“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” at the Ambassadors Theatre – 26/07/25

Posted on July 28, 2025 by katese11

It seems that I have once more been the victim of Facebook advertising. Sooner or later I need to admit that it is *me* that is the problem, not Facebook. No one is forcing me to buy these tickets. All of which makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy Benjamin Button but I did. In a “stab to the heart” way, as VK described it. But I am aware that I probably shouldn’t book for every show that Facebook aggressively markets to me otherwise we’ll be living off nothing but Judes ice cream for the rest of our day.

So yes, all the “limited time”, “best new musical” stuff drew me in but also I saw some clips of the show and enjoyed the band-on-stage energy, which reminded me of “Hadestown”. Although they are very different in location and theme…but some of the “Hadestown” Orpheus numbers have a very Celtic feel and “Button” is much the same. It’s set in a Cornish fishing village and is a whimsical take on an age-old tale. It’s only when researching for this post that I realised that tale has the same author as “Gatsby”. I must tell VK.

But first, pizza.

For once, VK wanted something other than Five Guys for pre-theatre lunch. So we went to Pizza Express St Martin’s Lane for hot honey dough balls, garlic bread and BBQ Chicken pizza with vegan cheese for me. The pizza was better than normal vegan pizzas but not as good as a normal pizza, if that helps. I wonder why I never got into food blogging?

The theatre was only a few minutes’ walk away so we were in plenty of time, especially as we were in the Stalls and didn’t have a million stairs to climb like we usually do. On the steps down, there were some atmospheric fishing nets, with philosophical messages on them:

I’ve read this a few times and am still not sure whether it says “downs or clowns”. Both work, I guess. There were also newspaper front pages on the walls, which contained some spoilers for the plot. I won’t give anything away but I think I’m OK with this one:

In case you don’t know the story, the main character – Benjamin Button – is born as an old man and slowly ages backward throughout his life. I didn’t know how they were going to do this with just one actor (John Dagleish) but a combination of costume and body language took him from 70 to around 20 before the narrative is taken over by the ensemble. I was wondering throughout what the ideal age would be for an actor to cover this age range and it turns out he’s exactly the same age as me, down to the month of birth. Good to know I could play a 70-year-old if needed.

(Incidentally, if I get anyone’s name wrong you can blame the programme layout. While the childhood pictures of the cast are extremely cute, they are not the most helpful for matching characters to faces…!)

The idea of living life backwards is a compelling one and, at the start of the play, is handled more seriously than other adaptations of this story. Benjamin’s mother (Philippa Hogg) is devastated by the birth and sings a haunting refrain about the Kraken – one of the many oceanic themes pulled through the show. It all ends tragically, which is the first heart-wrenching moment of the show but there are many. Offsetting this tragedy though, are the musical numbers before and after her song. Just before the birth, we follow Roger Button (played by Damien James yesterday) as he walks through the village and greets the locals. Characters such as Little Millie Dyer and her gnome Gerald, Mr Gladstone and Mrs. Gladstone’s sister, drunken Miss Maureen Moncrief and many others appear as the ensemble introduce them and their various quirks. So the emotional impact of this unexpected man-child is all the more powerful for having come right after such a comical opener. But then just after “Kraken’s Lullaby” comes “A Little Life” where the now-59 Benjamin decides to escape from his attic room and get a taste for beer.

I explained all this in detail because it really sums up what the show is like – it swings from comedy to tragedy and back again with heartstopping regularity. There is a lot of joy in the show but the core concept is what VK described as “the psychological horror of knowing when you will die”. Still, Benjamin never dwells on this too much and instead sets about courting barmaid Elowen (Clare Foster).

Watching this show does involve a fair amount of mental arithmetic to try and work out how old the characters are meant to be at any one time. VK was particularly concerned with the problem of whether Elowen and Benjamin’s relationship was “age gap” or not. I eventually made her a spreadsheet to illustrate the years where it did and did not pass the “age of creepiness” test. It’s complex.

The lyrics really lean into this playing with numbers tho, with lyrics like “Benjamin Button requested just beer on precisely two hundred and four occasions” and “At precisely seventeen minutes past 8 p.m. on the 17th of December, 1918, Roger Button raised his hand and knocked loudly on the midwife’s door”. So it’s definitely one for all you maths fans out there. When I say “lyrics”, these were actually spoken over music. It’s hard to explain but with 70 years of life to cover, there was a lot of narrative and so a lot of the songs had these spoken interludes as well as traditionally-sung pieces. And when I say “music”, it is incredible. The cast all play instruments as well as characters so are narrating and acting while playing violins, cellos, trumpets, accordions and many, many more. How you can spin and sing while playing violin I don’t know but there are some seriously talented people on this stage.

I won’t name the whole ensemble as I’m bound to miss someone out but it is one of the best ensembles I’ve seen – they slip in and out of roles mid-song with amazing fluidity and sometimes quite unexpectedly. Nuwan Hugh Perera, for example, played Mrs Gladstone’s sister, in the show we saw and VK recognised him from “Ballet Shoes”. But you might have expected him to be Mr Gladstone, who was actually played by Oonagh Cox.

So there’s a lot of scenes that are played for laughs and some really heartwarmingly happy moments too, especially when Elowen and Benjamin finally reach the period of time when they’re both around the same age. They first get together, romantically speaking, on the eve of D-Day and they’re pretty similar ages until the late 1950s. But as the poignant song in the “Sandcastles” scene tells us, ” the tide is coming in”. This song is towards the start of the second half and it foreshadows the darker days to come.

I won’t spoiler the plot of the second act but it is a classic “Third Coconut” where things get really bad for the main characters before reaching some kind of resolution towards the end. VK says that it’s the bit with the teddy bear that really broke her and I can see why. She was in tears from pretty much then on and I wasn’t often far behind. She’s right when she says that the whole story is tragic and the end, while beautiful, was also painfully sad. Sandcastles as a recurring metaphor play a part in this last song and that’s the bit that really made me sob. Don’t go and see this show if you’re feeling fragile…or do if you want to have a good cry and not have anyone around you judging.

Maybe VK and I are just easy criers but wow, it packed a punch. The message of the show, though, was to make the most of the time you have. The opener says that “Time and Tide wait for no man” and if you need the key motifs of the show, they are right there. Time and Tide. Both ebbing and flowing.

Did we enjoy it? Yes, I did anyway. VK said afterwards “it was an amazing but if it had been less amazing, I’d be happier right now”. So whether that means she enjoyed it or whether she’s mad at me for putting her through such emotional turmoil, who knows? But that’s pretty typical teenagers, right? I bought her some green hair and a strawberry frappe (not to be consumed together) and that seemed to take the edge off.

The show is only on for a limited time, so if you do need to feel uplifted, entertained, wowed and also gut punched, it’s worth a visit. For tickets and more info, click here.

No disclaimer needed as I paid for this one. All opinions remain honest and my own.

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“Hercules” at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane – 18/07/25

Posted on July 19, 2025 by katese11

Ah, Theatre Royal Drury Lane we meet again! You of the beautiful staircases and the name which makes for awkwardly long post titles? And where better to stage a Grecian epic than in somewhere with this carpet?

So it’s a suitably grand setting for a trip to Olympus and you certainly do feel like you’re climbing a mountain if your seats are in Row K of the balcony. But yknow, theatre is an expensive habit so we’ve gotta keep it affordable where we can. The view was decent, although we missed a few things that happened right at the back of the stage and we couldn’t see the backdrop at all:

I try not to read too many reviews of show before we see them but it was a bit unavoidable with such a high-profile opening and some surprisingly negative takes. I will say off the bat that I don’t agree with the negativity I’ve heard. It’s never going to be the most profound analysis of Greek mythology as it’s a Disney production – the aim is to be fun and entertaining and have songs that you go home humming.

And this play delivers on all fronts. It might help that I’m not overly familiar with the film, so some of the changes they made to the characters didn’t bother me too much. I know the soundtrack well, from the well-worn Disney compilations we used to play in the car, but my kids are the wrong generation to have watched this one obsessively. So yes, Pain and Panic are now inexplicably Bob and Charles and the old Satyr Phil is neither old nor a Satyr, despite the script repeatedly makes jokes about his age. We weren’t seeing Trevor Dion Nicholas but his role was ably filled by Ope Sowande. I feel like VK might make us revisit at some point because she does like to obsessively follow Hadestown alumni around London and it would be interesting to see if the bass vocals make the character seem older.

So a few bits there that might upset purists but I would challenge even the most sceptical reviewer to remain unthrilled by the booming prologue, the swirling cosmos effect and the glorious Mount Olympus staging. And that’s all before the Muses turn up who do, as many have noted, steal the show somewhat. I mean, they are incredible in visuals and vocals, with their nine different costumes and their complex harmonies. They cut right through the solemnity of Ancient Greece with attitude and energy and the audience loved them. If I had one criticism to make of this production, it would be that there are no gaps for applause. Every time the Muses appeared, there were people in the audience cheering and occasionally that meant we lost the first line of whatever was happening next. Now that the production has been running for a while, I’d imagine the director has a good sense of where these gaps need to be so maybe a few pauses would be helpful. The same thing happened at the start of some of the better-known songs but I realise it would be difficult to pause the show there.

