<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <title>THE STAGE PAGE PART 2</title> <style> P {TEXT-INDENT:"+5%"} </style> <style> P {TEXT-INDENT:"+5%"} </style> </head> <body style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <table border="2" style="width: 100%; text-align: left; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" cellpadding="4"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <p align="center"><font color="#00ff00" size="7" face="Bodoni">THE STAGE PAGE PART 2</font></p> <p align="center"><font color="#00ff00" size="5" face="Bodoni"><a href="inde.html"><font color="#00ff00">1</font></a><font color="#00ff00"> </font><font color="#00ff00" size="5" face="Bodoni"><font color="#00ff00" size="5" face="Bodoni">2</font><font color="#00ff00" size="5" face="Bodoni"> <a href="page3.html"><font color="#00ff00" size="5" face="Bodoni"><font color="#00ff00">3</font></font></a><font color="#00ff00" size="5" face="Bodoni"><font color="#00ff00" size="5" face="Bodoni"> <a href="page4.html"><font color="#00ff00">4 </font></a></font></font></font></font></font></p> <font color="#00ff00" size="5" face="Bodoni"> </font></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1"> <p align="center"><font face="Bodoni"><a name="CCF"> </a><img src="ccf.jpg" width="393" height="558"> </font></p> </td> <td> <p align="center"><font size="6" face="Bodoni"><strong>COLD COMFORT FARM</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font size="6" face="Bodoni"><strong>March 2000</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><a href="ccf_cast/index.html"><font color="#0000ff" size="4" face="Bodoni">CLICK HERE</font></a><font color="#0000ff" size="4" face="Bodoni"> </font><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>to meet the cast</strong></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" style="vertical-align: middle; text-align: justify;" rowspan="1"> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp; <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Cold Comfort Farm is a novel by Stella Gibbons, written in nineteen-thirty-something (please excuse my limited literary knowledge). In 1995 the story was made into a musical by ULOG member, Barrie Goldston (a.k.a Alaric T. Barrie III) and he also directed the production. I haven't read the novel, but I can tell the story as it was in the show. It is a bout the Starkadder family who live on a farm in Sussex. Flora Poste a rather a well-off woman who's never done a day's work in her life; she's a 'professional parasite' who lives off her relatives. However her parents have died and the only relative she is able to live with is her cousin, Judith Starkadder. Judith's husband, Amos, the owner of the farm, apparently did a great wrong to Flora's father, Robert Poste. Judith wishes to atone for the wrong but will not tell Flora what the awful deed was. Judith's mother, the mad Ada Doom will not let anyone leave the farm because of something she'd seen in the woodshed 69 years earlier. Flora is somewhat concerned about this on arriving at the farm. What's more, Amos is a hellfire preacher; he doesn't give the farm much attention and goes on about how the land is cursed. His eldest son, Reuben, consequently finds himself doing all the work himself and Amos never listens to his useful suggestions. Reuben's brother Seth, another layabout, is very good-looking and mollocks with as many girls as he can (reminds me of one of my relatives). He also likes the 'talkies' and has dreams of going to Hollywood and appearing in them. He has a sister as well, Elfine, who is love the squire Richard Hawk-Monitor. Unfortunately, due to Ada Doom's work, she has to marry her revolting cousin, Urk. The oldest person on the farm is Old Lambsbreath. He is over 90 and a little ga-ga. He washes the dishes with a twig and is in love with Graceless, a three-legged cow. Adam sing a love song above her, which is the best song in the show.</font> </font> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> Flora recognises these problems ads decides to help everyone out. She tries to persuade Amos to buy a 'Ford van' and go round the country on preaching tour, rather than only preaching to the 'Quivering Brethren' at the local town of Howling. Ada's not going to like it, but he eventually 'sees the light' and agrees with Flora. The purpose of this is that Amos leave the farm and Reuben could take over.<br> <br> </font>&nbsp;<font face="Bodoni" size="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; To help Elfine make it with the squire, Flora fixes it so that she can go to his 21st birthday ball. Esth is Elfine's date (though she hates him). Flora invites the American film director, Earl P. Neck, to that ball so that they can meet and so Seth can fulfil his greatest ambition. To help the ancient farmhand, Adam Lambsbreath, with the dishes, Flora buys him a washing up mop. Adam, however, does not use it for 'cletterin' the dishes' but falls in love with it instead; though he still loves Graceless. Things are going well, but Ada is not happy. Judith is also unhappy about Seth leaving, but after a visit by psychiatrist Dr. Müdel she gets over it. In the end Flora manages to persuade Ada to go on holiday (I won't say how) and so every one is free to do what they wish. Sadly though, Flora doesn't want to marry Reuben, as she's not the sort of person to be a farmer's wife (and they're related). I think there are too many jokes about farming people marrying within the family.</font> <br> <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font face="Bodoni" size="3">I think this is an excellent story to be written as a musical simply because most of character's are at least slightly mad or eccentric. There were a variety of different accents, rustic English, upper class English, French, American, German and Australian (because Richard Hawk-Monitor was played by an Australian). This show was very well cast (aside from the Australian accent) and well directed. I played Earl P. Neck, and people seemed to be impressed by my accent. I also had parts to play in the various choruses, as farmer Harkaway Starkadder, as one of the quivering brethren and as one of Flora's upper-class friends. My main concern in this show was not my lines, music or moves but keeping track of my various bits of costume. I also had the privilege of being the frog puppeteer during the best song in the play, Adam's 'I Love a Cow' song. There were plenty of other good songs, 'The Quivering Brethren song, 'The Abbot will Know' and, of course, 'Movie Star' (did I really need a radio mike in such a small theatre?).<br> <br> </font></font>&nbsp;<font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font face="Bodoni" size="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; This production was very enjoyable, the most fun I'd had on stage since Iolanthe. I was very happy to do it again in August, despite thesis writing pressures, at The Players Theatre in the West End, the first sell out performance I'd done since leaving Manchester.