I know what I did last summer

Oh no, it happened again! I went for two months without writing a blog. My excuse is that I was very busy doing actual things. Having a lovely boyfriend is doing wonders for my social life and self-esteem, but is proving to be less good for my blogging career.

Anyway, here are some of those things below.

TWELFTH NIGHT

What is threatening to become an annual visit to the Shakespeare production by Illyria in Sefton Park did not disappoint. A fun romantic comedy about the night you take your Christmas decorations down (NOTE: fact-check this before publishing).

With a cast of five playing multiple roles, I had to pay close attention to follow the plot. However being in the shadow of the Palm House was a bonus, and the weather was kind to us. People who went to see their production of Pride and Prejudice a few weeks later were not so lucky.

Cast performing Twelfth Night on an open air stage in the park.

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A Thong in My Heart

A Thong For Europe is the latest in the Liverpool Royal Court’s long-running series of plays with a truly groan-worthy pun for a title. It is a new musical by Jonathan Harvey, the genius behind Beautiful Thing, Canary, Our Lady of Blundellsands and a million episodes of Coronation Street.

The show was commissioned and written after the announcement last October that Liverpool would host Eurovision. From initial idea to a fully-formed musical in six months? Could it be done? If anyone can do it, Jonathan Harvey can.

Poster advertising "A Thong for Europe", depicting the main cast dancing in front of the show's logo.

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Queer joy

The final show in our London theatrical trilogy was My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) at the Ambassador’s Theatre.

Rob Madge has created a one-person show largely based on their family’s home videos, most of which depict Rob’s childhood where they regularly staged shows in the family living room, roping in their tolerant parents to stage parades, re-enact films in the front room and turn the house into Disneyland (complete with theme park rides).

Rob’s school was less supportive. Cuttings from their school reports show exasperated teachers criticise Rob’s flair for the dramatic and difficulty making friends. Thankfully for Rob, their family continued to support them, enrolling them in a stage school. They were soon performing in plays on the West End, including Oliver!, Les Miserables and Matilda. Although it is just Rob on stage throughout, their family is present so much in the videos, that by the end of the show you feel like you know them.

A beautiful, uplifting show that demonstrates how a loving family can make all the difference to a child. The message for parents is one that is more crucial now than ever: allow your kids to be who they are, and to hell with what anyone else thinks. There’s plenty of laughs to be had at Rob’s precocious theatrical adventures, but it’s sure to leave you with a lump in your throat at the end.

My Son’s a Queer (But what can you do?) is on at the Ambassador’s Theatre until 1st April

Set of "My Son's a Queer"

Sardines

Play number two was a matinee of Noises Off at the Phoenix Theatre. This was the second time in months that we had been to the Phoenix, having seen Come from Away there just last year. We were in almost the same seats too.

Noises Off is, of course, the 1982 comedy by Michael Frayn, going behind the scenes of the production of a comedic play, which becomes even more farcical behind the scenes than it does in front. This new run, for several weeks in February and March, boasted a stellar cast, including Felicity Kendall, Matthew Kelly and the splendidly-named Hubert Burton.

The play starts with Mrs Clackett, the housekeeper, preparing some sardines for tea. It soon becomes clear that all is not well – she stumbles over her lines and gets confused over her props. From the wings comes the booming voice of the frustrated director, Lloyd Dallas, and it’s apparent that we are actually watching a rehearsal of a show. So Mrs Clackett is played by Dotty Otley, who is played by Felicity Kendall. Hope that is clear.

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Pledge of Allegiance

I was lucky enough to spend a few days in London last week, with my boyfriend Ben. Being the theatre-obsessed gays we are, we naturally managed to squeeze three shows into two days.

The first of these was Allegiance at the Charing Cross Theatre. After a run in Broadway in 2015-16, the show has transferred to London for a limited run, with its original star – Star Trek‘s George Takei – returning to his role.

The theatre itself was interesting, located under the railway arches on the approach to Charing Cross station – the play was punctuated by the rumbling of trains over our heads at regular intervals. The seating was arranged in an almost ‘in-the-round’ layout, with the audience either side of the stage. We actually had to walk across the set to reach our seats.

Set of Allegiance, showing barbed wire and huts of an internment camp. The audience sits either side.

Allegiance recalls the tale of the 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent who, upon the outbreak of war between the USA and Japan, were rounded up and forcibly relocated to internment camps. The show centres on the Kimura family, who are uprooted from a happy life on a Californian farm to be interned alongside many others in dusty rural Wyoming. Conditions in the camp are severe, with poor food, no medicine and military discipline.

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King Brilliant

Ben was nervous as we took our seats in the theatre. “I hope you like this,” he said. Several times.

It was partly my fault. When we went to see White Christmas a few months back, I mentioned that this wasn’t the sort of show I would normally see. White Christmas is a cosy sentimental, feel-good show – an old-fashioned good time which displays its 1950s origins clearly. I like my musicals contemporary, and ideally full of swearing and gay references. The Book of Mormon, Avenue Q, that sort of thing. Less wholesome, more holes.

I did go on to say that I had very much enjoyed White Christmas and was glad we had gone to see it. Nevertheless, my boyfriend was anxious about bringing me to see The King and I. A new production — with her off Call the Midwife in the lead role — but an old show, originally performed on Broadway in 1951.

It’s also Ben’s favourite musical. No pressure then.