I realise I didn’t tell you who the Muses are, so here you go – Candace Furbert as Thalia, Sharlene Hector as Clio, Brianna Ogunbawo as Melpomene, Malinda Parris as Calliope and Robyn Rose-Li as Terpischore. It would be hard to single one out for praise above the others as their power is as a group, in the way that they move and sing as one. But every Muse was fabulous and I hope they know that.

Of course I need to also talk about the title character, who was played by Luke Brady. We’ve seen him before in “The Prince of Egypt” so we knew he could carry a show. His Hercules is naïve, trusting and, as the song says, “the nicest guy”. He has a clear and powerful singing voice, which is best displayed in “Go the Distance”. It reached right to us in the back corner and his portrayal is very sympathetic. There’s not huge amounts of character development in the plot but he does the role very well. Mae Ann Jorolan as Meg has a lot more to work with and she portrays the light and shade in that character with finesse. You can see that she’s constantly conflicted, especially when she’s singing the iconic “I Won’t Say (I’m in Love)”. The costume choices for both Hercules and Meg are interesting and I don’t need to retread the same ground as other reviewers re that string vest but Meg’s costume worked for her character, even if it wasn’t as Grecian as some of the others. Hera, for example, had a very classical look but Meg was a lot more contemporary. Did I mention that VK had chosen the classic Disney Meg look for her theatre outfit?

While we’re on Hercules and Meg, I should mention the almost-duet “Forget About It” which I believe is a song written for the stage show as opposed to the film. In this, Meg complains about heroes who rescue women even if they don’t want to be rescued…and Hercules cuts through her complaints and takes the spotlight with his own whimsical musings about love. It works well to illustrate the difference between their characters and is a great comedy moment.

Talking of comedy, we need to discuss Stephen Carlile’s Hades, who I think has been unfairly maligned by reviewers for not being as scary as the film version. In his own words “why am I being made the bad guy just because I’m the bad guy?”. It is hard to recreate the terror of Disney villains in real life so, rightly, this production doesn’t attempt that and instead goes for campy evil. Which we are totally here for. This Hades is iconic, with the most amazing red coat and a great line in banter. When it comes to the final showdown between Hades and Zeus, I was kinda rooting for Hades. Some of the one-liners hit better than others – there is a bit of a “Dad jokes” vibe sometimes – but I really enjoyed this interpretation. Again, it would have been interesting to see Trevor Dion Nicholas encountering Hades when he was a Hades himself but it’s only a fleeting moment that Phil and Hades share the stage anyway. It is a very different character to the versions in either Hadestown or Kaos but all are equally valid. That’s the great thing about mythology – it can be interpreted in many different ways. It’s not like anyone in the audience knew Hades personally and can confirm whether or not he enjoyed a Dad joke.

Bob and Charles (Craig Gallivan and Lee Zarrett) also loved a gag – VK’s favourite was “I sleep with one arm under the pillow….it’s not my arm”. They might be different to their film versions but they are reliable comic relief and have great delivery of their lines. The whole show is full of humour – I did tell you this wasn’t going to be overly profound, didn’t I? But there is also heart and a bit of drama, albeit in a not-too-scary-for-the-littlies way.

And the staging is amazing. There are so many bits that happen inexplicably, like the moving columns. We discussed it in the interval and figured that they must be controlled from above but it’s seamless from an audience point of view. The sets and props are beautifully detailed – amphora vases shatter and logs break without the joins ever being visible. The “souls” effect in the underworld is also impressive and there is good use of the trapdoors in the stage that allow the Muses to appear and disappear magically. It has the feel of a very expensive production, with the Disney millions on display, especially during the finale when everyone on the stage has a shiny gold version of their costume. Whether it’s style over substance? Well, a little bit. But this matters not when it’s such an enjoyable experience.

So my conclusion would be that you need to leave your nitpicks at the door and accept that this is an interpretation of an interpretation of a myth. People who obsessively love the film may find things to criticse but there is also so much to love. It’s big and brash and gets very loud in parts but if you’re looking for quiet, reflective theatre you probably would not have booked this. It’s recommended for ages 6+ and that feels about right. There’s nothing too scary for small kids and the occasional adult joke will go right over their heads.

No West End night feels properly complete without a bit of time hanging around the street afterwards and it was a pleasant night to do so. From where we were standing, we could see the “Operation Mincemeat” stage door, where VK and I spent a much rainier evening recently. But it was warm and dry and we got to meet most of the main cast, which was a real treat. VK got her picture with Meg:

And four of the five Muses (but we got the programme signed by all five, plus Hades, Phil and Despina):

VK’s old-man back was causing her jip so we gave up before Luke Brady came out but, as ever, the actors were incredibly lovely and it was a real pleasure to meet them and be able to tell them how much we enjoyed it. We are very lucky to be able to do this so often but it makes the kids very happy. Thank you, “Hercules” cast. You are, quite literally, legends.

No disclaimer needed as I paid for this one but all opinions remain honest and my own. For tickets and more info, click here

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Summer in the City

Posted on July 16, 2025 by katese11

I mean, not the City as in the Square Mile. That’s not a great place to spend any swelteringly hot days unless you’re inside an airconditioned office. Although I did see an exciting Superman-themed pop up booth outside Liverpool Street a few days back:

So what have we been up to while it’s been so ridiculously warm? Well, last weekend Reuben and I went to the open air pool at Oasis Leisure Centre for the first time since 2012. It was crowded but just about the perfect place to be when it’s 30c. There’s a sun terrace, which is only for the 16+ customers….Roo was about to turn back when he saw the sign before remembering that he was, in fact, 16. And the pool itself is gloriously cool. There’s also a little garden area and a sauna, not that we needed it that day.

Last time we went, we had a buggy and ended up changing in the disabled loo. This time I went to the very spacious ladies’ changing, which was a vast improvement. The lockers swallow coins but you can buy them from a vending machine in the reception area for 30p each (cash and card both accepted I think). A much smoother experience than doing the same trip with a newborn and a toddler. Funny that.

I obviously didn’t take any photos at the pool itself but here’s a Liptonice-themed bus we spotted at Spitalfields market afterwards:

Another refreshing find was a little beach in Docklands when I had a rare day without the kids. It wasn’t marked or anything but other people were paddling, along with an exuberant German Shepherd and some ducks. So I had a little paddle too. It’s near the cable car dock, in between Royal Victoria and West Silvertown. There are also some food trucks near the dock and I had a very tasty but messy Afghan chicken wrap. Luckily there was a handy Tesco so I could buy some wet wipes before even tackling it.

When I got back to HP, we had time for a cheeky Tiki at the Hulali Tiki Shack on our road before picking VK up. It’s not the only one we’ve had recently but it was very much needed after trekking around Docklands in the sun:

If you’re wondering why I was quite so footcooled and fancyfree, the answer is theatre. VK was at a Saturday rehearsal for her drama club show and Reuben was in some woods near Chesham, on a residential weekend with “Drama in the Woods”. He camped out for two nights, eating smores and being creative before taking part in a performance on the Sunday evening when the parents arrived for collection. It was co-run with friends of the blog Chickenshed so I recognised some of the leaders from various productions we’ve seen over the years and it was a lovely, inclusive group by all accounts. Naturally VK wants to go next year (it was for ages 14-17) – as she said “going feral and creating drama in the woods….what more could you want?”

Talking of friends of the blog, there’s something else I did recently that was both fun and “appropriately sad”. It was an event at Ivy House to celebrate the life of Becky, from Beanstalk Arts. She of the crazy bird puppets and the Britpop toddler discos. We gathered to play ukuleles, sing, shake shakers, hug, laugh and cry. A very fitting tribute to a lovely lady who left us way too soon. Our LWAT thoughts are with her family.

A sad note to end on but, as Becky herself said, appropriate. This post was about various warm weather activities and nothing was warmer than the love in that room. Rest well, slightly mad Becky.

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“As You Like It” by East London Shakespeare Festival – 20/06/25

Posted on June 22, 2025 by katese11

Hooray! It is officially summer and you know that it’s official because ELSF are out in parks causing Bard-themed mayhem. For various complicated reasons, we weren’t able to go to the Highams Park dates this year so we decided to go to the Friday evening at Lloyd Park. And we weren’t only there to see the show – VK was effectively their support act, performing a monologue from the Scottish Play as a prelude to the main event. She’s part of their youth theatre, so it’s lovely of ELSF to find a way to include some of the students without having too many extra rehearsals (cause yknow, this kid is also in two other shows right now…there’s a lot of drama going on. Just to make a change)

Anyway, happy to say that she did very well, even if it wasn’t entirely clear when she’d finished her speech, But eventually she got a rapturous round of applause and settled down to enjoy the actual show with the rest of us.