<br> <br> </font></font></font> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font></div> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font></td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1"> <p align="center"><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>DIVORCE ME, DARLING</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>December 2000</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><a href="dmd/index.html"><font color="#0000ff" size="4" face="Bodoni">CLICK HERE</font></a><font color="#0000ff" size="4" face="Bodoni"> </font><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>to meet the cast</strong></font></p> </td> <td> <p align="center"><font face="Bodoni"><a name="DMD"> </a><img src="dmd.jpg" width="392" height="545"> </font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top" rowspan="1" style="text-align: justify;"> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; My student life finally came to end in September 2000, at least for the time-being. Unfortunately, I was one of the few people on the course who hadn't sorted out what they were going to do next (it's not as though I hadn't made an effort or anything). Anyway the was the issue as to whether I should continue with the acting and do another show with ULOG, or possibly another society. My main concern was whether I might audition for something and get a part but then get a job and have leave London before the show is put on. This was a distinct possibility. That is because I was applying for jobs in relatively uncompetitive field and nearly all the jobs I applied based outside of London. Nonetheless I thought that within the time scale of the production it would be unlikely that I would receive a job offer and be expected to start before the week of the show. As things turned out, I didn't even receive an offer.<br> <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; So I auditioned for this play, but knew very little about it. I was aware that it is the sequel to The Boyfriend, but I knew very little about that either. </font></div> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">The story is based around a series of couples who all met each other in Nice during The Boyfriend. There are main two couples, Polly and Tony Brockhurst and Bobby and Masie Van Husen, Bobby is American. There are also 3 Anglo-French couples; Dulcie, Nancy and Fay are married to Pierre, Alphonse and Marcel (I can't actually remember who is married to whom, but that's not important). Ten years have elapsed since then. Polly, Bobby, Dulcie, Nancy and Fay all independently decide to take a holiday in Nice at the Hotel du Paradis, a hotel run by the amorous Monsieur Gaston and receptionist Hortense. Polly and Bobby meet each other the hotel, recognise each other, and then have a drink together on the terrace outside their rooms. Then, somewhat unexpectedly, Tony turns up. And then later Maisie arrives with Hannah, Bobby's wallflower sister. There is incriminating evidence that both Booby and Polly have been with another lover (a man's scarf and lipstick on a champagne glass). Polly and Bobby each try and find a covering up excuse to their respective spouses. The three other women, who live in Paris, told their husbands that they were going to London. Would you believe it? The three Frenchmen also go to Nice. And there's more, Tony's parents, Lord Hubert and Lady Hilda Brockhurst have also gone on camping holiday to (guess where) Nice with the health and beauty girls their ridiculously stupid nephew, Baronet Freddy Fotherington-Fitch. Lady Brockhurst is a health fanatic, and with she likes to make regular exhibitions of their aerobic routines. Lord Brockhurst, however, much prefers to look at girls in bikinis and 'reconnoitres every possibility'. Lady Brockhurst tries to find a place to set up their tent. She chooses the gardens of the Hotel du Paradis, much to the dismay of Monsiuer Gaston. And there's still more, Madamme Dubonnet, Polly's stepmother, is a cabaret star, but doesn't want any of her relatives to know. She thus calls herself Kiki and she is to give a performance at the Carnival Ball at the Café Pataplon. Inconviently, her husband and Polly's father, Percy, has been asked to dress as the president of Monomania (a country in South America, where all the platinum comes from). Not only that, but every person I've mentioned is going to the Carnival Ball as well.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; At the start of ACT 2, on going to the carnival ball, the 'affair' between Polly and Bobby becomes obvious to their respective partners; whom are not happy about it. Then the three young Frenchmen discover their wives, whom were supposed to be in Angleterre. They're not happy either. Then comes the crazy scene at The carnival ball.</font> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> <font face="Bodoni" size="3">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Madame Dubonnet arranges it so that Hortense sings instead. The president (actually Percy) jumps up and removes her mask (shock horror!), then the real Mme Dubonnet appears and removes Percy's beard (shock horror again!). It's just as well that Percy did stand up, or he would have been blown up by a bomb in the president's champagne bottle. Would you believe it? The president immediatley walks in and thanks Percy for almost getting killed in his place (well actually the bomb merely knocks over two tables, and Lady Brockhurst, without doing any damage). You'd think that Percy would be incensed about the near miss, but was more concerned about having not seen Mme. Dubonnet many years, as he has being taking refuge from a conviction over a crime involving a Monomanian platinum mine. But he is innocent, and the president has proof.</font> </font> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font face="Bodoni" size="3">The summary is nearly over. In the end the president invites everyone onto his yacht to continue the ball. Without giving too much away(?), Polly and Tony make up, as do Maisie and Bobby and the three Anglo-French couples, Hannah gets together with Freddy, Lord Brockhurst fails to escape from his wife and everyone lives happily ever after.