A total Betty

February was a much richer month in terms of shows. I started the month in Bucharest and unfortunately I didn't see as much theatre as I would've liked in Bucharest. I did manage to see Madame Butterfly at the National Opera on 2 February though, the second time ever I've been to the Bucharest National Opera, and the first time in more than 20 years.

Acid's Reign - a play for our times

Contrary to the vibe of the room, I was disappointed with the production. Madame Butterfly is a problematic piece as it is, so having European actors play Japanese characters only exacerbates its issues. Apparently, Italy and the English speaking world has switched to Japanese actors at least for the leads as far back as 1930s. Surely a thriving cultural metropolis as Bucharest desires to be can afford to get a Japanese star to play Cho Cho San. Or just stop doing the piece, Puccini has so many much better operas anyway.

Back in London, and the first show of the month was Acid's Reign in the main house at Pleasance Theatre. A camp drag extravaganza with a much more solid story than expected from a drag show. An environmental message in the background and seeing Gigi Zahir perform, Acid's Reign was really a great evening out. I hope the show goes further, it fully deserves.

Next up it was friends' week. Went to see Everleigh's J [A Working Title] for my first-ever visit to the Space Theatre. I'm glad people moan so much about how hard it is to get to the space - less competition for us, but I really enjoy the walk along the Isle of Dogs.

Thursday 13 February went to see the opening of Akin's Dating Whilst Black, and I had another great evening at the very friendly Libra Theatre Cafe. Closed the week with the sold ut show Exs & Ohs at Barons Court Theatre, which I'm really glad I got to see, as it was sold out more than a week in advance.

The show that counts for half this month is Youth in Flames, a work in progress that we did two showings of on Wednesday 19. I watched the 3 pm one, and I feel it unfair to call this half a show. Work in progress it might be, but what I saw was very close to a fully realised show, and not a bad one at that. Fully ready for Edinburgh, I hope it comes back to us some time.

Friday 21 I stayed for Avocado. Powered by goodwill more than anything else, Avocado are ploughing on, more than 2 years after their first Barons Court performance.

Then lastly, Tuesday 25 we had our first West End outing since before the pandemic. Clueless at Trafalgar Studios. I love the, and the people who turned it into a musical probably do too, but we clearly understand it differently. I'm by no means sorry I've seen it, but it's not a show, it's a tribute act. And, hard act to follow as Clueless the film might be, it's worth deconstructing it and reconstructing it anew, thus creating an original piece of work, rather than just reenacting the best bits of the film, only with less interesting acting but perfect choreographies. Whatever!

So let's say 7.5 shows for February (Youth in Flames being the 0.5), plus obviously the 3 out of four Speakeasy, which I see every week. They alone account for 50 of my 100 shows, but I haven't yet decided how to count them for the purpose of this exercise.

100 shows a year

Earlier in 2024 I used to say I see about 100 shows a year. Then I realized I've seen just over 50 at Barons Court Theatre only. Plus about 20 in Edinburgh, that's 70 already. So I thought the number might actually be closer to 200. So this year I decided to start counting them, and hopefully I'll stick to a monthly round-up of what I've seen.

In previous years I'd also attempt a review, but there's no way I can do that without strong biases anymore, so this will be purely a round-up, and how I got to see the respective shows. And January is a slow start, with only 4 titles to add.

The first of the year was mine. Lobster Pot, by Nicky Osborn, at Barons Court Theatre. Saw 4 out of 5 performances, but I would do that, wouldn't I?

The second was an invitation from Anette at the Norwegian Embassy, Moby Dick at the Barbican. I really enjoyed this one. Not a perfect show, but intensely spectacular. The things it did well, it did very well. A solid 4/5, even for a harsh reviewer.

I then saw the opening night of Second Best at Riverside Studios. Opening night of Asa Butterfield's stage debut, a full house in Riverside's main space and a good, solid play, without anything particularly outstanding. A lukewarm 3/5 from me, Asa Butterfield is very good, but the script is a bit banal, and the direction fell in love with a lavish set design which I'm not sure served the story best.

That's it, but then I realized I also see a lot of readings, works in progress, and half-made or partially made stuff. So I decided to give myself a 0.5 for anything that could be a fully formed show, but it's not in the form I witnessed. The first one, a reading at the Italian Cultural Institute in London, a feminist Anglo-pleaser from CambiaScena. In The Pink by Irene Petra Zani, and I got there because I wanted to see Cambiascena's work, I wanted to see the Italian Institute and I wanted to see Francesca Fatichetti who I know from Psychonaut Theatre/WIG of Life.

The second one was a reading of Mihail Sebastian's Star Without a Name which I organized with the pupils of Richmond College. It won't go anywhere, but it was a good refresher to hear the play out loud.

And finally, a night of shorts at Barons Court Theatre, brought together by an environmental thread.

So really, 3 plays + 1.5. But let's stick to 4. I'll probably overtake this in February, already saw one and have a few more scheduled.

Everyone deserves the chance to fly

Wicked by Gregory Maguire
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Wicked the Musical is one of my favorites of the genre, and I really liked Wicked the movie. I've been wanting to read the book for years, but getting it as a gift last Christmas finally presented the opportunity.

From the off, finding out it's been written a few minutes away from my house made it endearing. But once the story gets going, the world we discover has little if anything to do with the world of the aforementioned visual mediums.

Gregory Maguire admits to creating a world much darker and much grittier than the one in the musical-turned-movie, and it takes a bit to accept it. The writing is beautiful though, especially in the beginning, and the time in Shiz is, in my opinion, the most successful part of the book.

There'll be spoilers ahead, so stop reading here if you don't want them.

The weird pornographic interlude in the middle is where the book goes astray, I feel. Fiyero has a much smaller part than I thought he would, he seems to exist merely to conceive Elphaba's son because after his death or presumed death, he is invoked a number of times but he cannot be held accountable for any course of affairs.

And I do feel that the second half of the book is weaker than the first. Every time jump makes Elphaba more inconsistent with herself, her behavior more erratic, the storyline in more need of reader's suspension of disbelief. Hence, when we finally get to merge its ending with the one from The Wizard of Oz, it doesn't click in nicely, it feels forced, and Elphaba is way out of character. In that sense, the musical has done a great job in leaving an open ending. Of course, the author has the excuse of all of the open possibilities in the half-decades that we skip, but these sudden turns make the story confusing, the message harder to decipher. It's all good and swell setting out to create a world, and in terms of world-creation the book is a monumental and admirable effort, but to what end? What do we do with the world, once created?

I suppose we'll see, Wicked is, at the end of the day, the first in a series of four, and in the great tradition of the Victorian novel, the next books will be concerned with future generations.

But if I'm completely honest, for all the expectation, Wicked left me a bit deflated and at the end of it I don't feel a desire to read book 2 of the series. I feel like taking another look at The Wizard of Oz.

*** Test of copying the HTML code from the Goodreads review. You can ignore it or you can...

View all my reviews