However, having seen the trailer, I find that I’ve mellowed somewhat, and am now more open to the movie adaptation, especially as I can see from the narrative that it’s going to explain the story a lot more to people who are newer to the story, which in turn may foster an even greater depth and understanding to the audiences currently packing out the Queens Theatre (and others around the world). Of course, if they don’t stick to the plot per the musical adaptation, there’s going to be hell to pay, and I’ll be screaming red, white and blue murder!

One thing I cannot forgive though – as expected, Anne Hathaway totally shies away from the song! It’s a nice, fluffy, delicate, movie-audience-appealing rendition of it, but nowhere near as brutal and cynical as I really need it to be, or as the song deserves it to be.

I also notice that the Daily Fail (sorry, Mail) are bleating on about how Anne Hathaway should get an Oscar – for fuck’s sake – it’s just a trailer, and, if it stays true to the musical, which it better had(!), she’s barely even in the movie!

It’s actually making my eyes bleed too watching people say things too such as ‘oh wow, they’re singing live and not lip-dubbing’ – welcome to the world of proper musical theatre, luvvies!!

#StageyAndProud! ^_^

(It also goes without saying that I expect nothing less than this for myself, ha!)

On Wednesday, May 23rd, 2012, I told my girlfriend to meet me at my parent’s house for dinner. When she arrived I had stationed my brother to sit her in the back of an open Honda CRV and give her some headphones. He “wanted to play her a song”…

What she got instead was the world’s first Live Lip-Dub Proposal.

Enjoy!

… and not just any old nuns with bazookas… Square Enix  Bazooka Nuns!!! ^_^

I really like Square Enix and many of the games that they put out, and having just seen the “Attack of the Saints” trailer for Hitman: Absolution, I am already salivating over the graphics on this one, which Square Enix always manage to impress me with, if honest!

I won’t pretend to be a hard-core gamer or owt, or even be particularly familiar with the series, however on the strength of this trailer alone, I am suddenly VERY interested and may try to  give the original game a look in, though I note that it suffered poor reviews back in 2007. A lot of the comments already online seem very appreciative of the overhaul that the game appears to have had.

Below follows the post announcing the trailer on the official Square Enix blog:

New Hitman: Absolution “Attack of the Saints” Trailer | SQUARE ENIX.

It’s finally here, our brand new E3 trailer for Hitman: Absolution. “Attack of the Saints” sees Agent 47 holding up in a run-down motel room, treating his wounds. But his whereabouts are discovered and the silent assassin is soon interrupted by “The Saints”. The ICA clearly wants him dead but what happens next is clearly not what they had planned.

Oh, and here’s an awesome shot of what I’m terming as ‘the Bazooka Nuns’ – please note that it is a screen cap, so you can stop hitting the ‘play’ icon on the image now!

Not surprisingly, it’s about two months late (I say not surprisingly, as it took the best part of six months for them to lay a few paving slabs outside our office, causing massive disruption), but I have to tip my hat off to them – the last time I was actually in Leicester Square at the end of January 2012, it looked nothing at all like the pictures below, and in fact was pretty horrific / still a massive building site.

I’m chuft that, by random chance, I am back at HQ tomorrow, so I’ll get to see the shiny new Leicester Square in all its new glory for myself tomorrow, after the Mayor officially opens it this evening.

I’ve decided to keep this review fairly short, as this tour has been running for eons, and finally comes to an end at the end of the Manchester run (though it is moving briefly to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End of London over the summer, I’m told) – plus I’ve seen the show itself so many times that I’ve not got too much to add to my previous thoughts.

When I saw Spamalot in the listings for the Opera House, I umm’d and ahh’d about going to see it, as I wasn’t particularly a fan of the casting, and was worried that what passed for ‘Monty Python’ on the West End / Broadway stage, may have diminished somewhat on the regional circuit – given the comedy of the subject matter, I had the thought that the production would need to have very solid staging to retain credibility, and so, with touring sets often being as they are, I had a few concerns going in to see the production.

All of that said, I was taking Max with me, who had not seen it before - short of the trailer (which I’ve posted below), the night before, at which point his eyes almost popped out of his head, bless him - and knew that regardless, we’d be in for a giggle or two.

Having seen this tank on Broadway (the audience we had just didn’t ‘get’ it, which made it incredibly awkward), I figured that it the touring production must have been doing something right to keep going for so long, and accordingly took the plunge again, to see if Spamalot was still indeed ‘not yet dead’  

However, and it is with a very heavy heart, as I do very much love this show, but unfortunately, I’m branding this touring version as SHAMALOT.

Sorry, but compared to previous versions that I have seen, this tired looking production essentially felt like cheap pantomime. I felt that the production quality was not as I’d hoped, and the once clever and witty script, had gone a bit stale around the edges and in parts simply appealed to the lowest common denominator. It was a fun night out, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve left feeling a bit deflated and having to try to justify it to Max, and this review reflects this.

