Usually we are abroad at this time of year, but 2018 saw us still in the UK, and at long last we had managed to get tickets to one of the "hottest" shows in the West End. "42nd Street" had received numerous 5 star rave reviews, and we had been trying to get seats for ages, but there were no suitable discounts that we could find. Sometimes we never get to see a show - but in this case the "Love Theatre" website had two single royal circle seats, near the front, but one behind the other. And so we were in seats D18 and E18, excellent seats bang in the centre, at the front of the royal circle. There was lots of leg room, and excellent views of the whole stage - all for £41.25 each.

Happily also we agreed with the 5 star reviews. A great orchestra, fine solo and ensemble singing, great tunes, lots of standards, spectacle, glitter - a true West End highly professional presentation. It had a huge cast, and lots and lots and lots of top rate, spot on tap dancing. The songs included "42nd Street" of course, and "We're in the Money", "Lullaby of Broadway", "Shuffle Off to Buffalo", "Dames" and "I Only Have Eyes For You." I was whistling "Lullaby of Broadway" for ages !

It's an old traditional US musical with corn at the heart of the story. Peggy Sawyer (played wonderfully by Clare Halse) is a young singer and tap dancer newly arrived in New York - straight off the bus from "Hicksville". She not only gets a part in the chorus line of one of the few new musicals about to be put on in depression era Broadway, but her talent is recognised, and when the big name star Dorothy Brock (played excellently by a name from the past - Sheena Easton) breaks a leg (genuinely), Peggy Sawyer steps into the role and stardom ! So it's a familiar well known story, but so what? Correctly the cast played it straight, and got everything spot on.

I thoroughly enjoyed the show. If I had to think of one small criticism it might be that in the curtain call the star performance, last bow was taken by Sheena Easton, and not Clare Halse. Both were excellent - Sheena was a star who had a fine voice, stage presence, and her character Dorothy even coached Clare's character Peggy - "don't over sell the song, let the audience come to you". But Clare Halse had the larger part, and the whole point of the story surely was that she was the new star and deserved equal billing in the final curtain call. All the cast were excellent, but there was one other actress who played a lesser role who also impressed. She was a mature older woman, sturdily built with red hair, but I couldn't pick out the actress from the list of cast members on their web site. She danced and sang well, and her smile lit up the stage. Sorry I can't add a name !

One last comment about the theatre - the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane (although strictly it's really on Katherine Street). I read somewhere that the theatre is up for sale. It's owner is in his 80's, feels the theatre is in need of some modernisation, and so thinks someone younger should take over. It's a big theatre - you need a big audience to pay a big cast and still make money - and I guess it must be listed. Like most old theatres it really does need more lady's toilets - but otherwise it seemed fine to me.

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We had read that the best musical on in London was "Matilda, The Musical," a winner of many international awards, best musical awards, and 5 star reviews. Perhaps not suprisingly therefore, we could never find any discounted tickets. Thus we came to buy two full price back of the dress circle seats (G4, G5) for £54 each from the Cambridge Theatre website. They were good seats with plenty of leg room, and we had a perfect view of the stage, helped by the lucky chance that the seats in the immediate row in front of us were empty - these were the furthest back row of the £67 seats, and so would sell last. Apart from a very few odd empty seats, the theatre was packed. Most of the audience were young girls (not many boys at all) and their mums - it was a bank holiday, and also the first day of half term. The Cambridge Theatre's address is Earlham Street, but for us it was a case of getting off the tube at Leicester Square, turning left (right being towards Piccadilly), walk along Long Acre, turn left into Mercer Street, and the Cambridge is a short walk along on the left.

Although we read books to our two children when they were very young, by the time they got on to Roald Dahl, they were reading books by themselves. It was only when we got to the theatre that we realised that we did not really know the Matilda story. It is a children's story, and, being Roald Dahl, is dark, and wierd in places. Mr and Mrs Wormwood are not really fit to be parents, and both are very self centred. Apparently Mrs Wormwood doesn't even realise she is pregnant when she gives birth to a very gifted, rather special girl - Matilda. Mr Wormwood, a disreputable used car salesman, wanted a son, and addresses Matilda as "boy" to the constant immediate response from Matilda - "I'm a girl". Matilda finds refuge in books - she is a frequent visitor to the local library, and devours books, reading and absorbing books far beyond her age. Her parents are horrified that they have a child who likes books -"it's looks, not books" that matter says her excuse for a mum. Matlida eventually goes from the frying pan into the fire when she goes to school - it's a school run by the parody of all bad, child hating monsters, Miss Trunchball. Luckily though, Matilda's class teacher is a "goodie", Miss Honey. Pity she doesn't have much backbone. We now come to the wierd bit. Matilda is not only a book worm genius, but she can move things by the power of thought, and perhaps is even more powerful? On her regular library visits, she tells a made up serial story to the librarian, and this turns out to be Miss Honey's true life story. A really scary thought I had was that perhaps what Matilda made up controlled Miss Honey's life. I will need to read the book to see if that is a crazy idea or not**. And of course, there is a happy ending when Russsian speaking Matilda rescues her dad from the Russian mafia, her parents flee the country, and Matilda goes to live with Miss Honey.
** Footnote : Subsequently I did read the book, and there was nothing about Matilda making up stories in the Library which came to pass. So I was reading too much into the story, and overestimating Matilda's power.