Because she needed to be there early to rehearse, we had the opportunity to wander round Lloyd Park a bit. VK deemed it “all very whimsical”, even tho the water seems to be covered with algae. We bought chips for dinner from Five Star fish bar and them on a bench near the William Morris Gallery, which again was deemed whimsical:

We had raised our game in terms of seating this year and brought enough camping chairs for the four of us. They all fit in my shopping trolley, just about, but it definitely helped that Nathan gave us a lift. He dropped VK and I off and then he and Roo walked back down later. The thought of finding parking anywhere near Lloyd Park seemed a bit daunting so this was the most logical solution. And the outcome was that we got a row of four camping chairs, halfway back, and could enjoy the show in comfort. To be blunt, I had buggered up my knee earlier that day so comfort was pretty high on the agenda.

It was also pretty much perfect weather for outdoor Shakespeare. I know! After the sunburn of 2022, the storms of 2023 and the will-it-won’t-it of 2024, we finally had a show that was unambiguously perfect. Warm but not too hot, sun just dipping down behind the trees so there wasn’t too much glare (after the first few minutes) and no rain. Long may this continue!

credit: @marbleandskyphotography

So, onto the show itself. And after a few years of this there are some familiar faces. I’m pretty sure we saw Emilia Harrild as Juliet in the aforementioned storm of 2023. And Ursula Early is VK’s drama teacher so she’s a very familiar face but we’ve also seen her as the Nurse in 2023, Beatrice in 2024 and Olivia in 2022. Here they revive their nurse/Juliet dynamic as Rosalind and Celia although Rosalind is a very different character to Juliet and has a lot more agency over her life. If only Juliet had donned a flat cap and run away to the forest, her life might have turned out very differently.

The rest of the cast were – I think – new for 2025 although I’m prepared to be corrected on that. And it was the first time we’d seen a production with the community cast so that added an extra dynamic as well. As ever, there was something of a contemporary feel to the show, with added asides from the cast and some very modern tunes. I like to think that ELSF are slowly creeping forward in time – the first show we saw (“Twelfth Night”) was very 80s, “Romeo and Juliet” had a 90s kinda feel and this latest production had some songs from the noughties. Along with the emo-esque black and white stripes it felt like it could have been set around 2007. Which begs the question, which era do they go to for next year’s production? Is there any recognisable 2010s culture that could enhance a bit of the Bard? And the year after that, are they going to have caught up with themselves?

credit: @marbleandskyphotography

In this version, Rosalind is bit of an It Girl, being papped on the carpet and appearing in perfume ads. Orlando (Luke Martin) has the Walthamstow uniform of striped t-shirt and fedora. Charles the wrestler is gender-swapped to be Charlie (Blossom Timothy) and Touchstone (Ethan Dillon) is a hipster in shades and manbun, stealing nachos from an unsuspecting audience member during the speech about pancakes. With a smallish cast, there is obviously a lot of doubling up on roles so Blossom Timothy also plays shepherdess Phoebe and the singing role of Amiens. Ethan Dillon is the banished Duke Senior and Ursula plays servant Adam and country girl Audrey as well as Celia. Completing the cast are George Prové as Jaques, Duke Frederick and Corin, Charlie Jennings as Oliver and Silvius and apprentice actor Peggy Barnes as Le Beau, William and Jaques de Boys. Yes, there are two characters called Jaques in this play. I’m not saying Will was running short of inspo when it came to the cast list but he didn’t have the Mumsnet baby name forum to resort to when he was struggling. Oh, and a lot of the cast also play goats, which Nathan found hilarious, especially Kevin. They might be sheep now I think about it. Whatever they were, Kevin was a real scene stealer.

credit: @marbleandskyphotography

There are probably bits of this play that feels very familiar – when Jaques the First spits out the “Seven Ages of Man” speech, it’s a classic bit of Shakespeare that has little relevance to the plot but heaps of poetic symbolism. But some other parts of the play might feel less well-known – even Shakespeare himself might not remember every single sub-plot he included. I often think of “As You Like It” as the play that tries to go one better than all the others. Where “Midsummer Night’s Dream” has a triple wedding, this one concludes with a quadruple wedding. There’s so much plot needed to facilitate the ending that some of the relationships – Celia and Oliver, for example – get skimmed over very quickly in the script. It’s a credit to ELSF that they manage to cover all this ground in a version that’s just under two hours including an interval. It was pacey but didn’t feel overly rushed, at least no more than it does reading the original (“no sooner met but they look’d; no sooner look’d but they lov’d”…ah, if only life was that easy!)

The other way in which “As You Like It” tries to best MSND is with the gender swapping. Where MSND would have had a boy playing a girl playing a boy for Flute/Thisbe, here they’d have had a boy playing a girl pretending to be a boy pretending to be a girl. And this being Shakespeare, everyone is taken in. Anyway, I swore I’d stop nitpicking 400-year-old plays and I clearly haven’t so I’ll move on.

credit: @marbleandskyphotography

What I love about the ELSF productions is the pure mayhem of them. Even as characters are delivering Shakespeare’s lines at the front, other characters are walking away in a sulk muttering to themselves or distracting the audience by trying to eat their snacks (Kevin!). The characters use the space not only at the front, back and sides but also, on occasions, through the audience. Once again, an audience member was pressed into service to conduct a wedding and he looked suitably bemused. This is accessible Shakespeare – made relevant to a modern audience yet still retaining much of the original poetic language. Dance routines abound and the songs are sung heartily. As well as carrying the main weight of the plot, Emilia Harrild also added some cello to one of the numbers (who knew that was such a portable instrument?).

credit: @marbleandskyphotography

There are puppets and physical altercations and some beautiful visual effects, like this outfit of Jacques:

credit: @marbleandskyphotography

So even for the younger ones who might not pick up all the nuances of the different romances played by the same people in different hats (“Mincemeatcore”), there is always something to look at and always fun to be had. I think that’s true of all of the ELSF productions we’ve seen so far, even the one that was both a tragedy and extremely rainy. There’s just always something joyful about watching people who really love the material and aren’t afraid to play around with it a little.

There are some moments of intensity as well, such as when Duke Francis threatens Rosalind and this is played straight for maximum drama. But by the next scene, we’re hanging with the chill dudes of Arden and all is well again. Overall, this is one of the lighter plays but that’s perfect for the setting -I’m not sure how “Titus Andronicus” would work over an M&S picnic hamper. It is constantly entertaining and feels very swift on its feet. There is also a bar, which probably helps the audience to loosen up and enjoy the show. Lloyd Park also had toilets open at the café, which probably helped with the after effects of the bar.

I always recommend ELSF shows, even when they don’t feature my child, and I have no hesitation in recommending this one to you all too. It’s affordable, friendly and local (all of these things are huge pluses when your theatre kids are demanding shows on a weekly basis). This year there are more venues than ever and they’re exploring South-East London and North London as well as just the usual E postcodes. There is a full list here, along with all the info you might need. I can only hope the weather is as perfect for you as it was for us.

No need for a disclaimer as I paid for tickets but all opinions remain honest and my own.

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“Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief” at the Other Palace Theatre – 14/06/25

Posted on June 15, 2025 by katese11

I know, another day, another theatre review. This one was originally intended to be in July, after Roo’s exams had finished and as part of a Greek mythological double-bill with “Hercules”. But sadly, “Percy Jackson” changed its closing date so we had to go as late as we could while not missing the run entirely. With one exam to go, Roo said he reckoned he had enough spare time to take in a show…so that’s how we ended up seeing it on the penultimate day of the run. But it’s going on tour, so hopefully this is not a completely pointless review…just don’t turn up in Victoria expecting to see it.

That being said, let me tell you about a nice spot we found in Victoria. I remember the Cardinal Place shopping centre opening around 2004 and it was a fairly small and unremarkable spot. Now it seems to have its own tube entrance, which seems quite newly-opened. And when I say new, I really mean any time in the last decade or so:

The shopping centre also has a giant countdown to tomorrow in the middle, which I think is supposed to encourage you to make the most of the time you have (e.g. “Ten hours till tomorrow! You could drive to Aberdeen!”). I found it kinda unsettling, as it suggests that something bad is happening tomorrow and the best thing we could do would be to drive to the north of Scotland to avoid it. But we didn’t. We just went to the theatre instead.

First though, the nice spot I was talking about – the roof garden just above the ominous countdown. It’s right outside Five Guys, which would have been handy if we hadn’t just been to Pizza Express. But it was a very pleasant place to spend a kill a bit of time in. We sat in the shade, at the tables and chairs but there were full-on sun loungers as well.