</font></font> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font></div> <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I played M. Gaston. He has a duet with Hortense in the first act about the Paradise Hotel. During this song with flirted with each other and effectively became a couple. Somehow it seemed too appropriate that we got together without any problems and things stayed that way. There were 32 designated parts in this play, but not as many people auditioning. Indeed many of the bigger parts were played by people expecting to be in the chorus, some of them did very well, including Lady Brockhurst and Freddy (in fact he didn't know he was going to be until 3 days before the first night). There were good performances from Polly, Maisie and Bobby as well. Some of the people playing the smaller parts were a little weak. There were some convincing accents by Marcel and by Hannah; ........well, OK, the actor playing Marcel was French and the actress Hannah was American. I do think though that Hannah's accent was not stupid-sounding enough for the character. </font> </div> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font> </font> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font face="Bodoni" size="3">As you may have guessed from the summary, some parts of the story are a bit crap, particularly the Café Pataplon scene. But those I know who saw it seemed to like it. There are some good jolly songs. There's the "Alone and Fancy Free" song with Lord Brockhurst, Dulcie, Nancy, and Fay. There's song with misfits Freddy and Hannah comparing each other things they like (for example Freddy likes Dundee Cake and Hannah likes Pumpkin Pie). In the yaucht scene ther's a song and dance called "Swingtime" where Maisie, distressed with her husband, comes on in a sailor's outfit, and everyone does the Swing dance. This total tangent to the plot is a joke. I've heard that it's based on a Gene Kelly film but there was a film made in the 20's called Swingtime, which I haven't seen. Rumour has it that only ever been 5 productions of Divorce Me Darling. Perhaps it's no surprise that the author Sandy Wilson made the effort to go to the Oratory school on the last nigh to see it. It's a shame for him and for the cast that very few other people went to see it.</font></font></font></p> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font> </font></font> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font face="Bodoni" size="3">One my most vivid memories of this show was a moment at the end of the first act one night when Lord Brockhurst (Chris Cann) went berserk. After my closing line of the act, <em>"At the Paradise Hotel" </em>I turned round at dtormed at me saying <em>"I say, froggy chap"</em> and his face went bright red!</font></font></font></font></p> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font> </font></font> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font></font></font></div> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font> </font></font> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font face="Bodoni" size="3">&nbsp;This the kind of show I'd be happy to appear in 4 times, as we did, but after 10 performances it would start teg et annoying, I expect.</font></font></font></font></p> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"> </font> </font></font></td> </tr> </tbody><tbody> <tr> <td colspan="1"><font face="Bodoni"><a name="Ida"> </a><img src="ida.jpg" width="398" height="561"> </font><br> <br> </td> <td> <p align="center"><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>PRINCESS IDA</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>March 2001</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><a href="princess_ida/index.html"><font color="#0000ff" size="4" face="Bodoni">CLICK HERE</font></a><font color="#0000ff" size="4" face="Bodoni"> </font><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>to meet the cast</strong></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top" rowspan="1" style="text-align: justify;"> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The auditions for this show were held the week before the performances of Divorce Me Darling! This was unfortunate, because I was suffering with flu (or something similar). By the time Divorce Me Darling had started I had mostly recovered, but not fully. Indeed the previous time I'd had flu was during the ULOG summer revue in June 2000. Also, when I did The Gondoliers I had some kind of inner ear problem which frequently made me feel dizzy. So ULOG shows seem to inflict illnesses upon me. Anyway I did audition, though I was faced with the same dilemma as last time. If I get a job and have to leave London before the performance I'd have to drop out, and I don't want to do that. On the other hand, being unemployed helps make attending rehearsals straightforward. What happened ultimately is that I got a job in London and started a couple of weeks before the performance. But as the job was in London, I didn't have to drop out of the show. </font> <font size="3" face="Bodoni">Princess Ida Gilbert and Sullivan Operetta number 7. As anyone who's scene the 1999 Mike Leigh film "Topsy Turvy" will know, this was not one of the most successful. It is set in Hungary, where there are two kings at war with each other named Hildebrand and Gama. King Hildebrand resides at Castle Hildebrand and his son Hilarion is engaged to King Gama's daughter, Ida. They have been engaged for 20 years; Hilarion is 22 years old and Ida is 21. They have not seen each other since their engagement! As a means of bringing peace the two are to be united properly, Gama is to bring Ida to castle Hildebrand. There is a catch however, Ida is in charge of a women's University at Castle Adamant. None of the women at the University are ever to be married. Gama, instead of bringing her, brings his three sons, Arac, Guron and Synthius. They are all big, strong and stupid and fighting is their trade. They enter the court first and introduce themselves before the decrepid and tactless Gama appears. Apparently everybody says he is a disagreable man, but he can't think why. To Hildebrand, and the rest of court, it is obvious!<br> <br> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hildebrand is angry with Gama for not bringing the Princess, and also for his rude remarks about the castle's decor. Gama explains Ida's chastity situation and then Hildebrand orders Hilarion to go and search for her. He tells Gama that if Hilarion fails to return with the Princess he will hang him! 'Most politely' of course. Gama and his three sons are held hostage. <font size="3" face="Bodoni">Act 2 switches to Castle Adament. Hilarion and his courtiers Cyril and Florian are lucky enough on arrival to find a stack of undergraduate robes outside. By putting these on and adopting a high tone of voice they can mistaken for women. Well, it's happened in other operas. The disguise works well up to a point, that is when Florian finds his sister Lady Psyche. Another student, Melissa, meets Florian and his quite taken with him. She sings a song with them. Her mother is Lady Blanche, who is second in command hears this song. She is somewhat alarmed that two of them are tenors and one is a baritone. Melissa has to admit that they are men but points out to her mother that by helping Hilarion carry off Ida she might be able to take over as first in command. Lady Blanche likes this idea! As you might expect, Ida eventually finds out that three men have entered the premises. It happens when Cyril drinks too much wine during lunch and refers to Hilarion by his real name.