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Still looking for a Wilma to complete my juice glass set

I told you last time I had two shows booked for 2023, and I saw the first of those yesterday with Ben.

Five years after its debut as a fringe production by some Cambridge students, Six the Musical is currently on a UK tour, having already garnered rave reviews in the West End and on Broadway.

The show recasts Henry VIII’s six wives as a girl group performing a pop concert. Through some toe-tapping tunes and jaw dropping dance moves, each wife tells their story.

It’s a surprisingly educational show. Does the average person in the street know that much about Henry’s wives, beyond the unpleasant fate that befell several of them? (“Divorced! Beheaded! Survived!” is the show’s tagline)

This is an entertaining way to tell their stories and put them centre stage, rather than their husband. There isn’t really much of a plot, beyond the idea that the women are competing amongst themselves to decide which of them was the ‘best’ wife. By the end of the show however, it’s clear that the competition is irrelevant, and there is no benefit from picking a favourite.

Having said that, Anne of Cleves was my favourite, but I may be biased because she got introduced by German techno music.

Cast of Six the Musical performing at the curtain call, with several mobile phones recording

The all-woman cast and band got a richly-deserved standing ovation at the end, and the entire audience got up to dance along with the encore performance (yes, even me).

I was also delighted to be back in the Liverpool Playhouse for the first time in quite a while. It’s a lovely little theatre, perfectly suited for a show of this type.

Six the Musical is touring the UK at the moment, and is also on stage in London and New York. And touring America and Australia. And Holland. It’s everywhere! sixthemusical.com for more info.

Twenty Twenty Two… A Re-Do… Part Two

Shakespeare once wrote: “All the world’s a stage.”

But that’s ridiculous. If all the world is a stage, that would put theatres out of business, because no-one would ever need to visit one. What a silly thing for Shakespeare to say. Why are kids made to study this FOOLISH man in school?!

Luckily, wiser counsels prevailed, and plays continue to be produced on proper stages. Here are some I saw this year, including some very mainstream hits and more… esoteric fare.

THE BOOK OF MORMON

Nine years after I saw it in London, The Book of Mormon visited Liverpool as part of its 2020 tour (Covid may have caused one or two slight delays), and was just as outrageous as I remembered.

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Minding the Gap, continued

Some of you may be surprised to hear that I did leave the house several times during 2021, and was even able to take in some live theatre – no mean feat, considering that for a big chunk of last year, gathering in a poorly-ventiliated auditorium was a no-no.

Y’MAM (Young Man’s Angry Movements) (Liverpool Everyman)
Former Hollyoaks cast member Luke Jerdy (or his real name, Majid Mehdizadeh) put on this brutally honest one-man show, talking about his life growing up as a half-Iranian teenager in Derby, and the pressures placed on him by toxic masculinity and the expectations of society. Tales from his life were punctuated by dance, rap and a hilarious segment where when he read out a pompous, self-important email that he sent to the manager of the Everyman theatre when the bar closed early and he couldn’t get a drink.

Our Lady of Blundellsands (Liverpool Everyman)
This new Jonathan Harvey play was running at the Everyman in March 2020, when the world got Rona’d, so it was great to see it return in the Autumn of 2021. The tale of a faded actress, whose brief burst of fame (an appearance in Z-Cars) is long behind her, and she now inhabits a fantasy world, supported by her long-suffering sister. Various family members return for a birthday party, and skeletons start tumbling out of closets. A fabulous cast led by the peerless Josie Lawrence brought this story of a dysfunctional Merseyside family to life. There are plenty of laugh out loud moments interspersed with genuinely affecting moments of pathos.

Rainbow Monologues (Liverpool Theatre Festival)
Sitting in a marquee in St Lukes (the Bombed-Out Church), surrounded by the noise of the city, was perhaps not the best way to enjoy some theatre. Nevertheless, this set of LGBTQ-themed monologues – 12 performed over the space of 70 minutes – was excellent. Taylor Illingworth in particular gave an affecting performance in his monologue “Blocking out the Sun”, the heartbreaking story of an HIV-positive man coming out to his family.

Swan Song (Unity Theatre)
It’s that man Jonathan Harvey again, this time with a one-man show about a middle-aged gay teacher who is struggling with life at an underfunded secondary school. Andrew Lancel played the teacher, with cynicism and world-weariness hanging off every line of dialogue, as he juggles office politics and the politics of the 1990s. Wonderful stuff.

Hold Me Close (Salford Arts Theatre)
A tale of a mother reunited with her son, who returns to the family home after an extended period away. The play follows them as they get to know one another again. Very entertaining, alternating between comedy and drama, although the twist at the end that perhaps wasn’t as big a surprise as the show thought it was. The real unexpected moment came when the seats in front of us collapsed beneath an unfortunate audience member, sending him crashing to the ground.

Rajesh and Naresh (Unity Theatre)
Presented as part of Liverpool’s annual Homotopia festival, this story is set against the background of India’s decriminilisation of homosexuality in 2018. Rajesh, a banker in London, travels to India where he meets Naresh in a nightclub. They quickly strike up a relationship but of course things don’t go smoothly, especially as Rajesh isn’t out to his mother. Brahmdeo Shannon Ramana and Madhav Vasantha not only play Rajesh and Naresh, but also take on all of the other roles in the play too, leading to a unique experience. This was an excellent show, and I felt like I should have paid more than £8 for the ticket.

Thanks to my friend Phillip who came to most of these shows with me, and without whom I would probably have stayed at home.