And it was super handy for the theatre, which was just a few minutes’ walk away. It’s a modern building so a bit more accessible and well-planned than some of the historical places we’ve been to lately. It might not have the same charm as some of the older ones but the seats are more comfortable and the toilets are mercifully bigger. One day, I’ll do a full-on comparison between different West End theatres based on seat comfort and toilet availability. I certainly have plenty of data.

We also had surprisingly decent seats for once – I think we might have been upgraded when we got the date changed. We were in rows C and D so very close to the front, which was occasionally unnerving when the cast looked us right in the end. I think most seats would have a decent view though, because that’s the joy of well-planned modern theatres.

If you’re not familiar with the “Percy Jackson” series, here’s the basics – a boy discovers he’s part of a magical world and leaves his home to join her magical contemporaries. Yes, I realise this could reasonably describe a few different franchises but this version has a minotaur in it. And a cerberus, which always appeals to me. What could be better than a doggo with triple the heads to pet?

It has been made into a film franchise, which the kids have seen, and a TV show, which they’ve just started watching today. So would it work as a musical? Roo reckoned it did, as Percy often has an internal monologue and what is the next natural step other than putting those monologues to music?

Morgan Gregory plays the eponymous hero and he’s convincing as both an American and a teenager, despite being neither of those. He bears more than a slight resemblance to Tom Holland – which really helps with the high-school-to-hero trope – but at times he also reminded me of a young Hugh Dennis. His singing voice is powerful and he has the right kind of nervous energy for a troubled teen with ADHD. VK, as ever, was pleased to see more neurodivergent representation on stage (tho she said there was plenty of it in “Mincemeat” as well). Angus Benstead is suitably nerdy and skittish as Grover, while also exuding loyalty, and Lizzy-Rose Esin-Kelly as Annabeth is “true to the books” according to Roo, which is high praise indeed. She has a beautiful singing voice and some of my favourite moments where when she was harmonising with Kenedy Small (Clarisse).

There is some multi-roleing going on, although nowhere near as frantically as in “Mincemeat”. The actor for Luke (Xander Pang) also plays Ares and Vicki Lee Taylor as Percy’s mum Sally turns up in several other roles as well. I think there were twelve cast members in total, so a full cast compared to some others we’ve seen lately, and I’m not sure whether this is the same cast who’ll be going on tour or not.

The opening number sets out the whole premise of the story – that the children of Greek gods have issues. I don’t think anyone could argue with that. But it introduces Percy and Grover, along with their professor (Jazz Evans as Mr Brunner), who seems strangely well informed about Greek mythology. And then there’s the maths teacher, who seems even more strangely obsessed with Kronos. There’s a battle and suddenly Percy’s life is turned upside-down as he discovers his halfblood heritage and is whipped off to camp, fighting a minotaur along the way. We meet the manic Mr D (Joshua Lay), who is not living his life despite being the god of wine and good times as far as I recall.

I wasn’t sure how they would do the minotaur and it was a little conceptual but full marks for scale and the glowing red eyes. I should probably mention that there is quite some peril in this show, and it starts with a loud bang. The age rating is 8+ but even the teens jumped at that. Other effects included what appears to be real fire on stage and, towards the end, an ocean moment where the front few rows – including us – get sprayed with foam. Immersive theatre for sure.

The plot is changed a little in terms of the order of events and there are a few bits skimmed over but that’s perfectly reasonable to fit the book into a 2-hour show. “Capture the Flag” in the first half is a gritty highlight, as the campers attack each other in a seemingly sporting way and the first half finishes just as Annabeth, Percy and Grover set out on their quest.

At the interval, there was some confusion because the ice cream queue was right next to the door to the toilets and no-one seemed to know where to stand. But the ice cream selection was the familiar Judes and I went for mango sorbet this time. Nathan and VK both went for vegan salted caramel, which was a leftfield choice for people who aren’t dairyfree, and Roo went for vanilla. We ate in the lobby, enjoying the rare sight of interval daylight and also this spectacular staircase.

This might be a good time to say that Reuben might also be a halfblood of some kind because he does seem to be able to shoot rainbows out of his hands. Maybe that’s a power that’s only activated during the month of June.

The second half was packed with more gods, all of whom VK describes as “iconic”. Medusa also makes an appearance, who I believe my child described as a “girlboss” in a recent school assignment. The gods in this version are styled after rock stars, which fits with the rock-influenced soundtrack. Poseidon is a chill surfer dude – very different from his “Kaos” persona – and Kronos appears only as a booming voice in a pit. There is a twist at the end, which is signposted quite heavily from the Kronos scene but most people in the audience seem to be fans of the franchise already so I don’t think spoilers were a massive issue. When I say fans, I’m just judging by the sheer number of bright orange “Camp Halfblood” t-shirts on display. So I think the twist is supposed to be a surprise to the characters rather than to us as the audience. Around that same scene, the Thalia story is told and it’s done quite beautifully, with the image of a tree projected onto the character of Thalia. Was VK crying at this point? IDK. Probably.

As far as I remember, there isn’t too much deviation from the book and the songs move the plot along rather than adding unnecessary interludes. For example, one song takes the trio across America on their journey in true Muppet fashion. We ideally needed a map with a little picture of a car, but we got something close to that. I know it seems like every film is becoming a musical now but this story seems to fit the form well. You already need a fairly big suspension of disbelief at parts of the plot (Like how did Percy never notice Grover’s goat legs?) so it’s not much of a stretch for the characters to be bursting into song every now and then. Both of the kids have read the books and both enjoyed the show so I think it will please loyalists. And now fans outside London will have a chance to see it too! For more information on that, click here.

So an enjoyable afternoon out. It was possibly pitched a little younger than some of the shows we’ve seen lately but plenty for the teens to appreciate, especially as the characters are around their age. Hopefully Roo doesn’t have to fight a minotaur on his way into GCSE Physics tomorrow tho…

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“Operation Mincemeat” at the Fortune Theatre – 13/06/25

Posted on June 14, 2025 by katese11

You’ll never guess what VK and I did last night….that’s right, yet more theatre. And there is more to come this weekend. “Op Mincemeat” was a bit of a last-minute plan as a friend got one of the lottery codes but the show had to be booked within a couple of weeks. And June is a busy month for us. So, we squeezed it in on a Friday night after work.

It was also incredibly humid when we left the house so we were dressed for summer but carrying raincoats. That would come in handy later. After a very stuffy Victoria line trip, we dived into the Starbucks near Covent Garden for exactly the same icy drinks as we had on our “Hamilton” ” trip.

The Fortune Theatre was only a couple of minutes’ walk away so we still got to our seats in plenty of time. I didn’t realise how tiny the theatre was – I used the word “diddy” to describe it to VK but she made an unfortunate joke about a 90s rapper that I don’t need to repeat here. It really is tiny, so no-one is too far from the stage. The only issue is that we were sitting under the balcony so, similar to the back of the worship hall at church, there seemed to be a bit of an issue with the sound. For a show where there’s lots of technical detail and everything is sung, it would have been good to have a bit more clarity. Especially as I wasn’t familiar with the plot. That’s just the shape of the room and the challenges of a 100-year-old space – I don’t think there was anything that could be done differently. But quibbles aside, we enjoyed it a lot. And the seats were not only much more comfortable than “Gatsby” but they were also in VK’s current favourite colour – cerulean.

If, like me, you’re not familiar with the plot of this show it is this – a group of intelligence officers are looking to change the course of World War II and come up with an absurd plan to do so. It’s good to see the back office intel function getting a bit of the spotlight for once. The whole show is performed by five actors, who often change costume on stage to save time. As the programme says, there are a lot of hats involved. If that sounds confusing, trust me – it can be. But it doesn’t matter too much.

The opening of the show sets out the company’s view on rank and privilege quite clearly – it’s about the public school boys who somehow seem to be in charge, despite being unqualified. Make of that what you will. Then the plot develops as the wacky proposal by the resident geek (Charles Cholmondeley, played by Peter McGovern) turns into reality, enabled by the suave Ewan Montagu (Alex Young). Montagu has no ideas or ability to make detailed plans but he has confidence and charisma and that is sometimes what matters.

The programme bills each actor as having a primary character as well as “others” and you soon lose track of how many extra characters each one is playing. The three other primaries are the ambitious secretary Jean Leslie (Roshani Abbey), the buttoned-up Hester Leggatt (Danny Becker) and the authoritative Johnny Bevan (Chlöe Hart). Between them, they are on stage almost constantly for the 2 hour plus runtime and do all the singing, dancing and set changes. It’s head-spinning.

The plot itself is intriguing and a lot of it is absolutely true, right down to Ewan Montagu eventually writing a screenplay about it. The premise seems unlikely – dropping a corpse onto mainland Europe with fake invasion plans about his person – but it all happened and, even more unbelievably, actually worked. That might be a spoiler but you know we won the war, right? Plus, as VK pointed out, there is a song in the song list called “We Did It”, which tells you that is all works out fine.