What I would like to say, however, is that this is in no way a comment on the cast of the show, who you could tell were working very hard to work with what they had. Bonnie Langford was fab, as expected, given the show is geared completely towards showing off her role as the only real singing part, and Marcus Brigstocke was actually much better than I’d been expected, and ultimately provided a sturdy King Arthur. Todd Carty as Patsy was good, if a little debasing, but he has a rather nice singing voice I was pleased to discover, and, as someone who watched Eastenders loads in the glory days, was great to see him again.

I have very mixed thoughts about this regional rewrite that they do on ‘You Won’t Succeed On Broadway’, but it does work, bar the occasionally clunky ad lib, and is by and large very funny. I’d be interested to see how it works in a more regional venue than Manchester, and how clever they are with the cultural references and their research, as I think that’s a good indicator of how much they actually do want to work to please their audience, rather than just go through the usual motions.

The show itself seems to go by ridiculously quickly, we were out by half nine, with a 20-25 minute interval – it was still light when we got out! (fortunately, we also live less than five minutes away, so we were home by 21:40 – which is unheard of). I can’t think of specific examples of scenes that have been cut or drastically modified (other than chunks from some of the songs), but there seemed to be a lot of spam, and not much substance – the story weaved all over the place. Whilst I appreciate that this is part of the charm of the show (as I say, it’s a show I do very much enjoy), tonight it just seemed even more incoherent if I am honest. Max was sat next to me, and is a Monty Python fan, and it was doing his head in during certain places, to be honest. That said, other MP fans around us took great delight in the show, so perhaps I’ve just been spoilt in the past with my luck in seeing this show as many times as I have, and on a bigger/more national stage.

Here is a slightly dated trailer (the tour has been going THAT long) for the touring production – but here’s what you get when you open the can on Spamalot!

Ultimately, this is a good night of fun, as reflected by the audience reaction at tonight’s performance, and yes, I had a good old sing-a-long too.

Additionally, for me, it was a great experience to watch the show without being surrounded by tourists, as the Brits do tend to get the show a lot more I find – but I’d be fibbing if I didn’t mention that a few pockets of people did leave in the interval it would seem, for whatever reason (I should add, it was probably Press Night too, which means these people may / may not have even paid to start with).

If you’re thinking of going, I’d still recommend it, but only as this is currently the only version of this show in the UK, and the opportunity to see the full-blown West End production has now passed.

We went by train, and so had the two-mile walk up a narrow country lane without pavements, to get there – but the scenery around Goosetry is amazing, and very picturesque, so it wasn’t so bad! (We were less a fan of the 55 minute wait for the hourly train home, having just missed it, hehe).

When we got to the recently renovated Discovery Centre (and the new Galaxy Gardens), I have to say, we were pretty disappointed with it – it could be SO much more than it currently is – there needs to be more in the way of explanation, and hands-on stuff, as well as more about what the Centre has accomplished etc. I did like that you could get a current readings print out from the telescope, however, the highlight of the indoor stuff, bizarrely, had to be the cafe, which was selling restaurant quality food we thought – it was absolutely delicious!

That said, the outdoor ‘whispering radar’ things were a lot of fun, and the main reason that we came anyway was to marvel at the fantastic Lovell Telescope, which we were even luck enough to see move and rotate!

A super geeky day out, and one that we both enjoyed!

The Lovell Telescope – Jodrell Bank, Cheshire (12th May 2012) by Gari Davies is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available through
http://garidavies.me.uk/contact-me/.

Just thought that it was time to post something of a personal update to my site, to update folk with how I’m travelling, what I’m up to and whatnot!

Recently, I’ve been to see quite a bit of theatre up here in Manchester, and thus far it’s proved to be fantastic – here are my recent reviews of Phantom, Avenue Q and the brand-new musical StreetZ; the latter being a piece of youth theatre, and something brand new for me!

We’ve also booked in to see a shed load of stuff this year, culminating in UK Tour of The Lion King in December, so it’s going to be a fab year for our theatre-going!

It has been great getting back in to theatre up here, after spending so long in the West End, and I especially look forward to finding more productions out on the fringe circuit as the months go on, and my circle of contacts/friends increases in this area! Having had so much time away, I am very pleased to find that standards in the regions appear to have increased massively, and that theatre productions outside of London should really no longer carry the stigma that they once did!

Speaking of the Arts, I was very recently invited on to Andrew Edwards’ show on Gaydio, The Sunday Forum, to discuss myself, my site and the Arts in both Manchester and London – it was a great experience for me, and you can hear it THIS Sunday, between 07:00 and 09:00 (I’m told my piece will be around 08:40) – and it will be ‘on demand’ on their player later in the week. For more details, please click here – I really hope that folk will have a listen, I am very excited about it!

Max and I recently had our ‘hurrah, we’ve been boyfriends for a year‘ day – which was nice, we went for a yummy meal and everything at Strada! Max is currently on the look out for a new job in Manchester (current temp opportunity is ending due to budget cuts), so all change on that front, but I’m hopeful he will find something that he likes very shortly, and hopefully something more permanent!

