Review: Forbidden Broadway

After attending West End Live I was determined to get myself to the theatre for a good old musical. And what better choice was there for someone like me, or professes to be a musical theatre geek, than Forbidden Broadway. 

As the title gives away, it is an American export. It all began in 1982 when writer Gerard Alessandrini came up with the first version of the show, and it has been running in New York, on and off, since then. I'm not sure if this is the first version to cross the pond (I don't imagine so) but The Menier Chocolate Factory is the perfect location for it. A small theatre a little bit along from London Bridge The Menier has a reputation for showing interesting fringe performances, and can be great a place to check out new productions before they transfer to big old West End theatres, like Little Shop of Horrors back in 2006, and La Cage aux Folles in 2009 (two amazing shows!).

Now on with the show! Forbidden Broadway is a satire that affectionately mocks those musicals you know and love. And it is a big barrel of full of belly laughs. I was crying with laughter after about the first 10 minutes. I have to admit there were a few reference I didn't quite get at times as I hadn't seen all the shows, but that didn't really take anything away from the experience. An example of this can be seen with my favourite part of the show, when Cameron Mackintosh (well the actors version of him) was welcomed on stage to sing how he knew how to make the 'Americans Cream'. This was a frantic and superb performance mocking how special effects can take over the show, but also bring in the tourists and money. It was only afterwards I found out that current Mackintosh juggernaut 'Miss Saigon' has a song titled 'American Dream' which I can only imagine has very much the same tune as 'Americans Cream'. Other shows to be featured included Matilda (this was the one that had me crying with laughter: "my mother says I'm a triple threat") Book of Mormon (wonderfully clever) Once (again haven't seen the show but still so funny), Les Mis (Stuarts favourite section) and many more.

For the whole performance there were only four actors on the simple stage, with the pianist. All of members of the quartet (Anna-Jane Casey, Sophie-Louise Dann, Damian Humbley and Ben Lewis) were fantastic, amusing and captivating. I was impressed with the range of characters they portrayed, as well as the extremely quick costume changes! I particularly enjoyed Sophie-Louise Dann's portrayal of Idina Menzel. I didn't think it was possible for anyone to sound so much like Idina's distinctive voice but I was wrong, Dann blew me away with her version of 'Let it Go'. The show is running until the middle of August so if you love musical theatre and feel the need for a bit of mischievous fun I highly recommend Forbidden Broadway! 

You can get tickets from www.menierchocolatefactory.com, and if you go let me know which section you enjoyed most.

Cable Car London

In our attempt to see all that London has to offer Stuart and I headed out for a little ride on the new cable car (officially called Emirates Airline). All I had really heard about this new mode of transport was that it was gimmicky and a huge waste of money. Not one to let reviews put me off (and it being so easy to get to from our flat) we figured, what the hell, it might be fun. 

Arriving at Stratford the excitement was all clearly too much for me as, just before we stepped onto a Jubilee line tube I managed to throw my oyster card right under the tube and onto the tracks. Once the train had pulled away we could see my card, and it was tantalisingly close, but still pretty near to a live track, so, being the responsible adults we are we went to get help. Unfortunately we were told they couldn't collect it until the track was turned off overnight, so I had to buy a new oyster card and hope for the best.

Finally after all that drama we could continue on to North Greenwich. Jumping off we were greeted by the Millennium Dome (or whatever it's really called now).

Despite living in East London for the past year I never realised how easy it was to get to the Dome, and only a short walk away was the skyline.

The annoying thing about the cable car is you cannot use your travelcard, so we had to buy separate tickets, and somehow ended up with tickets that also gave us access to a museum next to the cable car and a little map. I need to say straight off, I'm not a huge fan of cable cars. The whole dangling only attached to a steel rope kind of freaks me out but I couldn't let that put me off so we queued up and jumped in.

After a chat with Stuart about whether the pods would float if it all fell to pieces and we crashed into the Thames I think we made our fellow passengers a little uncomfortable so we couldn't discuss our possible survival plans any further.

Now although it was great to be able to see the Thames Barrier and the Olympic park I cannot recommend the skyline. It's not the prettiest part of London and I have to agree, the whole thing is a waste of money. But not to worry we still had the museum to check out. But first here's my unimpressed face

And the museum was even worse than the skyliine! One floor of aeroplane seating and an engine made out of lego. But Stuart did get to sit at the front of a fake plane so it wasn't all bad.

All in all it was a little disappointing, but it hasn't put me off that side of London. However next time I'm going to hop on a boat and check out the Thames Barrier close up! And in case you've been reading this whole thing wondering what happened to the oyster card I threw on the tracks, I was able to collect it from the station the following morning. Thank you Stratford station crew!