But along the way, there is certainly a lot of jeopardy and curveballs, such as an unwanted plane crash involving the most American American to ever set foot on the West End stage. There are fallouts and suspicions, including something that I still would consider to be something of a data breach. Some details do get a little glossed over, such as the ethics of the whole thing but this isn’t intended as a deeply thoughtful piece – it’s a fun, frothy musical about some very unlikely subject matter. Hence the KPop-style Nazi opener of Act 2, which bears no relevance to the plot and is what VK calls “the unfortunate 12-year-old-boy anthem”. It took me a while to realise that she mean it was the anthem that was unfortunate, not the 12-year-old boys. And not the specific 12-year-old boy she bangs on about most of the time. Anyway, that was a bit of an oddity but definitely indicative of a show that does not take itself seriously.

There are some more emotional moments though. “Dear Bill”, as sung in falsetto by Danny Becker is a very moving song in the midst of the chaos. And the bit right at the end when they talk about the true identity of the corpse had VK in tears. Not that that is difficult.

Most of the time though, it’s surreal jokes about newts, physical comedy, dance routines and, of course, hats. There is the odd anachronism – I don’t think they had sudoku in the 1940s – but also a few fourth-wall breaks and a bit of laughing on stage. So, as intricate as the world-building is, they are not too precious about it.

It’s hard to pick out one cast member of the five for praise as they all do such an amazing job with the frantic multi-roleing. I believe Chlöe Hart is the longest serving cast member and she certainly seems to have a natural authority which comes from knowing the play so well. It definitely feels like she could do this all by herself if needed. That makes her a great fit for Johnny but her turn as Ian Fleming is also impressively flamboyant. Alex Young has great charm as Ewan and a lot of energy, especially in the “Just for Tonight” sequence. Peter McGovern as Charles is suitably nervy and paces around the stage like a twitchy puppy but it’s good to see him break out into a more confident character (“Tub”) for a few moments at the end. Roshani Abbey has a great belt when she’s singing and shows a real vulnerability with the character of Jean as well. And then there’s Danny Becker playing everyone from Hester to Willy to the sinister Spilsbury and showing great versatility with it. Spilsbury was one of VK’s favourite characters though – I think the cape was “very yassss” as these youngsters say.

Oh, and just to say – if you get annoyed at gender-blind casting then this is NOT the show for you. But if, like VK, you’re fond of a bit of tailoring on people of all genders then you’ll be fine. It is a particularly straightforward one to cosplay as well:

Given that I knew nothing of the plot other than a vague explanation from the child on the way in, I enjoyed it a lot. The only song I knew previously was “Sail On, Boys” because it was all over the socials earlier this year and it is not at all typical of the other songs. The fact that this song exists in the same show as one called “Glitzy Finale” suggests that there is really quite a wide variety of musical styles. And the finale was indeed VERY glitzy, and full of surprises.

You know what’s lacking variety? The choice of vegan ice creams in West End theatres. I had vegan salted caramel once again but would love a different variety of Jude’s at some point. I should probably also report back on the toilets, which were the tiniest I’ve been in since “Kathy and Stella” but that’s to be expected, right?

So does it live up to the hype? I reckon so. It’s quirky, individual and has a very British sensibility so it’ll be interesting to see how it plays on Broadway. It’s definitely worth entering the lottery as full price seats are pricey but my friend who gifted us the code seems to win on a semi-regular basis so it’s not impossible to win.

As is now traditional, VK wanted to go to the stage door. I mentioned earlier that it was humid day and what comes after a humid day? That’s right, thunderstorms. I already knew I would regret wearing flipflops but I was grateful for having grabbed a slightly clammy raincoat on the way out. It was one of our less pleasant stage door experiences, but only in terms of the weather. The actors were absolute sweeties and we appreciated them all the more for coming out in such horrendous weather to sign. Especially when some of them (Danny) were, like me, dressed for summer. We didn’t chat much as we didn’t want them to catch pneumonia but we managed to say hi to four of the five, which was great. VK was beaming over her late-night Five Guys.

Since I started writing this post, I have seen a whole other show so am now writing a show behind and should probably wrap things up. So I’ll just leave you with the link for tickets and a most important piece of MI5 wisdom – “Horses can’t inherit”.

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“The Play That Goes Wrong” at Duchess Theatre – 08/06/25

Posted on June 11, 2025 by katese11

You know sometimes you just kinda end up somewhere without really knowing how or why? Well, that’s around 90% of all the visits I’ve made to Covent Garden in my life and Sunday was no exception. I mean, I knew technically why we were there – going to see “The Play That Goes Wrong” – but why we were there two hours early, goodness only knows.

But luckily we are expert at killing time, whatever philosophical questions that might provoke from Reuben. So a bit of wandering around the market, a trip to Forbidden Planet and some frighteningly expensive ice cream helped to plug that gap. The ice cream was good but always beware of somewhere that doesn’t have prices visible from the outside:

We also found a shop that sold geek merch, with most of the ground floor being Harry Potter themed. Roo was thrilled to find some LOTR swords but sadly there were not for sale. Trying explaining that to the theatre bouncer when you have your bag checked.

We got to the theatre and in our seats early, which was good because there’s a bit of action before the play starts. Without giving too much away, it is worth being there 10-15 minutes beforehand as by the official start time of 3pm, quite a lot had happened….including some audience participation. That’s all I’m saying for now.

In fact, it’ll be hard to tell you too much at all without spoilers. What I can say is that Reuben complained that his face hurt from laughing so much and that if you’re a middle-aged woman with a dodgy pelvic floor, you should probably go to the toilet before it starts.

What I can tell you is that this is the self-same Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society that you might be familair with from TV shows like “Peter Pan Goes Wrong”. “A Christmas Carol Goes Wrong” and..wll…”The Gone Wrong Show”. The real-life cast might be different to the ones you see on screen (who are the Mischief originals) but the characters they play – Sandra, Max, Chris, Robert, Dennis – are all present and correct. Of course here, those characters are playing other characters but yknow, that’s the nature of “Gone Wrong” shows. It’s neatly illustrated by the programme, which has a fake Cornley programme inside the Mischief programme. Confused yet? Don’t overthink it. It is surreal though….and a credit to the cast, who I believe are brand new for 2025/2026. Without being explicitly told on stage that Tom Wainwright is playing Max playing Cecil Haversham, you know that it’s Max because of the wide grin he gives the audience whenever it’s going well. And you know that Mitesh Soni is playing Dennis playing Perkins because he has his lines written on his hand.

Incidentally, VK said something the other day about how much easier it for boys to get good parts in plays than it is for girls, even when they are not all that good at acting. I said it’s a scarcity thing – all drama societies (and choirs!) seem to be lacking in boys and men so they get pushed to the front when they do show up. And Dennis is a prime example of that. Of course, having been in plays at a girls’ school, we didn’t have that issue. Boys didn’t come into the equation. So if I had to have fake stubble put on to play a mechanical, so be it.

Anyway., that was a bit of a tangent while I was already over-explaining the play to you a bit. Let me rewind and say this – you don’t need to have watched any of the TV shows or other plays to enjoy this. You can absolutely take it at face value and you will laugh, as long as you don’t have an aversion to slapstick humour and spit-takes (any Jonathan Groff fans in the house?). Right at the end, they explain that “you’ve been watching ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’ and if you didn’t realise that, you’ve probably been very confused”. So as long as you’re onboard with the basic premise of this, you can’t go far wrong. It just does add another layer to it if you’ve watched the shows and are fond of the characters.

To just describe it as slapstick is underselling the show though. It’s so cleverly scripted and so impeccably timed that everything goes wrong right on cue. I’ve seen people review the TV shows as dumbed down but they’re really the opposite, as is the live show. It’s the way that the Cornley player grimly carry on with their twee little play in the face of disaster that makes it brilliant….just think of the children in Peter Pan saying “Mother you look very pretty tonight” while trapped in collapsing bunk beds. Whether it’s drinking tumbler after tumbler of white spirit or putting out fires without the audience noticing, these actors are dedicated to their craft.

(Except of course for Chris’ occasional on-stage meltdown and rant at the audience)

And if you don’t “get” it, then what? Well, the actual play is not too bad, twee as it is, and has a bit of a twist to it which I didn’t remember from last time, so still managed to be surprised by who the murderer was. The sets are a masterpiece of stage design and there’s a dog in it. Kinda. All these things will help you get through, even if you’re one of the 300 people who thought they were actually seeing “Mamma Mia”.