I saw "Kiss Me, Kate" advertised as a special West End limited run at the Coliseum of Opera North's highly acclaimed production. It was only on for 12 performances over two weeks, and we were lucky enough to get two discounted dress circle seats for £35 each. These were seats J12 and J13 and were excellent seats with lots of leg room - there were not many empty seats in the theatre, but by chance the seats in front of us were empty. We went to the matinee afternoon performance on Saturday 30th June, 2018 which was the last day of the run. I was looking forward to visiting the Coliseum as I knew it was a famous London Opera venue, and I wondered how it would compare to the Royal Opera House. In brief it was not nearly so opulent, but it was a lovely large theatre, and the air conditioning was most appreciated on a scorching 29 degrees C day. The theatre is very near St Martin's Church on Trafalgar Square - walk along St Martin's Lane away from the Church, and the Coliseum is a short walk up on the right hand side.

"Kiss Me, Kate" is a very famous 1949 Cole Porter adaption (and some would say improvement) of Shakepeare's "The Taming of the Shrew". The Shakespeare original is a bit out of touch in these "Me Too" liberated days. Katherine's younger sister cannot be married whilst her older sister is still unwed, and Katherine's father more or less pays a suitor to tame and wed the independent minded Katherine. The suitor starves Katherine, spanks her, denies her food, and deprives her of sleep, and Katherine submits, and accepts that woman's lot is to obey her husband. As I said what a terrible story, to modern ears. In the Cole Porter version, we see backstage, and front of stage. Front of stage is the "Taming of the Shrew", and back stage we have the actress character Lilli Vanessi quarelling with her co lead and former husband Fred Graham. Graham was still in love with Vanessi, but was wooing the second lead actress, whose gambler boy friend was also on the scene. Two hoodlums turn up to collect a gambling debt. The back stage quarels were reinacted in front of stage on stage adlibs, and this made a lot more sense and the actions palatable. It was a complicated story, but it made sense and after a slow start it worked well. Our view from the audience switched seemlessly from front of stage to back stage, and was done very well. The cast were a blend of Opera and West end musical talent, and were excellent.

I thought it started off as a 3 star show, but it got better and better as it proceeded, and ended up as a 5 star show - so I guess that makes it 4 star overall. The show had humour, great dance solos, a full orchestra, a powerful chorus, and above all a succession of well known and loved Cole Porter hits. I was bowled over by the wonderful music. The songs included "Another Opening, Another Show," "We Open in Venice," "Too Darn Hot," "So in Love," "Wunderbar," "Where is the Life that Late I Led," "Brush Up Your Shakespeare," "I Hate Men," and "Always True to You (in my fashion)." Some of the songs got three ovations - they ended, we applauded, then there was another verse, we applauded, and then there was yet another verse. It was so well done, and so well sung, I didn't mind this little trick.

I am surprised that the show was only on for two weeks, but I'm glad we manged to see it.

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We came across two bargain, heavily discounted seats to see The Glen Miller Story at the London Coliseum. They were in the second row of the Dress Circle (B13, B14) and only cost £28 each - that is remarkable value for London's West End. The show starred Tommy Steele - incredibly fit and active at 81 years young! He had last appeared at the London Coliseum sixty (yes 60 ) years ago, and he jokingly thanked the management for having him back again so soon ! Apparently he goes for a run each morning and still plays tennis. He did remarkably well - he sort of soft shoe shuffled across the stage, sang in tune and OK (he held the note well), and had agreed to three matinee performances per week as well as the nightly shows. He was an inspiration to to us all and deserved and got a great reception. His cheery grin is still there - he reminded me of the great Norman Wisdom. Tommy played Glenn Miller, and Marti Webb played Helen, his wife. She was very good too, and still had a lovely voice.