</font> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">The moment she finds out she is so surprised that she falls backwards over the castle walls into the sea (or is it a moat?). In heroic fashion Hilarion dives in a rescues her. This, however, make her no less angry with him. Then, all of a sudden, warriors from the court of Hildebrand burst into the castle. Hildebrand explains the situation and then Ida's brothers, all chained up, tell her that they will all be hanged, along with their father, if he does not yield. Ida tries to reassure her brothers by saying that 'his menaces are idle as the wind' and he is merely bluffing. It doesn't work. Hildebrand gives her until the following afternoon to decide.<br> &nbsp;<br> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; At the start of act 3 (this is the only G&amp;S operetta set in three acts) the obstinate Ida orders her students to put on their armour and prepare for battle. They are not too keen. But suddenly her father appears. It turns out that Hildebrand has been looking after him rather well. But Gama doesn't like it, he wants to have something to grumble at! It has been decide that Gama's sons are to fight against the three "tufted jack-dandy featherheads"; i.e.Hilarion, Cyril and Florian. Ida will have to marry Hilarion if his side wins. The three brothers have being full plate-mail armour throughout the play. Arac then sings a baroque-style song about the armour and how cumbersome it is to wear. His brothers agree, and they all have it removed. As you might expect, they lose the dual. They don't get killed, of course, just wounded. As a result Ida yields, but sees the error in her ways. Melissa then takes Florian as her husband and Psyche agrees to marry Cyril, provided he behaves himself. Lady Blanche is able to take over as principal, and everyone lives happily ever after. This is an unusual G&amp;S play in that the dialogue is written as a poem (I don't know what kind of pentameter it is). And so it can be compared to a Shakespeare. Some aspects of the plot can also be compared to Shakespeare plays along with some of the jokes. For example, Melissa says: <br> <br> <em>Oh, sir! you must away from this at once<br> My mother guessed your sex! It was my fault<br> I blushed and stammered so that she exclaimed,<br> "Can these be men?" Then, seeing this, "Why these....."<br> "Are men", she would have added, but "are men"<br> Stuck in her throat!<br> <br> </em>&nbsp;That's actually one of the better jokes. So of the jokes are so bad you don't even notice them. For example when Gama is telling the court of Hildebrand about castle Adament.... <br> <br> FLORIAN: <em>And there are no males whatever in those walls?</em></font></font> <br> GAMA: <em>None, gentlemen, excepting letter mails<br> And they are driven (as males often are<br> In other large communities) by women.<br> Why, bless my heart, she's so particular<br> She'll hardly suffer Dr. Watts's hymns<br> And all the animals she owns are "hers"!<br> The ladies rise at cockcrow every morn....</em> <br> CYRIL: <em>Ah, then they have male poultry?</em> <br> GAMA: <em>Not at all,<br> (Confidentially) The crowing's done by an accomplished hen!<br> &nbsp;</em>There is a series of jokes there, none of which are any good. If I were to play Gama, a tempting charactrer though it is, I wouldn't know how best to deliver them.<br> <br> </font></font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; I am beginning to wonder whether the basses in the D'Oly Carte were any good learning lines, but bass characters in many of the G&amp;S shows don't seem to have much to say. The three brothers are all basses, and I was Guron. I found myself having to pretend to be big and strong and I tried to put on an expression that ould make me look both stupid and agressive at the same time. I'm not quite sure whether it worked. If you've read my homepage carefully you'll have noticed that I'm not a big fellow, neither was Sunthius, but Arac was quite tall. The actor playing Gama (Phil Errington) was a big fellow (the one who played Seth in Cold Comfort Farm) and he had adopt a very crooked stance to appear smaller and weaker than his sons. He did a good job of that. He had to perform wearing a hideous face mask and his all round performance was good. All of the principals were very good, in one sense or another at least! Cyril's performance, if I may say so, was much better than I had anticipated (though Phil Hayes enjoys a little bit of leching!). King Hildebrand did his dialogue very well but, as I'm sure he'll agree, hada little trouble getting all the notes right. In Hilarion's case it was the other way round; he sang beautifully but had had little acting experience, but overall he was good. I don't like nominating top performers in any show because it will attract a deal of controversy, but I'd give my top performance award to Ida. She knew the words spot on and adopted a very good obstinate teacher's attitude. She also has a very good voice. The actress, Heather Johnson, comes from Texas. Aparently an American in the audience managed to spot the two American chorus members by observing their mannerisms but failed to spot her as an American. I could compare her Renée Zellweger in the film Bridget Jones' Diary at this point. But that would be inappropriate. In the film, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Sir Galahad the chaste visits Castle Anthrax, a castle occupied only by 18-22 year old female students. I wonder if the idea of Castle Anthrax was derived from Castle Adament? The costumes, which had all been hired from the Haslemere wardrobe, were all very good; although Hilarion and his courtiers looked more feminine in their 16th century breaches than in the female undergraduate robes. The orchestra could and should performed better. Some members seemed to think that the consumption of one or cans of beer during performances helps them play better. It's not just question of playing the right notes, it's a case of playing in time and with everyone else. That requires concentration and it helps to be sober. I'm sorry if that sounds a bit harsh. They weren't as bad as the Iolanthe orchestra, but that's not saying much. All G&amp;S ops are full of memorable tunes, but there are perhaps not as many in this one as in most of the others. That could be part of reason why it wasn't a success. One thing I don't like about Princess Ida is that the brothers introduce themselves in Act 1 as being "on the whole, not intelliegent" but they don't actually do anything stupid until Act 3, when they decide to remove their armour. There are limited opportunities for comical 'ad-libbing'. I don't like as it much as the other ones I've done, but I do like it. Gilbert and Sullivan is one of those things you either love or you hate, even if so many of the jokes are terrible. I guess I'm starting to love it. I was worried about how worn out the show would make through having to go to work during the day as well and get back home at about midnight each night. I actually coped with it better than I'd expected. I guess 'show adrenaline' pulled me through. I felt very tired during the following week.