However, the family and I loved it and we laughed hard from start to finish. It’s hard to explain much more without giving away the gags but I would recommend watching the TV shows first and, if you enjoy the humour, I imagine you will love it too. And if you don’t, you can always leave a negative review and they’ll probably use it as part of their marketing…

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“The Great Gatsby” at London Coliseum – 30/05/25

Posted on May 31, 2025 by katese11

I must admit I didn’t have high hopes for this one. Having read the reviews and listened to the reviews of the reviews, not of which were overly positive. But VK wanted to go and tickets were a tempting £20 each for a Friday night, so we went for it. We even roped in CousinZ and my bro for the jaunt.

You should know by now that VK will, wherever possible, always dress for the occasion:

We were up on the balcony, as you’d expect for such cheap seats. There was nothing to say that kids had to sit next to an adult – which I’ve seen a lot in recent age guidance – so the kids had one set of seats and my bro and I took the others. The kids were in the centre and towards the front of the balcony so had a decent view. We were off to the side but had a pretty good view as well. I will say that the seats were a bit uncomfortable – they were very straight and shallow so I found myself perching on the edge quite a lot. When they say that a show has you on the edge of your seat, that’s got to be a good thing, right?

One thing all the critics agree on is that the sets are gorgeous and I would agree with that. It’s obviously an Art Deco aesthetic and the pieces move smoothly on and off stage to create entirely different scenes – from the old-money luxury of the Buchanan’s mansion to the nouveau-riche opulence of Jay Gatsby’s shirt dispenser to the grime of George Wilson’s garage. There is so much detail and the costumes match the mood perfectly. So I think all of that is universally agreed on but many critics have seen the glitz as a negative, calling the show shallow and accusing it of being nothing but surface-level razzle-dazzle.

Maybe I’m not just a deep thinker but sometimes a bit of razzle-dazzle is all you need after a long week’s work. I think I have read the book but it would have been years ago and I don’t remember it that well, so I’m not wedded to the detail. But I do understand how people react to adaptations of books they love that mess around with the detail – I mean, just read my “Ballet Shoes” review if you don’t believe me.

But I know the basic plot and all the main elements are here – Carraway nervy and unsure, Tom arrogant, Gatsby elusive and mysterious, Daisy flighty…. the criticism that they give too much of their souls away by singing is just something you have to get over if you’re watching a musical, in my opinion. And the singing is amazing – Jamie Muscato as Gatsby holds some incredibly long notes in a high tenor that would put Valjean to shame. And talking of Valjean, they have an actual one of those in the cast, albeit in a side character role (John Owen-Jones as Meyer Wolfschirm). Plus an ex-Elphaba (Rachel Tucker as Myrtle Wilson) who we’ve previously seen as Persephone in “Hadestown”. It is a seriously stacked cast by musical theatre standards even before you consider the Hollywood talent of Corbin Bleu as Nick Carraway. The cast is so rich in talent that it feels almost wasteful to give Rachel Tucker just one solo before her character’s death. But then the female leads – Frances Mayli McCann as Daisy and Amber Davies as Jordan – are also incredible so there is almost too much vocal power for one show. Joel Montague as George and Jon Robyns as Tom also get far too little solo time as they are also fabulous singers.

So the casting is immaculate and any one of them could have been the show-stealing lead…why then the negatives? Well, one of the potential weaknesses could have been in the songs themselves which weren’t overly memorable. I normally pick tunes up quite quickly but I couldn’t hum any of them this morning, however beautifully they were sung. But I would say that it’s unfair to compare this show to the other musicals we’ve seen recently where the soundtracks have been played and sung constantly around the house before our visit. It’s easier to come out of Les Mis singing a revolutionary song when that same song has been in your head for months. There was nothing wrong with the songs but they could have been more distinctive and I didn’t really get a 1920s feel from them. To counter that, there were some very 20s dance moves, with all the Fosse poses that you could ever want.

The other negative that many other people have picked out is the Carraway-Jordan romance and I would agree that. I don’t think it was in the book and, as VK pointed out, they are both kinda queer-coded. Its strongly suggested that Nick is attracted to Gatsby and as for Jordan….well, she’s a golf-playing bachelorette. I’m feeling like Carraway is not quite her type. So to add a romance between them seemed to come from nowhere and only served to highlight the moral of story, which can be summed up by Grunkle Stan from “Gravity Falls” – “it’s funny because marriage is terrible”. It would have been far better for them to be friends and conspirators without any hint of romance.

These points aside, the show is perfectly enjoyable. The ensemble moves flawlessly in the set pieces, the dialogue is crisp and sparky and the chemistry between Daisy and Jay is both sweet and intense. The show rushes along at a pace and at the interval I was struggling to think how much plot there would be left for the second half. But although all the main plot points hit in the first half, the consequences of those plot points play out in the second, especially in the tangibly-tense Plaza hotel scene. It feels like there’s a tiny bit of stretching out right at the end, with the glitzy party people brought back a couple of times for reasons that didn’t entirely make sense. Other than that though, it is a decently meaty show given that it’s based on a very thin novel. The seats did not magically get more comfortable but, even with that in mind, the 2.5 hour runtime whizzed by.

Oh, and for the obsessive LWAT theatre followers, it was Mango Sorbet for both of us last night. I know you like to know these things.

The audience also seemed to find the show perfectly enjoyable. Each song was met with thunderous applause and there was a standing ovation at the end – I know these are commonplace nowadays but it certainly didn’t give the impression of a show that had failed to hit the spot. Neither did the line of fans at the stage door, who were all keen to tell the stars how much they’d enjoyed it. We too lined up in the usual dank West End backstreet and met Jon Robyns, Joel Montague, Amber Davies, Frances Mayli McCann and Jamie Muscato. They all signed our programme – and for once, I’d remembered to pack a Sharpie – and we got a photo with Gatsby himself:

All the actors were total sweethearts, especially Amber Davies who was signing even tho she was meant to be rushing for a train. Hopefully the early negative reviews haven’t impacted them too much and they’re finding the packed houses and rapturous applause are making up for some of that. It might be entirely my lack of depth but for us, it was a Great night out indeed.

No disclaimer needed for this one as I paid for tickets. All opinions remain honest and my own.

“The Great Gatsby” runs until 7th Sept. Click here for more info and tickets.

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“Astonishing Things” at Royal Academy of Arts and “The Face Magazine” at National Portrait Gallery – 17/05/25

Posted on May 17, 2025 by katese11

Phew, I know…exhausting blog title. Well, it’s been an exhausting day. Especially as I’m only blogging the middle of our day – I did maypole this morning before the double-exhibition extravaganza and Nathan and VK are still out now.

So let’s start at Piccadilly Circus tube station which was so busy it was like….well you know the phrase. VK and I had just discovered that Meta’s AI tool worked even when we were out of signal range so we spent some time on the Bakerloo line trolling it with Les Mis references. It only has itself to blame because I never asked for my WhatsApp search bar to turn into an AI tool. One of the prompts was “I need relationship advice”, which was worrying. Are people really asking their WhatsApp search bar for relationship advice? Anyway, VK and I fed it some scenarios and it advised that I should talk to my boyfriend before he goes to the barricades to see if he can persuade my father not to take me to England. It also advised the three of us to sing “Auld Lang Syne” together and described Javert’s death as “the icing on the cake”.

People, do not take relationship advice from AI tools.

All of which got us to the beautiful Burlington House, which is the home of the Royal Academy of Arts. I don’t think I’ve been there since we were basket weaving with plastic straws in 2014. Given the backlash against single-use plastics I don’t think that exhibit would fly today. Luckily, VK’s tastes have evolved beyond brightly coloured craft things and, in case you don’t already know, she is currently obsessed with Les Misérables. Not just the musical but the book as well – in fact, she spent a large chunk of her recent parents’ evening reading the novel in the school library while we waited to see her English teacher. She has memorized a large chunk of text about the Parisian sewer system. So an exhibition about the work of Victor Hugo is very timely.

We were warned at the front door that it was quite a long way up but didn’t realise quite how many stairs it was to the second floor. I’d probably advise taking the lift. It’s up this short flight of stairs and then another two floors’ worth. We were a little out of breath by the time we got to the top.

While I think about it, I should probably mention that I now have a TikTok and I’ve already TikToked our visit. Much easier than blogging, turns out. But don’t worry – I’m still a blogger at heart. But if you do the TikTok thing, please do give me a pity-follow over there

Anyway, back to the exhibition. It’s very dimly lit as the pieces are very sensitive to light and, in fact, the ones on display are only a fraction of the full collection because the rest are so delicate. So there’s a heavy door to go through before entering the three rooms of paintings. It’s not huge – we were probably there for about half an hour – but VK was thrilled to be even close to canvasses that VH had touched and to see his handwriting in real life.

Some of our highlights were:

The Octopus painting that’s in all the publicity:

A letter handwritten by Hugo to his son and including a picture of a castle halfway through. Hugo was a bit obsessed with castles. I don’t think I got a picture of the letter but here’s one of the other castles:


A beautifully-decorated mirror:

And, would you believe it, a painting of the Parisian sewage system? I cannot describe how excited VK was about this but maybe you can sense it from this picture:

So although it’s small and pricey for the time we spent there, it’s worth a visit if you have a Les Mis obsessive in the house. There are only a couple of references to that book, like this representation of Valjean’s chains:

But still, this will not deter the Victor Hugo superfans.