The other star of the show was the on stage big swing orchestra, who recreated a lot of the Glenn Miller sound and songs. Glenn Miller won the first ever gold disc, and then went on the win 30 all told. Of course I came out whistling, medlies from "In the Mood", "Moonlight Serenade", "Little Brown Jug", "A String of Pearls", "American Patrol", "Fools Rush In ", "Pennsylnania 6-5000", and "Tuxedo Junction."

We were part of an older aged audience, and it was a very enjoyable, pleasant afternoon. In the first half Glenn had not discovered his sound yet, but still played some of the songs he was later to rearrange. It sounded OK, but we were aware that there was a larger orchestra off stage helping out occasionally. Then Glenn discovered his sound, the full stage opened and a complete Orchestra rolled forward and let rip. It was a true musical treat and won a great ovation.

However, and all in all, I think I must give the show 3.5 stars. Tommy, Marti, and the Orchestra were all very good, and who would want to miss an 81 year old pop idol still going strong. However, as a stage show, it was not nearly as good as the film which starred Jimmy Stewart and told the story so much better. In the film you could see why Helen would fall in love with the Jimmy Stewart character - in the stage show, as good as Tommy undoubtedly was, why would Marti Webb fall for an 81 year old Tommy ? To be realistic, of course, a younger modern day west end star would have sung, danced and played the part better. But I doubt if he would have endeared himself to the audience as much as Tommy Steele did. An afternoon of nostalgia. Well done, Tommy Steele. 5 stars for sentiment, 3.5 stars for realism.

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Let's start with the good news, although it didn't turn out to be all that good. Always on the look out for discount West End theatre tickets, we found two Royal Circle (D2, D3) tickets at only £25 each to see a musical at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket. Unusually for us we got to Picadilly by the Victoria Line to Oxford Circus, and then the Bakerloo line to Picadilly - it makes a change from the Picadilly line to Leicester Square. Walk down Haymarket towards Trafalgar Square, and the Theatre Royal is an imposing building behind huge pillars on the left hand side of the street. Surprisingly, in contrast to the imposing facade, the theatre inside is quite small, but very ornate. Our seats were too far to the side, really, but there was plenty of leg room, and we were in the fourth row of Royal Circle. There were lots of empty seats, though, and a sign said 150 day seats at £25 available every day - not a good sign.

Two days earlier, we had been to the cinema to see the 2018 remake of "A Star is Born," and didn't really enjoy the film - it had far too much swearing, and was too long. Obviously we were not it's target audience. Anyway, we hoped after this bit of bad luck, we might be compensated with a good theatre musical. Sadly, no. Again, we probably were not the target audience. For us it was a lot of rubbish, loud and shouty all the way through, very American, no light and shade, and frankly the actresses were too old to convincingly play 17 year old high school girls. I had half a thought that the cast were miming all the way through - but perhaps I was mistaken. In brief, we didn't like it. I would say perhaps two stars out of five. All that said, though, the cast danced and sang with energy, and had good voices. But I didn't leave the theatre whistling any catchy tunes.

The story was a bit silly, but that is not unusual for a musical. It is set in Westerberg High School - "Westerberg, the home of the rottweiler". Veronica is a new girl there, but finds everyone very, very antagonsitic. The Heathers are three glamorous girls (think of cheerleaders), who rule the roost. Veronica's forgery skill saves them from detention, and they take Veronica under their wing. Veronica quickly abandons her best friend to join the Heathers. Next we meet a teen rebel, psychopath really, J.D. who is badly mixed up - he saw his mum commit suicide when he was child. JD and Veronica fall in love, three people disrespect Veronica, and J.D. kills them - disguising their murders as suicides (Veronica's forgery skills, remember). The ghosts of the murdered continue undaunted, singing and dancing on stage. It almost ends with the mass destruction of the whole school, but does have a sort of happy ending when Veronica breaks away from J.D., and he suffers a just fate.

All in all, a bit of turkey, in our opinion. That said, most of the audience seemed to enjoy the show. I think that fellow actresses may visit each others' matinees on days when they are not performing, and whoop and holler loudly in encouragement, no matter what. "Darling, you were wonderful !" And why not ? Not for us.

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Sadly this might well be our last visit to the West End Theatre this year, and it would have been nice to finish the year on a high. However, as a pleasant afternoon of entertainment, this completely failed us. Yes it had had 5 star reviews at Chichester, it was well performed, yes Sharon D. Clarke was excellent as Caroline, and yes the singing and harmony were good. But we go to the theatre to be entertained , if a musical perhaps to leave whistling some catchy tune, certainly to leave the theatre cheered up. We thought the experience was almost dire - gloomy, soul dirges, sadness, oppression and depression in 1960s Louisiana only too well pervading the whole piece. I would give it, as an afternoon of entertainment, only 2 stars.