<br> <br> </font> </div> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="1"> <p align="center"><a href="http://www.imperialopera.org.uk/ss2001.html"><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>STREET SCENE</strong></font></a></p> <p align="center"><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>June 2001</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><a href="street_scene/index.html"><font color="#0000ff" size="4" face="Bodoni">CLICK HERE</font></a><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong> to meet the cast </strong></font></p> </td> <td> <p align="center"><font face="Bodoni"><a name="Streetscene"> </a><img src="Street%20scene%20poster.jpg" width="383" height="542"> </font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top" rowspan="1" style="text-align: justify;"> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Street Scene was my first show with the society Imperial Opera. All my previous shows were either when I was at school or at with a University society. So this was my first show with a "proper operatic society". Having said that, the society was founded by members of Imperial College London, but the college has it's own opera society (though it doesn't seem to do much opera) and the two shouldn't be confused.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">Anyway, an Ameican opera by Kurt Weill. Actually a nice mixture of 'proper' opera music and the "easier to sing broadway style" music. <br> Now for a plot summary that I shall probably get wrong. It set in downtown New York in the 30s. There are a variety of Europeans in the neighbouhood, there's an Italian (Lippo Fiorentino) a German (his wife Greta Fiorentino), an Irishman (George Jones) and the Swedish couple (Karl and Olga Olsen). There are some Americans living there as well. For example there's the disabled Abraham Kaplan and his children Sam and Shirley. There's Daniel Buchanan, whose wife is in labour. There's Mrs. Jones, George's wife (her first name is never mentioned, as far as I can tell) who has a daughter, Mae a son, Vincent and a dog, Queenie. Most significantly, there's the Maurrant family. Frank Maurrant is married to Anna and they have two children, Rose and Willie.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">So there's some of the characters. There are others but I'll mention them as I go.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">It starts off with some the neighbours complaining about how hot it is and the song "<em>Don't know what I'm gonna do</em>". Then Henry Davis, the janitor, sings a blues song '<em>A Marble and a Star</em>'. A nice little song and is reprised near the end of act 1. Like of many of the songs in this show it has no significance on the overall story, but is nice to listen to. The biggest subject of conversion is the suspected affair between Anna Maurrant and Steve Sankey, who works for the milk company. Frank is not the most affectionate of characters; his favourite word is 'trouble'. Suspicians are aroused when Mr. Sankey goes out to buy some ginger ale, and then, 'coincidentally' goes out to look for Willie. <em>"Get a load of That"</em> is the repeated reaction. Olga goes after them, and sees them together.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">Lippo Fiorentino plays in a band and also sells ice cream. On making his entrance he gives a cone of vanilla ice cream to everyone on stage, though Greta is concerned about her level of calorie intake. This is followed by the best song in the show, which is a sextet about how wonderful ice cream is. It's a long song, discussing many of the flavours. Yet this was written well before the days of Haagen-Daas.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">That light-hearted song is followed by Frank's entrance, and a less light-hearted song about his disapproval of things like free-love and abortion. He also has strong view abou how children should be brought up; i.e. regular thrashing. He is rather dismayed that it is 8pm and Rose has not yet returned from work. <br> The next song is another light-hearted song "Wrapped in a Ribbon", sung by most of the neighbours in praise of Jenny Hildebrand, along with two others, who have just graduated from school with flying colours. Unfortunately, the school, which is owned by her mother, is to be dispossessed the following day. Her father ran off with another women and so they can no longer afford the rent. This song ends with everyone dancing in the street (how nice). Then everyone stops when Sankey appears, as both Frank and Anna are in the vicinity. To this point, about a third of the way through, Greta, Mrs. Jones and Olga have been on stage virtually the whole time. After that they have little to do. But before they disppear Lippo delivers my favourite line of the show to his wife</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">"<em>If I ever catch you-a-sleeping with the milkman, I swear I'm-a gonna break-a your neck.</em>"</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">Said with an Italian accent, it sounds funny. Even funnier if it's an Italian accent with a hint of Scottish.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">Rose has had a date with Harry Easter, an older man at her office. But her boyfriend is Sam Kaplan. Sam is about 18, is Jewish and is studying to become a lawyer. His greatest passion, apart from Rose, is reading. Sadly, he has very little self esteem. Harry tries to make a deal with her, whereby, if she agrees to becomes his mistress, he would influence a friends of his to get her a role on broadway. Harry sings a song <em>"Wouldn't you like to be on brooadway?</em>" Rose is a woman of strong principles and turns down the offer. Frank then sees the two together; he's not happy about Rose getting involved with married men and makes her aware of that. This is followed by the show's main dance number with Mae Jones and Dick McCann. Dick is obssessed with girls, particularly Mae. She plays hard to get but he manages to seduces her with with some scotch. While that's going on, Frank opens a bottle himself and starts drinking. His wife is not there as she is trying to comfort Mrs. Buchanan (whom we never see) while she's giving birth.