her bow seemed to fly over the strings, barely touching them and yet producing such an amazing sound. Eric Whitacre and his singers provided a more calming and almost ethereal performance with their rendition of “Sleep”. They captivated the audience’s attention so that at the end of the performance you could almost hear a pin drop. Alfie Boe and the Les Mis cast were another triumph and received possibly one of the biggest cheers of the evening with their medley of hits from the popular musical. Alfie’s rendition of”Bring Him Home” always manages to bring a tear to my eye and that night was no exception. Their finale in which they sang “One Day More” also gave me goose bumps as their performance really brought out the beauty of the music and the poignancy of the lyrics.

The cast of Les Mis



The final award of the evening was the Outstanding Contribution to Music awarded posthumously to the late John Barry OBE. John was well known for the number of film scores he composed and as a tribute, artists and orchestra performed some of his better known tracks. Katherine Jenkins and Alfie Boe sang the beautiful “Here’s to the Heroes” from Dances with Wolves which was quite fitting and a perfect tribute to the man and his genius.


Katherine Jenkins & Alfie Boe perform Here's to the Heroes




The show ended with the incomparable Dame Shirley Bassey who sang the theme tune to the James Bond film Goldfinger. Judging by the audience reaction as she took to the stage, this was the one they had been waiting for. It seems incredible that this lady doesn’t seem to age and can still belt out the tune with as much power and glamour as she did the first time she sang it. She seemed to enjoy every minute just as much as the audience and it certainly ended the evening on a high note.

Dame Shirley Bassey performing Goldfinger

It seemed to be over all too soon and whilst many of the artists made their way to the after show parties, there was just time for me to catch up with the Spencer-Wortley brothers and get Thomas’s take on how the evening had gone before heading back to the hotel.




It was a wonderful evening and I look forward to next year when hopefully there will be a more balanced mixture between all of the music they are trying to promote and celebrate.

(Thanks to Hilary Sargeant for the photographs)

Monday 2 May 2011

The Wedding, The Birthday and an extra Bank Holiday

Everyone loves a good party and this past weekend in the UK, we have had more than one excuse to celebrate; A Royal Wedding, A Playwrite's Birthday and an extra Bank Holiday - and boy did we ever party!


As billions of people around the world tuned in to watch Prince William marry Kate Middleton, millions also took to the streets in London to see the Royal Procession and to take part in all the celebrations. In some places, special licences were obtained to close streets in order for the residents to hold a street party – something which I remember from the Silver Jubilee and Royal Wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. The scenes shown on TV as thousands of people lined Pall Mall was quite amazing. People from all over the world had come to London to take part in the celebrations and the sea of union jacks all waving madly was really something to behold.



I must confess I did not get caught up in all the excitement as much I thought I would. I did watch the proceedings on TV and thoroughly enjoyed the incredible sights of Westminster Abbey, the beautiful and at times, quite ethereal music from many great British composers and I enjoyed watching the wedding ceremony itself – but at the end of the day, it’s all about an ordinary couple in love starting a life together. Ok, so this ordinary couple are one day set to rule the country and unlike most other newlyweds starting out, their lives will be closely monitored from now on, never being far away from a camera lens but, for them (and us) it was a day of celebration.


 Saturday marked a day that I was more excited to take part in – William Shakespeare’s 447th birthday celebrations in Stratford –Upon – Avon. William Shakespeare was born (and died) 23rd April but this year as his birthday fell upon the Easter Bank Holiday, his birthday celebrations were put on hold for a week.
It seemed that despite his age, or should that be that he died so many years ago, many people were eager to take part in the celebrations of arguably our Nation’s greatest play writers proving that whilst the man may be dead, his work lives on and is still celebrated today.



There was the procession through the town to the church where Shakespeare is buried, featuring many people dressed in traditional Tudor costume but also depicting characters from his plays. There were musicians and singers scattered throughout the town performing music from both Elizabethan and modern times and there were magicians, theatrical performances and Morris dancers – take away the modern shop frontages and at times it felt like you had been transported back in time. There was also a distinct British feel about the celebrations and at times reminded me of the May Fairs we used to go to when I was a child.


The main street and area near the Swan Theatre were decorated with bright yellow shields and banners each representing one of Shakespeare’s plays or characters; it was quite an incredible sight, especially as the union jack bunting was still flying from the previous days celebrations.



The Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) had laid on many free events for families which included craft activities to make your own Elizabethan ruff or theatrical mask, or having a theatrical makeover by a member of their makeup team. There was also a chance to take part in transforming the Swan Room into a giant birthday cake to commemorate the event. Under the direction of the artist Shane Waltener, children were invited to design and make a decoration for the cake. It was an ingenious idea and looked very effective as the decorations were added to the walls of the room.




I particularly enjoyed a short trip on the Sonnet Ferry, a traditional chain boat that crosses the Avon – and supposedly the oldest surviving one in the country. As we crossed the river, a member of the RSC read sonnets to us – ours being “Shall I Compare Thee to a summer’s day, thou art more lovely and more temperate...”




I also enjoyed watching an outdoor production of Shylock V Antonio – The appeal. Set in modern times, Shylock, still in his traditional costume appears with his modern day attorney to have his appeal read against the original judgement made in the play The Merchant of Venice. Part of his argument was based on the fact that the trial had not been fair in that the person claiming to be an attorney (Portia) was not legally qualified at the time of the trial and had undisclosed connections to a friend of Antonio’s and was therefore biased in favour of him. The whole thing was very cleverly written with references to many modern day things such as people having gastric bands or colonic irrigation to help shift that “pound of flesh”. It was highly entertaining and seemed well received by the informal audience that sat around on the grass watching.


It was great to see how people, young and old and from many different countries joined together to celebrate the works of this man. Many people wore sprigs of Rosemary in their buttonholes (“Rosemary for remembrance” as Ophelia says in Hamlet) and I noticed that some of the park area in front of the Swan Theatre had Rosemary growing in it.


It was a wonderful day out and lovely to take part in such a fun day. It is interesting to note in hindsight, that I’ve become more interested in the works of Shakespeare as I’ve grown older. Whilst, unlike many of my classmates I did enjoy studying him at school, I think it’s only since I’ve grown older that I’ve learned to appreciate him more and gain a deeper insight into his work. In contrast, in my childhood I relished the street parties, the flag waving and all the celebrations of Kings and Queens and fairytale romances and whilst I still enjoy the pageantry, it doesn’t have that same magical feel to it.

So, on our last Bank Holiday (well at least for a few weeks) I intend to make the most of the gloriously sunny day and enjoy it whilst it lasts.