And the RAA is worth a visit just for the beautiful surroundings. Even the bit with the loos is pretty, in a monastic way:

And the gift shop is a riot of colour, which was almost painful after being in dim light for so long:

We stopped at the Friends Cafe which probably wasn’t another Les Mis reference but yknow…Les Amis…

VK had a very good brownie and I had fruit and a drink:

Then we had some time to kill before meeting Nathan for the next exhibition. So we popped into Fortnum and Mason to look at all the pretty tins of biscuits and the glace fruits which probably look better than they taste.

We did not buy anything but it’s worth a look around, just for the aesthetics. Gosh, I’ve only been on TikTok a day and I’m talking about aesthetics already.

As it happens, our next stop – Waterstones – was also quite aesthetic. VK almost bought a copy of “Phantom of the Opera” but changed her mind. She also tried to buy another copy of Les Mis and I vetoed. It’s for her own good.

Then we wandered through Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square before settling in a Pret near Trafalgar Square for a restorative coffee before we met Nathan.

You might wonder about the planning of this whole day so let me unpack it a bit. There is logic in there, I promise. The Victor Hugo exhibition was the first thing to be booked and it was just because it was a relatively free Saturday in among choir season chaos. Then I realised that VK was due a reward for having worked very hard at school, so I booked for her to see Hadestown yet again in the evening of the same day (“It’s a NEW CAST so we have to go again”). I was planning on Great Gatsby but the cheap tickets were sold out, so cheapo Hadestown more than mollified her.

Then came the complication – friends got in touch and let us know that we really had to go and see The Face exhibition at National Portrait Gallery before it closed on 18th May. It will soon be apparent why but, if you’re not familiar with The Face, it is a magazine that I believe is now online but was – during the 80s, 90s and 2000s – a physical style magazine that you could actually buy it in the shops. I think we only bought it the once, for reasons which again will soon become apparent. It’s the same reason that meant Nathan had to come and meet us halfway through the day so the three of us could go to the NPG together. Reuben is staying home to study a lot at the moment so he didn’t fancy the trip but also we didn’t want to Gavroche him all day long, so we ended up with a plan where VK and I did Victor Hugo, VK, Nathan and I did The Face and VK and Nathan did Hadestown. Simple, right??

Anyway, so we went to the National Portrait Gallery around 5pm.

And what a nostalgia fest this exhibition was! So many of my absolute heroes were in there, like Nicky Wire and Brett Anderson and blur:

If you want to know more about my obsession with blur, check our our trip to Wembley in 2023. And while we’re talking obsessions, here was one that VK had actually heard of:

And when I say “heard of”, I mean full-on stage-doored a few weeks back. Result.

Most of the pictures were quite era-specific, like this very pretty Kurt Cobain:

But thanks to the online version, it seems that even Gen Alpha icons like Chapelle Roan get a look-in:

I still haven’t explained why we were there. Well, I mentioned some very handsome men in this exhibition – Brett, Nicky, Damon, Alex and Ewan – but who was more handsome than all of these? This guy in the “nightclubbing” room:

Yes, it’s our very own Nathan. Pictured at Trash in 2002, when he foolishly decided to go clubbing in a suit and tie. Or not so foolish as it turns out, because it meant he got photographed and put into The Face. Then 23 years later, he appeared in the National Portrait Gallery.

As you can imagine, we took every variation of photo with the photo. Like VK staring in awe at her Daddy:

I must say, the teen was most sceptical about how fun it would be to go and see a photo of her own father in a gallery but she was a little bit impressed once we were actually there I think.

We also got a lot of pictures of the two Nathans together. I’ve aggressively desaturated the background on this one to make the Nathans stand out more:

It’s probably slightly pointless me reviewing the exhibition seeing as it ends tomorrow but it was a fun one for anyone who was on the clubbing or music scene in the 90s and 2000s. There were also some pictures which were just quite visually stunning, if confusing:

We were there for around 45 minutes, which again was not huge amounts of time for the price…but we might have been there longer if we didn’t have a teen in tow, who was impatient to get on to Hadestown. And the inevitable costume change to Eurydice:

So that was the exhausting story of our day. Two exhibitions, a bit of shopping and, for VK, a show as well. But it was fun. The links are here for RAA and here for NPG (but only till tomorrow) – they are very different to each other but we enjoyed them both. And let me know if any if you readers spotted Nathan too!

Posted in Creating precious childhood memories or something (days out) | Tagged , | Leave a comment

“Hamilton” at Victoria Palace Theatre – 03/05/25

Posted on May 5, 2025 by katese11

So, once again the name of this blog is inaccurate. When I rebranded, less than a year ago, I knew that my time of having a singular teenager would be pretty limited because….that’s how time works. But the day is here – a second teenager has joined the LWAT ranks and we are back into the realms of not-quite-as-described for another four years or so.

All of which was to say that we required a special day out on Saturday and the new teen wanted to see “Hamilton”. If you’ve followed this blog closely, this will not surprise you. It’s been a theatre-heavy year and that shows no sign of stopping. The price of theatre kids raising theatre kids. I should probably also mention that the teen has now launched herself into the world of social media and so I’m going to stop using her real name on the blog and start using her preferred nickname – VK – which is neither her real name nor her social media handle but something kinda in between. Of course, I could go back and retrospectively edit her real name out of the last 800 posts but I’m probably not going to do that.

And I’m also probably not going to remember to use the new blogname so bear with me.

Anyway, our Hamilton day started appropriately with lunch at Hamilton Hall, in Liverpool Street. We’d last been there on our way to Southend in 2021 and it’s one of those places that looks and sounds much grander than it actually is. It looks spectacular because it’s an old ballroom but fact is, it’s a Wetherspoons. And yes, I know I should boycott them and no, I haven’t been able to do that yet. They serve VK’s preferred brand of vegan burger, OK? And they’re very affordable.

The decor really did fit with the family outfits:

I say family – it was just Nathan and VK. Roo and I sadly did not have anything era-appropriate. VK’s revolutionary coat was an eBay purchase for her birthday. Nathan just has this outfit on standby at all times.

We managed to hit the sweet spot of 11:50 am where both breakfast and lunch options were available to order, so VK had a hash brown starter to go alongside her burger and chips and all was well. We had loads of time to kill before the show so went to Waterstones at Liverpool Street to buy gifts for some of Roo’s friends. VK passed the time by browsing through a certain Victor Hugo novel – you can guess which one:

When I said we had loads of time, you just know it’s about to go all wrong. And it did a bit – entirely from my lack of planning when it came to tube lines. Having the whole map memorised, I don’t often feel the need to ask Google Maps for a route from Liverpool Street to Victoria but maybe I should have, just this once. Because then I would have known that both the Circle and District line had closures. Of course, I saw the sign as we were going through the ticket barriers but didn’t read it properly – and when we got to the platform the sign said “Circle Line via Victoria” so I thought all was groovy.

Then we got kicked off at Tower Hill and told to take the District Line for onwards travel. Which again, would have been groovy except we got kicked off at Embankment. Instead of one very easy Circle Line connection, we would have needed four tubes to complete our journey. As I say, I probably should have checked this before we left Liverpool Street because then we could have got the Central Line and changed at Oxford Circus for the Victoria Line. But who wants to live with regrets?

Instead, I made the family walk the last mile and a half from Embankment to Victoria. It wasn’t far, I told them and it wasn’t. But it was hot and crowded and there was a smidgen of complaining along the way. No matter that we passed through the very pretty Victoria Embankment Gardens:

And passed sights that people cross the world to see:

No, fam were not impressed. Maybe we should have hopped a bus from the Strand or taken the two more tubes options. It didn’t help that there were fluffy bits of pollen flying everywhere and we all swallowed at least one. So I mollified them all a little with some icy fruit drinks:

After that, the Victoria Palace Theatre was basically in our sights, to the relief of all those involved, especially those in heavy revolutionary coats:

We were in our seats (second to last row in the Grand Circle) with plenty of time before curtain up. Not that the curtain was down though:

The view was good – as ever, we had cheapish seats (this habit is an expensive one) but only missed bits that were right at the back and top of the stage, so only a couple of moments when someone was standing on the balcony at the back.

And what of the show itself? Well, we went into it very prepared as VK has watched the ProShot on Disney+ around 50,000 times. So we knew the plot and the songs, which is good because some of those lyrics are very fast and they’re explaining complicated political concepts and situations. It would be easy to get lost. I’m not the biggest fan of rap – despite my amazing Coolio impression – but there is plenty of singing mixed in as well. Much like Les Mis, it is a male-dominated story but some of the best moments come from the female characters. Before the show started, VK had told us that she cries any time Eliza starts a song and *spoiler alert* that proved to be true.