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font face="Bodoni">Rose and Sam finally get together on stage, but another admirer, Vincent appears. He's big and strong but not intelligent (reminds me of the previous show). He gives Sam a punch, he might have done worse, but then his ma appears having taken the dog for a walk. So does Rose like men with money, strength or brains? Not strength, that's for sure, but she admits to the audience that's tempted by Harry's offer as a means of moving out of the dreary neighbourhood.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">A new day begins at the start of act 2. I've already told you what my favourite line in the show was. Others prefer this line:</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>"You dirty little tart!",</em></font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">An exclamtion from Dick after Mae brushes him off after, what presumably was, an extended groping session. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">On this day, Frank is to go to New Haven on business. He asks Anna where she'd been the night before. She tells him that she was looking after a neighbour who was giving birth. She may have been dishonest on previous occasions, but this time she's telling the truth. Frank is suspicious nonetheless, especially when Anna how long he's going to be away. The response is </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">"<em>I don't know when I'll be back, when I'm through with my work that's when. Why do you want to know? Why are you so anxious to know?" </em>In a very angry voice.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>"I was just asking" </em>she says, in a dainty voice.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Rose is going to go to funeral of herformer boss. She tells Sam how keen she is to move away. She mentions Mr. Easter and how he might get a job in the theatre.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">"<em>Don't you know what this man wants?"</em> Sam says.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Well, she does know, and Sam is outraged. So Sam suggests they move away together. Rose says that he wouldn't want to give up his studying. The romantic but predictable line follows</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>"I'll do anything to stay with you."</em></font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni">So this is followed by the duet <em>"When we go away together!"</em></font><br> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em> </em>The moment that song ends, Harry appears saying <em>"Why don't we go to the funeral together?" </em>and "<em>How about we go for a run around the beach togther after the funeral?</em>" She says 'no' to the second question. </font> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Some eerie music then evolves from the orchestra, accompanied by a distant voice repeating "<em>Strawberries</em>". Mr. Sankey appears. Anna invites him in. Then, rather inappropriately, the eerie music is replaced by some erratic violin playing from Myrtle (a child) who's having a lesson with Lippo. James Henry, the City Marshall, then appears with his assistant Fred Cullen and have come to dispossess the Hildebrand appartment. Frank then reappears haveing decided not to go afterall, only to spot his wife and Sankey in his bedroom. He goes nuts and runs towards the house. Sam tries to stop him, but once again he's pushed aside. He enters the bedroom and shoots them.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Everyone in the neighbourhood hears the shots and tries to find out what's going on. Fred, who's moving furniture (or is it 'foiniture'), sees the event and runs out of the house saying</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>"Grab him, don't let him get away!"</em></font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Frank follows him with his gun and runs into the basement. Through there he manages to escape. Mrs. Jones keeps saying "<em>Call and ambulance</em>" but nobody can here her. Eventually Fred, in a state of shock, says</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>"It's a moider, Jesus, you oughta see the blood"</em></font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">The ambulance is called and Officer Murphy, or 'Moiphy' arrives. He's a cop with attitude. Rose returns from the funeral to discover what has happened. She can barely believe it. Anna is not yet dead, but dies later.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">The cops eventually find Frank, though they had fire a few shots in doing so. Frank sings the song "<em>I loved her to</em>o" with Rose and rest of the cast singing off stage. It includes the big line</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>"I couldn't stand to see anyone else taking her away from me, 'cos I loved her too".</em></font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">And later he says</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">"<em>It's the chair for me, I guess, but I don't care. Let them give me the chair!</em>"</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">So it look as though Rose is going to lose both her parents as a result of one incident. After Frank is taken away, Sam presses Rose into moving away with him. But now she's not so keen. She wants a piece of Harry's money, though she doesn't say that. Sam is thus heart-broken. But then comes the final twist. Harry moves into the Hildebrand apartment with his new mistress. The opera ends with a reprise of the opening song.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">That was a long summary. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">When I auditioned for this show, knowing very little about it, I mentioned that I'd been in West Side Story. The audition panel seemed to deduce from this that I was able to dance.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Hmmmm!</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">On that basis I thought I was going to be cast Dick McCann. I wasn't, I played Fred Cullen. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">I find it remarkable how the author was capable bringing plenty of humour into a story is involving deception, heartbreak and murder.