Work wise for me, I’m currently having a busy time of things, as ever – I am also gearing up to get ready to work at Wimbledon for the Championships in June-July, which is essentially two solid weeks of 16-18 hour days, very little sleep, and a lot of fun! It is odd, as it is such a lot of time to take out of your life – I’ve said it before, but it is literally like dying for a few weeks – you’ve got to take time to prepare everything before you go, and you’re impossible to contact once it all kicks off – but a few weeks off from being ‘Gari’ is always marvellous, and I very much look forward to this year’s Championships! I will be back in London from June 22 through July 9, though will be working constantly for most days. That said, I do have a few days here and there either side, so if anyone fancies a catch up, gimmie a shout!

Other than all of this, life is just rushing by as quickly as ever, and I’ve got simply no idea where time is going! Before I know it, it’s going to be Christmas! (228 days to go, don’tcha know? ). That said, I’d much rather be in a whirlwind than bored out of my mind, so there are no complaints from my end; long may I remain busy/occupied, and I remain resolute/thrilled with my decision to move back to Manchester from London!

Hope that everyone reading is well, and thanks for taking an interest!

Gx

Having said all that, there’s not that much more that I can add from my West End review from several years ago – when the show closed, they have clearly recognised that they didn’t need to do anything at all, other than to put everything in a van, and cart themselves around the country – nothing has been messed with, and for that I commend them – this production is still as fresh and brilliant as the day it opened in London back in 2006!!

It was my first time seeing a show at the Lowry (previously, I’ve only seen concerts in the Lyric theatre), and I thought that the venue was one of the best that I’ve been in for theatre! A nice wide stage front, very comfortable seating, and no restricted view, even from the side stalls – very much like that this is now being used more as a touring theatre venue than it was when I was last on the Manchester theatre scene (six years ago, before moving to the West End, and now back!).

It always seems to fall on me to take someone’s Q ‘virginity’ and this evening was no different – it was Max’s first exposure to it. I was looking forward to his reaction most of all the people who I’ve taken to see the show – as he can be quite proper at times, bless him haha! Needless to say, he absolutely LOVED it too – I’ve not heard him laugh so hard in ages, ha!

Luke Striffler

Cast wise, we had a few of the understudies, who were amazing, and, having flicked through the cast list, are more similar to the casting that I am used to with this show, to be honest, than the principles! The GORGEOUS Luke Striffler was on as Princeton / Rod, and, when not admiring him in his tight outfit which left very little to the imagination, (ha!), I have to say that he actually delivered what has to have been my favourite Princeton / Rod performance of all the productions that I have seen! Kayi Ushe similarly turned in an excellent performance as Gary Coleman, and in short was flawless!

It was also great to see that Edward Judge – who I recognised instantly from my previous obsession with Spring Awakening, was in the Company as Brian, and I absolutely loved Julie Yammanee as Christmas Eve (especially when she came to sit next to me and kept elbowing me for money, heh)! Katharine Moraz excelled as Kate Monster / Lucy The Slut, and gave a performance equivocal to that of West End legend Julie Atherton, in my humble opinion!

The performance on Wednesday night was also the ‘signed’ performance, for those hard of hearing – and I have to say, I actually don’t know what was more entertaining – watching the actors on stage, or watching the awesome interpreter, and all the lewd gestures that he had to make to convey the action… it actually added an extra layer of awesomeness to the production, ha!! Needless to say, I’ve now learned A LOT in sign language, that I perhaps would not have learnt anywhere else!! The Internet Is For Porn was ESPECIALLY educational, and the line ‘honking me horn’ was, well, as you’d expect, haha!

It’s taken 18 long, hard, months for me to get the Q songs properly out of my head, and now all that work and trauma has been undone in one fantastic, and fun-filled night – and the worst thing is, I can’t even hate anyone for it, as the songs are SO fab!! heh. If you hear me singing ‘fuck you lady, that’s what stairs are for’ whenever you’re in the lift with me (or have been running for it), then totally don’t judge me, #stagey is an illness…! hehe.

Avenue Q, may you continue to tour for several years before ending up back in the West End, which sorely needs you – you’re still in my top five babbeh!

If you have Spotify, you can listen to the OBC Recording directly from here – just hit play!

L-O-V-E. That’s all it boils down to.

A four letter word.

L-O-V-E.

It has been said that sharing personal stories is one of the most effective ways to change people’s hearts and minds. This is my story and I hope you are inspired to share it with others.

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GHOST! 

This cover by the equally fabulous Mark Evans, and Siobhan Dillon, of Goyte’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” is not only vocally terrific but it’s certainly lifted my spirits!! (both puns intended, phwoar! haha).

If you’re at work, I suggest minimising the screen – unless you work somewhere fun, like a theatre, or a bakery, or somewhere more fun and less stuffy than with fellow accounting people, haha!!

ENJOY!!

(MASSIVE props to the creative team behind the vid – thinking outside of the box / making musical theatre ‘sexy’ again – whoot whoot! #stagey)

– and yes, I know I am like a week late to the party, I had an internet holiday last week, lost my screen glow tan and everything!!