Friday afternoon in the City

In a couple of weeks I will be starting a new job, away from the hustle and bustle of the City of London, so today I decided to take the afternoon off and grab a few photos of the area before I left. It was a pretty dull and rainy day but after catching up with a friend for lunch I headed out for a wander. First stop was Bunhill burial grounds. This quiet little spot is hidden away just off Old Street, and you can often catch lots of office workers grabbing some lunch, and weather permitting, a little bit of sun. It is also the resting place of authors Daniel Defoe and William Blake.

In a sea of grey headstones this interesting black one grabbed my attention.

Next I headed towards Bank to look at all the grand old buildings and statues.

I was pretty taken by this Wind in the Willows book bench. Apparently there are 50 different designs based on different books scattered around London, so I'm now on a mission to see if I an find a Hobbit one!

I think my favourite thing about this part of London is the way the old buildings, new skyscapers and mix of sculptures all mingle happily together.

One thing I love doing, and I don't think I do enough of is just to look up.

So although it's not my favourite part of London it was still fun to take my time and just wander round the city.

Focus on the Wild

In my previous blog post I mentioned that we stopped at the OXO Tower gallery to check out a photography exhibition. The title of the exhibition was 'Focus on the Wild' with all the images by photographer Roger Hooper. Roger Hooper's work focuses on wildlife and the environment, and the OXO Tower exhibition was in aid of WWF and Hoopers Africa Trust. Some of the pieces I saw were absolutely breathtaking, and awe inspiring.

Images belong to Roger Hooper - website can be found here

If you had asked me five years ago what my ideal job was I would have said 'Wildlife Photographer'. Looking at the images by Roger Hooper I realised that I would still love that to be possible, but I have never done anything to progress that dream. My trip to the exhibition has motivated me to at least try and see what I can achieve. It may be something I never quite pull off but I won't know that until I've put a whole shedload of effort in. It's quite scary to start something new, that you've always been secretly passionate about. What if I fail? Everyone who reads this blog (hello George) will know I've fallen on my arse! But I won't let that put me off, in fact, if you see me, please ask me what and how I am doing to follow this dream.

Images belong to Roger Hooper - website can be found here

While I research, practice, and read about how I can be a better photographer let me leave you with the link to Roger Hoopers website www.rogerhooper.co.uk. There you will find a whole range of his fantastic photos, news about any other exhibitions that may be happening and links to his books and prints.

So is there something you've always wanted to do but kept putting off because you thought you would never achieve it? Come on, I can't be the only one!

Brunch, and sunshine wanderings

The weather has been so hot lately and our little flat tends to get quite stuffy so Stuart and I decided to jump on a tube and head into London for our favourite breakfast at The Diner. There are a few Diners across London but our regular is the one near Covent Garden. 

Their breakfast and brunches are amazing, so going Sunday late morning was probably not our smartest idea. I was pleasantly surprised when we went for a table that, although we were told there would be a 20 minute wait, they had a system in place that would text us when our table was ready so we didn't have to stand in the doorway. We headed straight across the road to Forbidden Planet. Forbidden Planet is a geeks dream shop, full of comics, graphic novels, figures and toys and a wonderful place to waste some time.

In what other window display would you find Indiana Jones on a horse whilst Tom Baker's grinning Doctor looks on?

As much as I wanted to I couldn't justifying buying the R2D2 bag (it's on my wish list) so we headed to Neals Yard for a bit of colour. I had heard of Neals Yard skincare range before but never put two and two together and realised this is where they started and their flagship shop is based.

Before we could do any more exploring our text came through and we headed back for some food. I always feel weird taking photos of my lunch so I'm afraid I have no pretty pictures of the delicious Mexican breakfast pan we went for but take it from me, it was awesome. Definitely my favourite dish on the menu. Next was time for a bit of a wander to walk off lunch. Now I've mentioned before my dislike of human statues, but as we entered Covent Garden I was pleasantly surprised by this gentleman;

The main reason he passes my 'statue test' was simply because he wasn't wearing a mask and didn't move unless money was dropped in his tin, the fact he was levitating was pretty impressive too. He definitely deserved the change I dropped in and he has restored my faith that street performers aren't all dudes in Yoda mask. 

Covent Garden was crazily busy so we decided to head down to the Thames to walk along the river.

We were lucky that the tide was out so there were a couple of sand artists hard at work. I liked the guy below as, at first it looked like he was carving out the bat symbol but once we got round the to the front of the sculpture I think it was two lovers embracing. As Stuart said as we left, it takes someone very special to spend so much time creating something he knows will be washed away pretty quickly.

We carried on along, stopping to pop into a photography display at the OXO gallery, but I will tell you more about that in another post. Inspired by some wonderful images we kept walking towards London Bridge.

Once we reached the Globe I had to put my camera away as we were running late for a show, and clearly I was slowing us down! Look out for my review of the show we saw soon but for now I hope you're enjoying the beautiful summer. This time of year, and weather seems to be made for lovers as I leave you now with my favourite photo I took of the day. Romance is still alive on the banks of the River Thames.