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">The cast was excellent. All of the main principals had strong voices. A few dodgy accents (Officer Moiphy!). One or two cast members were playing characters that were much younger than themselves. Sam was one of them, but he acted the part of the young diffident man very well. I've played characters that are much older than whatever age I was; but it's more usual that way round. There are 3 tenor parts in this show, Sam , Lippo nad Buchanan. They were all very good; in no other show that I've been in 3 good tenors. It was usually possible to understand the words people were singing if you listened hard enough. Though this was not always the case. For example, in the opening song Abraham Kaplan sings</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>"Oi these moiders in capitalist press" </em></font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">I know that Oi means all and moiders means but I thought he was saying</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>"Oi these moiders in the Beadle Express". </em></font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Not the silliest name for a newspaper, I thought. Could have been a train I suppose!</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">The orchestra were also very good, but a little overamplified. That made it difficult to for the audience to hear the singers, particularly at the start of act 2 when the children play a game of tag. The only bit that was played badly was the music lesson bit, but that was intentional. If we'd had the Iolanthe orchestra playing, one wouldn't have known whether it was intentional or not (sorry). </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">The walls of the houses consisted of black curtains. I'm not certain whether this was to portray the impression of the neighbours having a rather dull lifestyle or simply because there wasn't time to put together soething that looked like brickwork. Probably both.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Now to mention cock-ups. I've already told about my favourite song from the show, the ice cream song. When Lippo comes on the first time, he has to carry 7 cones of ice cream. Do I have to tell you that during one performance a scoop fell off it's cone? I'm surprised it happened only once. There actually weren't many gaffs, but there was a signifiacnt one in the final performance. Frank shot his wife and Sankey, deafening everyone with the noise. I ran out of the house and said that he was coming out afterwards. I turned round and pointed at towards the entrance. I waited for him to come out so I say the line mentioned earlier. But he never appeared. So someone suggested that he might have gone into the cellar! Millie the dog behaved well, but there was one occasion when she was reluctant to disappear off stage after walking through the central doorways and a sharp tug was required. Only those along the centre line of the audience could see that.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">This show attracted more audience than any of the other Oratory school shows I've been in, mainly because there were 35 people in the cast. But lets hope I have a litle more to do next time. Surprising enough, no Harry Easter-type characters have seen this show and invited my to come and perform on broadway. Neither have any Earl P. Neck-type characters invited me to Hollywood. One day it will happen.<br> <br> </font></p> </td> </tr> </tbody><tbody> <tr> <td colspan="1"><a name="Todd"> </a><img src="sweeney.jpg" width="375" height="531"> </td> <td> <p align="center"><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>SWEENEY TODD</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong>October 2001</strong></font></p> <p align="center"><a href="sweeney_todd/index.html"><font color="#0000ff" size="4" face="Bodoni">CLICK HERE</font></a><font size="5" face="Bodoni"><strong> to meet the cast </strong></font></p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2" valign="top" rowspan="1" style="text-align: justify;"> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em><br> Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd </em></font><br> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em> His skin was pale his eye was odd </em></font><br> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em> He shaved the faces of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard of again</em></font><br> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em> He trod a path that few have trod </em></font><br> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em> Did Sweeney Todd </em></font><br> <font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em> The demon barber of Fleet Street</em> </font> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Those are the opening lines to this play by Stephen Sondheim. The first line has a punch to it that definitely gets the audience's attention. The second line sounds rather silly by comparison, but then the next few lines bring back the mood created by the first line. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Thus begins this black comedy, the blackest of comedies. I had seen a version Sondheim's Sweeney Todd once before in Manchester in 1998. As it was so good, there was little doubt in my mind that my second appearance with Sweeney Todd should immediately follow my first. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">If you've never seen this show, you might prefer not to read this review, just in case you do ever see it. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">As I'm sure you're aware Sweeney Todd was a barber who slit the throats of his customers, chopped them up, and put them into pies. In this version of the story, Benjamin Barker has been imprisoned in Botany Bay for 14 years before escaping on a raft and picked up and taken home in a boat by the sailor, Anthony Hope. They both go to London. The first person they encounter is a old beggarwoman who seems to recognise Sweeney. Sweeney then tells Anthony, and the audience, about his wife, Lucy. Judge Turpin, a 'pious vulture of the law', was obssessed with Lucy and was only to pleased to have had Sweeney put away. Sweeney then heads of to Fleet Street to visit the place where his barbers shop once was. It's now a meat pie shop owned by Mrs. Lovett. Her pies are, apparently, the worst in London. She's suspicious of her rival Mrs. Mooney, who's been stealing all of neighbour's pussycats! The thought of it is enough to make her sick. Mrs. Lovett knows what has happened to Lucy. The Judge and the Beadle Bamford invited her to a ball and the Judge raped her. Lucy then poisoned herself. This is terrible news. What's more, Sweeney's daughter, Johanna is now living with Judge Turpin as his ward. Sweeney is desperate to have revenge and says </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>'Let them quake in their boots, Judge Turpin and the Beadle, for their our has come!' </em></font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">It turns out that Mr. Lovett still has Sweeney's old razors. Sweeney sings a song, <em>'These are my friends</em>', referring to the razors. This song has a repetitive but highly addictive piano accompaniment. Near the end he says <em>'You will drip rubies, you will drip precious rubies'</em>. So he wants to invite the Judge and the Beadle to the barber shop so that he can cut their throats. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Meanwhile Anthony has spotted Johanna at the Judge's estate. She is beautiful and has long blonde hair. He stands outside and sings a song to her, a very beautiful song. The Beadle doesn't like it and orders him to leave. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Then comes the daftest bit of the show. An Italian barber, Adolpho Pirelli, comes to town. He has an assistant, a boy called Tobias Ragg, who is telling everyone about 'Pirelli's miracle elixir', which replaces hair when rubbed onto the skin. The Londoners are all naive enough to buy a bottle, except Sweeney who claims that is a mixture of ink and piss. He challenges Pirelli to a shaving contest with a stake of five pounds to prove who is the better barber. Pirelli accepts the challenge. The Beadle is the judge. Pirelli makes very little effort to shave his customer. He spends so much time talking about shaving and showing his chart that Todd wins without any difficulty. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Judge Turpin, who once loved Sweeney's wife, now loves his daughter. There is a 'optional' scene in the play where he watches Johanna undressing and masturbates. The Judge has noticed that Anthony has come to visit Johanna several times, but Johanna insists that she is not encouraging the 'rogue'. She says that though just before the Judge declares his own love for her. Her answer is a definite 'no'!</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Anthony goes to Fleet Street to find Sweeney and succeeds. Johanna has dropped a key out of her window for him. He wishes to take away to Plymouth. Sweeney is not keen to let him take his daughter there, but surely that would be better than her being locked away in the Judge's house? Pirelli and Tobias then call upon Sweeney. Pirelli reveals his true identity. His name's Danny O'Higgins and is a former employer of Mr. Barker. He blackmails Sweeney by ordering him to hand over half of the earnings he's going to make as a barber or else he'll tell the Beadle who Sweeney Todd really is.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">So now we know why Pirelli made no effort in the contest, thus making it a clever section of the show. But Sweeney has the last laugh, he grab Pirelli and sticks a raxor in hi chest.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">The Judge wants to tidy himself for Johanna, whom he is convinced will change her mind. The Beadle tells him about Sweeney Todd. </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">The Judge goes to the barber shop and sits in the chair. Then starts the 'Pretty women' song, which combined with the next two songs, make up the best sequence on music in the show, in my opinion. The Judge tells Sweeney about his 'fiancée' whilst being shaved. But just Sweeney as about do the deed, Anthony bursts in saying<em> 'Johanna marries me Sunday everything's set we leave tonight'</em> not looking at the man in the chair. The Judge says</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni"><em>'There is a higher power to warn me thus in time'</em></font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">He doesn't know the half of it! </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">He storms out saying that he'll never come back again. Sweeney then goes nut as well and sings the 'Epiphany song', a gloomy but dramatic song. Apparently everyone's existence is worthless and deserves to die.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Mrs Lovett then tries to calm him but reminds him about Pirelli's body. They could him, but Lovett has a better idea, '<em>with the price of meat what it is, when you get it, if you get it?' </em>If Mrs. Mooney uses cats, why not use people. The last song of the Act, a long one, is 'A little Priest'. Much more light-hearted than the previous song. Lovett pretends that she's killed people of various professions and put them in a pie. It includes lines such as<br> <br> '<em>This one's a bit stringy, but then again it's fiddle player'<br> 'No, it piccolo player'<br> 'How can you tell?'<br> 'It's piping hot'</em><br> <br> and<em><br> <br> 'Since royal marine doesn't appeal to you, how about rear admiral?'<br> 'Too salty, I prefer General'<br> 'With or without his privates....with is extra!'<br> <br> </em>I think you get the idea.<br> <br> My favourite group of lines from the song, if not the show, is<em><br> <br> 'The history of the world my sweet'<br> Oh, Mister Todd, oh, Mr. Todd what does it tell?'<br> Is who gets eaten and who gets to eat'<br> And, Mister Todd, and, Mr. Todd who gets to sell?'<br> But fortunately it's all so clear <br> That everybody goes down well with beer.</em><br> </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">This is not a show for vegetarians.<br> </font></p> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">I'm sure someone somewhere has written a topical version of that song.<br> <br> At the start of Act 2, the pie shop is now a restaurant full of customers and Toby, having given up waiting for his boss! is working as a waiter. The opening song is 'God, that's good!'. Mrs. Lovett's plan is proving to be a great success. During a song, a fancy chair arrives. This, combined with a lever and trap-door makes up the device for quickly transferring bodies from the barber's chair to the bakehouse.<br> </font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Although Lovett is happy, Todd can't think of a way of luring the Judge back to his parlour. Anthony discovers that Johanna has been locked at Jonas Fogg's lunatic asylum. Todd has an idea as to how to rescue her. Apparently wigmakers claim their hair from lunatics at bedlam. Sweeney's plan is to write a letter asking to purchase some hair in the shade of Johanna's.<br> Sweeney says<em><br> <br> 'For the right amount, they'll sell you the hair off any madman's head'</em><br> <br> And then Lovett says<em><br> <br> 'And the scalp to go with it too, if requested, Excuse me gentlemen, I'm off!'</em><br> <br> I can barely believe that line. Mrs. Lovett is uncomfortable with the idea stripping a off person's scalp, but has no problem skinning a corpse, preserving it, cutting it up, putting into a pie and then cooking it. Does she hang up the meat for a week to help it tenderise?</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"><font size="3" face="Bodoni">Oh, it's better not to think about it.</font></p> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <div style="margin-left: 40px; margin-right: 40px;"> </div> <p style="margin-lef