Frances wrote:Some photos of the Olympia floor and balcony from Janet Jackson's facebook page.
For people who like to look at such things.


http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.377080945282.164612.76338355282&type=3#!/photo.php?fbid=10150220597250283&set=a.377080945282.164612.76338355282&type=3&theater

philipchevron wrote:Posh by Laura Wade (Royal Court Theatre, London) Seen April 14, 2010

It is no secret that politicians frequently spend their college days in secret and elite drinking societies in which the bonds of a future Establishment are forged. In the USA, there is, of course, the infamous Skull and Bones Society. But in the UK, Oxford University's Bullingdon Club has long been the crucible of only the most privileged and the most conservative of young bloods - those males who Margaret Thatcher considered "one of us" though she herself, as a female, would not have been granted membership. In our own time, neither Boris Johnson's fond recall of "Bullers" or David Cameron's "embarrassment" about his Bullingdon Club past or George Osborne's defiant loyalty to the club alters the fact that here are the people who, after May 6, could once again be running Britain.

Even under media scrutiny, Bullingdon remains a sketchy, foggy entity. What does seem clear is that its members' sense of entitlement and their resentment of the - ostensibly - more meritocratic society over which they aspire to rule has remained unaltered by the new model caring sharing Conservative Party David "call me Dave" Cameron would have us believe he is leading. The documented activities - marathon drinking sessions in hired rooms which are then soundly thrashed, a large cash payment to the landlord covering the extensive damages - have rather obscured what it is that draws these people together. Laura Wade's new play means to blow the roof off that, on the grounds that if they won't tell us what they're up to, we'll just have to make informed guesses.

Posh ensures that the Court's resurgence as a bastion of state-of-the-nation plays continues. Though it lacks the poetry of a Jerusalem, almost the sight of these ten rich kids yomping up a storm, dressed in their silly 18th century uniforms and wigs is a radical enough piece of theatre in itself, as it reminds you how infrequently we ever see this dark corner of the British Imperial Elite in our culture - a couple of references in Evelyn Waugh perhaps, but nothing that makes it to the newstands unless a line is crossed - rape, large scale drug abuse, a minor Royal in Nazi fancy dress, that kind of thing. For the most part, Wade's play is convincing, because although she does not shirk from portraying the appalling sense of entitlement these men carry with them, neither is she silent on what might be considered their righteous indignation at the mediocre society that has supplanted them, the sheer inoffensiveness and stupidity of a bland middle class.

In the end though, her play does make its own damning judgement on the Bullingdon Club [called the Riot or Ryott Club in the play]: even the bonds that tie these men together for life in fraternal pursuit of their own ideal of a just society - basically, one in which they are top dog - are fraudulent. When the collective gets into a spot of bother in the course of the play, one which cannot be swept under the Axminster or bought off, they do not hesitate to put their own preservation before their avowed loyalty, and they easily throw their most obnoxious member to the wolves. In a final scene, however, this black sheep is, in turn, cultivated by the establishment mandarins further up the aristocratic food chain. The implication is clear - a would-be Prime Minister is being groomed.

Perhaps the former New Labour leader Tony Blair's greatest crime - greater even than his complicity in the Iraq War - was that he rendered his party indistinguishable from these goons.

philipchevron wrote:Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street by Stephen Sondheim (music & lyrics), Hugh Wheeler (book) (Festival Theatre, Chichester)

Seen in previews, September 29, opens October 6.

After a rocky start in 1979, usually attributed, probably correctly, to orginal director Hal Prince's attempt to burden the production with an additional layer of meaning, adding the political and social consequences of the Industrial Revolution to the original tale of revenge, Sweeney Todd has gone on to have one of the most successful afterlives of all the Sondheim shows. What's remarkable is that, absent the tilt of Prince's unbalancing concept, it has gone on to be one of his most versatile too, and has been successfully presented in degrees of scale ranging from chamber versions apparently set in Bethlehem Hospital (with the score played by the actor-inmates including, memorably, Patti LuPone on the tuba and triangle!) to full scale Covent Garden and Met versions. It's even been an iffy Tim Burton/Johnny Depp movie.

Though I've been privileged to see many of these variations, along with some less successful attempts too, I can't say I've ever seen one quite as thrilling, fluid, absorbing and dramatically coherent as Jonathan Kent's new version at Chichester. Michael Ball and Imelda Staunton are a just about perfect as Sweeney and Mrs Lovett, roles that, by now, appear to offer as many options to actors as Macbeth and his Lady wife have always done, and of the supporting cast, James McConville as Toby merits special mention.

georgecat wrote:Carmen and I are going to the Sunday 20th reading at Portrait of A Bookstore on Tujunga from 3-6. It's a block away from my house and it's inside Aroma Cafe. Aroma is one of my top places in the world. Amazing food, books, a block away, and it's like eating in your backyard.

Mike from Boston wrote:

Low D wrote:

Doktor Avalanche wrote:

the group’s gay banjoist, Philip Chevron

Well, he came in on the banjo, right enuf.... for about 10 mins or so!

According to PoguesLive.Com, Mr. Chevron subbed on banjo for Jem during April and May 1985 during shows in Germany , Sweden and Norway.

Low D wrote:

Doktor Avalanche wrote:

the group’s gay banjoist, Philip Chevron

Well, he came in on the banjo, right enuf.... for about 10 mins or so!

Guest wrote:

lavabe wrote:strange thing that the official anthem for the euro 2012 "rocky road to dublin" is on no. 1 in the irish charts but the rockier one is not under the top 100.... what went wrong guys??

http://www.irma.ie/aucharts.asp

The Aftermath is song is unlistenable.

Doktor Avalanche wrote:

the group’s gay banjoist, Philip Chevron

Frances wrote:

Fr. McGreer wrote:

Frances wrote:Where the hell was this picture taken that you can still smoke in a bar?

I'd say it's a straw from a drink

Oh.

Fr. McGreer wrote:

Frances wrote:Where the hell was this picture taken that you can still smoke in a bar?

I'd say it's a straw from a drink

lavabe wrote:strange thing that the official anthem for the euro 2012 "rocky road to dublin" is on no. 1 in the irish charts but the rockier one is not under the top 100.... what went wrong guys??

http://www.irma.ie/aucharts.asp

lavabe wrote:strange thing that the official anthem for the euro 2012 "rocky road to dublin" is on no. 1 in the irish charts but the rockier one is not under the top 100.... what went wrong guys??

http://www.irma.ie/aucharts.asp