Talking of spoilers, the first song lays out a lot of the backstory and tells you exactly who killed Hamilton in the end. So I hope I haven’t spoilered the show for you by saying he dies in the end….you find that out pretty quickly anyway. Besides, it was set in the 18th and 19th centuries….every character in this show is now sadly dead.

Act I is absolutely action packed. Once the backstory is set up, you’re thrown straight into the throes of revolution with Hamilton coming to New York and joining forces with the likes of Aaron Burr, George Washington, John Laurens, Hercules Mulligan and everyone’s favourite fighting Frenchman…Lafayette! There’s a lot of testosterone being thrown around in these opening songs, with the “young, scrappy and hungry” men determined to not thrown away their shot. But there’s also the tender “Story of Tonight” which bears a strong thematic resemblance to “Drink With Me” from Les Mis (Yes, VK is obsessed with stories about revolutionaries at the moment. What of it?). This is one of my favourite songs, as the four men sing in first in turn and then in harmony and it makes a really nice contrast to the more macho songs just before it.

And then we meet the Schuyler sisters. Work work. This song has been tainted for me by the “Scamilton” Christian version, which contained some very tuneless vocal riffing, but I’m glad to say that the West End cast are pitch perfect and have somewhat exorcised those Christian ghosts. Work!

It’s a strong start. Unlike most of my reviews, I probably won’t pick out too many individual performances as it’s a huge cast compared to some shows we see and I don’t want to leave anyone out. But considering how many times we’ve seen the ProShot, which I believe is OBC, we have high expectations for how good a cast can be and this cast fulfilled those expectations in every way. Lemuel Knights as Lafayette raps every bit as fast as his OBC counterpart, Emily Mae as Angelica pivots between rapping and singing flawlessly and – most challenging of all – Daniel Boys commands the stage just as much as Jonathan Groff does and that is a big crown to fill. Oh, and Nathania Ong as Eliza is just as heartbreaking as the ProShot version but we’ll get to that. I did say there might be tears.

I probably should mention Alex Sawyer as the title role – he hit all the musical, emotional and dramatic notes that Hamilton has to hit in what must be an exhausting role. Hamilton is not always the most sympathetic character as he’s impulsive and self-involved but Alex Sawyer manages to make him likeable as well as challenging.

I mentioned King George already and it should be universally acknowledged that “You’ll Be Back” is just everyone’s highlight. It’s another one of those songs which are very much sung rather than rapped – a neat musical theatre number with some great belts and a very singable “la di da da da” bit. I’ve watched some reels from one of the King George actors from around the world, pondering how 11 minutes of stage time could possibly be a full-time job. Well, the answer is that King George packs so much iconic-ness into every one of those minutes that he somehow still steals the show. Nice work if you can get it. Daniel Boys is only in the role until 18th May so he’s clearly making the most of it and having a fantastic time strutting around the stage. As I say, iconic.

After the message from the King, we’re right back into the fray with the high-energy “Right Hand Man”, where George Washington is rallying his troops at the start of the war. I get a little confused with the chronology at this point, because the show is building up momentum for the coming war and then swerves away to deal with the Angelica/Eliza/Alexander love triangle and the wedding of Alexander and Eliza. Then it goes back to the war briefly before Alexander’s suspension and episode of domestic bliss with a pregnant Eliza before then going back to the rambuctiousness of “Guns and Ships” and “Yorktown”. I assume this is a creative choice to show that the war wasn’t just a quick skirmish and that the soldiers’ lives, marriages and families had to carry on for years while still fighting….but it does make for an uneven kind of narrative. It was probably also to maintain some kind of historical accuracy in the chronology but given that some elements are entirely made up, I’m not sure historical accuracy is super important to Lin Manuel. I’m not sure they even had rap battles in the 1800s. But yknow, millions of people have seen this show and not complained about the narrative flow so I’m probably in the minority here.

Which brings me to the first real emotional touchpoint of the show. As I mentioned earlier, VK warned us that she would cry every time Eliza walked on to the stage and started a song. “Tomorrow There’ll Be More of Us: Laurens’ Interlude” didn’t fit that criteria exactly but it was definitely an Eliza moment as she breaks the news of John Laurens’ death to Hamilton. And it most definitely did trigger all the feels as VK and I both cried. I mean, we barely get to know John Laurens but gosh darn, that song is sad.

After that, it wasn’t long til the interval and we definitely needed some restorative ice cream after all that emotion. We seem to have gone to a lot of Delfont Mackintosh theatres recently, so the ice cream selection is often the same but this time I went for the dairyfree salted caramel. Roo had the vanilla and VK and Nathan both had the strawberries and cream. We managed to snag seats near the open window in the bar, so it was nice to get some fresh air at the midway point. Did I mention how beautiful the theatre was?

There’s also quite a lot of space in the bars, which is very welcome and quite a lot of toilets although there was still too much of a queue at the “three minutes warning” point for me to risk joining that queue. I really could write a dissertation about the loo queues at various London shows by this point.

The second half is – I would say – less strong than the first half although there are some real emotional high points. There are a few reasons but for me, it’s mostly that the excitement of the revolution has died down and now the characters are arguing about fiscal policy. Part of me is still convinced that this show is a conspiracy by Big Education to get kids interested in the American constitution. But the other thing that struck me when watching this is that it’s missing the brotherhood that was built up in the first half between Hamilton, Lafayette, Mulligan and Laurens – the quartet that gave us that shining jewel of “The Story of Tonight”. Thanks to dual-roling and Laurens’ unfortunate death, these characters don’t appear in Act II and the non-toxic masculinity is replaced by the bristling hostility between Hamilton and Jefferson/Madison. The actors are the same – in case you didn’t guess when I said dual-roling – but the characters are very different and I missed Hercules Mulligan (Jordan Castle) especially. Having said that, the family universally agreed that Thomas Jefferson’s velvet outfit was top-tier. John Laurens’ actor (Jordan Benjamin) dual-roled as Hamilton’s son Philip who would once again make VK cry in due course.

The other sticking point in the second half is that every decision Hamilton makes is a really bad one. I get that a play needs drama, especially against the background of some slightly dull elections, but he just makes bad move after bad move, hurting our trusting and kind Eliza and giving Philip some fatally bad advice. So he goes from being a divisive character in Act I to just plain unlikeable in Act II. That’s why Eliza is the one to provide the emotional high points I mentioned – seeing things through her eyes really brings out the empathy that you might struggle to find for Alexander. Oh and George Washington also has a great emotional song in “One Last Time”.

It’s not that the show’s energy drops off in the second half – if anything, it’s at full pelt during the Cabinet Battles – but it’s just that I prefer the dynamics of the first half. But I can’t be too harsh on anything that contains the sublime “Burn” (emotional Eliza moment #2 and the cause of yet more tears) or the heartwrending “It’s Quiet Uptown” (moment #3). There are so many good bits of drama packed in, even if the politics gets slightly less dramatic. In the ProShot, it’s always “Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story” that makes both VK and I sob and it was no different onstage. Nathania Ong was just beautiful as Eliza and really made an emotional connection with the audience. It wasn’t just us crying, I swear. I can’t hear anyone counting in French without getting a lump in my throat. “Why do you write like you’re running out of time?” is another line that always sticks with me and it was playing constantly in my head when both the kids had stomach bugs a few weeks back. Every time I cced my boss into one of my e-mails, I was humming to myself “why do you work like you’re running out of time?”, convinced that I would be the next victim.

I wasn’t wrong. But I may also be – as previously mentioned – an overdramatic theatre kid.

(I will omit my bug-related “work work” joke here, for fear of ruining that song forever).

Anyway, the second half was thoroughly enjoyable even if it did oscillate between “what are you doing?” moments and “why are you breaking my heart?” moments. By the end, we were overwrought and had been through the emotional wringer, much as we had with Les Mis. I need to book something light and fluffy next I think. While we went to the loos, VK sped off to (unsuccessfully) find the stage door but we eventually found her and got in the queue just as Charles Simmons (George Washington) was coming out to sign. We didn’t manage to get a photo with him but we did have a nice chat and got photos with Daniel Boys (King George), Jordan Benjamin (Philip/John Laurens) and Simbi Akanda (Peggy/Maria). We also didn’t bring a pen with us cause we’re still rooky at stage dooring and so didn’t get a signature from Simbi but she was absolutely lovely. They all were. Sadly, the weather had turned from boiling earlier to slightly nippy so we felt bad about keeping them outdoors but all four stopped for a chat and were just incredible human beings, as well as being so talented. We are very lucky to be able to do this so often.

So a grand afternoon out at the theatre and the teen’s birthday is well and truly celebrated. If you fancy doing the same, click here for tickets and more info.

Posted in Reviewing the Situation | Tagged , , | 1 Comment